Why We Knit

Happy holidays, knitters! My friend Staci recently asked her friends around the world to submit short videos about why they knit, and gathered the results into this great video. I (and Pona) made the cut, and I thought I'd share.

 

Hope everyone is staying warm (or, in some cases, cool!) and getting lots of knitting done. I haven't done too much knitting lately, but hope to have something to show next post.

 

Grey Garden

These will be the best things to wear for the day, some day.

Until this morning, I hadn't knit a stitch for a week. Just so much going on, and not enough time for sitting still and knitting. But the semester is now over and I got to kick off the break by getting together with friends to knit. When we noticed that half of us were knitting gray projects, we had to get a shot. If Snowden had been here, our chances of having five projects would have been high. Girl can rock the gray.

While there, Staci told me about an app she thought I might like. It's knitCompanion from Create2Thrive, and so far, I AM liking it. It allows you to upload patterns via Dropbox, and then manipulate them in all kinds of creative ways. So far, I've uploaded the pattern for the Fishbone Gansey Socks I'm currently working on, isolated the cuff chart, and added the written instructions side-by side. The app adds an automatic row highlighter, and with the tap of a button, it jumps to the next row. So cool! You can also color-code sections, add virtual stitch markers, and more. It was a little tough getting started, but I got going pretty quickly. It's already made this project easier to follow. It's a little spendier than some apps, but worth it, I think, just for the help in following charts.

And now to stop writing about knitting and actually do it. Hope you are all enjoying the holiday season and getting to knit as much as you want to.

In Fine Trim

Today was the day to get the tree set up and see what it looked like with all those balls I made during the last year. It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas, even though it doesn't really feel like it. It's close to 80°F outside.

We have a rather tall artificial tree that fits neatly in a smallish corner. I really miss the fine trees we used to get as a kid growing up in Washington, but taking into consideration our mild central Texas winters and the tendency for Jeff and I to roam over the holidays, an artificial tree just makes more sense.

This year the decorations consist of the 55 balls I knit earlier this year and some toy-themed ornaments that are partly from a trip to Germany and partly from a cheap drugstore set from my first Christmas in my own home, which has a lot of sentimental value. I think they all work nicely together.

I'm having a hard time getting decent pictures of the tree with my phone. I don't want a washed-out flash picture taken at night, and the bright sun is causing its own set of problems. But I just glanced over at Kate, napping on the couch after a long day spent outside napping, and managed to capture the photo above. Then, while writing this post, Pona decided to pose as well. It's like a Yuletide basenji opium den around here.

It all looks better than I'd expected. I just hope I put the new balls high enough up on the tree so that Kate doesn't snatch any of them.