Alternative Career Paths for Double Point Needles.

1) Toothpicks on the cheese platter tray. For the DPN that prefers food over fiber.

2) Gap Checkers. For the DPN that is obsessed with straight lines.
I suppose if your job doesn't involve automotive interiors this might require explanation. In the auto industry, achieving perfectly sized gaps between parts is a really big deal. Why this is remains a mystery, because every one outside the industry seems more concerned with their car's gas mileage, safety features, and maintenance record instead of the size or consistency of the gaps. Go figure. However, I've used my DPNs for a quick check more than once when a calibrated instrument wasn't readily available.

3) Planting stakes for small seedlings. For the outdoors type.

4) Object retrievers from tight spaces. Claustrophobic DPNs need not apply.

5) Cable needle. Good choice for the DPN that isn't willing to stray to far from it's heritage.

6) Hairsticks. For the fashion sensitive DPN.

7) Cast scratcher. For the DPN that wants to help others. Those of you with a broken arm or leg in your past know what I'm talking about.

8) Cat scratcher. For the animal loving DPN.



Now, for the winner of the contest. It took almost a second pot of coffee for my hubby to understand why I needed him to pick a number at random, but I eventually got him to do so. It was 3. Emma, this means I need your snail mail info. Send me an email and I'll send you a description of the colors for your very own hank of Heritage Handpaint.

I also would like to point out that blogger can be very stingy with a commenter's details. Some of you have left comments and I really wanted to reply but blogger was unwilling to provide a useful email address. So for those I have not directly responded to please know that I appreciate your visits and comments.

I'm Back

I worked stateside yesterday. However, my days at the plant this week have given me the indication that I will be visiting there frequently for the next few months. So those of you near St. Marys, Ontario give me a shout. It's always good to meet fellow knitters.

If my colleagues suspected before that I'm weird a knitaholic, they now have proof. I didn't drive to dinner so that I could knit on the way. I knit in the restaurant one evening. Thankfully MJ took that in stride. Who says non-knitters aren't good people? The final piece of evidence was when Steve pulled out of the drive a bit fast and I uttered a small scream. He thought he had missed seeing oncoming traffic. I responded "Hey, chick with sticks! I almost dropped a stitch."

So, after one week's knitting here is my progress. I would have been farther along, but the evening at the restaurant cut my knitting time short. Wine and DPNs are not a good combination for me. That is a guaranteed recipe for dropped stitches.





I have not lost my love of this color. The close up represents it better - atleast on my monitor. The pattern however... mewh. My husband likes it though and that's what counts. So I'll plod on.

It's the Gentleman's Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush with some modifications. I was able to almost get gauge with this yarn but it made the fabric really stiff. The yarn is Gem Opal dyed in the Trout colorway. It knits up nicer on 2's. So I'm adapting the pattern to my gauge.

I'll announce the winner of the contest shortly after my random number generator has finished his first pot of morning coffee.

Where in Canada is Jae?

I am still without a camera cable. This is a real shame because I have made a good start to the Trout socks. And the color! I am enthralled with this colorway. Beautiful vibrant blueish-greens and reddish-purples. As I knit each stitch, I am pleasantly surprised at the colors running across my needles.

Since I have no pictures of yarn to offer, I am offering the real thing. The prize is Heritage Handpaint Oxford yarn in the colorway of your choice. The contest is to guess where I am this week.

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I am somewhere in Canada. However, Canada is a really large country. Here are a few hints.

1) I traveled across the Blue Water Bridge to enter Canada.
2) English is the language normally spoken.
3) The River Thames runs through the town.
4) The town’s nickname is derived from its limestone architecture.
5) The Baseball Hall of Fame calls this town home.

Leave your guess in the comments and you will be entered for a drawing. I will close the drawing on Friday April 28, 2006 at 11:55 PM EDST. The winner will be drawn at random from all the entries.

Out For Lunch, Be Back Soon

Hello, You have reached Some Knitting Required.

The owner of this blog has been temporarily relocated to spend time with her Canadian colleagues. She has taken along the necessary knitting implements and fiber to sustain her during her work mandated adventure for this week. Well, everything that is except the camera cord that transfers pictures to her computer. Blogging will commence upon her return home or a borrowed cable is found.

We sincerely appreciate your patience during this time.

The First Step...

...is admitting you have a problem.

Blame it on my need to horde sock yarn, or the yellow-orange month of April. In my entire knitting career, I have completed only one pair of socks, and barely started a second pair. However, that doesn't seem to stop me from acquiring more of the stuff to make knitted socks.



The store that offers my lace class, has various fibers aptly named Heritage Handpaints. Last week, I added the Harvest colorway to my collection. I have three others of their Oxford line - River Rouge, Up North, and Lake Charlevoix. I'm halfway to a full set. I'm only missing Lighthouse Road, Trout, and Gray Skies.

I think my addiction for Oxford stems, in part atleast, from the Michigan-ness of the yarn. It is locally made and has no online distributor. The different types of fiber (ie: wool/nylon sock, wool/silk lace, superwash wool) are named for towns that employees live in - Oxford, Bloomfield, Lake Orion. The colorways are named for various Michigan traits.

Yeah, that sounds good. I'm not addicted to sock yarn. I'm addicted to Michigan colors.

Old Dog, New Tricks

Lace homework for week 5 is half done. I need to complete a lace swatch sample. However, the mini-Estonian scarf assignment is lõpetatud, viimistletud, täiuslik, finished.

No starch this week. Seriously, you don't think I'd starch a scarf?

After class, I was complaining commenting about all the swatches we have to chart and knit. My teacher explained patiently for the gazillionth time that the swatches are for reference. Example: How does a SSK before a yarnover look different than a yarnover before a SSK? She also nicely pointed out for the millionth time that it is easier to learn a pattern on one or two multiples of 20 stitches instead of casting on 400 stitches and learning as you go.

