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Plastic Knitter

I stopped in at the pet store to pick up some treats for my pups on the way home yesterday, and what do you know? Before it even registered with me, the clerk had bagged my purchases in five plastic bags, and I only bought a couple of small squeaky toys, some chewies, some Greenies, and a box of tartar-control biscuits. Five more grocery bags = 1.5 knitted grocery bag coin purses.

Working on my recycled coin purse (thanks to directions by Amber) made me think about how much stuff there is to use up! While I did augment my grocery bag stash with Sister's, between us, there are enough bags to knit dozens of coin purses. Thursday's ordinary purchases brought my total number up even more. I thought about my new plastic "yarn" quite a bit in terms of knitting labor and landfills, and I've resolved to start bagging my own groceries with my own reusable canvas bags for a while. (Although I'm not ruling out knitting some big bags out of grocery bags to carry groceries in—hmmm.) I'm determined to get my planet count down!

The Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann is humming right along on my needles. I'm making this little jacket in preparation of making a big Surprise Jacket. The construction-idea is amazing; you knit one oddly-shaped bit of fabric that cleverly turns into a jacket with only a seam or two. Elizabeth Zimmermann's engineering genius manifested through knitting blows my mind every time I pick up this project, but that's okay, because the Surprise Jacket is nice relaxing knitting for my hands. And there's bound to be a cute new baby around that can use it. You can see I'm nearly finished with my little jacket, and you can also see future plastic yarn waiting to become something brawny and useful :-)

Pups

Cousin Dyna and Della worked on slalom stuff last night at their Good Canine Citizen class. Next week they test for Level Two; I'm not sure Della is going to condescend to be tested on Good Canine Citizen concepts. When we get to a part of class she doesn't think suits her dignity, she resolutely turns her back on all of us and refuses to participate. It's pretty amazing how solidly a little dog can plant herself.

Friday! Little Jack is glad he doesn't have to be a Good Canine Citizen. Yeah! Enjoy your Friday, have a marvelous weekend, and don't forget to woof it up!

Knit Planet

Sometimes everything happens correctly at once.

I've previously mentioned the nice online group I belong to, and that we have project-alongs every month or so. The Sanquhar gloves, the tam, a whimsey, and April's project: a bag of some type. I've done beaded bags, and felted bags, so I was thinking I might skip-along this time.

However, a week or two ago, Sister posted this link to a very thought-provoking quiz from EarthDay. I found it troubling, because even though I try to be a conscientious person, my answer on the quiz was an alarming 8.5 planets (How Many Planets Do You Need?).

So I've been trying to think of ways to conserve and cut back and re-use and recycle, and somehow incorporate knitting into all that, and then I remembered Amber's wartime grocery bag coinpurses. Two solutions in one! A bag to knit for the bag-along, and a creative solution to an environmental problem.

I cleaned out my stash of plastic bags, as well as Sister's, and was merrily knitting along when the mailman stopped by and dropped off a package from ~dramatic pause~ Amber! What a cool coincidence, right? Amber sent some goodies to me that are much nicer than I deserve :-) So much nicer, in fact, that I'd like to show them to you in a separate entry. But here's a hint: Habu. Habu!

With only a bit more babbling, I'd like to present (as an homage to Amber's artistry and creativity) my new coinpurse, made from used plastic grocery bags, complete with requisite previously-unloved plastic button.

Open:

and closed:

Amber has written that she makes these from her used grocery bags and then gives them away. I love that as a positive and life-affirming action, and plan to do likewise. The coinpurses (or made a bit bigger, CD holders, or made a bit skinnier, cellphone holders) are a visible reminder to recycle, and a visual reminder that something useful and lovely can come from something as mundane as the ubiquitous plastic bag. And, they're knitted! Completely satisfying, and a coinpurse takes only a couple of hours.

My grandparents had a sampler on their kitchen wall that read: "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without." I remember my teenage self passing it on a daily basis and thinking how corny it was as a philosophy. Today, though, I wish I knew where that sampler was. Thanks, Amber, for reminding me of this and many other things.

Pups

Thursday. Little Jack says Hurry Up Friday.

And we all say enjoy your planet today!

Colors

Hiho, blog readers. We have color joins to discuss today, but first! An important public service announcement for knitters. I'm woefully uninformed regarding this knitter's name, but you must go see her Princess sweater from Norsk Strikkedesign: A Collection from Norway's Foremost Knitting Designers. She knits so quickly and does such beautiful work! She's the same knitter with the fabulous blue foxes that I pointed you to last week. The Princess sweater is my favorite in the book, and her version is gorgeous.

I haven't seen much knitted from Norsk Strikkedesign (ISBN: 1893063011); Wendy knit the very cool Virgins sweater, but I haven't heard of any other knitters finishing sweaters from the book. And it's such an inspiring book, too. Go figure! But do go and look at the Princess sweater.

Joining in New Colors

Jo prompted a small discussion about joining colors in Fair Isle work; she said she was inconsistent sometimes about where she joins, and I'm almost always inconsistent about where I join, except that it's somewhere within the steek. I spit splice, as I mentioned yesterday, so I don't have to deal with a lot of ends. Later in the day, Jo wrote the following:

I reread the blog tonight and realized that you said you spit join color changes. I spit join when putting in a new ball of the same color. How do you get it to turn out right? Your knitting is too neat and precise for me to believe that you would tolerate being off a couple of stitches of the wrong color. My mind is turning over that one.

