More History Lessons and my Shawl Collar Sweater.

I think I've been in a knitting rut. Maybe I started this sweater a little too early in the year. When I was a kid, you'd wear your school clothes to school the first week and sweat. After that, it would cool down and you'd be comfortably dressed. Nowadays, summer lasts until Thanksgiving. It's 6:30 in the morning here on Long Island (we live "ON" the island, not "IN" and we only say that about ourselves. People live IN Staten Island, ON Long Island. Peculiar) and it's 65 degrees. It's damn near OCTOBER and I'm in a tank top and shorts wondering why I'm dripping sweat. I'm getting ready to start roasting meats, baking and the like and it's warm to turn on the oven. So, it must be warm to start knitting a sweater. I should've made one last pair of socks.

Anyway, I haven't really showed you this sweater that I've been working on for over a month. The sleeves are completed and I am now knitting the back and front, two pieces on one circular needle. In the process of knitting with the baseball bat size 11's on the Knitpicks cable, one of the connectors came right off. I had another cable and I will e-mail them to replace it soon. I also have a metal DPN from them that needs to be replaced, the tip came off. So, that caused a delay of game. I like knitting with the bigger needles because I have no problems seeing them; however, my hands hurt if I do too much. The 9's don't bother me but the 11's are really, really fat!

Here's the sweater taking a rest on my table, a WIP that I'm trying to finish in time for Rhinebeck but it's not looking all that good. No worries, he can wear his Wallaby, DD can wear her poncho and DS can wear his Weasley. That's if it's cold enough!

I really truly love that k2,p2 cast on. It takes longer but it's worth it. I will definitely do it on my next pair of socks.

On Saturday, we got a visit from Elizzabetty. DD, who has a very long attention span for a five year old, has decided that its time for her to knit. Quick story, she had bugged me for piano lessons since she turned three. I did one summer of Suzuki school, stopped for a little bit and she asked at least once a week to do it again. In February of last year, I started her privately in our house and she loves it. She's sailing through her piano book. It has given her an edge with reading (words, not only music, she has that left right thing going on) and also has helped her with math. So, if she can do that, she can certainly learn to at least do the knit stitch. She got a little private lesson.

and, in no time, was happily on her own, showing alot of glee here!

At 15 or so, when she's yelling at me for ruining her life because I won't let her go on car dates or to the mall alone or stay out late, she now has something else to add to the list. "And, you didn't even teach me to knit continental".

To tell you the truth, I don't know how I learned to knit but I believe it was continental. I remember learning to crochet, vividly. My grandmother took out some red yarn and taught me the chain stitch. I got that in one week and made a chain that could go around the block. Then, the next week, she got out another ball of red yarn and taught me the single crochet stitch. Oddly, she did it in a circle. She made a small disc, apparently increasing as she went. Say, the size of a mini DVD, then she went home and left me to play with it. I didn't know how to increase so when she came back the week after that, we had a tube. She then showed me double crochet which flared out the edges and we had a little upside down vase. Then, she gave me the "Learn to Crochet" book which has been reprinted years later but there are so many other books out now. It had tons and tons of different stitches in it, sc, dc, hdc, waffle stitch, shells, v-stitch. I spent hours with that book and became an expert before fifth grade. I made an afghan in elementary school. In sixth grade, I learned how to make granny squares and I was on my way to Olympic Crocheting. My grandmother and my left-handed-do-it-backwards mother both knitted. My grandmother taught me on DPNs, she must've been working on a sock or a mitten when she showed me, and it blew my mind. My mother taught me on enamel coated skinny long needles and I was getting the hang of it. I knitted continental and my mother threw. I don't know how that happened. I guess because I learned to crochet first and it just seemed natural. Throwing is too slow, takes way too long to knit. Nothing against you throwers, some of you can knit very, very fast; however, it is clearly not as fast as continental knitting. It wastes motion. The purl stitch continental is a little weird and even people who knit continental sometimes wrap that. I sort of half wrap it. I'll have to make a video one day for our viewing pleasure.

Well, its time for a little stroll on the treadmill, shower, get the kids up and off to school and then off to work....