Knit Along: Super Scarf from Broad Ripple Knits - Day 5

Knitting and Not Knitting

I admit, after five feet of blue and white triangles, I’m getting a bit, um, unexcited.  I keep imagining what it would be like to do this in a rainbow progression because the two-step dance of blue/white/blue/white is getting monotonous.  

You need to understand, dear knitters, that this is more about me and my character flaws than any pattern or yarn issue.  My weaknesses in coming to the end of things...projects, tasks, chores, books, trips...is the stuff of legend.  We actually looked into installing those beeping things that tell you the car door is open into our kitchen cabinet doors.  My poor husband has banged his head on an open cabinet door more times than I can bear.  It’s good for me to have the “pressure” of getting it done for you to push me along--although careful readers will note this installment is rather on the late side....

I press on for that final foot of blue/white.  The nifty visits I made in Louisville earlier this month are waiting and if I don’t tell you about the joys of fudge covered cherry pie soon, I’ll burst.

Shifting subjects, I did something last night I rarely do.  Having fully stuffed myself on Thanksgiving goodies, I plopped down on the couch and hit the “On Demand” button to get a movie. I decided on Eat Pray Love, since I’d read the book and we’d just had an eating holiday (wait...aren’t all holidays eating ones?) and all the household menfolk were downstairs with various electronic devices.

And I proceeded to watch an entire movie without knitting.  That’s right, I just sat--okay lay--there and watched.  I cannot remember the last time I did that. Seriously.  There comes a moment in the movie where the Liz character engages in dolce far niente--the “sweetness of doing nothing.”  For me, watching a movie without knitting is just that.  I just wallowed on the couch and enjoyed the movie.

Not that I’ll do such things every time I sit down to watch something, but I was reminded that while I always love to knit, I don’t always have to knit.

It should be noted that when I sat down to knit today--even though it was on yet more blue and white triangles--I think I enjoyed it just a tiny bit more.

Knit Along: Super Scarf from Broad Ripple Knits - Day 4

The Skeins of Time

I thought I’d be bored by now.  It is the same pattern over and over after all (although I suppose most of knitting could be called doing the same thing over and over).  There’s something about this pattern that is just engaging enough.  Occupying but not taxing.  I’m not sure that it would hold my attention over a very long car ride--I might need something requiring more brainpower--but it’s perfect for my currently crazed life.  And every time someone asks me what I’m making, I get to explain the cool concept of Super Scarves.

But I’ve been thinking about the whole boredom subject...

As a new Kindle owner, I’ve keeping up on the device’s press.  Amazon shared a letter today from a Kindle owner stuck on Carnival’s infamous dead-in-the-water “Cruise to Nowhere.”  This user was smugly reporting that while everyone else’s iPad and laptops had long gone dead (I’m guessing the ship had no electricity? Seems hard to believe...), his Kindle was still going strong.  This enabled him to “enjoy” his “extended vacation.” I do admit I’m impressed that the device’s nearly month-long battery charge.  

That’s one of the pleasures of knitting, isn’t it? We’re almost happy when the flight’s delayed, because it means more knitting time.  I have to say I smiled thinking about how delighted I would be if someone handed me four more days on a ship in the middle of the ocean (provided there was food and coffee, of course).

...As long as I had enough yarn.

Really, I think I’d get ugly if I had all that free time and no yarn.  I’d probably be unraveling someone’s sweater and knitting with chopsticks or something.  Come on, how many of us have snuck a spare knitting project in the corner of our suitcase just in case we finished the first one we brought?  


A little extra time is always really great, as long as there’s a lot of extra yarn.

Knit Along: Super Scarf from Broad Ripple Knits - Day 3

I have the blues...but are they yours or mine?

Life is like a box of crayons.  There are always more colors than you think.  Even when you’re talking about the same colors.

Take blue, for instance.  People seem to get really invested in their blues.  Knitting my Super Scarf at the Kentucky Book Fair this weekend (where blue and white mean University of Kentucky, not the Indianapolis Colts, so you get into a lot of fun conversations), I had the opportunity to explain the concept of the massive public effort to “enscarf” the Super Bowl volunteers.  All the knitters loved the concept.  The idea of 8,000 hand-knit scarves is entrancing.  You could literally watch their minds imagine that mass of blue and white yarn.  I know I’ve been doing it every time I pick up my scarf.  Often, people would ask if I was knitting UK neckwear, because the colors are so close.

Notice I said close.

One woman eyed it carefully, and then pronounced that it couldn’t be a UK scarf because it wasn’t really “Wildcat blue.”  Now, over the seven hours hours of the fair I had a large sampling of UK blue--hats, sweatshirts, t-shirts, even baby clothes--and I thought them darn near identical.  Like I said, though, people are picky about their blues.  While I couldn’t see it, I suspect more than one UK fan could have easily explained to me why it was Colts blue, not UK blue.

The more I thought about it, the more it rang true.  If you ask my son--or anyone who goes to his school, or even went to his school--what ths school colors are, he’ll say “Columbia Blue and silver".  Not light blue, or sky blue, or just plain blue, but “Columbia Blue.”  My daughter’s fascination with periwinkle blue as a young girl is the stuff of family legend.  Other than Kermit the Frog, I wonder how many people who are as passionate about their green?  I suspect there might be some loyally finicky purple people out there, too.  

