The Monday Top 5!

I owe two, since I didn't blog last week.

Top 5 reasons I have not yet knit a sweater:
1. Fear of blocking. So far I've never knit anything that requires blocking.
2. An irrational fear that one sleeve will end up longer than the other.
3. I always have multiple WIPs - something that takes as long to knit as a sweater will probably never get done (this is why I knit hats).
4. The thought of having to rip out something I've been working on for days horrifies me (again, why I knit hats - I do occasionally have to frog, but it's at most a couple hours' work).
5. In all likelihood I won't like how it turns out (especially if it turns out anything like my first hat, which would have fit King Kong), and it will be a huge waste of time and money.

My 5 knitting resolutions for 2006:
1. Get over it and knit a sweater. I'm trying to decide between the ballet wrap cardigan and the 4-3-2 ribbed pullover, both from the current IK. Leave a comment if you have an opinion as to which would be a better choice.
2. Get a hat website up and running. Last week, I had a little hat show and managed to sell 4 hats (Yippee!) - two that I had already made, and two custom orders. My dad has been encouraging me to start a side business. I've already got 7 of my own hat patterns designed, and I'm working on 3 new patterns. Obviously, for copyright reasons, I'm only selling hats that I designed myself.
3. Learn intarsia.
4. Do something that involves buttons and/or a zipper.
5. Get a design published.

The Monday Top 5!

Five things it seems like every knitter but me has knitted:

1. A sweater of some kind. No, I've never made a sweater. I did make a shrug, along with a capelet, a few scarves and about a bazillion hats. I have finishing fear. Give me a break, I've only been knitting since February.

2. A Clapotis. Maybe one day.

3. A big giant lacy shawl. Never gonna happen. I have zero interest in lace. I like cables and bobbles and chunky yarn. I do use fingering weight yarn, but doubled or tripled. I've never knit with any needle smaller than a 4 (and that was only the ribbing on hats for which I used 6's for the main body).

4. Socks. Again, zero interest. I don't even wear socks, except when I work out (heh - and when was the last time that happened?).

5. A scarf out of Scarf Style. I'm not even linking, because everyone already has this book. Myself included. I tweaked the "Here & There" cable pattern to use for my shrug (2x2 rib instead of 3x3). I used the "Interlocking Balloons" pattern for one of my hats. (That was a learning experience. I really liked the way I figured out how to handle the crown decreases, and the hat looks really beautiful when it's just lying there. But when I put it on, it stretches out and emphasizes - in a very, very bad way - all the increases and decreases. All the tiny little gaps they make stretch out into ginormous gaping holes, so I can't wear it. I should really frog it, 'cause it's great yarn.) I also stole the reversible ribbed cable idea from "Vintage Velvet." I made a scarf for my cousin (and still regret not taking pics of it; it was GORGEOUS) out of Manos with this pattern. But instead of a center ribbed cable panel, I CO'ed 40 stitches, knitted the whole thing in 1x1 rib, and every 23 rows cabled almost the entire width of the scarf (meaning, rib 4 sts, hold 16 sts to back on cn, rib 16 sts from left needle, rib 16 sts from cn, rib remaining 4 sts). I can't even describe how it looks. Maybe I can borrow it back for a photo shoot.