Happy Birthday, Mother!

Today is my mother's 74th birthday, and I'm hoping that the package I mailed out to her on Saturday hits her doorstep today.

This fall I've been knitting a lot of things of my own design. Some have been relatively mindless knits, and can hardly be called "designs," like the plain stockinette socks I made for my daughter and her boyfriend (no, they aren't matching pairs, although the socks within each pair match, because I'm one of Those Knitters).

I'm back to working on Michael's Aran sweater that is part of my Level III work for the Master Hand knitting program.

I've done a lot of swatching of stranded designs for the Fair Isle hat (also for the MHK program), and have finally come up with a set of stitch patterns Sophia likes that I will turn into a hat, possibly over winter break.

I designed a shawlette pattern that I quite like (still not sick of it after knitting it three times) and it is currently with test knitters.

There was a cabled earflap hat of someone else's design that I completely re-engineered.

The package my mother will receive today (I hope!) was one of the few items I knit this fall that was not of my own design or heavily modified.

 My mother had back surgery in September and has been recovering well.  The pain meds have dampened her appetite and she still isn't very mobile, so she's been complaining about being cold.  Back pain means that it's a big deal for her to put on clothes and take them off, so I wanted to make her a shawl that would be easy for her to put around her shoulders if she needed some extra warmth and would stay put, even when she got up and moved around. This is especially important, because a couple of weeks ago she fell and broke a vertebra above the ones that were plated and pinned and screwed together in September.  She's going to be encased in what she describes as an "Iron Man suit" for the next month.

The pattern is Fundamentally Faroese, by Cheryl Oberle, and is knit bottom-up. What I like about Faroese shawls is that they are structured so that they stay on the shoulders.  When blocked and finished, the upper edge curves where it will lie across the shoulders.  The day after I finished it, I wore it all day, including while teaching, just to make sure I didn't need a shawl pin.  It stayed on my shoulders, no problem, never once slipping off.

The yarn is a handpainted, 2-ply DK from Rovings and is 70% Polwarth wool and 30% mohair.  I got this yarn from a Canadian vendor at Yarn Over a few years ago.  It has a gorgeous sheen and a wonderful halo. 

If this shawl wasn't intended for my mother, I don't think I'd have the strength to give it away.

Designing a Hat

I've finished my Level III swatches and I'm moving on to other parts.  I designed the Aran sweater this past summer and knit the back, without knowing for sure what the requirements were. I had a fairly good idea of what they were, plus I've knit several Aran sweaters, but I put it aside to rest after finishing the back, just in case there was a problem. 

I've been doing research on the two traditional knitting styles I'll write about for one of my reports, and since one of those is an Aran sweater, I thought I would let the sweater marinate a little longer while I dig into the history and traditions of the Aran sweater.

Meanwhile, I've been pondering my Fair Isle hat design.  Originally, I intended to knit a tam, but I do like to make projects for the MHK program that can be used later, if at all possible, so when Sophia mentioned she would like a hat with ear flaps, I reconsidered my hat style choice.

In my mind I could see a Chullu-esqe hat, with earflaps that were double-sided, to be warmer and to lie flat. (Either knit in the round, or double knit, although with double knitting I would have to contend with a difference in gauge and also, I kind of hate my selvedges in double knitting.)  I want the transition from main body of hat down to the flap to be continuous, and I don't want to have to sew anything.  I wasn't sure what to do about the hat cuff: ribbed, or hemmed, or straight stockinette with applied i-cord around the edges of the cuff and earflaps...

First, though, I needed some measurements.  That's not what I did first, but it is what I needed to do first.  No, first what I did was to wing it. 

I searched around online and found that ear flaps are not centered at the 1/4 and 3/4 points of the round (assuming the round begins at the back of the head).  They are actually set further back, so that one flap sits entirely within the first 1/4 of the round and the other entirely within the last 1/4 of the round.  Someone mentioned that the midpoint of one ear flap, running around the back of the head to the other flap midpoint was about 1/3 of the circumference. 

Knowing Sophia's head size, I calculated the flap positions and decided a 3 1/2" flap would be good.  I "knew" that my gauge on size 5 needles using worsted weight yarn would be 5.5 sts/in, so I calculated stitch counts, and cast on. 

