Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Swatching Starsky (but not Hutch)



I started working on Starsky from Knitty, and have been learning how to cable without a needle. I used these directions, and it is so much easier. For some reason, I kept thinking it would be a lot more difficult, and now I wonder why I wasn't doing it sooner. So far the pattern is working, except for the gauge. My gauge seems to be the same, yet it's turning out kind of small. I'm doing the medium size and hoping it to be around 41", but the back is about 19", so I don't know what's happening. I'm going to try washing my swatch and then measuring. I actually swatched this time with two different needles, size 9 and 10, to make sure I got the right gauge. But I must really tighten up my knitting when I do the actual project, or something. Hopefully I won't have to start over and knit the large size. I'm using Cascade Ecological Wool, which I really like. It's soft, but seems like it'll be strong.
I also finished a Waving Lace sock, using Merlin the cat bamboo sock yarn. I like the yarn, but I think I should have used a solid color with this pattern. It is pretty much lost with the bright colors. I don't really want to rip it out, though.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Blog Action Day


I went to a knitting group for the first time on Thursday night. I didn't really know about any in my area. But I found out about one and had some time in my schedule. It was way in kind of an odd place, but I guess it's hard to book rooms in this town. I was surprised to hear that to book a room in the library, it's $50 an hour. In any case, it was interesting actually seeing other people knit in person. I rarely see anyone knitting in public and don't know any other knitters. I also got this new wool and mohair yarn, which is unlike anything I've got in my stash.

It' s also Blog Action Day for the environment. I was glad to hear that Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize, along with some other scientists, for their work on global climate change. I recently got a bus pass, and am trying to use the bus more often. I didn't own a car for a long time, but now that I own one, I start to get in the habit of driving everywhere. Another thing I want to start doing is reducing the amount of trash I produce. I think if I just buy less packaged food, a huge part of it is reduced. Some things seem to be ridiculously packaged, where each individual thing is inside another package, so I don't get stuff like that. The last thing I want to do is just to buy fewer things. A lot of environmental problems come from buying stuff without really needing to, and then just throwing it away, like plastic water bottles or disposable coffee cups.