Tomorrow is Tree Day!

Tomorrow is the installation day for A Knitted Wonderland , and I'm both excited and nervous about sewing up our tree sweater.


I blogged about the project about a month ago when we were still putting it together. A couple of weeks ago we finished our sweater and dropped it off at the Blanton Museum. But not before we took lots of pictures.


As planned, I knit two 21-inch pieces, Katie crocheted one and Mom crocheted one. This should cover seven feet of tree.


I was the one who sewed the whole thing together. Overall, I think I did a good job, especially when you account for having to sew the knitting and crochet together and the small differences in length and tension. I don't think there is a name for the sewing technique I used.

I have pictures of the other two seams as well. There's another fairly neat seam, and there is a messier seam where my cast on was too loose.


I also added a button and a crocheted button like I mentioned before. They are sewed at the top of the tree sweater, so they shouldn't be too distracting. For the flower, I used the Little Flowers with Leaves pattern by Mimi Alelis. I'm pretty sure the button was once on a pair of my pants, since it has "Venezia" embossed on it.


I managed to mess up Mom's piece. Apparently I sewed it "wrong side out." I'm adding quotation marks to that phrase because I had no idea that single crochet worked in rows had a wrong side. If you look closely, the rows line up into nice pairs. Mom made a point of changing colors between those pairs to avoid breaking them up. Since those pairs of rows are staggered, the pairs are broken up on the other side. On this picture you see the right sided folded over onto the wrong side.

If you can't see the difference, I don't blame you. It took a while for me to wrap my head around it. Basically, my Mom is a perfectionist.


All three of us will be out at the Blanton tomorrow putting this thing up. If you have any tips, let me know. I'm not sure whether to start at the top or the bottom of this thing. We're planning to sew it up, but I may bring a crochet hook just in case. (They've officially said no to zip ties.)

I've never sewn anything together while balancing on a ladder before, and I'm still hurting. I don't know if we're all planning to sew, or if one person is going to sew while everyone else helps hold things in place and steady the ladder. We haven't gotten that far yet.


The installation is officially "open" on Saturday, March 5 as part of Explore UT. The Austin American Statesman had a special section for the event in the paper today, and it included a blurb about "A Knitted Wonderland."

So come for the knitting, stay for... just about anything else you can imagine. Seriously. There's a really long list of activities for Saturday. Go check it out.

Parting Shot
When I wrote about my Centipede Scarf, I forgot to include my favorite picture in my favorite pose. I guess it's better late than never. Enjoy.

This just in: if it weren't for Mr. Rogers, we'd all be weaving sweaters

If this is some joke, and I've mistaken it for an actual broadcast, I'd be relieved.



This clip was posted on YouTube in May 2008, and it references an article from the Wall Street Journal dating back to 2007. So this is old news, but it's new to me.

You may have noticed that I like Mr. Rogers. I think I really started to admiring him after reading Dear Mr. Rogers, Does It Ever Rain in Your Neighborhood?: Letters to Mr. Rogers. I was impressed by how patient he was and the care he took with each letter.

I was going to talk more about how Mr. Rogers does make kids feel entitled. Entitled to be treated as a worthy human being with basic rights.

I was also going to point out the value of positive reinforcement.

But something else caught my eye. Listen very carefully to the clip and then look at the article.

The article talks about Professor Don Chance, a finance professor at Louisiana State University. That's finance. Not psychology. Not sociology. Not child development. He didn't do the research. He's just talking about his own experiences and opinions.

The article does reference "a recent (in 2007) study led by a San Diego State University psychologist." But they don't say anything about the study examining the effect of watching Mr. Rogers on children. According to the article, the study finds "signs of narcissism among college students have been rising for 25 years." That's all it says. (And I can't even begin to figure out what study they're referring to.)

The clip from Fox News blurs the opinions of Professor Chance with this study out of San Diego State University. All of a sudden this finance professor's opinion is being considered the equivalent of empirical research.