I thought about this as I drove home. By the time I reached my street, the light had reached full wattage over my head. This class is to teach me how to design my own lace. The goal isn't to eliminate the need for swatching, but rather to eliminate the dependence on someone else's pattern.

In order to prove that I can change my ways, I have started a "gray scale" swatch with Donni's lace. Gray scales are swatches with a gradual increase of needle size. A helpful tool in deciding what would look best for the pattern.



Who says I can't learn new tricks?

Basketful of Sugar

A few weeks ago, my DH's niece came over to dye yarn. Most of it went to live with her, but I kept the strawberry / lemonade to make baskets for Niece and Nephew. Baskets loaded with sugar and chocolate. After all, I will not be the one peeling the kids from the ceiling.

We are visiting for dinner this evening. This should make a nice surprise for the little ones. Their parents may think otherwise. ;)

I made up the pattern as I went along. When the skeins were laid out for dyeing, the lengths were arbitrary. This combination of colorway and basket diameter the stripes are quite thick. I am curious to see if Niece has knit with the other skeins and if the stripes are just as large.

The End

I finished the book in one day. I cried.

I love when a book has absorbed me so deeply that it cannot possibly end without my wanting more from it. I can't get it out of my head. I am wondering, if they could have changed things, would it have been better or worse for Henry and Clare. I wish that I had been given more of Clare's life after 35. I want to know what happened to their daughter Alba. I want to know when Clare is 82 if she thought it was worth it.

I'm being deliberately vague to avoid spoilers for those who haven't read it. Those who have, did the book leave the same impression with you?

Knitting has recommenced for today. Pictures later.

A Page Turner

My employer declared today a holiday and gave me the day off. Nothing personal, they told everyone to stay home. I have taken advantage of the long weekend by catching up on some “me time”. I slept in until a little past 8 am. I’m normally up between 4 and 5 am. I made some tea. The flavor is English Breakfast. Between you and me, if the English make breakfast as sweet as this tea smells, I’m moving immediately and declaring myself a British subject. For the remaining hours of my day, I have knit a little and read a lot - The Time Traveler’s Wife. I meant to read for a half hour or so. Three hours later I realized I should probably eat breakfast. Or by now, lunch.

It is an absolutely enthralling book. It has been a very long time that I have started a book that I could not put down. I intended to knit up a whole sock if my hands were up to it, but without success. As clearly shown by it’s meager size. The premise of the book is a unique mind twister. I am anxious to know the fate of Henry and Clare. Instead of fighting it, I have given in. The sock will wait. I am on page 310 with only 230 to go. I’ll let you know how it ends tomorrow.

Quality Knit Time

Work has me upside down and inside out. Not literally, but I'm lucky to have thirty minutes uninterrupted for knitting. By the time I get home, eat dinner, say "hello" to the hubby, it is almost time to go to sleep. Thus very little dusting, vacuuming knitting.

I haven't given up on the Aran cable, just set it aside for the time being. The hat on the other hand may be a never knit. It and I cannot seem to get along. I have started and frogged three times.

Therefore, I've decided that if I can't knit for a large quantity of time, I will knit very little with a large amount of luxurious yarn.

It is the shawl from Knitter's Stash. Some days I don't have time to knit more than one row. This is perfect. The colors change every two to four rows. Bonus, the yarn is absolutely the softest yarn ever. If you have to date not fondled a ball of Touch Me chenille, all I can say is run, don't walk to the nearest distributor. It's pricey stuff but have I told you that it is absolutely the softest yarn ever?

I received several colors as Christmas gifts, barely. The gifters don't knit, but the yarn was still hard for them to part with. They'll tell you - absolutely. the softest. yarn. ever.

As a parting note, I want to leave you with the Photo of the day from National Geographic. It's a beautiful photo of a knitter's favorite animal.

Sunrise Coaster

I absolutely love this pattern. It might actually convert me into a doily person. I'm trying to think of a hundred good reasons why I would need to knit a hundred more of versions of this doily. It took me less than 90 minutes to knit the center.


Oh, wait. . . it took me 3 hours to bind off with all those crochet chain points. Perhaps, just one of these will do.


To demonstrate that I haven't lost my touch, I starched the coaster and the cat.

Yellow & Orange

According to this source- Crayola first introduced yellow and orange crayons in 1903. In 1949, lemon yellow, orange yellow, and yellow orange were added. 1958 saw the creation of burnt orange and goldenrod. Ultra orange and ultra yellow arrived on the scene in 1972. Not to be outdone, dandelion, vivid tangerine, and unmellow yellow were in, but lemon yellow, orange yellow, and yellow orange were out in 1990. Three years later, every kids favorite - macaroni and cheese - made it's debut. 1998 was the rookie year for banana mania and sunset orange.

Who knew there were this many shades of yellow and orange?

Thanks to Monkeyknits Jen, I can now demonstrate most of them. (I love her blog name!) She is my color swap partner for April's yellow & orange. Not a single item was left unyellowed or oranged from outside to in.

There is a card in Curious George yellow with the cutest shrinkydink monkey tucked inside, Koigu KPPPM in peach and pale yellow variegation (yummmm, Koigu), a goldenrod tin of Burt's Bees hand salve, Altoids Tangerine Sours in what else but a vivid tangerine tin, orange and orangish red Malabrigo (yummmm, Malabrigo), orange red stitch markers, and lemon yellow candy and gum in yellow and orange cases.

Thank you so much Jen! It is full of lovely and thoughtful details. I love every bit of it. Crayola can't begin to keep up with you.