Location, Location, Location (with apologies to Dr. Seuss)

Day 5: Location, Location, Location
Where do you like to indulge in your craft? Is your favourite arm chair your little knitting cubby area, or do you prefer to ‘knit in public’? Do you like to crochet in the great outdoors, perhaps, or knit in the bath, or at the pub?

I've been asked

"where do you knit?"

Well...many places, I must admit.

I've knit my stitches on a plane.

I've knit my stitches on a train.

I've knit my stitches in a car.

I've knit my stitches near and far.

I've knit my stitches at my Mum's.

I've knit my stitches at my chum's.

I've knit my stitches in my house.

I've knit my stitches atop Grouse.

I've knit my stitches in my bed.

I've knit my stitches in a shed.

I've knit my stitches in the tub.

I've knit my stitches at the pub.

I've knit my stitches in a queue.

I've knit my stitches at the zoo.

I've knit my stitches in a class

I've knit my stitches on the grass.

I've knit my stitches at the shore.

I've knit my stitches on the floor.

I've knit my stitches in a cab.

I've knit my stitches in a lab.

I've knit my stitches on the sea.

I've knit my stitches in a tree.

I've knit my stitches at a fair.

I knit my stitches EVERYWHERE!

Be sure to check out the other entries for today’s topic!

The continuing education of yarnpiggy

Day 4: A New Skill

Is there a skill related to your hobby that you hope to learn one day? maybe you’re a crocheter who’d also like to knit? Maybe you’d like to learn to knit continental, knit backwards, try cables or attempt stranded colourwork.

Well. It might be easier to talk about skills I don't want or need to learn. It would certainly be a much shorter list. Metaphorically speaking, Piggy is stuck in primary school; graduation of any sort is a looooooong way off.

I want to learn it all, really. In my ideal world, I would have all the skills needed to be able to knit -- or crochet -- any pattern that struck my fancy, without hesitation or doubt. Intricate lace and cables would fly off my needles with ease. Fair Isle would be fun. Socks would be simple. I would be ambidextrous -- Continental and English knitting would feel equally natural. Steeking and seaming would be steps to look forward to. Mistakes would be rare, and when discovered, quickly fixed.

But when it comes down to it, I think there is just one skill I need to learn to make all of the above possible: fearlessness, or confidence, if you will.

I need to get over my fear of making mistakes, and just knit. It's obvious, of course: if I don't try new skills, I'll never learn them.

Knit on, with confidence and hope, through all crises.~ Elizabeth Zimmermann
Easier said than done, of course. But hopefully I'm inching towards embracing that ideal.




Be sure to check out the other entries for today’s topic!

One Great Knitter -- well, not really

Day 3: One Great Knitter
Write about a knitter whose work (whether because of project choice, photography, styling, scale of projects, stash, etc) you enjoy. If they have an enjoyable blog, you might find it a good opportunity to send a smile their way.

Well. As I'm sure anyone who's been here before can imagine, I couldn't possibly limit myself to a single great knitter or crocheter who inspires me. So I'm going to cheat a bit and mention several.

Of course there are the famous knitters whose work inspires so many of us, the knitters for whom I need not include links or explanation. Elizabeth Zimmermann. Barbara Walker. The Yarn Harlot. Cat Bordhi. Anne Hanson. You get the idea.

But the knitters and crocheters I'll talk about today are the ones who inspire me on a more personal level. The ones I actually knit with, the ones who give me advice, answer my frantic questions, discourage my knee-jerk reaction to frog at my first dropped stitch, encourage me to try new techniques and enable my stash-enhancement activities: my local yarnies, members of the Terminal City Yarn Wranglers and the Vancouver Fibre League.

My yarnies are a fantastic bunch of knitters and crocheters -- all of them far more productive than I am! I'd be even more pre-process than I am without them, however.

Of course I left this post to the last minute, so I haven't received permission from most of them to use their project pics, so I encourage you to stalk them on Ravelry (all names below are Rav IDs) and through their blogs. :-) But here are a few snippets...

