Monday, June 29, 2009

Spider Woman

I have just returned from a vacation where we drove through the Southwest. We did spend most of our time in the mountains of Colorado, but drove through Dinetah, or Navajoland. I did get a chance to knit, and also to read a bit.
Part of my reading was about Spider Woman, one of the major goddesses from all of the Southwestern Native American mythology. Generally she is the mother of humankind, as well as of all living things, our father being the Sun. It made me wonder, why is Spiderwoman so very important? She was the one who taught Dineh women the art of weaving. It just shows how important weaving was for the early civilizations. More than that, the Dineh society is a matriarchal society... does that have to do anything with it?
Spiderwoman not only taught the earliest women the art of weaving, but also patience and perseverence. When First Woman couldn't finish her first rug, and got so frustrated that she ripped it apart, she got restless, she couldn't sleep well. Spider Woman came to her, fixed her rug and taught her that she could never give up, when she started something she needed to finish it, because her soul was in her work...
Our soul is in our work, too, when we knit, crochet or otherwise create something unique. We can never forget that; we cannot expect it to be done quickly, but put our best work in it, and be patient, give ourselves time to finish it the right way.
Spider Woman taught me something new, too.....

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Pinky Toddler Beanie


- featuring buttonholes and "buttons" or Latvian "knupps"...


worked flat, sewn together at the end.

Cast on 56 stitches.

Row 1: Slip first sts,*K2tog, YO*, repeat until last sts. K1

Row 2: Slip first sts, Purl to end.

Row 3: Slip first sts, Knit to end.

Row 4: Slip first sts, Purl to end

Rows 5 - 20: Slip first sts, Knit to end. (garter sts)

Row 21: Slip first sts, Knit to end
Row 22: Slip first sts, Purl
Row 23: Slip first sts, Knit.
Row 24: Slip first sts, Purl.
In rows 25 and 26 will make the knupps (buttons):
Row 25: Slip first sts, Knit 6, Knit 5 in the same sts, *K7, K5 in the same sts.*, repeat to end.
Row 26: Slip first sts, Purl 6, Purl 5tog, *P7, P5tog*, repeat to end.
Row 27 - 30 Slip first sts, Knit front rows, Purl back rows (stockinette stitch)
Rows 31 - 35 : Slip first sts, Knit (garter sts)
Start decreasing:
Row 35: Slip first sts, K11, K2tog, *K12, K2tog*, repeat twice. = 52 sts
Row 36: Slip first sts, Purl to end.
Row 37: Slip first sts, K10, K2tog, *K11, K2tog*, repeat twice. = 48 sts
Row 38: Slip first sts, Purl
Row 39: Slip first sts, K9, K2tog, *K10, K2tog*, repeat twice. = 44 sts
Row 40: Slip first sts, Purl.
Row 41: Slip first sts, K8, K2tog, *K9, K2tog*, repeat twice. = 40 sts
Row 42: Slip first ts, Purl.
Row 43: Slip first sts, K2, K2tog, *K3, K2tog*, repeat to end of row = 32 sts
Row 44: Slip first sts, Purl.
Row 45: Slip first ts, K1, K2tog, *K2, K2tog*, repeat to end of row = 24 sts
Row 46: Slip first sts, purl
Row 47: K2tog to end of row = 12 sts
Row 48: slip first sts, purl
Row 49: K2tog to end of row = 6 sts.
Row 50: Slip first sts, purl
Row 51: K2tog 3 times = 3 sts.
Row 52: Purl
Knit the last 3 sts together, then pull the yarn over to the wrong side. Finish by sewing it together.




Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Empirical knitter or knitwear designer?

Getting back to this question I posed for myself recently, I decided that the difference is huge: to be a designer, you need to be able to write down what you are creating, be able to figure it out for different sizes, make sure someone else will be able to create something following your directions. And that is a lot of work!

Sometimes - most of the time, in fact, to be honest, I feel like I just want to sit down and enjoy creating something new, just creating it, not writing it down, not worrying about it in any other way... but then again, that's what I've been doing all my life with knitting, so I need another challenge. After all, I am middle aged (at least I think I am, isn't that what people over 40 are called? - please don't tell me we are "old"), I need to do something new.

So I got set-up as a designer on Ravelry... trouble is, I am slightly computer illiterate and I am having trouble connecting actual patterns to a link... If people want to see my pattern, I don't want them to go through my whole blog... who would want to do that?, but at this moment they still need to, until I figure this all out...
I think I need to spend more time on it, time that I don't really have (my three kids still need me - they are on vacation - and no one else is going to clean the house either - ok, to be honest, they do, but need the help and guidance). That was really just an excuse, I seem to be able to make time for things I enjoy, like knitting or writing, but it's quite another thing to make time for things like learning something new about computers, and how they work... To be honest though, I did learn about computers, I even learned how to program them, but that was a lifetime ago (26 years to be exact, as a dear friend of mine so graciously reminded me recently...), in high school... and we were still using punchcards (of course you wouldn't know what those are, unless you are really old and a computer programmer, but in Romania we were still using them, as I said, twenty-six years ago... they are these cards we would punch holes in, translating human language into computer language - the computer only understood two number sequences, 0 and 1, even those only if they were translated into hole sequences... well, maybe you get the concept, if not, don't worry about it, it really has absolutely nothing to do with knitting - hmmm - I wonder... if I sit here long enough, I may come up with a connection - just kidding)...

Anyway, I meant to write down another pattern, but that will have to wait now... I will figure it out, hopefully soon...