Winding Yarn: Better than Mac and Cheese...Run for the Needles!

12 October 2008

Better than Mac and Cheese...Run for the Needles!

I know, I know...it has been a wild, rough and tumble week. Unless your name is Warren Buffet the news has not been cheerful. Stock tickers combined with the noise from the election, which even this political junkie has had enough of, you may just want to crawl under the covers...not so fast!...not without your knitting.

I admit to knitting a la Madame Defarge this week....through debates and playoff games and Dramamine rides on Wall Street- I have gone running for my needles!

How to cope...well, not a lot you can do and that is maddening in and of itself...so you might as well breathe and knit! This is knitting season!! and no matter the news casting on a new project always brings us back to what matters most...yarn! So much better than Macaroni and Cheese to provide comfort don't you think?!

Where to start??? Here are some thoughts to get you to turn off CNN and run for the needles!

1. Take a walk outside!!! The colors this season are Amazing!! Golds and Reds and Crimsons...made me crawl through the stash to pull "leaf peep" colors to work with...

I spent the early part of the week winding yarn, Manos and Montera. I am knitting Michele Rose Orne's Walk in the Woods from her Inspired to Knit: Creating Exquisite Handknits. Taking so many elements from the woods around Michele's (and my) beloved Maine. I loved this pattern the instant I turned the page and have been playing with the colors to make it my own. I also love working a chart pattern after a summer of yarn overs. A great hint for this type of knitting is to skip the tiny balls and butterflies and just cut strands for each color section as you work...there will be lots of tails to deal with but your knitting will move faster and with less tangles.

2. Go Shopping..DON'T buy it, Knit it! The mailbox is filled to the brim with magazines and catalogues. Flip through the fall mags and catalogues for projects. I love Anthropologie for design ideas...They are knitters I am sure of it!! you can see that in the original and unique styles. Here are some favorites on their racks and pages that got me designing...

This is on my needles next from Sweaterbabe -Love her patterns-cozy, yummy, quick to knit and Very Anthropologie!

This Ralph Lauren capelet reminded me that I want to knit this one from The Stitch Poet

3. DON'T UNravel..Ravel-It!! I found a wonderful Calvin Klein sweater and knew it was too great not to knit

Nordstrom

I played on Ravelry and found a few different patterns that were close

and then went and wrote my own version to work with my Chocolate Ultra Alpaca...now on my needles but here is Eva wearing it...

Ravelry is a wonderful place to organize your knitting planet. It is also one of the best places to get ideas and inspiration and information for your next project. Here are some of my Fall "Gotta Knits"...in the Ravelry queue...