Beadlizard

I've moved!

2006-10-10T15:17:00.000-07:00

Please come visit the new Beadlizard site.

Imaginary Friends

2006-09-11T08:07:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, DD and I took the ferry to the city, ran a bunch of errands and ended up on the ... ... train down the Peninsula. And, after a day on the move, we spent a few hilarious hours listening to ...
Stephanie, who exclaimed, "My imaginary friends!" when DD and I introduced ourselves. If you're a knitter seeking that sense of fitting in, of being normal, a confirmation that you are on the right path, then attend one of Stephanie's talks. There is something wonderful about sitting in a sea of 300 knitters, laughing together for a few hours, totally enjoying Stephanie's jokes.

We had supper with Lynette and Nathania and got flyers for N's new knitting store, Purlescence, which we're planning to visit as soon as it opens. She's near a train station and a Peet's, so we're set!

Teen knitting club was a joy this week. Only had a handful of kids, all mellow and industrious. One learned to knit last week and another, a shy 6th grader, knit his first row Wednesday. His little brother had gone to knitting club at the K-1-2 last year, but there wasn't a club at the 3-4-5, so this fellow was delighted to find out that he could FINALLY learn how to knit. The first stitch made him squint and mutter, "This is tricky..." By stitch number three he had a rhythm going, and he finished a row rapidly after that! We applauded and he blushed. Charming.

Summer roses

2006-09-07T09:23:00.000-07:00

Here's a bouquet of late roses from the garden. The pink rose is lovely but has only a faint rose perfume scent. The gold rose has a rich, truly pleasant apple scent that fills our home without causing any allergic response. And sorry, but I have no idea what the cultivars are.

This snippet of lace is a triangular shawl with a garter edge, using some of the Yarnplace Graceful I blogged about last week. I'm fiddling with the center, playing with a few ideas, and will probably frog it, but it's easy on the eyes and a fun bit of knitting. DD has started something similar with the wool/cashmere aqua she bought. I warned her that it was awfully fine, and she scoffed, "It's thicker than my handspun!" Hers has a bit of grab and is infinitely easier to knit than mine, which is slippery and splitty. I'm using some old size 0 or 00 steel dpns. I hadn't pulled them out of the bin for a few years and they needed cleaning and a bit of PAM. Stirred memories of self-quilting double-knit Fair Isle gloves knit on the 0000's for the coooold Montana winters...

The late birthday present for a small friend. I'm plodding through the sleeves. The actual color of this Cascade 220 is a emerald teal heather and I am having fits trying to see the stitches. It's a color I cannot see well, thus the very visible deep purple marl lace goof-off to rest my eye. My vision has improved radically since the surgery in April (eye appointment went well, don't have to have more repairs until next year at the soonest, though will definitely know my laser guy well for the rest of my life -- oh, and he has a great sense of humor when things are going well -- he was a cold fish the last few appointments because he was so depressed about the condition of my orb), but I'm still adding colors. The combination of radiation damage and brain fatigue had me in gray scale for a long time. I've been playing a lot of Civilization II (the old version of Civ with simpler graphics) to help relearn color differentiation.

Apologies for no bird photos. Saw only a single giant pure charcoal pelican yesterday on the way to Teen Knitting and couldn't whip out the camera fast enough. Didn't have the camera out when I was waiting at the light by the junior high, knitting a sock, and a woman drove by, stuck her knitting out the window, and cheered, "Knitters! Woo-Hoo!!!" Didn't have the camera the other day when I saw that trio of fat pelicans sitting on the water, doing oil derrick fishing with a sea lion (he drives the fish up and the birds spread their wings and furl them so they end up rocking back and forth, scooping up fish on the down, swallowing them on the up). And didn't have the camera when I saw a gargantuan barrel-shaped seal basking on the rocks, or when there were two harbor seal pups fighting over the best rock perch, doing that U thing that must be the seal equivalent of flexing biceps, or the last few times I've seen rays.

I promise to take the camera this weekend when DD and I head down the Peninsula to see Stephanie!

FLAK and More Crabs

2006-08-28T12:17:00.000-07:00

Two of my FLAK swatches, before and after washing. Cascade 220, size 5 US. The purl ditches between the cables relaxed a lot and the double seed improved. The upper swatch is a sketch, the lower the probable pattern (substitute seed for moss). I'm still iffy on whether to cant the 2-stitch cables the same as the 4-stitch cables or the opposite. The lower swatch has them done the same.

A crab party

A crablet watching the tide come in

The other day I was rinsing a few hanks of Cascade and didn't feel like adding figure-8 ties, so I grabbed the monzo hair clips by the bathroom sink. Perfect!

Anemones near Mendocino

Trekking socks, catching up

2006-08-24T11:41:00.000-07:00

Tide pools near Mendocino, CA

Mr. Hermit Crab

My daughter, whose nickname *was*
Smallness, wearing her size 10 1/2
Trekking socks.

For Jason, the answer is I mark every ten rows with a contrasting strand of leftover sock yarn so I don't have to count the rows over and over again. It also makes it easier when altering a garment to see at which row I need to add or subtract width, or whether I need to decrease the length by ten or twenty rows.

And yes, I've been knitting. I just frogged half the sweater I knit on vacation (the proportions were off -- the recipient's proportions are off, too, but I'd like to make something that softens the effect instead of intensifying it). There's a looming birthday deadline so it won't be perfect but I would like it to be a little less ugly!

I have finally gotten my eyesight to the point where I was able to finish my FLAK swatches before vacation and will soon cast it on for real. DD found some lovely laceweight yarn at the Mendocino Yarn Shop (lovely place), Yarn Place Gentle SY181 in a soft aqua (not a light blue as pictured on the website!). I finally found a copy of Stephanie's first book at a real bookstore and read it aloud to the family in the evenings, making them chortle and exclaim, "You're just like that!"

I have another eye exam this next week so might disappear for a while again. Sorry about that, but blogging and vision are rather dependent.

Odd bits

2006-08-08T21:34:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry it's been a while between posts. I've been afk (3400 posts behind in Bloglines!). Here are a few shots of the much wider sleeve. I still haven't stitched Ribby together, though I do have the correct zipper. Soon!

Another pair of staggered baby cable ribbing socks in the works. Patons Kroy, which works up with a tighter row gauge than Regia, for me anyway. Sturdy socks.

A tin sock tube from Woolworks in Connecticut. Along with my ESK from Cassie, this is portable knitting at its best.

One of the colourways of Regia recently from elann.com. It's even nicer in person.

DD has been doing kumihimo lately (instead of spindle spinning). These foam core disks from LACIS are splendid. She's especially fond of the clip-on fishing weight she got from her grandfather.

Shoulders

2006-07-27T12:54:00.000-07:00

The Ribby Cardi for DD grows apace (then I rip and knit again). We have VERY square shoulders here, so I haven't knit a raglan in many years. I chose frog-able yarn with this in mind. Above is a photo of the basted body and a large size sleeve basted in (with circ cables) and the beginning of a much larger sleeve.

The blue yarn is a one-off of really lovely fine 4-ply wool from Morgaine, some she dyed herself. It's actually a muted variegated marl indigo, close to the color in the top image. DD chose Cascade 220 in color 2427 for the sleeves, a deep red that sets up a wonderful resonance with the indigo. The blue fabric has cush and great elasticity. The red isn't as soft to the touch but appears to be sufficiently compatible.

For the body, I cast on the largest size, then decreased two sizes in the first row of the stockinette panels with a series of k2togs over some of the single purls. It accommodates DD's hourglass figure nicely and without any flare. Even though I knit all but one sleeve in less than a week, she outgrew it so I'm probably going to have to re-knit the entire thing. I may be re-knitting this sweater until she hits six feet.

The new sleeve is many inches longer and larger around than Bonne Marie's largest size, in part because DD needed a lot more ease in the elbows. Her pattern is very logical and makes it easy to do massive size mods. I'm having to add significant width to the top of the sleeve to fill the gap made by those shoulders. When knitting sweaters with set-in sleeves, DD and I add at least two inches to the height of the yoke. To maintain the visual line of a raglan, I'm keeping the body yoke pretty much as writ and making most of the changes in the shape of the sleeve cap. A typical raglan sleeve is almost triangular; I'm using a wide bell shape, truncated at the neckline. The additional width in the shoulder area of the sleeve drops the yoke down a few inches, and it may overemphasize DD's linebacker shoulders, but with luck it will fit.

I was knitting one of the fronts at the grocery store last week and was nearly at the point where I would change needle sizes so had the next circ poked in the ball of yarn. When I got home with the groceries I realized I'd dropped the needle. DD and I went back to the store and she asked for the lost and found at customer service and the lady took one look at DD's WWKIP t-shirt and said, "I think you need this!" and handed us the circ. YAY! I had a spinning t-shirt on, but that WWKIP tee was very effective. Dolores to the rescue!

Chickadelicans

2006-07-18T23:04:00.000-07:00

I am knitting constantly and will post when I've hit a milestone. In the meantime, here are three fellows who were diving for striped bass yesterday evening. For a sense of scale, wingspans are normal for around here, between five and six feet. I have numerous photos and will post more on another day.

Ribbed Cable Photos

2006-07-16T18:09:00.000-07:00

Baby Cashmerino 5-cable, washed

Baby Cashmerino 5-cable, detail

Mission Falls 1824 Wool 3-cable, washed

Mission Falls 1824 Wool 3-cable, detail

Crossover gap

Ribbed Cable Muffler

2006-07-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

Ribbed Cable Muffler (with lots of yarntalk)

This is a cushy, very elastic ribbed cable muffler. The cable is a smaller version of the one Starmore uses in St. Kilda (In the Hebrides, no link because I really don't think the book is worth $200 used!), and Lily Chin showcased it a few years ago as a reversible rib cable. There is a pattern for a scarf using ribbed cables here, but the pattern lacks some finesse (is that sufficiently PC?).

This muffler is best knit in a wool yarn that will hold its shape after washing, but it also does well with the sinuous quality of superwash wool and has enough depth that it doesn't deflate totally after washing, though the cables do tend to elongate.
The pattern below is for a sportweight yarn with a grist of approximately 1240 yards per pound (ypp). There are notes also for using an aran weight yarn that is 770 ypp. If you follow the knitty.com link above, she has a beautiful photo of the cable worked in laceweight. To maximize the cuddle factor, knit it with an elastic yarn and a relatively dense gauge. For a shawl with the texture of a raked zen garden, try KSH at an open gauge and double or triple the number of cables.

There are a few tricks to knitting this muffler well. Increase the number of stitches in the second row and decrease in the penultimate row to minimize edge flare. Use a sturdy, slender cable needle and don't drop stitches while cabling. To prevent gaps, use more than your usual tension when crossing the cables.

Yarn: 5 balls Baby Cashmerino (125 m/50g)
Needles: Size 4.5 mm for casting on and binding off. Size 3.75 mm for knitting. Yarn needle for weaving in ends.

Notes:
m1 = Increase by knitting in back of stitch.
c8b6 = cable 8 behind 6. Place 8 st on cable needle in back, work next 6 st (k2, p2, k2), work 8 st from cable needle (p2, k2, p2, k2). The stitches on the cable needle change in this row from k to p or p to k in order to preserve the ribbing pattern. This creates a soft, slightly slanted bar on the reverse of the knitting. It also means those first two purls from the cable needle can be stiff. Try to keep your hands relaxed. Cables are staggered. They are crossed every 12 rows, with row C crossing the outer and center cables and row D crossing the two flank cables.

Knit the cast-on row. With a 4.5 mm needle cast on, long-tail, 75 st.
Knit an increase row. WS. Switch to a 3.75 mm needle and slip 1 purlwise, p1, (k1, m1, p2, k2, p2) x 10, k1, m1, p2. [86 st]
Knit row A. RS. Slip 1 knitwise, k1, (p2, k2) x 20, p2, k2.
Knit row B. WS. Slip 1 pw, p1, (k2, p2) x 20, k2, p2.
Knit row C. RS. Slip 1 kw, k1, p2, (c8b6, p2, (k2, p2) x 4) x 2, c8b6, p2, k2.
*Knit rows B, A, B, A, B.
Knit row D. RS. Slip 1 kw, k1, p2, ((k2, p2) x 4, c8b6, p2) x 2, (k2, p2) x 4, k2.
Knit rows B, A, B, A, B, C. Repeat from * until desired length.
Knit row B, then row A.
Knit a decrease row. WS. Slip 1 pw, p1, (k2tog, p2, k2, p2) x 10, k2tog, p2. [75 st]
With a 4.5 mm needle, bind off, knitting the knit stitches and purling the purls.
Weave in ends.

I actually used 5 balls plus a few yards to do a total 34 sets of row C crosses. Finished size, relaxed, before washing: 6.5" x 52". Finished size, relaxed, after washing: 6" x 60". Washed, the Cashmerino opened significantly, the cables grew longer, and it began to pill. [The yarn was on sale and it really does feel good.]

If you know your yarn is going to droop like Cashmerino, you can cross the cables every 8 rows instead of 12, but it will be tough on your thumbs and hands. Working this style of cable puts a lot of torque on the hand bones and should be done in stages interspersed with more soothing knitting, and never with a deadline.

The crossovers form large gaps, not visible because they are hidden in and make possible the layering of the fabric. I could write an entire post about the formation of those holes and how they effect the fabric. Another variation (in theory, anyway) of this scarf is to do a single truly monzo cable braced by the narrow rolled edge and a single inviolate rib, the pull one end of the scarf through a gap a few crossings from the other end. I'll knit one soon in a fine yarn and post a photo and pattern.

A few years ago I knit the same formula as the sport-weight pattern above, except with three cables instead of five, in Mission Falls 1824 Wool. I used a 5mm needle for the entire muffler. Cast on 47 and increase to 54. The bars on the reverse hardly show at all when the yarn has a deep plying texture like that of the 1824 wool. Finished size was 5" by 60", weight 265 grams.

Please tell me in the comments if you find a mistake; this is a draft, untested pattern. Thanks! There is a link in the sidebar to a terse print version that is the same as the previous post.

Blogger still isn't letting me upload photos. If you would like the packet that illustrates this post, leave your email in the comments section. If Blogger ever opens the gates, I'll post the photos with captions in a separate post.

Ribbed Cable Muffler Pattern

2006-07-15T12:32:00.000-07:00

Yarn: Approx. 700 yards/250 grams sportweight yarn
Needles: Size 4.5 mm for casting on and binding off. Size 3.75 mm for knitting. Yarn needle for weaving in ends.

Notes: m1 = Increase by knitting in back of stitch.
slip1 = On WS, slip purlwise and on RS, slip knitwise.
c8b6 = cable 8 behind 6. Place 8 st on cable needle in back, work next 6 st (k2, p2, k2), work 8 st from cable needle (p2, k2, p2, k2). The stitches on the cable needle change in this row from k to p or p to k in order to preserve the ribbing pattern. Cables are staggered. They are crossed every 12 rows, with row C crossing the outer and center cables and row D crossing the two flank cables.

Knit the cast-on row. With a 4.5 mm needle cast on, long-tail, 75 st.
Knit an increase row. WS. Switch to a 3.75 mm needle and slip 1, p1, (k1, m1, p2, k2, p2) x 10, k1, m1, p2. [86 st]
Knit row A. RS. Slip 1, k1, (p2, k2) x 20, p2, k2.
Knit row B. WS. Slip 1, p1, (k2, p2) x 20, k2, p2.
Knit row C. RS. Slip 1, k1, p2, (c8b6, p2, (k2, p2) x 4) x 2, c8b6, p2, k2.
*Knit rows B, A, B, A, B.
Knit row D. RS. Slip 1, k1, p2, ((k2, p2) x 4, c8b6, p2) x 2, (k2, p2) x 4, k2.
Knit rows B, A, B, A, B, C.
Repeat from * until desired length.
Knit row B, then row A.
Knit a decrease row. WS. Slip 1, p1, (k2tog, p2, k2, p2) x 10, k2tog, p2. [75 st]
With a 4.5 mm needle, bind off, knitting the knit stitches and purling the purls.
Weave in ends.

New and old

2006-07-13T13:18:00.000-07:00

The main thing I've been working on this week is a ribbed cable muffler UFO in Cashmerino that was about half-done. I'm using a size 3.75 mm needle, which makes a rather dense and very cushy fabric, because I know this yarn will go slack and grow when washed (hmph). It will also pill. At least it feels wonderful to knit.

822 yards/475 grams of variegated indigo marl wool from Morgaine. No idea what it will become. Lovely wool. One ball has a wider range in depth of shade. Perhaps a vest in linen stitch? DD's wearing my size now (scary!), so 800 yards doesn't cover her the way it used to.

Here's the half-Pi on DD. It stays on even in a high wind. The Knitpicks merino laceweight really clings! Using small format open stitch patterns in the first 96 rows and a larger format, more dense stitch pattern in rows 97-192 made for a nice fit around the shoulders and good drape.

Wild Orchid

2006-07-08T13:05:00.000-07:00

Epipactis helleborine

Shawl Notes

2006-07-07T09:07:00.000-07:00

My dad emailed to say that DD wore the new shawl to summer school this morning. YAY!!!

Kat, here's the blocked photo in a larger format. I sharpened it a bit and increased the contrast to make it easier to see the stitch pattern.

Cassie, the reason I washed the yarn before knitting was it was a new yarn for me and I wanted to avoid surprises. Some finewool yarns relax a lot when one washes out the spinning oils and lets the hanks dry without tension. Yes, the other option is to knit a swatch, then wash the swatch, which is what I would do with a coned yarn. These hanks were in an easy format for washing and I was craving a predictable medium.

Annie asked about the lace pattern adjustments. DD chose BW's arrow lace and I knit a swatch and then started subtracting lines or columns of stitches to "walk" through the family of associated stitches. It was fun to reduce the arrow to a selection of other stitch patterns, most of which are in BW's books.

The stitch pattern I liked the most visually, though, had a k5tog. Looked great but I knew I'd grumble while knitting, and the row count fluctuated a lot -- okay for a round shawl but the selvage would have wiggled in a half-circle. I ended up starting with a wider Kiri style cast-on, working through a few openwork stitch patterns that had easy transitions, then removing the repeat row from the classic arrow lace to get a chevron-arrow cross.

The original arrow is long enough that I would have needed an additional pattern between to make a smooth transition from the smaller openwork stitches to the arrow lace. I had two balls of yarn and knew I was cutting it close (ended up two yards short and had to rip back and leave off one repeat of the edging), and that I'd be lucky to get to row 192 as is. The formulaic planning of shawls like the Pi does lend itself to sampler style knitting like this.

I did a few of the transitions over a couple of rows because it was subtle. My daughter doesn't wear ruffles or anything with strong lines, so a row of eyelet in the midst of the chevrons was not going to pass her scrutiny. I did stick pretty closely to the overall counts for a half-Pi, definitely within the accepted margin of error.

I think one of the reasons this shawl felt like a slog to knit was being hemmed in by the Pi rules. They make planning more fun, but the execution is then too predictable for my spoiled, whimsical inner knitter. I prefer a constant challenge. Knowing I was running out of yarn actually made the experience more interesting. Perhaps I should make myself sit down and re-engineer the neckline on the KOKAL vine shawl as penance, if only to remind my brain that it does have the capacity to think in a logical manner. [My brain just winced and is working on an escape clause.]

Finally!

2006-07-05T18:15:00.000-07:00

I started an Anniversary half-pi in January with the EZasPi Yahoo Group, and am finally done. The actual time spent knitting this wasn't very much, though I did sample a lot, playing with the permutations of arrow lace and chevrons.

