No more UFOs

Finally.

I finished the only remaining knitting UFO (unfinished object) in my house. 

The Sock Scarf: a scarf started as a toe-up sock and finished like a cuff down sock and made up of entirely of remnant yarn from just some of the socks I have knitted over the years. 

My friend, Pam, showed me a one she had purchased 'up-north' a few years ago that was a machine knitted piece.  It was very homogeneous and, needless to say, caught my attention.

My sock-scarf is different.  Not just because it is hand knitted.  But rather, because it is infused with emotion.
What does it mean when someone knits you a pair of socks?
It means Love.
Through effort, dexterity, focus (and sometimes strife) the knitter jumps through textile hoops to knit you a sock.  Then, after completing said sock, you know they really, really, really love you, because they then do it all over again and make you a second one too.

Of course you can morph a sock into a scarf. For what is a scarf, after all?
Yes, it's an accessory.  But it is also a gentle hug.

Now I can wear my hugs from some of the mensches in my life.

This isn't just any old left-over yarn.
This is the yarn that remained from some of the sock presents I had made for some of the
Good People I know.
Good Family.
Good Friends.
Whenever I wear it I can think about them.
It helps me smile.
From the reaction I got on the subway today: it helps other people smile as well.

The Lid A Day Kippah

18 kippot.  That is how many I ended up completing in time for the Bat Mitzvah. (See previous post http://knittishisms.blogspot.ca/2012/02/knit-your-own-bat-mitzvah.html) .... It would have been impossible to have knit 18 'Righteous Lids' (pattern in Knittishisms) in the time I had before the Shabbat morning service.  The Bat Mitzvah 'Lids' are still 'ever so righteous'.  They are more of an Ashkenazi-style kippah and each one is a 'one of a kind', entirely different (colours and yarns) from the next, but the overall pattern remained identical throughout.  Why?  Because I wanted them to speak of the pluralist approach we were taking.  Just as we addressed many of the different 'individual styles' of Jewish prayer within our service, we are all collectively united.  I wanted the kippot to stand as a kindred representation of that sentiment.  So, although the colours of the yarns and textures were so very different, and were manufactured all over the world (Australia, New Zealand, Italy, France, North America etc.) the pattern unites them all.

The Lid a Day Kippah

Materials:

• 4 dpns 2.75mm or 3mm
• Yarn(s) of your choice, but generally Sock Yarn -- you will probably need at least 3 different colours -- but you decide.... this can be scrap yarn for certain design elements... you really don't need much altogether.
• Gauge: approx 28 or more stitches & 36 or so rows to a 10 x 10 cm swatch
• 3 stitch markers

Cast on 84 stitches   (28 on each of the 3 dpns)
 
Knit one row of MC (main colour).
Switch to Gold Yarn (or yarn of your choice) and knit one row
Switch back to MC and one CC (contrast colour) and knit a fair isle pattern of your choice over the next 3 or four rows.  The one I chose was a simple:

xooo

xxoo

xxxo

Switch back to Gold Yarn (or yarn of your choice) and knit one row.

Knit one row of MC then decrease as follows:

 

Round 1: K1, ssk, K8, K2tog, K1 & PM(place marker) & repeat until end of round.

Knit Rows 2, 3 & 4

on Round 5 decrease in same manner: K1, ssk, K6, K2tog, K1 to end of round.

Knit 3 rows then decrease again.

Once you have 8 stitches in each of the 6 sections, decrease every alternate row (knit the other ones) until you have a total of 6 stitches left.  Thread the tail through these stitches and weave in.

Finish by crocheting 3 simple single stitch chain into the original cast on edge & then BLOCK. BLOCK BLOCK.  Really and truly, find yourself a ball or bowl with the approximate correct shape and size of the crown of a human head and wet that kippah thouroughly and block it once twice or even three times.

It will be worth it when you see the finished product.