Monthly Archives: March 2017

International Women’s Day and A Day Without A Woman

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Happy International Women’s Day, everyone!  Especially all you amazing ladies out there!

Today is a day  to appreciate everything women have done in history, as well as everything they do day-to-day to make the world a better place.  It’s a day to acknowledge our mothers and grandmothers (Happy Women’s Day, Mom!  And, Happy Women’s Day, Mother-in-Law!), and how they raised us to be strong, independent women.  And it’s a day to remember the amazing women who have changed history; the Harriet Tubmans, the Hillary Clintons, the Margaret Sangers, the Sally Rides, and the Malala Yousafzais of the world.

While women’s rights and opportunities have come a long way (We can have our own credit card!  We can work outside the home!  We can go to college!), we still need to keep fighting for our rights.  Women are still paid less than men for equal work, and women (especially mothers, women of color, and LGBTQ women) are often discriminated against when applying for jobs.  Women make up the majority of the minimum-wage workforce, and yet are still expected to be the primary caregivers of their families.

So, I’m writing this (sorry if you were hoping for some knitting- that’ll be back soon), to support International Women’s Day and the Day Without A Woman strike.  It’s important that we, as women and allies, keep talking about issues of gender inequality.  It’s important that we call out injustice when we see it.  It’s important that we work to make positive change, to achieve gender equality in the workplace and out.

So, today, give your representative a call, talk to your boss about equal pay, or just wear red in solidarity with the women fighting for their rights.  We’ve come a long way, but we’re not done yet.

Late-night Knitting

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I go a little crazy every time I get close to finishing a project, especially a big project.  I get a little obsessed, and I kind of lose touch with the passage of time.

It’s not ideal, but it happens.  And, it happened to me last night.  I was finishing up a sweater (a super secret sweater you’ll see later), and I had about six inches of sleeve left to knit.  I sat down to work on it for a few hours, thinking I could power through before it got too late.  I kept measuring it, counting my stitches and rows,  convincing myself that I was almost done.

Until the clock hit 11, and my husband reminded me it was past my bedtime.

After a little whining on my part and cajoling on his, I went to sleep, my last cuff mere rows from completion.It’s probably good he made me go to bed- when I get to this point in a project, if I’m left to my own devices, I stay up as late as necessary to finish.  (I remember once accidentally staying up until 5 in the morning on a week night, just so I could finish a dress I was sewing.  That wasn’t a great idea.)

Anyway, my knitting was still waiting for me this morning.  And after a cup of tea and a little breakfast, I’ve finished my sweater.  Now, it’s off to be blocked!Do you ever lose track of time while working on a project?

Prime-Time Knitting

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If you’ve learned anything about me, you know this:

  1. I love knitting.
  2. I love TV.
  3. I love knitting while watching TV (or watching TV while knitting).

What can I say? I’m a woman of simple tastes.

Of course, while I’m knitting, I like to match my projects with the show I’m watching.

I like re-watching old favorites.  Law and Order is always in the rotation- it’s the comforting chicken soup of TV shows (and reruns are almost always playing on some channel).  It’s so formulaic (in the best possible way), you can jump in whenever, or only pay half-attention.9d6ba87cfb1a492fc92923a892f30e661When I’m watching something like Law and Order, I can save most of my brainpower for knitting complex patterns, like these cabled socks.

Fife by Kate Gilbertfife_z_500_medium21A new favorite is Orphan Black.  It’s absolutely crazy, complicated, tense show about clones, conspiracies and peril.  I’ve spent the last week binge-watching the first three seasons, and I’m absolutely riveted.  orphanblacklsjdff1When I’m watching something as crazy as this show, I have to keep my attention on the TV, so I want something simple to knit, like this lovely blanket.

Moderne Log Cabin Blanket by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne511421163_d23641bcae_z1One of my most favorite shows, The Great British Bake Off is right in-between Law and Order and Orphan Black, in terms of how much attention it requires.  It’s tense enough that I get glued to my TV, but also, it’s just baking. (Really impressive baking.)great-british-bake-off1When I’m watching GBBO, I like to work on something comforting, yet slightly complicated.  Something interesting, fun, and satisfying.   Something like this tea cozy (I think Mary would approve):

Chocolate Cake Tea Cosy by fourchette2089133310_4ecb12fd99_z1What’s your favorite TV show/knitting combination?

On Balance

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I’m going to share with you one of my favorite pieces of knitting equipment.  It’s something a little unexpected, but super useful.  It’s great for planning new projects.  And it’s something you might already have… in your kitchen.

It’s a little scale!61znmd0vewl-_sl1222_1

Instead of measuring the length of yarn (which would be both annoying and very very difficult), I weigh it.  A new skein of yarn will always have the weight and length (for example, 100g and 250 yards) on the label, so with a little math, you’ll be able to figure out how many yards are in any half-finished ball of yarn.

This is the one I have.  I love it.  It’s got settings for grams and ounces (I like using grams, since they’re a little more accurate than ounces).  It’s also great, because the little control panel/readout can be pulled away, if you’re weighing something big (like a bowl of cherries or a whole sweater).7157zip2oel-_sl1500_1But, mostly I like this one because it’s the one we already had (we got it as a wedding gift years ago). Really, any fairly accurate kitchen scale works for weighing yarn.

So, what do I use my scale for?

Just about anything where I’m trying to estimate, predict, or calculate how much yarn I have left or how much yarn I need for a project or how much yarn I’ve already used.

For example.  I’m making a sweater, and I was afraid I wasn’t going to have enough yarn to finish the sleeves.  So, I weighed the sleeveless sweater and marked down that weight.  Then I knit one sleeve and weighed it again.  Then, with a little math, I figured out how much yarn I used for one sleeve, and therefore how much yarn I’ll need for the second one. (Spoiler: I’ve got enough yarn for the second sleeve!  Yay!)

I’ve also used my scale to plan out my mother bears.  I figured out how many grams of yarn I need for each part of a bear (skin, pants, etc.).  Then, I can go through my stash and weigh my bits of yarn to figure out which are big enough for another bear.

I try remember how much yarn I use of each skein of yarn, but sometimes yarn lives in my stash for so long, I forget what I used it for.  So, again I break out the scale to get an estimate on how much of a half-finished skein is left, which helps when I’m planning out a new project.

It seems like a silly addition to a knitting stash, but a scale is super useful!

Do you have a favorite knitting tool that you re-purposed from somewhere else?