I really like the Knitpicks Merino laceweight. I used two balls and a size 7 US needle. I washed the hanks of yarn before winding balls. The yarn behaved beautifully, didn't mind being frogged and re-knit, and the finished shawl is soft and feels nice around my shoulders. It has a very gentle drape and minimal body, definitely the opposite of the Icelandic I used for the Hyrna Herborgar.

My daughter chose the color and the stitch patterns, and frankly I'm not fond of lace knit from variegated yarns, but DD says it's perfect and the shawl is for her. Now that it's blocked, the striation is much stronger and there is also almost a shadow effect in the way the colors flow from solid to marl. I blocked it out to a 30-inch radius, not quite as far as I could have, but far enough that it feels delicate and the lace patterns are well-defined. It is surprisingly warm for being light as a feather.

I presented socks to my brother (the brown Regia mini-ringel pair) and aunt (the Knitpicks Vineyard pair) for their birthdays and his only needed a little tweak at the tip of one toe. My aunt has been doing quite a lot of knitting and we spent most of our visit talking about heels and gussets and shank shaping. The socks she was knitting from Ellen's Half Pint Farm yarn felt wonderful.

I cannot tell you how good it feels to make some headway on the list of projects. My eyes were bigger than my needles back in January! DD's Trekking socks will be finished tomorrow. It's too hot to resume working on the FLAK or CIT so I'll probably cast on one of the many scarves I need for holiday presents. I have some chartreuse yarn that will look good in a leaf pattern, though the Koigu mitts just need a little more work...

Crabs

2006-06-30T09:23:00.000-07:00

The birds haven't been posing much lately, but I had a moment to get a few quick snaps of the shoreline the other day and here are some outtakes. The largest of the crabs was about four inches across. Some of these are different poses of the same crabs.

They were eating as fast as they could, and on one rock there were so many crabs it looked like Les Ballets Trocadero.

It boggles my mind that my brother still likes me: I used to catch these little guys and put them down the back of his shirt!

Mom's Alligators

2006-06-29T15:33:00.000-07:00

Remember that little in-the-round tail? Frogged. Way too fussy to knit. Instead, here are some photos of my mom's alligators. The big guy is 32" long. I have a wonderful mom.

Trekking socks

2006-06-23T17:09:00.000-07:00

More Trekking socks are ready for fitting -- should see DD's feet early next week. I usually simply knit the tube of the foot way past where I expect the end of the toes to be, as I did with the socks for Alfred, then baste around the digits and re-knit. DD's ankles and heels are a smaller version of my brother's and her feet are a larger version of mine (these are very baggy!), so I knit some sample toes a full size too long for me. For some reason I never mind ripping and re-knitting toes. I have a snippet of contrasting yarn marking every ten rounds from the pick-up to the toe. It helps speed the tailoring process.

These socks have gone on some nice little hikes during their gestation. I'll post photos when DD takes them on a walk.

I'm in a finishing mood so am cruising through the last few inches of another pair of socks for my brother. With luck, *this* pair will fit.

As you can see, they are much too bit for my feet. It is fun knitting for my family. My mom's feet are slightly smaller than mine but otherwise nearly identical, so I can knit a pair of socks that's a tad snug and they'll fit her perfectly. Mom's, DD's, my brother's, and my hands match, too, with slight variations in size. Genetics in action!

Here's something I started on the bus the other day. I'm not sure it will work. Decades ago I converted my grandmother's worsted weight alligator pattern (which was an improvement of, I think, an old Sunset pattern?) to a fine gauge (Harrisville tweed singles) and slightly different shaping: the guys who were cuddling with the ESK Cassie sent me. Then, I reworked the pattern to be done in sculptural peyote stitch with seed beads. The other day I started shifting it back to sock yarn, but in the round. It's going well, but I know the legs are going to give me fits, and ideally I'd like to knit the feet instead of using felt, since felt is too easy for teething infants to mutilate and swallow. I know I can tweak a pattern but I don't know if it will be feasible for normal people to knit. Shaped knitting can be terribly fussy. I'll post more photos if I succeed (and it will fade into the ether if I don't).

A lovely person

2006-06-13T20:22:00.000-07:00

My friend Alice Peacock is going to be on the Prairie Home Companion on Saturday! She is a true gem of a person, one of those rare individuals whom everyone likes. Good music, too.

My new computer arrived today, but DH also got back from overseas so I haven't had time to set it up. Should be able to process some photos and do some better blog posts in the next few days.

I was wishing I had the camera today when I had a Cathy moment. DD and I were walking home from the library and saw a falcon doing an odd hover and squawking in an irritable, nagging way. Another falcon flew over, grabbed in mid-flight the food dropped by the hovering one, then flew to the hole in an empty house where last year there was a starling nest. We have baby falcons! They raised at least one chick to full size last year, but they lived in the next town (we'd see them flying home). Glad they've come to stay!

DD and I were standing there feeling so lucky to see the falcons, and then twenty pelicans flew right overhead in close formation. Life doesn't get any better than that!

WWKIP Day

2006-06-12T10:03:00.000-07:00

Mom, DD and I went to a lecture on Saturday. We wore our t-shirts and sat near the front and center, in full view of many hundreds of people. Mom finished the top body of a bright green alligator, which I thought was excellent for Dolores' theme of Hide No More.

DD was too caught up in the lecture to spin, but she had brought her Bosworth midi and some Nancy Finn Chasing Rainbows silk from Morgaine's.

I worked on a boring pair of socks for DD, who has a fondness for stockinette and k1p1 ribbing. I wanted to knit a lace wave pattern with this yarn, but she asked for plain bobby socks, so that is what I'm making. At least it will be quick, and then I can get back to knitting something more interesting!

We had hoped to go to the local WWKIP picnic, but the lecture was long and we ran out of time. Maybe next year? Mom and I did make a point of kip'ing when running errands later that afternoon. My best guess is that I alone kip'ed in front of over a thousand people.

We've had a small flock of pelicans fly in this week, some monstrous fellows and a few youngsters. If they stick around I'll get some good photos, but I didn't have the camera handy when they flew by so here's a clip of them sitting on the sea wall.

I've finished the big laptop bag for DD and to sew in a zipper and finish fulling the strap. It is definitely too large, but I think the math error may turn into a positive design feature -- it is more comfortable to carry a laptop when the sides can curve around a bit. I'll post more details and photos when it's complete.

Feeding frenzy

2006-06-08T20:12:00.000-07:00

A rare treat today while I was walking (and knitting a Trekking sock): sharks. They were in the shallows, 18" to 48" of incoming tide, swimming in ever-smaller circles and then shooting through the middle with mouths wide open. DD and I figured they might be herding a new hatch of small yummy things? It was a wild sight, sharks spinning daisies all over the cove. Here are four shots of the one closest to the bank.

Alfred's 13EEE Trekking socks are ready for a fitting; I tried them on and can see why it took so long to knit them -- BIG SOCKS!!! I've started my Trek Along pair for DD, whose shank is as big as Alfred's now and pure muscle. She will soon be able to look down at me...

My apologies for the low photo quality and messy layout. My big computer died and I'm on borrowed laptops for another week or two.

Mobile Knitting

2006-06-01T09:50:00.000-07:00

Sheryl was surprised that I knit lace while walking. Actually, if I forget my knitting I carry a pine cone or rock in my left hand. I have some nerve damage in my left side and need to hold something in my hand to complete the broken circuit. I think what it does is strengthen the impulse so it bridges the tattered synapses?

What works best is to knit. After much practice, I was able to do more than knit stockinette sock shanks -- now I can knit complicated lace while running down the cobblestone stairs on my hill and chatting with my daughter.

The other walkers in the neighborhood check that day's knitting, ask questions and say, "Oh, good progress! Did you finish the pair of socks you were working on last week?" They tend to encourage, not nag, and I'll often chide them for not having their knitting with them. There's a baby on our road and I've knit crawling bootees for her; other friends flaunt the socks I've knit them. A few people wait until they see me walking by, then dash out with their knitting, needing help with a dropped stitch or a new technique.

Things that make mobile knitting easier:
1) My emergency sock kit, which matches and fits in:
2) My messenger bag. I can use a stitch holder to fasten the bulk of a project to the strap at a comfortable height so there isn't any weight dragging on my wrists. The yarn fits in the bag and doesn't slip out because the fulled bag has grab.
3) I usually carry my bag only on outings. For the normal walk to and from town I hook the stitch holder to a belt loop or the front of my sweater, then tuck the ball of yarn in my left armpit. My arm just hangs there unless I try hard to move it, so it's a good system.
4) Another weight-abatement technique is to knit something from within the circle, like a sleeve. If I turn it inside out, then stick my left hand inside, the bulk of the fabric rests placidly on my forearm, relieving any wrist strain.
5) Pocket patterns. [Cassie, how's it going?]

Hazards of mobile knitting:
1) Lost needles. People turn them in to the circulation counter at the library since they know the needles are probably mine.
2) Humiliating moments when you realize you dropped the ball of yarn a block ago and it's been happily unwinding (the only thing wrong with a properly wound, relaxed ball of yarn is it can unwind over a very long span without tangling).
3) Signpost poles, curbs, and other obstacles that sneak in front of you when you're concentrating on a skp...
4) Knitting too far and needing the next page of the pattern. [See #5 above.]
5) If you think the peer pressure to produce FO's for the blog is intense, you should try KIP'ing in a neighborhood of knitters!

Another laptop bag

2006-05-24T21:53:00.000-07:00

I've been knitting a new laptop bag for DD's summer school computer. I started it late one night, after my 9:00 p.m. No Math cut-off time, so it's going to be an interesting size that will probably be large enough for two or three laptops... We'll see just how persuasive an energetic fulling can be.

I'm using some Brown Sheep bulky and a sturdy, pointy, Boye 29" size 8 circ from W-M. I don't like using my expensive needles on something this heavy; I've broken off too many cables. This is rapidly becoming a favorite needle, though, because it fits my hands and the points really are nice. I'm knitting a dense fabric because I liked the hand of that swatch, fulled, the most.

I cast on the outer edge of the base, long-tail, and knit a mitered rectangle, grafting the center seam. I picked up around the base (too well -- it's an invisible transition and I'd meant to have an edge) and am now knitting upward. I'll probably add a zipper to the top and a long, wide strap. Depending on how the fabric feels after fulling, I might reinforce portions with heavy cotton twill tape since the bag is going to belong to a teen.

Shawls

2006-05-18T17:41:00.000-07:00

Here's the HH shawl photo someone requested and a progress update on the Anniversary Pi. It is a slog. The lace pattern is simple but not boring, I like the yarn, and I've been working on it a bit every afternoon while walking to and from town, but it still feels like a case of second sock syndrome. I'm at the half-way point and am ready for it to be DONE. I know, the only way to get there is to apply myself...

Yesterday's sky

2006-05-13T17:47:00.000-07:00

Thank you, Cassie!

2006-05-08T09:13:00.000-07:00

If you haven't bought an Emergency Sock Kit from Cassie yet, you should. One appeared in my mailbox on Friday and by Saturday evening it was loaded and ensconced in my messenger bag. The design is perfect. It's the kind of thing where you realize you've needed one of these for years. The measurements, proportions, seam quality, fabric -- everything is just as it should be.

I've filled mine with a length of sock yarn to use for provisional casting on and for basting around the toes when fitting a new pair to an unfamiliar set of feet. I have an array of stitch holders and markers, a row counter, a crochet hook, a yarn needle, a pencil and a pen for scribbling notes, a size 2 US for casting on, a set of size 1 US for knitting, and a ruler. I have been scouring the house for my travel snips but think they have disappeared into DD's room, aka The Black Hole...

Of course DD tried to sweet-talk me into giving her the ESK, but I won that battle. The gators, however, have decided that if I won't give it to them for their swamp I should at least use it while knitting a few more skins to stuff and embroider.

Hyrna Herborgar complete

2006-05-06T18:59:00.000-07:00

I've discovered two good things about the Icelandic laceweight singles. It is strong and it is colorfast. It is very rare to come across as deep an amethyst as this and have only the faintest lavender washout. The color really is beautiful, and the shawl did soften a bit with washing. I used a gentle shampoo and a tiny bit of leave-in conditioner. The yarn definitely felt as if it had sizing in it. I'm going to use the leftover yarn to knit facecloths -- the stuff will definitely be superb for exfoliation!

Unwashed, HH was 30" across the hypotenuse and 19" deep at the center. I blocked it to 60" by 30". I debated whether to block it in a U the way Jackie E-S did, but DD is at her grandparents' for the weekend and I was just barely able to block the shawl on her twin bed as a proper triangle. DH is pretty good about sleeping on the couch when there's a shawl blocking on the bed, but it seemed silly. If DD doesn't like the way it feels, I can block it as a U instead.

The final weight was 115 grams. With the extra three repeats I added to section A, which resulted in 11 fans instead of the original 9, the total stitch count was about 37,700 stitches. If I hadn't been knitting this shawl at the same time as taxes and eye surgery and a few other bumps in the road, it would have been an easy 2-week project. The pattern is so logical and pleasant to knit! It reminds me of playing a Haydn piano concerto: the notes fit under a person's hands and the structure is quickly memorized.

I will definitely knit this pattern again, and I'm not generally a repeater, but I will use NICE yarn, something that doesn't smooth all the roughness from my hands! Margene and Claudia, I will zap you guys the file when I've read through it again and added a few notes. I've been snowed under with work this last month -- sorry about the delay. Please keep in mind it's a draft!

Here are some snaps of one of the more interesting old roses in the yard. It's always the first to bloom and starts as a deep butterscotch and finishes as a lilac-tinted khaki. The flowers can reach 6" across and have a strong raspberry-apple scent.

Terns!

2006-04-30T20:21:00.000-07:00

These terns were having fun flying around squawking at the flags for Opening Day. (Aunt C., they were on the small side relative to the other terns I've seen lately. What kind are they?)

Ripping HH. Since I'm using grabby yarn and I needed to rip quite a few pattern repeats, I ran a circular needle through every 6th stitch in the destination purl row. The stitch in the k3tog stitch was easiest to catch. I ripped quickly back to that row, then slipped the live stitches onto another needle. The ripped yarn is a bit fuzzy and a few spots drifted slightly, but it's okay. I wouldn't rip this stuff twice, though!

I made a mistake and knit the center bit of row 72 instead of the center bit of 102, and since the yarn wasn't stable enough for a second rip, I laddered and dropped the extra yo, then worked a k4tog. I usually leave one mistake in each piece and I do wish this one weren't in such an obvious spot, but it's yet another much-needed lesson in humility. At least it's symmetrical!

I had hoped to have a finished HH photo, but I have a few rows to knit yet. Soon.

Riiiip

2006-04-28T12:34:00.000-07:00

Here is HH before ripping. The 3 pattern repeats I added to section A increased each side by 36 stitches, thus one fan per side. The math in this pattern is glorious. In order to do the additional 6 pattern repeats I had planned for section B I would have needed yarn for 7000 more stitches (half a ball), so riiiip. *Next* time I knit HH I'll use yarn that doesn't sand my hands smooth and I'll know exactly what yardage I need in order to knit a much larger size. By the way, the color on my screen appears true this time, a lovely deep amethyst. And here's the current mindless project, Alfred's size 13EEE socks in Trekking. I bought two balls so I'll definitely have enough yarn.

Quick note

2006-04-26T14:28:00.000-07:00

I've added a link in the sidebar to the Newborn Crawling Bootees post. You can use any bind-off you like; the reason I graft the sole seam is I like the elasticity that allows the bootees to stretch and grow with baby. Enjoy!

Progress

2006-04-25T15:18:00.000-07:00

Still in blob phase, but I have made enough progress on HH that she's too heavy to knit while walking, so I knit another pair of bootees while running errands yesterday. These are a wonderful icebreaker on a bus in the city. I met some very nice knitters yesterday and wished my Spanish were better.

Grading Hyrna

2006-04-19T11:19:00.000-07:00

I asked my daughter last night how large is too large for a shawl, and she laughed and said, "When I step on the ends or when it wraps around me three times!" I'm over 5'10" and she is rapidly passing me by -- feet and arms are already bigger -- so I figure I can keep knitting for a while. The classic maximum is the wingspan of the recipient, a bit over six feet in this household. The classic minimum is just above the elbows when the arms are hanging, relaxed. A shrug can be 2/3rds the distance from the top of the shoulder to the bend in the elbow, but it has to have enough drape either from fabric density or shoulder shaping to hang well.

The easiest way to make Hyrna larger is to use a heavier grist of yarn and larger needles. However, there is a structural reason lace is traditionally knit from very fine yarn: all those decreases are lumpy! There is also a key visual reason: to maximize the visual contrast of the positive-negative space in a lace pattern, one needs to be able to see at least a few repeats of the pattern in one glance. Most people have a comfortable focal area of 8" for this form of vision at, oh, a few feet away. From across a room (ten to twelve feet), you should still be able to see the general form of the stitch patterns and how they work together, thus the yarnovers need to be large enough to hold their own against any solid/stockinette portions of the lace.

I pondered making section A the breadth of DD's shoulders, section B down to her elbows, and the fans hanging below that, but she's growing so fast I've learned simply to make everything BIG and not use her dimensions as a guide.

The Icelandic laceweight I'm using is definitely the maximum grist for a singles that I would use for knitting lace, especially something like HH with all her double yarnovers. At 225 m per 50 g, the grist is about 2234 ypp. As I wrote before, it's really uneven so that is an average number. It appears to be worsted spun from what I would call semi-worsted preparation, sort of a shoddy combing? There's a bit of VM and enough short bits that Alden would give me that look and send me back to the combs to start over... The thin parts have just a bit too much twist and the thick parts have a tad too little but the staples are mostly long and forgiving. There is, since it is a singles, a bit of bias which works well with the way the decreases are knit. Even after washing the fabric is stiff and dense -- before washing I feared the shawl would be more appropriate as an architectural display, but my daughter grabbed the washed sample and said she liked it. Those early years on the homestead in Montana taught her the value of wool. She knows the difference between Sharlea and Lincoln, but adores all wool.

Another standard method for enlarging a shawl is to add repeats within a section. Hyrna is well-suited to this because the transition from section A (double yo's) to section B (bead lace) is 1:1. If you've ever done unit origami you'll really appreciate this pattern. I cannot tell you how many months of my life I've spent tweaking lace patterns to design a fluid visual transition between two seemingly compatible stitch patterns!

Hyrna begins with a cast-on and a handful of set-up rows that segue neatly into the body of section A, where the only change in stitch pattern repeats is the addition of two units per side per repeat. Lovely, tidy math, and VERY quick to knit. The end of section A introduces the fan motif in the center and terminates the double-yo pattern. I added three stitch pattern repeats *before* the fan motif, for an additional twelve units. As I posted, this enlarged version of section A took just under 225 m of yarn.

Section B is a classic 4-row pattern with expansion in the center and at the edges. More tidy math. I really like the proportions of the original shawl and will see how it looks as I go. The only restrictions are the chance of running out of yarn (slight -- I have two balls at >14k st each, and I have the entire pattern written out plus row stitch counts tabulated so I can see when I'm getting into the risky area) and the need for a correct array to set up section C's fans. Back to it!

Hyrna Herborgar KAL

2006-04-14T22:18:00.000-07:00

Claudia and I are knitting the Hyrna Herborgar from Halldorsdottir's Three-Cornered and Long Shawls. It is an interesting book, containing a large number of thoroughly wearable and attractive shawls plus a few exquisite pieces. The photography is beautiful, and the hand-written charts are logical and the only ones I can actually see now. The patterns themselves are a bit terse, but they contain all the information you need and the latest translation is very handy.

