Light Petrol

Pattern modified from Knitty: Petrol

Gauge: 20 sts x 29 rounds/ 4” in pattern

Materials: TLC Cotton Plus (51% cotton, 49% acrylic. 186 yds) <4 skeins in color navy (MC), 1 in moss (CC1) and 0.5 in aran (CC2). Circular needles 29” size US7 and size US8 Denise circulars.
Started: November 1, 2005
Frogged: November 4, 2005
Finished: November 26, 2005

Finished measurements after blocking:
Chest: 46”
Length: 24”

Notes:
Stitch pattern – k4, p2 on RS. P all on WS. K last stitch of every row and sl1 purlwise at beginning of every row.

Back:
Cast on 116 sts. Purl row 1. Work in stitch pattern to row 67 in MC. Begin chest stripe section on WS as below. At the SAME TIME, begin armhole shaping.

Work chest stripe as follows:
13 rows CC1
8 rows CC2
4 rows CC1
2 rows CC2
4 rows CC1
8 rows CC2
13 rows CC1 (begins on row 107)

Begin armhole shaping on RS row 108 (2nd row of last stripe of CC1, work measures 15”) as follows: Cast off 5 sts at beginning of next two rows (96 sts). Decrease 1 st at both ends of every RS row 10 times (86 sts). Work even to 24”. Bind off with RS facing (row 172, row 51 of MC).

Front:
Work as for front up to armhole shaping. AT THE SAME TIME, begin neckline shaping when piece measures 17” as follows. (This will be after 3 rows in the MC, working on the WS). Purl 45 sts. Transfer 2 sts to safety pin and leave remaining 45 sts to be worked later. Working on right front of vest only (left side of RS), slip 1, SSK, work in pattern to end and continue armhole shaping. Repeat decreases for neckline shaping a total of 18 times. 24 sts remain. Continue without further shaping until work measures 24”. Bind off with RS facing (row 172). Repeat on left front of vest. Break yarn leaving enough to sew shoulder seams. Sew shoulder seams. Measure out a length sufficient to sew side seams but do not break yarn as this will be used for armhole finishing. Sew side seams.

Armhole:
With yarn used for side seams, pick up and knit 5 stitches every 8 rows. K2, p2 for 5 rounds and bind off in k2, p2 ribbing with larger needles.

Neckline:
Pick up and knit 5 stitches every 8 rows along neck sides knitting two stitches from safety pins as you get to them and pick up 1 stitch for every bound off stitch across back neck. K2, p2 for 5 rounds and bind off in k2, p2 ribbing with larger needles.

Discussion:
Well, according to Wendy, I’m a designer too. I call this Light Petrol, because it’s so loosely based on Petrol. I don’t necessarily believe that this is a design of my own, since how many original designs for a sweater vest can you actually get? They’re all basically the same shape, right?

I will say that I was not impressed with the directions on the original pattern. Let me start off by saying that I don't really count stitches most of the time because I'm usually off on my own with number of stitches because I never make a size that's actually calculated out in the pattern itself. But this one was glaring. The directions say to start armhole shaping, and then when the piece measured x", start neckline shaping. Great, except then the pattern goes on to give specific stitch counts to shape the neck and the count did not take the decreases for the armhole shaping into consideration at all. I'm sure it was just a typo, but I'm surprised it got past the tech editors over at Knitty.

Of course, I have stitch AND row counts in my notes above, so I should probably be slapped. I'll have to remember the things I complain about if I ever do decide to write a real pattern someday.

This project absolutely flew except for the armhole and neckline finishing. In true knittingspaz fashion, I did each armhole three times and the neckline twice and am still not 100% happy with the finished product since I still think it pulls a bit around the neck. But it’s good enough and I think my grandpa will enjoy it enough so that I can move on to other Christmas projects!

Previous posts about this project:
Yes that’s my binary girlfriend on the floor on 11/8/2005
Vegas style on 11/15/2005
A picture, a picture!!! on 11/16/2005
I come by it honest on 11/22/2005
Tuesday is pictureless knitalong day on 11/29/2005

Unbiased

Pattern: Unbiased on Knitty

Materials: LACIS NP 29 Sari yarn(100% silk, 100g), 3 skeins. Size 8 circulars.
Finished size: 12.5” tall on long edge, 5” tall at middle, and 15” wide.

Started: September 29, 2005
Completed: November 22, 2005

Notes:
Followed pattern exactly!

