Starting Over...

Well. I've moved to Portland, ME, started nursing school, started taking piano lessons, and now test-knit for Quince & Co., a wonderful, local yarn company that puts out tons of amazing patterns and beautiful yarn. In between all of this, I've decided it would be beneficial to me to use this blog to process the various aspects of my life as a whole, instead of compartmentalizing. Knitting is, after all, a therapeutic hobby--that time spent thinking about the math of a pattern, or simply letting my fingers do the thinking for me on a simple k3p1 repeat allows my brain to reset, form new connections, and just breathe.

So for now, I've been working on easy socks from zauberball crazy ball, a yarn I NEVER get tired of, and a pattern that is simple and wonderful and works like a charm for the easiest, handsomest socks there are. Check out my ravelry account if you have one for more details, including where to find the pattern. Let it be known that spending priceless time knitting these socks are going to help me understand the lipid transport system... please, oh, please... let it be so.

Serious Fisherman's Scarf

This scarf is seriously soft, seriously thick, seriously warm, and just plain old serious. It's time consuming, but a great gift that will last eons. Literally. I made this one out of Pure Merino by Berroco.

It is made by a simple k1p1 ribbing, but here's the kicker. Every third row or so, you do a fisherman's rib stitch across the whole row. What that means: on all the knit stitches, you knit the stitch below the active stitch. That's it! But you'd be surprised what a unique texture this stitch gives to the scarf, and how much thicker it makes it. My man loves it.
Our camera is a bit wonky, so you can't tell the color well in the close-ups. It's in a nice burnt orange color. I'm including photos of the scarf in action also, so you can get a sense of the kind of life it lives. If you knit one, send me photos of yours, so I can post them!

Socks for beginners!

Hey ya,

This pattern (Sunday Swing Socks) from Knitty.com is a great start for someone who has never knit socks before. They were my first (and currently only) socks I've ever knit. My size is shown in small. I don't know what yarn I used exactly, I'll be better about that kind of information moving forward as I keep track. But basically any sock yarn will do, and as the pattern suggests, these socks are awesome for yarn with a color variation.

These socks are no-nonsense, no-frills, (albeit a bit of lace), and just challenging enough to be interesting but not so bad that you can't watch Back to the Future while knitting them.

The designer is Kristel Nyberg, from Finland. Finland seems like a decent place to knit things. She can be found at Ravelry.com as "Kristel." Incidentally, I've joined Ravelry also, my user name is "MPino" for what it's worth.

Welcome!

Perhaps you're like me. Perhaps you find joy and amazement in the simple fact that you can take 2 sticks (or 3 or 4 or 5) and some yarn and create something durable, functional, and aesthetically pleasing. Perhaps, like me, you are not such a girlie-girl. Okay, I'll admit it. I do wear a dress on occasion. Even some makeup at times.

But when it comes to knitting I find myself scouring the Internet for an item that speaks to me, and it takes time. Sometimes a long, long time. There seems to be a plethora of designs meant for a sensitive woman, one who might ride horses bareback in the country or on the beach. One who drinks tea and stares at cozies fondly while writing poetry in the fog. A woman who pulls up her boots to feed the pigs, but keeps her long blond braid from getting soiled by tucking it into her lovely lace cowl. One who... you get the idea.

I am not that women. Designs that speak to me tend to be more androgynous. They tend to work well with darker colors, look more urban, and don't scream "I am handmade! Look at me, someone knitted me!" They tend to blend casually into my wardrobe. They tend to be functional. If you're like me, welcome. My intent here is to pull designs I like from the Internet and put them all on one page, so that you, dear reader, do not have to do the work yourself. Taking hours in the yarn store touching and smelling yarn to find the right one is fun. Staring at a computer screen and scrolling through pages of text is not. So get your knickerbockers on and pull out your needles. It's time to knit.