I modified the Litla shawl I knit from this book, but I doubt I'll change the Hyrna in any way other than grading the size. We'll see how large it is when I finish the double-yo section. I like the proportions as is, but have heard it's on the small side. It is knitting up very quickly because Halldorsdottir is a knitting genius. Her use of twisted knit stitches is wickedly smart. I've been humming contentedly and smiling. The only change I've made in the pattern so far is to do a provisional cast-on so the final darning of the cast-on stitches is tidy. I rarely ever knit a pattern totally as writ, but this one is a gem.

Update: I added three repeats of the first section since it was definitely too small. I'll add a bit to the second section to make the math work. I have three balls of yarn and the photo above is the sum of ball number one (over 14,000 stitches on a 3.5 mm needle). Sorry the color isn't true -- it's actually a dark amethyst.

Claudia spun and dyed her yarn and I cheated and bought the recommended Icelandic laceweight singles from Meg S. I've spun enough Icelandic to know it's not my favorite fleece, and the way my vision is now I would have a tough time separating the tog and thel. Plus, I was curious to see the traditional yarn.

I hate to say it, but I really do NOT like this yarn. I spin a better Icelandic singles with my eyes closed. The grist is very uneven, the staple is strong but of widely varying lengths -- the yarn drops litter in your lap as you knit. It is rough enough that all the rough spots on my hands have been worn smooth. It has an unholy fondness for itself; I have never seen a yarn with this much grab. I am being very careful not to let it tangle with itself! The dye color is glorious, but the scouring was too harsh, and the yarn is beyond scratchy. However, it also has a decent number of tpi (twists per inch) for the intended use, and the character of the yarn is going to make the shawl hold its shape perfectly when blocked. It does soften some with washing, but retains most of its rigidity.

What would I substitute? My own Icelandic would be better, which isn't saying much lately. I have just the right grist in a handspun linen singles, but not enough yardage. Coopworth would work and the luster would be a nice addition, plus it would be strong enough and have a similar drape. I don't think the soft halo of the Icelandic is necessary or even preferable for this pattern. Coopworth would also be ideal since the shawl requires a hard blocking to stretch the space between the columns of k2tog and ssk that outline the double-yo's in the first section.

Cassie's latest blog post about designing lace is yet another good one. I started to answer in comments and it got a bit ong, so I'm putting it here instead. If you haven't read Eunny's series about lace, go there first.

There's always an interesting interplay between designing on paper and designing on the needles. I prefer the latter, but will often sketch an idea to knit later. I usually write a pattern longhand, knit a bit, write what I've knit, alter it, knit some more, chart it, make a few changes, knit the changes, write it, and then start over with whichever version made the most sense visually, structurally, and in terms of knit-ability. At each stage I'll thumb through my stitch books and see if what I'm making has already been published, and I'll try a few different kinds and grists of yarn. Taking photos in progress can help me see the ratio of positive to negative space.

One of the things I enjoy most about designing is the tangential discoveries. In my recent fussing with various chevrons and arrow patterns for DD's pi, I made a mistake and ended up with a very attractive variation of BW's dainty chevron. It has a lot of k5togs which are a bother, but it looks good, and with the correct needle and yarn the k5togs are quick.

And yes, the laser surgery went pretty well, though I'm utterly exhausted from the adrenal surge. Cross your dpns that this will decrease the macular degeneration in the radiation burn.

Cut and run

2006-04-11T09:44:00.000-07:00

There comes a time when it's best just to finish off and snip that thread. Nothing short of a full frogging was going to fix this little shrug, and nobody who has ever done it before will rip Kid Silk Haze. I started it a few years ago when we were living in Texas and I had minimal vision and enough pain killers in my system to make my brain feel as if it were residing elsewhere. I have a vague memory of trying to knit the lace in 104-degree weather and setting it aside because sweat and mohair don't mix. I pulled it out of a forgotten bin a few weeks ago and have been looking at it, trying to decide the best way to salvage the poor thing. I didn't have enough yarn left to replace the collar thingy, nor enough to add an edging to the bottom, so just did a few rows and laddered down to fix some obvious mistakes, then crocheted a smooth edge. Gave it a light blocking and declared it done.

People talk about "mind-knitting," daydreaming about lace or cables. Some bloggers do wonderful series of swatches, measuring and studying. There are knitters who actually plan and sketch their ideas before picking up needles. Then there are those of us who cast on and go... This was definitely one of those winging it projects, mostly because at the time I couldn't read a chart, let alone see to count the stitches.

This project is a failure in that it doesn't fit a normal human body because the shoulder increases are too far forward. The collar is inside out and too full in the center back, and when I picked up I stretched the main section way too much. The motif in the collar comes close to what I used in the shoulders, but not close enough to meld correctly. I needed another ball of yarn to give it a bit more length, a front border, and add the way cool edging I had stored in my brain.

However, my daughter will happily wear it anyway, and if I think of it as a draft swatch, it has potential. With a few changes (like counting the stitches), the motif in the shoulders and center back could be pretty, especially if carried into a slightly different collar shape and the same bottom edging I still have stored in my brain. Now that I can sort of see to sketch, I will make some notes and someday a much better version of the the misfit will appear on DD's shoulders, perhaps when she's old enough to wear a strapless gown and actually needs a lace shrug?

Cables

2006-04-07T12:34:00.000-07:00

Last night after finishing the worst of the tax stuff I celebrated by casting on a possibility for my accountant. It's black elann.com Baby Silk, 80% alpaca/20% silk. I used an old cable scarf (the tan one in the photo --Elizabeth, what did I call that scarf pattern?) as a model.

Long-tail cast on 54 with a 3.5 mm, then knit with a 3.25 mm, slipped edge stitch with a partner stitch to roll for each selvage. Increased 4 in the first row, within the 4 cables on the back, to decrease cable splay. Changed the pattern to be k6p6 with the cabling slightly staggered and on both sides because I don't care for the railroad track look on the reverse of the tan scarf. Yes, the size 16 yarn needle hanging from the swatch is my cable needle for this project; pinching two or three tiny, slippery, invisible black alpaca stitches is tricky, thus the needle. I move it up the scarf after completing a few inches since I prefer not to have it dangling from a long tail.

As I expected, the fabric is a bit too stiff. I don't want to go up a needle size because this yarn doesn't full and the stitches begin to distort when larger. I will rip and space the crossings further apart. I do like the positive/negative space effect from the contrast between the matte purl and the shiny knit columns, and I like the juxtaposition of the cable crosses against the figured shape of the reverse. It has nice cush in the hand. Off to the pond...

Still at it

2006-04-05T12:27:00.000-07:00

Nothing interesting to report. Still chipping away at taxes, but making headway. Not my favorite exercise! Luckily, I like my accountant and she'll do the hard parts. I've only been knitting in between tasks, in waiting rooms, etc. The latest batch of bootees is done and ready to ship. Definitely a good use for leftover Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn. This is Tuscany, IIRC.

I knit half a shank of Alfred's socks (prototype, so might have to rip) at the eye doctor on Monday. I'm scheduled for a little laser "procedure" next Wednesday so these are a good project to knit until my brain can make sense of the new eye format. I'm undecided about Trekking. Does it full much? My gauge on 1's seems awfully loose and I know I was a nervous wreck when I was knitting so expected it to be too tight.

I'm into the next level on the Anniversary Pi and finding it a bit fussy. It's still raining here so the FLAK is on hold. Sooner or later the rain will stop and I can wash the yarn and have a hope of getting it dry...

Has anyone out there modified a couch so it's easier to remove dpns that have fallen under the arms and back? I'm seriously considering removing some of the muslin down there and installing a tray to catch the runaways.

A bead post(!)

2006-03-28T11:08:00.000-08:00

We had a brief discussion about bead looms recently on a group, and since I'm buried in tax stuff and won't even be going to teen knitting club today, I've imported my response post.

Also, it's pouring rain, so here's a picture of the cobble stones outside our front door when DD left for the bus, and a cheerful sky snippet above from a few nights ago to remind me that the world is not always dreary.

Suzanne Cooper has a handy set of beadwork links. My favorite vendor is Beki at Out on a Whim, a fun store up in Cotati, California.

I absolutely adore Don Pierce, whom I met at the first Interweave Bead Bash up in Estes Park some years ago. He and his wife are truly good people and his beadwork is art. In person it shimmers and glows with a life of its own, and when a person wears the piece the two merge and the person takes on that extra something that was in the beadwork. He is a wonderful teacher and a fair and honest vendor, too. Walking into a classroom where he is teaching you can feel the magic.

Another expert teacher and hilarious person is Jeannette Cook. Her classroom is an endless party of laughter and "I've got it!" and color and fun. She has tricks and techniques that remove the frustration from beadwork and fill a person with ideas. She is one of those special teachers who makes learning hard things a breeze, and her lessons have that auto-fuse feature where they become part of your mind instead of departing through the other ear. She is great!

If you can get a copy of The New Beadwork by Scherer and Moss you'll see some very inspiring work. Many of those artists went on to write books. Charlene mentioned Valerie Hector. David Dean is another gifted beadworker. I would love to own one of David Dean's pieces... The other person whose beadwork I enjoy very, very much is David Chatt.

Interweave's Beader's Companion is a handy little reference and good to have around. I used to write for their magazine. I never, ever, wrote for Bead & Button, though they asked. They were difficult to work with in the early years (does that sound diplomatic?), while Linda Ligon, Jean Scorgie, and then Jean Campbell over at Interweave were gems of the first order.

Looms. Is it a Mirrix or homebuilt or ??? It makes a big difference. I used custom homebuilts, just rigid frames because that's what suited my designs the best. Mirrix looms are lovely for collars.

1) Loom weaving beadwork is quicker. What I was known for in the trade was 3-D freeform peyote critters, rigid, stand alone, weird colors (hey, I had an orange tumor in my dominant eye), and expressive. I also made a lot of game boards to pay the bills, and while I can work (even without good vision) flat peyote or any other flat stitch REALLY REALLY fast, a loom is quicker. Even running the chicken farm with a new baby, no plumbing, and a wastrel for a husband (the ex), I could weave upwards of 3000 beads per day in an exceptionally complex color pattern. Peyote at full speed, maybe half that per day.

2) Looms yield better drape. Having a long tensioned warp transforms large flat pieces of beadwork from craft to art. There are few things in this world that appeal to my senses as much as cutting a length of glass bead fabric off a loom. I usually worked with Nymo O for warp and weft and laid a supplementary warp of handspun bombyx froghair, then bound the selvages and cut edges in a bombyx ribbon woven on an Alden Amos tape loom.

3) Looms yield a flat fabric (if you tension your warp evenly and use relatively uniform beads). For game boards, this is rather important. Freehand beadwork has a lot of positive characteristics, but "flat" isn't the first one that comes to mind.

One of the drawbacks of a loom is you have warp ends to deal with after cutting. Because of this, I only used a loom for pieces where a ribbon-bound edge could be seen as a nice addition, where there was another, acceptable way to conceal the cut ends, or when the piece was too large to work comfortably freehand (bigger than 4" x 6").

There are intermediate methods, working on a small pin-loom that stretches each row as it's worked freehand, threading a continuous warp between two fine, adjustable bars, etc. By the end of working a piece with one of these compromise methods, I have always thought I was an idiot and should have used the loom!

Oh, and the current state of my EZasPi Anniversary shawl, which might just be finished before the next anniversary... KnitPicks merino laceweight is very, very tolerant of being frogged and re-knit over and over and over again. Not the softest hand, but soft enough, and the durability factor is important since this shawl is for DD.

Quick bootee note for AnnP

2006-03-23T18:41:00.000-08:00

AnnP, you don't have to Kitchener the bottom seam of the bootee. You can just bind off and sew the two sides together. If you sew the inner edge halves of the stitches it becomes a decorative seam. Since most of baby's weight is on his toes or the backs of his heels, the important places for the bootee to be smooth are at the end of the tongue and the center back, so the sole seam does not need to be flush. (Didn't have your email, thus this open note.) Oh, and here's the tern photo I meant to post earlier today.

More birds

2006-03-23T09:36:00.000-08:00

Birds

2006-03-22T17:40:00.000-08:00

Lots and lots of big birds today, over a dozen egrets, a new flock of terns, the usual curlews and willets, more young gulls, and only a few hundred ducks. One of the curlews was calling -- what a beautiful sound! The tide was way out, but a snowy was at a culvert and posed beautifully when I told him what a lovely fellow he was.

Knitting club was fun. Had three tables of kids (mostly girls this week) making friendship bracelets and teaching each other different braids and knots, DD spun silk froghair, one of my pompom boys decided to learn to knit and had it down pat in a dozen stitches, fewer than a dozen boys stayed to make projects, but a lot darted in and out, and there were a bunch more new kids this week as well as piles of regulars. The darters do that for a few weeks and eventually feel comfortable enough to stay and play. The administration continues to be surprised that so many guys come to club, let alone that they behave perfectly. Don't ask me how I feel about the administration...

Today I tried something new. Five minutes before the bell was going to ring, I clapped twice. Everyone was instantly quiet. I said loudly, "Start cutting thread for projects to work on until next Wednesday." They dove in happily and when the bell rang they'd already tidied nearly all the stray bits of yarn and thread! Such good kids. I often see them around town or at the library after school, and they always smile and often hold up a wrist to show me what they've made.

I just knit another pair of newborn bootees to give away. Had an eye appointment yesterday and it was rather horrid; knitting makes the experience bearable. Since my orb has surprised them by surviving its ordeal, we're starting another set of tests to see if we can heal my unhappy macula. The diagnostic equipment is amazing. They can do a macular scan now that shows tissue density, where pockets of swelling are, and makes it all measurable. Sure wish there were a way to turn off my brain, though. Ouch! The bootee pattern is quick and small, and has few enough rows that I can keep track in my head since I'm fully dilated (and thus can't see much) for hours during and more hours after the exam. [When I had the first surgery, I had to keep my eyes dilated for weeks and could see color and intricate detail in the dark. Eerie!] I am putting a nice dent in the bin of leftover sock yarn and will soon have a nice stash of bootees on hand. I'll post more bird photos if/when Blogger decides to comply. Isn't this pair of terns wonderful?! They were watching the rest of the flock dive.

Silly knitting

2006-03-17T12:34:00.000-08:00

Stephenie mentioned short rows this morning on the phone, so here are a couple of pics of a silly thing I knit when I was in a mood. Fine coned cotton, started at the center, with a short row edge. When I finished it I realized I could have knit a sweater in the same number of stitches, but it was therapeutic knitting and has proven handy for dusting...

In between & UFO's

2006-03-16T20:21:00.000-08:00

First, Cassie sent me this link to the best Huldu yet.

I'm in between on a bunch of projects. I'm waiting for the weather to clear before washing all that green Cascade 220 for my FLAK, else it won't ever dry. We've had a lot of rain, mostly squalls, lots of horizontal hail and drenching downpours. The nasturtiums are resplendent and already blooming in sunny spots.

I was digging in the stash for some yarn to do a beta of Morgan and found two UFO's (a rarity for me since I love to finish), both on US#3's, for DD, and from the Texas years when I was on pain meds and knitting by feel. One is a mohair/silk shaped lace shawl and the other is a cardi made from a cone of cotton embroidery floss. She outgrew both so I set them aside, thinking I'd rip them later. I have notes somewhere but don't need them since they're both sufficiently obvious patterns. There are buttons and ribbon for the cardi stowed somewhere, gorgeous things from Britex and worth finding. I think I'll finish at least the mohair, though I'm putting it in the slow lane for later. I like the cardi more, but there's a lot of work left. Anybody wear a 32" cardi? Maybe I can cheat and turn it into a summery something with minimal sleeves...

I just ripped my pi back to row 48 and have glommed together a lace pattern that is a cross between the small leaf I used in the first section and the modified arrow I will use later. A bit more fussing and it should work.

I'm plugging away at the second sock in the ringel pair (finally), finished C's socks without the ankle shaping (brain rebelled -- I'll make the next pair fit better), and am wearing my new yellow Opal socks today.

I get the sniffles every time I pick up the Claudia brand yarn for those fingerless gloves so will have to jettison that project and use a different yarn (fabric softener, I think, and I've washed the hank but it's still fragrant). Am pondering changing the needle size in the Koigu mitts and keep taking out the fabric and fondling it, trying to decide.

I really need to whip up some more bootees for gifts. Haven't even looked at the CIT swatches for a month. It will happen, but DD needs a larger Rogue more than I need a cardi. She needs socks for her size 10 and growing feet, too. It's a good thing I like to knit!

Wednesday

2006-03-15T22:25:00.000-08:00

Grandmother loves her new scarf and says she's going to wear it even when she's asleep.

It was very windy and high tide again today, so instead of more photos of duck flotillas here's a shot of the beach just below where I sat to eat lunch today. The sound of the waves hitting the rocks was invigorating and put me in a good mood for knitting club. Had mostly boys again, an especially good batch. Some are becoming adept at clove hitches so I'm thinking about more complicated projects. Time to look through my dad's old copy of Handicrafts for some ideas.

Litla Hyrna Huldu

2006-03-10T09:00:00.000-08:00

The shawl for my grandmother is finished. I used 100 grams of elann.com's Baby Silk (80% alpaca/20% silk) and a simplified top-down version of Litla Hyrna Huldu from Three-Cornered & Long Shawls by Halldorsdottir.

Here it is on DD, and Gm is tiny so the shawl should be just about the right size. I worked half again as many repeats in the edging as the pattern (and the required extra in the triangle) since my gauge was smaller than the pattern and I wanted a slightly larger shawl (24" depth, 46" width, just under 26k stitches). I used a smaller than advised crochet hook, too, to minimize the pointyness of the edging. The soft scallops are really nice with this yarn. Quick, easy, and a lovely light-weight snuggler.

Curlews

2006-03-08T17:41:00.000-08:00

It was Teen Knitting Club and fair weather this morning, so here are a few photos. I remembered someone commenting that she was fond of curlews, and there were two on the mud flats, though one was a little far to get a good snap. If you magnify these photos, the resolution should be high enough to show some nice detail. They are such lovely birds.

My willet friend was grooming himself and not photo-ready (the mud flats were a bird salon; I seemed to hit the moment of the day when all birds fuss over themselves). I did get a snap of a young willet who was striding along the water's edge as fast as I was walking up on the path!

A photographer from the local paper came to club today, but so did over thirty kids! Nearly every teen who has said he would come back another day came today. My 7th grade regulars stopped by for a moment and were overwhelmed by the crowd so left immediately. Only three of the knitting 6th graders braved the zoo. I ended up making three stations, one for knitting, one for pompoms, and one for friendship bracelets. Luckily, I had kids at each table who could teach the others, and I spent my time helping with paperclips (hook through the end of the bracelet braid, then through a belt loop), teaching half hitches, and knotting pompom leashes.

I felt today as if I achieved my goal of giving the kids some fun stress relief. I took a moment to look around the classroom and saw all the school's cliques mixing, helping each other, 6th graders teaching 8th graders and vice versa. Last fall I had envisioned a table of happy knitters, and some weeks that is what we have. Most days are like today, a beehive of busy teens playing with color and string, learning that knots really do matter, that scissors can be used for more than paper, that hands are handy.

Frogging

2006-03-07T17:05:00.000-08:00

When a design has gone awry mid-span, how wonky does it have to be for you to rip it out? Do you surf the wave and finish the thing, knowing you'll rip it later, or do you rip back to the good part immediately and make changes on the fly?

What do you consider to be valid reasons for frogging? Gauge, fit, and blaring errors in lace or cables that cannot be fixed via laddering or localized surgery? It's so ugly you'll never wear it and you doubt a charity will accept it? You're on a yarn budget and have found something more appealing to make with that specific yarn?