Discussion:
For anyone interested in making unbiased, the pattern SUCKS, imho. Sorry, did I say that out loud? Maybe it was just my execution, but the pattern diagram doesn't at all look like how it comes out. The diagram conveniently was not drawn to scale. Looking at the diagram, you'd think that the middle of the bag would be about 8 inches tall (only if you got out your ruler and did a little math would you probably arrive at this number. It really looks like it's about half as tall as it is wide). That's reasonable.

But then read the pattern. If you start in the lower left hand corner and increase on either end in garter stitch until your edge measures 7.5 inches you get a 45-45-90 triangle. Then you’re supposed to maintain the bias and knit up the piece until the long side measures 12.5 inches. If we’re not changing the angle of the hypoteneuse, what do you think the short edge should measure? A measly 5 inches I tell you.

Five inches wouldn’t be all that bad, except there's no gusset. So if you put anything in there that's not a flat sheet of paper, the bottom flattens out so that the middle of the bag measures more like 3 inches. What's the use of a bag whose length is 15 inches and is only 3 inches tall?

Previous posts about this project:
She-Ra on 10/4/2005
Shout out on 10/11/2005
Lost on 10/31/2005
I come by it honest on 11/22/2005
Tuesday is pictureless knitalong day on 11/29/2005

Tuesday is pictureless knitalong day

Yes yes, I've been MIA. I blame it on the frenzied knitting and eating and family visiting and flying and... I'll just shut up now.

This post will be short since I have more frenzied knitting to get back to, but in an effort to stay on my promised knitalong updates on Tuesdays (it's 10pm PST, it still counts!) here's the lowdown:
1. DF finished the strap on Unbiased and it was given to future SIL over the weekend. I had to beg DF not to give it to her because it just didn't measure up to spaz standards. I wanted to hide behind DF when future SIL opened the gift. I was too ashamed. Her suggestion was to add a zipper or some other closure to make it a bit functional. I thought it might work well as a trashcan liner myself.
2. I finished Light Petrol. Only a minor amount of spazzing on the neckline and armhole openings for this one. Amazing, ain't it?
3. I cast on for Hoodie Boogie Rock 2 for my grandfather. It's flying this time since I've already worked out most of the pattern details and changed the cable border to garter stitch border. I think this border is significantly more masculine.

No pictures still since the camera is with my parents. I'll post summary posts at some point to clear out my sidebar I swear, but they'll have to be pictureless.

BTW, has anyone noticed that since announcing my engagement early on in the life of this blog, not a peep has been mentioned about the W word? Honestly, it's because I'm SCARED SHITLESS of the planning process. Could it be my perfectionist, OCD tendencies? Or maybe my need to please everyone? Or perhaps I'm afraid of the Catholic church refusing to marry us pagans (okay, it's just me)? Or even, by some wild stretch of the imagination, maybe I could be afraid of offending every family member we have and just elope. Anyone have a paper bag so I don't pass out?

Also, I noticed that haloscan has been slowly eating my early comments. Do they delete comments after a certain number, or do they just delete them after a certain period of time? Thinking more and more about just paying for a blog...

I come by it honest

That's what DF's dad usually says when I complain about something that DF does that annoys me. Usually it's something that his dad also does, hence DF "comes by it honest" and didn't just come up with that all on his own. So I swear, my stashing tendencies are in that category of things that I come by honestly.

My dad used to change the oil in his cars all on his own. He used to have a thing where you always put the same oil in the car so it runs better. We're not talking about just always using 10W-40 here. We're not even talking about just always using Pennzoil 10W-40 here. He means the same lot number of the same product. He should be a knitter. The concept of dyelotting wouldn't even phase him. Anyway, my dad would wait for a sale on motor oil, and then just buy cases upon cases of motor oil. It's not like it has an expiration date on it, right? You can walk into the garage and open up the storage closet and see it crammed floor to ceiling with cases of the stuff. When we sold a car that we'd had for almost 10 years, my dad put the motor oil in the trunk because that's the only lot of motor oil that car had ever seen and of course the next owner would want the original motor oil to come with it, right? He had no further use for that lot of motor oil after all.

The same goes for food stashing. My parents are in a constant state of preparedness. When Hurricane Rita was bearing down on the gulf coast and everyone else was panicking, my parents sat back and watched the mayhem on TV. They didn't need to raid the grocery store for bottled water or canned food items. They have enough to last through 3 hurricanes and the earthquake that might hit in 2065.

