LollyKnitting Around: Craft. Photography. Travel.

Year of the Books

By lolly on 12/28/2011 in Book Business / Reviews

I’ve read a lot of books this year. With an unemployment period spanning nearly 8 months (*sigh*), I have found a lot of companionship in between the pages, and the Kindle buttons.

Books and reading are my favorite conversation topics. With yarn and knitting as a very close second. Perhaps because reading has been a passion of mine since childhood, while knitting just came on scene in the past decade… I get a lot of requests for book recommendations, and this is one of my favorite things to do. I usually point people to my Good Reads account because I write pretty detailed reviews there and use their star-rating system (though I wish had .5 stars! or even .25 or .75 stars!).

In these days before 2012, I look back at all the books I’ve read this year (and the one that remains on my nightstand – still time to finish before the new year!)

Notes: ** Best of 2011 – my recommended favorites for the year. All links point to my GoodReads reviews. You can see all the book covers here.

Winging It

By lolly on 12/06/2011 in Japanese Gansey

After writing a post a few weeks ago about my plans for winter sweaters, I went and completely changed my mind about one of them. I decided to go with a completely different pattern for this year’s anniversary sweater – a true challenge.

First some background: You may recall that my last two trips to New York City have included stops at Kinokuniya Book Store, the well-stocked Japanese language book store in Manhattan. I don’t know a lick of Japanese, but I do know that their crafting books are phenomenal, and I figured that one day I would have the knitting confidence to take on. the challenge of “winging it” through one of the patterns. Japanese knitting pattern writing is different than American or European styles, but even without a word of English, it is possible to decipher the charts and the schematics and construct the garment. This is what I am trying to do…

The Japanese gansey pattern from the Let’s Knit Series – Men’s Knits. I talked myself in to the challenge when I saw that it is essentially a box construction: drop shoulders, no shaping in the body. The stitch pattern is fully charted… simple enough, right? Luckily, I have a good friend who knows some Japanese and is also a knitter. She sent over some tips for knitting, and I was able to get a rough idea about gauge and sizing based on swatches.

Kris choose this deep red wool in the stash and I cast on for the sleeve. I decided to start with the sleeve to measure the gauge and make my calculations from there. I am past the elbow now and have started the gansey chart for the sleeve. I am trying the length and width on Kris’s arm and so far it seems to be working well. Maybe “cutting my teeth” on this pattern will allow me the confidence to try some of the other beautiful patterns in the books?

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#FriFotos #FridayReads and the Power of Hashtags

By lolly on 12/02/2011 in Photography, Wanderlust and Musings

Over the last few Fridays, I have participated in the Twitter project #FriFotos (if you are not familiar with hashtags, basically it is a mechanism to sort and display every bit of information that includes this word(s) succeeding the # sign). So, anyone anywhere can participate on Twitter by linking to a photograph and then typing #FriFotos into the text. This will display as clickable, and you can see everyone else who has also contributed to the “album” of FriFotos.

For this particular project – geared to photographers and travelers – there is a weekly theme. A few weeks ago, I contributed some photos of DOORS for that week’s theme. Today’s theme is SKYLINE. The theme is usually pretty open to interpretation, so you can go the traditional route of cityscapes and twinkly lights or something more natural. That’s what makes it fun! Here are some of my contributions this week from various travels over the years:

Chicago 2007

San Diego 2009

Juneau, Alaska 2010

Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite 2011

Hashtags are powerful little tools. They can be quite useful metadata tools, but can be easily manipulated – like so many things on the web – by commercial interests and spambots. If you do participate in social media circles, however, hashtags are a great way to meet new people with similar interests. Using #FriFotos are an example again: I share a photograph from this year’s trip to Yosemite National Park. When I tag it, everyone can see that. PersonX just got back from Yosemite and has a photo to share that is very similar. Shared interest and common bond. Added bonus when I see that PersonX is also into the same kind of music as I am. New acquaintance and new thread in the web of life – all because of a hashtag. From there, it can just keep on going.

Another hashtag that I particularly enjoy and participate in each week is the #FridayReads group on Twitter. While they have been mired in a bit of controversy lately, the fact remains that it is a community of readers who like to talk about books. Each week, I report which book I am reading and attach the #FridayReads hashtag. The moderator (@TheBookMaven) calculates how many people participate just for fun, and when you click on the hashtag, you can see what everyone else is reading. Maybe that book that you have been meaning to pick up? something long forgotten? or an author that you like that has a new piece out?