My pal beentsy (aka Queen of the Noro Whoros) has a stash to die for. It's legendary. She appears to be hiding it from us, as we are still waiting for an invite to her place, but I gather it involves somewhere in the neighbourhood of two dozen ginormous Rubbermaid bins. She knits everything from socks on teeny-weeny circs to lovely beaded lace shawls.

beentsy's Cobbler Shawl, by Lynette Meek
MrsQuimby is a sock-knitting star who has recently finished what's become known as The Viking Sweater of Doom for the rather tall Mr. Quimby.

MrsQuimby's Saranac, by Rebecca Hatcher
This project required a lot of determination -- and stitches! -- to complete. Very admirable indeed.

Then there's nellum, who whipped out a Fair Isle vest for her Ravelympics project:

nellum's Corrie Fair Isle Vest, by Kerin Dimeler-Laurence
I chose this picture because if you strain your eyes a bit, you can see how neat her floats are...seriously, this vest is almost reversible, the work is so good.

I am not a crocheter. I have made a grand total of two crocheted items. But I would like to improve my skills, thanks mainly to seeing my friend MsTing's beautiful, intricate work.

MsTing's Monroe, by Catherine Wilson
Honestly, Lara has opened my eyes to how beautiful crochet can be.

Yarnballa (aka P'cess, who is also taking part in Knitting & Crochet Blog Week) is truly an inspiration. Nothing gets her down -- not even when she accidentally sets fire to her knitting! So it shouldn't be surprising that she knit up this incredibly fun item:

Yarnballa's Mr. Smungkee, by Yvonne Boucher
Seriously, how fun is he? And he's HUGE!

And then there's megknitficent, who is a bit famous in her own right. She's also known, to those who attended Sock Summit, as "Veil Girl". Because she was crazy enough to knit this:

megknitficent's Wedding Veil, by Meg Swansen
Well, most of it, anyway. She got a bit of help, you see (definitely check out the project page on this one!). From the likes of Barbara Walker, Meg Swansen, Stephanie Pearl McPhee, Cat Bordhi, Lucy Neatby...and even Piggy! (And, I'd like to point out, my part of the veil was waaaaaaaaaay harder than those of Barbara Walker et. al. -- they had straight knitting, I had LACE, piglets!)

These are just a small handful of my Vancouver yarnies. There are many more who inspire me every day. I thank all of them.

Knitcroblo2: An Inspirational Pattern

Blog about a pattern or project which you aspire to. Whether it happens to be because the skills needed are ones which you have not yet acquired, or just because it seems like a huge undertaking of time and dedication, most people feel they still have something to aspire to in their craft. If you don’t feel like you have any left of the mountain of learning yet to climb, say so!

Piggy has only just arrived at base camp and started to acclimatize.

I am, of course, the self-appointed Queen of the Pre-Process Knitters, so the list of patterns I aspire to knit is a long one indeed. One that branches off in several directions -- Fair Isle sweaters, heirloom-worthy baby blankets, socks featuring intricate cables...On any given day I gaze down one or all of these paths, dreaming of the spectacular FOs I'll knit...someday.

But unusually, today I can actually identify a single pattern I am determined to knit. Not right away, of course...but sooner rather than later. It's a lace shawl that was far and away my favourite of the patterns submitted to the Tell Piggy What to Knit! contest.

Anne Hanson's Irtfa'a Faroese Lace Shawl.

(I won't copy-wrong the picture, so check out Anne Hanson's site, and the gallery of completed ones on Ravelry -- but have a tissue or two handy, because you'll be drooling.)

This might seem a strange claim: if you take a look at the poll at the top of the sidebar (feel free to vote!), you'll notice this pattern did not make the short list. But I assure you, it is my favourite. I just don't feel my skills are up to the task. Keep in mind, Piggy's previous lace experience is limited to a single FO:


The infamous Good Luck Cowl, a simple, error-free pattern which I re-named the "Bad Luck Cowl", as I only managed to complete it after countless attempts and frogging sessions.

