Assorted Knitting Woes and a Gothic Needle Case

Slow going in knit-land this week. I had to do a lot of ripping back, had some other miscellaneous goofs, and some knitting-related sewing distractions.

I had to rip out my Earl Grey Socks last week and start over because I discovered they were too small to fit on Matt's foot. There was some time lapse on that project, because I was sulking over needing to re-do it. I'm now back to where I was before the ripping commenced, but I discovered this morning (with much hilarity) that I am apparently completely and utterly unable to read patterns. I apparently managed to knit an entire repeat of the sock, checking the directions after every row, not once but twice with the incorrect number of repeats. I've decided at this point to consider it more of a knock-off. The Pawn Grey sock, maybe? Either way, now that I have figured out the pattern and it seems to be a more suitable size it's chugging along nicely.

I also had to frog about 1/3 of the hat I'm designing...twice. It, too, was coming along nicely. I was almost done, when I discovered that the bind-off I had chosen was causing the edge to be all scalloped and ruffly.
This would be one thing if I were, perhaps, designing a baby bonnet for sunny days at the beach. However, the days I plan to wear this hat aren't sunny, and I'm not an infant. Clearly a different bind-off is called for. Ok, frog number 1. I chose a new, less frilly cast-off and went on my merry way. I actually finished the hat this time, and plopped it on my head to see how it looked.

Oh dear. The hat atop my head was rather preposterously huge, with a wide flapping brim. If the yarn had been metallic, one might have been tempted to call it the long lost Golden Helmet of Mambrino. That wouldn't do. This required more serious ripping. I ripped back several inches, and changed my increase strategy. It's almost done once again, but I'm undecided about whether it's still too big. It may need to be ripped back once again.

Next on the list was the chuppah. I set out to work on it Tuesday during House as usual. Lo and behold, the chuppah was...nowhere to be found. I wasn't terribly worried, since we had just gone on a big house-cleaning spree and most things weren't where I expected them to be (i.e. not strewn about the house). So, while the chuppah was on hiatus, I worked on other things until it decided to show up. I discovered it today, folded neatly in a drawer while I was looking for needles and thread. Figures. Hopefully progress on that will resume this week.

Our internet was out for much of today, so I decided to be resourceful and tackle a problem I've been having lately. Since much of my knitting as of late has involved socks and gloves, I've amassed quite the collection of small double pointed needles. It's frustrating to go hunting for them in my large needle case, and I often wish I had a case dedicated just to DPNs and small knitting tools. So, today I whipped up a little needle case with a pouch for other oft-used items out of some scraps I had laying about. I think it came out rather nicely!

Since I wanted to have a pouch for larger items, this particular case folds up instead of rolling. (Excuse the dark photos and stray threads...these photos were taken with the case hot off the sewing machine and I was too excited to set up for amazing photos)
Undoing the button and folding back the left side reveals the zippered pouch for stitch markers, darning needles, etc.

If you peek inside the zippered pouch, you'll see the red lining poking out. I am a huge sucker for things that are colored inside, especially if the inside color is different from the outside color!
Finally, a bunch of little pockets for DPNs both short and long. I think the longest ones here are about 7", so that gives you an idea of how small this case actually is. There's also a flap at the top to keep needles from falling out if I shake the case upside down.

Divided Attention

After a flurry of finished knitting, I can't seem to concentrate on a single project these days. I've got at least four separate projects that I desperately want to be working on and for some reason I don't seem to be able to work on more than one at any given time. So a rundown of the current active UFOs (not to be confused with all the UFOs in the yarn drawers that are languishing):

1) The chuppah is still coming along. I've got about one and a half squares done, but the second looks surprisingly like the first, so no real photographic progress.

2) I'm working on designing a hat to compliment the beautiful handspun I picked up at the CT Renaissance Faire
3) Eunny Jang's Bayerishe Socks
4) the Yarn Harlot's Earl Grey Socks - I was almost done with the cuff on the first sock when I realized the cabling was mis-counted. I might have let that go, but I was given an excuse to rip them out when they were too small for Matt.
To top things off, I got my order of Jimmy Beans Wool limited edition for October. This month's color is "Candy Corn." I'm dreaming of a pair of knee-high witch socks. Mom sent me her share of the order "on loan" in case I don't have enough. These are still in hanks, but it's very tempting to cast those on, too. Luckily, I think I'm out of sock needles.

Chuppah Update

I have one panel of the chuppah finished. The 392 edge stitches are strung on waste yarn waiting for the other panels to be finished so that I can graft them together.

I strung some corner stitches onto a chopstick here in an effort to show the lace pattern, but the pattern really won't show until the entire thing is finished, grafted and blocked.

The Start of a Home

I've been to several Jewish weddings, and have been told about various traditions by friends. One of my favorite traditions is the chuppah. It is usually a canopy of some sort suspended on four poles. As I understand, the canopy represents a couple's first home together, and the open sides symbolize hospitality towards friends and family.

I love this symbolism, so I'm excited to carry this tradition in our wedding, too. For some reason, it's one thing that I started turning over in my head months ago before many people even knew there was going to be an impending wedding. I had been watching Franklin, of The Panopticon blog, work on a lace christening shawl for his baby niece. He designed it from scratch, using different lace patterns to symbolize different things, then handknit the entire thing from start to finish. I was floored by the thought, the beauty, the effort. A labor of love.

By the time he posted photos of the finished product, I knew that I wanted our chuppah to be a project like that. Something of magnitude, something symbolic; a labor of love.

At first, the image in my head looked very strongly like the shawl linked above. However, I was pretty sure I wasn't quite up to designing and knitting something like this from scratch, and I was concerned about running up against a deadline since I'm not the world's fastest knitter. I thought about the significance behind a chuppah some more, and decided that I'd like to make something we could use in our home to keep the symbol of home. A quilt? A wallhanging? Bedspread? What about a tablecloth? When I thought of it, I knew that it was right. Not only would a tablecloth be used in the home, it's also a symbol of hospitality just like the open sides of the canopy.

I started looking around for a shawl pattern I could use as a tablecloth. I found many that were interesting, but didn't seem quite right; I was worried that some of them might be too thick and bumpy to make a good tablecloth, and still worried that I wouldn't be able to actually complete a huge lace project. After asking around on a few message boards on Ravelry, someone suggested the pattern for Hannah's Tablecloth from Handknit Holidays: Knitting Year-Round for Christmas, Hanukkah, and Winter Solstice.



As soon as I saw the photos online, I knew this was my pattern. It's delicate and lacy, but the large linen panels mean that there isn't an insurmountable amount of knitting and that it will lie relatively flat on the table. Furthermore, the way the elements fit together, by completing each square separately and only grafting together at the very end, this is a project that can be split up and worked on by multiple people. Mom can knit a square or two in Texas, my roommate, Sheila, can work on bits and pieces. Like any good home, it's a community project, and a project of love.

I ordered the supplies and received them this past week.


I've marked the first napkin, whipstitched the edge, picked up and knit the whipstitches, and knit the first three rows. At this point, it looks more like a giant showercap than anything; the lace bunched up on the needles with the linen napkin ballooning out from the bottom. One trick with knitting lace is that it really won't look like much more than a snarl of yarn until the entire project has been completed and blocked.

So for now, as with many labors of love, I start with a few steps and a lot of faith. Eventually, with the help of loved ones and some time, this will become a home.