After several problems with third grade arithmetic in which I decided that 37+37+56=110 (Hint: it does not), which was followed by deciding that the ear flaps needed to be moved even further back (Hint: they did not), I took the incredible step of actually measuring Sophia's head to find out where her actual ears were situated on her actual head, and then to take a second measurement in which I determined the correct ear flap width would actually be better at 3" and THEN I measured my stitch gauge and discovered I was knitting a bit looser than I anticipated, which meant that in addition to placing the too-large earflaps too far back on the hat, the hat was too big.

You can see now how it is that I am this close to becoming a master knitter!


Here's my revised plan for ear flap placement and stitch counts.

Circled numbers on right indicate stitch counts

While struggling with arithmetic, I did manage to come up with a good idea for how to work the ear flaps into the hemmed edge.

It occurred to me I could use a trick I thought of a few years ago, when making mittens with peasant thumbs.  There are a couple of techniques typically used in that scenario.  One is to knit the stitches where the thumb will be with waste yarn, return the waste yarn knit sts back to the left needle, then knit them again with the main yarn.  Later, the stitches above and below the waste yarn can be put on dpns, the waste yarn can be removed and the thumb can be worked in the round, using those live sts.

Another technique is to bind off the stitches where the thumb will occur, and then on the next round, cast on that same number, basically creating a button hole.  Stitches are picked up around the hole and the thumb is knit.  This creates an edge inside the thumb where the cast on and bind off sts were, but having the hole there as the mitten is knit allows the mitten to be tried on, so that you can be sure of how it is fitting and when to do the top decreases.

A third technique is a hybrid, which is to place the sts on waste yarn (threading waste yarn through the sts, rather than knitting them with waste yarn), and then casting on over these stitches on the same round.  When picking up sts later, you have a ridge only along the cast on edge.

My method, I think, gives the best of both worlds: it provides the thumb hole, so the mitten can be tried on as it's knit, but it leaves no edge inside the thumb when stitches are picked up.

It goes like this: slip the stitches onto waste yarn, and leave an extra long tail at the end of the held sts where the working yarn is hanging.  Now cast on with the LT cast on, using the waste yarn tail as the thumb yarn and the working yarn for the index finger yarn.  This creates a provisional cast on edge.  When it's time to put the stitches back on needles, the cast on edge has to be picked out, but you're left with live stitches.

So that's my idea for the hemmed hat as well.  On the purled turning round, when I get to the stitches where the ear flap will be, I put the number of stitches the ear flap will span on waste yarn, and then I cast on that number of sts, using the waste yarn tail and the working yarn, then I continue purling the round until I get to the next ear flap location.

Waste yarn holds sts resting on thumb and is used to cast on new sts.

Round is complete. That hole will become the live sts needed to knit the earflaps top down.

Hem is fused.  Earflap holes are ready.

More news on the knitting class front

I forgot to mention the other day that I will continue to offer monthly clinics for people working through the Master Hand Knitting program.  These clinics are a way for knitters to get support for their work, to set monthly goals (if that helps them), and to learn techniques in the program they may not have known previously. 

During the fall, I offer these clinics on the third Saturday of the month from noon-2pm.  The rest of the year, they're on the 4th Saturday.  That seems to work out best for avoiding major holidays.

The Master Hand Knitting program is a three-level correspondence course offered by The Knitting Guild Association (TKGA).  It's an educational program, and the time to complete any given level is unlimited.  Each level consists of swatches that demonstrate particular techniques (with questions associated with the swatches and techniques), reports and/or reviews, as well as projects.  Design and pattern writing is also covered.  As you complete each level, you send it in to a committee who reviews your work and then each swatch/project/question/report/pattern is reviewed and is either accepted, or subject to resubmission.  Once everything has been accepted, and you've passed the level, you can get the instructions for the next level.  You can find out more about the program on TKGA's website.  The Education menu has a link to the Master's Program page.


I have found the program to be an invaluable learning experience.  It's not for everyone, and not everyone who starts with Level I will want to see the whole program through to the end.  Whether your goal is to simply be a better knitter, or to be able to design your own garments (to sell patterns or not), or because you have an obsessive need to learn all about something that your enjoy doing, you may find the program fits with your goals as a knitter.

Who needs jewelry?

I was just finishing up my chronically late update on the state of my Master Hand Knitting progress when the mail arrived inside the front door.

I opened the door. Amongst the mail was a cardboard tube, addressed to me.

