Flint Knits

Back after some weeks away… Happy and sad things have happened, in both knitting and non-knitting worlds, that kept me from loyal knitblogging. Fuck new years resolutions anyhow.

First, I moved to Minneapolis, where I’ll be living and working until May. Sad to be away from home, lover, kitty, etc. But I think there are more yarn stores per capita in the Twin Cities area than anywhere else on earth. And I will visit them all.

Second, knitting is NOT working out in 2007! I was half finished with the Bump Sweater
when I realized that I really hate the pattern. I’m usually all about Louisa Harding’s clean, simple designs, but this one just doesn’t work for me. The only shaping is in short rows for the belly ‘bump’ — otherwise it’s just a rectangular sack, with two more rectangles for droopy sleeves. The finished product looks like a grocery bag with a tumor. I imagine the shapeless rectangle look is unflattering for anyone, but especially for pregnant women, who are all curves. My big sister deserves better than Bump Sack.

I also started and frogged BrooklynTweed’s Red Light Special hat … THREE times. I thought the problem was that I just couldn’t figure out a color pattern I liked. I used a deep plum for the background, and tried 3 different combinations of greens before I realized that the real problem was I couldn’t imagine myself wearing a Norwegian style multi-colored hat.

This failure, along with my last post about the fair isle sweater, have forced me to think about
the disconnect between what I might enjoy knitting and what I will actually wear. The last 6 months of nonstop gift-knitting have spoiled me: I used projects and techniques that I wanted to try out, and then matched them up with loved ones whom they suited. Now that I’ve declared 2007 the Year of Selfish Knitting, I’m at a loss for what *I* want. I enjoy doing stranded colorwork, for instance, but there’s a very limited range of SC garments I would get real use out of (oh, Anemoi Mittens, you are the exceptional exception, and I love you fiercely). Likewise, I enjoy knitting chunky cables and thick arans, but don’t want to wear them myself. Case in point: the gorgeous Demi sweater — I spent a fortune on tweed yarn and was all set to cast on when I realized that I couldn’t imagine myself with a torso full of bobbles (I’m just not a bobbly person, I guess). Instead, the tweed yarn is becoming a plain stockinette raglan — I will wear it often and well, but it will be a dead bore to knit. And I bought a bag full of Noro Kureyon for a Sunrise Circle Jacket, but am now realizing that Noro’s signature heathered stripes, lovely as they are, are just not my style. I have some Lisa Souza laceweight just begging to become something Victorian and Lacy, but anything so feminine and delicate will certainly be a gift knit.

So am I a fashion snob? Do I simply need to branch out stylewise? Be less picky? Should I just stick to gift-knitting?

Luckily Fitted Knits will be coming out soon. Certainly it will solve all my knitting/fashion problems. I suspect it might also do the dishes, mop the floor, and write my dissertation for me. Huzzah.

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