I myself only have enough canned food to make it through 1 earthquake. Square footage issues are quite limiting.

I know I said that Tuesday is Knitalong Day. So here's the progress.

Wait, isn't that the same as it was previously? No, it's a different picture, I swear. This is the front, really. So I guess this makes me 75% of the way done with Holiday gift number #4. Technically, the last picture I flashed isn't really the way it is anymore. I realized that when recalculating my gauge i didn't recalculate the number of stitches to bind off and decrease for the armhole shaping. I just followed the numbers blindly from the pattern. Holding it up to DF for sizing, the armholes just weren't wide enough, so I recalculated based on the number of inches that were decreased out so the armhole dimensions are about the same. I have to do the same thing for the neckline shaping now, and well, I'm just tired. Maybe on the plane when we take YET ANOTHER RED EYE flight on the worst travel day of the year. Yay.

DF is done seaming the Unbiased bag for my future SIL and is slowly working on the straps. We're hoping that this will be done for the Thanksgiving Christmas exchange to occur this weekend at his family's house. *holding breath and turning blue*

The envelope please...

First off, I'd like to thank Laura for the mention on her Three Blog Thursday post this week. I've never thought of myself as a rolling on the floor laughing my ass off kind of writer (usually I'm the one people worry about when I'm doubled over in laughter that sounds strangely like hiccups and hyperventilating to the point where I'm blue and clutching at my sides complaining of kidney pain), so I'm flattered. I like Laura's weekly feature, so go by and check out her blog if you haven't already.

The guesses are in and the balls (tee-hee!) have been counted. And the winner is…

Chrissy with 201!

Since I asked for your guesses of balls, including partials, Chrissy was the closest to my actual count of *looking around to see if anyone else is listening, especially DF* 208 (Strike that, 210. I got MORE yarn today and I apparently didn't remember how many balls of Jaeger Luxury Tweed I had ordered. *hiding*). Granted, 20 of those are partial balls, so if you only count those that are full balls, it’s considerably less. And mind you, 29 of those full balls are for works actually in progress to be included in Christmas knitting. Oh forget it. I'm just rationalizing. I’m coming out of hiding now. Hello, my name is Jen, and I am a yarnaholic. There, I said it. Too bad I have no intention of completing the other 11 steps.

Like Keohinani, I did a spreadsheet to catalog my stash. I’m hoping that it will help me resist buying new yarn when I see a pattern I like since it’s organized by weight and remaining yardage. I have no idea how to link to an excel file, so here’s a picture of the page 1 of 3. I shamelessly filtered out the acrylic yarns… Anyway, if you actually do want to see the excel file itself, I’d be happy to share if you leave a comment.

Lastly, I just wanted to vouch for Laurie's assertion that Angelenos are obsessed with sushi. There's a sushi restaurant on every corner. Within walking distance of my place, I can count 5 restaurants. Realize also that walking distance in LA is no further than a block, despite the fact that you might walk further than that if you drive because there's never parking that close to where you want to go. There are sushi restaurants next to sushi restaurants. I don't get it.

But I will say that I've had the best sushi of my life just last night. The place we went to is something of a sushi nazi kind of place. The waitresses bring you whatever the chef wants to make for you and says, "No Soy Sauce!". Most telling of the 'tude this place carries, the sign at the front door says, "We do not serve California Rolls or Spicy Tuna Rolls." Whatever. It was still worth it.

A picture, a picture!!!!

Lookee here!! I thought it'd be something like 6 weeks before I could post a picture again. Wonder of wonders I realized, hey, wait a minute, I have a scanner! Exclamation points!!!

Anyway, this is the progress I have on Light Petrol. I'm a few inches away from finishing the back, so I guess I'll call it 40% done. That's the chest striping. I looked up suggestions on how wide to make my chest stripes, and all I got was Fibonacci numbers. So you know how on every single IQ test or other standardized test they ask you, what's the next number in this sequence: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21... Well, yeah. Every time I have to figure it out. And no, I didn't realize that there was a name for this particular sequence. Now I know.

Anyway, the problem with using Fibonacci numbers to dictate the width of your stripes is that most of the smaller numbers are odd. Not great for knitting and carrying your yarn up the side of the work. So I cheated and used 4 instead of 5. But that bleed through you see between the green stripe and the blue main color, yeah, that's because I changed colors incorrectly and didn't realize until I was to change colors again that you can prevent the color bleed through if you're careful about choosing a side to change on. If anyone's interested, in this case, I changed on the wrong side of the work to prevent bleed through because that side is where I purl all the way across and on the right side it looks like all knits.

