I'm finishing the Retro Rib Socks and ruminating about what to knit this summer. My brief visits to the city are always jammed and exhausting so I've got to get organized now while I've still got a bit of time and I've got to have knitting to supplement our "entertainment system" at the cottage...
I'm not kidding - you're looking at the sum total of electronic gear we have up north!
Obviously the first thing I'll do is finish Tangled Yoke. Once I'm settled in up north I'm going to dedicate some undivided daytime (aka awake and alert) attention to the 17 measly rows of the yoke detail and get them done. After that its just decreases for the neckline and knitting on a button band.
What will I do after that? The summer issues of Interweave, Vogue, Debbie Bliss, the Twist Collective and Knitty are not filled with knits screaming KNIT ME! KNIT ME! - at least not so I can hear them.
There seem to be a lot of shawl patterns this summer. Shawls - while I admire them immensely when others knit them, are the very bottom of my "Ever likely to Knit" list.
Very close to shawls in my list are long/lacy/low cut top things to wear over t-shirts (these also seem to be everywhere this season)
Patterns for knitted dresses, tunics and skirts are available in quantity. The idea of them is lovely - not so the concept of knitting them. (One exception - Annie Modesitt's Luminarie Skirt in IK. Entrelac and rectangular lace - brilliant! - But I'm still not going to make it - at least not this summer!)
I've got sock yarn in my stash and sock patterns in my queue to last me well into 2010. I'm not even looking at sock patterns.
Fingerless gloves also seem to be a staple pattern - my fingers are the bits that cold when I'm out in the, well, cold so I won't be spending time on any of the great looking patterns for them that seem to be in every magazine.
In VK the drop stitch scarf by Laura Bryant looks fab but fast - hardly something to centre a summer on.
The only thing I've seen that's sticking out in my mind is Miss Honeychurch from the new Knitty. I like the square neckline, the side cables and most of all the idea of knitting/wearing/washing hemp - especially white hemp! It looks like the kind of thing that I would eventually leave at the cottage and wear every summer until I'm a hundred or so.
To be honest though I keep thinking about messing around with a couple of ideas I've jotted down in my little knitting notebook over the past year or two and playing around with remnants in my stash. And as I've said, trying my hand at tackling an EZ concept is intriguing - maybe using a, "Heretical" technique or two from Annie in the process.
There's a great quote from Anna Zilboorg in Confessions of a Knitting Heretic...
(...your hands) can tell you how you are really feeling when you are trying to hide it from yourself. Anxiety causes dropped stitches.
Its making me wonder whether I want to just do my own thing to regain control after 10 months dominated by having little or no control (New High School for one child, University for the other, lingering renovation work, not to mention my poor brother's terrible demise). This is not to say the fact the current trends also look lousy on me or that I rarely have occasion to wear skirts and dresses in the summer and so I don't want to knit one even if they are all the rage doesn't also factor in here somewhere.
Besides I'm rarely moved by trends - I must be in the minority of North American knitters who have not knit a pair of Jay Walkers, (6626 Ravelers report having knit these) or a February Lady Sweater (5992), or "Hey Teach"(1194), a Baby Surprise Jacket (8002) or a Swallowtail shawl (4004).
I probably need to exert control and am also just not well suited to/engaged by the most current knitting fashions. Whatever the case, I am going to feel control soon and to have something to knit that engages me because I am going to assemble a pile of yarn, needles and patterns that interest me and transport the works to the cottage in time for the Canada Day Weekend!
'Sounds like as long as I have control, I have no issue with it! ;)
4 comments:
Many years, when packing for the trailer, I've felt just as you do.
Last year, though, I had the best summer of knitting ever. I took a giant bag of single balls of stash yarn, the book - One Skein Wonders and a few hat/mitten/dishcloth patterns. Things I was able to knit in a day or two. Thinks without complicated patterns. It was the best knitting summer ever. Hope this helps.
I think it's awesome that you're not finding much to knit from the new issues of everything. That'll give you momentum to try something else entirely!
From your list of popular knits, I've only knit Jaywalkers and I am only vaguely interested in knitting a Swallowtail "someday". The rest aren't all that interesting to me, either. (Especially the baby knit.) Weird what catches everyone's fancy though, huh? Anyway, can't wait to see what you knit this summer! (I'm working on my own knitting summer plans too -- in July I'll hopefully post about them.)
Miss Honeychurch really is beautiful. I might add this one to my to-do list, too. And I like the idea of leaving a sweater at the cottage, so it stays special. When I was a teenager I had several summer tops and sandals in our caravan that stayed there and I was looking foreward to wearing them on our weekends and holidays spent by the lake.
Thanks for the 'most popular knits' list. What's so surprising to me is that I'm just not seeing them being worn in my 'world'. Now if I was at the right yarn shop or the in party or strolling about the perfect 'hood, that fullsome sight would be amazing!
C.
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