PlazaJen: Passion Knit

I could spend time complaining about the "joy" that is this week, but I'll spare you. At least for today.
Today? I am going to pull a couple knitting skeletons out of the closet and show you just how far I've come as a knitter over the years. Since I learned as a little girl, and didn't do much with it until I was re-taught by our foreign exchange student, most projects consisted of items based on the shape "rectangle". Sweaters (with drop sleeves), scarves, even hats. I finally learned to knit in the round, and then one winter, decided I needed to learn how to knit socks. I believe this would be the first year I knew JWo. Because you don't make a boyfriend a sweater, you make him hats, and scarves, and if you really find yourself smitten, you tackle those double points and make him some hugs for his feet: socks.

My first sock does not have a mate. It is still around, somewhere, in all its badness and glory. I taught myself from a Threads techniques compilation, and let me tell you what, if you ever want to learn how to knit socks? HAVE SOMEONE TEACH YOU. Or I suppose, you can use one of those books that's all about how to knit socks. My way? The hard way. But again, that's also how I roll.

So I decided to make JWo some socks. To keep his feet warm, in his little, minimally-heated home, 72 miles away from me. And he told me he would treasure them forever. God love him.



Do you understand how large those are? Knit out of Lion Brand Thick & Quick Wool? I could put my feet in there WITH his and we'd still have room to store bagels, loose change, and a curling iron. Sweet lord almighty. However, I did at least have the ability at this point to make them match.

Then, I knit myself these bad boys:



Oh yeah! I put the yardstick in for reference. I even did LEG SHAPING for my shapely calves. Uh-huh. Look out, all you bitches with your 0's and 1's, I knit these mo-fo's on 10.5 DPNs. With shaping.

Both pairs went into the trash last night. Their horrendousness recorded for posterity with the camera, but they can no longer be in the same space as things like this:



Baby Tulip Cardigan, for a v. special baby....

(I owe her a sweater for all the pictures I took of her, on her first day here!)

or even this -



A knitted face mask for JWo on his biting cold duck hunts... (the first one I knit is about to be mailed, so it can go to a soldier in need....)(It just irks me that we are spending ALL this money fighting these wars and yet our volunteers who are on the front lines aren't properly equipped. It's a nightmare!)

And of course, I've figured out how to knit socks. I've put up pictures every time I've finished a pair, and I have enough sock yarn to um, take me into the twilight years, so I plan to keep on knitting them..... I still am a loose knitter, and I don't pay loads of attention to oh, uh, "GAUGE" and whatnot, so I just knit on the tiniest needles I can stand. But we discovered those shocking socks when James was going through a storage box, and it was a humor-horror moment for me. It's good to be reminded sometimes of how far we've come, but to see the progress, we have to look at where we were and sometimes - it just ain't pretty. Or even wearable. But you can laugh and notice the small things (leg shaping!) and keep on improving!

Labels: knitting