Inside, another tube. This one plastic.


Hold on. What does that label say?



Oh, baby!

Inside, the most bee yoo ti ful needles I have ever had the pleasure of slapping my eyes on.


14" straights, stiletto points, Teardrop Cap in sizes 5, 6, 7 and 9

But that's not all!

set of 5 5" dpns in size 0
set of 5 6" dpns in sizes 1 and 2.

An IM to my husband, upon opening the package, received the following reply:
"Happy early birthday." (It's next week.)

Sigh.

On to MHK news (or not)...

I've totally dropped the ball on Master Hand Knitting stuff this past week. Yesterday, I knit swatches and then embroidered initials on them using duplicate stitch for no reason. Well, there was a reason. Sort of. Some of the Level III knitters on Ravelry were discussing the duplicate stitch swatch and how it's kind of tricky to do well, and then the co-chair who hangs out on the board mentioned it's the swatch most likely to need resubmitting.

So I decided to worry about duplicate stitch in Level III rather than to block my lace swatches or work on my History of Knitting report for Level II.

I really don't need to worry about duplicate stitch, mostly because I'm not working on Level III yet. Years ago, I made a few sweaters for my niece and nephew that called for duplicate stitching some motifs on them, and I don't recall it being particularly difficult. I never thought anything was particularly difficult back then. I didn't know anyone who knit, so I figured if I followed the directions and it looked all right, then I was doing it right. But I had to know -- is duplicate stitch something I do in an acceptable manner?

I think so.


I ran out of yarn while duplicate stitching my initial. Sophia took a look at what I was doing and and asked if I would make her a swatch with her initial on it that she could put up on her bulletin board. So while I watched "Life" last night, I made her this:



I didn't notice all the sewing thread bits that were lying across the swatch until I uploaded the photo. They are from my attempt to block this swatch, which actually has to do with Level II.


English Mesh Lace
A Treasury of Knitting Patterns, p. 193
I attempted to use the thread along the edges as a way to block without pins so the edges wouldn't be all wavy. I failed miserably. I can't figure out a good way of anchoring the thread ends.

The #$%@ lace swatches continue to be the bane of my existence. I don't think my seed stitch border is long enough on the above swatch. I thought I could block it so that it would be, but for some reason, the border is longer at the bottom than at the top, even though they have the same number of rows. I think it might have something to do with the direction the YOs pull the knitting above rather than the knitting below. Or some other reason. Gah. I hate lace.

How come no one ever complains about the lace swatches?

Thursday is the New Wednesday

Progress, people. I've made progress! (Yes, I know it's Thursday. Again. More on why this post is late down at the bottom.)

So. While cleaning up the "knitting office," to make room for the bookcases that used to be in the living room but which are now in my little office, I found my buttonhole swatches, plus my notes on how I knit them. They need to be typed up, ends woven in, and tagged, but I don't have to re-knit them. Yet.

K1p1 ribbing with buttonholes


K2p2 ribbing with buttonholes


Seed stitch with buttonholes


Here's the swatch with buttonholes evenly spaced.


I need to check the instructions. I have this nagging feeling there should be five buttonholes, not four.


The mitten. My third attempt wasn't any better than my second mitten, and actually turned out worse, because after I finished the Fair Isle portion, I saw I had made a mistake in the pattern. I re-evaluated my second mitten, and while it isn't perfect, I really think it might be good enough. I finished weaving in the ends and crossed it off my to-do list.

Here it is:


(Ack! While taking pictures, I noticed a weaving-in problem. Must fix. Blech.)


I went through my lace swatches last weekend and decided I needed another one done in lace weight. When I started work on Level II, I bought both fingering weight yarn and lace weight yarn, as either one is considered acceptable for the lace swatches. While I had knit lace before, I hadn't ever knit with lace weight yarn and didn't understand what needle size to use. Working an inch of seed stitch seemed like it would take a billion years. I didn't like my swatches worked in fingering weight yarn, though, because they seemed too dense and I was really limited to fairly simple stitch patterns. So I sorted through my lace swatches, flipped through the first Walker Treasury and found a lace pattern to knit.



Still needs to be blocked, tagged, ends woven in.

Here's one I knit last fall:


There's a mistake somewhere near the base of the lace, a mis-placed purl stitch, but for the life of me, I can't find it now. I'm not sure whether to cop to it in my notes or not, given that I can't find it.