Have you ever done a partial frog, tried something different, then frogged back and returned to the original design, realizing it had merit after all?

Do you plan ahead, then knit carefully in order to avoid making grievous errors, or are you carefree, casting on and knitting an idea, figuring you can always frog later if it turns into a dud?

Do you bribe yourself, have a special frogging ceremony, or are you like me? I swap chores with my daughter and she converts the knitmess back into tidy balls of yarn. She especially enjoys frogging beadwork, which involves scissors and bowls and tweezers and sedating her mother for the duration.

And yes, the root of this post is because I'm knitting the last bit of something disappointing, but I'm riddled with doubt because everyone else thinks it's wonderful. Is it my eyes deceiving me, am I too picky, or do I simply have poor taste? I chose to finish it anyway, hoping that when it's done I will see the beauty others see in this pattern.

Update: an article recommended by Sheri.

A few photos

2006-03-01T18:55:00.000-08:00

Serious wind today, trying to tear my knitting from my hands as I walked along the shore. The only birds on the water were some coots with bills pointed into the gale.

I did find a handsome comrade with an injured hip mooching in the library courtyard. It's easy pickings and he's young and still has some use of the leg, so I hope it's just a strain. He was courteous (and well-fed) enough to wait patiently until I got up before hopping over to see if I left any treats. If I'd had some leather gauntlets... but my years of chicken chasing and playing junior vet are long gone.

I tried the Morgan shawl on many body types today and figured out the necessary modifications. I could have sold a dozen shawls just to a handful of ladies at school. Shawls are definitely still in style.

We made friendship bracelets at knitting club. A few of the kids can tie a half knot, but they don't know what it's called! Whatever happened to tangible reality, to tying knots in jump ropes or your brother's shoelaces?

Book Meme

2006-02-28T12:20:00.000-08:00

Helen and Cathy tagged me, so here goes. Keep in mind that I shape-read extremely quickly and will read anything with a happy ending (in other words, I have undiscriminating taste and adore romance). I used to read mostly thrillers and technical books, but cancer has a way of adding that aspect to a person's life already so I balance the angst with fluff. A huge portion of my physical therapy for my orb is to read, so I do. They know me well at the local library.

[1] Name five of your [many] favorite books. (All romances, just for fun.)
Lass Small's An Obsolete Man, Julia Quinn's Minx, Elizabeth Mansfield's A Marriage of Inconvenience, Jan Hudson's Fly with Me, Suzanne Enoch's England's Perfect Hero.

[2] What was the last book you bought?
Talk Nerdy to Me, by Vicki Lewis Thompson, and yes, I own her entire nerd series. The ending on this one was a bit weak, but I had a good laugh over the nerdspeak.

[3] What was the last book you read?
I read an average of a book per day, often three, so I'm looking at a few grocery bags full of books and wondering what I just returned to the library. A random selection from the top of one bag: The Winter Duke by Louise Bergin, Kiss Me Annabel by wonderful Eloisa James, and Elizabeth Boyle's This Rake of Mine.

As I was knitting Morgan, DH read aloud (with glee) from Alan Douglas' Tube Testers and Classic Electronic Test Gear; he can make anything sound good. DD's been reading aloud from a novel she picked up at Hein & Co. on vacation, The Company, by Robert Littell. I've been skimming Marilyn van Keppel's translation of Three-Cornered & Long Shawls by Sigridur Halldorsdottir.

[4] List five books or authors that have been particularly meaningful to you (in no particular order).
Elizabeth Bevarly's books got me through the ocular melanoma, kept me laughing through the pain and believing in tangible reality. I have her complete works and think the world of her as a person.
Gene Logsdon's Practical Skills saved my life numerous times on the farm in Montana.
Michael Pearson's Traditional Knitting got me back into designing in my 20's during a spell of hammock-rest in Santa Cruz.
Gretel Erlich's The Solace of Open Spaces helped me cope with loss and fear during some hard years.
When we were young, my brother bought me Cleary's The Mouse and the Motorcycle and taught me all the hard words. He's still and ever an excellent guy.

[5] Name some books you’ve been dying to read but just haven’t yet.
All the latest titles by my favorite authors? A bunch of the Squawkers (see sidebar) have new titles I have yet to buy. I've actually been on a re-reading binge lately, going through all of Liz Bevarly's books. Today I have a headache and am craving a Sandra Hill. Will have to dig through the shelves to find one of her Vikings I think.

[6] Tag people.
Annie, have you done this yet (yes, I've read your book page)? Elizabeth? (What is the 50 book challenge?) Leslie?

Morgan's code

2006-02-27T19:52:00.000-08:00

Since we're in the midst of a miserable squall, here's a cheerful photo of our tree fern from a few weeks ago.

Yes, I will post the pattern for Morgan here soon, but it is my grandmother's 96th birthday on Saturday and I have to knit something for her, if only an omiyage for some chocolates, so that takes priority. I have Morgan's pattern in Word, the calculations sheet in Excel, and just need to modify the initial bit of the back neck so it increases more smoothly (there's a bit too much fabric in one spot and not quite enough in another. This will be labeled a DRAFT pattern since it hasn't been test knit, just composed on the fly. I would appreciate it if you email me with any and all suggestions and corrections. Before that, comments about the best way to post a pattern to the blog, especially the spreadsheet, are most welcome. I'd rather not have to email it privately as it is tax time and I'm mired in receipts.

I pulled the pins this morning so the shawl could relax, and I have it draped on the back of the couch now. It didn't need a hard blocking since the gauge of the stockinette portions was already spot on for that grist. This shawl feels like a dream around the shoulders and has great drape. Unless a family member or close friend nabs it before I finish tweaking the pattern, I'll have a drawing here for the prototype. As I told Claudia, the pointy aspect just doesn't do it for me. DD thinks I should take Heather's recommendation and have each contestant submit the reason why she needs to own Morgan the Duck Blind. [Keep in mind that if you have a prong-style engagement ring, it will snag on the viscose filament.] I'll post here when it's time for entries.

Morgan is blocked

2006-02-26T14:24:00.000-08:00

Frankly, this felt so good unblocked, I was sorely tempted to leave it as is and just steam the points. But, it did need a wash since it has already had an interesting life, so into the sink it went. Finished dimensions are 24" deep at the center back, 42" across the shoulder axis, and the neck hole measures 42" along the garter edge. I didn't give it a hard stretch, just tugged it until the yo's looked good and the stockinette sections still had a cohesive profile. I put in a quarter and the Altoids tin (filled with pins) for scale. DH and DD have not been fond of the shawl since they have been living on leftovers for the duration, but when they saw it blocked they both went "Ooooh!" so I don't have to worry about finding it in the rag bag...

The yarn was six balls of Endless Summer Collection Luna from elann.com in a deep olive green, 57% viscose/43% cotton, a splitty, fussy yarn made of fine 2-ply strands of cotton and an under-twisted strand of viscose. In six balls, there were two knots and one damaged spot where half the strands were cut (I ran another strand through there when working in ends, bridging it). If the yarn were just the cotton elements without the nasty viscose, it would be a pleasure to knit, but that viscose gave me fits. The resulting fabric is gorgeous, elastic, cushy, warm without being hot, and a nice balance of drape and density without being too heavy. The viscose does add a pretty glimmer.

I used a 4.5 mm (US size 7) needle throughout, starting with a pointy aluminum and switching to an Addi 60" sixty-six rows in, more to loosen my gauge and make my hands relax than out of necessity. I did a modified 3-stitch Kiri start with the edge stitch slipped and 9 ridges, mirrored traveling vine with the pivot at the center back. As you can see in the photo above, I flared the solid portions of the vines, then branched the eyelet portions twice. When I got the size I wanted, I worked the standard seven stitch pattern until I finished the fifth ball of yarn. According to my calculations I was getting around 5000 stitches per ball, and with 56 points and a fluctuating 450 to 500 stitches per row, I knew I couldn't do another repeat so commenced the edging. I cut two rows of depth from the way I had pictured the lattice, just in case, but think I might just have had enough yardage to keep them in.

If you count the 9 ridges times 3 stitches for the cast-on base as one row, and then the 56 points as one row, it's 117 rows from start to finish. Around 3:00 this morning in a haze of chocolate-covered crunchy espresso beans and a splendid trashy novel, I realized I really should break the yarn at the center and knit the other half of the points from the purl side to get proper symmetry, but by doing some elegant maneuvers with rather elaborate decreases, I was able to get an equivalent stretched mirror profile. I didn't think I could bend my brain into backwards plus reverse and keep up the pace I'd set.

I actually could have finished this early in the week except I stumbled last week and landed hard on my right wrist. Because I've been doing piecework as a business since 4th grade and I practiced piano and cello an average aggregate of forty hours per week all during my school years, I'm always hovering on the edge of CTS and other delightful wrist and digit afflictions. I've managed it very carefully, taking breaks, being conscious of hand position, etc., but I have the unfortunate instinct of reaching out with my hands when I fall...

As I knit, I had my laptop open with a text document on the left and a spreadsheet on the right, and I entered each row as I figured it out. I know there are a few mistakes in there, but I'm not planning on knitting this particular shawl again and really just used the pattern as reference. It was a wonderful moment when I realized that I was into a 30-row repeat in the branching sections; that sped things up considerably! All I had to modify was the number of repeats and the continued increasing at the edge to curve the wings around. I played with the center back line a bit, too, one day when I was bored. I was careful to avoid adding a centered point to the edging because I didn't want to disrupt the flow with too much order.

Traveling vine is a fun stitch pattern composed of a decrease vine in a field of stockinette that zig zags in opposition to a ladder of paired yo's. It's a form of distortion lace in that the vine eats the field stitches and thus cants the solid portions of the lace back and forth. Because of the stitch architecture, this lace cannot be flipped upside-down to appear right-side up when knit top down. However, it is simple to modify the width of the repeat by skipping some of the decreases. Branching the paired yo's takes more planning because the new pair won't be moving in opposition correctly, but if you look at the photo above you can see that it does work.

It grows a stitch per repeat on the right side, then decreases back to the original number in the next purl row, so on my spreadsheet I had a running calculation of the percentage of gain/loss each row and also over a span of five rows. This made figuring out the increases to make a smooth curve around the shoulders easy. One of the goals in this project was to avoid ripping, and the spreadsheet was a great help. I did rip one purl row because I got distracted and worked too far and needed to flare. Aside from that, I had three times when I forgot the second yo in the oft-repeated yo, k1b, yo sequence, but those were easily caught in the next purl row.

Since this was, for all practical purposes, a giant swatch, I took some shortcuts I wouldn't do in a commission. For instance, I didn't fuss with the direction of the stitches in the p2tb's, especially once I saw that the twisted stitches raised and defined the vine, which was in danger of being indistinct in the marled yarn. I had gotten some interesting answers to my query on the EZasPi group about split circle shawls, and this was a fun experiment in that. I will change the curvature at the back neck just a bit and start the shoulder curve sooner to fit normal shoulders. I do like useful swatches.

I will probably return to my FLAK next since that bag of Cascade 220 is hogging some serious space in the closet and Sweater wants a friend. I just wound a ball of Claudia handpainted Merino from Nathania at Communknity to try to the fingerless mitt pattern at a lighter gauge.

Ent Fashion GOLD

2006-02-26T11:03:00.000-08:00

Done. Ten minutes before the finish time, ends all woven in. I haven't washed and blocked it yet, and will wait until the current storm has passed so the poor thing has a chance of drying. Sorry about the lop-sided photo; DD is a teen...

Here's a quick snap of the wing. It sits comfortably around the shoulders because of the way I flared the vine pattern. The edging doesn't show very well (needs blocking) but is a simple sawtooth of lattice.

In a late-night email to Cathy, my valiant cheerleader, I wrote that Steph says the shawl looks like the leaf shawl Helen Mirren picked up from the forest floor when playing Morgan in Excalibur. It would make a great duck blind. I was aiming for an organic look and definitely got it. It would be the perfect accessory for an Entish Halloween costume.

The ginger thins and dark chocolate covered espresso beans really made a difference around 3 this morning as I was swatching edgings and hoping not to run out of yarn. Oh, stats. It's around 29,200 stitches and I had 10 grams of yarn left so the weight is 290 grams. And yes, I have the entire stitch-by-stitch pattern in a file on the computer. I can't not do that after years of writing beadwork patterns. I'll post some of the notes another day; learned a few interesting things as I knit this silly thing.

The shawl feels good around the shoulders, very elastic and hugging. It isn't my style, but if nobody wants it when it's blocked, well, I have friends who hunt ducks...

Stitches West

2006-02-18T12:34:00.000-08:00

Stitches West was a big party. I saw dozens of friends from the past twenty years, resumed conversations where they had left off, laughed, hugged, and wished we could bend time. I met ethereal friends in their tangible form and liked them even more than I'd hoped. And, while standing by Morgaine's chatting, my completely unexpected aunt bumped into me and we spent the day together. Serendipity.

I bought everything on my shopping list, plus a totally irresistible tanned sheepskin from Janet Heppler of Nebo-Rock Textiles (nebo-rock at saber dot net -- no website) in Covelo, CA, who raises exquisite colored fine wool. This fellow was a merino ram with serious horns so he was dispatched. This fleece is beyond soft, beautiful crimp, and the color -- wow. I've been buying fleece from Janet for many years and have been delighted with the staple length and strength, crimp, quality, and oh-the-colors! Last June at the Black Sheep Gathering, DD bought quite a lot of dyed tussah and angora from Janet for spindling on her Bosworths. Beautiful fibers and great depth of shade. After I bought my cousin Merino, Janet pulled out another in a deeper shade of moorit. She has quite a stash of these (white, too) and they are all splendid. The color is more true in the top photo, but the detail to the left shows the amazing crimp.

Auntie swooned over an Orenburg shawl, so we both bought Merino laceweight at Skaska Designs. They had skeins of Sally Fox's new laceweight cotton. Gorgeous! Aunt has a thing for alpaca and also got quite a lot of excellent sock yarn from Ellen. Aunt also kept gravitating to Darlene's booth, Hand Jive, so I know what to get her for Christmas...

Some of my friends from Jeanie Townsend's group and I tried to meet at Blue Moon Fiber Arts. We were sort of successful, but it was crowded! It turns out we all met and didn't realize it at the time. I bought some medium-weight and some heavyweight STR, plus got a mini skein of lightweight. What I really wanted was a bunch of the Hot Flash hot pink glitzy yarn, but I have no idea for whom I'd knit that color. It sure was bright and fun, though!

I went up against a few other women for three bags of deep olive green Jo Sharp DK at Webs. The competition was fierce, but I held tight and distracted them with three bags of forest green and got out of there fast! Aunt kept me company in the line. I was especially pleased that Aunt found fifteen skeins of just the shade of green Cascade 220 I wanted at Karen's Rug & Yarn Hut (Campbell, CA). Yes, fifteen skeins. It's for my FLAK, which I've swatched in an array of yarns and I really wanted the option of making a long tunic. Most stores carry maybe 10 balls, and I knew I needed at least 12. Karen had 15 and gave me a great discount so I went for it. Maybe I'll have enough left for a hat and mittens? Either way, I will enjoy knitting the FLAK much more because I know I won't run out of yarn. Peace of mind and all that, though we'll see how I feel about this shade of green when I'm done! [It's a perfect match for my eyes so I'm hoping I'm immune to overload.] I found two skeins of an oatmeal Trekking for socks for Alfred, who wears a 13EEE+, and at Rumpelstiltskin (Sacramento, CA) I found the ball of blue (for DD if she's still fond of that color when I get around to knitting the socks).

I was so very happy to see Nathania. When Leslie and I stopped by Commuknitty, Leslie found a lone skein of yarn that was just what I wanted for a lighter weight version of the fingerless mitt pattern. This is a Claudia handpaint and I can't wait to knit it (but I will since I have to focus on my Olympic knitting, right?). Luckily, I was able to con Leslie into letting me buy the skein.

DD's portion of my list was for more silk, so I got her some hankies from Nancy at her Chasing Rainbows booth. While I was there two different women came up with two hanks of dyed boucle mohair and asked if Nancy had more, and in both cases Nancy said she'd dye a new lot for them. Nancy is a gem. I'm hoping she starts teaching more classes in our area so DD can play junior chemist with a bit more skill. Crown Mountain wasn't at the show, but Morgaine is now carrying Nancy's dyed fibers at Carolina Homespun so I bought three colors of bombyx from her.

I enjoyed seeing all the kits knit up at the Yarn Barn. They had ten booths' space so there was room to move and accessible displays. I have trouble seeing where I am in relation to the people around me and Aunt helped me negotiate the crowds, but I simply couldn't go into some of the more crowded booths. Yarn Barn was perfect and I even felt comfortable browsing the piles of books. The rack of Hoxbro and Falkenberg sweaters was an eye opener for me. I've lusted after their designs for years, but I didn't like them up close. The colors of yarn were lovely, but they were scratchy. Is that typical of their kits? Many years ago, Lois of TechKnit sent me a birthday gift of a set of German ebony glove needles (2.5 mm) from the Yarn Barn. I checked and they carry Susan's circulars now but didn't have any of the glove size. They did have the 60" Addi I needed for the Oly shawl, and I grabbed 3600 yards of laceweight for a Kinzel. It isn't the most even white, so I might dye it a pale shade of blue after knitting. Since I take my knitting everywhere, the white yarn will probably *need* dyeing when I'm done.

Here's the hemp bark I picked up at Habu for Steph. She mentioned teaching at SOAR. I will see if I can wheedle more details from her. DD and I are heading up to the gold country for a few days of R&R at Casa Amos, so I'll be afk. We're planning to visit with some Thrillers, hit the guild meeting, and try on everything at Empress. And, if I can resist Alden's wheels, I'll finish my Olympic knitting.

Koigu Fingerless Mitts

2006-02-16T17:42:00.000-08:00

Photos today, pattern later this month. Very pleased to report that the mitts weigh 20 grams each and need minimal mods to fit a lady's small to a lady's large.

Quick post

2006-02-14T19:22:00.000-08:00

It was Teen Knitting Club day. Mostly boys this time!!! Total beginners, a bit wary of the yarn, but sweet and a lot of fun. It was high tide, so the only shorebird around was Mr. Willet, who likes me and posed and bobbed when I chatted with him.

Brenda mentioned the blog! Franklin's piece about stash is hilarious! I hadn't realized the Cast-On podcasts were such a delight.

Oh, and as for the olympic knitting, um, I'm helping DD finish a quilt tonight so will knit more tomorrow... The shawl is growing and I'm trying to get it to curve to the front, doing lots of math (didn't I say I chose to do this because I wouldn't have to do math? Little did I know...). Need to pick up a longer needle on Friday since the one I have will soon be too short. I will post photos of the lace glob when it looks significantly different from the last pic.

Anybody want to meet at Stitches West on Friday? I'm going just to shop and chat, a first for me. Always before I have worked at textile conventions and I am really looking forward to wandering around, knitting, and laughing with friends. [The first poppy of spring -- our state flower.]

Gauge in lace

2006-02-14T09:48:00.000-08:00

This is for Alison, who was wondering if she should drop down a needle size in her alpaca Madli. [No! It looks wonderful!]

Gauge preference is definitely a personal thing, but there are some general guidelines that are driven by yarn structure, the engineering of knitting, human vision, and gravity, all inter-related. Since the topic is a shawl, I'll focus on that format. I always start by swatching in the field or ground stitch, usually either stockinette or garter. The field needs to be close enough to display a clear visual contrast with the openwork areas, especially if the openwork predominates. Kinzel was magical at determining the perfect gauge to maximize the visual value of this relationship. I do push myself to knit lace at the open end of the envelope because it *is* lace.

