Day 1,
in which I explain why I believe my knitting is getting the better of me.

I can knit. As to the manipulation of yarn on needles, I get it. I get it very well, some may even say I have a real knack for it, you could say a mastery of the skill. (However, I haven't completed the Guilds Master knitter program so I can't claim the title Master knitter, but between you and me....)
I knit forwards from left to right, I can knit backwards from right to left, I can knit holding the yarn in my right hand, I can knit in my preferred method of holding the yarn in my left, I can knit holding one yarn in my right and another yarn in my left hand, I can knit holding two yarns in left hand and one in my right.

I knit lace, I knit entrelac, heck, I can even knit entrelac lace. I've knit Fair Isle, I've knit Intarsia,( though I'm not fond of it), still I have successful knit it. I've knit socks, I've knit hats, mittens, ponchos, afghans and sweaters.

All these things have I knit. I tell you all you this not to boast about my knitting skills or to discourage any nascent knitters or knit bloggers out there who happen upon this blog, but so that you can fully understand how complete my humiliation is that I am getting my butt kicked by something so seemingly simple as a couple of scarfs, but there you have it.

What? Did I hear you right? Did you say scarfs? You did and I know.
I have promised to knit these scarfs, one for my sister, two years ago and one for my daughter a little over a year ago; and I have been unable to successfully knit either of them. I know you're thinking, why would you promise to knit a scarf for your daughter when you weren't able to knit a scarf for your sister. Well, because a little thing like failure simply isn't a good enough reason to stop an over confident knitter like me from making more promises.

What's so hard about knitting a couple of scarfs? Well, let me tell you.

My sorry scarf saga begins here.

I bought a gorgeous skein of Great Adirandack yarn. I, of course, have misplaced the band label so I can't tell you what kind of yarn it is or the colorway. It is two strands of two different types of yarn, one a mohair strand and the other a ribbon strand, hand dyed together in jewel colors. Because the yarn is a fairly expensive yarn, my thought was that I would buy one skein to knit a skinny scarf for my youngest sister.

( I actually bought two other skeins of Great Adironak Yarn, a cotton/rayon blend called "Tribbles" in the Cappuccino colorway to ostensibly make a scarf for my other sister, but we won't speak of that right now, I'm having enough troubles as it is.)


I had knit a scarf for my daughter in a fluffy fringe yarn called splash in a skinny tube. Knitting with these kind of yarns are no easy task for me, because the stitches liked to slip off the needles, and because of all the fringe, I either A) didn't notice that I had dropped a stitch or B) couldn't find the dropped stitch to pick it up.
But after much ripping and muttered curses, I manage to finish the scarf and in a blithely optimistic mood, decided that I would work the same magic on this yarn for my sister.
And I so I proceeded to do so. I knit a garter stitch tube scarf on size 10 needles.
However the results were less successful. The two yarns didn't knit together very well and I ended up having little ribbon loops popping up here and there. I tried pushing them to the inside of the tube, but they would keep popping back out; so in a fit of frustration I ripped the scarf and separated the two yarns into two balls of yarn and then promptly put them away to be dealt with some time in the future whenever I felt I could look at them again.
A year later I played around with the yarn and I figured out how knit the yarn so that the two yarns are in color sync and I didn't have the looping problem. Now I just needed to come up with a pattern that would work for this yarn.....No idea.
Another six months passes and I think perhaps I should try again, I have decided one skein will not be enough yarn to make the scarf so I purchase a second skein of yarn. Another skein of Great Adirandak yarn a different yarn in a similar colorway (Chagall)
Now I have two skeins of yarns that I don't know how to knit into a scarf.
Another six months later, as I was comtemplating how to knit this scarf I was struck by another inspiration, a third color, because when you don't know what to do with two colors why not add a third?
I was given a chenille sweater by my sister to possibly repair and failing that recycle. So I unraveled the sleeves and now have three balls of yarn to knit a scarf.
So enough already, it's just a bloody scarf, knit it already.
I tried knitting a multi-directional scarf....twice.
Once with one strand of yarn but I didn't follow the pattern properly and I knit the chenille two stranded so the two fabrics from the yarn had a different drape.
Starting over the second time I double stranded both yarns and got the pattern right but I the result was a thick scarf with not enough drape so I scrapped the whole plan again.
Scarf -2, Me-0.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, I hit the book stores.
As I was perusing the knitting books, I was asked by another peruser what book I was looking for and I sort of muttered to myself that I haven't a clue, but that wasn't entirely true. I tried to explain to her my scarf knitting woes and I told her I was looking for a book on knitting scarfs, ideally, scarfSTYLE by Pam Allen. We didn't see the book but the other shopper told me that she was the owner of a local yarn shop and they had a copy at her store.
Really? What store?
Coldwater Collabrative.
Really? I have been there. I happened to have the yarn in question in my bag with me so I showed her the yarn and asked her if she had any thoughts. She thinks perhaps I should perhaps add a strand of mohair with the second ball of yarn and knit a striped scarf lengthwise which is one of the designs in the book.
Could the solution to my scarf knitting woes be that simple?
I'm thinking she may be right.
I have picked up a copy of the book and it's come down to two ideas:
The lengthwise garter stitch striped scarf or,
the Sally Melville triangular, Wear-as-a-collar.
Which do you think would be the better choice?

