Not so clever after all.

I, like many, alter almost every pattern I come across. I think it is ridiculous to knit garments flat; if I wanted a sweater with seams I would go to the store and buy one. One of the greater glories of knitting is that it is easier to get a seamless garment than it is to get one with excess bulkiness at the sides. I also generally slip the first stitch of every row if I am knitting something flat, a scarf or swatch for example. I generally alter patterns left and right and feel very smug and clever.

This doesn't always last very long. A lot of times I alter a pattern before I even think about it, then after all that excess work and thinking how dumb the designer was to do it this way I realize that I am in fact the idiot here. Luckily this is only knitting and not world peace-keeping, it does have a tendency to bring me back down to earth with all the other knitters however.

Currently I am knitting Woolly Pears by Nicky Epstein from the Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts magazine. Since the project was small I decided to try it first without alteration and see where that got me. I couldn't help slipping the first stitch of every row though, I just like how good it looks. I finished and was quite pleased with the results. Including my terrible seaming skills. Then I tried another one exactly as written and it turned out even better. I guess I am not as much as a genius as, say, someone who has written several successful books. Everyone has their day.

The Goose is Getting Fat

While I am huge fan of many pictures on knitting blogs, and will often disregard one for lack of pictures, the technology is currently out of my reach (read: I have pictures on my camera and I am not entirely sure how to get them on my computer and from there onto the internet). At any rate all the knitting I am doing right now is Christmas knitting and I don't want to put pictures of that up on the off chance someone in my family sees it. It would seem that that would be damn near impossible, but my mother has an improbability drive that rivals none.
This year is the first year I am knitting everyone something for Christmas. Usually one or two people get something handknit and everyone else gets something rather boring. This year though I planned ahead and started early. I ordered all my yarn online www.knitpicks.com in October and started knitting. I can now proudly say that everyone is getting something. Those getting socks are all at least getting one sock. I am now going back and knitting the matching sock for all sets, but at least no one will be completely without a gift. I do enjoy knit picks yarn. Very inexpensive and good quality. I have never been disappointed in knit picks and I would recommend them to anyone.

So it begins

In an effort to add my two cents to the world at large I am officially beginning my new knitting blog.