Automatic Knitting

Recently, I had the opportunity to work with a fashion designer who referred to stockinette stitch as “jersey”. For whatever reason, that word seemed so 80’s. Not sure why. It’s the same thing, just different terminology from a different field. Whatever you call it, I love my plain knitting. No need to look down and watch my stitches, I am pleased that I can form these stitches relatively quickly and completely in the dark. Sometimes, I knit in bed and actually fall half asleep while still knitting stockinette. A particularly bad thing that I sometimes do is knit at stoplights. This is NOT recommended. But knitting at stoplights prevents the other evil that is road rage.

I love that I can knit on a stockinette sleeve in the movie theatre and not lose my place… good thing, since I managed to spend all of Friday night at the Twilight Drive In theatre in Langely… If you haven’t been, you must try it! It’s kind of a trek, but super relaxing to be able to sit in your own car and talk and knit through the entire movie(s) (they show three features in one night). During those six hours, I think I may have eaten my body weight in gummy bears and Pringles.

This knitting is so simple and so soothing. It’s automatic and doesn’t require much angst or thinking. I knit this sleeve of the Whisper Cardigan on much of the drive to Seattle for the Cheese Festival this past weekend. Rather than starting with 90 stitches as in the pattern, I followed the recommendation of a couple knitters on Ravelry and cast on for 76 stitches instead… so I wouldn’t have such a huge bell-shaped sleeve. Not that my arms are particularly tiny. But anyway.

A weekend full of automatic, plain old knitting has got me to the point of finishing this test sweater. I might find some time for doing the sewn bind off of that 1×1 rib tonight… or tomorrow. Finishing never seems as relaxing as knitting. Now that Dollhouse is finished and I’m still waiting for the return of TrueBlood, I’ve been given the first season of The Wire so that I have something to knit to.

It’s lovely that my mom finished knitting her first project too, last week. It’s a stockinette vest for my dad, knit in a Shetland Aran yarn, with 1×1 ribbing at the bottom edge, armholes and neckline. We adapted a pattern to fit my mom’s gauge on 5 mm needles and the size, pre-blocking, appears to be pretty darn good. She’s encouraged, I think, because she’s excited about starting a vest for herself this time. I like when people are happy about their knitting.