Knitting Meme

No pictures today since I'm still working on the GAAA square. I was able to do an entire pattern repeat last night so now I only have 2 to go.

This was on the Knitting Help forum a little while back. What exactly is a "meme" anyway?

1. What are your favorite things to knit?
I like to knit gifts. It can be anything really but something knitted for someone else is the best. Socks, scarves, sweaters, hats, blankets, etc it doesn't matter what it is. I really love to knit requested items. Lately I've been knitting things that force me to learn a new technique so I'm all over the place with projects.

2. What yarn/fiber do you like most?
I tend to use wool and alpaca blends but anything with alpaca will top my list. I love lace weight alpaca and how it's so soft you just want to put it up to your cheek.

3. What needles do you tend to use (i.e. type/material)?
I use bamboo DPNs and metal straights, nothing fancy here. I have a set of Denise interchangeable circulars and have used them in the past but I'm not proficient with them yet.

4. Do you tend to knit more in one specific part of the year than others?
Nope, I knit just about every evening. I used to knit all day on Sunday's during football season but with a 1 1/2 year old at home I'm just happy to knit once he's gone to bed for the night.

5. What style of knitting do you use?
I'm a Thrower (aka English) but I would really like to learn Continental for seed stitch patterns. But since I'm a process knitter speed isn't a huge issue for me right now.

6. Do you consider yourself a “fast” knitter?
Not really, more of an average knitter. I'm very slow at the beginning of a project and then speed up as I get more into the pattern.

7. Who is your favorite knitting author?
I really like the Knitting Pure and Simple patterns. I know that they're not as exciting as some of the other patterns out there but I'm not exactly a runway model. They're written extremely clear and concise which happens to work well for me.

8. What is your favorite by said author?
So far it's the Men's Heavy Weight Boot Sock but I plan to knit up some of their sweaters and cardigans in the future.

9. How long ago did you learn to knit?
I learned to knit right around the time I got married so 2001 would make it 6 years now. My mother-in-law was gracious enough to teach me the basics and then I found Knitting Help's free videos for when I had questions (we lived 900 miles away from each other at that point).

10. How do you knit small in-the-round objects?
I lean towards my bamboo DPNs but I have used circulars in the past.

11. What is the most useful technique you have learned so far?
Seaming and understanding charts. I'm still no expert in either but seaming something well just makes the finished project look nice. I just recently learned that you need to read odd rows on a chart from right to left and even rows from left to right. That is going to be very helpful in my upcoming projects!

12. Do you prefer to knit fine gauge items, mid-range gauge items, or large gauge items, or do you like it all?
I like it all but I tend to stay in the mid to fine range with my projects. Super Bulky yarns knit up quickly but I like the look of the finer stitches.

13. How do you like to knit your sweaters?
I've only knit a couple baby sweaters so far so I only know those with seaming. I plan to try a top-down raglan in the future so that should expand my techniques more. I've heard that's the way to go with sweaters.