Last night, rather than posting this blog entry, like I was supposed to, I decided I was still short on adequate lace swatches, so I knit this:



Just needs the top seed stitch border. Plus blocking, ends woven in, tags, pattern writing, etc.

Here is what else I've been working on:

My History of Knitting report.

Still haven't finished the report on Knitting Without Tears. That book is so different, and I have so many mixed feelings about it, that I'm finding it difficult to review it in an articulate and rational manner. Which probably means I should persevere rather than take the easy way out and review something more straightforward.

What was my point?

Those of you who follow my blog in anticipation of my incredibly instructive posts regarding my Master Hand Knitting Level II progress may be doubting that I am actually making progress, given that Wednesday MHK posts have, er, not been posted. Or rather, what's been posted is either lame or late or, more frequently, lame and late.

This post is late, but, I hope, not as lame.

I will have you know that yesterday I wrote three -- THREE -- book reviews and made progress on the fourth, and I must thank lipizzanknitter on Ravelry for the great check list of what to include in a book review to ensure completeness. Her check list gave me the structure I desperately needed to avoid being too terse or (more likely) rambling on and on.

There are two things I struggle with when I write: finding my point, and giving my point structure. I have no trouble spewing words, but presenting those words in a format that makes sense to someone else takes time.

I need to have a basic structure, or form, for whatever I'm writing, and the structure varies, depending on if I'm writing a business letter, instructions for the Make 1 increase, or a scene in a novel. I didn't have the form I needed for the book reviews, and that kept me from feeling good about checking them off my MHK II list as complete.

Form is not formula. For example, if you're building a house, in order for the house to be a house and not an industrial complex or a truck or a swimming pool, the house has a certain form. Every house has a foundation, walls, floors, ceilings and a roof. Most have windows, electrical wiring and plumbing. And to differentiate it from a commercial building, it has bedrooms, a kitchen, and at least one bathroom. So if you were going to build a house, you would include those things, and there is an order in which those things are done. For example, you start with laying the foundation, and you do the wiring before you put up sheetrock, which can't be done until the studs are up. It's the other stuff you put into the house that makes it unique, or makes it something you can live in. How many bathrooms does it have? How many bedrooms? What is the floor plan? Are there multiple storeys? A basement? Is the kitchen a galley style, or is the main floor an open floor plan? Having the same form -- a foundation, walls, electricity and a roof -- makes it a house, but it does not make it the same as every other house.

In contrast, formula is what a suburban housing developer uses to build houses: a couple of floor plans and four colors of taupe exterior paint. It's the same house over and over again.

And so it is with writing. Each fiction genre has a form, but not a formula. The reader has expectations about what will be included in the book, while at the same time demanding something new and different. While it's true that there are suburban housing developers within any genre (i.e. formulaic writers), some readers who dismiss entire genres as predictable (i.e. formulaic) miss the point of those genres. It's like dismissing a house for its form: having a kitchen and a bathroom, just like every other house. There is an expectation of a kitchen and bathroom in a house. What makes the house different or special when you walk through it is discovering how the kitchen and bathroom are placed in the house and how useful or beautiful they are.

In fiction, early in a book, the writer lays out a story question. The climax at the end answers the story question. For example, the story question of a romance isn't, "Will the hero and heroine end up together?" (Will the house have a bathroom?) Readers of romance aren't stupid. They *know* the hero and heroine will end up together -- that's why they're reading a romance. That's what a romance is - a courtship story. The story question of a romance is, "How will the hero and heroine overcome their conflicts so that they can end up together?" It's seeing that process play out -- watching the courtship -- that entertains them. Think about it. Does anyone sit down with a mystery and say, "Oh my god, this is so predictable. I totally know the protagonist is going to figure out whodunnit." I sure hope so. That's why it's a mystery.

So, back to knitting book reviews and finding my point. The one I'm always searching for. For the MHK reviews, I wasn't happy with what I had written. The writing wasn't bad, but I didn't have that elusive structure (form) on which to hang my review. I had found my point for each book I had chosen, but I hadn't found a good way to present that information. I didn't have the form.

With lipizannknitter's help, I found it.

So, for anyone curious about the written work for Level II, one requirement is to write four book reviews of at least one paragraph. I'm not clear on how to write a one-paragraph review (that sounds more like a summary to me), so mine are each about a page long, single spaced.

