archives: crafts

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practicing tapas

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green sock!

Tapas is one of the niyamas of yoga–the things you’re supposed to do (in contrast with the yamas, which are things you aren’t supposed to do). Tapas is the act of self-discipline. I have been struggling to cultivate this in myself in a lot of ways: go to bed at a decent hour, eat three squares a day, etc. But so long as I attempt tapas, I’m halfway to a more balanced life, right?

This sock is my exercise in tapas for the next few weeks. I’m determined to work on it only while commuting (or while knitting at lunch). I think of it as my go-to, kill-time knit that I make last. The only other pair of “commuting socks” I started got finished within four days, because I knit them at home. What can I say, I’m a one-project girl, and it’s hard to set something aside when I could be knitting it.

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presenting the bainbridge scarf

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bainbridge!

Here it is! The finished pattern for The Bainbridge Scarf. It even includes step-by-step directions for wearing it. I want to get the pattern up right away, so a proper pattern page is still forthcoming (plus, it’s been a long time since I uploaded a new page to the site, and I’m going to need some time for my memory to kick in). Click on the name below in the meantime. Enjoy!

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the bainbridge scarf

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bainbridge!

The cardigan is still “blocking.” On Saturday my solution was to put the pieces into a heap and sort of hope for the best. (Rachel firmly advised against this, but I ignored her good sense.) Today I set them out again, but there’s been no stringent “blocking to measurements” action, per all of your good advice–see, the work naturally hit the right widths, it was the length that was out of whack, so I just sort of set it up so that it wasn’t stretched in the slightest. Glancing at it, it doesn’t look so enormous any longer. It’s not completely dry, and until I feel sure it’s completely dessicated, I’m going to take the firm denial stance of “so long as I ignore it, it can’t be doing something bad.” More news when I have some. Thank you so much for all the sympathy and suggestions–I have certainly learned my lesson (swatch even if you think you don’t need to), and I have some decent ideas for how to proceed if it doesn’t magically fix itself.

In the meantime, in order to give myself some satisfaction, I whipped up this new “scarf.” It’s kind of like Ashley’s neck hug, only not. And it’s a complete ripoff of a scarf that my friend was wearing last weekend; she got it from a delightful boutique in Philly that’s on Bainbridge Street. (I was going to name the scarf after the store, but then the blatant ripoff would have been just that much more blatant.)

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perhaps I do not understand blocking

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blocking?

My understanding of blocking is that you do it to “relax” the yarn into place–to set all those thousands of little stitches. I don’t really understand what happens with the whole fact that the fiber will bloom and get bigger. When it’s dry, it goes back to its “natural” state? Or it only goes back partway, perhaps? Or only to where you pin it to?

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sit ‘n’ knit nyc

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My knitting mojo has been on the fritz, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. I’m knitting in bits and pieces here and there, but I’m lacking the longish stretches that I was accustomed to when I lived in Philly. Plus I’m on the sleeves of the Cambridge Jacket, and we all know what fun sleeves can be.

In order to get myself more inspired, and to meet some new knitters, I joined Sit ‘n’ Knit New York, a meetup group that I’ve known about for a while because of Annie Knits and other bloggers who have mentioned it either to me directly or on their own blogs. Little did I know that the group organizer, Anne-Marie, is actually THE Annie of Annie Knits! She welcomed me by name (Minty)–it took a bit but then I put it all together. (Or maybe she just told me who she was, and it required no “putting together” but I finally understood.)