So I wore my Rogue sweater today for the first time. Today was supposed to be the coldest day of the week, a balmy 32 degrees, and good sweater weather. Rogue got lots of oohs and aahs from my fellow grad students, lots of “nice sweater…YOU MADE THAT?” which made me feel good.

And then something totally random but totally cool happened.

I was waiting for the bus after class and chatting with a friend. The bus was just pulling up when another girl wearing a blue Rogue walks by! I said to her, “I am totally wearing that same sweater” (I think I was a valley girl in a past life) and as she took her headphones off and was all, “what?” I unzipped my jacket and pointed to Rogue’s distinctive neck cabling.

Then there was about 30 seconds worth of rapid knitting-related gab–I was also wearing My So-Called Scarf, which she spotted right away–and then I had to run for the bus.

If I see her again I’ll have to get her name and see if she wants to join my off-and-on knitting/embroiding/beading/tv watching circle.

But yeah: neat, huh? It’s like: fellow knitter? Instant kinship!

Now that this blog has been up for a week and a half, it’s about time I established some knitting cred. So if you’re one of the non-knitting readers that randomly wandered in from Thought Bubbles, watch out, because I’m about to prove I’m a real knitta.

Rogue. I fell in love with Rogue the first time I laid eyes on the pattern and I vowed to knit it someday, after I had a few sweaters already under my belt.

First, some praise for Jenna Wilson: the pattern for Rogue is amazing. I found it extremely clear and easy to knit from, even though I’d never used a charted pattern before, and it really does cover everything you need to know.

Every time I had a problem, it was because I hadn’t actually bothered to, y’know, read the pattern. Oh, and one time it was because I was dense, not realizing that to k1, p1, k1 in the same stitch, you…k1, p1, k1…in the same stitch. Duh.

Continue reading… »

Author: Debbie Stoller
Publisher: Workman Publishing Company
Rating:
Buy Stitch ‘N Bitch Nation on Amazon.com

This is, of course, the sequel to Stitch ‘N Bitch. I don’t think it quite reaches the bar set by the original book, but it’s definitely worth looking into.

Continue reading… »