Knit Like a Man

Tea for two, and toe for tea.

July 15th, 2006

Last night was Drunken Knitting night, and after a brutally hot day and an ugly long work-week I think it’s fair to say that I was longing to sit in a cool friendly place with a beer/cider/cup of hemlock at my side and two pointed sticks in my hands.

Amy was there, and was drinking a ginormous pint of Strongbow from the tap–and it looked so beautiful and delicious that I had to have one right there on the spot. On an empty stomach. And let me tell you–it was not long before I was living up to the “drunken” part of Drunken Knitting night.

Amy and I had coincidentally decided to start some toe-up socks–she was trying a different toe from the Lucy Neatby book, and I was doing my figure-eight cast-on thing from Wendy Knits/Knitty. So with no further ado, in an homage to our dear Stephanie, I present: The Toe.

I should note in all honesty: This toe is not the toe that I was knitting at Drunken Knitting night last night. That toe had to be nipped off at the knuckle.

You see, no one tells you this about Drunken Knitting night, but it’s actually an evening designed to devastate even the most hardened knitter. First and foremost–it’s in a bar. While it’s not the darkest room, it’s not bright. There are many other people there, all talking as they knit, so it’s a weensy bit difficult to concentrate. There is food, of the greasy pub variety. There are questions to be answered, patterns to be interpreted. And of course there is the “drunken” aspect.

In short: Amy and I must have started and ripped out our toes ten times during the night. By the end of the evening I thought I had a lovely 60-stitch toe…only to ruin it once I got home by trying to tighten the figure-eight cast-on (as one must do) and instead losing a circle of stitches that had once been held in place by the tail. And oh, by the way, I forgot the plain knit rows between the increase rows, so my toe was more like a little dunce cap for the foot. How appropriate. Rip rip rip rip RIP and then to bed, and then up this morning ever-so-slightly-hung-over and remembering mention of a new toe-up cast-on in the Spring Knitty.

Reader, I tried it. And it is very good. One thing though–I think the photo showing where to hold the tail when you begin knitting the cast-on stitches is incorrect, in that the tail is actually the light blue strand going up into the hand, and the working yarn is the lower yarn down near the working needle. Whatever. I knit the damn thing all over again–sober–and now it looks like a toe.

So with this I’m going on a little warshcloth hiatus. I will now alternate between Slouch: The Sweater That Never Ends, and The Sock Of Many Colours.

Let us now praise those fabled warshcloths of days passed. Praise these warshcloths–praise them!

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