Reason No. 7,659 that I love knitbloggers: Yesterday, about fifteen minutes after I posted about my encounter with extra terrestrials Jenni sent me an email detailing EXACTLY which solar system the aliens were from, which kind of ship they used to land, the instruments they used to cut the crop circles and how butt cream would do nothing to stop the twitching in my ass. Thanks Jenni!! No, really, Jenni, an engineer and ecologist in New Jersey said she thought it was probably salt marsh mitigation and DING DING DING! She’s right! I heard back from the NJ Meadowlands Commission and apparently they cleared the reeds for a mitigation project being spearheaded by the Commission and the US Army Corps of Engineers. She thinks they’re probably going to plant some new pretty plants out there. WHOOHOO! No building here! It’s like the Ghostbusters sign. Closed for business! (Oh and Risa – the stuff on the other side of the river is, I believe, going to be a golf course and/or a new apartment complex. I don’t think I’ll be able to see it from my view, thank god.)
Reason No. 7,660 that I love knitbloggers: Ivete emailed me the other day asking about the double decreases I’m doing for the Katharine Hepburn cardigan. She said she was knitting it as well and her double decreases look A LOT different than mine. I, cockily it turns out, told her I was doing what the pattern said: slip two stitches knit wise, knit the next stitch, then pass the slipped stitches over. What Ivete pointed out is that it actually says slip two stitches as if you were going k2tog, then knit one, then slip the stitches over. BIG DIFFERENCE! Thank god Ivete told me this early because her way, the CORRECT way, looks a helluva lot better than the bonehead way I was doing it. There was some ripping on my end, but not that much, and I’m VERY happy now and oh my god what if she had noticed it when I was halfway done the sweater? I would have been SO PISSED. Crises averted. Thanks Ivete!
Reason No. 7,661 that I love knitbloggers: The KH Cardigan has lots of little easy peasy cables that you turn every fourth row. I heart my cable needle. But not that much. I decided I needed to learn to cable without the damn needle, for this project at least, and Wendy came to my rescue! I can now do a simple four stitch cable cross – both left and right – without a cable needle. Although it would be great if I could remember which way I’m twisting. Yeah, yeah. We all know I can fix a freaking miscrossed cable. That doesn’t mean I should have to. Thanks Wendy!
Reason No. 7,662 that I love knitbloggers: I’m feeling extremely confident in my plan for KH – I think KNOW it’s going to fit EXACTLY the way I’d like. This is in no small part to all of you, but especially Emily – who reworked the numbers again for me and told me that I was completely correct in my assessments on how to knit this baby up. Thanks Emily!! You really made me feel good about my skillz! Now imagine my surprise, as I’m knitting in bed last night, flipping through the channels, to find EMILY on TV!! I was gliding through the guide and saw a show on PBS called The Art of Quilting. Hmmmm, I thought, this could be good for some inspiration. So I turned to it and there she was!! EMILY! Have you seen what this girl can do with some fabric and a sewing machine? OH MY GOD! She’s a genius! (She knits, dyes yarn AND she likes crunching numbers for other people. I guess she’s crazy, too.)
After all this goodness, I’m cruising on Katharine Hepburn!
God bless KNITBLOGGERS one and all!
Ah yes…we do love this community. I bought one of Emily’s quilted bags and just love carrying it.
How awesome Ivete noticed your decreases! She’s worth her weight in gold!
Love KH!!
KH looks beautiful!! and i am wholeheartedly in love with cabling without a cable needle! glad you picked it up. (butt cream just sounds funny. ha!)
Lots of knitbloggie love right back atcha, Cara!
I love your KH cardi photos so much that my heart aches.
Thanks for sharing your experience with the KH cables. I plan to knit this sweater one day, and your post will (probably) help me avert crisis as well! 😉
You pick out the best sweaters to knit. I could just follow you around and knit what you knit and always be knitting something perfect.
But not in green. It’s just not easy being green and it’s my husband’s least favorite color.
Yes, this community is wonderful 🙂 I’ve been so much happier since I started blogging!
I’m avidly following your progress on the KH cardigan. It looks marvelous so far! I love that green too 🙂
That green is stunning. The sweater is going to be beautiful. I too love knitbloggers. Grumpygirl helped me with my Debbie Bliss Picot dress – even posted a picture the next day of a particular section that I was having a hard time working on so that I could have a visual. Knitbloggers do indeed rock!
I also like reading your writing – you’re funny and energetic!
Definitely a fabulous community. Thanks for the info on the crop circles and the ceaseless but going nowhere work on the other side.
That sweater is gorgeous and might just have me rethinking the whole sweater knitting.
That’s a lot of serendipity! Good for you! The sweater’s looking great too.
So what’s a mitigation project all about?
ha! i made the same double decrease mistake with my jaywalkers. the RIGHT way does look much better 🙂
You are one terrific knitter. I am impressed with this sweater and watching you make the CPH. Thanks for your sharing on a blog for all of us to learn from. I also am going to make the correction on the double decrease on the Jaywalkers… One sock will be the old way and the new way. I will call them my learning lesson socks.
Everyone has useful skills to share…you helped out me out alot with the photography. What goes around….
It is so great to have a community of people to have our backs.
Add me to the knitblogger list, I want to send you some Bruce Springsteen goodness. BRUCE! How could you resist! But either you haven’t had time to write back (which I can totally understand, considering the hunt for the Louet that you went through last weekend), or you have and my e-mail ate it. I am obviously a dork, because I’ve looked and looked, and I can’t find your e-mail address anywhere on here to write you privately.
BRUCE! Just for YOU! BRUCE! 😀
I think I might just paste my head on top of yours when you finish the KH sweater (kidding). There is no way it is getting knit any time soon.
When I cable without a needle, the only way that I can remember which way it twists is thinking of JFK when Kevin Costner says, “Back and to the left.” For me, digging into the back of the stitches produces a left cable . . . but try that for yourself before I fuck up your whole sweater.
I LOVE this post! Don’t we all have thousands of reasons to love knitbloggers? Emily’s one of my favorites (dear and generous), too.
i am currently doing a shawl with that same double decrease and made the same mistake you did. luckily i picked up on it before i had gotten too far into the pattern. i guess, sometimes we just read what we want to and not what is actually written. i do this A LOT! ;0)
and thanks for the link to the cables without a cable needle. can’t wait to try it out! :0)
I loved that quilting show. And I really love your Kate there. Looks great in green.
KH is looking amazing!
You’re very welcome! Now your picture looks just like mine, except it’s hard to see as much detail on mine since it’s BLACK . . . and don’t worry, if I had noticed after you’d finished the whole thing I would not have said anything, I don’t want to be THAT girl. 😉
WOW!
There is such a difference in the 2 decreases–yeah for Ivete!
KH is beautiful, love that green with passion plus.
Yay on the mitigation project, your view will be even lovelier.
I checked out the link to Emily’s work, and ohmigosh. Her nature quilts are so breathtaking, I’ve been getting all emotional just looking at the details!
It *is* wonderful when people can find something, some work or craft or something, that they really love and can keep learning from. rock!