But maybe, feeling a little more confident in my knitting these days, I can start making more of a habit of the knitblog thing.
I do seem to go through some real knitting highs and lows, more so than in the rest of my life. OK, honestly, I don't really have a rest of my life, so maybe those manic and depressive moments pack more of a punch. But still.
Today's mood swings were caused by:
1) my elation at finding a really cool knitting machine for fifty bucks on craigslist
2) going to check it out and being thrilled that the carriage do-hickey rolled back and forth easily (the only thing I knew to look for)
3) buying the wonderful-seeming creation and proudly hauling it to my knitting group, followed quickly by
4) depression at discovering it needs an auto-tension thingy and accompanying worry that I didn't have one in the box in the car
5) euphoria at finding said-thingy attached to the lid
6) gloom upon being told that I still needed a yarn rod to attach the thingy to the machine
7) glimmer of hope that maybe the seller, Carol (daughter of beloved knitter, who died at 89 two years ago), still had the missing piece somewhere
8) sadness that a phone call didn't spark the desired "Oh sure, I have that right here on the table"
9) rising confidence in the power of the internet/ebay/google to ferret out bizarre gizmos like the yarn rod
10) a round of frantic emails to knitting machine suppliers
11) a round of johnny walker red to stave off severe depression
12) alcohol-fueled optimism: Of course I'll find it!
The insanity of all this is that yesterday, I was perfectly tickled with hand knitting and all the joy and satisfaction it's brought to my life these last 2-1/2 years, and had no inclination toward machine knitting of any ilk. But of course when I stumbled across the listing on craigslist, I became enamored (to the point of obsession -- what, me, obsessive when it's anything to do with knitting) with the Silver Reed Model 810 circa 1972 manual machine knitter.
So, now that I have to wait and hunt down parts, back to the afghan for Angie's new baby Josh. I love the colors -- Vanna's acrylic, but great, bold, hippy dippy orange, green, blue, purple and yellow. I think I'll finish it tonight, even though it's 1:30 and I still have a couple hours of knitting ahead of me.
Quick easy pattern from "Lisa" (the other knitterly Lisa I know):
Cast on 4 stitches with a long-tail cast on
1: Kfb of each stitch, join (standard disclaimer here: Don't you dare twist those stitches, bitch) (8 stitches -- divide evenly onto 4 DPNs)
2) *yo, k* (16 stitches)
3) k
4) *k3, yo, k, yo* (24 stitches)
5) k
6) *k5, yo, k, yo* (32 stitches)
7) k
(Yes, that's Josh's blanket on my head)
Continue pattern as established, alternating increase rounds with knit rounds. The number of knit stitches in each of the four sections increases by 2 each time before the yo k yo (row 8 - k7 yo k yo around; row 10 - k9 yo k yo around, etc.) If you knit on 4 DPNs, just put a yo before and after the last stitch on each needle. I used circs and just followed the pattern as established, it was simple.
Change yarn colors randomly at the beginning of any knit round (my bands of color varied from 2 rounds to about 10-12 rounds)
Knit until the blanket measures 22-25" from the center out to the cast-on edge (22 yields about a 32-inch square; 25 yields about a 36-inch square, according to my calculations).
*Addendum
OK, now I've finished.
I did a loose bind-off as follows:
*K2tog, slip back onto left needle*
Of course, being stockinette the edges roll, but I don't mind this look -- anybody can buy a baby bankie in the store where the edges don't roll! To avoid this (and OK, maybe next time), just do garter stitch for final the4-5 rounds (on circs, I guess that would mean alternating K and P rounds). I was pretty sure it would roll, but couldn't face the endless purls... lazy me. Josh, being a baby, won't care.
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