Interesting Discussion Pt. 1
I'm on a Yahoo list called KnittingNovices, and some interesting things got said. Right now I'll only post what I said, and hopefully soon the author of the other comments will give permission for me to post them here. I think you'll get what set off the original poster by simply reading what I've written.
Re: Need Answers
Hmmm... I think I have to disagree here. Not with individual points, but with overall concept. What I've read here is you must do X before Y before Z and no other order. On individual points, I agree, because you can't knit if you can't cast on. There are some skills that must be mastered in a specific order or the next skill will never come. Where my thoughts diverge is in the assertion that one must complete a scarf before a sock, or to be more general, that "easy" projects must be finished before "intermediate" and "advanced" projects.
I taught myself to knit over the internet and within four weeks I had completed a purse and two hats so I took on the sock. I feel pleased that I didn't have anyone there to tell me that it was too "advanced" for my experience because it came out beautifully despite a mistake here and there. Now, I'll never make the mate to that particular sock because the stripe pattern I chose to do (in actual stripes rather than self-striping) was a pain in the rear, but I made my first sock the right fit the first time, and I chalk a lot of that up to not having someone more "experienced" telling me that I couldn't do it. Just recently, I have turned down an invitation to take a class because when I spoke to the instructor she asked me what I had completed and then proceeded to tell me that I had no business attempting socks or lace (the lace is coming along quite nicely, btw) because I didn't have the "experience". I also became quite irate with another "advanced", "experienced" knitter who told me that I could not double knit. Three guesses as to the reason why.
Personally, I believe anyone should try anything at least once. At worst, you frog it and do something else, but the best is completing the project and having the satisfaction of knowing you made *that*. I'm also of the mind that we (meaning Americans, since I don't know anything about the countries of our waaaay out of towners) as a country have entered into this air of entitlement (I'll skip the long part about the spoiled brats people are raising these days), where everything is owed to them, so no one ever gets set up for failure because we're all too special and too loved and on and on with all sorts of gunk that basically amounts to "everyone is a winner" on a saccharine level that would gag a Teletubby. I'm of the opinion that everyone should set themselves up for failure once in a while. If someone else didn't dare to fall flat on their face, would you have your morning Starbucks? Would you be checking your Yahoo! Mail? Would your paper be on your doorstep if any one of the people between where the news happened and you Had decided that they weren't "experienced" enough?
So try that sock, try that cable, try the lace, try it all! At worst, whatever it is comes out five kinds of ugly. Then you hang it in the closet, try again, and when dad starts the ugly sweater contest this Christmas, you'll be a step ahead of the competition. Or you could always use it for the white elephant game =P
It just irritates me when someone says can't. If there's one word I will never accept, it's can't. So please excuse my little rant, I just felt the other side had to be heard.
Re: Need Answers
Hmmm... I think I have to disagree here. Not with individual points, but with overall concept. What I've read here is you must do X before Y before Z and no other order. On individual points, I agree, because you can't knit if you can't cast on. There are some skills that must be mastered in a specific order or the next skill will never come. Where my thoughts diverge is in the assertion that one must complete a scarf before a sock, or to be more general, that "easy" projects must be finished before "intermediate" and "advanced" projects.
I taught myself to knit over the internet and within four weeks I had completed a purse and two hats so I took on the sock. I feel pleased that I didn't have anyone there to tell me that it was too "advanced" for my experience because it came out beautifully despite a mistake here and there. Now, I'll never make the mate to that particular sock because the stripe pattern I chose to do (in actual stripes rather than self-striping) was a pain in the rear, but I made my first sock the right fit the first time, and I chalk a lot of that up to not having someone more "experienced" telling me that I couldn't do it. Just recently, I have turned down an invitation to take a class because when I spoke to the instructor she asked me what I had completed and then proceeded to tell me that I had no business attempting socks or lace (the lace is coming along quite nicely, btw) because I didn't have the "experience". I also became quite irate with another "advanced", "experienced" knitter who told me that I could not double knit. Three guesses as to the reason why.
