I’ve read a lot of knitting resolutions over the past few days, which got me thinking about what my knitting resolutions might be. Pumpkinmama’s list finally inspired me to stop thinking and start listing.

Top 5 for 2005
1. New technique
Tragically, I’m pretty sure I didn’t learn any new techniques in 2005. For 2006, I’d like to finally grasp knitting in ends (the video link is partway down the page) and learn Norwegian purling.

2. Favorite finished objects
The perfect purple Anne socks I knitted for Jeanne’s birthday

and the amazingly irregularly shaped felted tote bag I knitted for my sister-in-law’s birthday.

3. Favorite knitalong
I didn’t participate in a single knitalong in 2005. For 2006, I am part of Stashalong (January 1 – March 31).

4. Favorite shop
Actually, I don’t have a favorite shop at the moment. I’m fond of Elann.com and WEBS, but try to avoid them. See #1 in the next list for why.

5. Favorite tools
My ReadUpon
My gadget bag

My circular needle case

Resolutions for 2006
1. Knit from stash.
Hence participating in Stashalong. I have a ridiculous amount of stash. I could knit entirely from stash for several years.

2. Find a new knitting group that meets weekly.
2005 saw the implosion of our weekly knitting group and I’ve missed that camaraderie. I have a blast knitting with Jeanne every other week, but have discovered that I need a weekly knitting group to stay grounded.

3. Go to at least one knitting retreat.
2005 was the first year since I started knitting that I haven’t gone to several knitting retreats and that was another thing I really missed. Anyone have suggestions?! I’m particularly interested in events in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest (especially Sante Fe or Taos), or something on a train. I should also return to the Camp Miller Knitting Retreat, which was the first retreat I ever went to and which led to me meeting most of the knitting friends I now have.

4. Knit more.
In 2005, I completed the fewest knitting projects since I started knitting – 17. Of course, 17 is my lucky number, so maybe it was ok. 🙂

5. Start knitting for the community again. It’s the right thing to do.

ArtsyMama just tagged me and since the tag fits the list o’ five thing I have going here… Here’s my list of five weird things about myself:

1. I am phobic about garbage disposals, power lawnmowers, and power saws – basically anything with spinning sharp blades that could cut off fingers.

2. I have celiac disease and follow a gluten-free diet. I’m also lactose intolerant, but hey, at least I can take pills and still eat small amounts of dairy.

3. I’ve been divorced since 1991. Being divorced isn’t particularly weird, but people are always surprised to find this out.

4. I’ve done the internet dating thing off and on since 1999 – more off than on. During the memorable but emotionally exhausting summer of 1999, I went on about 25 coffee dates in a six week period.

5. Charles de Lint is my favorite author of all time. I think the weird thing here is that so few people seem to know about de Lint. Or maybe the weird thing is that I want to be a Crow Girl. 🙂 I recommend starting with Someplace To Be Flying if you’re interested in finding out more about de Lint. That link takes you to an excerpt from the beginning of the book, so you can check it out risk free.

I tag Pink Rocket, Mama_Tulip, Jeanne, Ana, Eileen, Theresa, Carrie K, Hickmama, Kellie N, and “me” from Bermuda. (Yeah, so that’s more than five. What’s your point??!)

The “rules” are to list five weird things about yourself, then tag five other people. The tag includes telling them about said tag in their comments.

If I missed tagging you and you really want to share some weirdness about yourself with the world, feel free! Drop me a note in comments and I’ll add you to the list above.

Welcome to 2006. May this year be better than the last.

It all started harmlessly enough. My dad gave me a prototype knitting bag that one of the rubber stamp designers he works with had given him.

It’s a cleverly designed bag – it has pockets everywhere and is spacious enough for a good sized project. But I don’t do so well with light colors: I spill mochas and pinot noir on them and then set them down in muddy puddles. So this bag holds assorted tools, zippers, and early projects.

I next picked up a bag at the Land’s End Inlet. It’s good sized, has lots of interior pockets, and is water resistant vinyl.

It came with a mysterious little mat and a nifty little bag that was very handy for carrying extra circular needles. Eventually one of my friends broke it to me gently that it was a diaper bag.

Oh.

Soon after, while browsing at Depth of Field, I picked up what became my very favorite knitting bag. Alas, after I got Chaos, the lack of zipper on this beloved bag was extremely problematic.

(Shhh. The bag has been retired to my closet.)

It was replaced by a handy Eagle Creek tote bag that would be perfect if it was just a little wider. (I am completely weak for Eagle Creek bags of all sorts, from luggage to tiny shoulder bags. I probably have at least 15 Eagle Creek bags of various sorts. But, since we’re just talking knitting bags here..)

Moving right along… Next follows an assortment of bags in no particular order. Most hold yarn in my closet or are used for holding inactive projects.

This bag was from Yarnover, the Minnesota Knitter’s Guild’s annual spring market and class event. An attractive bag, but alas – no zipper.

This one’s from (you’ll never guess) the Taos Wool Festival. Since it’s the size of a small suitcase, it’s most suited for shopping at fiber festivals.

I have a pair of Bagsmith’s handy freestanding project bags. I like them, but mostly use them for storage because they don’t have zippers.

This is my sock knitting project lunch box, purchased for $0.25 at a yard sale a few years ago. Completely cat resistant.

I mentioned my Red Tango mini bowling bag a few days ago, so haven’t included it again here.

Here’s a very new bag that I’ve been using to carry my current sock project. It’s a Laurel Burch, about 6″ tall. Purple cats, black cats, green cats. Doesn’t get much better than that. I like this bag so much that I’m ordering a larger version of it because… obviously I don’t have enough knitting bags.