Gravity is the easiest. If the gauge is too open, the shawl will droop instead of draping pleasantly about the shoulders. The heavier the grist, the more important this consideration. If your yarn is low-twist and/or slippery (alpaca singles spun lopi style), gravity will streeeetch the shawl over time, so a closer gauge is necessary to sustain the yarn itself.

Yarn structure. If the yarn is long-staple, relatively thick in terms of microns (Wensleydale instead of Merino, for instance), and has a fair bit of twist, it can support a more open gauge. It's like building with steel instead of straw. If you knit a sturdy yarn at a close gauge, you can end up with wings or something so dense that it's like wearing a wet dog about your shoulders. If you can use your swatch as a frisbee, go up a few needle sizes!

Sharon Miller knits heavenly shawls with fine Shetland and relatively large needles. The minimal mass makes gravity irrelevant. She pays close attention to the engineering aspects and builds her shawls in ways that support the various elements. Her work defines one end of the spectrum. Because of the interrelation of gauge and grist and traditional stitch patterns, her shawls are wedding ring caliber, but not obvious examples of positive/negative space.

Fiddlesticks has great shawl patterns. Her Reef shawl shows the importance of letting the field set the gauge. Tina is an especially nice example of positive/negative space *and* correct gauge in the field.

The silly bit of lace I'm playing with for the Olympics is all about positive/negative space because the yarn is a marl of sepia viscose and olive drab cotton which obscures stitch definition and makes the whole thing look like a wad of muddy moss. (Yes, I dislike the yarn color and the shawl is definitely a gift for the first person who actually likes it!) The yarn structure is strong enough to be knit on a larger needle, but the decrease vine looks sloppy with larger loops, and the yo's are sufficiently big to show their wandering path as is. Speaking of which, instead of dueling with Blogger to post photos with this, I'll get back to my knitting. Remind me to post about tatting someday...

It works

2006-02-13T11:30:00.000-08:00

Planning's over and I'm into the fun part, knitting! The goal was to knit a mirror shawl in traveling vine and tweak the lace to grow smoothly and branch. It took a day of swatching, charting, and calculations to remember how this lace works and why. I've only done two scarves in it, one 20 years ago, the other ten years ago, so I had a fuzzily happy memory but nothing solid. It has two elements, a yo, k1b, yo, and a decrease two every row. They travel in opposition through a field of stockinette, bump into each other, switch directions, and so on, zig-zagging along. The decrease vine eats stitches in one direction, then the other, distorting the field.

I'm not being terribly fussy about the motif width and instead am trying to enjoy the ride, to play with the lace repeats and figure out how to increase without messing up the lace. Distortion, yes, a bit of wiggle, sure, but it should look organic, not as if I counted incorrectly. So far, so good, though the photo reveals that I need to be a bit more aware of positive and negative space, the shapes created down the center line, and the way the field tends to expand along the edge.

The yarn is Luna and I have six 50 gram balls, of which I've used 25 grams, a bit over 9" to the point. The viscose portion of the yarn split at first because I frogged the cast-on a few times, but as long as I handle it only once it behaves nicely. It feels wonderful. I'm far enough along that I can see what to do next, but am typing the pattern as I go just in case I make a blooper and have to frog.

Day Two

2006-02-11T18:08:00.000-08:00

A sunset to ease those frazzled knitlete nerves...

And, FWIW, my progress on my Oly project so far -- a pile of swatches, charts, and notes. Next, I'll swatch to see if my flipping of the lace pattern worked, then I have to play some more with either the lace for between the panels or just go for it and start widening the panels themselves... I had forgotten how much this kind of pattern modification tweaks my brain. Ow!

Angora yarn and knitting for kids

2006-02-10T09:47:00.000-08:00

My friend Erin, who also gave me the Koigu I'm using for the mitts, sent me a skein of her millspun 85% German angora/15% Merino sportweight. I had wanted to buy some at the last fair we were at together, but she sold out instantly! Now I know why.

This stuff is beautiful, soft, good hand, consistently spun, and a great shade of white (someday I'll post a photo of a game board I wove with 11 shades of white beads). My mind fills with pattern ideas when I hold the skein. The lustre is incredible; the skein glows like the moon.

Everyone should go over to Rhonna's blog and read this post about de Quervain's, a repetitive motion injury. She has great photos and very important information. Knowledge is power -- if you're well-informed, you can knit (and type) with only positive results!

Here are a couple of shots of the right mitt in progress, showing the thumb and hand stitches on yarn holders, the needles positioned to make shaping and trying on quick and easy. I'm setting it up so you can get both mitts from one 50-gram skein. I might not finish right away since the olympics start today.

Lise posted about her little one knitting. Around age 2 they'll mimic perfectly and often get quite a few rows knit, beads strung, or picks woven. Between 3 and 4 they start thinking about what they're doing and question everything and thus it's all a little harder. Doubt is a wicked thing.

As I've written before, I'm a huge fan of tandem knitting and courtesy rows. I am totally into stress-free knitting. Tandem knitting is 4-handed knitting. Sit facing each other and let her choose whether she wants to start with the needles or the yarn. Switch if she gets stuck or frustrated, talk her through each step, knit a bit for her (it's just knitting backwards), and pretty soon she'll be doing everything herself.

Stephanie blogged about courtesy rows and my daughter was an instant convert, "Mom, please???" She does the planning and design, knits a few rows, then I knit a few, back and forth until the project is done. If it gets to be a slog, I'll knit enough to make it look different (turn a heel, for instance), then she's eager to work on the project again. One of the results is she's ended up knitting far more elaborate and interesting projects and increased her skill level radically.

For uncertain knitters or kids with minimal fine coordination, make pompoms or knot some netting (cotton twine market bags) just to get more comfy with yarn. I always have a pompom station set up at knitting club. Mental knitting is good, too. Make a design station with some old knitting magazines and yarn catalogs, scissors, glue stick, graph paper, a sketch pad, and color pencils. If the person is especially shy, have him design something for a friend (or his dog!). You can discuss why you'd start knitting at the bottom (or top), what kinds of yarns would work best (clip them out of the catalog and glue!), which needles, etc.

Should I post a quickie pompom tutorial or can someone post a link to one?

Answers to a few comments

2006-02-09T08:03:00.000-08:00

Yes, my name is Sylvia. I made my first lizard (see how dorky he is?) by mistake in December of 1987; I was trying to make a triangular brick stitch earring and ended up with a peyote stitch lizard (I was running a fever at the time). In the future I'll post about the business of beadwork, contracts and galleries and editors and photographers and pattern language and vendors... There is a lot of my beadwork out there in magazines (especially Interweave), coffee table books, and private collections. The USPS has a box of it somewhere, too.

Connie. Which Connie? Connie M. from college??? Beadwork Connie?

Olympics. There are team blogs popping up all over. I've linked to a few in the sidebar buttons. For a truly great button, go here. I will be blogging over at Teyla's and Sara's group blogs.

Vision. [No photos because they are really gross.] I have a resident tumor on my left retina, a thoroughly irradiated malignant ocular melanoma, quiescent for now, but 2mm from my optic nerve and closely monitored. It's been quite a ride, especially since I have a photographic memory so I rely heavily on my eyes. If you are in the risk group for melanoma (this was my second primary), have your retinas checked when you go in for an eye exam. When your eyes are dilated, just have the doc take a peek in there. My tumor was misdiagnosed as "just a freckle in your eye" back in 1990, so by the time we figured it out (2001), the glob was hefty and thick. I had a friend die of this a few years before that and had *no idea* that I was millimeters away from the same fate while sitting there at her kitchen table, wishing there were more I could do for her.

First symptoms were a shift to orange in my left eye's vision (pigmented tumor), headaches, and eye strain. It was a very slow process, starting in my teens. Advanced symptoms included painful optical bursts while watching the symphony. Treatment was primarily radiation (helium via a particle accelerator), with a laser chaser. I spent the week of radiation treatments at a B&B up in Davis, surrounded by spinning and college friends. I am lucky. The doctors have been wonderful, truly, as has my friend Lena, who is a gifted acupuncturist and healer. Because of them, I'm here today, learning how to see with the remnants of my left eye, and regaining vision in my slightly charred right eye.

And yes, that's why I have only made a few pieces of beadwork since 2001. I still have my box of patterns, though, and the latest eye exercises should make it possible for me to do beadwork again soon. It's one thing to knit without looking, but beadwork by touch is tricky.

Shake out those hands!

2006-02-08T07:33:00.000-08:00

Please read Verna's comment to yesterday's post. She earned the CTS badge the hard way and has some excellent tips and advice we should all follow. :::shaking out hands::: Verna also has multiple Alden Amos wheels so is ultra-motivated to retain as much use of her hands as she can.

It's Wednesday, Teen Knitting Club day at DD's school. The kids are so fun at this age, sass and melancholy and curiosity and faux sophistication all mixed in a tumble inside. I went to that school, too, and was miserable, which I have told the kids, and they find it fascinating that I was a nerd like them (and still am, and am still comfortable with it). There are only the tiniest bits of innocence left; kids *know* so much more nowadays, but they haven't really experienced it yet so it's a hollow, tentative knowledge. All of this flows out while they're sitting around knitting. I wonder how many of their parents actually listen to them?

Today we made more pom-poms, definitely an excellent ice-breaker for the newer knitters. The confident knitters knit happily, chatting away. I brought that blue fulled messenger bag and a pile of PH chunky and we discussed bag shapes and how we want to go about knitting a bag as a group. I got permission from the vice principal to meet outside on sunny days -- I'll get the kids to make a fun meet-on-the-lawn sign to hang on the door of the classroom. And DD walked in crying, unable to speak, so after club I signed her out and we got a ride home. Time for more ginger tea and chicken soup. [There were no curlews on the shore today so here's a handsome bobbing willet.]

And since it's Wednesday and glorious out, we have bird photos! I realize a person doesn't really think of vultures as being shorebirds, but they thrive here and fill a very important niche. Our local pair of young vultures had two dead birds and a dead fish scattered along the beach. They don't quite know what to do when there is enough for both of them to eat; they are so accustomed to squabbling over the carrion. The parents are rather distant, but these youngsters are fun. They don't make any noise, or they haven't responded out loud to my talking yet, but they communicate clearly with body position and Significant Looks. Real sweeties, for vultures anyway.

This Koigu mitt is what I was knitting on my walk. Another pair for DD, who showed off the cabled pair at club today. This will be a basic pattern, fingertips up, and I'll post it when complete. Sure a lot quicker without all the fussy cables!

Thanks and row gauge

2006-02-06T14:09:00.000-08:00

Has anyone assembled a comprehensive list of the various Knitting Olympic teams?

Thanks for all the comments on the speed post -- I'm learning a lot. Here's a jar opener, available in the utensils section of larger grocery stores and some health food stores. I actually prefer the discontinued kind from Fuller Brush that is mounted under an upper cabinet, but mine is still on the farm so I can't post a photo. It's a blue plastic rectangle with metal gripping teeth in a spiral, starting large so it handles a good array of jar sizes.

It isn't sleeping in fetal position that can irritate those knitting tendons, but the bending of the wrists to tuck your hands under your chin. For a while, I wore braces to bed, but they felt alien, so I ended up wearing fingerless gloves which were just there enough to keep me from bending my wrists in my sleep, but not annoying enough to keep me awake. When I've had tendonitis in my forearms, I've been much happier sleeping with straight elbows, too.

For me, tingling and numbness in my hands has usually meant my upper spine or neck was out of alignment; often just a few of those shoulder rolls will make everything click back in place. However, if it persists, see a doctor. You do NOT want carpal tunnel syndrome... There are a variety of symptoms and we don't all display the same way. If in doubt, get a professional opinion. Verna, what are the first warning signs?

Cat B., I actually do a lot of knitting while lying on my back on the couch, but hadn't thought of it as being a good balance to my upright knitting (ha! now I have an excuse for hogging the couch!). We live in a tiny carriage house that's mostly one big room with a sleeping loft. My family likes to sleep, and I don't need as many hours as most, so I lie on the couch in the dark, knitting well into every night, lute music playing softly on the stereo. My vision is coming back now that the radiation damage is healing, but knitting blind is a skill I don't want to lose. I make very few mistakes because I feel where I'm going with my left index finger and, frankly, it's a lovely finish to the day to knit another inch or two and listen to the seals barking or the foghorns sounding in the night.

I finished a sock yesterday morning and felt really good about myself until I tried it on. I had already knit the left sock, turned it inside out, tried it on my right foot, then replicated the left sock in mirror symmetry. Nearly one inch too long. Really. I knit the first sock in December, when things were less than harmonious around here, and knit the second sock in January, after things had resolved. Stitch gauge is uniform, but row gauge is 12% looser!!! I've re-knit the right sock now, starting the decreases at 64 rounds from the gusset pick-up instead of 72, but it still doesn't fit as well as the left one turned inside out. Shank slump and excess side toe. Figures. They're just for me so I'll throw them in the wash as is and wear them. I definitely need to get my life in order so I don't have any more angst-related gauge fluctuations!

I started a swatch for my Olympics shawl, just five minutes to test the needle size. I like the first one, but it's green and the yarn is green, so I'll check the stash to see if I have a similar size and point shape in a silver or gray needle to increase contrast. I'm blocking my brain when it tries to *see* the new shawl. There aren't that many things about knitting that are challenging for me (I've been knitting a long, long time), so the challenge aspect will be to do the complete project in the time allowed. I like races and deadlines, so the idea of having to sprint to concoct and finish some freeform lace appeals to me very much.

Shawl Team

2006-02-03T21:02:00.000-08:00

My dad heard about the Knitting Olympics on NPR tonight and was disconsolate that I hadn't signed up! So, I'll be knitting a shawl with some green yarn that I'm pretty sure is squirreled away in the cupboard above the linen closet. I'll do a Kiri cast-on and some kind of lace that suits that yarn, probably just figuring it out as I go since otherwise I'll spend all sixteen days scribbling and frogging.

Crawling bootees. Our little friend's night nurse exclaimed to the nanny, whom we saw on the ferry, that the bootees are staying on the babe's busy feet. I have arranged for testing the next sizes up as she grows.

Poem

2006-02-02T21:02:00.000-08:00

In response to the call for poems, this was in a New Yorker years and years ago and always makes me smile:

Hares are rabbits
Who live in lairs
And have hare habits
And rabbit hairs.

If anybody knows the author, please tell me!

Olympic Speed Knitting

2006-02-01T08:32:00.000-08:00

With the Knitting Olympics fast approaching, people are timing their knitting rates, training, choosing teams, and swatching for projects. It's going to be a fun time in blogland, but I am concerned that the post-Olympics posts will be about carpal tunnel and tendonitis. Thus, here are a few notes from a production knitter about knitting quickly and safely.

1. Knitting is a sport. If you relax, you'll have a nice time and eventually get tired after much knitting, but if you are tense, you will damage your tendons. Take breaks, drink water, rotate your shoulders, and look off into the distance for a minute. If you get a cramp or soreness in your hands, run them under warm water and rub. When you aren't knitting, do alternate, non-grabbing activities with your hands, like playing a little piano or updating your blog.

2. Tendon health. Avoid pinching (use scissors to trim the ends off string beans) and avoid hard gripping (use a jar opening tool). Above all, avoid bending your wrists backwards. Sleep with your arms straight, relaxed at your sides, not in a fetal position with your hands tucked under your chin, and not with your arms above your head. If you lean, lean on your fist with your wrist straight (see photo), not on your palm with your wrist bent. When I'm working the ends in on beadwork I use pliers to pull the needle because otherwise the tight pinching numbs my thumbs. Just one hard pinch can do it if you've been knitting all day, so be careful! If you have stiff shoulders or sore forearms, try my favorite salve, Aubrey's E-tomic Balm. A little goes a long way, it warms without burning, and it has a lovely spicy scent that, unlike most, doesn't give me a headache.

3. Use good lighting. If your only source of light is the TV, you will get eye strain and a headache, so position a lamp where it provides lumens without glare. If you are reading a chart, use a clipboard, color pencils or pens, magnetic strip, or whatever works for you, and position the chart where you can see it easily.

4. Sit comfortably. I reach optimum speed while curled in my cushy couch with my feet up. If you aren't a lounge knitter, do support your spine, prop up elbows if needed, and sit centered. No twisting to see the TV: move the furniture so you're aligned.

5. Support your work. If you realize that you are hunching over because your knitting is heavy and your arms are weary, put a pillow in your lap to support the work. If you find yourself knitting on the go, wear a sweater and fasten the bulk of your knitting to your sweater with stitch holders (a heavy Aran works best). If you're knitting in the round, you can use a swivel hook or just flop it back and forth. I usually tuck the ball of yarn under my left arm, but you can hang it from your sweater or belt, put it in a small bag with a handle large enough to hang from your elbow, or stick it in a pocket. And yes, I have gone to the grocery store with a half-knit shawl and balls of yarn clipped to my sweater. They're used to me here and just ask what's on the needles this week. Beware of yarn-biting velcro on jackets!

6. Use the correct needle(s). If you are planning to knit the Balmoral in sportweight, order enough long circulars that you won't have to cram stitches. If you're going to knit something with a lot of k3tog's, dig in your stash for a needle with pointy ends so your hands don't cramp up from fighting with an Addi. If you have wide palms, you'll probably enjoy a circ with a longer needle, and vise versa. If you're enchanted with needle-free cabling but your yarn isn't tacky enough to hold and you end up pinching the stitches, indulge yourself and use a cable needle. Yes, needle-free cabling is cool, but it's a bother to fuss over dropped stitches picked up with a mistaken twist because a skater did a magnificent jump and you tugged the sweater a bit...

7. Dpn's. Arrange the stitches so you can reach them easily. If you knit English and can reach with the yarn over a span of 18 stitches, but have to let go of the right needle if the span is more than 24 sts, then use an extra needle and distribute the stitches to maximize your comfort. That clenching of letting go and grabbing the needle again can cause horrid fatigue. Dpns are cheap, and it may be heresy but, unless I'm doing yarn overs, I often substitute a needle of the next size down if I'm short one.

8. Yarn health. Wind relaxed center-pull balls. A tightly wound ball blocks the yarn and when you wash your garment the yarn will return to its preferred length, often making the garment considerably smaller than expected. A tightly wound center-pull ball will also be more likely to burp clumps that proceed to tangle and waste your time. I usually wind from hank to ball, then wind the ball once or twice more to get a soft, squishy ball. If you don't own a ball winder, buy one or go to a friend's house and have a winding party with hers. (Bring cookies.)

9. As Margene says, it's the process!

A quick note. It's pouring rain today so no bird photos, sorry. Banner is a snippet of yesterday's dawn instead.

Lace and cable mods

2006-01-30T08:32:00.000-08:00

Thousands and thousands of ducks on the bay, enjoying the run of fish. I love to stand outside at night and listen to them chatter and fly about in small circles. They dive to eat and then take long naps in flotillas during the day, but night is an unsettled span of bumping into each other and freaking out and settling back down and bumping into each other...

I've been tweaking Dainty Chevron from BWII. It's a nice pattern, but I needed it to be a bit more open to blend better with the other stitch patterns in the EZasPi KAL anniversary shawl I'm knitting. I like the scale of the length and width of the repeat (8st x 10r), I like the curve to the chevron, and in this case I like the vertical lines (I'd purl them in other situations). However, there's a cluster of stitches where the points of the chevron meet a vertical line and I think it takes away from the beauty of the pattern. I experimented with continuing the yo's flanking the vertical line until the last moment, then doing a centered k5tog to dump the extra two sts. Looks good, has a bit of thickness in the k5tog, but I'm doing this in laceweight so that shouldn't be a problem.

