In fact, as we speak (so to speak), I (sorta) have no UFOs. This must be remedied.

I call this a teaser because... I don't have pics, but I promised you an update, didn't I?

Last night, I completed The Hat. The Hat is the first project I started in this round of knitting... four years previous, I knit a chunky scarf. During the knitting of The Hat, I completed the Rainbow Hat (seen earlier, to match the scarf), the Inappropriate Yarn Hairband, and one Giant Boot (of Indoor Felted Boot KAL fame). (KAL = "Knit ALong", remember?) During all this time, I have started completely over on the hat twice... I think I've knit enough rows to make the hat twice over. (I'll tell you about all that ordeal when I have pictures. Now I owe you two stories of woe about knitting. With circles and arrows on the back of each one to be used as evidence against me.) The hat has a couple flaws (I was not going to back up twelve rows to fix that mistake when I noticed it), but all in all I'm happy with it. It's warm on my head and just the right weight for wearing in my basement office, which is currently 66 degrees, something of a high point when the space heater isn't on.

Anyway, I'm caught up with this week's knitting on the felted boot (to keep pace (It's a "knit ALONG," get it?) I can't start knitting the next one until next Monday), but I've joined in a Beer Cozy swap... nice little circular work, shouldn't take long, and I figure I'll make at least two or three with different stitch patterns. And somewhere in there, I want to make some fingerless gloves/mittens out of the same yarn I knit The Hat (baby alpaca... nothing like spoiling oneself).

Maybe tomorrow I'll get out the camera and the sun and take some pics of the current projects. (You wouldn't know that I have a dual-light indoor strobe setup. Too dang much trouble to get it out, set stuff up, etc. Soon, I'm going to clear out the other half of my storage-room-turning-office and set up a permanent light tent to shoot this stuff. Then shooting decent pics won't be such an ordeal.)

This project is cool for me in several ways… I'd like to learn to knit socks, and this is basically a fluffy sock that then gets felted, so minor mistakes get covered up. Not wanting to learn a technique that requires buying two circular needles, I learned the "magic-loop" technique that lets me do it on one circular. I get to participate in my first KAL, and I get to work on a project with another local guy who knits that I've been wanting to know better.

I picked a new yarn that had recently come in at Twist, and later discovered that it is self-striping and basically meant for felted slippers. It's a little pricey (I need $24 worth), but it is coming out pretty neat so far.

If you have a Ravelry account, this is what I'm knitting. And this is my project page.

The KAL is here. (on Google Groups). The organizer has made it private, and there was a deadline for joining, but I joined well after the deadline, and the project has just gotten started and is set to move pretty slowly, to be friendly to beginners.

We'd love to have more Wichita men participate, and you don't have to join the online group to particpate locally.

Boy, lots to catch up on here…

There's the hat I knit on the loom to match Nathan's scarf. It came out pretty nice, though it's a little small. That the variegation in the yarn lined up to make a rainbow stripe around most of the hat was a bonus. The loom knitting is really fast, and you can do a lot of fancy stuff with it, but the fancy stuff is more time-consuming. Making a simple purl stitch (say, for ribbing the edge of a hat so it doesn't roll up like this one) is a very different operation than a knit stitch. I prefer knitting on needles.

Nate's getting bored with row after row of knit stitches. He knit an infant hat (he wanted a toddler hat, but I couldn't convince him he'd chosen too small a loom), and not having someone to give it to took the wind out of his sails. I'm not sure if introducing him something like cables or Fair Isle color patterns would help that or not. It requires more concentration and provides more chances of mistakes.

After that, I knit a hair band for my wife for Christmas at the last minute (and finished it a few days after Christmas). I'll talk about that project in the next post.

And then I got back to the hat that started all of this. I finally got into a rhythm, knit 2, purl 2 ribbing… but I discovered I'd made a major mistake. The pattern calls for K1P1 ribbing, and I'd started out that way… and somewhere in between projects, I'd misremembered and started K2P2. No wonder it didn't look right at all. So I frogged the whole thing on Sunday, and last night I cast on, more loosely this time since the tight cast-on gave me fits, and with ten extra stitches 'cause I think the original was going to be a tad small. Fortunately, the decrease counts on groups of ten stitches, because I didn't think to check the math before I'd cast on and knit an entire row. So I feel better about that one.

