JessaLu Knits (and Spins!)

…is a pretty good title for this book. Interweave is my favorite publisher so I knew I wouldn’t be too disappointed - if I was disappointed at all. There are 25 patterns in this book, 6 of which have never been seen before.

I mentioned that I like Interweave - I have been a subscriber of their magazine since I started knitting in 2004. This means that I have a few of these patterns - which is okay. As far as I’m concerned, having the patterns I like all in one book is much easier than trying to find them in the magazine. Here is a list of the patterns that are in the book which were previously published in IK (listed in order of appearance in the book):

• Retro Rib Socks from Winter ‘04
• Ilga’s Socks from Spring ‘01 (pictured at Right)
• Uptown Boot Socks from Winter ‘03
• Priscilla’s Dream Socks from Fall ‘00
• Embossed Leaves Socks from Winter ‘05
• Ute Socks from Fall ‘99
• Merino Lace Socks from Summer ‘03
• Two-Yarn Resoleable Socks from Summer ‘00 (Spin Off)
• Austrian Socks from Winter ‘00
• Padded Footlets from Summer ‘05
• Meida’s Socks from Spring ‘97 (first pair of socks to appear in IK)
• Cable Rib Socks from Spring ‘05
• Anniversary Socks from Sept/Oct’03 (Piecework)
• Go with the Flow Socks from Spring ‘05
• Hidden Passion Socks from Summer ‘02
• Waving Lace Socks from Spring ‘04
• Eastern European Footlets from Winter ‘03
• Up-Down Spiral Socks from Summer ‘00

A few of these patterns were also available online for free - and some for subscribers only. Like I said, having them all in one place can’t be a bad thing.

There are six new patterns and they are all beautiful. One project that caught my eye are a pair of knee-highs from Ann Budd that taper by changing gauge with a smaller needle - not by decreasing the stitches. SO cool (see photo at Left). I’ve already gone through the book sixteen times and flagged all the projects I want to work on. Unfortunately, I can’t start anything new just yet since I’m working on a pair of socks for RR - the man requested socks, can you believe it? The man who “hates wool” ;o)

At this time Amazon has this book on pre-order - as does Barnes & Noble. If you don’t want to wait, go to KnitPicks. They have it in stock!

Oh and speaking of having things in one place - I found a site that has listed all the 2007 Knitalongs!

…isn’t what it’s all cracked up to be.

On Tuesday I mentioned that I had purchased a set of those cool stretchy circulars that some have seen (and some haven’t) around the internets. I promised a review after I had given them a run, so here goes.

It all started with optimism…I had the yarn and the pattern. I also had the new toy.

First I learned that my stretchy cast on isn’t as stretchy as I thought since I couldn’t stretch it out to the 10″ I needed to be able to have the two ends meet to commence the knitting in the round. (sorry, no picture of that part…) So I switched over to my trusty KnitPicks circs (which, as I have already discussed, are like buttah. LOVE them.) and knit about an inch of 1×1 ribbing.

At that point I decided to give the novelties a go again and switched over. These things…how can I put it delicately…um…they suck. I mean, the stitches meet, you don’t have to fiddle with the magic loop or the pointy sticks BUT you DO have to fiddle with the stitches when they need to pass over the join. Every. Single. Stitch. This did not speed up my knitting in any way shape or form.

Here is a picture of the KP circs and the stretchy ones:

See where the join is on the KP one? (the bottom needle in the picture) It’s nice and smooth, and tapered so the stitches smoothly slide onto the needle so you don’t have to yank or nudge or fiddle. It makes knitting fun - or at least funner that it is with crappy needles. Now look at the stretchy join. Barely any taper so every time a stitch meets the join, you have to fiddle it onto the needle. Definitely NOT fun.

After three rows I switched back to the KP circs, flung the damned stretchy ones (to HELL with the directions - oh and they really fly when you use the slingshot method). I made some amazing progress in 24 hours.

So, my final verdict is this: Keep your $17. If you *really* want to buy circular needles to knit socks, you can get three sets of Knitpicks circs for that price. Guess which ones I’m sticking with?

…and how certain knitting needle companies can just suck the fun right out of everything.

I had big plans for my post for today. Bunches of pictures, lots of pithy commentary, most of it all written out in my head, etc. Then I tried to transfer the bunches of pictures to my laptop and the damned thing decided it wasn’t going to recognize the built-in card reader anymore. Perfect. I had like 10 minutes before bedtime (or at least the time where I’d like to go to bed but since I procrastinate all the time I’m usually writing a post ’til I’m stupid tired) and had to re-boot the paperweight computer. I re-booted and got the pictures on there but now I’m exhausted since the re-boot takes like fifteen minutes since I have so much crap on here (time to ‘destash’ the puter) and my stress level rises the entire time. Of course, now I have to shut down every night and restart every morning anyway since I found out that my lovely trustworthy daughter has been sneaking onto my computer to update her MySp*ce page (um HELLO, can we say ‘browsing history’? Or maybe try saying this, “Mom has been playing with puters since before I was conceived so she might know a teensy bit more than me about them so I’d better stay the hell off of hers or she’ll make me wear my mouse as a freaking nose ring and it WILL NOT look cool.”)

But anyway…

BIG news! I actually won something!! Carole had a question about which knitblogger she ran into at her New England Brigade meeting and I answered correctly! Yay! It’s definitely true when they say it’s not WHAT you know but WHO ;o) There are few knitbloggers in our region who are involved in wearing hoopskirts and knitting by candlelight so my guesses were narrowed down (to the three I know of - Carole and myself being two) - and it was extremely easy for me to name Betty as Carole’s fetching twin. Yay! :o) I can’t wait to see what I’ve won - thanks, Carole!

In other not-as-big-as-winning-something-but-still-important news, I finally managed to get a photo of me knitting in public for Lucia:

(stealth photo taken in Applebees so we didn’t get laughed at by the muggles)

In even MORE news…I purchased a pair of those stretchy circulars which arrived today (I’m telling you I bought stuff…and it was hazy…now the boxes are starting to trickle in and RR is threatening me with forced labor to pay for this stuff…but the good news is every day is like Christmas). While looking over the directions on the back (you know, because the use of knitting needles is so difficult to figure out sometimes - especially with circulars. I wanted to be sure I was casting on using the right end - or even the correct one (sorry, sarcasm)), I noticed something:

Well crap. Now I can’t fling them at RR when he pisses me off - which was my main reason for purchasing these. Knitting needles can’t be used as a projectile…who knew?