In case anyone was paying attention, of course I'm not following the pattern as written. Most obviously, I changed the gauge altogether and substituted yarns. As you can see, I also changed the chest striping. And amazingly enough for one who hates finishing, I also converted this to a flat piece. I originally did this because I don't like the armhole shaping procedure when knit in the round, and I didn't like the idea of having to keep track of whether I was on an odd round where I needed to knit in pattern, or an even round where I needed to knit around. As a bonus, I did get to avoid the color jog this way. Of course, if I hadn't decided to do this flat, I wouldn't have worried so much about the odd numbers and carrying the yarn up the side. You win some, you lose some.

Stash

Anyone want to hazard a guess on the total number of unused balls (partials included) in my stash???

Answers later this week...

Two posts!

Okay, this shouldn't really count as a post, but in honor of this coming Friday...

GRYFFINDOR!
You scored 8% Slytherin, 36% Ravenclaw, 64% Gryffindor, and 40% Hufflepuff!
You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry
Set Gryffindors apart.

Gryffindors are known for their courage, audacity, and devotion to what is good and honest.



My test tracked 4 variables. How you compared to other people your age and gender:
You scored higher than 4% on Slytherin
You scored higher than 63% on Ravenclaw
You scored higher than 81% on Gryffindor
You scored higher than 81% on Hufflepuff

Link: The Sorting Hat Test written by leeannslytherin on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Also, Keohinani did a quasi Flash Your Stash today. Or maybe it's not really today because I'm so behind in my blog reading. Anyway, I've never seen anyone with QUITE so much sock yarn... I'm jealous I tell you. But also, I've been meaning to flash mine as well because it's just downright ridiculous and my credit card is about to spontaneously combust. But I swear, almost every last bit is earmarked for a specific project. You'll see...

Vegas style

So I have a doppelganger. My brother Bryan married a Jen over the weekend in Las Vegas. People are still creeped out by that, but I don't really understand why. I think it's kind of funny that my brother married a Jen and I plan to marry a Ryan. There's a bit of discussion on what to call Mrs. Jen and what to call me. My dad is pushing for my childhood nickname to carry over to differentiate between us: Jumbo Jen vs. just Jen. I don't think I understood the oxymoron when my dad first coined that nickname as a child. BTW, I wanted to use the word "Ironic" here to describe my nickname, but ever since that Alanis Morisette song, I've never been able to remember the correct use of the word again...

Back to my point, the wedding was a wedding IN Vegas, not a Vegas Wedding. The wedding planners there are trying hard to make a distinction between the two. For my brother's part, he had elements of both. No Little White Chapel, but definitely Elvis and the magic disappearing, reappearing box to make a grand entrance.

The highlight of the weekend went something like this:
SIL: So I had to get special shoes to go with this dress.
Me: Why's that?
SIL: Well, the dress is a bit too big for my height, so I had to get really tall shoes. They're 7 inches.
Me: 7 inches? Should I refrain from touching you lest you topple over?
SIL: Actually they're surprisingly comfortable.
Me: I have to see these. Show me your shoes!
SIL: Well, a lot of brides are doing it these days... *flashing 4 inch clear acrylic platform shoes with clear acrylic heels and clear plastic straps*
DF: THOSE ARE STRIPPER SHOES!!!
Mom: And how would you know that?

As for knitting content, I don't really have anything to show since my camera is being held hostage by my parents until Christmas. DRATS! So there will be many FO pictures after Christmas, and I'll just have to do the summary without the pictures until then. At least that way, you'll be able to see the finished product on the recipient instead of on the carpet. For now, I have the chest stripe section almost done on the back of Light Petrol. Miles and miles of garter/stockinette columns is getting a bit tedious...

Edited to add: I also joined the Who Wouldn't Love a Handknitted Gift KAL. I think I'll do the Blue Blog classic, Tuesday is Knitalong Day update. Hoping to get my butt in gear as it appears I still have 6 gifts out of 9 left! 39 days and counting...

When monkeys fly out of your butt...

So apparently I've been drinking too much wine lately because I'm just not making any sense at all anymore. I think I am starting to take ex rectum to a whole new level. I blame the following exchange on Kim for planting the seed in my head.