I also have a larger Laurel Burch bag, which was pictured a few weeks ago (without Chaos). It’s a fun bag that I picked up in Taos last year, but it’s so bright I find it traumatic to carry, so I use it to hold inactive WIPs.

Um, yeah, so maybe I have a small problem with knitting bags. Just maybe…

We have our family Christmas on Christmas Eve, starting around 3 pm, so yesterday I was up at 6:30 am, baking a pumpkin pie and finishing Bamboozelle.

The pattern leaves attaching the i-cord until the very end. I decided that it would be a lot easier to attach the i-cord first, so the sewing would be hidden by the lining. If I’d really been thinking, I probably just would have knit attached i-cord around the top lip of the basket and saved myself some sewing. Then I started on the part I was really dreading – the internal structure. I’d picked up some buckram to use for this part.

I initially tried connecting the pieces with tape, as suggested in the pattern. It looked pretty good…

but made this weird crinkling noise that bothered me. So I stitched the corners together. (Let’s just note here that I have extremely rudimentary sewing skills. It would be swell if y’all skipped mocking me on the next bit.).

Nowhere near as nice as the tape, but at this point, I was starting to eye the clock nervously, so I pressed onward and started the lining. I had some nice cream-colored satin to use for the lining (and hey, if you need to line something, I have a lot left – what the heck was I thinking??? I can cut ya a deal on some buckram, too), although it looks creamy white in this picture…

Bonus – no blood was drawn during the finishing. Some days, I guess that’s all a girl can ask. For all my moaning about this project, I’m mightily tempted to knit Bamboozelle Leatherette for myself – especially since it requires no internal structure or lining. I do love that woven basket stitch… Back to our family Christmas. My stepmom liked Bamboozelle, my sister-in-law liked the tabbycat mittens, and they both liked the wine charms, so all was well. Whew!!!

I got several great knitting gifts. The first was a copy of Alterknits. Although I may never knit a screen door (one of the projects), it’s a beautifully photographed book that doesn’t cover the same territory as most knitting books, so it works for me. And I suppose I’d better just ‘fess up before Jeanne outs me… I’m helpless in the face of a nifty new knitting book. I have a startling number of knitting books for someone who has only been knitting for five years (um, does it help that only 1/2 the top shelf is knitting related?!):

Moving right along, I also got a fun hat kit from my dad and stepmom – they picked it up during their semester-long stay in Alnwick Castle and environs.

Last night I got together with Jeanne for a bit of knitting. Since Jeanne and I have both recently started blogging, we discovered that there are new rituals we must learn – mainly, taking more pictures:

Before I tell you anything else about knitting with Jeanne, I have to provide some backstory. I’ve been working on Bamboozelle from knitty for a Christmas present. The pattern has been fighting me from the very beginning.

I’m not using the Alchemy Bamboo called for in the pattern. True, it’s completely gorgeous yarn, but I just couldn’t bring myself to spend $28 on 138 yards of yarn for a teeny-tiny basket. Instead, I’m using Southwest Trading Company Bamboo (Fiery Red), which has a lot more yardage, is $14 cheaper, and not nearly as spectacular as the Alchemy Bamboo. The weight of the two yarns is comparable.

After I cast on and started to knit the basketweave pattern, I could tell something wasn’t right. The stitches that slanted to the right looked great, but the stitches that slanted to the left were strangely twisted and not at all like the picture.

I have a fair number of stitch dictionaries, but could only find the “woven basket stitch” in my beloved Mon Tricot Knitting Dictionary (well worth the $0.69 I paid for it at the thrift store).

Bamboozelle has this for the right side row:
knit 1, [knit into back of second stitch on left needle, knit into back of first stitch on left needle, slide both stitches off the needle together] to last stitch, knit 1

Mon Tricot provided this for the right side row:
knit 1, [pass right needle behind first stitch on left needle, knit second stitch on the left needle (through the front of the stitch, as usual), knit first stitch on left needle (through the front of the stitch, as usual), slide both stitches off the needle together] to last stitch, knit 1

The Mon Tricot version looked pretty good on the dishcloth I started for testing stitch patterns because the bamboo yarn didn’t hold up well to being ripped out a few times (it started to get very fuzzy).

Back to the bamboo.

The stitch pattern was fun to knit once I got the hang of it, but I couldn’t read while I worked on it. Anyway, I brought Bamboozelle along last night. Jeanne had a scarf that she quickly decided wasn’t the right use for the yarn and so ripped out. Alas, it turned out she didn’t have another project with her, so she was a bit at loose ends (sorry, couldn’t resist the bad pun).

Meanwhile, I was hoping to get the best of Bamboozelle’s bottom shaping. I was completely stuck on the first row and couldn’t get the count even close to right:

K6, [(k1, k2tog) six times, k10] three times, [k1, k2tog] six times, k6. 90 sts rem.

Jeanne eventually took pity on me (I suspect it was just too painful to watch me knit and tink and knit and tink and knit and tink…) and took over Bamboozelle while I pulled a sock project out of my bag. Whew!

She was great! She knit bottom rows 1 – 8 (um, I think – Jeanne, can you please confirm that?!) with no trouble at all. Obviously, she is very gifted and you should all bring your knitting woes to Jeanne to solve.

Onward. I am completely weak when it comes to knitting bags. Sometime I’ll do an entire entry with nothing but pictures of my knitting bags. You will probably want to stage an intervention. Look at this cute little Red Tango bag (perfect for a small project!) that I picked up at Whole Foods a few weeks ago:

Since I only came home with this bag instead of this bag and the 6 others that I also liked, I think I did pretty well.

Here’s a gratuitous shot of Chaos taken with my new camera. Love my new camera! It’s an Olympus Stylus Digital 800 (and no, I didn’t pay anywhere near the suggested retail price).