Since I haven't knitted this week

I'll just talk about Ravelry.

They have awesome ads on there that you can click to add to your favorites. And they number individual posts in the forums. And they have that cute picture of Bob the dog thinking about a ravelry green bone.

I joined a few groups on there and posted a few things. There was this awesome post about an e-bay sale gone wrong.

This lady had ordered what she thought was a name brand yarn (ROWAN - apparently one of those top ten yarn creators). Big yarn name, big, big bargain. Well, she got the yarn, and not only was it questionable Rowan brand, it was cut 2 to 4 ounces shorter than it was labeled on the seller's post. That lady got shorted, and it took months for her to get her money back. Paypal finally refunded her dough. It was horrible what the seller and paypal put her through. But it made for an awesome forum conversation.

Someday soon, after everybody has received their tee shirt and all the beta people have been signed up, ravelry will go live so everybody can see it. That will be a beautiful thing, because then you'll be able to put a link to all the ravelry stuff you love in your post and go there without having to log in. I'm gonna love that!

Also on ravelry, they have done something cool I'm going to have to investigate a little further. When I posted to jess about the cute dog pic, there was a section over the top of the "type your message here" box where you could type a word in and instantly go to all the forum posts or pictures or something about that word. I wanna do that, just because it's awesome that it can be done.

I think I'm going to have to put myself on stash restriction. I've come across a lot of stuff there that I want to create for myself. It helps somewhat that I have no ready yarn cash on hand, and I have to eat, or I'd be up to my waist in yarn.

One of those "Houston, we have a problem" problems

The top of the poncho is too small. Apparently, I knit the top way too tightly...but I'm going to blame it on the small circular needle because I hate those things.

On my next project, I'm going to listen to myself first and the pattern second. I was ready to burn those 16 inch circulars, first because they're a lot shorter than I thought they'd be, and second because I had to fight them to get the neckline done.

OK, back to business. The top of the poncho is too small, so I decided to do a steek like I'd heard of on the www.wendyknits.net and www.yarnharlot.ca web sites. Wendy's done a lot of fair isle, and to do a fair isle button band, sleeve and neckline, you normally have to do a knitted patch called a steek. You cut through the steek and pick up stitches to knit a button band, neckline or start a sleeve. Here's a couple of links to go by.

1. Wendy's article on steeking that she did for knitty.com.
2. The Yarn Harlot steeking on
3. The See Eunny Knit page on crocheted steeks.

If I hadn't seen these guys do it first, no way would I be trying it myself. They know how to build some knitting confidence. I'm actually looking forward to it, kind of an adventure.

Here's a picture of the steek, and a closeup of the area. I only crocheted one line, because I'm going to cut the light brown section under the steek, remove it, and put the row of loops from the darker row underneath it back on the needle. Then I'm going to knit a neckline from those, like a professional. :-)

I think it's going to work out really well that way, and be way easier than frogging and reknitting it.

I think I'm in shock

Yesterday (Thanksgiving evening), my cousin Fred was looking at the poncho I'm knitting. He actually felt the yarn, examined it between his fingers, flattened the fabric with his hands. He took his time and looked at it like it was important. Then he said, "You know, you're a talented girl. This is really good work."

I'm in shock. When I knit my first pair of socks, one of my other cousins looked at me and said point blank, "Why would you knit a sock when you can buy them?" As in, just how crazy are you? I said (defensively, as usual), "Because I can!" Duh. Unfortunately, I always get defensive when people ask me stuff like that. (I'm not even going to talk about the shower curtain ironing incident - stop looking at me like that!)

Anyway, when he responded to my knitting like that, I felt surprised, proud, and like I wasn't knitting alone in the dark anymore. I felt so grateful, I'm going to find some really good yarn and knit him a cap.

I hope like heck I can get it done by Christmas before the really cold weather comes in. Cold weather sucks, even when you know it comes every year, and even when you think you're prepared for it. All it does is make me bitter.

FORGOT TO ADD:Fred's actually the second cousin who appreciates my knitting. My cousin Joseph likes it too. He said if I knit him some socks, he'd pay for it. I think he's trying to get me a knitting business started.

I told him no because if I knit anything else, it's probably going to be for me. But I think he deserves a hat too (I'd say socks, but it's hard to surprise somebody with socks if you want them to fit.) He has dreds though, so it's going to have to be a really big one. He has a lot of hair. I have a lot of cousins, lol.

How strange is it that two guys appreciate it more than the "what would you knit a sock for" girl cousin?

A little further...

on the poncho. I don't know what happened, but my version and the Lion brand project pic are different. Their row 80 has more skinny stripes after the first row of fringe.

The pattern doesn't read like that, unless I skipped some steps.

The only difference that should be there is the second row of two-color blocks I added instead of fringe.

I'm on row 84.

Actually, I just looked at the pattern again, and I'm mistaken. More skinny stripes are coming up. I wish I could wave a magic wand and make this go faster. I'm getting impatient to have the finished product in my hot little hands.

I have been working on the poncho some more yesterday and today. I am going to change the pattern a little and add another row of checks where the first row of fringe should be.

Looking forward to getting there. I'm on row 56 of 156.