Why is it that “what is your favorite color?" is a universal question?

Makes you think, doesn’t it?

Knit Along: Super Scarf from Broad Ripple Knits - Day 2

Admiration or Apathy?

This is kind of like jumbo entrelac, only you don’t have to pick up stitches.  Triangles (rather than squares) mean you’re only adding one at the beginning of an inbound row and knitting two together at the end.  The outbound rows are straight knitting.  Which means, television fans, that you only have to really look down twice every two rows.  I can live with that.  Don't want to miss parts of GLEE.

The yarn has a wonderful elasticity to it.  Great spring and texture.  And the bold geometry of this pattern gives it a lot of punch.  Tonight, my son looked at me and said, “what’s that?”  When I told him it was a Super Scarf, and explained what that meant, I actually saw a flicker of admiration in his eyes.  Of course, being a teenage boy, that might have only been apathy.  I’m going with the “glass half full” interpretation that my son actually thinks it’s cool his mom’s scarf is going to the Superbowl.

I can’t decide if I like the fact that the line between the diagonal color changes isn’t consistent.  It looks different on each side--which means it alternates from a very clean line to one sort of sawtoothed.  I have an urge to cover the sawtoothed one up with some kind of overstitching, but I don’t know if I’ll actually do that. I might grow to like it by the end of the scarf.

This project makes for great fan gear.  It’s just begging to be done up in school colors or team colors.  Or, I suppose, a progression of a color scheme or even a rainbow.  I suppose it could even be a stash-buster, but you’d have to be sure it was all the same weight yarn or the edges would get sloppy.  Black & White? Red White & Blue?  The possibilities are endless.  Ah, but for Super Scarves, there can only be blue and white.  It will be amazing to see the mass of collective creativity when it shows up in the stadium.

Knit Along: Super Scarf from Broad Ripple Knits - Day 1

Are you ready for some...knitting?

Super Scarves=awesome.  Let me just start off by saying I love the idea for this project.  The sheer tsunami of positive energy going into 8,000 hand-knit scarves could probably achieve world peace.  Check it out by clicking here.  I’m not even into football, but I attend Stitch N Pitch every year so I completely buy into the concept of bringing knitting into the sporting arena.  Throw a little giant scarf promo into the mix, and I’m hooked.  Or is it needled?

I wanted the complete community experience, plus I wanted to do a scarf with as much pizzazz as I could manage while knitting in public (a large portion of this scarf will likely be accomplished at the Kentucky Book Fair this coming weekend--come see me!).  Sure enough, the cyber friends at Ravelry had loads of Super Scarf patterns for me to choose from and a group to join so I could chat with other Super Scarf knitters.  I had two very good patterns from Broad Ripple Knits, too, but I’d done both stitches and I craved upping the ante on this.  I chose a mitered triangle pattern with lots of garter stitch seasoned with short rows.  

I love that the Alpaca With A Twist's "Touchdown" yarn is native to Indiana.  I love the bright colors and that it's created especially for this project.  The yarn has an excellent texture--very fluffy and elastic but solid and strong.  I love that I can send the scarf back with a note from me so the volunteer who gets to wear it will know who made it and how much they enjoyed the project.  Of course, I’m nursing the snowball’s-chance-in-you-know-where that I’ll recognize my needlework while watching the Superbowl two years from now.  This is pure fiction--I can’t usually remember what I had for dinner last week much less what I knit two years ago--but it feels all warm and fuzzy to think it.

I’m living proof that you don’t have to be a Hoosier to join in on this.  Contact the folks at Broad Ripple Knits and they’ll gladly set you up.  You may never go to the superbowl, but if you join up, your knitting will.

Knit Along: Cabled Hand Mitts from Mass Ave Knit Shop - Winner!

Mitt Test Drive...and our winner!


I wore my mitts out and about today, feeling terribly chic and nicely toasty on a cool Chicago fall day.  I think if I make another pair I will try to add an inch to their length--I guess my arms are longer than most people's being six feet tall and all.  I did take them off to eat breakfast with a friend, I admit.  Best of all, I was worried I might react to the alpaca--I've had a reaction to an alpaca sweater in the past and I really liked these and wasn't eager to have to give them away.  I don't!  No reaction, except to smile and nod at the many lovely compliments I received.


But you don't really want to hear about the comfort of my wrists, you want to know if you won the bag and book, don't you?


So, without further ado and thanks to the kind services of Random.com who "officiated" tonight's drawing,


the winner is....

Kimberly and Abby!

Please email me at allie[at]alliepleiter[dot]com with your mailing address and the book and bag will be on their way to you.

Next up:  The SuperScarf

Knit Along: Cabled Hand Mitts from Mass Ave Knit Shop - Done!

Done!

I ended up adding one more row of ribbing to the thumb opening--which, ironically enough, MUST be done one mitt at a time--because it felt more substantial to me than a single row.  

I’ve got them on as I type this, and they’re wonderful.  Snug enough to feel like someone’s holding your hand.  Vibrant enough to feel dramatic.  Complicated enough to make you grin smugly as you stare at your cable-adorned wrists.  And yet I can type--or I suspect knit--with ease.  Love ‘em.  Thanks, Mass Ave Knit Shop, for this great pattern and a wonderful adventure!

Don’t forget--this is your last chance to leave a comment and earn an entry into our prize drawing.  The winner will be announced this week.