Personally, I believe anyone should try anything at least once. At worst, you frog it and do something else, but the best is completing the project and having the satisfaction of knowing you made *that*. I'm also of the mind that we (meaning Americans, since I don't know anything about the countries of our waaaay out of towners) as a country have entered into this air of entitlement (I'll skip the long part about the spoiled brats people are raising these days), where everything is owed to them, so no one ever gets set up for failure because we're all too special and too loved and on and on with all sorts of gunk that basically amounts to "everyone is a winner" on a saccharine level that would gag a Teletubby. I'm of the opinion that everyone should set themselves up for failure once in a while. If someone else didn't dare to fall flat on their face, would you have your morning Starbucks? Would you be checking your Yahoo! Mail? Would your paper be on your doorstep if any one of the people between where the news happened and you Had decided that they weren't "experienced" enough?
So try that sock, try that cable, try the lace, try it all! At worst, whatever it is comes out five kinds of ugly. Then you hang it in the closet, try again, and when dad starts the ugly sweater contest this Christmas, you'll be a step ahead of the competition. Or you could always use it for the white elephant game =P
It just irritates me when someone says can't. If there's one word I will never accept, it's can't. So please excuse my little rant, I just felt the other side had to be heard.
... and it really is!
I've got a little stash to lead off with. I'm hoping that this cotton will be good to make a nice light summer sock. I can't wait to see how the colors spread in the process of knitting it up. It reminds me of deep waters in the sunlight. I don't know what it is lately, but I'm into things that remind me of water in some way or another. The label says sport weight, but it seems lighter than that. I guess I'll just have to swatch it up and see.
Speaking of socks, I have a pair on the needles in Bernat's Sox. I'm not liking the way the colors end up, but I'm hoping that once I move out of the ribbing and get into the stockinette in the larger needle size, it'll either pool in a way that I can live with or stripe itself out. My goal is to start knitting one pair of socks per month, but I'm not sure how well that's going to work out.
I also have this faux silk / mohair lace wrap thing on the needles. I had bought some Yarn Bee Featherwisp that I really liked, but it just didn't look right all by its lonesome no matter what needle size I used. In fact, it looked like I'd just gone behind a shedding cat and cleaned up. So I started double stranding it with several things I had laying around in my stash. After doing several inches of stockinette with Caron's Simply Soft light blue and the Featherwisp in Seasprite, I noticed the watery type pooling of color. The two yarns together also cool very quickly after your hands move off of it, so it's very cool to the touch as well as very soft. It immediately made me think of clear water (more water!) so I frogged the stockinette and began to work this ripple pattern. Once it's washed, blocked and dryed, the stitch pattern should become much more apparent. The ripple here is a simple fourteen stitch repeat of 
Also done in a Caron - Yarn Bee combo is this start of a rounded end scarf. This one is Caron's off white and Featherwisp's creamcicle. I love the victorian type coloring the Featherwisp adds to the Caron, and the little bit of shimmer. The stitch pattern is nice too... it makes the rows multi-directional without having to go and learn MD knitting. This one can be made to fit any number of stitches (minimum eight) and is done by 
Then there's this thing, which really has no purpose other than to let me practice doing small diameter projects on two circulars rather than double pointed needles. I'm also trying to work out how to best minimize the gaps that come with each color change before I get into the next Harry Potter scarf that I'll be doing. Still, it looks pretty cool. Maybe it'll become a skinny scarf or something. It never ceases to amaze me how things start out as just screwing around and then either get frogged to become something much better or become something you never expected.
On the note of expected or never expected, as it can be taken both ways, I couldn't just sit still and wait for everything to get started (although it seems it started without waiting for me!), so I went and bought yarn to make something for baby number three, who should arrive on December 16th of this year. Yes, I am well aware that I'm crazy having three babies in three years. That having been said, I'd like to try to design and knit the one thing I always wanted, but no one seems to make, especially since this will be a winter baby and it'll be pretty cold when we bring her / him home. So, stayed tuned to this channel and if I'm successful in making a baby blanket that allows you to both wrap baby up all snuggly and buckle them in, then the pattern will be posted here. I'm sure I'm not the only mom out there who just didn't see her needs filled by the carrier cover-ups, buntings and smaller blankets out there.
