Public Knitting

Timberline socks

 Today I took my father to one of his doctors appointments. While I was waiting for him I brought with some socks that I was working on. It's funny because most times I seem to be very shy about knitting in public. Is it really the stigma of a guy knitting that gets to me. I am embarrased to say that it is.

Even in the waiting room I found a corner of the room where I could work on the socks while waiting for my dad. After a while one of the girls at the front desk asked what I was knitting. I brought up my sock and we then had a great conversation about projects I was working on and how I was a bit shy to knit in public. The one girl said that she believed a guy who was not shy to show his feminine side was really one that was confident about himself.

My Daughters first Sock

Given that in fact I was shy I am not really sure what that means for me. LOL

The first picture was a quick knit of Lucy Neatby's Timberline socks. It's the second picture (the one with the thumb) I am most proud of. The reason? Well it is the first sock that my daughter knit. I have urged her to try socks and for a while she was intimidated. That is why I was so excited that she made this one. Of course the second one is still yet to hit her needles but that is okay.


I guess being a male knitter is still a complicated matter to me even though it is something that I really love and enjoy doing.

Shawl Marathon finally done.

 It feels like it's been years since I finished a project. Normally I was used to doing 2 or three projects a month at a minimum, but that was before I caught the Shetland Shawl Marathon Bug.

It is a given that I love doing lacework. Funny thing I think for a guy to say but I find it so artistic that I love the finished projects. I have done quite a few works of Estonian Lace, so awhile back started checking in on Shetand lace.

It wasn't long before I purchased Sharon Millers Heirloom Knitting book. Wow, was it ever filled with great stitch patterns. Not so many finished patterns but I decided to try one of the easier shawls in the book.

What I didn't realize was how long this one would take me to finish. It was knit in the round, so the first thing is that you have no idea what it actually looks like while you are doing it. Scratch that, actually it looked like a big lump of knitted wool. It was only when I got to doing the edging that little by little was I able to get an idea of how it was coming along. This after over a month of knitting. The pattern was actually quite easy, and it was just the edging at first that I had to get used to. Normally I did a pick up all stitch edging, but this one worked it's way around 1 stitch at a time every other row of edging. I already spoke in a prior entry about how many stitches that took.

I originally had 2 skeins of Zephyr lace, but ended up going back twice more for another 2 skeins. Luckily this was available in the dye lot that I had to match.

The shawl marathon, or at least this one is now finally over. I don't know if I am as excited on this piece as I was on others or just relieved to be done. Either way it certainly is an interesting piece. It is done in the colorway of sage green, which is hard to tell by the picture. Here you can see the edging up close. It is just finishing blocking, and I will try and get a few more pictures soon of it wrapped on something the way it was meant.

Well, now that it is done I just have to finish my sampler blanket. In the meantime I have started a quick pair of socks for my kid. I am doing another of Lucy Neatby's socks called "Timberline Toes". A very easy quick knit. This sock has the garter short row heel. I just finished the first. I am still not convinced I like this type of heel better then the heel flap, however, it does work nice for variegated yarn.

I also will probably end up doing another Estonian project from Nancy Bush's book. I must say that book has more projects that I like than any other book I own.