March 25, 2004

About a month ago I discovered that my neighbor upstairs, whose children go to the same school my son does, K-N-I-T-S. I discovered it quite by accident, too. One day she came over unexpectedly, and I welcomed her in. The closet in the main room was [gasp!] open, and its entire upper three shelves were showing off a rather vulgar display of yarn stored in individual ziplocs. On a lower shelf was an equally vulgar display of pattern books thrown about haphazardly, and sitting next to them was a plastic bin overflowing with bamboo circs, metal circs and all sorts of straight needles. It looked like an altar to the yarn gods sans lit candles. Yikes! I rushed over to close the closet door, but not before she got an eyeful. I confessed to her that yes, here dwells a Yarn-Addicted Knitter. And yes! I am the one who knits all the sweaters my son wears, and I knit the Elfin cardigan she complimented me on the other day. She couldn't believe it.

Before she found out that I Am One Who Knits, she hadn't knit in ages. Well, I felt it was high time she got back into it. So I invited her to come with me to the Big Yarn Sales, and I cheered her on while she filled her bags with three projects worth of yarn. Muwaahaaaaa! We looked like a couple of yarn junkies as we gleefully rode the bus back home, kindred souls high on fiber.

During the last few weeks my new friend and I have been meeting regularly to knit, chat, and browse through books and magazines. During these mini meetups, she knits a child's jacket in cotton. I knit a cute little raglan sweater with a zippered collar (Pitchoun Spring 2004) using Aviso. For my kid, of course. Every year I knit him a sweater to wear for Easter egg hunting, and this is the sweater he will wear this year.




I am knitting this raglan a bit differently. Whenever I knit straight stockinette stitch using Aviso (it's a worsted cotton whose similarities to Rowan's All Season's Cotton I have mentioned before) I notice that I tend to work my knit rows too tightly. Before, in order to remedy this, I'd just try to remember to work my knit rows a little more loosely so that my knitting would remain even. But because I am knitting this particular sweater while blabbing away with a fellow knitter, I would forget to do this. So I tried combined knitting to even out my fabric, which has worked for me in the past when knitting with slippery or inelastic yarn. No go this time, though. It resulted in purl rows that were tighter than knit rows. (This cotton is nice but damn, I wish it had more elasticity.)

So, I am doing the old "knit the knit rows with a bigger needle, and purl the purl rows with a smaller needle" trick. No wonder everyone suggests doing that to even out one's knitting. It works! I now recommend that you try it if you're knitting straight stockinette using yarn that is being stubborn and insists on giving you too-tight knit rows. [Hellooooooooooooo, Aviso!]




And, as it turns out, my two needle deal worked out so well I went off and completed the back and front pieces without further ado. [Cracks whips.]

*Gratuitous bit of info: Lash LaRue was one of my dad's favorite heros when he was a kid. He would watch Lash LaRue with his eyes stuck to the television, and then he'd go outside and pretend to be Lash LaRue by using a piece of rubber hose as his whip. [Awwwwwwwwwww.]

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