It's the third Wednesday of the month, so it's time to meet another Reader Who Crochets. DestiKNITters, say hello to Marie Wurtz! Marie, what are you working on right now?
I'm working on this handbag.
What feels like your favorite/greatest crochet accomplishment?
These tiny pink slippers, and also this Brick Weave Scarf.
What feels like the worst crochet mistake/foible/wrong choice you’ve ever made?
I tried to make a square rug. After taking it apart three times, I finished it the way it was. It did NOT turn out.
Do you have a favorite stitch?
No, I'm still learning…
Metal or wood needles?
Metal
White chocolate, milk chocolate, or dark chocolate?
For being featured, Marie receives a copy of The Lawman's Oklahoma Sweetheart and a prize package of three skeins of yarn from Knitche yarn shop. Her friend receives a copy of A Heart to Heal. If you'd like to win free yarn and books by being featured on Readers Who Knit/Crochet, email me at allie@alliepleiter.com for details.
Granted, there can be a line, so getting there right when they open at 6:30 may be useful if you’re a crack-of-dawn kind of gal (which I am NOT). Even if you have to wait, it’s worth it, but my sources say opting for bar seating can shorten your wait time. Southern breakfasts have all the good stuff: home fries, cheese grits, biscuits—and this place excels at all three. The omelettes are clearly the way to go here. It seems like everyone gets a different mug, which only adds to the homey feel of the place.
Okay, this looks like a mall, and it acts like a mall, but Laurelwood is a collection of nice shops worth your time, including this large, lovely bookstore. You know what I’m going to say here: Independent bookstores NEED your business! A truly pleasant place to pass a few hours, there is a better-than-average gift assortment and a respectable bistro attached to this store as well. Buy a book—keep authors alive and writing!
Just down the other side of the Laurelwood shops you’ll find this memphis confectionary legend. The speciality I loved? Cashew crunch—a cashew brittle on a bed of coconut. Known for their fudge—and for darn good reason—there were all kinds of interesting goodies here that felt different from your average chocolate shop. Opt for the Memphis box in 1 or 2 pound varieties, or go big with the Tennessee Goodie box which weighs in at a waistline-expanding 3 pounds. Chocolate guitars, pyramids, or records? Get’em here.
Once your done, drive downtown for one of the most unique amusements Memphis has to offer:
Who’s got one of the best jobs in the world? The Peabody Hotel Duck Master, that’s who. Every day at 11am and 5pm this flock of hi-falutin’ hospitality waterfowl board the elevator and descend from their rooftop “Duck Palace” lodgings to march across the lobby and take their place in the hotel fountain. On a red carpet. To an adoring crowd. No kidding. It sounds silly—and it is—but you’re depriving yourself of a great, make-you-smile tradition if you miss it.
Some small museums are real gems, and this one turned out to be one of my favorite stops on our trip. An intriguing mix of permanent collections, working forges, and rotating exhibits gives you a deep appreciation for something that normally doesn’t get much attention. The gift shop has some exquisite pieces, including jewelry, but one of the highlights for me is the stunning wrought iron gazebo with a breathtaking view of the Mississippi. Even on a hot day, it was the perfect place to sit and have a quiet moment with my knitting.
Duly inspired, head on back out to the suburbs to today’s fiber fix:
Owner Brigitte Lang has been knitting since she was five. When she lived in Oregon, she worked in a yarn shop. Friends and customers call her “a knitting ninja.” For years, people would come to her house, showing up on her doorstep Saturdays with their knitting problems in hand, seeking help. So when she realized the people of Germantown wanted their own yarn shop, Brigitte naturally stepped up to the plate. That’s what problem solvers do—even in the knitting world.
The store is small but personable, filled with a respectable selection of good quality fibers. “I stock with what I like, with an eye for quality” offers Brigitte. Sure, you’ll find a few trends here, but mostly you’ll find the ingredients for a successful knitting experience, no matter your skill level. And should you run into trouble, help is most definitely at hand. Settle in on the back couch and a solution will be in sight before you know it.
Here are some projects you might want to consider:
Moonshine Slouch Hat
Want a slouch hat but with a whimsical twist? Take one hank of Juniper Moon Farm’s Moonshine and use this Ravelry pattern to work up a soft hat with ribs that make the most of the fiber’s beautiful sheen. Tassels take the whole topper up a notch. Look at that lustrous color!
Risoni Silk Lace Scarf
It’s hard to find warm weather knitting, but this clever one-row lace scarf does the job beautifully. One tiny 25 gram package of Risoni Silk works transforms into a delicate, breezy scarf perfect for summer wear. And oh, the colors! It's an ideal small-scale travel project with impressive results. You’ll get the pattern free with your yarn purchase.
Sunshine Tank Top
Got 600-900 yards (depending on sizing) of any 5-stitches-to-the-inch yarn in your stash? Download this Ravelry pattern and you’ve got everything you need to make this not-so-basic tank. The trim at the neck and waist adds just the right amount of dash. Go for a more versatile solid, a bright pop of color, or let the yarn do the talking in a texture or pattern. This is a project I’d knit many times with lots of different yarns.