The transition from the leafy pattern to the arrows, doubling the stitch count, was tricky. I'm not completely pleased with my solution because the arrows have little knobs and are a bit too long, so I'm going to try one more draft and then go with it before DD or I change our minds about which stitch pattern comes next...

Christine has some excellent "observations of a new spinner" on her blog. Definitely worth reading, a good review for the veterans and a helpful lesson for newbies.

The mitts for DD are finished. The photo to the left shows the left mitt inside out, always fun with cables, and the right mitt waiting for a thumb. I had a nice bit of yarn left over, but I expected that since have five skeins of this particular yarn. The axiom is that we run out a few yards from the end when there is no more yarn available and that one has plenty left over when there is an abundance...

No pattern yet because I have a head/chest cold and those ruin my math ability. Here are some of the tricks and comments that came to mind while I was knitting. If you start at the finger end, you won't end up with a truncated pattern in the panel. Start with k2p2 ribbing and do a little hidden increase on each side of the center ditch right before the first set of crosses to make the necessary stitches. Sometimes it feels more as if I'm moving the extra purls around instead of manipulating the knit ribs.

DD's hands are still growing, so she needed the finger ribbing to snug in quickly. Four rounds before the bind-off I p2tog in the nine non-panel ditches, which was just right for her paws. The original wrist cast on is 56 stitches. When I began the panel crosses (k2 over p2), I increased a stitch in the center of a palm side ditch, to compensate for the drawing in of the width during the crosses. I increased at the rate of a pair per four rounds, three times to make six additional stitches. I increased more stitches on either side of the hand, as needed, in the stockinette section, which I started just to the wrist side of the palm. I could have hidden them better, but she'll lose them so soon I didn't bother. The thumb is a bit small, as hers still is, just 15 on a holder and a bridge of 8, decreased rapidly to a total of 18 in k1p1.

The braid on the right mitt is a common one. Easy, logical, quick, and pretty. The base is k2p2 ribbing with an extra two st introduced into the central ditch. Pairs of ribs cross the purls in the first row, then cross each other in the third row. Definitely a mindless over-under. If your gauge is too snug (mine is in the mitts, but DD likes them that way), the curving outer ribs won't curve as much (and you will bend your needles!). Either a looser gauge or a snug fit will curve them into a more pleasing arc. The braids on the two mitts are very similar. The lattice on the left mitt is from Lavold's Viking book, with modifications. It is very dense and I'm going to try it next at a much more open gauge. It's also just a bit trickier used in a sweater because I'll need a vertical half panel to finish (5 lattice and 4 ovals, for instance).

To finish, an orchid from the garden. It's been such a mild winter we have ripe strawberries!

Book sale and mitts

2006-01-26T17:38:00.000-08:00

Risa has a link to the Interweave Hurt Book Sale! I really like Don Pierce and his book, Sandy Maine's soap books, and the Companion series. I haven't thumbed through David Dean's book, but I love his work. I am an advocate of buying hurt or used books. The disposable theme of modern society really bothers me.

DD's mitts are coming along. I really want to play more with adding another rib to the uneven cable you can see on Cindy's blog, the one flanking the center. The stitch count just didn't work for the back of DD's hand, though, so instead I'm doing a slightly different version of what I put on the back of her left hand. Should finish it this weekend and will post Monday or so.

Dee and I have been corresponding about the pattern. It is way too stiff, a real needle-bender, in Paton's Kroy on US#1's, a nice sock yarn that tends to be a bit heavier grist and sturdy. Increasing the needle size will make the cable too wide for DD's hands, so I think a finer grist is the solution. Of course this will wreak havoc with the row count, but it's easy enough to lengthen the plain ribbing or add another cable crossing to the center. (You should see what I've done to Rogue to get the length DD and I need!) One of the givens with complex cables is they are stiff. I'll see if I can figure out a good balance.

Mergansers!

2006-01-25T15:55:00.000-08:00

Aren't they lovely? There was a second male, but he was swimming flank and hard to catch in a photo.

A nearly finished fingerless mitt. It fits DD better, but she's at a playdate with two friends this afternoon. They are studying how to take tests more effectively, one of the other moms' ideas. The girls thought it would be fun, but then they also enjoyed making pom-poms again at knitting club today. We had a relaxing time winding balls around our fingers and thumbing through a pile of old Knitter's magazines donated by the local library. The kids had a lot to say about the designs in the magazines!

DD chose Ostrich Plumes for the next pattern in the Pi and I doubt it's going to look good after the more open modified leaf pattern. Worth a try, though -- worst thing that can happen is I frog it again.

I've been measuring and analyzing Sweater and as far as I can tell, Michelle simply flared it by tweaking her gauge. Up a needle size? I will have to email her and ask. The only place you can add stitches without messing up the proportions of the cables is in the sides, and that wouldn't give the all-around swing style of flare.

As for grading up bootees, choose easy numbers, be conservative, and take comfort in the fact that knitted fabric is very elastic. If you switch from sock yarn to sportweight, you can rapidly get into the toddler or larger size range. BTDT! I promise to write a more detailed post about this in the near future, but the essense of it is the little sock I posted had a 40 st shank and a 14/14/14 top of foot, with an overall length of 3.25" or so. Tiny feet tend to get a bit longer first, as they really do start with magnificent depth and pretty good width. Thus, you can play around with things but stepping the shank up to 44 st, and maybe a 16/14/16 would work? Add a few rows to the tongue, but still start the decreases around 9 or 10 after the pu. They are gradual steps up, and if the shank gets loose the bootees will fly happily across the room at the first kick. I really must find that strap and button pattern...

My Friend Sweater

2006-01-20T18:18:00.000-08:00

First, two photos of my favorite sweater, aka Sweater, knit by Michelle in Austin, Texas. I wear this sweater nearly every day and adore it. It's from Two Sticks and a String, Irish wool, and the swing coat shape is perfect. One of the very best gifts I have ever received...

I've been chipping away at swatching for the three KALs listed in the sidebar. I'm not going to do the Knitting Olympics because we don't have a functioning TV. Neat idea, though! DD loves my Pi swatch but I will die of boredom knitting it (eyelet and cool math, but not enough needle interest) and am going to have to choose a lace pattern to play with before the cast-on day. I'm using variegated blue KnitPicks Merino, and I've set a parameter of using a Kiri style start and top edge since that garter strip is so easy to block.

I'm not a huge fan of swatching for the sake of swatching because I have a bad case of thrift and I'm not fond of samples. I used to be meticulous about making samples and keeping a notebook, but I have bins of samples in storage and about ten years ago that became simply enough already! This is also the first time in my life that I've been able to afford yarn without juggling the books, and I am enjoying that, but I still find ways to use any snippets longer than 1.5". Some habits are worthwhile.

This week's swatching is fingerless mitts for DD crossed with trying out some of Lavold's cables to see if I want to use them in the FLAK. Patons Kroy, US#1's, k2p2 base with a stockinette palm. I'll probably knit the FLAK with Cascade 220. Today I knit a bit of lattice. I'm having a gauge issue, but otherwise the test is running smoothly (and DD loves the cable). I knew the numerous and frequent crosses would make a stiff fabric, but I was surprised by the density. My first thought was, "Hmm, if I use this lattice in the front panel, the sweater will hang straight as a board over my little tummy and conceal it!" I am concerned, however, that my loosey-goosey moss stitch filler will looked smocked where it abuts the cables, so foresee either switching fillers or doing short rows, or both. I am also sorely tempted to make my FLAK flare like Sweater, since it really is comfortable for my body shape. The FLAK is top-down, so I'll buy enough yarn and then see how it fits as I go.

Thanks to all for the comments about the little socks. If you want a response, please leave me enough clues to find either your blog or email addy, since Blogger is no*reply. I will post more patterns as I dig them out of the files or write them. I have an especially nice, truly stay-on garter stitch crawling bootee with a strap and button, and somewhere an over-the-knee shaped baby sock. I wonder, though, if those patterns are in the KnitList pattern archives? Perhaps around 1994 or so? Helen, do you know?

Newborn Crawling Bootees

2006-01-19T11:12:00.000-08:00

This is the pattern for the bootees I made for P's little sister. They are a perfect fit for an 8-pound baby. The pattern is easily graded up in size, and the smooth toe really matters once the little ones are old enough to creep around -- no blisters on the toes! I used leftover Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock. It's an ideal yarn for these because it is especially soft and cushy. Start by knitting the fold-down cuff, then a fold round, then turn the sock inside/right side out, knit the tongue, pick up around it, knit around down the foot, decreasing at the toe and heel (mostly double decreases with 4 st between, every other round), and grafting the seam on the sole.

US#2: Long-tail cast on 40 st. [40]
US#1: K2p2 ribbing for 14 rounds. [40]
Purl 1 round. [40]
K2p2 ribbing for 13 rounds. [40]
(K2p2) x 3, k2, start new needle, (p2k2) x 3, make 1 below purlwise. [14 + 13 + 14 = 41]
Turn sock inside/right side out. Turn and knit 13 sts, make 1 below. [14 + 14 + 14 = 42]
(Turn, p14. Turn, k14.) x 8, until the tongue is 17 rows long, ending with a RS/knit row.
Pick up 14, k14. Mark as center heel. [56]
K14, pick up 14, k7, mark center toe, k7, k28. [70]
Knit 9 rounds. [70]
This next bit looks nasty written out but is simple to knit. Decrease symmetrically at the toe and heel with four plain stitches between the decreases, every other round. First time, decrease a total of 4 sts, then twice decrease a total of 12 sts, then dec 16, then graft, taking the stitch total down in steps: 70, 66, 54, 42, 26, 0.
K31, ssk, k4, k2t, k27, ssk, k2. [67]
k2, k2t, k to end. [66]
K23, (ssk, k1) x 2, ssk, k4, (k2t, k1) x 2, k2t, k13, (ssk, k1) x 2, ssk, k2. [57]
K2, (k2t, k1) x 2, k2t, k to end. [54]
K17, (ssk, k1) x 2, ssk, k4, (k2t, k1) x 2, k2t, k7, (ssk, k1) x 2, ssk, k2. [45]
K2, (k2t, k1) x 2, k2t, k to end. [42]
K11, (ssk, k1) x 2, ssk, k4, (k2t, k1) x 2, k2t, k1, (ssk, k1) x 2, ssk, k2. [33]
K2t, (k2t, k1) x 2, k2t, k6, ssk, k2t, k11, ssk. [26]
Graft. Weave in ends. [0]

Poor grebe

2006-01-18T17:51:00.000-08:00

I have been frogging as much as I've been knitting lately, thus not much to show, so here are three photos of an injured grebe we saw on the beach this afternoon. In the second shot she's trying to walk and cannot get her left leg to work. There is a wonderful lady who is the liaison with the rescue service and we knocked on her door and arranged for her to keep an eye on Bird and call if she didn't rise before dark.

Here's an origami box that shows a good plan for a knitted top. The triangles would go under and tuck through. I have them set up as "over" because it shows their format better. I did get a few more inches knit on another pair of socks for my brother yesterday while spending six hours at the doctor -- the orb is as well as can be expected, which is very good news. And I got a thank you note from P's family. His little sister is healthy and wearing her bootees constantly, so I will whip out a few more pairs. It takes only a few grams of leftover Lorna's Laces, of which I have a bin.

I stopped by ArtFibers yesterday after the tests. It is such a welcoming, interesting yarn store, and the clerks are the best. AF has added quite a few luxurious yarns that aren't their usual novelty style but are practical at the same time as being truly gorgeous. They have also improved some of their laceweight gossamer yarns, which frankly I had thought couldn't get any better -- they are!!! The colourways are, as always, widely varied and exquisite. I allowed myself only ONE ball of deep green Tsuki, which was painful self-control but I've reached stash saturation and need to knit it down to size before more purchases. Of course I've been dreaming of that olive silk blend sportweight, the sage green bulky soft wool, the wide ribbon with silver horizontal lines, the two large hanks of fine mohair in the sale annex, and the other shades of the Tsuki silk/mohair I didn't buy...
Out of curiosity, I ordered some PHW "Chunky" from Elann. It is, IMO, only suited to use in fulled bags. There is almost no twist in the singles and barely enough in the ply, and the yarn compresses down to a slender sportweight. "Chunky" is a misnomer!!! The colors are lovely, so I'll cast on for a bag and let the teens at club have at it. Oh, an excellent teen knitting club activity is to make pom-poms, if only because it teaches them how to tie a square knot. It boggles my mind how few practical skills your average teen knows nowadays. I frogged that bit of fingerless glove on the needles because DD's hands have grown since I measured them last week, so the cuff was too small. No surprise there!

I've moved on to swatching for FLAK with some Cascade 220. I've decided to do it properly instead of trying to keep pace with the crowd. [Things like bootees for P's little sister are a higher priority.] I began the math today for using some Lavold open cables for the center and side panels after digging through books and sweaters to find cables I like the look of *and* want to knit. Have you ever noticed the horrible creases in some of Starmore's cabled sweaters? It looks as if they were folded and the creases need to be blocked out -- or is that just my wonky vision?

Last post was all words, so this one is only photos

2006-01-11T17:56:00.000-08:00

Box thoughts

2006-01-11T07:39:00.000-08:00

I really wanted to add a top to the box, but as I wrote before, then it would have been a box for *me* instead of for young P. My compromise was to work two sets of double decreases at the corners to make the lip curve in, like pottery.

Tops are heavy, thus I would have needed to use garter all the way up the sides, or drop down to size 2's (I used a mix of 4's and 5's that were at hand) or do twisted stockinette. PHW fulls beautifully, but garter takes two times through the wash cycle and doesn't compress as much, so another option is to knit the sides with a doubled strand in stockinette. From the point of view of a structural engineer, vertical ribs or rotating the fabric so the sides are knit right to left instead of bottom to top might increase the integrity of the sides.

Sara, I adore buckram, but it goes against my philosophy to introduce another form of textile when I can probably solve the problem with the original format, in this case, knitting. I hardly ever even crochet an edge, but will figure out a knitted version that satisfies the parameters. You'll find I rarely mix beadwork stitches for the same reason -- I push to do an entire piece in peyote, sometimes a modified form of peyote stitch, but about the only area where I'll step outside is to add fringe. I'm not a purist by any stretch of the definition; it's more the way my brain is wired. If I were to pull out the buckram stash, I'd never finish the knitting because I would end up building something with ONLY buckram...

I was concerned also with the variations in fulling. I rarely full by hand. I rather enjoy the surprise method of throwing the things in with the usual load of laundry (no towels, though! Lint!) and seeing what I have when the dryer dings. I have a stacking Maytag top-loading agitator that does a lovely job. However, a lid is going to shrink more than a box simply because there aren't the long sides providing stability, thus there is less resistance.

I daydreamed about hinges. I'm not fond of wool hinges, and linen cord has less of a friction problem but doesn't look right to me, not with a fuzzy wool box. I have some beautiful little glass rings that would be lovely, and matching beads could be used for embellishment. It would require hand fulling, though, as the rings would shatter in the washing machine. I have funky colorful plastic poultry leg split rings that I use as stitch markers, easily applied after fulling, just need a bit of filing with a fine nail buffer to take any rough bits off the clipped plastic ends. Not elegant, but fun, and I could find matching snippets of colorful sock yarns in the leftovers bin to knit into the sides of the box. Then there's always wire... You could make an entire box out of puka shells interlaced with silver wire, but that's beadwork!

What I really wanted to make was an integral sectioned top of four interlocking triangles, probably with little bead tassels added to the points after fulling. The tassels would act as locks. I just did an origami version and it looks as if it will work. I'll knit it and post here when it's done.

A quick box

2006-01-10T19:14:00.000-08:00

Just a rapid omiyage for P, holding the bootees for his sister, whose grandpa says she'll arrive tonight or tomorrow. Lightly fulled PHW. Garter stitch square with slipped edges for the base, picked up around edge and purled 1 r, then stockinette with last st of each side purled to define the corners, some garter around the top with double decreases at the corners to curve the top in. It feels very good in the hand. Drove me crazy not to add more detail and color, but this needs to appeal to P, not me!

My sky

2006-01-09T18:32:00.000-08:00

Sandy asked for sky photos. Here's the sunset from a few days ago. Nice, eh?

My current knitting isn't very interesting, just the ongoing projects in the sidebar and a little fulled box for the neighbor boy. So, here's a snap of some wonderful yarn my dear friends brought me from Mexico.

First breath of spring

2006-01-07T20:02:00.000-08:00

A photo of the first plum blossoms.

And another bit of spring. A friend in the neighborhood is due to have a little girl this next week. Newborn size, Lorna's Laces Daffodil, US#2 long-tail co 40, US#1 14 r k2p2 rib, purl 1 r, k2p2 rib 12 r (longer if you prefer -- I wanted the foldover cuff to cover the transition), k2p2 for 26 st, m1pwbelow. Turn sock inside out. Turn work and knit tongue, k13, m1below. Turn, p14. Continue in stockinette until 17 rows from base of ribbing, ending RS. Pick up 14 st, k14. Marker at back of heel if needed. K14, pick up 14, k14 across tongue, k28 [70]. Knit around until 9 r from pu, or so. Work decreases at toe and heel every other round, with 4 st between. I did [66, 54, 42, 30] and in the round following [30] decreased the four toe and four heel stitches as ssk, k2t [26]. Graft. Easily graded up by lengthening tongue and picking up a few more stitches, and in larger sizes increase the circumference of the cuff. However, keep in mind that tiny feet really are small and often half the length is the ankle/cuff. Older tiny feet become 1/3 ankle and 2/3 tongue in length. These are 3.5" long relaxed and stretch easily (LL gives softly) to 3.75", which is the classic 0-6 month size.

I'm hoping to get something fun knit for her big brother, too. Perhaps a knitted box influenced by David Chatt's divine beadwork...
KAL swatches. Double moss filler, 18 sts/4" with US#5's and PHW, but DD and I like the hand and will probably just tweak the FLAK to suit. Still not pleased with the various cast-ons I've tried for CIT, I think because the twisted rib distorts the line. More yet to try!

Bucket Hat

2006-01-03T19:47:00.000-08:00

My friend Heather has asked for two of these, in cotton. I am going to have to improve my crocheting skills!!! Any recommendations on yarn??? Also, where would one buy the wire that is inserted a few rows inside of the brim?

And no, Claudia, I don't sleep, not like a normal person anyway. A few hours some nights, maybe seven on others. On good days I get a bit of a nap in the afternoon. I am still learning how to sleep...? And yes, I do knit in the dark while lying in bed.

Our DSL is wonky so posts might be sparse for a bit.

And socks...

2005-12-30T13:17:00.000-08:00

A second pair for Dad, two pairs for my brother, whose feet shrank (edema!) so they are baggy, and the fitting sock was just right for my aunt, and turned inside out it just needs a slight change in the toe for her other foot.

afk, but knitting!

2005-12-30T12:53:00.000-08:00

Blogger and I are having a little disagreement today, so here's a pile of photos and a bit of text, but I've given up on alignment! Sorry...

An omiyage for an amber pendant made by Nome. DD's handspun bombyx. If you're ever in Eugene, Oregon, stop by the Saturday Market to see the beautiful jewelry in Nome's booth. Her wirework is perfection. Also, some Nancy Finn dyed bombyx DD spun, in swatch mode but probably becoming wristlets. Nancy uses the *best* quality fibers and I wish the photo showed the variation of hues better... The yarn is gorgeous.

