If only I had a network of cunning, nimble fingered midwest knitters to churn out beauties like these.

I am a fairly obsessive knitter. I knit at great speed for long spurts and then put down my needles and don't knit for months.

Because of this, I don't often reach the holy grail of knitting, the finished object (FO).

Apparently there are different types of knitters:

Those who knit to learn choose a new project just for the techniques they they will learn, and their finished objects often feature a dizzying array of different stitches/cables/techniques.

Those who knit because they covet will choose a new project simply because they want the finished object. They desire the garment that they see in a magazine or another knitters blog and set out to create their own, and they want it NOW. Unfortunately this motivation sometimes wains, especially in the face of a new technique that is difficult to learn.

I am definitely in the second category and the list of garments I have never knitted because I wanted them finished then and there and was discouraged by the difficult technique that I needed to learn is long.

But the infamous Clapotis I mastered, finished and it is probably my most loved item of clothing. Socks and scarves are about my limit (until I get over my fear of new techniques. When they day comes and I master the Italian Tubular Cast On Eunny Jang's knitting patterns are mine!).

(Disclaimer - this whole post is ironic in the extreme, considering that I taught myself to knit from a book about knitting turkish socks, from the tow up, using five needles - the most unconventional start to knitting I can imagine).

I have been obessessed with sewing and going back to university lately, but that is no excuse since I haven't added a new post for a year and a half.

Hopefully a new camera and a sock knitting challenge will motivate me to post regularly.

Does anyone else find it strange that John Malkovich designs knitwear?

a great sartorialist scarf! Love the pockets

I've found a new website which I love called The Sartorialist. There are lots of good websites out there interested in fashion forcasting via street wear, but this one is particularly cool. I've always loved the word sartorial too.

Here are some of my favourite knitwear shots on the site. The first one I want to try and knit, it looks so simple, and so much nicer than almost everything in Wrap Style by Interweave Press (I found Scarf Style much more inspiring).







This website has given me many inventive ways to wrap scarves as well. Can you tell I'm hanging out for winter?

If anyone actually read this, you may never find me again. In a fit of identity crisis I changed the name and URL of my knitting blog.

We have to do radical things sometimes.

This new blog title and location is inspired my brother-in-law and I being obsessed with the word 'pedestrian' - an adjective that can be both a statement of mobility and banality. Not only does this word define my life and knitting practically (in that I don't drive and walk or catch trains everywhere - most of my knitting is done on the train) it also defines my life (and knitting, I guess) ironically - in that I don't feel remotely pedestrian in the ordinary and banal sense of the word.

Of course, sometimes we all want a little ordinary... and that is part of what my knitting is about too - a comfort, a sort of domestic bliss-i-tude than I can cacoon in. Hand knitted socks are for exactly that.

In another convergence of the ppedestrian and the... pedestrian. On my mammoth early morning in the rain journey to work yesterday - which combined three forms of transportation (foot, train, bus) my purple leather last footwear scuffs got rather wet and discoloured, DISCOLOURED!, my most recent FO. Why, or why did I wear brand new socks to work on a rainy day! I don't know if they stains will come out, but on our next day of natural light I will show you the damaged. I didn't even take a photo of them pre-worn, so I can't even offer a before/after montage. They will still be good tramping socks, but it is pretty devestating.

Anyway, let the new, more ideologiclaly intact blog begin. This week on the train I have knitted a swatch and half a sleeve from Michael Kors fitted Aran tee in the latest Vogue Knitting. I think this project will last the distance.