Me: Hey what was that wine you were talking about earlier with your dad?
DF: Which one?
Me: You know, THAT one.
DF: No, I don't know.
Me: I don't remember the name of it. Just someone else recommended the same wine on my blog today. I think it was something like Obscuratum or something similar.
DF: Obscuratum? No, I don't know that one...
Me: Yeah, something like that. Maybe Offenbach Obscuratum?
DF: Well what did we say about the wine?
Me: I don't know. It was white?
DF: Oh, I mentioned it was the bottle with the screw top instead of a cork. That was Camus Conundrum! Offenbach Obscuratum?
Me: Well, the alliteration was sort of there...
DF: Offenbach Obscuratum!?!
... (20 minutes) ...
DF: Offenbach Obscuratum!

Sorry I've been such a bad blogger lately. Not much to see here, and I have about 100 posts to read still. I'm taking a long weekend starting tomorrow, so I'm afraid of seeing how many posts I'll be behind after I get back! EEK!

WOW!

I don't do this near enough, but I just thought that this particular post warranted special attention. If anyone is interested in a very detailed breakdown on how to chart out a cable pattern by looking at an existing design, go to Eunny's post here. She's very good at showing step by step how you'd break down a cable pattern you see somewhere but can't find in a stitch dictionary. This is great for all of you aspiring designers, especially you cable fans. Thanks Eunny for sharing your technical and designing expertise!

Yes that’s my binary girlfriend on the floor

I have no new knitting content today except to mention that I finished #1 on my Christmas knitting list on Halloween.  YAY!  Except that Hoodie Boogie Rock v1.0 won’t fit my grandmother.  BOO!  My mother tried it on and it fits her perfectly.  Being an enviable size 6 at her perpetual age of 29 (she started counting backwards years ago, but she has just stopped de-aging altogether now that she’s younger than both of her children), we decided that the hoodie just wouldn’t be large enough for my very “hearty” grandmother.  Think Polish build but compacted down into average Chinese height.  I hope I didn’t offend anyone there.  So I get to start over on #1 of my list.  Good news is, my mom actually wanted to keep the vest, so it wasn’t a completely loss.  I’m just not going to block and add the zipper in until after the rest of the Christmas knitting is done.

So I cast on for #3 (light worsted gauge version of Petrol) over the weekend.  Nothing exciting to show… just a few rows of 4x2 ribbing.  BTW, TLC cotton plus is a moderately splitty yarn, but it’s actually reasonably nice to work with.  Feels more like cotton than acrylic.  Definitely nicer than the Patons Shetland Chunky I was working with on Hoodie Boogie Rock.

So I don’t really drink.  You name it, and I don’t drink it.  Water, coffee, tea, wine, beer, and liquor are all on my non-preferred fluids list.  Sugar in liquid format is different though.  DF, on the other hand is a huge fan of just about everything I just listed.  In an effort to better understand him, I’ve been trying to find a wine that I can stomach.  I’ve gotten to a point where smelling wine doesn’t make my nose wrinkle 100% of the time.  It’s more like 95% now, but I consider that progress.

DF and I went to a wine tasting a few weeks ago.  No, it probably didn’t make much sense to bring me along to the tasting where some 30 different wines were available for consumption, but I rationalized it by saying that a designated driver was worth the extra cash.  Anyway, DF handed me glass after glass of wine to smell and asked so what do you think?  My answers varied from “Ick” to “eww”.  Except one: Il Falchetto Brachetto d’Acqui.  Asked to describe: “Good!”

So we decided to branch out and try something else.  We picked out a moscato but were wondering what the difference was between two vineyards’ versions.  So I told DF to ask.  The conversation went something like this:
DF: So what do you think of XXX moscato vs. YYY moscato?
Store owner:  blah blah blah acidic blah blah blah rounder blah floral
Me: *blankstare*
Store owner: How would you describe the *Italian mumbling*
Me: I liked it.
Store owner: What did you think of this other *Italian doohickey name*
Me: I didn’t like it
Store owner:  Well what are you going to serve this moscato with?
Me:  *blink*
Store owner: So what was it that you didn’t like about *Italian doohickey name*
Me: *blink*
Store owner: Well, what do you like?
Me: Does Welch’s grape soda count?
Store owner: C’mon.  You can’t say that you like Welch’s grape soda better than *more Italian mumbo jumbo*.
Me: *ducking behind counter*
Store owner to DF: What’s she doing?
DF: She’s hiding.  Don’t worry, it’s normal for her.  

