Why Ravelry is a Bad Bad Thing

I'm not big on Elizabeth Zimmerman. There. I said it. You now know some of the darker aspects of my soul. I do not worship at the alter of E.Z. Sure, I read Knitting Without Tears. But it didn't change my life, or my knitting. She's got some ideas about knitting. Some good, some not as good. I have never felt the need to knit a pattern of hers. Until I got on ravelry.

Ravelry, for my non-knitting reader (Hi Dad), is a knitting resource website. Sure there are message boards there, but I barely have time to type things here. When do I have time to type things there? No, I use Ravelry as more of a pattern resource. You type in a pattern and you can see all the versions the users have made of that pattern. You can see all the different yarns they used. You can click on the yarn and see all the different patterns people have knit with that yarn. Since the only thing I can do during the endless hours I spend nursing is move a mouse it is very easy for me to spend hours in Ravelry. Look at that pretty sweater *click* Look someone made it in blue with cotton *click* Look that cotton also makes the cutest baby sweater *click* Look that sweater looks even better in handpainted wool with butterfly buttons *click* Look that handpainted wool comes in a "Chocolate Cherry" colorway *click* Look that Chocolate Cherry looks great as socks *click*

You can see how I lose hours of my life just surfing, drooling over the hand knits. This becomes a very bad thing when I get fixated on a pattern. I find patterns I never knew existed and suddenly MUST.KNIT.NOW! Last fall it was the February Baby Sweater.

I wanted this sweater. I NEEDED this sweater for my impending infant (similar to impending doom but cuter). I looked at this sweater every day. I looked at all the versions of this sweater EVERY.DAY. It became an obsession. I knew my green Kool-aid yarn was destined to be THIS.SWEATER. All I lacked was the pattern.

I looked in all the local bookstores. They must share my opinion of E.Z. because they don't stock her books. I looked at my LYS. Again, no E.Z. I was trying to support the local economy but instead I simply lost precious weeks looking for the book. I was forced to order it from the internet, and being poor and unable to spring for overnight delivery, I was forced to wait another ten days for the book to arrive in my mailbox. TEN DAYS!

But arrive it did. And knit I did (remember, this was last fall when I was merely pregnant and had time to sit and knit. I think of this time as B.T. - Before the Tiny Terrorist). A few days later I was the proud owner of a February Baby Sweater.

I know, you're bored with the background. Quit Rambling, you're thinking. You're ready for the good stuff. I promised cute Baby pictures. Bring on the Baby! So here it is. One cuddly baby in a February Baby Sweater.

Isn't she the sweetest cuddliest baby in her sweater? Don't ask the details. It's been too long since I actually knit this. It was my Kool-aid yarn. Might have been a size 5 needle. Maybe a 4. I don't remember. I do remember being unimpressed with the pattern. Don't get me wrong. The results are worth suffering through it. But I found Elizabeth Zimmerman to have an unusually high opinion of herself and her own cleverness. She needed a tech editor. She doesn't mention the button holes until halfway through the pattern, although they are needed throughout. She also mentions casting on the stitches for the arms, but not at the point in the pattern when one would actually cast on the stitches. Is she merely trying to keep the knitter on their toes? Who knows. But I was unimpressed with her. There. I said it. But again, the results were worth suffering through the pattern.

And in further baby cuteness

This baby adores her brother. I think the feeling is mutual.