The Knitting Fiend

I’m 3/4 done with the second sleeve. I should finish this week. Yay! Yes. I’m slow. I find the Aran needs more concentration than most patterns because of the need to follow several complicated grids at a time. I can’t just burn one type of repeat in my mind. And, of course, I’m also tapering the sleeves, so I need to remember to work the decreases.

This slowlness is affecting my blogging. I can’t really suddenly post a pattern, no can I? Instead, I need to report about my knit blogging discoveries.

Naturally, as I break from twisting my cables, I have been visiting blogs that discussing Arans. I laughed out loud when I came across Enchanting Juno who pondered this question:

I don’t like the drop shoulder that many Aran type sweaters use - because they look hideous on me. Can I mess with it? Doesn’t that make it not a real Aran? Isn’t it disrespectful? I always think of the way my mother used to say Irish Fisherman’s Sweater - in a very firm way, like it was the platonic ideal of sweaters. And anything that departed from it - in color, style, structure might be very nice in its way, but not real. I guess that’s velveteen rabbit real.

Who hasn’t read similar ideas on knitting list serves? You’re not supposed to modify! It’s supposed to be authentic! Oh hear the cry of the “Authentic Aranista”.

I wish I had Juno’s way with words. Since I don’t, I can only say, “Real-schmeal! “

Fortunately, despite my lack of poetic ability, I get to ignore any nearby Aranistas, and do whatever I want. (As it happens, Enchanting Juno goes on to applaud the designers who take what’s beautiful from tradition and adapt it to create our own beautiful designs. )

More importantly, Jim applauds attractive sweaters that fit. That works for me.

But, enough of philosophy! The geek in me is even more thrilled that, Juno provides a link to the sweater project’s cable chart generator. Spiffy!

Unfortunately, the abilities to chart a 5-1 pillar decrease aren’t programmed, and neither is on the the “to-do” list. I’ll still need to chart out my Celtic Flourish some other way.

Now, on to things non-Aran. I’m also always interested in how fabric structures can flatter human shapes. I found a really cool shrug idea at Silver Tuesday. She found it at Crafster.com, where it is called the circular shrug. It’s a square that is turned into a circle; they also show a T shaped piece seamed into a shrug. Evidently, both basic designs are from really, really old knitting magazines. So, presumably, those are terrific things to turn into pattern generators.

I’m seriously thinking of making a few by machine to give as Christmas presents. (When I’m done with my Aran.)

Out of curiosity, does anyone else know of a few really good knit Christmas gift ideas? Maybe I could start planning. (Although, the procrastinator in me does say, it’s too early to think of Christmas….. )

So, on to all things blog! You’d think what with the existence of blogrolling, I’d constantly keep up my blogroll. But no-oh-oh!

Once in a blue moon, I update; I did that today. As it happens, I often visit blogs who refer people to me. I always post an “approved” list links of blogs who recently referred people to me. (The approval is to kill spam links; so the first time someone refers to me, I need to edit my file to activate it.)

Due to page loading “issues”, those links show at the bottom of my blog. Of course, I know they are there, and I scroll down constantly, and click. But, I suspect, no one else knows they are there.

So, I decided I’d better promote all my referrers to my official blogroll where my visitors might actually notice them. See how the blogroll in my sidebar has grown? There, off to the right?

Of course, the sidebar also contains blogs that I read even if they don’t link me.

Still, I want to alert visitors that I believe in reciprocal links, so if you link me, and I missed you, let me know. I’ll add you right away. Otherwise, if you don’t say anything, I’ll probably get around to this task . . . sometime.

Oh… and finally, if you know of any upcoming knitting seminars/ seminars/ workshops retreats, let me know. I’m trying to post these every Thursday, but I need help finding them. If there’s one you’re attending or giving, just drop me a line in comments.

Anyway, happy knitting to all!