Raindrops Kew socks on roses














and whiskers on kittens














Bright copper kettles cotton stockings and














warm woolen
Katie with Mittens

















Brown paper packages tied up with strings




These are a few of my favorite things



Cream colored ponies and
crisp apple streudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and
schnitzel with noodles









Wild geese girls that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things.


Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Girls in bright tartans with smashing black leggings.

















Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes;
Silver-white winters that melt into springs;












These are a few of my favorite things.



When the dog bites,
When the bee stings,
When I'm feeling sad,

I simply remember my favorite things,
And then I don't feel so bad.

Happy New Years

May the dreams that you wish all come true.

Everything is moving so quickly now as this year races towards it's finish line and the holidays loom large before us as we attempt to get everything done that we think we need to do to assure that a merry time is to be had by all.
I, for my part am attempting to stay above the fray as much as humanly possible, for despite my wizardly status among my knitting peeps, am only human after all and am just as susceptible as anyone else to falling prey to the manic thoughts that prevail in this nation every year around this time. These are those sneaky, insidious thoughts that slip in sideways and ninja* their way into your head, while you're not paying attention and are haplessly being, ah, happy. You know what I'm talking about, those thoughts that grip your heart with panic and desperation, thoughts like, "It just won't be Christmas unless you ________, well, (I'll let you fill in the blank)"
*I have it on authority that it's perfectly acceptable to use ninja as a verb.*

So for my own sanity and to keep knitting a pleasant experience I am not knitting gifts for Christmas. I'm having a no knit Christmas in just the way Amy at Knit Think is not knitting for Christmas. Oh, there may be a scarf or two in the works, but it is not for Christmas presents, they're, aw,ah,awh, birthday presents, yeah, that's it ChristmasBirthday presents.**
**I am aware, as is Amy that Christmas is indeed a birthday celebration.**

I may not be knitting for Christmas this year, *Although I just had a notion to knit a last minute gift for someone that I am trying to resist, but I am weakening. It would be a challenge to finish before Christmas with my work schedule...I do like a challenge though, Hmmm* but I have been knitting, and not being Christmas gifts, I thought I would put you all in the loop and show y'all some of the ins and outs of what what I have been up to for the past few weeks. (Okay, months, I know.) The stuff my SnB friends know about, but the rest of you may not.

Outs
My youngest requested a pair of mittens, red mittens. I was quite surprised for rarely do I get a request for knitted items from my family. So in October when some of the local yarn shops held a treasure hunt, I took the opportunity to go on a hunt of my own for yarn for the red mittens. I have had this pattern in mind to knit for quite some time ever since I saw it in the Inknitters Fall 2004 magazine. My daughters came with me and we were able to settle on red chunky Misty alpaca for the red mittens. I tried to explain what I had in mind for the mittens and that I needed another contrast color for the mittens but my daughter didn't understand and kept saying, "I just want red." When I was finally able to show her what I had in mind, she loved the idea of the red heart shapes and chose purple as the second color. (Cascade 220, the other contrast colors are odd balls from my stash)
Ins

These are not thrummed, but the thick (I doubled the strands) yarn floats across the back serve the same purpose as the thrumms. They are so soft to slip your hand into and suppa warm. I have to make an adjustment in the pattern, the pattern is for a woman's hand and although the small fits her, the thumb is not in the right place for her small hands.



Outs
I didn't sign up for Socktober but I may as well have for I did mostly sock knitting in October and some in November as well. These I knit for the Day of the Dead Kal and I explain my thinking in this post here.











Ins
I thought perhaps you would like to see the inside.









Ins?
In the summer I knit a square for a the Cure-ragious Knitters Banner. I felted the block and had it sitting on a table until it was time for the cancer walk. My cat, Hobbes fell in love with the square and sat and slept on it up until I had to pry it from under him to go. I felt bad about it and promised to knit him a wool bed of his own. Which brings us to this little bit of knitting.
Being a knitting wizard, I thought I had better live up to my name sake and try my hand at a little magical knitting, Cat Bordhi style.


or Outs?
Cat Bordhi has some wonderful cat bed designs in her book," The Second Treasury of Magical Knitting". The cat pictured in the fair Isle bed looks so much like my own cat that I thought it would be a good choice to knit for my Hobbie. Cat has a unique cast on for the projects in these books called the Moebius Cast On. If you are not familiar with the Moebius design it is knit in such a way, due to a twist in the cast on, that allows you to knit both sides of the loop with one continuous edge. It's really quite cool. The cast on wasn't difficult to learn but I will admit it took me three tries before I got it right.


Outs
Speaking of getting it right, I can't seem to, get it right, that is. I don't get scarfs. I've been playing around with this pooling color scarf as a birthday gift for my daughter Ani for, oh about a year now. Her birthday is in January and I thought I would try my hand again at knitting the scarf by her next birthday, it's not looking promising. I will try to explain my scarf woes in my next post. I'm also struggling with knitting a scarf for my sister that is now two years over due. Who knew scarfs would be so hard ? It would seem I'm not meant to knit scarves, scarves are so hard.