Of Goddesses and little monsters

There is a new goddess in my knitting universe, Teva Durham. Truth be told, the name Loop-d-Loop does nothing for me, or did nothing for me until I looked at her book at Yarndogs (and was subsequently complelled to purchase it). I was frankly uninterested her sweater pattern in the last Interweave. The book has made a convert out of me! Her take on knitting is fun, funky, historical, practical, storied, spiritual, and just damn good! Still not crazy about the leaf sweater (featured in Interweave), but that is just one project in a book of over 40 that doesn’t fire me up! What are the odds? Not only that, she managed to convincingly persuade me that Loop-d-Loop is a pretty good name for her approach to knitting and design. Her background is in theatre, so what is not to like about this woman! She has made manifest the many things that I thought you could do with knitting, but that I have yet to be able to do!

The patterns are structural (and leave me weaping with desire):


vicious (if she can wear it so can I, if only I can find my Sex Pistols t-shirt...):


funky (great sweater although the model has a baaaaaaad case of 'baby chicken head'):


fun (this is the antidote to the overly popular shrug, and first on my list):


And I want them all. Now.

On the other hand; Rowan patterns in general, and Kim Hargreaves in particular are really chapping my hide. My wonderful slipstitch wrap twist increase is all WRONG! It is not as I had previous thought an increase at all, it is a short row instruction. How did I find this out? Last night I was sitting and knitting on Iris and it just wasn’t working, it was getting wider and less shapely by the minute, in short it was beginning to be a knitting monstrosity, something that would be tossed in a bag, shoved in the back of the closet and never discussed again. I decided that I must be a knitting dunderhead, scrapped the whole project, threw it in the back of the stash drawer and stomped off in a huff. Chalk one up to experience. Its not as though I don’t have a number of little monsters lurking in the closet, waiting to be frogged and knit into something worthwhile. But I am a compulsive knitter, so I decided that I needed a simple project, something that would knit up quickly and restore my own faith in my abilities. I chose the Corkscrew Scarf from Loop-d-Loop. Lo and behold the whole principal of this scarf is based on the wrapped stitch short row. The clouds parted, a chorus of cherubic heads began to twinkle and sing , the scent of rose wafted on the air, the grass grew green beneath my feet… (my interpretation of an epiphany if you were trapped in a Victorian greeting card…)

Here is what she has to say about the wrp-t or wrap and turn:

“With yarn held in front (purl position), slip next stitch from LH needle to RH needle purlwise (when you slip purlwise you do not change the orientation of the stitch on the needle [insert cherubic singing here]; turn piece so WS is facing (the sts just worked, plus the slipped stitch are now in the left hand): bring the yarn to the front between the needles (purl position), return the slipped stitch to the RH needle purlwise…” then continue as pattern directs.*

Hellooooooo! How simple can that be? I am a blithering eeejidit! That said, I am casting on the left front of Iris at lunch, and we shall see how far I get by the end of the weekend. If I am unable to get it going with this sort of clean instruction, my needles should be confiscated!
* Italics are my own.