Things You Don’t Say to a Knitter

I’m going to pretend that it didn’t hurt a little when I wound “Deeper Shade of Soul” into this cassette tape yarn ball.

There are things I keep because they remind me of events or people, things I keep because I think they’ll be useful one day and things I keep because I don’t want them to end up in a landfill. Three bags packed with cassette tapes that I’d collected over the span of a couple decades had become a bit of all three. I haven’t had a cassette player in years, yet I couldn’t convince myself to throw the tapes out. I kept telling myself, despite the fact that I was sure the sound quality would be subpar, that I would buy the necessary equipment to turn them into mp3s. Or that I would, at the very least, get nicer storage units for the tapes and a player so I could use them again. But, truth be told, they’d been languishing under my former couch for a couple of years now. I decided it was time for them to go. But when I told my friend that I knew that there was a service that would recycle unwanted CDs and CD cases, but that I didn’t think there was a parallel service for tapes, he said: “Why don’t you turn the tape into yarn?” I’m sure he was kidding, but then he noticed that far off look on my face.

I have no idea how I’m going to use the cassette tape yarn. In fact, I’m trying very hard to keep my hands off of it until January, when I’ll have time to play again. But I’m kind of excited. At the very least, right now it has the possibility for use, which is more than I can say for the remaining two bags of tapes (I’m getting there . . . it took approximately six hours to wind up the first big ball of yarn).

RIP, Urban Dance Squad:

With Christmas closing in, I decided I needed to finish at least one WIP and a couple winter necessities. I decided it was time to bite the bullet and knit a scarf lengthwise. I thought it would make me want to poke myself in the eye with my Addis by round two, but since I was having dinner with a friend who was learning how to knit (it felt odd bringing a guy into Purl Soho, but he was excited) and he had a stack of paper for origami purposes, I managed to bust out half of it in one night. The rest followed rather quickly. No word, of course, whether I will be bothered to add the tassels to the other side of the scarf, though.

I’d started a long-sleeved version of the Anthropologie capelet mod I’d made back in September. Right after finishing a short sleeve shrug version. It was supposed to be for an October wedding, but I didn’t make it across that finish line. (Give me a break, I’m still working on the wedding present as it is.) On the car ride home from the wedding I very nearly finished it. Except that my decision to make long sleeves turned out to be a fateful one. Turns out I only had enough yarn for 3/4 sleeves. Yesterday morning before work, I ripped back a finished sleeve, re-knit the seed stitch border and used some of the reclaimed yarn to finish the other sleeve. Even better, I was only an hour late to work. Now I just need to decide where to put the closure. Both of my summer versions closed at the top only, but I’m thinking of adding a tie a little lower for a change.

Lastly, I went ahead and made the Urchin hat. I was afraid it wouldn’t suit me very well, but I like it. It was a fun, quick knit, too.

And now I need to buckle down and get ready for the holidays.