knitting observations

Some obervations about knitting:

1) ribbing -- I do not like ribbing. I think I do not like switching back and forth between knit and purl -- and the only sort of that I've done for a long time is ribbing -- but I do not like it, and without Olympic pressure, it's not happening very fast. I am ribbing woolsock2, and maybe (depending on how long I spend typing instead of knitting), I'll get it done tonight. (Pondering how long we will say "typing" for what I'm doing...... Wondering how many people reading such a question would answer "What you mean *we*, white woman?".............. I don't really care, but that's how my mind works ... I wonder about things................ I've come to notice that people take it personally when I wonder aloud. I tend to get vehement, and they think I want them to *answer*, damnit! Well, answers would be nice, but really, I'm asking the universe, not the individual standing in front of me..... I'm trying to do better at assuring innocent bystanders I don't actually expect them to have the answer, however nice it would be if they did. Wow, all that from my not liking ribbing. Wonder what will happen next????)

2) the uneven grist of yarn -- This knitting I've been doing, for the Olympics and since, is the first knitting I've done in a long time, and the first knitting-with-commercial-yarn I've done in even longer. As a hand-spinner, I think about how even my yarn is. I'm not a machine, after all, and my yarn varies from thinner to thicker. Well. I'm here to tell you that *commercial* yarn does EXACTLY that. A lot! Some yarn is more variable than other yarn, but good grief. The varigated yarn I'm using in these socks varies a great deal. Rita Buchanan has a nifty gadget that can squish yarn and tell you how thick it is -- I want that for measuring this yarn so I can say "SEE? This part is TWICE as thick as that part!"

Rita, for those of you not fortunate enough to know her, is a spinner of prodigious curiosity, education, experience, imagination, and productivity. Rita is a writer on spinning (and what to do with the products thereof, in MANY different crafts), and on gardening. She is also one of the very best teachers I've ever experienced, as she puts as much energy into her teaching (and preparing for same) as into her spinning, gardening, and writing. A friend once told me that if I had the chance to take a three-day workshop with Rita on how to oil my wheel, I would do it, as I would know that it would be fascinating, informative, and totally worthwhile. She was right. If you ever get the chance to take a class from Rita Buchanan, jump on it with both feet.

Anyway. My point would be -- if commercial yarn varies that much (and this particular one does!), then I'm never worrying again about whether my yarn is adequate. Sheesh. I mean, look at the sock. Are you thinking "good grief, look at that uneven yarn????" (No, you probably think it is my uneven knitting, but bear with me.....) I'll give you a hint: the red is the fattest.......... Not only does it stand out because it's red, but a lot of it is fatter than any of the rest of the yarn......... So if this yarn can be this uneven, and what I see when I look at it is the color change, well..........

(Don't you think it's odd that, in a yarn that was obviously colored as finished yarn, rather than spun from different colors of prepared fiber, one color would fairly consistently be in the thick places? And never (that I remember) in the thin ones? I think it's very odd indeed........ But that is my observation and I'm sticking to it.)

Notes to self on consistency of yarn grist -- A) if a machine can't make it perfectly even, a person needn't feel that she should, either, and, B) "Baffle 'em with Bamboozlement" is a concept that applies to yarn production as well as to so many other things. If you don't want 'em to look at the uneven yarn, by all means give 'em something else to look at. Color change is a good distraction.............. Or, as Rita might advise, really cute buttons (though that is less applicable to socks than to many other garments.....). She wasn't advising distraction from grist, but was pointing out that when people look at your sweater, they are going to notice the buttons, rather than whether it was woolen/worsted, 2-ply/3-ply, or any of the other things spinners can obsess about, and I believe that if she *were* advising on my current topic she would suggest buttons........ Rita, if you ever should read this, you can see that, even through my bedazzlement of hero-worship, I managed to take in a great deal of what you said.

3) the act of knitting -- I am bemused by the fact that, while I do not pine for knitting when I'm not knitting, I really do NOT want to put it down when I am. (Unless it's ribbing!) I don't know what this means, but I think it's interesting. Which part of me doesn't care if I pick it up? Which (other?) part won't put it down? I don't know, but I find it curious.


And on that note, perhaps I'll go pick up that sock, knowing that once I finish the damned ribbing, I will be finished with another whole *pair* of socks. (Well, ok, I have to cast it off, but that's only one row; I can bear about anything for one row....)