So you might forgive me my desire to go for a somewhat simpler pattern before embarking on Irtfa'a.

It is simply a gorgeous, gorgeous shawl. All of Anne Hanson's creations are beautiful -- no fewer than 10 of the 91 nominees in the contest were her designs -- but this one is my favourite. One day...

Starting Out - Knitting & Crochet Blog Week Day 1

You may, perhaps, have noticed the subtitle of this blog. It wasn't chosen lightly, or simply to be cute. I am, by my estimation at least, a most unlikely knitter.

I am not, you see, a terribly crafty person. I'm not someone with a natural artistic talent; I don't have the type of imagination that instantly dreams up beautiful images. I was the kid at Brownies who spent 55 minutes of the hour allotted to make the walnut mouse tree ornament trying to figure out if I wanted a grey or a white mouse. And on the rare occasions I do have a Eureka! moment, self-doubt of epic proportions slams down hard.

Then there is the problem of execution. I am a clumsy, ham-handed sort of person. I cannot cut a straight line to save my life, even with the aid of a ruler or specialty cutting devices designed to make the task effortless. Straight lines in general are a problem for me, really. Sewing a simple hem on a curtain panel is for some reason beyond me. And don't get me started on the mess I can create when glue or paint is involved.

Added to this lack of both artistic vision and manual dexterity is my real problem: perfectionism. The other issues could be mitigated by practice, of course. But I tend to dig my heels into the ground once I've fallen off the horse, rather than leap back on for another go.

So I truly am rather surprised that knitting has "stuck", however unproductive I am.

Piggy Casts On

I first learned how to knit when I was about seven years old or so. My mother, bless her, taught me how to cast on (using what I now know is the cable cast on), and garter stitch. I don't remember very much, except that it couldn't have been an enjoyable experience for my mum. I'm quite sure there was much gnashing of teeth and tears -- if not outright tantrums -- involved. I do recall several extremely well-executed bouts of frogging, however.

I gave up on knitting very quickly, but continued to enjoy the products of my mother's -- and my maternal grandmother's -- needles. I don't think Mum would be offended if I said Granny was the real knitter in the family. She churned out plenty of jumpers that arrived in the mail from England throughout my childhood. My sister still has a few of them, now worn by my nieces.

I came back to knitting about five years ago now, again, under my mother's influence. After my parents retired to Gibsons, Mum became involved in the local spinning guild and the Fibre Arts Festival. So after a hiatus of many years, out her needles came again. And something made me want to give it another go.

Fortunately for all involved, I had managed to get a few things past my thick skull in the intervening years, and instead of asking my mother to teach me again, I consulted books (Knitting for Dummies) and websites (Knitting Help, youtube). And when those didn't do the trick, I asked the mother of one of my friends to help me cast on -- no matter how frustrated I became, I knew I wouldn't lose it in her presence!

And the rest, as they say, is history. I'm really not sure why I've uncharacteristically stuck with knitting, but stuck I am. I haven't progressed as far as I'd have liked, but I'll get there, eventually. (Help me out by picking my first big lace project -- check out the poll at the top of the sidebar!)

Time to Vote!

Oh my, but it was painful to come up with a short list of just five patterns from all the lovelies you suggested. Ninety-one of them, to be exact. Truly, you all have magnificent taste, and I hated each cut I made. (I should have seen this problem coming, of course...serves me right!)

But it had to be done, of course. So here, then, are the candidates, listed in the order they were nominated:

• Spring Leaves, by Katrin Vorbeck (nominated by Nicole)
• Cheshire Cat Stole, by Carrie Griffin (nominated by Mrs.Q)
• Twinings Stole, by Anne Hanson (nominated by Chelle)
• Nefertiti Wrap, by Miriam L. Felton (nominated by isisonearth)
• Moon Dance, by Melanie Gibbons (nominated by Kristin)

You can see them together in this folder in my Ravelry queue.

