Brady Scarf from Ruhama's

Dynamic Favorite...

Next time I get the ridiculous notion that I can finish a six foot scarf in three weeks on #3 needles, remind me what my life is like.  Remind me how many times my plans have been hijacked by low-level chaos and how nothing ever goes as planned for the Pleiter family.  Wisdom teeth, camp physicals, short notice house guests, and fun phrases like “I think we need an xray” and “How could your tear your meniscus without knowing it?” have been too much a part of my life this week.

This week, I’ve been feeling fortunate if I even get half my paid writing word count in...I do have a novel due in September, after all.  Four different sets of plans spun on a dime to entirely new scenarios, and making fiction has felt like pulling teeth (something I am far too familiar with this week).

In all this hysteria, however, I was reminded how much knitting soothes me.  Many times when my workload made me want to run for the hills, when I couldn’t seem to think in straight lines, a few rows of knitting returned me to functionality.  It’s the one thing I seem to be able to accomplish when I can’t accomplish anything else--even if I can’t accomplish enough of it to get where I want to in a pattern.

I do love this pattern, but I am worried it won’t wash up as soft as I like a scarf.  Still, I doubt I’ll have much call for a wool scarf in summer, so we’ve got some time to let it soften up.  A friend suggested I add a drop of fabric softener or hair conditioner to my usual Dawn blue bath, so I’m game to try.  Even if it does end up a bit rough, the piece is dynamic enough to still be a favorite.

And a favorite scarf is a thing of beauty indeed.  Thanks, Ruhama's, for a clever, amusing project I'm sure to enjoy for many years.

Up next, we hear from another knitting publishing professional--my lovely agent Karen Solem, and start the nifty Feza vest from Fiberwood Studios.

Brady Scarf from Ruhama's - Day 5

The Knitting Prize Patrol...

I thought I’d be so much farther along by now!  This is our fifth of six installments and I’ve got a clear foot--if not more--to go.  On itty bitty #3 needles, no less.  I’m such an impatient knitter!

I’ve discovered that being what I call “ambikniterous” is an advantage on this project. “Ambikniterous” is my self-coined term for being able to knit both Continental (or “pick) and English (or “throw”) styles.  I consider it one of the best tools you can add to your toolbox as a knitter.  A smart knitter can wield both.  

Briefly put, Continental is faster, but English is more consistent.  I don’t purl well in Continental, nor do I handle tricker stitches like yarn-overs, or pass-overs.  On those long stretches of garter, however, Continental is the speed demon of knitting.

The good news is this isn’t an all-or-nothing endeavor.  No stitch police will bang on my door for doing some rows in Continental and some in English.  You can’t look at my scarf and tell I’ve switch hit.  On the contrary, I think they ought to come applaud me for my inventive use of multiple skills.  Rather like the Publishers Clearing House Prize Patrol, only with chocolate and yarn instead of flowers and a gigantic check.  Don’t you think that’d be wonderful?

For the rows involving cast on and bind off stitches, I use American style.  For the rows of garter in between, roar through using Continental.  The only other trick I’ve adopted is that I can’t talk to you while doing the bind off or cast on rows, because I’ve proved--quite competently--that I can’t talk and count at the same time.

As it has all along, this continues to be a show-stopper.  Tomorrow is Knit In Public day, and I’ll be taking this out and about.  Everyone remarks on it--fellow knitters ask questions, people admire the color and pattern, everyone wants to touch it.  I expect the same will be true when I finally do finish this scarf and I wear it, and that’s a good thing.

Brady Scarf from Ruhama's - Day 4

Finished and unfinished

This week was all about things finished and things unfinished for me.  Professionally, I turned in a manuscript--an unheard of two days early!  That tug you feel when you’re finishing the first sock or mitten? The siren song of a new and more exciting project?  How suddenly ANYTHING looks more interesting than finishing what you’ve got on your needles?  Multiply that by about ten and you’ll feel what every writer feels at the 3/4 mark of their manuscript.  Your head is suddenly filled with new stories, deeper characters, more promising plots...everything but the resolve you need to finish your current manuscript.  Both are lessons in discipline.

I’m over the halfway mark of my Brady scarf, and I won’t lie to you...despite its wonderful design and enthralling colorway, my eye is wandering.  I keep fingering the yarn of my next project, lured in by the silky brown fibers.  I’m grateful to you, DestiKNITters, because you keep me accountable.  I do really like this scarf, but were it not for you (and my admittedly self-imposed deadline of no more than six episodes per project), I might stumble and lay this down.  But I won’t, I promise to soldier on, row after colorful row. I finished my book, and I’ll finish my scarf.

As a lesson to myself, I took today to sort through what I call my “knitting tower,” the place where I keep all my current projects.  And some...ahem...not so current ones.  I said goodbye to socks that I knew, deep down in my heart, would never welcome their mates into the world.  With a sad but resolute sigh, I unwound the second set of toes and pulled out the needles.  Same with two scarves half done, for I’ve admitted they’ll never see bind offs.  Two other unfinished projects, however, I kept.  I dubbed them worthy of finding the time to finish.  Balls of yarn--both those pristine and those unwound off forgotten projects--were returned to my stash while other fragments went into the trash.  Into the drawers went a succession of planned new projects, which felt tremendously satisfying.

It wasn’t easy, but it felt wonderful.  A reboot, as it were, of my creative fiber self while I reboot my creative writing self into another book.  For on both fronts--like my projects--I am finished and unfinished.

Brady Scarf from Ruhama's - Day 2

Mind the bind...

Bind off’s are my least favorite part of knitting.  Not because it means the project is over--which especially in this case it doesn’t mean at all--but because they never come out right for me.  I’m leery of scarves knit lengthwise because my cast-on and bind-off never come out close to each other.  I’ve got a few that look more like parenthesis than scarves, if you know what I mean.

At first I thought of this scarf as a way to change that.  Before I’m done, I’ll be given hundreds of chances to match my cast-on with my bind-off.  That worries me a bit, as I think the backward loop bind-on is the least manageable.  I always end up with an extra length of yarn between the stitches when I go to knit the next row.  It looks sloppy.

What’s helped?  It should come as no surprise to you that what’s helped the most is (drumroll, please....) reading the directions.  

Oh, the novelty of such an idea!  Normally, my go-to bind-off is the one where you knit two stitches together, then put the stitch back onto the left needle, knit that one together with the next one, etc.  And for the first two repeats of the pattern, that’s exactly what I did.

Which is not the bind-off recommended by the pattern.  It might be important to follow their directions, don’t you think? 

So, when I shifted to the knit two, slip the first stitch over bind-off, things lined up much more nicely.   Imagine that--the designer actually knowing which technique to use!  For a writer, you’d think I’d show the pattern author a bit more respect.

Like I always say, knitting teaches you more about life than you think.