I got these buttons at Stone Mountian and Daughter. Aren’t they great? I was a bit torn between these and some cameo buttons–can’t get more opposite than that, I know–but the cameos were plastic and just didn’t feel as nice. These are a nice, solid metal and I can’t wait to see how they look on the finished project they’re destined for!

I started out knitting as somewhat of  a lazy knitter. I originally learned to knit from my Nanna, who didn’t spend time on things such as gauge swatches. I imagine that was because she mainly made the same things and had been making them long enough that she didn’t need one anymore, but she never taught me to do one. When I picked up knitting again on my own, I mostly wanted to play around and make things. I’m a bit impatient, and I tend to want to get to the finished product as quickly as possible.

But as I keep knitting, and begin to see the things I’ve made as crucial elements of my wardrobe, I find that I’m slowly beginning to take more of the steps in proper knitting seriously. Which explains this:

Yes, that’s a sweater body blocking away in my living room, pre-making up. As I pinned this out, a couple of things occurred to me.

1. I need more blocking mats. I have a set from Knitpicks, and they’re fantastic, but there isn’t quite enough space for a full sweater. I can block out a small shawl okay, but a large  one would be right out. It tends to take things a few days to dry here, so I can’t really block on my bed, either.

2. Cats are seriously compelled towards blocking knits. I don’t know why, but it’s ridiculous. I shoo them off, so they’ve learned to only go sleep there when I can’t see. I find the telltale fur and paw-wrinkles later. Someday, I’m gonna find one of the cats with a pin stuck in them from getting too cozy with a blocking sweater.

3. This had better be as miraculous and awesome as people make it seem. I want to be able to sew this up!

As I’m in the process of re-vamping my wardrobe, I’ve started to think about the colors I wear. The thing is, I love all colors, and on any given day I may go into raptures over any particular hue. That makes it difficult to narrow things down. But as I look for gaps, in the hopes of knitting and eventually sewing with some sort of goal in mind, I do keep running across some trends.

Neutrals: I like white and ivory (for sweaters only, sometimes dress–NOT pants), brown, tan, black, and gray. I do NOT like navy blue, and pretty much refuse to wear it unless I’m deliberately going for a sailor outfit look.

Colors: Purple, pink, red, green, and yellow. Occassionally I’ll venture into some orange-y hues or blue, but rarely. Within those colors, it tends to cover the entire spectrum.

It’s a bit overwhelming, but eventually I would like to have several sweaters in each of these colors. They are consistenly the things I wear, and one of my goals is to not have any storebought sweaters.

So far, I have a bit of progress. I have one long-sleeve, pale purple cardigan, one long-sleeve, dark green cardigan, and one short-sleeved, pink cardigan that I wear regularly, plus one tan pullover in need of repair. I also have a couple of other pullovers that I wear less frequently, for various reasons.

At least it’s a direction, I suppose….

All kidding aside, I really do love the 4th. My friend Rabbit holds a potluck, then we all walk down to the Berkeley Marina to watch the fireworks. This is the 2nd year in a row I’ve been, and I always remember on the walk down how horribly painful the walk back will be. I really should contemplate that sooner in the future. But I probably won’t.

For my contribution, I baked a southern coconut cake. The theme was bringing a traditional dish from your family/heritage. I was horribly tempted to really go what would be traditional for my family and do the cheating version, made with boxed cake mix and cool whip. But I just couldn’t bring myself to do it, so I used this recipe from Tender Crumb.

It turned out really well. We also had real NC BBQ (pulled pork, vinegar sauce), fried pickles and potato salad. I was very, very happy. I could eat like that all the time and be perfectly content. Gives me some ideas for planning what to cook next week, that’s for sure.

Bold for stuff you’ve done, italics for stuff you plan to do one day, and normal for stuff you’re not planning on doing.

Afghan
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with bananafiber yarn
Domino knitting (=modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Baby items
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffitti knitting: knitting items on, or to be left on the street
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Household items: dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies…
Knitting socks- or other small tubular items- on two circulars
Dying with plant colours
Knitting items for a wedding
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
Knitting with dpns
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with selfpatterning/selfstriping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/armwarmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

There were lots of knitters. I hung around for several hours and it was buzzing the whole time. I saw lots of people I knew, plus a few I knew from Ravelry but hadn’t met. And lots of amazing new people too.

There were spinners too, of course, as well as quilters and felters. There was even a booth with a bicycle powered drum carder. (I want one of those, someday after I get a wheel of my own. It’s probably the only way you’ll ever see me exercise.)

I drooled over some of the fiber–this is from Wonderland Dyeworks–and I really, really want a wheel. Even more than before. There was gorgeous yarn, too. Beautiful colors, and I may or may not have obtained the location of an alpaca farm about an hour a way that has a little store selling their luscious yarn. Just sayin’.

There was even Oakland’s own knitting novelist, Rachel aka Yarnagogo, signing copies of How to Knit a Love Song.

Overall, it was a great way to spend a Sunday. The only thing I would change is setting up an area to sit and knit–there weren’t many shady places, and it would have been nice to be able to pull up a chair and chat. Like I said, I ran into a lot of people I hadn’t seen in a bit–since the knitting group I had been going to dissovled, I’ve been feeling out of touch with the local knitters. There are a couple of other groups I mean to check out–one is near my house, on Tuesdays, and there’s one in Berkeley on Sunday morning. There’s also an Alameda group on Thursdays I might swing by. I’d really like to find a Saturday group that meets late morning/afternoon. A couple of other people seemed interested, and I said I wasn’t going to organize it but…well. Here I go. My only trouble is thinking of a place to meet on a Saturday that would be okay with a herd of knitters hanging out for several hours. Preferably in Oakland and relatively public transit accessible. (I know, I don’t ask for much, right?) I’ll have to think about that.