I got what I wanted for Christmas.
Really, all I wanted for Christmas was to spend a day knitting and doing pretty much nothing else. I got that chance today, and it felt good (although I also felt very lazy, but I am trying not to think about that).
As a result, the knitting and weaving in ends on the Fair Isle Jazz scarf are complete.
The striped ends will be folded over the fair isle sections and seamed. It also needs to be blocked, and tassles need to be added. I believe I'll be investing in a steamer for blocking purposes; I don't have the time, space, or patience to use the soak-and-dry -flat method for everything.
I finished one of my sister's convertible mittens yesterday. Since weather prevented us from getting together on Christmas Day, I have until New Year's Eve to complete the set. Piece of cake!
I used the Urban Necessities pattern, loosely. My gauge is much different and I changed so many other things it's hardly the same pattern anymore. I have two major gripes: picking up the stitches in the manner described leaves a weird ridge (why not pick up both legs of the stitch, instead of just the right one?) and the mitten decreases look a little sloppy to me. Instead, I decreased as I would for a sock toe and grafted the end.
However, I like the function of this thing so much that I'm going to rip out the fingers of these gloves and add a mitten top. The top of one of the fingers came undone, anyway, so I might as well send 'em all packing.
On knitting and charity
I had a "discussion" - if you could call it that - in the Live Journal Knitting Community about acrylic yarn, as used for goods for the homeless (and other such persons deserving of charity). It was prompted by someone saying - as I've heard often - that they have a bunch of crappy acrylic yarn (adjective theirs) that they inherited/found at a thrift store that they'd like to make into hats/scarves/blankets for the homeless/sick/pound puppies.
Now, what gets me is this - why do we see crappy acrylic yarn and think, "Oh, the homeless would LOVE this?" but we don't feel the same way about our wool? I live in Minnesota, and no matter what anyone attempts to convince me of, I remain unconvinced that acrylic provides any significant protection against the elements, especially if it's Grandma's plasticky stuff from 1974. When I first started knitting, I bought a hat/mitten set, made from standard-issue garish acrylic, from a little old lady at a church craft fair. "Oh joy!" I thought. "I have a handknit hat and mittens!" I tell you, they were worthless. It wasn't even winter and my head and hands froze. My hands froze mostly because the stuff was so itchy I couldn't stand to wear it. Why should we subject someone who has to live outdoors to this stuff?
"Wait," you say. "Wool isn't easily washable! And, you know, some people are allergic to it." No, wool isn't easily washable, but how much do you wash it, really? I'll wear the same sweater over and over, and I haven't washed my scarves or mittens or hats, well, ever. If washing is a problem, use superwash wool, or a blend. And the fraction of people who are truly allergic to wool is so tiny that it's almost moot. There is probably someone out there allergic to acrylic (I, at least, think some is scratchier than shetland wool). There are people allergic to anything. Would you not donate a wool sweater to the Salvation Army on the off chance that someone might be allergic? If you had to choose between itchy skin and freezing to death, which would you choose?
And, hey, isn't wool more expensive than acrylic? It is ever-so-slightly more expensive. Maybe it's not free, but you get what you pay for. The Fair Isle Jazz scarf in the pictures above was knit using Elann Peruvian Collection Highland Wool, which is a great yarn (I think it's soft enough for a sweater), at only $2.25 for 109 yards. You can find these deals everywhere.
Now, I understand that in some situations, acrylic is preferred. Maybe your local shelter requests things to be made out of acrylic (though I think it might be because of a lack of understanding of the properties of wool, and its inherent advantages over manmade fibers). Then go ahead - use it. But let's not have our first thought, when we encounter a bag of cast-off acrylic yarn from before we were born, to be, "Oh, what a great thing to knit for charity!" If you wouldn't knit it for yourself, why should you knit it for other people?
I made a sort of promise to myself last year to knit for charity in 2005; I failed desperately, unless you can count the five scarves I gave to a newly local family kicked out of New Orleans by Katrina. This year, make sure I put my money where my mouth is and donate some nice, warm wool items to the people who need them even more than I do.
Tipper @ 9:04 PM * link
|
