My first shirt-shaped object is blocking!

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I found a marvelous blog a few days ago called Kathryn Ivy. She just finished a brilliant space shuttle project in felt! She’s also got a tutorial for Double Pointed Needle Pouches and a template/ instructions for making a Knitting Journal. Last but not least, there’s a pattern with the same name as a character near and dear to my heart: Hawkeye.

M*A*S*H M*A*S*H M*A*S*H. That is all.

Before I get to the knitting content… Aren’t these cute? I swear this is the last time I post about Threadless. But come on, they reprinted Rocketbird! Yay.

This is a new one, and I am so so buying. OMGOMGOMG.

For putting up with my love for Threadless, here’s a video called “Real Men Knit”:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/2jYa_rJyG18" height="350" width="425" /]

And now, on to the commentary.

Unfortunately, the only two video responses on YouTube either said “ha ha that must mean real men are gay/insipid women, ha ha” or “ha ha instead replace knitting with farting, lol omg bbq.” I think the whole point of saying “real men knit” is to say “real men don’t let themselves be tied down by old-fashioned gender roles,” but I guess you can’t expect everyone to be open-minded about that.

It’s kind of sad that knitting is sort of a stigma that both men and women now have to live down. Oh, for the days of the 1920s, when women were allowed to knit, and their husbands gave them monthly allowances of $20-$25 that they could spend on soap and ribbons and powder for their noses. Now that was a time when everything about being a woman was stigmatized, so at least you knew where you stood. Nowadays, we’re allowed to be strong and powerful, but only if we do men’s work. Women’s work, not so much. You housewives, you go away and watch Oprah and fold the laundry while we get the real work done.

Strangely, the tagline is “it’s not just women’s work, in fact, it never was.” As a matter of fact, for quite a while it was women’s work, so why are they ignoring that history? Do they think that they have to completely disassociate all femininity from the craft before it can become palatable to men? That’s not very fair to men, if that’s true. From now on, why not say it’s “human’s work”?

Finally, Threadless is putting out a t-shirt just for the knitters and crocheters and various other fibre enthusiasts! And just in time for their $10 sale

I went in to get these two, but I think I might get this one as well. Finally, a shirt at Threadless that’s actually in stock! Maybe not for long… I have a feeling once knitters find out about this, it’ll have a snowball’s chance at staying on the shelves.

Anyone have any idea why this is called Georgia?

On eBay: an (almost) antique Niddy Noddy In A Bottle, signed and dated 1916.

Take a goose and gander at this version of the pomatomus sock pattern! Isn’t that cute? I like how the instep mirrors the heel flap. I almost prefer this version!

Side note: this was knit from an abandoned knitting project at a thrift store. I’m always in favour of yarn recycling!

Baby baby baby baby baby!

Baby! On the way to the cottage last weekend, the beau’s mother noticed me knitting the little baby sweater that I recently finished (pre-blocking pictures forthcoming) and asked if she could commission a baby jacket for a grad student of her husband’s. A commission?! For a baby??!! Heck yeah. I spent a few hours the next day scouring the baby pattern database on my computer and presented a small collection of samples (read: 50) for her to choose from. There were a few that both she and I liked, so she left it up to me to decide which I would prefer. I chose this:

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Baby Booties, started May 12th, 2007, finished May 16th, 2007
Pattern: Stay-On Baby Booties from Knitting for Baby
Yarn: Random cotton
Needles: 2.75mm dpns
Dimensions: I have no idea if this would fit a baby
Pattern Notes: CUUUUUUUUUUTE! I did not change a thing.
Would I knit it again? I love these! I love the little i-cord ties and I love the little feet and… well, that’s pretty much all there is to them. There’s some garter stitch in there, and there’s some stockinette. Oddly, the garter stitch is knit in the round, which is SO ANNOYING because I don’t like purling with cotton and metal needles. But that’s just me whining; the end result is the most adorable baby booties EVER. I will most certainly knit them again, and maybe even experiment with some seed stitch? I love seed stitch.

The next time I knit them, though, I’m going to rewrite the pattern for myself and get rid of all the endless explanations that clog up the pattern. Everything is described in great detail here, which is great if you’re a beginner knitter (definitely the target audience for this book, and something I would have loved if I had started knitting in the future with a bun in the oven) but incredibly distracting if you’ve knitted for any longer than a month. I would definitely recommend this pattern to anyone who wants to knit it, but if you can do without lengthy diatribes about what garter stitch looks like, I suggest scribbling out the pattern in short hand first. You can also use the pattern at Fuzzy Galore; it’s essentially the same, except the “bumper” is garter stitch instead of four rows of knit, four rows of purl, etc and the decreases are k2togs. This is a very common pattern, so I don’t think I’m breaching copyright law by making that observation. Apparently Rocket Bride at Knittin’ Smitten agrees, because she’s published a recipe she learned from the book as well.

Yarnival! is up at Fiber Dreams. Now I finally have time to read Yarnival without feeling guilty about my thesis!

Ah, summer. The time when the world’s knitters gather their metaphorical nuts and berries and stuff them in the bottom of tree trunks for the winter. The better planners would be beginning now for fall outerwear (or in California, fall beachwear) and winter Christmas presents (or in California, winter bacchanalia and hybrid car cozies).

Last October was when I started all my Christmas presents, and I thought I’d get them all finished. I didn’t, but I was close. This summer, I’m going to plan way in advance. This idea comes from Ali at Skeins Her Way, who’s running a brilliant contest where you list your knitting goals and three people win some delicious Organic Cotton from Blue Sky Alpacas. Go check her out! (And when you get there, tell her I sent you )

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