i saw the cover of this book and i knew i had to have it. i have two great graphic obsessions: skulls and argyle. look at the model in the foreground! i was ready to swoon. then i noticed that he was pretty attractive as well....anyway.
we will discuss the books before the knitting.
i think the book is just great. when it comes to a book with patterns, i have a formula to determine if i can buy it. a loose leaf pattern costs (on average) $5. so i look through the book and determine if there is one pattern for every $5 i spend that i will knit.
let me say that this book has well over the required 3 patterns to let me buy it. the accessories are fantastic. hats, scarves, socks. wow. (the lucky socks are one of my favs). the sweaters are 6 of 1, half dozen of the other. it is all about personal taste. i can say that i looked through the sweaters and said "i know a guy would would wear each of these". they aren't all geared toward the same man... but you don't get bogged down in heavy colorwork or the absurd numbers of cables that most handknit men's sweaters strive for.
all this being said, there are a few big fat duds. like the stripper pole scarf... it is an illusion knit scarf and the image in the illusion knitting is a woman on a stripper pole. i would need to be seriously compelled were that to ever be cast on to my needles. as far as i am concerned, neither love nor money would compel me.
the beer bottle pillows are pretty lame as well. i wouldn't knit them for a man because they are a sizable enough project that you would need to be serious about him before casting on. and if you are that serious, there is a possibility that the pillow could end up on your couch one day soon. this is not a good thing.
lest you think i have gone over to the other side and lost my taste for kitsch, i will say the knitted lucha libre ski masks are pretty cool. i think this comes from my midwestern upbringing. if it is cold enough that you actually have to wear a ski mask, it should be amusing.
back to the cover.
i covet the double-knit argyle scarf. as i mentioned, i love argyle, and i really want to learn to double-knit. double-knitting is not hard in theory, nor is it easy in practice. go here and scroll down to see a video of it being done.
(warning: for all my non-knitters... you are about to enter a scary knitting zone.)
i swatched the scarf last night, or at least i tried. woo, baby! finding the best way to hold your yarns is tricky tricky. i thought i should try the two handed method knitting one color english and one continental (i am a continental knitter... to a fault.) but that made a mess. i tried to do both continental coming off my index finger with plucking one color and wrapping the other. no-go, but better.
so now i am trying to do a more standard continental with both yarns in my left hand but the knit yarn plucked from my index finger and purl yarn plucked from my middle finger. this is very tricky for me because i usually feed my stitches up the needle with my middle finger, and ring finger was in an unfortunate accident in my misguided crafting youth that has sapped his strength to the point that he can't manage that job alone.
(end knitter's jargon)
so!
the challenges continue.
if i ever learn how to hold my yarn, i promise i won't bitch too much about the fact that the scarf will probably take me a whole year to finish. as it stands right now, i may well do better to begin tackling intarsia so i can make myself some real argyle socks.
on the opposite end of the timeconsuming spectrum, i am almost done with my final crochet project of the 2007 holidays.
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