I chose the following books to review:
The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques, by Nancie M. Wiseman
A Treasury of Knitting Patterns, Barbara G. Walker
Vogue Knitting The Ultimate Knitting Book, by the editors of Vogue Knitting Magazine
Knitting Without Tears, by Elizabeth Zimmermann (this is the one I'm still working on)

There are several types of books I could have chosen -- like those that are devoted to specialized topics such as Aran sweaters or Fair Isle Tams, or which are full of patterns of a certain type (socks, for example, or baby sweaters). I felt like this was a good mix of general reference, knitting techniques, a stitch dictionary, and knitting philosophy.

Oh, I also have this half-finished Fair Isle mitten.



Still not happy with my edge tension,which is why I stopped.



I'm knitting it inside out to keep my overall tension correct. This works on the straightaways, but not so much around the corners. When I knit right side out, I end up with corners pulled too tightly, as the yarn cuts across the corners. I tried to keep the yarn firm around the corners this time, but I realized I didn't pull tightly enough. I'm thinking of ripping back these few rows and trying them again. Basically, I think it's nearly impossible (for me, anyway) to maintain even tension from one needle to another in Fair Isle. I much prefer being able to work on larger circumference items when I do stranded knitting. This is just aggravating. I will figure it out. I will.

I do, too, finish things

Just apparently, not nearly as often as I start them.

I've been sorting through the "knitting office," detangling balls of yarn, throwing out scraps of swatching experiments, finding missing needles, filing away miscellaneous patterns, and bagging up UFOs with their associated yarn.

Here is the box of yarn that needs to be put away in the craft room.


I really enjoy starting new projects. I've noticed in the past year or two that I'm doing a lot more projects that take less than 6 hours to complete. I'm pretty sure I do that so I can start another project right away, but still end up with some completed items.

Even so, I still have too many projects on the needles that take longer than 6 hours, and Ive gotten to the point where I'm feeling overwhelmed by all the incompleteness (it happens a couple times a year), so it's time to introduce a little self-control and discipline, something I have very little endurance for.

I went through my Ravelry projects and looked at my Works in Progress as well as my Hibernating projects. I deleted anything that was an Ugh! because today I either threw it out (so long Peaches n Cream crocheted string bag!) or I frogged it months ago to use the yarn for something else (out of my projects list, thrummed hat!).

That leaves me with 15 unfinished projects. Fifteen. That includes the Level II stuff I have to complete, like that damned Fair Isle mitten and those lace swatches. That is, the Level II stuff altogether counts as one unfinished project. Of epic proportions, but I'm trying to feel optimistic.

I have vowed to complete three things before I allow myself to start anything new, and I am going to try really, really hard to complete more than three things before I start anything new, but given my track record, my low levels of self-control and my complete lack of discipline, I'm already losing my grip on optimism.

#1 - Master Hand Knitting Level II - I found the two finished Fair Isle mittens, but not the partially completed third.

Or maybe I did. I found something that resembeled a mitten (no stranded knitting done on it yet), it wasn't on needles, and it was completely entangled in a bunch of other yarn. So I threw it away. I have a feeling I'll be casting on for a mitten this evening.

Blankets
#2 and #3 - The Garter Stitch Blanket and crocheted afghan from the other day. I'm not going to take pictures of those.

Cardigans
#4 - The Manon. I got back to the point where I had been when I ripped the whole thing out, and I lost steam. There are photos of that thing elsewhere.

#5 Bristow cardi

It's been in a time out under the bed since a year ago when I knit the first half of the second sleeve on a needle one size smaller than the first sleeve (and the rest of the sweater). This is possibly the worst photo I have taken of any knitting ever. Sorry.

#6 Alpaca cardi, circa 1991.

When I sorted through all my knitting stuff a year or so ago, I found a copy of Rowan 6 and was amazed at how great the patterns looked so many years later. I really found myself drawn to one cardigan in particular. Later, I found all the pieces of that cardigan in another bag, already knit, but could not locate any memory of knitting those pieces, although I am certain no one else in this house did, given a) they don't knit and b) I didn't know anyone in this house at the time (most of the other people in this house weren't born when this thing was knit). It needs to have button bands and a collar, but otherwise it's mostly done. (Actually, maybe that long rectangle of magenta chenille is the collar. Hmm. At any rate, I still like it. I hope I'm not too big for it when it's done. I was 20 lbs lighter in 1991. On the other hand, the styles ran larger back then.

