Seafoam shawl redux

[ambersweet]

If I have learned anything from listening to knitting podcasts, it should have been that when you try to knit for a non-crafter it becomes a much more massive undertaking than it should have any right to be. Non-crafters don't understand how difficult things are, so they don't realize when they're asking for something irritating or impossible.

I mentioned previously that someone essentially offered to buy the Seafoam Shawl as soon as I was finished with it. At the time, it was about kerchief size. Now, understand, the pattern for this project came out of a book called One-Skein Wonders. I expected it to take one skein. Granted, I figured out that the yarn was a bit bulkier than the pattern called for, and so it was knitting up denser (and thus making less fabric). I ended up buying a 24" cable needle (because it was the longest needle in that size that JoAnn's had). So, fine, I used 3 skeins on it, knitted until it was longer than my cable needle, fit comfortably over my shoulders. It was a small shawl, but undeniably a shawl. Also I was bored with it. So I bound off, as I mentioned, and took it back to the prospective owner on Friday.

After waiting for her for 45 minutes, she says to me, "Oh, it's lovely, I definitely want it when it's done." I look at her, I look at the shawl. No needles in sight, ends all neatly woven in, very obviously (to me, at least), a finished object.

"It's done," I told her.

She wants it bigger.

So I ended up having to buy a longer cable needle, and because finch loves me, he bought me a 40" #9 Addi Turbo. Addi cable needles are widely accepted as the finest needles on the market. They have the most flexible cable, the smoothest joins, the highest quality needles. Plus, the coating on the Turbos make them the most friction-free needles available - which means they're really damned fast.


When I started knitting, I couldn't use metal needles. Knitting is this combination of smoothness and friction, because the challenge is to create the new stitch without dropping it off the edge of the needle before you're ready. I couldn't do this a few months ago, so I had to buy bamboo needles. Bamboo is fantastic for a novice knitter, because it's just rough enough that it hangs on to your yarn and your stitches don't fall off. (That would be the famed "dropped stitch" problem that plagues knitters.) Somewhere in the last couple of weeks, I crossed the magic threshold where I didn't need the extra help bamboo gave me. When I first cast on the ribbed sock, I had to cast on bamboo, because I couldn't handle the metal needles. I kept dropping stitches. And gradually, as I worked on the sock, the extra friction from the bamboo started to bother me. I got to the point that I was so frustrated that I switched to metal needles to see if it would help.

It did.

I started making good progress on my sock again. So, when I bought a needle for the project I'm working on for crankyoldman, I bought a nickel-plated needle. And when the enabler employee at The Fiber Factory put an Addi Turbo into my hands, I knew I had to take the plunge. Was I a good enough knitter for the fastest needle on the market?

The answer is: just barely.

I have nearly dropped a couple of stitches, here and there, and I have to knit with my bamboo mitts on, to provide a tiny bit of extra friction, and I have to hold my needles at a certain angle so the needle doesn't just slide right out of the stitches. But I can do it. I can't quite describe the level of excitement - maybe when you have your learner's permit, the first time you pull out into traffic on the freeway after you've been puttering around on side streets for a while, and you have the heady realization that, while this is scary, you can do it. You can handle freeway speeds. The Addi Turbo is the freeway speed of knitting. And I took my shawl and my Addis on the train for the light rail write-in today, spent two hours, and knitted nine 30" rows.

Bonus: because using the Turbos are challenging in themselves, knitting the shawl is no longer insanely boring.

So I feel like a journeyman knitter now.

Next up: sweaters and hats.

Comments

[wandererriha]

*facepalm*

Yeah that tends to be how it goes. Non-whateveritisyoudo people tend to think you can just magically produce awesometastic stuff in a matter of minutes and um...it doesn't work that way. >_>

Glad you're having fun with the needles. ^^ I inherited a veritable knitting needle STORE from my one aunt and I am kinda sad because I really don't know how to do more than a basic knit/purl stitch. Also, I am not good at reading knit/crochet patterns. :\

Maybe I should try to find a free class in my (hahaha) spare time.

[ambersweet]

All of knitting is knit and purl. Everything is a variant on knit or purl, really. Promise.

I taught myself out of books. The first Stitch & Bitch book is a great general-knitting book; but most pattern books will at least have sections on how to do things, especially if they're instructing you to do something more complicated than knit or purl. Aside from that, most of my learning came from doing - when I hit something in a pattern that I didn't recognize, I Googled it. Every time, there were several hits, often with video explanations! When I decided to delve into the mysteries of sock knitting, I went to the library and brought home a pile of books, from which I was able to piece together answers to all of my questions. Plus, my experience of knitters in general is that they're very helpful and always eager to give you pointers or answer questions. (This does include me. XD) Every time I get confused or stuck I remind myself that my metaphorical illiterate foremothers could do this, so it can't be THAT hard. And it's really not.

[whitemage]

Yes, I generally hate crafting for others. And not because I don't want to, but because some bad apples. =/

Also, YAY, on the needles: I can't use metal ones at all. :|;;;