Knit A Long: Brigitte’s Lace Cowl
Great for gift knitting but cozy enough to keep to yourself, this simple but stylish cowl knits up quickly with two balls of Tahki’s Juno. An exclusive pattern—free with yarn purchase—comes in two sizes and is easy to memorize. This is another project where different yarns will give you a nice variety of results.
When you’re ready to end your day with a down home good meal, head to a Germantown favorite:
“So good you’ll slap yo’ mama.” Even though I’m not quite sure what that means, the long lines in front of this tiny, rustic eatery mean the food really is that good. Get here early, and be prepared to squeeze through a warren of tightly packed tables, but know your efforts will be rewarded with terrific ribs, the best fried onion rings ever, outstanding pulled pork sandwiches, and even barbecue nachos (my surprisingly excellent choice). We were told to make sure we tasted any pie and their unique banana pudding—and I was glad we did. The lemon ice box pie (a personal favorite) was fabulous, and while I’m not a huge fan of banana pudding, everyone at our table agreed it was delicious. Yes, you’ll wait to be seated (even at 3pm when we went!), but no, you won’t regret it.
There you have it, DestiKNITters—two diverse, delicious days in Memphis. Proof that knitting adventures can be found even in towns famous for other things!
Next up, we cast on Brigitte’s Lace Cowl to remind us that summer’s hot and humid will all-too-quickly become winter’s cold and windy.
This is going to take some dedication. Two to three repeats of cables every day means almost an hour of knitting. Some days that’s easy to get in. Others take a little more willpower and ingenuity.
I’m traveling right now and I keep bringing it with me everywhere I go, hoping to get some knitting time in, but it’s not working out the way I planned. Were this simple garter stitch instead of a cable I keep botching (I had to take out three rows again just last night!), I could grab half a row here, half a row there. Not this project--this pattern seems to need my complete attention. That makes it harder to fit my knitting time in while doing this author gig thing.
The longer I work with this color, the more pleased I am with my choice. It’s a bright red—who can’t love a color named “Maraschino”? A red scarf simply declares you to the world in a way no other accessory can. I am reminded of one of my favorite novels, Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus, in which the devotees of the titular circus wore red scarves to identify themselves to other fans. Another round of life imitating art, I suppose.
Cue BB King, the thrill is gone. I’m halfway through and like lots of big projects, this last half feels harder and longer than the first. Three more feet of zig-zags is looming wearily over me, a daunting I-can’t-get-there-from-here finish line. Time to get my head in a new place about this project.
Now is the time the little boosts of knitting serve to encourage us. I was knitting with a friend the other day, and we talked about the mini-joy of reaching the end of a challenging row with the right amount of stitches. You know what I’m talking about: the pattern says something like “knit 4” and—lo and behold—you’ve got exactly four stitches left on your needle! You didn’t botch this row! Every knitter I know gets a little “zing” when that happens. The longer the row, the bigger the zing, yes?
Another midway boost for me is what I call “pattern immersion.” That’s my term for that magic moment when you don’t need to look at the written pattern to execute your repeat—you’ve memorized what comes next. Most times it comes organically somewhere in the middle of a project. This time, I needed to make it happen. Having to keep peeking back at the written pattern was part of the reason this scarf was becoming tedious, and that needed to change.
I took 30 minutes and analyzed the set of left-leaning rows and those that leaned to the right. I stared at the stitches until I could see that the two stockinette stitches to the right of those zig-zaging yarn-overs were the ones that were K2Tog’d. Now I don’t have to count rows or stitches, just look for those two stitches.
Conversely, staring hard at the stitches showed me that the YO and SSK happens right overtop the yarn-over from two rows below. Now, the knitting tells me what I have to do next, not a constant glance over to the paperwork. Sure, I check back every few rows to make sure I’m where I thought I was, but this little shift is enough to keep me motivated and heading toward the finish line!
Hey, a knitter’s gotta do what a knitter’s gotta do.
Not in the this pattern is so challenging it’s making steam come out of my ears hard, but hard in the I can’t believe it took me this long to knit 27 inches and I’m only halfway done kind of hard.
Four row repeats are soothing. Zen, even, under the right circumstances. But after 27 inches, even Zen gets a little too Zen-ish. 27 inches of solid brown—even though I really need a solid brown scarf and I picked the color out myself—borders of mind-numbing.
On the upside, I could now knit the trellis stitch in my sleep. On the downside, it offers very little challenge whatsoever. Other than perseverance. I understand that’s a virtue, but it’s a tiresome virtue to gain, yes?
I know I will love the texture and drape of this scarf—when I’m done. Right now it’s row upon row of scratchy stitches. A fiber marathon. I’m actually calculating how many rows I have to get done each day to stay on schedule. And when I resort to math, you know it’s getting sticky.
Stick with me. I need to know I’m not climbing this trellis alone.
I've loved knitting for about ten years. I’ve loved Dr. Who since college, which would mean...ahem...about thirty years. I never really thought about any connection between the two until I was asked to combine these two favorite things for today’s post.
