Exploring the Knitting Blogosphere

I don’t really like the word “blogosphere” but I am going to use it out of sheer perversity. Today I visited Beth’s blog and found out that of all the shades of orange she is a pumpkin. So I clicked on her link, and low and behold,

You are Apricot

Soft and sweet, over time you let your provocative nature shine through. You are definitely unconventional, but you don’t broadcast it. You offer people a fresh perspective on life – so fresh that it can be shocking!

From there I found out,

You Are Whiskey

You’re a tough drinker, and you take it like a man That means no girly drinks for you – even if you are a girl You prefer a cold, hard drink at the end of the day Every day, in fact. And make that a few.

I seem a bit conflicted, no?

After all this fun, I went to one of my favorite knitting blogs, Grumperina, a fabulous knitter and writer as well as a fellow scientist. On Saturday she posted a knitterly meme and wanted others to take part. Today she expressed disappointment that so few people had done so. I had planned to take part on Sunday when I first saw the meme, but had laundry to do, but I see I had better do it NOW! So, without further ado…

10 Knittery Things You Didn’t Know About Me, a meme

1. My love of seed stitch could be called an obsession. I love any sweater pattern that has seed stitch diamonds independent of any other considerations, such as having 3 sleeves–I’d still consider knitting it.
2. I knit Continental kind of. I hold the yarn differently than I’ve seen anywhere else, but I’ve never had the even gauge issues that are supposed to plague Continental knitters, so I’m not changing.

3. My first FO was a pair of mittens knit flat using Ruhama’s pattern from the 1970s my Grandma Frances gave. Grandma Frances is now 95 and still knits children’s mittens with this pattern for chaity. She knits several dozen pairs a year. I hope I can still knit (and breathe) when 95.
4. I’ve never read anything written by Elizabeth Zimmerman. I looked at one of her books at a bookstore and she mentioned hating to purl. I closed the book and put it back. This may have to do with #1 on this list. I now realize that I may have been hasty in my judgement.
5. It’s taken me nearly 43 years of living to realize that I don’t look good in crewneck sweaters. It took me very little time to realize that the vast majority of pullover sweater patterns have a crew or turtleneck (turtle is even worse).
6. I’ve knit lots of scarves but I’ve never kept one for myself. This is about to change.
7. In the basic knitting class I took, I made my intarsia fish with two tales and no head. I have not gone back to intarsia.
8. I think cables and twisted stitches are cool and I am very intrigued with using them functionally in design and in non-traditional ways. Cables on a seed stitch background are the bee’s knees, the cat’s pajamas, etc.
9. Before July I had no idea what a rich, inspirational and fun world the knitting blogosphere is. Now I read knitting blogs almost everyday!
10. I am becoming addicted to knitting lace, and so far I’ve only made lace scarves. I’m a bit concerned as to what will happen when I start a shawl. I have purchased several shawl patterns and several thousand yards of lace weight yarn. My current thinking is that it will not be possible to have too many handknitted shawls and wraps.