And before that's done, I looks like I'm going to start a Felted Indoor Boot as part of a men's Knit-Along (KAL). I bought pretty wool, and someone at Twist has offered to teach me to spin. I bought way too much expensive yarn at Twist's recent sale, but it was buy-3-get-1-free, and it's darned pretty. I needed some of it for a new hair band, and I think I'll make some fingerless gloves for myself. Plenty more unaccounted for, though.

Spending time down at Twist more, but not quite as much as I'd like, and it's slow getting to know people because I'm not the "walk up and introduce myself" type.

Maybe going to the Wamego Winter Woolfest this weekend. But it looks like everyone I know is bailing, and I might be going alone. I'd invite my mom (she crochets), but she's recovering from pnemonia.

Whew.

On the way out of Twist a week ago, Nathan (our 9-year-old) saw some bright orange yarn… orange and blue are his school colors (their mascot is a tiger), and he wanted to make a scarf for a teacher.

So last Saturday, we dropped by Twist to knit and I bought him a couple skeins of Cascade wool yarn in bright orange and a darkish blue. Borrowed the round "hat" weaving looms out of the library and Mona, one of the Twist regulars, taught him how to knit on the loom. We abandoned that little bit of work and left the looms behind, and Sunday I bought a set of "long" ("double-rake") looms at Michael's, since he wanted to knit a scarf, and the Knifty Knitter double-rakes are set to a smaller gauge than the round "hat" looms, which is more appropriate for the worsted weight yarn he picked. I also ordered the Knitting Loom Primer from Amazon Sunday afternoon, and thanks to Amazon Prime's two-day shipping and the book shipping from the Oklahoma warehouse, it arrived yesterday.

So when I got home from work yesterday, Nathan had the book out and had started the scarf by himself. He wasn't far in and was having trouble with getting the wrapping right, so I helped him set it straight and he knit three rows before deciding to play a board game. But he enjoyed it, and likes how quickly it goes, and he's making big plans to make all kinds of things and to learn to knit on needles. I'm just hoping he finishes this project.

While we played the board game, I started a hat with the other skein of yarn that matches his scarf. There are a lot of neat patterns and techniques in the book (dang, you can purl, increase/decrease, cable knit and even do Fair Isle patterns… the makers of knitting looms are under-marketing them) and I figured it was a good idea to get ahead of Nathan a bit, so I could help him when he tried something more advanced and had trouble. And he's more likely to finish his work if he sees me finishing something similar. So I'm making a hat, and I've got another small Christmas project I want to knock out, so my own hat is on-hold for awhile. Which is cool.

So a few years ago (I'm unclear on the time, I want to say "a couple," but thinking about it, it's more like three or four), I decided to try knitting. I like practical hobbies, and knitting is inexpensive and very portable. So I practiced a bit, knit one chunky scarf for my son, got busy and put it in a box to await the matching hat.

But "busy" wasn't the full reason I stopped. A big part of it was the thing that makes people wonder why I even started: I'm a guy. And as this was about the point I realized that I'm looking for social hobbies, I found a local knitting circle. And, as expected (here on the edge of the Bible belt, at least), they were all women. I was a little uncomfortable being the only guy in a group full of women. They were welcoming, none of them ever looked at me funny, but it was awkward, 'cause I'm not "just one of the girls," but conversation carried on as if I were. Not that I'm a prude or anything, but I just don't relate to conversation about boobs and periods and how men never do anything around the house. (And, lady, your boobs look just fine in that sweater. I'm not seeing anything to complain about.)

A couple years ago, a nifty yarn shop (Twist) opened up near my house in the Delano neighborhood, and just going in and looking at all the pretty yarn (the wife gave me an excuse to go) made me want to knit again. But that wasn't enough… still that "only guy" problem telling me "you won't stick with it."

Recently, I discovered there was another guy hanging out at Twist, and through the net I discovered we had a lot of common interests. So I decided to make the trek to Twist and meet him, and I've taken the craft back up. And I just discovered the "eclectic guy" I know from church also knits at Twist. So, three guys knitting at Twist… it must be a movement!

The first order of business was to dig out that scarf… I'd finished all but the fringe, so I added the fringe and gave it to my son just as the weather turned rather cold. He's named it "rainbow", and I'll post pictures soon.

Right now, I'm practicing again, getting ready to knit a hat. My first work with purling and on circular needles, the practice started out a little awkward. But I think I've practiced enough, so I bit the bullet and cast on some sweet baby alpaca yarn and start the real hat at last night's Stitch'n'Bitch at Twist. It went a lot smoother than the practice work I was doing, too. And there wasn't any bitching about men who don't do anything around the house.