Voting starts now -- using the poll thingymabob over there at the top of the sidebar, please, not by leaving a comment -- and runs until May 1. Off you go!

Last chance for a crack at some free Wollmeise...

Entries are closing tonight at 9 p.m. Pacific in the Tell Piggy What to Knit! contest. I'll have the short list posted as a poll sometime before midnight. Anyone can vote, but only those who submit pattern suggestions are eligible for prizes. Oh, and for a wee chance at a heretofore unnamed prize...

Because I'm so afraid I won't complete this stole by the July 31st deadline, I'm giving myself some extra incentive. So...if I fail to earn my O.W.L. this time around, I'll be giving away that ginormous skein of Wollmeise Lace that Canada Customs held up for so long (scroll down just a wee bit) -- to one of the readers who submitted a pattern for consideration. One chance per entrant...so if you've already entered, you're in.

That get your attention? Enter here.

Dear Canada Customs:

While I wish it weren't so, I can accept that you have a right to delay the delivery of goods sent to me from a foreign country. I can also accept your right to charge me duty on said goods.


However, I do take exception to charging me a $5 handling fee -- in addition to the $3.75 duty and the $2.53 in tax -- when you can't be bothered to open the package.


Especially when you don't even get the classification of the contents correct.


I can assure you, Wollmeise Lace contains absolutely no cotton, and to brand it with the name acrylic is a crime that simply cannot go unremarked by Piggy.


I mean, really. Talk about adding insult to injury.


Although I suppose I should be grateful that you didn't put your grubby mitts all over my precious, precious Wollmeise.

Sincerely,
yarnpiggy

Knit & Crochet Blog Week

Whew. The pressure to complete Saroyan (or anything else) super-quickly is off! All next week, starting on Monday, I'll be blogging on some assigned topics, thanks to the brainchild of the lovely Eskimimi: Knit & Crochet Blog Week!



She's got some great themes for each day, plus a wild card, just in case one of the questions fails to strike your fancy.

Go here (or click the pretty banner above!) for all the details, and join in!

Turning the corner

I am now officially well on the way to completing my first schlarf! (Thanks to AmyB for passing on Dunckie's name for a shawl/scarf hybrid.)


Twenty leaves knitted on my Saroyan -- it's now just shy of 60 per cent complete. I'm a smidge concerned that it looks like someone has taken the province of Alberta and given it a hard blocking lengthwise, but am trying not to panic.

By Piggy's rather poor standards, that's a lot of progress since the last time you saw it, just one week ago. When its length fit easily within the confines of this table's top.


Of course, it is quite a small table. Dog for scale.

That's Bailey, my friend's dog. I'm looking after her while her owner is swanning about Indonesia. Ok, ok. He's working. Whatever. He's doing it in a foreign country, so his life is obviously far more exciting than mine.

Bailey just happens to be, by my reckoning, the snoriest and fartiest dog in these parts. It's been quite the week or so chez Piggy's mum, let me tell you.


It's a good thing she's cute.

Contest Update

We're up to 65 nominees in the Tell Piggy What to Knit! contest. I've been studying them all a bit, and have already come up with a preliminary long (very long!) list. But I'd love to have some more entries (there are a few patterns I was hoping to see entered, so I know there are plenty left for you to pick), and I'm sure you would like to win some yarn or a pattern from your queue, no? Of course you would!

To enter, go here and leave your suggestion for a non-triangular, not-too-difficult lace stole/wrap pattern in the comments. Remember to check the nominees first, as duplicate entries won't be counted.

Loads of Lace (& Piggy pancakes!)

Wow, you guys. Just one day in to the Tell Piggy What to Knit! contest, and I already have a list of 50 -- yes, 50 patterns to choose from! Keep 'em coming!

A few quick notes:

1. I've edited the contest post to make eligible patterns available anywhere online as long as they accept PayPal chequing; I've also raised the maximum cost of paid patterns to US $10.
2. I've made a new tab in my Ravelry queue for the nominated patterns (with the exception of one pattern, Amille by knitterain, which is still in test-knitting stage, so I've faved it instead) so you can see them easily; 
3. Hopefully point #2 will help any new commenters see what has already been nominated -- if it's already in there, please suggest something else, so you will be eligible for the prizes! (I'm looking at you, Amy in Virginia and Joan in France!)

