How jsins became a knitter: A tale that includes a couple of firsts, the last and the latest

I have a little tale to tell of how jsins, she of the limited attention span, went from declaring that she would never knit again to becoming the intrepid and obsessed knitter that she is today.

In a time long, long ago (1999ish), a career hobbyist was at Joanne Fabrics with her friend Mary Jo who was picking up supplies for her daughter's Girl Scout troup craft project when she spotted a brightly-colored variegated yarn in rainbow colors. Feeling inspired, she went to her local library and picked up a book on how to knit so that she could make herself the most amazing technicolored scarf that the world had ever seen. Excited about how cool her scarf was going to be, jsins immediately went home, opened the book and had her mother dig out her knitting needles. She knit and she knit and she knit.

Then she got bored and the scarf when into a basket next to the recliner chair in the living room. Every so often she would pull the scarf out of the basket and knit on it some more only to become bored with it again and set it aside. After about a year of such behavior, she had a garter stitch scarf that measured somewhere around 10 feet long. She was quite over knitting the scarf but stuck with it due to stubborn perseverance and a strong desire to prove to her mother that she would indeed finish it as there was much doubt. Upon casting off, jsins declared that she would never knit again and had her mother do the fringe. The end result was this:

A number of years pass by and one spring day in 2006, jsins once again ends up in a Joanne Fabric and while roaming around the store happens into the yarn section. Again, the yarn calls to her and she feels inspired. She purchases a few skeins that are on sale and heads down to the Barnes and Nobles located within the same shopping complex. Once there, she makes her way to the craft section and proceeds to pick up another knitting book. This time it is Stitch and Bitch: The Knitters Handbook by Deb Stoller. This time, jsins learns not only the knit stitch but also how to purl and knits the ribbed scarf from the book for practice but does not finish it before taking the leap to knitting in the round. Heading to a LYS, she picks up a few better yarns and proceeds to embark upon a project that is a bit more interesting than a garter stitch scarf (not to diss the garter stitch scarf as I still wear my 10-foot behemoth to this day) and a love affair with knitting is born. In a single weekend, jsins creates the following:
While knitting the Adults Only Devil Hat, jsins learns how to knit in the round, seed stitch, who to pick up stitches, do i-cord, increase, decrease and cast on additional stitches. The monotony of endless garter stitch is over and an intrepid knitter is born.

Now, jsins has a number of FOs under her belt and the career hobbyist who bounced from hobby to hobby, new project to new project, has a hobby that can keep her interest long enough to finish a sweater (Egads, who'd have thunk it?) and to tackles socks with very thin yarn on extremely tiny needles. Why just last week she finished the following:

With Rusted Root, she tackled lace and stuck through even the portion of knitting a sweater when you knit and knit and knit and it doesn't seem to grow at all! She's learned how to customize a garment through shaping so that it fits her just the way that she wants it.

Upon casting off her UnRusted Root, jsins immediately cast on for Juliet and has progressed to the start of the lace portion. This is her first garment using bulky yarn and she is quite enamored with how quickly it is knitting up but must admit that she is also looking ahead to what she will cast on next.

It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world.

Things have been crazy busy and a pain in the ass over the last week or so. It just sucks when the times when you most need something to calm you down, like knitting or a good stiff cocktail, are when you get the least opportunity to do so.

I haven't made much progress on the knitting front lately. I ended up stuck on the PA turnpike Tuesday night and would have had 5 hours of prime knitting time but, having believed that I would either be in meetings or driving the entire time, I neglected to bring any knitting. I actually thought about taking some with me but decided not to. Important lesson learned, always take your knitting with you when you are traveling as you never know when you will be parked on a major roadway for 5 or so hours. Plus, it is nice to have a distraction when sitting in your car alone in the dark on a turnpike. Otherwise, you sit and think about all of the terrible things that could potentially happen to you and have happened to countless other people that you have read about in Ann Rule books and see on Dateline. (Note to self: perhaps I should cut back on Ann Rule books and not stop to see what's going on in primetime news shows.)

I have embarked on a new knitting adventure. I am undertaking my first attempt at knitting 2 socks at the same time via Magic Loop. (I always knit my socks using Magic Loop but this is the first time that I have knit more than one at a time.)

