In this episode I talk about the importance of yarn management when knitting color work projects and what it's teaching me in this busy back-to-school season.
Music credit: Ketsa, "Day Trips"
In this episode I talk about the importance of yarn management when knitting color work projects and what it's teaching me in this busy back-to-school season.
Music credit: Ketsa, "Day Trips"
[instrumental intro music, upbeat with trills and bells
Music Credit: Ketsa, “Day Trips”]
[Holly 00:34]
Hello! I hope you’re well. I’m really happy to be talking with you. I'm feeling a little bit better. Thank you all who listened to my last podcast where I talked about my dog. We’re still so sad but I’m feeling a little bit better in terms of mood and I’m feeling a bit excited about the change in the season. It’s still tremendously hot here in the DC area. It’s so unbelievably humid. The joke is that it’s a swamp but there's just so much green around me that it feels like a rainforest. It’s been raining every afternoon. It’s been good for my plants. I’m rambling!
[Holly 01:25]
I am so happy to be here. I wanted to talk about today about this complicated and discrete moment in the year which is this back to school season. For me, it’s twofold. My kids go back to school and I also go back to school. I teach at a university nearby and part of my rhythm of my work life are these seasons. These quiet times for research and then these more active times of teaching service. And this is a very complicated moment in our schedule. The kids go back to school and I go back to school and none of us handle our stress very well. We’re all in bad moods and feeling grouchy.
[Holly 02:21]
And I have talked about how sad I was last week. I was working on super simple hat projects. I just needed something to occupy my hands and to let my mind be empty as I healed. I didn’t want to stress myself out about my knitting. My goodness that’s the last thing knitting should do. But you know sometimes you want projects that are soothing in their simplicity and sometimes we want projects that are distracting us with their complexity. And I was in that simple mode. I decided to frog the hat made out of shelter yar; I think it’s too short and won’t be functional. I am sure I’ll find a use for that yarn. I am just going to put it aside. It gave me joy in the making it did what it was supposed to do--it occupied my hands as I figured out how I would adjust to life without Gerri, our dog.
[Holly 03:28]
And now one of the things that I’m finding joy in is small projects. I am starting to feel like I can handle complexity. As my schedule gets more complex, I’m finding I’m drawn to more complex knitting projects. But I am still feeling overwhelmed by big projects. So all of those lovely sweaters popping up on ravelry (I know everyone is planning rhinebeck sweaters) but that’s too much for me. What i’m craving are small projects.
[Holly 04:10]
I finally got my new set of dpns. [laughter] I still haven’t found my old set but the new one arrived and I immediately realized how excited I was to have them. I immediately cast on a color work mitten projects and I’m eyeing a cable sock pattern. Both of these patterns are tricky. Colorwork is always a challenge and cables too. But both are exactly what I need--they’re small enough and distracting enough in short bursts.
[Holly 04:57]
I have this--it should be a simple scarf but it’s not. It’s Marin by Ysolda Teague in this amazing yarn. It’s fibre company road to china light. It’s so so soft and it’s this pretty pale pink. But the pattern is challenging. It involves a chart. And it’s just flummuxing me.
[Holly 05:40]
I think the issue is that I think it should be easier than it is. So I keep thinking that I understand the chart and then plowing ahead and then realizing 20 rows later that I misunderstood the directions. I don’t think it’s the pattern. I think it’s very much my mindset. So I’m now looking for projects that are going to force me to go slowly. They’re not things I can wing on my own. It’s not tv knitting. Right now I just want to check out on everything but I just can’t. I need to stay present and focused and the knitting time that I have is really really limited. I can knit a few rows here and there and that’s about it.
[Holly 06:58]
SO I’m finding that these complex accessory projects are what I need. It’s slow and focused work. This morning I did two rows of knitting on these mittens. If you’re a long time listener you might remember that this time last year I took an online class about knitting Selbu mittens. I had great intentions to cast on, but I just...didn’t [laughter]. I couldn’t quite pick a pattern or source the yarn so it just kind of languished. And then this summer my youngest went to girl scouts camp--it was stressful. Lots of covid tests!--but it’s near this knitting store that I heard about but never visited. So I thought I’d visit it. And when I was there I saw that they had the yarn I needed. Rauma 2ply. I never wanted to order the yarn just for two skeins; it seemed a lot of shipping (my budget is super tight). But since I was there, I wanted to support the store (but again my budget is really tight) they’re $10/skein (not cheap) but I bought two. They had my favorite colors--a christmassy red and a pale ice blue, which I think that combination is unique and so pretty. So I once again checked out the Norwegian knitting pattern book from my local library, picked out my pattern, and cast on…
[Holly 09:31]
And you know it’s colorwork...on small needles [laughter]. I’m paying a lot of attention to my tension to make sure I don’t get puckering or, you know, children’s mittens [laughter]. That’s what has happened in the past when I made colorwork mittens. But i am really enjoying it. And this morning, those two rows taught me an important lesson, which is yarn management.
[Holly 10:11]
Half of the joy of this project depends on my setup. If I don’t the yarn gets super twisty and that affects my tension and then the project doesn’t look as nice and it really shows in the finished project. And it impacts how fun it is to knit. As I was trying to manage two balls this morning, it’s not too hard, I mean they’re brightly colored and different [laughter] it should be easy enough to do. But everything gets twisty right now. And that’s a good metaphor for this time period. If I don’t pay attention, everything can get twisted. But if I stay present and pay attention, I can do the complex tasks this season requires. [One of my kiddos is starting middle school and there are a lot of feelings in my house!] I think the more I set myself up for success the better this school year will go.
[Holly 11:13]
So I keep thinking: “yarn management! Yarn management!” [laughter] It’s all in how I set myself up for success.
[Holly 11:35]
Anyway thanks for listening to me ramble. As a reminder, please take what you like and leave the rest. I hope that you find something useful in this but if not, let it go. I will not be offended. [laughter].I am hoping you’re well and that this is a relaxing and exciting time period and that you have some beautiful projects to see you through it.
[Holly 12:05]
Take care and happy knitting.