We're very quiet. Is everyone knitting or reading?

I noticed the knitters group has been quiet lately. I wonder if it is because fall and winter are such good knitting times. I know this is always when I am most productive with yarn.

I just love settling in with tea or cocoa or cider and knitting away when it is cold and dark outside.

Is this true for anyone else?

I'm away from home for six weeks, but I brought along some needles and yarn for experimentation. Today I found this lovely pattern on the Net - the Argosy Wrap:

http://inahappycamper.eponym.com/blog/_archives/2007/2/25/2764347.html

I'm trying to finish my semester's paper grading, but am working in a neck gaiter for a friend for Christmas.

I have a lot of yarn in the stash, but lately whatever I make looks like crap, and I'm having a hard time focusing.

Plus, my arthritis has been bothering me. Not so bad if my fingers are stiff, but it's the wrist that kills you when you try to knit. I use Hand-eze elastic gloves, which are good, but I may have to ratchet up to my splint, which is a pain b/c the yarn sticks on the Velcro.

A little of both! I have several gifts I am trying to finish up in the next few weeks.

#2 Tropics that looks like a fun pattern.

#3 nohrt4me. I am sorry to hear about your arthritis. I have joint problems too and know about those velcro wrist cuffs. I slept in them for a while but I can't imagine knitting in them. This time of year is hard on the joints too. I find I am knitting with a hotpack on my shoulders or elbow a lot lately. I hope your pain eases.

#4 verbafacio, I just finished a present and have a few more to go. But I was knitting a shrug from a 1950s pattern on the train the other day and a couple asked me if I was trying to finish a present and I had to confess it was for myself.

I am busy knitting, but I have to confess that most of my free computer time has been spent at Ravelry.com. I was so excited when I finally got my Ravelry invite! Now I can't seem to stay away from it.

I am just starting to explore ravelry joy2bme. I am worried about it being one more distraction.

I finally took some photos and started putting my stash and finished projects up. It makes me sad I didn't photograph every item I have made and given away.

I am also a little mortified at how much yarn I have it is like confessing to photograph and post your stash.

I've only been knitting for a little over a year, so my stash isn't too big yet. I tend to only buy yarn when I've picked out a project, but I did go a little crazy recently and bought an absurd amount a Bernat's Bamboo Natural yarns when they were on sale. Now I'm regretting it. I hope I can get inspired to use it up soon.

I also have a few projects I wish I had photographed before giving them away. Now I'm nutty, making sure I take pictures of projects while in progress as well as when finished.

I think my biggest issue when I started using Ravelry was looking at other people's projects and adding them to my queue. I've now firmly decided not to add anything else to my queue until I've finished some of the projects waiting in line. Let's hope I can be strong!

I have just started knitting a kimono, using the generic pattern instructions from the book Kimono Knitting. (It looks like the Touchstone feature is not working at present -- this book is in several people's library.)

Katy

Geez, I sounded like a whiner in that last post. Sorry.

But does anybody else have those "dry spells" where even simple projects just don't seem to be turning out right?

Also, this time of year, I'm always kicking my own butt for not getting busy earlier knitting stuff to donate to the Community Christmas program. I live in a tiny town where they collect warm hats and mittens--the especially like homemade--for underpiveleged kids and give them out for Christmas at the food pantry.

This winter break I PROMISE to start knitting some of these from my stash and be more generous!

>3 nohrt4me: nohrt4me

Which way do you knit? If you use English style (i.e., you "throw" your yarn), you have a lot of extra motion that could aggravate your arthritis. You might want to try Continental, even if you use it only for an occasional break.

I learned English style, and always thought I couldn't do Continental, until I encountered two handed Fair Isle knitting, as taught by Philosopher's Wool. Now my Fair Isle work has much cleaner stranding on the back, and I can knit either way with no problems.

Yes, I'm an English knitter. My grandmother was a "picker" (Continental), and she tried to get me to "do it the right way" years ago.

I tried it, and can manage, but it bothers my left hand to hold the tension (same thing with crochet).

I've found that if I hold my work at hip rather than chest level, this takes a lot of pressure off my hands.

But then I can't SEE what I'm doing as well, especially if I'm doing a sock with fingering yarn or something.

Just some minor adjustments one has to make to age, I suppose. My mother taught me knitting at age 7 because she thought I'd quit fiddling with things (I was probably ADD, but nobody knew it then). It worked.

Now I knit so that I don't snack when I watch TV and the rhythmic movements calm my aging nerves. I now know why my grandmother knitted obsessively. Better'n Valium.

That's funny nohrt4me. I went the other way. My mom taught me English but I switched to Continental. I think my mom taught me many things to keep me from figeting.

I sometimes prop my elbows on a pillow, when I am knitting at home and that helps.

And incidentally I didn't think your post sounded whiny.

I think everyone goes through knitting dry spells sometimes.

There is something about the rhythm of knitting. The men in my family fly fish and the women knit (I learned both) but I think of them as being very similar- calming activity based on rhythm.

As a kid, I learned Continental from my Norwegian grandmother, but it was the kind where you do the easy way to do purl stitches so you have to go into the knit stitch differently to keep from twisting stitches. If you know what I mean. Later in life when I took up knitting again, I had to re-learn how to purl in order to follow the way they write charts. When I knit stockinette, I use my old method because it comes out more even that way. And sometimes when I'm knitting a simple lace pattern, like feather & fan, I do the purl stitches whichever way they should hang on the knit side for whichever decrease I'm going to use, whether ssk or k2tog.

I can knit any old way you want. I also use the two handed method for Fair Isle. Really saves time and aggravation! It pays to perfect as many techniques as you can.

Back in the 1930s, my dad had surgery as a young man. He was laid up for a few months at a residential hospital in a ward with other boys and to keep them (and themselves) from going crazy the nuns who ran the place taught them to ... KNIT!

He is in his 80s now, and has a lung disease, can't do much. I've tried to get him to relearn it (promising I won't tell anyone), but he refuses to take it up.

So sad. (I started a new thread about knitting as therapy, BTW.)

littlegeek, I want to come to your house just to WATCH you knit "any old way." I used to purl the "wrong" way so that the stockinette stitch had more texture. Didn't realize it was wrong until someone (probably Gramma) corrected me, but I sometimes do it on purpose now for the effect.

FYI, the "wrong" way is throwing the yarn under (instead of over) the needle when you purl.

Geez - I had no idea there were different ways to knit - I am English so maybe I just use the English method!!
I have been a bit obsessed with Ravelry since I had my invite - I love looking at other people's projects.