There are already so many lovely patterns to choose from -- it's going to be difficult to come up with a short list! But this is the part of knitting I really enjoy (surprise, surprise), so the more the merrier! I'll be accepting suggestions as comments under the original contest post (don't worry Joan in France -- I've added yours to my spreadsheet!) until Sunday night.

In other knitting news...I'm still plugging away slowly on Saroyan. I'm at the halfway mark, and will take some pictures later today after I get some more done at the Tuesday afternoon stitch-n-bitch at Unwind.

Oh...I did end up having pancakes for dinner on Sunday, using my new wee piggy frying pan. The results weren't particularly life-like...


...but I didn't let that stop me from enjoying a second (and third!) one.


Just about anything looks yummy when doused in maple syrup!

CONTEST: Tell Piggy What to Knit!

As much as Piggy likes to tout her self-appointed status as Queen of the Pre-Process Knitters, I think it's time to actually get some serious knitting done. To commit to a large project, and to see it through to the end.

The sort of project that will demand huge sacrifices of Piggy's available free time, beloved stash (both embarassingly plentiful, I must admit), and will tax my patience and wits (rather more scarce).

Oh, and lifelines. Likely several, in fact. Yep, I'm talking about lace.

And I'm bringing you along for what is almost certain to be a train wreck of epic proportions an eventful ride. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to select a lace stole pattern for me to knit this term (May-July) for my Charms O.W.L. in the Harry Potter Knitting/Crochet House Cup (henceforth HPKCHC). And in return, I will be giving away some prizes.

I need a knitting pattern for a lace stole/wrap in either laceweight or fingering-weight yarn that:

• is not perfectly triangular -- Piggy's posterior is quite big enough that it doesn't need a sharp arrow pointing to it, thank you very much -- rectangular would be ideal;
• requires at least 732 metres/800 yards of yarn (per the HPKCHC rules for the Charms O.W.L.);
• should be reasonably challenging but not sanity-threatening for a lace novice to complete within three months;
• is available in English; and
• is available as a Ravelry download, from Twist Collective OR another online source that accepts PayPal cheques (Piggy doesn't use credit cards!) -- either free or for a maximum cost of US $10.

Clear as mud? Good stuff. So here's how this will work:

• leave a comment after this post with the name of your pattern suggestion(s) by 9 p.m. Pacific time on Sunday, April 25;
• try not to suggest a pattern already entered above your comment: only the first nomination of a pattern will count; I've made a folder of the nominees so far in my Ravelry queue;
• I will select a short list of no more than five patterns, which I will post as a poll;
• voting will be open until 9 p.m. Pacific time on Saturday, May 1; I will post the results within the following hour; and
• the pattern that receives the most votes will be my O.W.L. project; the reader who nominated the pattern will receive one skein of Wollmeise yarn from my stash -- her/his choice of 100% Merino Superwash in the Sabrina colourway OR Sockenwolle 80/20 Twin in the Pfefferminz Prinz colourway.
  

But wait -- there's more! If you nominated one of the non-winning short-listed patterns, I'll send you one skein of Malabrigo Lace -- in the Vaa colourway -- from my stash.

PLUS: everyone who submits a pattern suggestion -- whether or not your pattern makes the short list -- will receive one entry in a random draw. I'll pick three winners, who will each choose one Ravelry pattern download (max. US $7 each).

For an extra entry -- or two -- in the random draw, blog about the Tell Piggy What to Knit! contest (including a link to this post) and/or tweet the following (please include your twitter id in your comment, so I know who you are!):


Tell @yarnpiggy what to knit for a chance to win Wollmeise! http://tiny.cc/yarnpiggy

So get your ideas in, piglets! Tell your knitting pals to come over here and give me their ideas, too.

