Imagination Without Skill

Explaining these bare bones

2007-08-21T18:49:00.000-07:00

If anyone has been checking out this blog, I'm sure they assume it's been abandoned or that I stopped caring. That's not it! Don't judge me! I've just been fucking busy all summer.

I slaved away over psych and microeconomics for most of the summer, knitting when I was too burnt out to read. As soon as I wrote my final exams, it was time to start packing. I'm moving back to Waterloo this Friday!! Yikes! I'm totally not packed, plus I'm way too busy putting the final touches on my swaps to be able to *take* photos of my FO's, let alone upload the damn things.

It's all going to start coming together... I swear... Someday soon... But after I move.

Incoming photos

2007-07-14T00:09:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow...... tomorrow I *will* take pics of my FO's and post them...... I swear......

Questionaire for Stash Swap

2007-07-13T23:56:00.000-07:00

I'm just getting into swaps. They appeal to me. They excite me.

Where do you live (country)?
Canada

Which languages do you speak?
English, French

Are you a smoker?
No where near my knitting. I use knitting to help quit.

Do you have any pets?
No

What is your favorite type of yarn?
Anything that you would touch and then describe as 'delicious'. I think I'd develop a crush on bamboo if I could *find* it anywhere...

What is your least favorite type of yarn?
The really scratchy acrylic.

What are your favorite colors?
All of them. Seriously. I get excited about varigated wool when it's done right.

What colors don't you like at all?
Pastel combinations, although I don't mind a single pastel colour combined with stronger colours.

Do you have any allergies (yarn or food)?
No.

Are you willing to swap internationally?
Yes.

Anything else that you consider to be important?
I like to buy grab bags yarn from thrift stores (Value Village in particular). Don't worry, I clean it. I find it an inexpensive way to add some luxury yarn to my stash as well as providing me challenges for how to use the yarn. I still buy new yarn... far too much...

The Scarf I Must Knit

2007-07-01T21:52:00.002-07:00

A few weeks ago, I was drifting around on the internet and saw The Scarf I Must Knit. Normally, knitting a scarf implies that you're just trying to use up some yarn, but this scarf was a bloody work of art. Mosaic (or maybe fair isle) colour work knitting with two charts making up some sort of swirly, wavey design. A beautiful varigated colour way mixed in with a grounding solid colour. The scarf was for the strong... or for someone who wanted to drive themselves completely insane reading charts.

It was definitely The Scarf I Must Knit.

Unfortunately, it was late, I was tired, and I didn't bookmark the site. I neglected that I found the pattern on a link on someone's blog. A woman had let this scarf drive her crazy... I want that same feeling... and a hot scarf.

After a couple weeks of scouring the internet in hopes of finding the pattern again, I asked around on some of the LiveJournal knitting communities and was either:

A) yelled at for x-posting to every knitting community I could find
B) given links to patterns that simply alternate Stst rows of a varigated wool with black wool. Pretty, but boring.

Curse you LiveJournal. This is why I set this blog up on Blogger.

I must find and knit this scarf, for I have the perfect varigated wool to use already in my stash. I will continue to hunt the internet for this pattern, and hope that someday, somewhere (possibly with the help of someone?), I can knit a crazy-ass scarf.

Canada Day Revalation

2007-07-01T21:27:00.001-07:00

I'm trying to deplete as much of my yarn stash as possible this year. I'd like to do it before I move back to Waterloo in September, since I have a fair amount of yarn stashed in a friend's condo there. Hehe. Whoops.

When I'm knitting, I always like to have a small project on the go for those times that I get frustrated with whatever larger project I've been working on for what feel like *forever*. (Sweater of doooooooooooom!)

Today, on my nation's 140th birthday, I realized that I can knit a hat in about a day, which gives me a break from my larger projects *and* will gradually deplete my stash. I also realized that if I knit at least one hat a week, I can give lots of people pretty cool hats for birthdays and holidays, thus solving the constant dilemma of what to get for the men in my life. Plus, there are *tons* of bad-ass hat patterns on the internet, as well as in my many books. (Feel free to recommend any patterns you've seen from the corner of your eye.)

Seriously. I just solved a bajillion problems at once. I should join up with the UN.
And knit them all hats. Yesssssss.

Knitting Resolutions for 2007

2007-05-19T21:36:00.000-07:00

I know, it's a little late to be making resolutions. Look. I was in India until May.

- deplete yarn stash AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE
- learn colour work
- make first sweater

Set the bar low people. In the past... 29 months that I've been knitting, I've had a problem with trying to do too much too soon. Before I left for India last November, I scaled back my knitting projects because I didn't want to start something huge and have to leave it for six months (which I did anyways). I spent a bunch of time knitting scarfs and playing around with knit/purl stitch patterns and realized how much there is to learn about this thing called knitting. Plus, once I scaled back my projects, they stopped sucking quite so hard. Woo!

Plus, scaling back is teaching me how to take (giant) liberties with patterns which is the first step towards me creating my own fun patterns out of yarn. I can now "read" my knitting as it progresses much better. I've learned pattern alteration math. I discovered that my stitch pattern book (which was my mother's) is my freakin' bible. I figured out how to use a stitch marker... which is stupidly easy. I don't know how I couldn't figure it out before. It was like Moses being handed the 10 Commandments when I figured it out: What needed to happen, but so ridiculously obvious.

Anyways, stunting my knitting growth has been the best thing for it. You gotta crawl before you can do backflips. Or something.

Salutations

2007-05-19T18:16:00.000-07:00

"Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art."

- Tom Stoppard, Artist Descending a Staircase