Memory Lane: Cotton high-neck tank

This is the first in my personal collection of oldies. It's a just-below-the-waist length tank with cut-away armholes and a high neck.

I'm fairly sure that I bought the yarn when I was still living in New York, so that would have been about 25 years ago. I can't remember if I knit it in NYC or after I had moved to LA. Either way, it's at least 15 years old and is probably in it's early- to mid-20s. I planned to knit a sweater set, but never did get around to knitting the cardigan. (I hung on to the extra yarn for years!)

Memory Lane: The Idea

My recollection of things I've knit and given away is not always that great. Sometimes it takes seeing an old photo or leftover yarn in my stash to remind me of something I knit years ago.

With all my documenting of recent projects, I thought it would be fun to go back to some of the oldies and, given the sorry state of my memory and the fact that I don't have digital images of those oldies, I will need some help with this task. So, I'm going to contact the victims (er, recipients) of my knitting and ask them to send me photos - preferably at least one shot of the item being modeled. Hopefully, the really horrendous items have long since disappeared, but if any are still around, I'm game for those too.

Oh dear, simply taking the time to write about past projects has reminded me that I did once knit a sweater for a boyfriend and, naturally, experienced the Boyfriend Sweater Curse. I will not be contacting him!! (And I do remember that sweater.)

Oh, and this reminds me that I have not yet knit a sweater for my husband!! Perhaps I should re-think this Memory Lane idea.

Naw, I'll get to the sweater for Bill. We have time. Plus, I need to finish the hat to go with his new gloves first.

It only seems fair that I pull out my own oldies as well. So, I'll do that too. Oh and maybe I'll scan old photos ... or threaten to post scans of old photos!!!

Cherie's Hat

The incredible, wonderful, amazing Cherie came up for a visit a few weeks ago and that prompted me to finally put the finishing touches on a hat I had started about a year ago. This was one of those projects where the recipient wasn't planned from the beginning, but became clear by the end. Everything about this hat makes me think of Cherie.

Cherie and I both re-located from southern California to the Pacific Northwest within the last 5 years (me from Sherman Oaks, Cherie from Santa Monica). We had both lived in SoCal for many years and neither of us had a proper winter hat.

I've knit quite a few hats since I moved - and given most of them away. After all, if I give a hat away, I make room for another one to take it's place, right? Besides, how many hats does any one gal need? (Socks, of course, are an entirely different story.)

What made this Cherie's hat? Two key elements:

Fire and Yarn

I have a rather large amount of yarn in my stash. I could use the "I live on an island" excuse, but the truth is my stash represents 20-plus years of yarn acquisitions and it was just over 4 years ago that I started living on an island. I guess I just like yarn.

My stash falls into four categories:
1 - Yarn I bought with an intended purpose, but haven't yet knit up
2 - Yarn I bought with no specific intent, but was sure I could put to good use
3 - Yarn left over from a project I have finished
4 - Yarn given to me by friends and acquaintances working on downsizing their own stashes (I'm a sucker for FREE yarn!)

The last two categories in particular include some skeins that look like this.

No label. No idea of it's fiber content. Or gauge. Or recommended needle size. For that matter, I have no idea how this skein ended up in my stash. I don't recall knitting anything out of this yarn - although my memory on that front is not all inclusive.

So, what to do.

Garlic, Scape and Scape Oil

Another post that is completely unrelated to knitting.

Our friend Todd got us started growing garlic and each fall, Bill devotes one of our three raised beds entirely to garlic. This year it was the front bed and around early- to mid-June, this is what it looked like.

I meant to take a few photos that showed the scape on the plants, but forgot. Then, we needed to get the scape cut and processed before an "off island" trip in early July. After we returned from our trip, I noticed that a few scapes had "escaped" our scissors. So, when we harvested the garlic, I took pictures.

Tubular Bind-Off for 1x1 Ribbing

Now that I've completed all that sampling of Cast-Ons for 1x1 ribbing, what about Bind-Offs? This is actually much simpler. A number of years ago I learned Tubular Bind-Off for 1x1 Ribbing and it is without question my favorite.

Arguably, it was my satisfaction with this Bind-Off that got me started experimenting with Cast-Ons. I was sure there had to be a Cast-On of equal magnificence to this delightful bound off edge ...

The method I use for Tubular Bind-Off for 1x1 Ribbing is described in Hand Knitting Techniques from Threads. I tracked down online versions here and here. Neither of these are exactly the same as the process I use so I'll describe it (and document it) below.