I'm Just Wild About Harry!

AT LAST -- this Wednesday marks the premiere of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. ABC Family is celebrating with a marathon of the first four Potter movies. Today was Sorcerer's Stone, Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban. Tomorrow will be Goblet of Fire. The Order of Phoenix is still only available on HBO, which will be showing it multiple times on Tuesday. So I've been tuned in all day. Of course, I could have my own marathon any time I want, since I own all five DVDs. However, I'm tuning in more for the commercial breaks than the movies, since ABC is showing interviews about and excerpts from the new movie.

I've been a Harry fan since 1999. I bought the first book ostensibly for my goddaughter Emma and read it to "quality assure" it before giving it to her. Within a few chapters I decided it was mine and bought another copy for her. From then on, it became a tradition that I would buy two copies of each Harry Potter as soon as it came out: one for Emma and one for me. We would look forward feverishly to each volume. I also would reread each of the previous volumes right before the new one came out. So it makes sense that I would want to rewatch each of the movies before the new one premieres. [Right now, poor Professor Lupin has transformed into a werewolf!]

I've also loved the fact the knitting -- and especially sock knitting -- has played a large part in Harry's tales, especially the early ones. Mrs. Weasley knit a sweater for Harry's first Christmas at Hogwarts (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) along with the one she knit for Ron. I think the knitting needles were knitting magically by themselves when Harry visited the Weasley home in Chamber of Secrets (boy, would I love to be able to do that!!). And after Harry tricked Malfoy into giving house elf Doby his freedom with a sock (Chamber of Secrets), socks became Doby's favorite article of clothing and he knitted a pair of mismatched ones for Harry as a Christmas present in Prisoner of Azkaban.

Knitting Hogwarts scarves and hats were quite the rage for a while on the KnitList and I remember many bitter denunciations when people said they were knitting "HP" items, leading to wars of words over copyright law. As a side note: it's rather interesting that I never heard of any controversy over knitting Doctor Who's scarf -- of course, he doesn't wear it in this (David Tennant) incarnation nor his previous (Christopher Eccles) one.

What's on My Needles

As for my own knitting (as opposed to Mrs. Weasley's and Doby's), I completed the seaman's scarf, but discovered I made one side two rows longer than the other. I will have to fix that before I photo it. (Note to self: do not measure and bind off one's project at 3 AM ever again!) The matching watch cap will have to wait a week or two, along with the bootie languishing in my knitting bag, since I've started the second Montavilla market tote and have only a week and a half to finish it!

Another Completed Project





KnitPicks had this wonderful spa kit using their Cotlin (fifty percent cotton / fifty percent linen) yarn. (Alas, I believe it is no longer in stock.) It provided yarn in cool pastel colors -- beige, white, pale blue, pale green, lilac -- with enough yarn to make a loofah bath mitt, an eye mask, a soap caddy, a scrubby and a traveling bag to tote them all in. The colors in the kit don't really match the colors of any of the three bathrooms in this house -- two of which were newly installed last summer. However, I really wanted the patterns so I bought the kit plus more Cotlin in appropriate colors.

Ethel has the the first floor apartment and her new bathroom is in her favorite color scheme -- black, white and red. So I made her a loofah mitt in red and black. It is knitted in linen stitch, which gives it a nice bumpy texture (for exfoliating) on one side and a smooth texture on the other. Now that Ethel has had a chance to test it out and give it thumbs up, I may make more as stocking stuffers for Christams 2009.

I Love My iTouch - Part 2

Had a lovely relaxing 4th of July -- so relaxing, I didn't feel like blogging. I did a little work in the garden and watched some of my favorite TV marathons and, best of all, I knitted while listening to some knitting podcasts. Yes, thanks to my iTouch, I can now easily download my favorite podcasts and listen wherever I am. I first tried to listen to podcasts at my computer, but because of my severe hearing loss, I strained to hear. Quite frankly, the sound quality wasn't very good.

Then I got my iTouch. The sound quality is amazing and it is so easy to download the podcasts from the iTunes store. Best of all, they're free -- which is VERY good the considering song-buying binge I've been on (replacing my old college LPs: Gordon Lightfoot, Judy Collins and Bob Dylan!)

I began with the most recent KnitPicks podcasts. Kelly Petkun is a joy to listen to and has both interesting guests and interesting topics. One of the ones I downloaded was the 100th podcast. In it, Kelly referred to two earlier podcasts on i-cord as personal favorites, so I went back and downloaded them. I thought I knew everything there was to know about i-cord -- after all, I am an Elizabethan (Elizabeth Zimmerman) knitter! However, I loved Kelly's ideas -- I plan to try the self-edging i-cord on my next scarf instead of my usual garter stitch border. And when I did the i-cord knot on the second twin hat, I knit through the back of the first stitch on each round and saw Kelly was right -- the stitch loses it loopy look.