This Fox News clip also refers to the "research" done comparing Asian students to American students. But the original article doesn't site specific research on Asian and American students. It says "Prof. Chance teaches many Asian-born students, and says they accept whatever grade they're given..."

If that isn't bad enough, here's the knitting related quote. (Look for it in the middle of the clip, in response to the e-mail from the lady who also blames Sesame Street and Dr. Spock.):

"It would be better if we went to school, went home and then made the butter, milked the cow and went onto the loom and made our own sweaters."

Now you can weave a sweater. (Isn't Elizabeth Zimmerman's Bog Coat based on a way to make a sweater out of a piece of weaving?) But I don't think that's what this guy is referring to. We all know Mr. Roger's sweaters are knitted.

Or maybe he's right. I watched Mr. Rogers growing up, and I've never woven a sweater in my life. (A scarf, yes, but not a sweater.)

In related news, have you seen Outfoxed?



You can see the entire documentary here.

Things that cut into my yarn budget: Off of Work and Out of Commission

The last couple of weeks have been ...interesting. Part of me wants to blog all the gory details, but I know some parts of your life are best left off of the Internet, however "interesting" they may be.

The main gist of it is health problems. A hospitalization. Lots of non-knitting, yet craving to knit. I'm not quite functioning like a normal person.

I'm taking some time off of work right now to get things straightened out some more. Which means I'm living off my parents. My meager savings won't go far. And I have more hospital bills. And did I mention my insurance *claims* I haven't met deductible yet? At least I can fix that. I hope.

Sadly, Decimal will have to wait. Spending $40-$50 on KnitPicks yarn is usually doable, but not right now. It's stash knitting.

In between all this my Photogenic Scarf is stuck in my desk at work. I really, really, really want to knit that scarf. I need to find something equally soothing to knit. In my stash. ASAP.

(I hope my boss took that orange out of my desk like I asked. Otherwise it's going to start stinking up the place.)

I don't have it in my to do World Wide Knit in Public Day at the Capitol tomorrow. But I will be at The Knitting Nest to see Franklin Habit. I can't afford the class though (it's probably full anyway), but I'll probably pick up his book and get it signed.

I really want my scarf back.

"Knitting helps me keep my mind off all the things I can't have on my diet..."

I saw this on tv not too long ago, and I've been looking for it online for a couple of weeks now.

Is this supposed to be a knitting insult? It looks like she makes pretty good stuff (except the basketball jersey.) I'd like my apartment to look like that.

On the other hand, the first diet book ever seriously followed recommended keeping your hands busy while watching tv to avoid the temptation to snack. Knitting was one of the things they suggested. It wasn't a bad idea. (Although that's not why I started knitting. I learned before the first diet.)

Either way, aspartame-sweetened yogurt is a poor substitute for sweets. In fact, it's a poor substitute for regular yogurt. Yuck.

FO: Wickerware Socks

Cross posted at Sally Comes Unraveled and Year Long Gift-A-Long.

These socks have been a long time coming.

I've had to rip back several times. I screwed up the stitch pattern more than once, messed up one of heels and somehow did the Kitchener Stitch backwards. And those are just the mistakes I remember. The pattern isn't hard as far as sock patterns go, but these socks lost their "mojo" at times.

To recap, this is the Wickerware Socks pattern. The pattern calls for two sizes of needles, a smaller size for the ribbing and a larger size for the rest of the sock. I used US Size 0 and US Size 00 dpns from my Susan Bates Sock Needle Set

The yarn is Austermann Step in colorway 04. This yarn is infused with jojoba and aloe vera to make it extra soft. The jojoba and aloe vera are supposed to last for 40 washings. The recipient is diabetic, and I thought the aloe vera would be good for his feet. These socks are "man socks" so they took almost all of the ball, although I probably have enough left for a pair of baby socks.

This is a Christmas gift for a male relative. It feels good to get these done.