I once overheard a knitter responding to the question: “What’s the most difficult type of knitting?” “The boring kind,” was her response. She went on to say that she liked to knit lace and stranded patterns – the more complicated the pattern, the more colours used, and the smaller the needle size, the better. Sometimes, however, boring is good.
There is nothing quite so boring, and yet so uniquely compelling as knitting in stockinette in the round. Stitch after stitch, well over three hundred on the needles at this point, with no end of the row, no need to turn the needles, no purling, no counting, no thinking. It may be boring knitting, but boring knitting can be mesmerizing. It is sometimes just what the doctor ordered – a little bit of Zen, an escape from stress, time to let your mind wander. And when the colour is as rich and lovely as this, it’s a bit of eye candy too.
In a break from my Zen-knitting today, I spent some time “Surfing the Knit” – another mesmeric activity but definitely not as productive. I’ll bring you a few tidbits here:
- Ginger Twist Studio has an announcement on her blog for a Historic Music Knitting Event in Edinburgh on October 6th. Here is a brief description: “Knit one, pearl 1942! A Stitch in Time: Lost Knitting Songs from the World Wars is a musical lecture about knitting (yes, knitting!) songs that were written during WWI and WWII in both North America and Britain.” How cool is that?
- I found the most amazing site today. It is in Beta now, and they are looking for comments, so please check them out. It is called Yarnsub.com. I was looking online for substitutes for Brooklyn Tweed Loft (I love Loft, but can’t always dish out for the expensive stuff) and came onto this page. It lists the characteristics of the yarn you are trying to match, and then rates each of several substitutes according to weight, texture, fibre content, gauge, etc. I love this!
- And here’s an interesting one: “As part of the Great British Bioscience Festival, BBSRC is running Knit-a-Bug: The Great British Bioscience Knitting Competition. BBSRC invites knitters from across the country to get creative with bioscience by knitting bacteria and viruses that can impact human and animal health. ” I think I’ll stick with my Zen-knitting, thank you very much.
Holy moly, thanks for the link to Yarnsub!! Interesting. I clicked on the Bioscience thing because it’s kind of down my alley, but then I just felt kind of tired. Ha!
De-lurking to tell you that the wartime knitting songs are also coming to my LYS in Cambridge, so might be coming to somewhere near you as well?
That colour is just gorgeous!
That looks like my kind of knit! It’s beautiful, and isn’t that MadTosh just fabulous? That colour – wow!
For what it’s worth, I’ve used yarnsub with limited success. There is more to subbing yarn than making the numbers fit, if you know what I mean. It’s still a great resource, though, and I’ve discovered a couple of new wools I probably never would have found otherwise. (I’m not sure that’s a good thing, LOL).
Speaking of boring – have you sewed in a few more ends on your Soumak, hmmm?