Thursday, July 21, 2005

summer un-knitting...

It's hot. Summer is hot everywhere, and like everyone else, I'm too hot to knit. Even my hubby noticed, "You haven't lost interest in knitting, have you?" My eye sweeps the corner where I have huge piles of bags of unknit yarn and my bookshelves housing a plethora of patterns, books and magazines, my minds eye sweeps the dark depths of all the closets that hold my huge unknit stashes (notice the plural), and I assure him that I haven't.

I have taken stock of my WIP's and I'm bound and determined to complete them all before I start another project, AND before I buy more yarn. Oops! too late for that! I couldn't resist trying some of the new yarns offered by Knit Picks. Who can resist that dropped stitch shawl for only $21.26? Well, actually I did, but I did plunk down a bit of small plastic for some of their sock yarns, and I'm waiting for that package as I type.

Back to the WIP's, I'm determined to complete David's Once Again Sweater and the Ballet Top (Teva Durham design from UK Summer 2004), then I'll frog the rest. There! That makes completing my WIP's a bit easier and I can cross them off the list I keep on my blog (it's getting a bit embarrassing since the list hasn't changed at all in a year).

In the meantime, I'm not going to read any books or magazines, peruse any catalogs, or visit my LYS or online stores - I WON'T be tempted, and I AM going to complete my WIP's . . . just as soon as it's cool enough to knit again.

note: I just used the blogger spellcheck and it seems that I've misspelled '21.26' and, get this, 'blog.' The suggested spelling is 'bloc.' Go figure!

Saturday, July 16, 2005

Linky Love

As I commented in one of my earlier posts, it's now officially too hot to knit. At 85 degrees F and 85 percent humidity, it's so hot and moist that just the thought of wool makes me sweat. (But then, just sitting makes me sweat!) On the other hand, at work the A/C is cranked up so high that I'm getting a lot of use out of my old and very well-worn shawl.

So what does one do when it's too hot to knit? Surf the Web, naturally!

If all you can do is shake your head at some of the knitting designs offered over the past couple of years, check out, "You Knit What??" Presented by punk rock knitter and knitty kitty, YKW?? aptly points out, as my 23 year-old daughter says, the YUK in HYUK. (via the comments on The Knitting Curmudgeon)

When an old knitting friend showed up from the States for a few day's visit last month, she brought with her a garter stitch, corner-to-corner washcloth made out of a yarn that is new to me; South West Trading Company's Bamboo. Oh dear, this is the first time in a long time that I've had yarn lust, even at USD13 a skein. The hemp yarn looked interesting too. (OK-Step.slowly.away.from.the.credit.card!)

Then this week a friend from my old knitting guild, Oasis, sent me a note saying that she'd just knit her first ever knitting pattern in Hebrew. She received this pattern from her local yarn shop owner.

This is interesting in a couple of ways: one-that she has a local yarn shop owner (after all, we do live in the Yarn Deprivation Zone) and second, the pattern is in Hebrew. To the best of my knowledge, knitting patterns in Hebrew stopped being published about the same time that the local spinneries stopped producing yarn. That was probably about 12-15 years ago. Besides Polgat (a major garment producer here), there was also Vitalgo and Stork Wool. All gone, except in my yarn stash. The Teddy Wool that is being distributed in the shops here now is made elsewhere, lots of cotton from Turkey and wool from Italy, but the local distributor gets to put his own label on, which generally doesn't include little, unimportant things like, oh, recommended needle size or yardage.

(Woah! I just got back from a trip down Memory Lane after hunting up my old Hebrew knitting mags and meeting lots of dust bunnies on the way. Most of the designs look like fodder for "You Knit What??," but to be forgiving, they are the products of the 90's and look like they're trying much too hard to be trendy. Hm, see first paragraph...)

Ever since the London terrorist attacks, I've been thinking about going to London again. Even after visiting there four times, there's still so much I haven't yet seen and done. October/November is my favorite time to visit, especially during The Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace (make sure to check out the picture gallery from last year), followed up with a Rowan Workshop at Liberty of London or John Lewis. (You think I might miss my knitting guild? Nah!)

Lastly, this has nothing to do with knitting (other than there's a knitting basket on the floor and Granny's bun looks just like a skein with needles in it), make sure you have Apple's Quicktime installed on your computer and then go watch Le Building.

OK-time to go have an iced coffee and a lie-down. Only 2 or so more months of this heat to get through...