Knitspiration (or Lack Thereof)

I have no inspiration to knit at the moment. The only project on my needles, a fair isle sweater, is currently languishing in a corner and I am lacking desire to start anything new. We all got through periods like this and I think it's helpful to be honest about these natural lulls. So the question is, what does one do when her knitting inspiration is gone?

First, I find it helpful not to force things. If I don't feel like knitting, then I don't knit. Instead, I play with my other craft supplies. I pull out craft books that I haven't perused in a while and go through my craft supplies to see what looks interesting. There's usually no plan or goal in mind, I just pick up whatever strikes my fancy.

I also like to whip out small projects when I'm feeling uninspired. Small projects are great because you get the joy of creating something without the large devotion of time and effort. Small projects feel more like trying things out and play, which is exactly what I need to make crafting feel enjoyable and fun again.

Lulls in knitting inspiration can be hard to deal with, but they are also opportunities to branch out and try new things. They're a chance to remind myself about all the other crafts that I enjoy doing. Taking a little break from knitting and playing with other things is usually the best cure for being excited about knitting when I pick my needles up again.

Try Then Improve

One thing that I love about knitting is the ability to try then improve at challenging techniques like fair isle, lace, or pattern designing. But I realized that this love of a challenge also extends to my other hobbies of sewing and baking. A good example of this is my recent endeavors to make homemade crumpets, marshmallows, and macarons (shown here).

Marshmallows are surprisingly the easiest of the three to make while macarons are the fussiest (there are thankfully blog posts and YouTube videos dedicated to getting these cookies just right). Crumpets, on the other hand, are the baked good I'm still trying to improve upon. It's not that my crumpets taste bad, but I'm still in search of a recipe that will yields those lovely holes for soaking up butter and jam. Definitely a case of try then improve.

You know, I think this theme of 'try then improve' should be my motto for tackling life in general. And if I get tasty-but-imperfect crumpets or warm-but-imperfect knitwear out of it, so much the better.

Geek Dog

A friend of mine sent me an interesting request a few weeks ago: could I create a dog collar with the Balmer series on it? My friend, a chemist, had just got a new dog and wanted to deck him out in something geeky. Always up for a nerdy challenge, I considered the best way to install the hydrogen emission spectrum on a small dog collar.

I thought of several options for putting an emission spectrum on a collar, including fabric paint and machine sewing, but eventually settled on using embroidery floss. The floss would make the lines stand out more than simply sewing back and forth over the collar and I won't have to worry about the pup ingesting paint. The hardest part was actually picking colors of floss to match the emission lines!

Part of the reason my friend asked me to do this project was because I'm anal-retentive detail-oriented about spectra being correct. I had to calculate the scale of the collar in nanometers per inch and then where, in inches, this would place each of the lines. It isn't perfect, but it's pretty darn close.

For each line, I used 3 strands of floss and went over the line 1 to 3 times, depending on its relative spectral intensity. Hopefully this embroidery stands up to the exuberance of a puppy.

I'm really happy with how this project turned out and I hope my friend (and his dog) also like it. It was an interesting challenge and a different project from the ones I normally craft.

Walnut Whip

Do you ever have the sudden strong desire to knit a particular project, despite the fact that you have other things on the needles and had previously not had any plans to make that pattern? That happened to me this week when I stumbled upon the pattern Walnut Whip on Ravelry. It's a pretty little hat and the fact that it's a Ysolda pattern (surprise!) may have something to do with my immediate need to knit it.

On its surface, Walnut Whip is a simple cable hat but it has some interesting details in the form of pleats on the back of the hat. These pleats are akin to those seen in Ysolda's Ripley pattern, but done to mimic the surrounding cables. It's pretty genius actually.

I wasn't initially sold on the pleats until I started wearing the hat. The pleats pull the back up a bit, making the hat sit perfectly and comfortably on the head. The hat is so comfortable, in fact, that I haven't stopped wearing the hat since I finished it (that might be related to the fact that it's not warm in my apartment, but probably isn't).