DD's new Balkan spindles. The mesquite is feather light and spins forever, perfectly balanced. The honey locust will be perfect for plying her silk fingering. Alden's woodworking is always superb, but these are spectacular!

A messenger bag, Elann's pilling Peruvian Highlands Wool, washed and dried once with a load of laundry, flap and toggle added for stability as the top falls open otherwise. It is very comfortable, holds two hardcovers or a pile of paperbacks.

A batch of slipper socks and hats to send off to The Ships Project to keep sailors warm and let them know we're thinking of them at home.

Spindles!

2005-12-18T17:23:00.000-08:00

I just ordered DD's Christmas presents from Stephenie Gaustad. Alden made a new batch of Balkan spindles. Here are Stephenie's notes that go with her photo above:

"The mesquite spindles are nearly purple/brown/black. The silky oak ones have little spindle shaped black polka dots. The apple one is very hard, dense and glossy with little figure, but a lot of substance. The honey locust ones look like yellow oak with lots of figure and definition. No rays. The Olive one is greenish yellow, not terribly hard, but has a nice hand.

They are, left to right:

chestnut (light weight)
olive (light weight)
apple (medium weight)
honey locust (medium weight) **sold**
mesquite (heavy weight) **sold**
birdseye (heavy weight)
mesquite (heavy weight)
silky oak (very light weight)
honey locust (medium weight)
white oak (medium-heavy weight)
honey locust (heavy weight)
walnut (medium-light)

My sense of these spindles without weighing them is that they all would perform nicely on silk. The silky oak would spin cotton and very fine silk."

There's a bit more data about Balkan spindles on Stephenie's website, and you can contact her for pricing and availability. Usual disclaimers, satisfied customer, shameless plug!

I am in the midst of some larger projects and will post when there is something worth photographing.

Gull antics & tandem knitting

2005-12-14T17:55:00.000-08:00

It's Wednesday, so Teen Knitting Club and bird photos. The sun angle was wrong for all the good shots I wanted to take, so instead we have a few gulls being gulls and a trio of young pelicans.

Knitting club was wild today. A pesky girl came in and waved knitting needles around and I used The Voice and ejected her. She came back and I made her choose between sitting and leaving (she sat). All those years of voice lessons have paid off -- I can project a totally intimidating authoritarian voice and then go right back to tandem knitting and encouraging uncertain newbies. I have clear memories of being marched up to the principal's office at that school...

Had a lot of newcomers and most of the regulars. DD taught more spinners using her Bosworth spindles and Grafton batts. Each of the girls who could knit had two or three girls to teach, and I worked with three at a time. A bunch of boys came in wanting to learn how to knit socks, but we were using all our needles and I simply didn't have enough hands. They'll be back -- I showed them the pair I had on and they were intrigued.

Tandem knitting is wonderful, now that I've bent my brain around it. First, I show the kid how to knit, sitting facing her and knitting as if it were her hands knitting. Then as it starts to make sense, I let her choose a needle to hold and I do the rest. By the end of the row, she has both needles and the yarn under her control and I'm just the coach.

I added a few beads to the bag for DD's Spanish teacher. I knit a quick hat for Coach, just crossing cables at the top, symmetrically this time since it's quick and he's that kind of guy. We've put an assortment of tea bags in one purse, a can of Scharffen Berger cocoa in the second, and shortbread in the third (each teacher's favorite). I have three balls of merino yarn wrapped for the teacher who comes to TKC, and we put bags of chocolate-covered espresso beans in the guys' hats. Now, it's just two gifts for our favorite librarians and a few for friends, lip balm and soaps for DD's girlfriends, and a few pairs of socks for The Ships Project. Oh, and swatching for the three KAL's that start in January. Ack!

Star Hat Pattern

2005-12-12T17:51:00.000-08:00

My copy of Nitsuto ni koishite shimada... arrived from yesasia.com today, sealed in cellophane and wrapped in bubble wrap and packed in a sturdy box. It is one of the most beautiful knitting books I have ever seen. Wow. The CIT KAL is going to be spectacular!

For Helen, the pattern. (H, do you still have that heart cable written out? I'm not sure where my copy is and I have it on a swatch somewhere but it would be lovely to see the pattern, please pretty please?)

As I posted earlier, I used Wool-Ease (worsted weight) in a soft medium blue to make the cable work subtle, and the hat is short because DD's teacher is fully adorned with piercings and I doubt he's fond of snagging. The cables would have better definition in a yarn with more body and either more or less depth of shade. My gauge is a bit loose and this is definitely a large size hat -- plenty big for me with all my hair.

I knit this swatch last night as quickly as I could so the tension's off and I didn't block. Apologies, but I've got a bunch of deadlines and couldn't spare the time to do it properly. I isolated one repeat, sort of, to show the mutant cables. It drove me nuts leaving that blank bit of stockinette in the middle, but then I never expected to repeat this -- it's just a hat for a teacher. It's US 5's and PH Wool.

There's a stitch that's messy to write out but easy to execute. I don't know whether there is an easy name for it, so let's call it C(F or B)dec2 for now. {If anyone knows the name, please post the reference in the comments! Thanks.} The goal is to decrease two of four stitches in a faux C4 cross. The first few CBdec2's lose the p2 ditch under what becomes the dominant rib in that arm of the star. I did these without a cable needle, but you could use one (or a yarn needle) if your yarn is slippery.

CBdec2: Without slipping any stitches, knit the third stitch from the end together with the 1st/end stitch in a k2tog, and catch the second, in between, stitch with the left needle when you slip off the 3-1 stitch. Knit the remaining two sts (#4 over #2) together and slip.

CFdec2: A little more fussy because it is two ssk's instead of the k2t's of the CBdec2. Stitch #1 (end stitch on the left needle) goes over #3, and #2 over #4. Slip 1 knitwise, drop next stitch (#2) and hold to the front (pinch if you need to), slip next stitch (#3) and knit those two stitches together. Pick up dropped stitch (#2) with left needle and ssk (#2 and #4).

Draft of Star Hat
{This pattern has not been tested yet -- these are just my notes I wrote yesterday while knitting.}
Yarn: At least 45 grams of Wool-Ease worsted weight, or more of something else.
Needle: 4.5 mm (US 7). I used two 32" Addi circs since they were on the top of the pile. Four US 5 dpns.
With the larger needles, cast on long-tail (or whatever you prefer) 100 sts. [100]
Knit 2, purl 2 ribbing for a minimum of 40 rounds. {The hat measured 6" x 6" relaxed and flat at this point.} [100]
(K2p2 x 3, k2, CBdec2, p2) x 5. [90]
Knit 1 round in pattern. (K2p2 x 3, C4B, p2) x 5. [90]
Knit 1 round in pattern. (K2p2 x 2, k2, CBdec2, p2) x 5. [80]
Knit 1 round in pattern. (K2p2 x 2, C4B, k2, p2) x 5. [80]
Knit 1 round in pattern. (K2p2, k2, CBdec2, C4F, p2) x 5. [70]
Knit 1 round in pattern. (K2p2, C4B, k4, p2) x 5. [70]
Knit 1 round in pattern. Tink 2, (CBdec2 x 2, k2, C4F) x 5. [50]
Knit 1 round (no purls left). (C4B, k6) x 5. [50]
Knit 1 round. Switch to smaller needles. [50]
(K2, CBdec2, C4F) x 5. Knit 1 round. [40]
(CFdec2, k4) x 5. Knit 1 round. [30]
(K2, CFdec2) x 5. [20]
(Ssk, k2) x 5. [10]
Ssk x 5. [5]
Run end through. [0]

Churning out the gifts

2005-12-12T11:01:00.000-08:00

Meeting deadlines left and right! Here are before and after fulling photos of a little bag for DD's Spanish teacher, Peruvian Highlands Wool. Cast on the edge of the envelope flap, did a ridge of garter, then did turning-heelesque short rows with wraps to make the V. Did some rows of reverse stockinette to make the flap fold down on its own. Cast on more for the front of the bag, did a bit of garter to keep the front from curling, increased a few sts on each side to give the bag a nicer shape, then decreased twice that in stages at the bottom, 3-needle bind-off, mattress stitched the one side seam. Cable plied 6 strands tightly for the strap and lashed it to each side. Once through the laundry in a mesh bag with a dark load. We'll probably add some beads, perhaps a toggle and loop for the flap. It depends on whether DD has a lot of homework or has time to dive in the stash and find the perfect beads.

A star hat for DD's English teacher. Wool-ease (I doubt he's laundry savvy), a bit short because he has a lot of metal on his ears, an intricately cabled crown to make it interesting, but a subtle color so he'll actually wear it.

Another gift finished!

2005-12-08T07:35:00.000-08:00

Here's the Yankee bag ready to go in the wash, then finished. It was definitely a form of improvisation, but then I always do that when I knit bags. I may fuss seriously over fitting a sock perfectly, but bags are like scribbling, just a fun way to make a gift. I am the same way with beadwork: the animals must be exactly right, but when I make bowls it's for fun. I try new ideas, practice new techniques, try to convert mistakes into new methods, and I do this all as fast as I can. I usually set a few basic rules, like no sewing seams and only garter stitch allowed (knitting) or black beads are always single and the other colors are worked so there are three of one color touching at all times (a fun mapping technique to play with when doing beadwork).

I ended up doing a 3-needle bind-off of the active side seam (because it's quick), then picked up the loops in the long-tail cast-on and did a 3-needle bind-off on that side, too. Fulling masked the minor difference in appearance. I picked up a loop per ridge around the top, knitted a round, purled a round, bound off the sides, did garter up (with little dec triangles to take the 13 st down to 9) and grafted when I ran out of yarn.

I expected the blue to bleed so washed the bag alone in a half washer of hot water. Having a high water:fiber ratio decreased the probability of excess dye latching back on, plus I used lots of detergent. Dried it until it was just damp, but it was still too stretchy so ran it with a normal load of laundry (wash and part of the dryer cycle until it was only slightly damp). It has more visual texture than I prefer because it's garter and I would have liked stockinette for this project, but didn't have the time to spare for facings. DD's teacher will like it (and not know the difference...).

June's December 7th post is spinners' eye candy. Beautiful!

Some progress

2005-12-07T17:32:00.000-08:00

It is Wednesday, so here are bird photos from my walk. It was raining and I found out my camera takes pictures of the rain drops, which end up looking like missing pixels in the photo. The sanderlings are cute anyway. It was mostly sleeping ducks and some harlequins diving in shallow water.

I was beginning to feel overwhelmed by my list of things to make this month so I joined a few more KALs for encouragement and inspiration. I am making headway, but it's been three years since I tried to meet a deadline like this and I'm definitely out of practice. Miscalculations include the facts that when it's cold out I knit at about one-fourth my usual speed, and when it rains the needles get tacky and I cannot knit. Winter here hasn't really begun but we've had a chilly snap (doesn't qualify as properly cold) and some rain. At least I'm warm in my wool socks and the Aran sweater Michelle knit.

I cast on a quick bag for one of DD's teachers today. She's a Yankees fan so DD asked for blue and white pin stripe, which is vertical so I've cast on one side edge, increased to make a triangle at the bottom/center, and am now knitting the body of the bag. The white is Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride worsted and the navy is Elann's PHW. I'm going to work double decreases at the far edge, then sew the side seams, add some sort of border around the top, add a strap, full, and block. You can see the sloppy k's that form the fold lines between the front, back, and base. I had all purls and decided it was too subtle, so laddered and turned them into knits. Much better, and I'll rub out the slack when fulling.

As good as it gets

2005-12-06T08:53:00.000-08:00

I was exceptionally fortunate that the teacher of my second spinning class was Alden Amos. It was his short course in plying, at Straw Into Gold about twenty years ago. Alden was amazing, pouring knowledge into our minds and showing us techniques in the most logical way. I have a notoriously steep learning curve, but with Alden it was like skiing in the tracks of an expert. I'm certain he found me to be a frustrating numbskull, yet he treated me like a princess and somehow figured out how to explain things in a way that made perfect sense to my perverse brain.

I have crystal clear image memories of the skeins he showed us and his voice in the background describing the construction methods and reasons. Chenille was a splendid mind-bender. What has stayed with me forever and with the greatest intensity, though, is a black lambswool skein Stephenie Gaustad had spun. Perhaps it is because Alden's love for his wife made that skein seem magical, but it was also a truly perfect example of spinning.

Since I cannot plug the USB cable into my brain and download the memories, I've taken a few photos of a skein of tussah silk Stephenie spun and gave me. [Yes, Steph, I *will* use it someday -- I promise!] It is 3-ply, with the space-dyed strand a slightly heavier grist than the two undyed tussah strands. I look at this skein and instantly see designs for shawls and scarves. It's brain fertilizer. I wish I could convey through the ether how light the skein is, how alive and shiny and sproingy the yarn feels in my hands. Lovely stuff!

Sock on a walk

2005-12-05T09:34:00.000-08:00

Claudia's photo this morning inspired me to take the camera and a sock on the walk to the bus stop. Winter is being kind today, though the tide was coming in and with it a bracing ocean breeze. I almost got a photo of a sea lion, but he dove and came up out of range. I need to work on my quick draw with the camera.

These are Mellenweit Multiringel, k2p2, knit on US1's. It's lovely yarn; when I drop a stitch it ladders incredibly fast, so I'm curious to see just how much it will full when washed. I suspect it will stay pretty crisp.

Claudia brought up an interesting topic about color striping. Have you gotten to the point where you can look at a self-striping ball and have a pretty clear vision of how a sock will appear? Can you see whether it will work up better as ribbing or stockinette, whether the color repeat will pool, swirl, or zig-zag? What startled me as I worked my way down the shank on these blue socks wasn't how much blue there is, but how long the color repeat is (about 2400 sts). It really isn't much different from many other self-striping yarns, but the uneven striping makes it appear longer. I am fascinated by the behavior of various color periods.

When I first started knitting with self-striping yarns a few years ago, I was so excited by the colors I'd just knit away. I have become fussy. I wind off the first few yards to get to just the stripe I want for the top of the cuff. I often use that butterfly of yarn later to make the heel cup end on the right color or to widen the first stripe around the gusset/pick-up. I will edit out a certain color if I don't like it as much. I will make a longer or shorter shank to set up the heel flap in a more pleasing colourway. I become a truly happy person when the yarn makes a thunderbolt on the heel flap. If the yarn has a motif that needs to be knit at, say, 68 stitches around in order to be properly synchronized, I will save that ball for someone with a shank and foot that are 68 stitches around.

Am I obsessive? Probably. Will I outgrow this in a few more years? Perhaps, or I'll learn to look at a ball and see what I want ahead of time, as I can with solid color yarns. Frankly, I hope the dyers continue coming up with new colourways!

Meme

2005-12-02T23:23:00.000-08:00

I'm not usually a fan of memes, but it seems to be the least crying-in-my-beer way to answer a bunch of questions about me that I've been fielding lately.

The husband, aka Himself, says the following about memes and recommends reading various books. And yes, this is the way he speaks most of the time. Every now and then he lightens up and we see his surfer side, but usually it's the Professor. "Human societies carry information via memes and their individual members have biological constraints known as genes. The gene pool and the meme pool are the modes of transference of information from generation to generation within a society or culture. Humans as a species have a relatively large meme pool because of their high ability to process and extract abstract information (storage of external metadata, etc.)."

Stolen from Cara:

TEN random things you might not know about me
1. I have a deep-seated resentment of computers because the time machine my big brother built out of cardboard and Christmas lights didn't whisk him away even when I sang The Good Ship Lollipop full voice to help the batteries work.
2. I count things instinctively, like how many thousands of carrots seeds I am planting, how many stitches I've knit, how many strokes I've whisked some cake batter... It's soothing, nearly subconscious, and when I'm done I can look in a spot of my mind and find the final tally.
3. If I put a small stuffed animal on my chest I will sleep all night on my back without rolling. I had to learn this so I wouldn't roll over on my broken nose when I was a teen.
4. I read between one and three romances per day and very little else. I like happy endings and have the complete works of Elizabeth Bevarly and oodles of other authors.
5. I have relative perfect pitch and uncannily good hearing, even though I have had severe tinnitus since a double ear infection when I was ten.
6. I have a photographic memory but cannot see well enough to drive.
7. When I was young I was only allowed to sing indoors if I ran the old Hoover at the same time, so I am exceptionally fond of vacuuming.
8. I have had two primary melanomas and one is resident and inoperable in my dominant eye, though irradiated. The radiation burns are healing very slowly, so I cannot risk flying, let alone leaning over or taking BART under the Bay.
9. I have no immunity to viruses and thus live a somewhat reclusive life.
10. I am named after my grandmother who was named after her grandmother who was named after her grandmother, and so on, just as my daughter is named after my mother...

NINE places I’ve visited
1. Canada for five minutes -- a friend drove me over the border just so we could see the hunky Canadian guards. Other than that, I've never left the 48 lower States.
2. Millie's Footpass near Mt. Whitney, California, with Bob & Dad
3. The Cascade Range, Oregon, with Bob, Christina, and the neighbor girl
4. The Wind River Range, Wyoming [photos are Dad's of Square Top and of the Grumman & moi on Green River]
5. Wupatki and Lomaki Pueblos, Nevada, with Tim
6. The Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado (for the first Interweave Bead Bash)
7. Tony Grove Lake, near Logan, Utah, with Linda T.
8. Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium, Tempe, Arizona (played cello there with LHS orch)
9. Rainbow Falls, Glacier National Park, Montana, with the ex

EIGHT ways to win my heart
1. Make my daughter laugh
2. Take away the pain
3. Play cards with me
4. Rub my back
5. Drive me to the grocery store
6. Lend me a Regency I have yet to read
7. Wear what I've knit for you
8. Make *me* laugh

SEVEN things I want to do before I die (something I think about a lot)
1. See my friends from high school in Utah
2. Tidy all the paperwork properly so the transition won't be so hard on my daughter
3. Play cello again (mine was stolen)
4. Visit Scotland and see if I blend in
5. Hear Drew Minter sing again
6. Become healthy enough to swim in the Pacific again
7. Visit my farm in Montana

SIX things I’m afraid of
1. Metastases
2. Having to go back on pain killers
3. Tornadoes
4. Scorpions
5. Car wrecks
6. Going blind

FIVE things I don’t like
1. Pain
2. Scary movies
3. Puking the dregs after a fluorescein angiograph
4. People who won't take responsibility for their actions
5. Drunk drivers

FOUR ways to turn me off
1. Lie to me
2. Smell bad
3. Be rude
4. Take the last slice of pie

THREE things I do every day (besides housework)
1. Make something beautiful
2. Pray for one of my friends
3. Strive for better health

TWO things that make me happy
1. Walking home from the library with my daughter and listening to her babble about her day at school
2. Singing

ONE thing on my mind right now
1. What to fix for supper?

A quick bag

2005-12-02T18:27:00.000-08:00

The camera and I are still getting used to each other, so a few posts are written but waiting for pictures. Some are simply too serious and need to rest a bit before editing.

In the meantime, here are before and after photos of a quick bag I made for DD's history teacher. 82 stitches, Elann's Peruvian Collection Highland Pilling Wool, size 4.5 mm needle for the purse knit flat, US#5's for the I-cord.

Long-tail cast-on, a few rows of garter, BW1 Fretwork for one repeat, a ridge of garter for the bottom edge fold, mitered triple decreases at the corners to form the base, three-needle bind-off, mattress stitch for the side seam. Once through the washer and dryer with a load of laundry. I-cord washed in a net bag and attached and spliced after fulling.