I have to issue an immediate disclaimer about being a neat knitter; I'm pretty sloppy :-) My experience with adding in new colors comes from reading Meg Swansen. I checked my favorite reference book, Sweaters From Camp, to see what she had to say about joining in colors. She says that when you splice in the new color that's similar in shade to the old color, there's a magical shift to the new color over the first few stiches. If the colors being changed are high contrast, you get what she calls a barber pole effect, but it only happens for a few stitches. Here's a section from the edge of the front steek of the 1993 version of Flora:

The new colors in these rows were spliced in. I tried to find a really clear example of how little the splicing affects the color changes, and this image turned out to be the most illustrative. You see the light greenish yarn row, and then just above it, a color called Sunset is spliced in at the right edge of the photo. Sunset is the peachy-rosey color. You would think that splicing light green to peach/rose would be very obvious, but as you can see, it's scarcely discernable, except perhaps a tiny bit in the first peachy/rosey stitch in the row just above the green. At least it seems scarcely discernable to me. So. Sometimes I sits and knits, and sometimes I spits and knits. But I never worry about changing colors in the steeks anymore.

Oh! And Caroline F? I think you only need to be worried about having three knot-free stitches all the way up, because you only need three to do the crochet steek.

Color Fun

Find some time today to play with Pantone's Birthday Colors, a very cute mix of astrology and color. Mistletoe is my power color (as well as Cari's!). What's yours?

Pups

Ho! It's Wednesday! Mike and Jack say Smile. Smile. Smile.

I'm not sure what the pups are so happy about, but I join them in wishing you a good mid-week. Have a colorful day!

Random Bits

Today's entry features completely random bits of information with no apparent connection! Yeah! Proceed to what you need, or just scroll down and look at that cute Little Jack.

Props!

First, thanks very much for the compliments on the nearly-finished 1993 version of Flora. I enjoyed all the comments! And, in my mailbox this afternoon was my extra emergency wool. The very kind and always helpful Anne had it rushed to Austin, and I'm most grateful. It's hard to wait for wool when you just have the armbands to knit, and SheEweKnits ensured that I didn't have to wait long at all. But of course, I've never ordered anything from her that didn't arrive almost immediately. I don't know how Canadian retailers do that. It seems rather magical.

Crochet Steeks, or Where To Change Colors

Jo asked about how the crochet steek holds if you are not always consistent about where you change colors. Many books on Fair Isle instruct the knitter to change colors somewhere outside of the steek. However, similar to a machine-stitched steek, the crocheted steek isn't going anywhere, so I just spit-splice in new color wherever it's convenient for me, and that's often right in the middle of the steek. I don't notice any instability. But, *if* I were going to leave the steek unfinished--just cut it open and pick up stitches from the steek edge stitches--I suppose the wooly changes might be sloppy? or the wool less likely to stick to itself? I don't know why you are not supposed to change colors in the steek. Anyone? Where do you change colors, and why?

Garter-Stitch Toe Sighting!

On a fabulous sock, too. Go take a look! Very cool, I must say.

Beautiful Stranded Knit Sighting!

Caroline F. is knitting Rosarie, designed by Jade Starmore. I have the checkered bottom band finished on this vest, as I ordered it and started it almost as soon as it appeared on the VY website; seeing Caroline's makes me want to get back to work on it. Meanwhile, Morning Glory is finished up to the armholes. And then there are the "Pansies in the Snow" gloves. And Vannalin gloves, and everything else Nanette knits. Hmm. I hate making decisions of this type.

Pups

Tuesday! Little Jack says Yakkety Yak.

Austin is full of flowers right now; it seems as if every fence I drive past is heavy with pink and red climbing roses, there are seas of bluebonnets everywhere, and a colorful palette of native wildflowers splashed over every open space. How profligate springtime in Texas is! We hope your day includes lots of gratuitous loveliness and excessive happiness.

Bands on the Run

This weekend I worked up the nerve to knit with the remaining yards of color-shade Sunrise to see if I could finish at least the front bands of the 1993 version of Flora by Alice Starmore. First I crochet-steeked (with blue-greenish Blue Lovat):

Then set to work on the front band. I had just enough of the Sunrise to finish them, plus another 11 inches (!) left over.

The bands are so lovely on their own that I don't know why I was thinking I wanted buttons. I'm going to leave them alone, as they are presented in A Scottish Garland. Aren't they pretty?

This is the first time I've ever knitted a facing for a front/button band, and I think that, while tiresome, it gives a nice effect. I did pause a moment to think if I wanted to just finish the bands with applied I-cord, à la Elizabeth Zimmermann, but decided to try the facing. You can see a bit of it at the back of the neck of the first Flora photo above.

The armholes are steeked and ready for their corrugated ribbing, and once my emergency-order wool arrives, there will only be a couple of hours of knitting left to this project. It was great knitting along with Wendy, and I'm glad she encouraged me to knit along. I repeat what I've said before: Ingeborgers, you are going to have tons-o-fun!

Pups

The pups had a pleasant weekend, and we all had fun with a training exercise to teach them how to STAY (not one of their strong points by any stretch of anyone's imagination). But I'm very happy to report that, if an especially nice treat is the reward, all three pups will now sit still at the same time for ~3 seconds! A huge improvement over the previous ~0 seconds!

Even more fun was had when Cousin Dyna came over for a visit. Much romping ensued. Here's Dyna and Della sharing a cousinly moment:

Monday! Hooboy. We hope you had moments over the weekend that will sustain you through the start of the work week. Happy knitting!