Old Trick, New Lesson

Last week I mentioned starting a new sock. So far, I have finished the cuff, and one pattern repeat of the leg.

In one of the knitting panels I was in, someone mentioned when doing lace or a repeated pattern, it was a good idea to put stitch markers in between the repeats.

GENIUS! Of course, I did this with the "I do" shawl, but that's only because the pattern told me to. On the next round I could, I quickly added the stitch markers in between the repeats, and oh man, did it help!
You can see the stitch markers between the repeats, two per side.

This is the lesson this week: What works in one pattern, will work in another. If you always just follow a pattern to the letter, you may not get fearless and take risks in your knitting.

New Year, New Crafting Goals, and Geeky crafting

It's 2008, do you know where your knitting is?

I am coming into this year, as the Year I Get Serious about knitting. Not that I wasn't serious about it before, but just that I would like to make it a bit more of my life.

I started that this past weekend at Arisia, a science fiction convention in Cambridge, MA. I printed up some flyers and business cards, and left them around the "freebie" tables. As I was leaving on Monday, I noticed some of the cards were gone, and some of my name and email addresses were taken as well.

My flyers were to offer help on knitting, or to give lessons, or to even take commissioned work. I created an email address for it (knittingkumqat at gmail dot com). We'll see how it goes.

What I didn't do this year was sit on any crafty panels. Due to the wedding that sucked up a majority of my time (a reason this blog has been neglected), I did not want to overextend myself going into this con. It was hard for me to sit in the audience of the panel, and not want to chime in with my two cents every few seconds. Instead, I concentrated on the set-up row of my sock.

I also had a bristling run-in with a crafty vendor. The last run-in I had with this person, they sat in on a panel I was on, and kept interrupting and trying to sell their yarn during my panel. This year, I went in looking for some yarn, and I asked about a skein I was holding up. The vendor came over, grabbed the skein from my hand, and scolded "Let me tell you how to read a band on a skein of yarn!" And proceeded to do so in the most condescending tones imaginable. I walked out of their room, vowing never to buy a bead or a stitch marker from them, ever.

Now that the con is over, I'm going to get the name "The Knitting Kumquat" out there more. Look for me here, and also on Ravelry!