I know I say this about all Ysolda patterns, but people should really knit this hat. It's one of her least knit patterns (as of writing, it has only 15 projects on Ravelry) and is definitely a hidden gem. So now I'll spread my Ysolda Fever a little more by encouraging you all to knit this beautiful hat!

Kitchener Contortions

I don't know about you, but I kind of like using the Kitchener stitch to graft together the toes of knit socks. It's an easy technique once you fall into a rhythm, assuming of course that you're grafting stockinette. If you are grafting, say, a knit/purl textured cowl, it's a whole different story.

I made this link of a BFF Cowl as part of a swap among some friends on Ravelry. I sent this link off to a friend and received one of my own from a different friend (last photo below). The pattern was fun to knit for a swap but the seaming took some serious thinking. I feel pretty brilliant for making it all work out nicely, even though you can tell where the seam is.

The key to Kitchenering in a pattern is to have a good sense of the Kitchener stitch for stockinette. It roughly goes:

put darning needle through first stitch on front needle as if to knit, pull stitch off; put darning needle through next stitch on front needle as if to purl; put darning needle through first stitch on back needle as if to purl (as viewed from the front), pull stitch off; put darning needle through next stitch on back needle as if to knit  (as viewed from the front); repeat until end

I view the sequence as 'knit, purl, purl, knit', describing the way that the darning needle goes through each of the stitches.

Having reduced the stockinette Kitchener stitch down to 'knit, purl, purl, knit', it's really easy to modify it from here: you simply flip the darning needle's direction from this base pattern for all of the purl stitches you encounter (the order in which you work the stitches stays the same). So for the wrong side of stockinette, where everything is a purl stitch, you do the opposite of normal Kitchener with 'purl, knit, knit, purl'. And when grafting a [K1,P1] segment, where the second and fourth stitches in the seaming order are purls, the sequence becomes 'knit, knit, purl, purl'. A [P1,K1] segment would therefore be 'purl, purl, knit, knit'.

It's hard to explain it succinctly in words, but the basic idea is to flip the parts of the base 'knit, purl, purl, knit' sequence that correspond to the purl stitches in the set of four stitches current being seamed. The challenge is that the seaming sequence needles to be adjusted as you work across the pattern. I find it helpful to work out the sequence for only the current four stitches, work the grafting, then repeat the process for the next set of four stitches.

It takes some mental effort, but being able to graft in a pattern is highly rewarding.

Yet Another Hat

Now that my sewing table is set up, I'm excited to start working with fabric again. I have several projects in mind but I think I'll start with something small like a bag or (yet another) hat. Because even though my secret sewing project from last month was my fifth hat sewn since last summer, I can't stop making them.

The hat in question was another copy of my favorite sunhat pattern from 'Hat Shop', complete with my mods to make it wearable. This version was shipped off to my sister who, as she lives in Hawaii, will surely find use for it.

I love pairing fabrics for these hats, though I'm not sure I succeeded for this version. I initially thought to put the bright floral print on the outside but upon finishing it was clear that it looks better as a pop of color on the underside. Thank goodness for reversible patterns. Which ever way she ends up wearing it, I hope my sister enjoys her new hat!

Little Cutie, Little Crafty

I can't believe that it's already March. February drifted by when I was working on a little of this and a little of that and, next thing I knew, it's been three weeks since I last posted here! While I have been doing a little crafting, there have been Big Events that I want to share with you.

The biggest news is that my sister-in-law gave birth to a beautiful little girl a few weeks ago. I'm an aunt (again)! They don't live very close, but it was worth spending 14 hours in a car to spend some time with the baby and her family. She's a cutie.

I knit my niece a stuffed elephant (pattern from Knitty) last summer and am finally able to show it off here. That's the downside of gift knitting, you're unable to show it off when you're excited about finishing and you don't remember to post about it when you finally can show pictures. Anyway, it is a lovely pattern and I hope my niece likes her toy.

The other big news is that I'm finally unpacking all of the boxes from the moves in July and December. There's still more to unpack, but I'm much happier now that I have my teapots and my crafting supplies moved in. While I still need pictures hung in my crafting corner, it's starting to feel like home!