Prezzies for Piggy

Check out what I was lucky enough to receive from a lovely friend this weekend:


Mmmmm, Yarn Chef Mulligatawny in Femme Fatale. Nommy, nommy fingering-weight merino in lovely shades of Piggy-friendly purple!


I think I might have to have pancakes for dinner tonight...if I do, I'll post pictures tomorrow.

And if that's not enough motivation, I'll be announcing a contest tomorrow, as well!

Uh-oh.

I may have just bought some yarn. Yarn that is for neither my secret spoilee in the Malabrigo Junkies Swap, nor a section of a MalTravelers scarf.

Furthermore, it's neither this yarn:


Nor this one:


Which is unfortunate, since although bought for Piggy alone, these lovelies don't count as cheating on my (latest) yarn diet, but rather as a "congratulations on the opening of your wonderful new local yarn shop" gift.

Simple good manners, piglets.

No, the yarn of which I speak was bought online. Just now.

In my defence*, while this latest dip into Piggy's meagre* cash reserve was made on the spur-of-the-moment, I do already have a plan for it. I think. Maybe.

I'm just going to keep the plan to myself, is all.



* When Piggy rules the world, Blogger -- and everyone else -- will recognize non-U.S. spelling. That is all.

Brace yourselves for A(ctual)K(nitting)C(content)!

Hard to believe, I know. But it's true: I've managed to make some progress on my Saroyan.


That's twelve leaves' worth of progress, piglets. As I am using Malabrigo Silky Merino, rather than a worsted-weight yarn as the pattern calls for, I decided to knit 10 leaves in the increase section, rather than six. So that will mean 10 decrease repeats as well, obviously. The plan right now is to knit 14 repeats for the straight section; we'll see if I stick with that.


I'm still too paranoid to attempt to memorize the leaf chart, which is very simple. I love how something so easy can look so impressive.


The only problem I've had so far is figuring out what to call it when people (ok, the yarnies at Unwind, since they're the only human contact I've had other than at supermarket checkouts and the Timmy's drive-through since I've been in Gibsons) ask me what I'm knitting. It's classified as a scarf in Ravelry's database, but I've been calling it a shawlette. But I can't say I'm really liking that, either.

In other news...I've been thinking about that cunning plan to improve my knitterly output I mentioned a while ago. Stay tuned.

Where's Piggy been hiding?

I'm currently in Gibsons, house-sitting for my mum as she swans about Australia visiting family and old friends. (And alpacas and merinos, too -- how jealous is Piggy? Very jealous. But I digress.)

Anyhoo. This particular visit to the Sunshine Coast has been particularly enjoyable because of a new addition to the community.


Gibsons finally has a proper yarn shop! And it's a beauty, piglets.

Unwind Knit and Fibre Lounge opened last month in a convenient location right off the Sunshine Coast Highway. From the street the modern coplex looks like any other mini mall, but once you get to the shop door, you know you're in for a treat.


And the inside doesn't disappoint. Far from it. The shop is bright and welcoming, as is its friendly owner, Kim. There's plenty of room to move around comfortably as you check out all the lovely yarns and goodies on display.

Piggy was immediately called to the Malabrigo Worsted on one wall, but managed eventually to break away to fondle a great assortment of yarns, including lines from Mirasol, Noro, Diamond Luxury, Viking, Aslan Trends, Debbie Bliss, Sirdar, Galway, SWTC and local British Columbian treats Sweet Georgia and Indigo Moon. And more is coming in, the shop's facebook updates tell me.

There's also a good selection of needles and hooks (ChiaoGoo, Lantern Moon); Namaste bags and needle cases; buttons and other notions, and books and magazines are on the way, too. Oh, and beads:


And the best part? Plenty of space for classes and social knitting! Just a few weeks in, the Friday knit night is busy -- last Friday a few knitters ran home to bring extra chairs!




In addition to Friday knit night (6-9 p.m.), Kim has just introduced Tuesday afternoon knitting from 2-5. So I've got to get cracking...