Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Conversations With My Brother


(Sitting next to me on the couch while everyone is knitting last weekend)

Kid Bro: Whoa, what are you making - is that a whole sweater? (everyone else is working on scarves, hats, socks).

Me: Yep, it's almost done. I'm working on my last sleeve.

KB: Cool (watching for awhile).

KB: Why are your needles different than everyone elses?

Me: They're two circulars - I'm knitting sleeves in the round, so I don't have a seam.

KB: Really? That's neat (the engineering/draftsman side of him appreciates the mechanics of knitting).

KB: How do you do that? (pointing to my raglan decreases)

Me: You just knit two stitches together, and it makes it slant like that. Cool huh?

KB: Yeah, that is cool. How do you make it different at the bottom?

Me: That's ribbing, you....

KB: Knit one, purl two? (why does everyone say that?)

Me: Well, knit one, purl one. (demonstration of the difference betweeen knit and purl follows... then is tinked back because I'm really not purling right now)

KB: You can go backwards?

Me: (laughing) Oh yeah, I do that a lot!

KB: That's a lot of work. How long did it take you?

Me: I've been working on it for about a month.

KB: Wow, that's a long time.... or maybe not.

KB: It's nice. What's it made of?

Me: Wool.

KB: Hm. What about this other stuff? (Pointing to Heather's pretty spun vareigated wool)

Me: A friend of mind dyed and spun that herself! Pretty cool, huh?

KB: You mean, with a real spinning wheel?

Me: I thinks she uses a drop spindle - but really I have no idea. I don't know anything about spinning. (Then we have a LONG coversation about wool.....)

KB: That's very cool. How much does wool cost?

Me: There's probably about $35 in this sweater, but I bought pretty reasonable stuff. That's not too bad, you'd probably spend $35 on a wool sweater in a store. (there I go, justifying my "art" again).

KB: Oh, yeah, at least. But, how do you know it will fit?

Me: Yeah - well, I don't actually. I just hope for the best.

KB: Hmm..... Image hosted by Photobucket.com

Well...... my Wendy/Heather Essential Stripe sweater - it does fit! I love it.

18 Comments:

At 10:43 AM, Blogger ~k said...

Hi. I've been lurking for awhile here at your blog...figured I'd say hi. Hi. :o) Your sweater is lovely and I am coveting it right now, however, many, many Unfinished Christmas Objects are beckoning to me and that sweater would clearly be a Selfish Knit (not that I don't deserve one of THOSE now and again...but I do need to finish gifty stuff first!).
Hope your day is happy.

 
At 11:02 AM, Blogger Bear Knits said...

It looks great! Awesome job, Lynda!I want one, too.

 
At 11:53 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Beauteous! (And I'm not just saying that cuz I made some of the yarn.) You did a great job!

Love the story. Men that will chat about knitting and act interested are so hot.

 
At 1:11 PM, Blogger chris said...

Your sweater is SO beautiful, Lynda!! It looks fantastic on you! (Such a tease, only giving us a little glimpse. Show it off, missy!;-)) The colors are just gorgeous- you did a fantastic job with it. And a guy who appreciates the finer points of wool and knitting? Your brother's a keeper, for sure. :-)

 
At 1:17 PM, Blogger amylovie said...

I wish some of my male family members would be interested in my knitting. What a cutie!

Gorgeous! Can't wait for you to model it for us.

Amy

 
At 1:49 PM, Blogger Mary Ann said...

If you already know about the history of knitting, just don't bother to read this: Hundreds of years ago (I'm not enough of an historian to know exactly how many hundreds) men were the only knitters. There were knitting guilds and you had to be an apprentice first to learn the craft. You can look this up on Wikipedia.

 
At 1:49 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Looks awesome! How cool to have such a "knitterly" conversation with your brother! Gosh, now I'm jealous of that too!!! Would you stop already???

 
At 2:51 PM, Blogger SAM said...

Your sweater is gorgeous and the stories of your Thanksgiving are priceless. You are truly blessed to have such a family and a beautiful place to get away. Those mountains are incredible. I will always remember the amazing feeling I got when I turned onto Magnolia on a clear day in Anaheim and was able to see the mountains on the horizon. Living in Houston I have to go to the top of a freeway overpass the get any elevation. Love reading your blog.

 
At 3:16 PM, Blogger LC in Sunny So Cal said...

TOO funny!..sounds JUST like him!

 
At 3:34 PM, Blogger Noey D. said...

Beautiful Lynda!! Your sweater turned out just perfect!

 
At 4:52 PM, Blogger Ruth said...

hi lynda,
your sweater turned out great!!! i love the color and the stripes and the collar... great job!! =)

 
At 6:19 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah! Now, you'll have to model it, although I have to confess I saw it sleeveless.

I love it!

 
At 6:20 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

That was me, Wendy, commenting on that last anonymous comment. Blogger won't take my identity!

 
At 6:29 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It looks great, especially the deeper purple at the top. Glad to see that it fits and that you like it. I love raglan decreases - they are very ingeneous.

 
At 8:19 AM, Blogger Sonya said...

Wow, that sweater looks great! That peeky pic is perfect.

What a good brother you have. My brother's sum total knitting comments are "Where is my hat?" (evidently I promised him one at some point) and "Knit socks? Why don't you just go buy a pair?" Arrgh.

 
At 4:28 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love the pullover Lynda! What a beautiful job you did. I like that photo of you as well. Very imaginative. So what are you reading??

 
At 1:40 PM, Blogger Donna Boucher said...

Great colors!
Lovely gauge!

Ab fab!

 
At 9:19 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey, don't we have a super crafty bunch of girls in our family? Those who knit together........
and I'm willing to try homemade anything you make. And those guys seem to be able to make anything they want bad enough. That's what makes Monday nites so interesting!

 

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