Then I did a little research...and found out I am far from alone.
The Scarf
The first connection--and for many the strongest--is obvious: the quintessential SCARF. Known universally (and in this case we really mean that word) as “the Dr. Who Scarf,” the uber-long strip of stripes was worn by the fourth Doctor in a host of seasons and manifestations. Knitters have been replicating it for decades, and it is as much an icon as the TARDIS blue box. It has a pretty decent pedigree, as the doctor claims it was knit by Madame Nostradamus, a “witty little knitter” who’d probably have her own blog were The Doctor to whisk her off to present times. And perhaps she has, for a lovely lady named Tara Wheeler has taken up the cause with admirable abandon.
The Actor Who’s Actually an Expert
On the more obscure side, the blog natknit reminded me that Lalla Ward who played Romana, a companion to the Fourth Doctor (played by Tom Baker, who rocked aforementioned scarf) actually has a line of knitting books out there. There are many famous actors who knit...surely our Whovian performers should be among them.
The Current Controversy
If your tastes run more to current events, we’ve got that covered, too. The Doctor has always stirred up controversy wherever he goes, so it should come as no surprise that he’s stirred it up in the knitting world as well. Knitter Whovians made the news recently when BBC got supremely cranky about someone posting knitting patterns to create characters from the series. When is knitting a TARDIS “fan crafting,” and when is it copyright infringement (or is that copyright intarsia)? Us crafty types, we always fuse our passions. Etsy is filled with Who goodies. I can’t say I wouldn’t adore a plush little Adipose if I had the time and inclination to make one. And yes, I did try and get a “TARDIS” vanity plate for my blue Honda pilot--it is a big blue box that travels, after all. Is that worthy of lawyers descending on me like a herd of Daleks?
The On-Screen Nod to Knitting
Most recently, we learned The Doctor takes an interest in yarn and needles. How many of us KnitWhovians gasped in joy during “The Wedding of River Song” to see Matt Smith with his Doctoral nose in a copy of “Knitting for Girls”? And why not? Real men knit. Creative, adventuresome, clever men knit. Men who know “bowties are cool” would know knitting has been cool for centuries. Maybe the Doctor knows knitting has been cool for millennia.
The Dare
Hey BBC, I publicly dare you to show our beloved Doctor knitting in a future episode. Knock yourself out--make it alien yarn with time-altering capabilities. We’ll accept anything crafty and clever from our beloved Doctor. But I’m warning you, he better not be wiggling needles with the ends pointed up in that fake knitting I detest (DestiKNITters, you know what I’m talking about). Should BBC need an on-set consultant, I just happen to be available.
The Prize
Had I a time machine, I’d ratchet it back to give me enough time to knit you the yards of stripes a decent Dr. Who scarf requires. But I don’t--I don’t even have a Honda Pilot with a “TARDIS” plate. But I do have a copy of my most clever book with knitting in it, “My So-Called Love Life.” Leave a comment with your email address (duly spelled out with [at] and [dot] for your protection) and I’ll draw a winner at 5pm CT Saturday.
But don’t stop there!
The Grand Prize: Season 6 on DVD!
To enter the grand prize giveaway, please leave a comment with your name and email address. You may enter once at every stop on the blog tour for a total of thirteen chances. The Grand Prize giveaway is limited to the US and Canada, due to regional restrictions on the DVD. Individual contest will close at the discretion of the author, but the Grand Prize contest will accept entries on any site until midnight CST on December 24th. We will post the winner on December 25th, and notify the winner via email.
The Next Stop
And don’t stop here...hop in your cyber-TARDIS and travel tomorrow to the 13 Days of Dr. Who’s next stop: Sarah Enni: The Doctor and How He Changes His Companions' Lives at www.sarahenni.com
Honestly, the speed of this project is its attraction. I ripped the whole thing out halfway through and still didn’t have time to get bored! And it’s garter stitch. Sure, its a happy, chunky, enormous garter stitch, but there’s something engaging about this yarn. Maybe it’s the springtime-y colors I chose contrasting with fall’s warm hues all around me, but this was so very enjoyable.
I wore it today and got stopped at least a dozen times--it’s an eye-catching accessory to be sure. Suddenly I’m craving a hat to match.
I do have one misgiving: I can’t help thinking I should have worked all the rosettes onto one side. I wrangled them so that they alternated sides, because I’m not especially fond of scarves with “wrong” sides, but this also means I have lumpy rosettes poking me in the neck (well, they’re soft so I suppose they’re just prodding me, but it’s irritating just the same). I think if I had it to do over--no, I am NOT frogging this a second time--I’d push all the rosettes to one side. The yarn is loose enough that I could probably just nudge them over to one side even now. It'd make for more color per square inch and something smoother against my neck. Then again, turtleneck season is upon us so it soon won’t matter.
All in all, a truly satisfying project with perfectly stunning results. Thanks, Loopy Mango!
I tried to make a square rug. After taking it apart three times, I finished it the way it was. It did NOT turn out.