Another podcast I discovered is KIPing it Real by Jackie. I especially love that she separates each podcast into chapters, so I can listen to a segment and then come back to the rest later. Also, if I want to skip a segment (say on spinning), I can do so. I zipped through the first three podcasts in one evening. It was a very soothing experience. Not only was Jackie's content interesting, but the earphones helped to block out the very poor and very loud karaoke at a neighbor's 4th of July party!

Of course, my KnitBuddy software helps to keep me on track. Over the holiday, I slacked off a little on the baby booties -- for some reason, I was SO NOT in the mood to work on double points. Instead, I turned to my seaman's scarf. It's a perfect example of what I call mindless knitting -- I can work on it with my eyes closed if necessary. It's also great commuter knitting (small and knit straight on a circular needle) -- so I took it with me yesterday when I accompanied my best friend Ethel to her dental appointment in Manhattan. It was supposed to be a simple visit -- to get her permanent crown -- but she mentioned a strange feeling in another tooth and the dentist discovered a fractured tooth AND infection under another crown. Two hours later, she was minus one tooth but I was plus fourteen inches of ribbing on my scarf. Thanks to Ethel's tooth mishap, I should have another project to move from WIP to finished status on KnitBuddy tomorrow.

And now to show off the first of two completed projects -- both made from KnitPicks yarns and patterns. This is the Montavilla Market Tote. The kit includes the pattern and four balls of organic cotton -- one in each of the four colors (Marshmallow, Malted Milk, Toffee and Mocha). The four balls are enough for two bags. Once I started it, I couldn't put it down. The linen stitch on the bottom formed a nice secure base and the lace stitch for the body of the bag was enough to keep me interested. The handles were especially intriguing -- essentially two over-sized buttonholes done in linen stitch. The biggest problem was carrying the colors and trying to keep the balls straight. Fortunately, I am the queen of knitting gadgets, so I used my knitting nest from Circular Solution -- a canvas bag with four pockets, perfect for a four color project. Even so, I had to stop every few rows to prevent tangling. I am used to chugging along at a fast pace, so it was frustrating. However, the end product is definitely worth it. So, I'll probably start the other one as soon as I finish my scarf, since I need a birthday gift to be ready in two weeks!

Next post I'll show off the loofah bath mitt made of KnitPicks Cotlin yarn.

Off to bed and a few more inches of scarf before lights out!

I Love My Knit Buddy (and My iTouch)!!

I've really become a more productive knitter in the past few months, thanks to my iTouch -- which has wonderful software for knitters. The iTouch is an iPod that uses the same operating system as the iPhone -- which means there are thousands of applications available in the iTunes app store. Many are free -- such as the StitchMinder (a great program for keeping track of rows completed, pattern rows, pattern repeats and increase rows). I became interested in the iTouch when I read of the KnitGauge program (ninety-nine cents!!) in one of the spring knitting magazines (I subscribe to a ton of them -- everything but Vogue Knitting because I dislike both the editor and the patterns). After my brilliant eleven year old godson demonstrated all the things he could do with his iTouch, I lusted for one of my own.

Within a few hours of purchasing it, I spent hours exploring the app store. I got a lot of free apps to access favorite sites such as the NY Times and the Huff Post plus I discovered a few others -- like the BBC Reader for world news. But my best find (and app investment) is the KnitBuddy. This clever program allows me to catalogue stash, needles, and crochet hooks. More importanly, I can document projects (WIP, finished, queue). For each project, I can include a photo, notes, and have multiple counters (rows, patterns, increases, decreases). Just looking at the list of WIPs (works in progress) provides me with an incentive to work on them so I can move them to the finished project category and replace the photo with one of the completed item.

Right now I have seven WIPS recorded in my KnitBuddy -- all started in 2009. (I'm not too anxious to uncover and catalogue all those started in previous years -- it might be too depressing!) But best of all, I have five projects in the finished category -- all of which I started after I bought my iTouch in April. This includes a pair of summer socks knit in purple Sunapee (a silk and cotton DK weight from Patternworks); the Knitted Triangles Shawl (shown on the Trinity Knitting blog), a fantastic doggie sweater and two kit projects from KnitPicks.



The doggie sweater is modeled below by the newest family member - Miss Tobie. She is a maltipoo puppy belonging to my godchildren. A true princess, the ruffled sequined sweater in Berocco Quest and Berocco Lazer looks like it was designed just for her....and it only took two days to knit. Of course, I've bought more yarn and patterns to make her more sweaters (and a stocking for her first Christmas). She will be one well dressed doggie -- and may possible need her own cedar chest for her sweaters!

Enough blogging for now -- I'll include shots of the other completed projects in upcoming posts.