And, the reason I'm using up the Highland Wool for fulled bags: world of pill. DD's Rogue is lovely, I like the hand of the fabric, the yarn felt good to knit, but it pills to the nth. We've pulled handsful of pills off the poor blighter and there's no end in sight. She's wearing it anyway because the pattern is so comfy, but I had to get a De-fuzz-it from Claudia. The yarn does full beautifully.

Teen Knitting Club

2005-11-30T09:19:00.000-08:00

Wednesdays are Teen Knitting Club at the middle school (which DH and I both attended long ago). It's a solid hour's walk to school, so Wednesdays are also bird watching days. No photos of club, but I've put in a few birds.

TKC works best at schools because you have the potential for a captive audience and no transportation issues. If the kids want to attend, they will show up, which is not as consistently the case at libraries, church youth groups, and other after school venues.

If you're going to do a knitting club at a school, you'll need PTA and principal approval, a classroom assignment, a time slot, storage space, a designated parent and alternate parent, and a budget for supplies. At DD's middle school, the daughter of the head of the PTA got her mom to push it through. At the elementary school (where I guest knit sometimes on Thursdays, and yes I went to that school, too), the principal *is* the knitting teacher and thus it was an easy process. They have 35 or more 1st & 2nd graders every week!

The kids around here are pushed awfully hard to achieve, and most of them do. They are amazing kids, but they are stressed out! Nearly all the social time they have is spent in a competitive atmosphere or a see-and-be-seen party scene. The majority of these kids will go into law, finance, medicine, or politics. Everyone assumed that TKC would be the kind of thing where kids signed up, had specific projects and goals, and were expected to attend on a regular basis. In other words, just like the rest of their lives, but without a grade.

So, I decided to set up TKC as a salon, a la Margene's process-oriented attitude. It's during their lunch hour once a week down in the classroom adjoining the gym (no academic stigma there!), a large, sunny room with work tables and decent chairs. The kids trickle in as they finish eating nearby in the lunch area, and only a few bring their own projects. I have a variety of needles (mostly large plastic straights) and balls of yarn, yarn catalogs, knitting books, and lots of WIP swatches piled on the tables. DD brings her Bosworth spindles and Grafton batts and teaches spinning. Some kids just wind balls and chat happily (they are mesmerized by the ball winder -- it's so Zen!).

Most plunk down in chairs and pick up the nearest swatch, figure out the stitch, ask questions or pick up something easier, and knit. It's mellow, we talk about everything, people come and go, and we have newbies every week and the better knitters teach the new ones. I'm just there as hostess and provider and question answerer. Today I taught one of the more advanced girls about how to do colourwork. We didn't actually do any, but I talked her through it and her cranial light bulb was in the halogen range. It will be fun to see what she does with the knowledge!

I've gradually been introducing new stitches, new yarns, and smaller needles. Some kids are knitting hats with dpns, but nobody *owns* any one project. It's a communal system instead of yet another focus on individual achievement. When a kid masters a technique, we pat him on the back and move on to the next. When a kid has a tough time, we talk about learning curves and compare notes on how long it took to learn this or that. No tears, just words of support, helping hands, lots of tandem knitting and courtesy rows, and choruses of rip-it to cheer us through the worst of it. I don't know whether they have even figured out that it's a pressure-free zone, but they sure are enjoying it. I'm planning to stitch together the swatches to make an afghan for charity.

Today was odd, though, because some popular upperclassmen stopped by to take photos for the yearbook. The elegant 8th grade photographer had brought her entourage of over a dozen tall, gorgeous guys and fashionable girls. They were polite but LOUD compared to the usual TKC kids, who tend to be nerdy or shy. I rolled with it and draped batts and skeins on the kids, got the nerds to mix with the fashionistas, and quite a few of the older kids ended up staying and knitting (one girl is FAST!). I'm going to snare some of the jocks eventually. They *want* to learn but have doubts. I am seriously considering getting some dads to come and be positive role models.

I have a PTA storage cabinet up in the school office. They gave me a modest budget for buying a few books and supplies. And there is a roster of parents willing to help, luckily some real gems.

So, Annie, does that answer your question? Btw, the way the comments section is set up right now, I can only answer here in the blog or privately if I already know the email addy -- the comments come to me as anonymous, unlinked emails. If you want a response off-blog, please say so in the comment and provide an addy. Thanks. I'll get up to speed on the technology soon but am rusty.

Laptop bag sheath

2005-11-29T08:19:00.000-08:00

DD's school district supplies extra copies of every textbook so the kids can keep a set at home and not have to lug the things back and forth. Kids with multiple parental abodes get two sets! However, the school also supplies a laptop in a padded case and it must be lugged. The bus stop is a mile's walk down a steep hill, and the library is twice that. I sewed a sheath so she could wear the computer instead of having to use the dinky handle or cram it in her backpack.

This is the sheath, inside-out. I doubled cotton twill tape and sewed through it many times to reinforce the bag and distribute the weight better. There is also twill tape running around the top inside the facing. The school-issued padded case has a little strap on one side for a clip-on charger case. Running one of the twill tape arms up beneath the strap keeps the sheath from rotating or slumping. So far, the only wear appears to be the bottom corners, which I expected. I mitered and reinforced them and will simply sew another bag when the corners wear through. Now the little critter needs a raincoat! I've been wishing for deflector shields and a coat with rain gutters, and it's only the second spot of rain this season.

On the knitting front, I've finished Aunt Connie's left sock and am contemplating whipping out a right sock with the new shaped shank, longer heel flap, and rapid gusset, just in case I guessed correctly on the alterations. I cast on a mosaic swatch (BW1 Fretwork) simply because it's been about twenty years since I did any slip stitch knitting beyond EOP. I'm using up some Peruvian Collection Highland Wool and will turn the 82-stitch swatch into a small fulled purse for DD's wonderful history teacher. Since the PCHW pills so badly (still trying to get a good photo of DD's pilly Rogue), I'm converting it all to fulled items. There are a few other mosaic patterns to try, then I'll do some Bavarian twisted stich swatch purses to review that technique for the CIT and fill the gift basket.

First, though, I need to cast on a Wool-Ease hat to show the kids at Teen Knitting Club tomorrow.

Fitting socks around ankles and heels

2005-11-26T11:22:00.000-08:00

Here's the fitting sock I made for Aunt Connie, using the same stitch and row count as a Blauband pair that fits her perfectly (see comments on grist in earlier post). It is KnitPicks Simple Stripes in the Vineyard colourway and the grist of the yarn is very consistent, but the color period in the short dashed (dit-dot) white sections is uneven. In stockinette the white bits align here and there, and look a bit messy in other parts. As you can see in the fitting sock's cuff, the white bits look really horrid in baby cable ribbing, so I have cast on anew in k1p1 ribbing and it works. It isn't tidy, but has sort of a faux herringbone ripple effect. Oh, and that tan? It's more a flesh tone because it's picked up some of the pink dye from the burgundy stripes, but the dark brown balances it well enough.

If you squint you can see where I've taken a tuck in the front of the ankle. There are ten extra rows and I'll try to get rid of the bagginess by making the heel flap 6 rows longer, then do a rapid decrease at the top of the gusset to eliminate the other four rows of slack. I knitted the foot of the sock a few rows longer than her foot, then used some white yarn to baste around her toes. This is a really nice method for getting an accurate fit. There was too much ease in the back of the shank, too, so I'm tapering that gently, then I'll flare the top of the heel flap to regain the width for her ankle.

Helen commented about trying to fit her DH's feet: "... he has such SKINNY ankles, but a high instep, that it's hard to get to the ankle to both go over his instep and heel, and not bag when installed." It's all that golf, Helen! Are his calves well-developed, too? (I never looked at his legs when we went to the pool.)

Assume Dan has sculpted calves, skinny ankles, high arches, and perhaps a narrow heel? The easiest solution is a k2p2 ribbing shank, tapered by p2tog in stages down the back of the leg starting in the center and fanning out until the back of the shank is mostly k2p1. That can swallow a LOT of girth without sacrificing elasticity or disrupting the style. You can fancy it up with a few narrow cables distributed between the ribs (but that will tweak the elasticity so beware). If you need to flare the shank back out before the heel flap, do a more rapid fan of m1's in the purl ditches from out to in, pairing every other ditch if need be. This rarely bulges if done correctly.

I used to key the starting point of the heel flap off the height of the ankle bone, but have switched it to being related to where the top of the foot comes out of the ankle instead. It doesn't line up exactly, but is a percentage of that height (I'll fuss with the math someday and post the calculations). I have some patterns where the heel flap is over three inches long in order to get a comfortable fit! I prefer an EOP (eye of partridge, aka slip 1, k1, and purl the reverse) heel flap, especially for people with narrow heels that move more in their shoes and thus increase the wear.

EOP has, for me anyway, three requirements. 1) I use an odd number of stitches so I can have an extra RS knit stitch at the end, the one that is slipped on the WS. This places a column of worked-every-row stitches just inside the slipped edge, stabilizing it and making the flap symmetrical. 2) I slip the first RS stitch knitwise and all the other stitches purlwise. It gives me more consistent tension. YMMV. 3) Increases and decreases must be paired. I generally work them into adjacent stitches below. For wide heels especially, you can achieve an excellent fit by making a long heel flap and flaring it by working sets of increases every few rounds. Doing all the increases at the top of the flap makes a bulge and adds too much ease to the back of the ankle. Flaring in tiers adds the necessary width in a subtle way that actually FITS.

Take a look at the profile of the foot and think twice about how deep the heel needs to be relative to the front half of the foot. If Dan will let you, draw with washable pen where the gusset should be, then measure. Take a photo while you're at it (with a ruler next to his foot). A wide heel has fewer rows of decreases in the turn and makes a more shallow cup, so often needs a wider heel flap to start. Conversely, a narrow heel has a deep cup and needs a narrower flap. My dad has sturdy legs, huge ankles, and a triple-A heel, so I taper the heel flap, make the cup very deep, and work a few extra decreases in the last rows of turning the heel. His arches are high so his heel flap is very long. I continue ribbing down the front and top of his foot, and I do a rapid decrease in the gusset.

Gussets are splendid, forgiving, incredibly useful things. If you make a paper pattern (or muslin) of the heel flap and gussets, together they make a trapezoid that wraps around the back of the foot. The geometry of it is a lot of fun. There are, of course, many solutions to fitting a sock, but our goal is the one that is easiest to knit and the most durable. In a simple sock, the front of the ankle down the top of the foot to the beginning of the toe decreases is a rectangle, the sole between the heel cup and the toe decreases another rectangle, and the heel flap is a rectangle. The triangular gussets are the missing piece in the puzzle as these shapes wrap around your foot.

Gussets do not have to have straight edges. If a person's foot arches up off the floor close to the heel, you can work decreases in the sole edge of the gusset. If the person has a bulky ankle and bulky feet, the gusset might have only a few rounds of decreases and those could be well-spaced or even closer to the toe than the heel. I have the classic angle of decline for a gusset: decrease one stitch on each side every other round until no gusset stitches remain, and the sock will fit my foot. My husband used to lift weights and has muscles on his feet that add girth to his EEE bones. He gets a deep-deep heel cup so the gussets begin closer to the toe, then the decreases are every third round for a bit, then every other round. My dad? Decrease every round right away for many rounds, then switch to every other until the picked up stitches are gone *and* some of the sole stitches, too.

The yarn can make a difference. I like to use Sockotta for Chris Gustin's socks because k2p2 ribbing in this yarn is really elastic and clings well. I've had to tailor my brother's worsted-spun gray Fortissima socks more closely because that yarn in a k3p1 looks elegant but has very low elasticity as a fabric. The Patons Kroy orange toes have a much better snug factor because the yarn is more woolen than worsted in preparation. I wish Socka were still around!

Yarn Equivalence

2005-11-26T10:38:00.000-08:00

Sara asked about spinning standardized yarn for socks. For many years I did serious technical spinning and made oodles of standardized yarn. Alden's class on Spinning to a Standard is essential, and his techniques make replicating a particular yarn or repeating your own, consistent spinning very, very easy.

Stephenie can recite the various margins for error in grist that amount to a significant change in gauge or sett. Coarse singles definitely show the difference far more than froghair! My goal is usually to keep within 5% to either side of the intended grist. It takes a level of concentration and intention to achieve that, but it is definitely possible. Ideally, the fiber itself is unvaried, something like a Janet Heppler fleece (lovely, consistent stuff!), prepared the same throughout. To repeat a particular level of lumens, I spin for the same hours each day, using one bobbin, winding off onto storage bobbins. When the entire batch of singles is complete, I ply, and I try to do it all in one afternoon. If at the end of the process I've got a few skeins that are outlyers, they become cuffs or facings.

I don't expect the various sock yarn manufacturers to standardize their product, but I do find myself pondering making a table of equivalents to ease substitution. I used to have a bright green yarn guide booklet -- has anyone updated it? One of the things I enjoy nowadays is how diverse the selection is at a good LYS, but it really is a bother for socks. My goal is a perfect fit, plus I appreciate the efficiency of being able to pull a pattern card out of my box and grab a yarn that is an appealing color and whip out a pair of socks. I've begun storing sock yarns in bins sorted by grist, and I'm paying much closer attention to ball bands now when I buy yarn.

For Annie, a quick scan of an orange toe (complete with markers in case I have to rip and re-knit after the final fitting). The Patons Kroy orange is coarse compared to the grist of the Fortissima gray, but for a toe it's not much of an issue.

Current socks

2005-11-25T17:51:00.000-08:00

Yesterday at the family supper I had my brother and aunt try on the socks I'm knitting for them. I have a perfectly good pattern for my brother, but written for a discontinued Socka yarn (the green sock on the floor) that has more rows per inch than the Fortissima gray in the above photo. Same stitch gauge, but a totally different fabric. The grey is almost worsted in preparation, a mouse gray plied with a strand each of orange and black. I have, of course, run out of yarn at the point in the photo and last night knit the toes in bright orange. He had wanted something subtle to wear to work with a surprise when he takes off his shoes at home.

My brother's feet are easy to fit since they are simple a larger and much longer version of my foot. I was all set with short contrasting yarn worked along the sides every ten rounds, just in case, but all I had to do was start his usual toe pattern 8 rounds early. Done now and ready for him to try on at Christmas. Might whip up another pair for him between now and then...

My aunt's feet are pesky! Ten rows of baggy front ankle just above the heel flap, over a half size difference in length and very different angles to the toes, and the back of the shank really needs a bit of a taper, too. I'll rip back to above the heel flap, add 6 rows/3 slipped stitches to the flap, and taper the shank while I'm there, then try a rapid decrease at the top of the gusset. Again, I have a pattern that fits her in Blauband but she liked a colourway of KnitPicks. It always surprises me how different the various sock yarns are.

I'm almost to the heel flap on a pair of Mellenweit Multiringels for my dad. His base pattern is for Regia Banner, and it looks as if the yarns are close enough in character and grist to be interchangeable. The Lana Grossa MM yarn is really lovely stuff, dense and even, excellent color saturation, about a 2400 stitch color repeat, but the hand is a tiny bit harsh. We'll have to see how it softens when washed.

The old ball of yellow striped Opal I picked up for myself in a sale bin at the Black Sheep Gathering in June is of a finer grist than my Regia base pattern, so I cast on 80 instead of my usual 72 and am knitting the entire shank in k2p2 ribbing since it's forgiving. I'm thinking snug when I knit instead of going down to size 0 needles, and it seems to be working.

Supper yesterday was lovely. My grandmother wore a pair of socks I knit for her and my brother wore a pair of socks she knit for him. The weather held, crisp and autumnal, and then the rain and wind hit today.

Fishies with a dime for Sara

2005-11-24T09:22:00.000-08:00

Still digging in the box for the striped fish, but did find an old green and black and a mini red jumble, and a dime. And I promise to have my first digital camera lesson today. I'm hoping it will see what I don't.

Pish

2005-11-23T18:32:00.000-08:00

Getting there from here...

2005-11-23T18:10:00.000-08:00

A basic challenge in the kind of beadwork I do is figuring out where to start. The foundation rows or rounds always have a different thread tension from ensuing work, usually firmer. I try to plan the fabrication order so that solid bit is an asset. Another consideration is holding the piece while you work on it. Holding a snout is tricky, plus the facial expression makes or breaks an animal, so it's best done last. Decreases are inherently smoother in peyote stitch than increases, thus starting at the widest girth is always good, if it's feasible.

Even with my current wonky vision, I can work very quickly because I have figured out the most efficient relative positions of the various elements: lighting, piles of beads, the active edge of the beadwork itself, hands, needle, and thread tail. If the beads are in the wrong place, the light won't illuminate them clearly, the thread will drag through and send them tumbling to the floor, you'll be reaching instead of doing a quick scoop action with your needle, etc. My typical short day in my 30's was 500 beads, a long day was 1200, and if it was just a flat-woven piece I had a daily goal of 2500-3000 beads. The really fast speeds do assume you know what you're doing and are rarely achieved in the design phase, but are easy to meet if working from a template style pattern. Speed can also be increased by writing patterns so they have natural stopping points, row counts and other ways of figuring out where you were when the phone rang..., and are easy to see.

My standard fish pattern is an example of the widest girth method -- waist to tail, waist to mouth, then fins. It's a bit like making a thimble at first. I made this one (see next post for image) after radiation but before the burn damage peaked. Using diagonal bars of black opaque and silver-lined translucent blue AB made it much easier for me to see where to put the next bead. Those are either 4 mm or 6 mm black onyx eyes. I need to dig the guys out of their box and measure.

If you've seen these fish in person, they're a lot of fun. You can push and pull on the side fins to make them puff. Someday I'll write about how I got into the business of silly beadwork.

Mazama

2005-11-22T19:23:00.000-08:00

Maiden Voyage

2005-11-22T14:12:00.000-08:00

This is my first blog swatch, certain to need frogging, so please be patient as the Orb and I negotiate a truce with Blogger. I will soon be posting photos and commentary, things friends have asking for the last few years. And yes, I *am* going to publish a beadwork pattern book. Dealing with the Orb delayed things, but I still have my pattern files and a box of body parts and good intentions. And no, I don't take orders and I don't sell single patterns anymore, but I do teach now and then.

My emissary, Mazama, is in a reduced state in my profile. He's from, oh, early 1988? The second incarnation of my basic lizard pattern, worked in opaque turquoise blue Czech 11's, Nymo B thread, a bit of beeswax and a size 12 beading needle. I think his eyes are translucent dark amethyst Czech 11's. I made him while sitting in the woods of the Mazama campground on the way up to Crater Lake in Oregon, on a jaunt with Tim.

Czech seed beads are wonderful for sculptural peyote beadwork because they are of highly variant width but relatively uniform diameter. As I work, I grade the beads into two piles, narrow and wide, next to the starter batch on the piece of suede covering my desk, and I fling any chipped or bubble glass on the floor to vacuum later.

Really distinctive beads like wedges or long tubes are scooted to the edge until needed. I enjoy adding a wicked curve to a toe or crest by working a short fringe of a tube, a wedge, a few tubes, and a round end bead.

The most slim of the narrow beads are reserved for the more visible increases, like the back of the head or the base of the tail. Other slims are used as needed, the remainder softening the angles of the nose. As you can see, I hadn't quite mastered noses circa Mazama's creation.

Beads with a bit of length to them, especially those with a more square profile, are excellent in areas where bias is a problem, like preventing a twist in a linear skin pattern on a torso. I also use them to augment and thus curve a sector of a tail or belly. I prefer to use beads with the classic oval Czech profile when working an irregular skin pattern like that of a gila because the fabric has a strong bias that makes the color pattern much more interesting looking.