lessons learned over a long vacation

I can't believe it's been six months since I last updated. A LOT has happened in that time. I successfully defended my dissertation, graduated, and racked up an insane amount of frequent flier miles! First I took myself off to Massachusetts for a conference, popped down to New York for a lightning fast visit to family and a trip to Citi Field to catch a Mets game (they lost, shocking I know, lol), then I had a relaxing three weeks in Hawaii (hey, I deserved some sun and sand!), and finally ended up in Argentina for several months. And I've done a far amount of knitting too!

Maybe it's because I didn't have my head so consumed by writing and research I've been able to learn a lot of things about my knitting.

1) Lace blocking wires are good for blocking non-lace projects too!



I really like how they help straighten out the edges on scarves. I'd used them on the Blooming Cotton Scarf at the beginning of the year to help even out the stockinette, but I really like how they helped the garter stitch edging in the A's Manly Scarf too (and since it was for my dissertation supervisor, I really wanted to make it as perfect as possible). They help straighten out funky joins and any general unevenness in the knitting nicely.

2) (and this is probably the most important thing I learned) I've been purling wrong for the past 4 years! Now, I knit Continental, and I know that when I first learned with the fabulous videos at knittinghelp.com, I was purling correctly when knitting flat, but somewhere along the line, I started wrapping the yarn around the needle around the back of it and over before pulling it off the left needle. The result, one row twisted, one row not!



Ergo the "texture" in my fabric. I'd noticed something was wrong with my knitting before, especially when I had to seam garments (I'd grab the floats in the V's of one row and then couldn't on the next). Ironically, I finally figured out what I was doing when I was knitting the gargantuan hood in the Heather Hoodie Vest (which I deliberately made smaller after seeing so many comments about its hugeness on Ravelry)! I finished the hood the wrong way and then used some of my many in-flight hours to practice purling correctly.

3) Yoked sweaters are pretty fun to make! Unfortunately, I'm not so sure about the finished product around the neck area.



Now, the boat neck style in the Wheat-Ear Cable Yoke Pullover masks it some, but there seems to be a definite tendency to funnel up at the top that I'm not sure I'm digging. But check out the nice and smooth, textureless stockinette! I'm purling now, baby! What's more ....

4) I'm finally cabling without a needle! That project helped me finally figure this out in a way I'm comfortable with. It also helped that I didn't have my full arsenal of needles with me while traveling, just my Knit Picks Options set and a stitch holder. I figured out that the whole pinch the base of the stitches and flip 'em around thing? yeah, not for me thanks. Me, I drop the working yarn so I don't add tension and unravel my stitches, slide the stitches off the needle, and pick up the ones to be held in front or in back as called for with the left, pick the others up with the right and then transfer the ones on the right back to the left and then knit them up. I know, it probably sounds more complicated than it is, but it works!

5) Buying yarn by weight as opposed to yardage/meterage is not fun, but it does make you learn about yarn weights and put up! I also got to see a lot of neat yarns in Argentina, though I didn't get to hang out much in the yarn district in Buenos Aires (yes, there is a yarn district, with one LYS next to another, next to brand distribution shops and everything!).

6) Wool can shrink and felt in cold water! I don't think I showed off my Circle Socks over here:



Unfortunately, I can no longer wear these beauties. :( But after all that work, there was no way I was going to throw them out! So, what better than to turn them into fingerless mitts?!



(That's me with the fabulous sea lion, Juan Carlos.) Close-up:



I did save the toe bits so I may eventually turn these into convertible mitts.

So, I guess you could say I had a pretty eventful summer of knitting! Bring on the fall!