I Might Be The World's Weirdest Knitter Because . . .

. . . well, because I have a few quirks.  Knitting quirks that is.  (Okay, I have a few personal quirks too, but I'm only posting about knitting quirks at the moment!)

This is the wool I bought at my newest favourite LYS (that means Local Yarn Store for folks what didn't know ... like L.!):

It's a beautiful stormy turquois-ish rustic kinda wool (which my photos just don't do justice to ... cuz I have a point and click cheap digital camera cuz I don't know nothing about/can't be bothered with light settings, etc!)

 In the above photo, I have a chunk of knitting already done (it's a cardigan worked from the neck down) on my Denise cable knit needles.  Do you know about Denise cable knit needles?  They are short plastic needles that come with various lengths of plastic cord so you can create cable needles of varying sizes according to your project.  Problem:  they are plastic.  I don't like plastic.  Yes, plastic knit needles are allowed on airplanes and don't make the person sitting next to you in the conference or meeting nervous in the way pointy metal/wood/bamboo needles do.  (and here's the first of my knitting quirks ...)  But wool just doesn't SLIDE the same on plastic!  And plastic just doesn't CLICK the way metal/wood/bamboo clicks!  However, I wanted to carry this project back and forth to work with me on the city bus, so plastic Denise knit needles it is.

Here's another of my weird knitting quirks ... I like large solid stitch markers.  I like something substantial that I can really feel ... like this "end of a silver spoon" stitch marker:

It's almost the size of a dog tag.  Prettier though.  I have another knitting quirk connected to stitch markers ... I like to imagine that each stitch marker I use in a project bears a wish for the recipient or wearer of the garment.  For example, with this particular set of (randomly chosen) four stitch markers, I am wishing myself (as the cardigan recipient and eventual wearer):

PASSION!

The right to be a bit of a DIVA at times!

Carefree-ness and Spiritual awakening!

AND PROSPERITY!

 I always choose my stitch markers by closing my eyes and sticking my hand into the little leather bag I keep them in and gathering the number needed at random.  That way I know the right "wishes" will come together.  (I know ... quirky!)

Here's another knitting quirk ... I can't knit random patterns.  No matter how hard I try to be RANDOM, my mind insists on getting mathematical and resorting to patterns of numbers.  For example, I wanted to add some RANDOM splashes of purl stitches in the otherwise ho-hum landscape of my cardigan.  My mind instantly started working out 'alrightee!  that would be a series of knit 4, purl 3 followed by 5 rows of plain stockinette stitch followed by a row of knit 6 purl 2 followed by ...'  Exactly what I DID NOT WANT.  So I got out a pair of dice.

 And that, y'all, is yet another of my weird knitting quirks .. I roll the dice to get random pattern variations.  (Sometimes I roll the dice to get random colour/print variations when quilting too.)

I'm just about finished the body of this cardigan ... then sleeves and button/buttonhole bands to go.

Remember these?

Red 'Poet's Rib' socks

While I'm in knitting confession mode, here's one last knitting quirk ... I sing silly rhymes to remember patterns.  Here's  my 'Poet's Rib' ditty:

Suki fetch the sea salt ...

Salt the soup for flavour.

Polly fetch the pepper pot ...

Pepper for digestion -- Papa's got the gout!

Believe it or not, that translates to:

Row 1:  purl 1 (knit 3, purl 2) to end.

Row 2:  purl 1 (knit 1, yarn over, SSK, purl 2) to end.

Row 3:  purl 1 (knit 3, purl 2) to end.

Row 4:  purl 1 (knit 2 together, yarn over, knit 1, purl 2) to end.

I know ... QUIRKY AND WEIRD!  I've been knitting 'Poet's Rib' for many years, and have no idea when or where this particular rhyme developed, but it's rythmn fits what my hands are doing perfectly.  Even if I just hum it, I know at any given moment exactly where I am in the pattern.

So what kind of quirks do you have????