Tons and tons of fantastic patterns - cables, lace, two-colour slip stitch etc. I will never be able to use them all! I think my only small gripe about the books is that they are in black and white - but then there are so many patterns, perhaps the cost was prohibitive? The pictures are pretty clear, anyway. Think the Harmony Guides (which I also own), but bigger, and you get the basic idea.
The weird thing is, it's often cheaper to buy the books from the USA and get them shipped over here (if you don't mind waiting for them). One seller is selling the book for £99 (the cheapest is about £20). Do they think we're all daft?!
Next month I hope to get books 3 & 4.
I'd love to make a massive afghan with all the different stitches - it'd probably be the size of a football pitch, though!
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I also took the afternoon off last Monday, to attend a talk about garter carriages. Despite having a rather frightening experience with White Van Man (see here), it was a good talk, and I learnt a few things about my garter carriage. Mine is one of the early models so doesn't do casting on or off, but then I think I'd prefer to do that myself anyway - I don't trust it. A garter carriage, for those non-MKers, is a special carriage that walk across the machine, knitting or purling stitches based on a punchcard pattern. You *can* use it for rib - but it's very slow, even at top speed. You can leave it running unattended and go and do something else, and it will count down for you (or at least, that's the theory - mine is a little temperamental!). It's very noisy, too - you can't leave it running overnight, unless your bedroom is a long way away from it! I haven't used mine too much yet, because I've needed access to my machine to complete my OCN course, and the garter carriage ties the machine up for so long.
Have a look here for a really funny video with a garter carriage - it's a 3MB QuickTime .mov file by a male machine knittiner, Marc Chametzky.
There was a massive pile of cones and patterns - somebody had passed on, and the family had passed her knitting things to the club. Poor Pat just couldn't give the yarn away, it was such a shame! If there had been any DK stuff I would have had it for the Knit Wits, but it was all coned industrial stuff - I even resisted the magicolour stuff, which is not like me! I had a load of punchcards, all the DPNs, and some autumny colours - figured we could make some seaweed or something for the sea scene.
I felt bad about not taking more yarn, but I still have three big bags and a big box of it at home. I daresay it went down to the tip. What a shame!
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The neon jumper of luridness continues apace, a good mindless project I can do without even looking at the needles. I need to photocopy the lace chart for the Knitpicks scarf, so that I can carry the chart around without getting the book all battered.
Current mood:
determined
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