Tubular!

No, despite being a beach (or at least under water) in the geologically recent past, surf is not up here in the Central Valley. So it's not that that I'm stoked about. (heehee, it's fun with surfer slang day =D).

Yesterday I taught myself a new knitting technique. (Insert shameless plug for the internet: I love the internet! It's great. That's where I get all of my knitting patterns and instructions these days. Gosh, just think about it. Ten years ago I probably would've had to spend money or hunt down some woolen old maid (you know that's in my future) to learn how to knit). I find this very exciting. Tubular, in fact (you'll get the pun soon enough. Just bear with me).

Go pull on a sweater. It's stretchy. This is great. Unfortunately, the basic way of casting on (um, starting) or binding off (stopping) is not (not stretchy, that is. I'm sure it's still great...). Which results in the edge of a product being constrained to the size that it is. No matter how hard you try, you're not getting it over something larger than its circumference. Which could be a major problem. How would you feel if your only 2 options were voluminously cuffed sweaters, or not getting your hands through the sleeves? Or perhaps worse, boatneck sweaters or the lovely, sweater stuck over your head look? You get my drift.

Well, yesterday I learned a fantastic new way to start out, called the tubular cast on (heeheehee), that eliminates this problem! I'm still stoked, err, excited about it. =) Now if only my back ordered yarn would come and I could continue knitting...