Imagine how much further along they would be if only I had grabbed them to take with me on my road trip.... (Will never leave house without backup knitting project again.) These socks are a Christmas present and also my October socks for the Sock a Month KAL.

I am hoping that I will have a lot more knitterly progress to post over the coming days. I am going to the Bob Dylan/Elvis Costello concert next Thursday and would really like to be able to wear my finished UnRusted Root to it. Will I make it? Only time will tell.

She came, she saw, she steeked its ass!

I did my first steeks last night!!! How cool is that? I had no problem with making the cut but I did have a "What the hell did I just do?!" moment immediately after. I have much practice to do before I tackle a big project but I just got the pattern for Eunny Jang's Deep V Argyle Vest so that I can study it, practice and, pretty soon, be able to jump in and do it! I did hold off on ordering the yarn though as part of my goal to be financially responsible and to knit some of the projects that I already have yarn for before I get the yarn for a new project that I am not ready to start. I am planning on knitting it with Knitpicks Merino Style in Asparagus for the main color and vanilla as the contrast.

However, I am not totally denying myself the pleasure of purchasing knitterly wares. I found the coolest sock blockers at Scout's Swag and couldn't resist having them. They are en route and I will have them shortly. As a sneak preview, here they are:

Knitting and cocktails, a brilliant combination!

In other news, I have cast on for Rusted Root. Yippee!!!! I am going to work diligently on this top so that I can wear within the next couple of weeks. I have also started a group on Ravelry for people who are knitting Zephyr Style projects,

If you are on Ravelry and get a chance, stop by and check it out.

Playing Catch Up

I've been working on getting caught up with taking pictures and posting projects. As the last few knitting posts have been about what is waiting to get on the needles, I wanted to post an old FO and some WIPs to demonstrate that I have not only been thinking about knitting but actually doing some as well.

My First Socks

First the FO, the following pic is of the first socks I ever made. I made them last fall. I took at class at a LYS, Ewe Can Knit of downtown Pittsburgh, and learned the Magic Loop method. I heart Magic Loop. I use it for everything from socks to hats to sleeves. It is so nice to be able to use a single needle and not have to switch to dps as you decrease. I can't remember the brand and colorway of the yarn but I know it is a superwash merino.

Monkey Socks

In other sock news, the following is a WIP shot of the Monkey Socks that I am knitting in Plymouth Sockotta. These socks are my "pool project" as they are small, portable and do not interfere with my quest to get a tan. I'm not a big fan of fair isle patterned sock yarns but I loved the greens and blues in this year. I am actually quite pleased with the way the lace pattern of the Monkey socks plays with the fair isle pattern of the yarn. I'm a bit further along than this pic shows and have finished the leg of the first sock.

Tessellating Fish Afghan

Next up, we have the tessellating fish afghan. I love these shiny happy fish with their little smiles and bobble eyes. I'm knitting the afghan in Cascade 220 Superwash. I chose the hot pink, yellow and orange both for their sunny-ness and in an homage to old school granny square afghans. My plan is to make it large enough to cover my full-size bed. I think it will be quite some time before I get there. As the saying goes, that's a hell of a lot of fish to knit...

Green Gable

I am also nearly finished with Green Gable. I have not taken any WIP shots because everytime I have tried it on I have looked like shite. The sweater looks great but I have a tendency to try this one on when I have extreme bedhead or have been out swimming or any other number of reason that makes one look like shite and determine to not have any photographic proof of the situation. I will post some lovely shots of this sweater when it is finished.

Knitterly Improvement

I'm so excited!!!! I've signed up for a steeking class at the LYS Dyed in the Wool. I am intrigued by the idea of steeking and have seen a number of cute projects that involve steeking, including the Deep V Argyle Vest by Eunny Jang, but the idea of attempting steeking without someone showing me how to do it first is way more adventurous than I care to be. I love taking knitting classes. This will be the third class that I've taken, including the aforementioned sock class and an intermediate knitting course also at Ewe Can Knit. I find that I can struggle for hours trying to figure out how to do a particular maneuver (increases for example) that I can pick up easily if I see someone do it in person. Plus, you get to meet other knitters and have a designated time when, no matter what, you must knit because you are taking a class.