While the concept sounds so elementary, social media really just comes back to community building and engagement. How do you meet new people? how do you interact? The hashtag for #Socktoberfest on Twitter was really fun this year with several updates and interactions.

As the tweet above suggests, I have been reading up a storm lately… I’m planning a little Reading Year in Review post soon. Stay tuned!

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NaKniSweMo Wrap Up

By lolly on 11/28/2011 in Reverse Terra Cardi

It is official – another addition to the National Knit a Sweater Month archives – I think this is my 5th one? – of sweaters knit within the month of November. I didn’t challenge myself too much in the technique department, but I did introduce a never-before-attempted form: a cardigan with pockets! The coziest of sweaters *always* have pockets!

Terra Cardigan :: reverse stockinette with pockets

Pattern: Rebecca 34 magazine – #13 pattern
Yarn: The Fibre Company Terra in “Nettle” colorway
Needles: Size US 8

As I stated on my Ravlery notebook, all Rebecca patterns need some “hand holding” and this one was no different. The problem with this one was the armholes and the sleeve length. The armholes were very deep in the pattern as written, and I ended up doing some extra seaming to fix this in the end. Also, the sleeves were pretty long to begin with, and got even longer after blocking. This was my 5th Rebecca pattern, so I always go in knowing that I have to rely on common sense and “knitter’s intuition”.

Since I finished this one the week before Thanksgiving, I have worn it nearly everyday. It is perfect to pull on as I head to the mail box or out on a dog walk. I have worked with Terra before (I wrote up that pattern for the Sherbrooke Cowl using it back in 2008) and it is a very nice yarn. It did stretch a lot in blocking, which worked out because I wanted a longer cardigan. However, if you are going for a more form-fitting garment, it is worth noting that when you use this yarn.

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Alpaca Festival

By lolly on 11/22/2011 in Local Fare (MD, DC), Meetups / Festivals

Had it not been for Twitter and someone’s small mention of the Maryland Alpaca Festival this weekend… well, I wouldn’t have been able to see these precious faces! The huge Maryland Sheep and Wool festival in May attracts thousands of tourists – literally people from all over the world – all descending on the fairgrounds of this rural patch. The Alpaca Festival doesn’t have the same storied history or the huge crowds, but I am not complaining! I got a prime parking spot, and didn’t have to wait in line for anything. And I got to pet lots of alpacas!

I met up with my friend Isel and we had the best time talking to the farmers and vendors, feeling the yarns, and planning some knits. All the farms represented were Maryland farms, so it was a great way to support these local businesses. We both had a good laugh over the two alpacas with pop culture names: Bad Romance and Hot Toddy. Their owner was telling us that they are just over a year old. They were communicating with each other with these little hums and grunts.

There are two types of alpacas: the Suri with their silky locks and the Huacaya with the fluffy pillowy hair. Both are native to the Andrean regions of South America. They are a domesticated camelid, but smaller than the llamas and camels you see – some only about 3-4 feet tall. Their wild ancestors, the vicunas, still roam in the Andes. The alpaca was domesticated long ago, with their fiber prized for its silkiness, and hypoallergenic qualities.

Isel dabbles in spinning, so she brought home some roving and some lovely green yarn. I happened upon some burnt orange yarn that was hard to pass up. It’ll be perfect for a cardigan…

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LollyKnitting Around

Year of the Books

Non-Fiction

Fiction

Graphic Novels / Sequential Art (Fiction and NF)

Cookbooks

Miscellany (How-tos, Reference)

Winging It

#FriFotos #FridayReads and the Power of Hashtags

NaKniSweMo Wrap Up

Terra Cardigan :: reverse stockinette with pockets

Alpaca Festival

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Archives

LollyKnitting Around

Year of the Books

Non-Fiction

Fiction

Graphic Novels / Sequential Art (Fiction and NF)

Cookbooks

Miscellany (How-tos, Reference)

Winging It

#FriFotos #FridayReads and the Power of Hashtags

NaKniSweMo Wrap Up

Terra Cardigan :: reverse stockinette with pockets

Alpaca Festival

Where I Roam

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Archives