But I’m working on getting better answers than “Like” and “don’t like”.  Although I definitely think that the binary wine scale is much easier to follow than that absurd 100 point scale that the wine magazines will have you believe in.  I even added a third dimension to my wine descriptions: pear.  Just try Cascina Fonda moscato d’Asti.  

If you haven't...

seen this already. You must GO HERE NOW! These guys just crack me up.

Me too, me too!

Okay, so I was incredibly dorky and thinking of tagging myself for this meme ever since seeing it on Carolyn's blog. Thankfully, I didn't have to feel quite so dorky since it's managed to make its way to me. Thanks Chrissy!

1. What is your all-time favorite yarn to knit with?

Gee, I don't think I actually have one. I've only knit with a few things and I can't exactly say that I loved one over another. The only thing that I know for certain is that I have become something of a yarn snob and I don't really like knitting with cheap acrylic. Sometimes it's a necessity, but I don't really like the feel of shag carpet running through my fingers. The Malabrigo DF is using right now, however, feels like heaven and is about the only thing I've actually purchased that I would prefer to knit with over other things I have used. I can't say however, that I actually like the end product any more than other garments I've made, but I certainly like the process a whole lot more.

2. Favorite needles?

Again, I haven't used a whole lot of different ones, but I definitely prefer circulars over straights. I've all but abandoned my straight needles (all Susan Bates). I have a tendency to reach for my Denise Needles more than anything else, but I think this has more to do with the fact that I don't own other circulars in sizes except for 5 and 8 with hat length cords (not very useful for sweaters) and 7, 10, and 10.5 in man sized sweater lengths (also not very useful if I'm making a sweater in the round for myself). I should start seaming sweaters, huh?

3. What's the worst thing you ever knit?

Hmm, does it have to be something I've actually finished? I'd say the abandoned Needful Yarns poncho. As I had mentioned in my UFO report, it got ripped out and is now languishing in another format. I didn't make gauge, and the gauge I had for the majority of the project didn't match my cast on or bind off rows at all, so getting the pieces to lay flat in nice rectangles for seaming was NOT going to happen. And worst of all, the yarn I was using. I'm sure that given the right pattern, it would have been fine, but the novelty yarn thing doesn't appeal to me much.

4. Favorite knitting pattern? The most fun to knit?

Believe it or not, I'd say my favorite pattern was actually Hopeful. Despite the angst that went into that project, it's a top that seems to flatter me. It was however, not fun. The fun award goes to Lelah. The lace was great for my first project and it went fast. Fashion, not function is what Christine says, and I totally agree. I made it in a subtly glittery yarn, so it's not the best next to skin wear, hence, I don't wear it much. Only for going out!

5. Most valuable knitting technique?

Hmm, I'm loving kitchener stitch and 3 needle bind off right now since I seem to be joining pieces vertically a lot right now. Otherwise, I'd just say knitting in the round in general since that's what I seem to do the most of lately.

6. Best knit book or magazine?

I just stocked up on a few Rebecca mags and IK. I subscribe to VK, but I was sorely disappointed with the most recent issue. As for books, I only own Knitting without Tears, so I guess that one's my favorite! I'm coveting a ridiculous number of reference books right now though like Knitting on the Edge, BW Treasury of Knitting Patterns all volumes and Knitting from the Top, Nancy Wiseman's Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques, and the Knitter's Companion.

7. Favorite knitalong?

Hmm, my only knitalong has been the Hopeful KAL. I guess, like the book, that's my default favorite.

8. Favorite knitblogs?

Well, I did a shout out to all of the blogs that I read regularly not so long ago. Of that long list however, I always check Kim, Keohinani, Chris, Chrissy, Karen and Jillian immediately when I see them highlighted on bloglines and because in that weird I've never met you (except Jillian) sort of way, I definitely consider them to be at least blog friends.

9. Favorite knitwear designer?

I'm not sure that I want to commit to this one, but I like the classic look of Debbie Bliss and the fun stuff in the Rebecca magazines (not a specific designer, I know) though the patterns are horrible to interpret. Also, I like Jenna Adorno since she appears to hate seaming as much as I do and is built similarly to me.

10. The knit item you wear the most?

Actually, don't wear my knitting that much, but I carry around my Buttonhole Bag an awful lot!

Whew! I could have been a bit less wordy, right? I'm not going to tag anyone with this since this one has been going like wildfire and pretty much everyone's blogs I read seems to have already been tagged. But if you're reading this and you haven't been tagged yet, please play along!