Updating The Vocabulary Of Knitting

It is Sunday, January 29 and we have just two more days until we head for home.  Need I say it has been a fabulous month?  We have purchased an amazing condo, started buying things to fill it, had lunch with Pam my friend from college who lives in Wilmington, walked many times in the dog park "and the beat goes on." An unanticipated benefit of a 3 bedroom condo is three closets.  I can easily begin filling the Stash Studio Annex.  Just think, another place to collect yarn.  It makes me smiley and warm just thinking about it.   I made 3 trips to Knit 'N Purl and bought a little bit (but I will tell you about that when we get home.)  After the condo purchase my intention was to buy nothing but you know how that goes.  The next time I add to Knitting: A Love Story, I will be home waiting for April to come so we can come back and start whipping the condo into shape.  

A knitting emoji sometimes says it all.  Like right now, I would say I feel exactly like "finished object."  Through out the month, I have had my share of "all tangled up" both literally and figuratively.  I have been doing somethings that defy knitting vocabulary and emoji. I decided there needed to be words for what I was experiencing so I began my search for the perfect words to describe what I have been working on. 

This is what I just finished.  It is beautiful.  It will be more beautiful when I get home and Madonna steams it.  Every great knitting treasure has a story behind it.  If it didn't, I wouldn't have much to write about.  Last fall I was in the Stash Studio and ran across three different skeins of Be Sweet yarn.  They were all in cream and shades of olive green and beige.  One was a lace weight mohair, one was a beaded shiney cord and the last was a magic ball of sorts made from all different kinds of yarns.  I bought the kit on sale somewhere.  I couldn't resist, but I've never much liked the pattern in the kit.  As I was picking up and caressing each skein of yarn, I suddenly knew.  Eureka!  I would use the same yummy pattern to make a scarf that I used to make my dear friend, Toni, a shawl.  It is so easy.  It is knit on a very large needles, I think I used a 13 circular needle.  You cast on with the heavier yarn (this time I held the beaded yarn and the magic ball together) then you attach the lace weight.  You knit 3 rows of lace weight, slip the stitches to the other end of the needle where the heavier yarn is, knit one row and continue.  Knit 3 rows of lace weight, slip to the other end of the needle, knit 1 row of heavier yarn and repeat until it is the length you want or you run out of yarn.  Bind off in the heavier yarn.  Wa La!  The heavier yarn looks like it is floating through the lace weight yarn.  

I started this right after I found the yarn.  I really thought it would end up being a Christmas treasure for somebody. All of a sudden, this showed up in the magic ball.

This is a very stiff ribbon.  I guess who ever put this in the skein thought it was a good idea.  WELL, IT WASN'T!  I started knitting with it, but it was so stiff.  I continued knitting thinking it had to get better.  After all, nobody would design a yarn which was doomed for failure.  I kept knitting, kept being dissatisfied, kept knitting, kept be dissatisfied.  All of a sudden I realized I hated the look the ribbon made and was going to have to frog it.  By this time I was about 4 inches past the ribbon so I put it in a bag and put it upstairs.  

When I began packing my vacation knitting, I stuck this in, never really intending on doing anything with it.  Here comes the necessity for additional knitting vocabulary words.  I spent a lot of time down here doing knitting type things with little or no plan for finishing a treasure.  I spent a lot of time trying to find the perfect pattern for some yarn I bought at Knit "N Purl.  I checked the gage, made many swatches using different needles, went on to another pattern, made many swatches using different needles.  I learned a lot about what Transitions by Trendsetter looked like knitted on different needle sizes.  I didn't accomplish much.  I didn't find a pattern but I didn't feel I'd wasted my time.  What had I done?  I couldn't find the word for it.  Then I moved on to taking the ribbon out of the Be Sweet scarf.  Remember there is mohair, there are beads, there are many kinds of yarn some very sticky.  I take pride in my ability to untangle (emoji) yarn.  I find it soothing.  I did a combination of TINKing and frogging.  Sometimes I had to unknit (TINK) and sometimes I could just rip it (frog.) 

I was searching for the perfect word to describe how I spent much of the month of January.  I wasn't really knitting.  What was I doing?  I think I was "knabbling."  I was dabbling in knitting.  The is my definition of knabble:  playful knitting, trying things, a combination of dabble and knit.  I realized this described exactly what I was doing.  Then when I thought about the searching and swatching, I decided to call it "kniterest."  Kniterest means to search through books, magazines, Ravelry, Patterfish and Pinterest to find the perfect pattern.  I also love the word "Knitterati" but Cascade is currently using it for their KAL.

So the two words of KNABBLE and KNITEREST have been born.  Use them any time you are doing these two activities.  Enjoy!