Socks
Uh, there are 7 pairs of unfinished socks.
#7 The red socks - my "current" project - made from Handmaiden Casbah, a blend of cashmere, merino and nylon. No photo at the moment. The yarn color is similar to the Bristow cardi, so my guess is any photo taken at the moment would give it the honor being the second worst knitting photo ever.

#8 The car ferry socks

I made this one on our trip to Ludington to visit my mom last summer, which included 4 hours each way on the car ferry.

#9 Barb's Pomatomus

These have been dormant for almost two years. I have finally come to terms with the fact that while I loved knitting the first pair of Pomatomus socks, I have no interest in knitting a second pair. These will be frogged and turned into something that I will finish so that Barb doesn't have to listen to any more excuses about why the socks I am allegedly knitting for her have yet to appear.

#10 Pink socks


I started these last spring and then abandoned them. Interesting. I was knitting them on dpns, I think just to remind myself that I still like dpns, even though I mostly knit Magic Loop these days.

#11 Bright Stripes socks.


I love this yarn (it's some sort of Regia 4 ply). What I did not love was the discovery that I did not have the right number of stitches on the sole when I grafted the toe. I miscounted or something, and ended up with a foot 1/2 inch too big around. The sock has been in a time out since then. I appear to hold my grudges for a long time.

#12 Blue Tweed socks


This yarn makes reading my stitches nearly impossible, and the subtlety of the color changes makes finding the same starting point problematic. I would be okay with fraternal twin socks if all the stripes were blue, but there's one white stripe that would make the fraternal nature too obvious for my obsessive matchy-match syndrome. I'm not sure if I'll ever have the fortitude to knit the second sock.

#13 Poseidon

This was a fun sock to knit, and I did so on a cruise a couple years ago, but I never got around to finishing the cuff (I kept screwing it up and then as is my habit, I put the sock in a time out and forgot about it). I'm actually not sure where the sock is at the moment, so I present you with a photo of the kit.

Mittens
#14 Thrummed mittens

I knit the first mitten as the sample for a class I taught last fall, and then I worked on the second one while I taught the class. I got about 1/2 way through it, and then wandered off. Given this is incomplete item #14, this most likely comes as no surprise.

#15 Fleece Artist "Favourite mittens"


I made a pair of mittens from a different colorway (or "colourway," as they say in Canada) a few years ago for a friend of mine, and the yarn was a delight. I bought a second kit, thinking I would make these for my sister-in-law, who wears quite a bit of green. I ordered the yarn online, and the color wasn't quite what I expected so I didn't knit it up. This fall, I made the first mitten one day while watching NetFlix movies, but ended up with aching hands for several days after that. I'm still not sure if it was the fault of the yarn/needle combination, or just too much knitting in general (I was knitting like crazy this fall, getting Christmas gifts done). I also don't have an intended recipient, so these are pretty low on the priority list. Also, I think they're horribly ugly, so that's another point against it.

But, hey, I'm not a complete slacker. I finished my Koolhaas hat last night!*

One down, fifteen to go.

*And thus, my ability to knit cute hats continues, as does my inability to look good wearing them. Sigh.

Master Knitting Wednesday - Part 1

So today is Master Knitting Wednesday, which means I need to provide an update on my Level II progress, which I said I was going to do every Wednesday until I get this thing done.

First off...what the heck have I done so far? It's been since some time this past fall since I've had everything out and looked at it.

It's off to my "knitting office" to see where everything is...

Swatches
Panic time. I found a couple of ziploc bags on the floor (because where else would I keep this stuff) with a couple of swatches, but that was it. When I looked up in dispair to shake my fist and curse, I noticed a binder on my shelf labled "Master Hand Knitting Level II." Guess what was inside? Swatches 1-10 and 14-16! How organized is that?

Swatches 11-13 are not in the binder. Those are the lace swatches, and possibly the thing that's given me the most fits in this level. I have several done (that's what I found in the ziploc bags), but I'm not sure which (if any) are going into the binder. I want to submit things sufficiently complicated, and yet I'm not a big fan of lace knitting, so I'm not sure what I'm trying to prove. This whole process is about me learning and stretching myself, but there gets to be a point where I snap if I stretch too far.

Swatches 17-20 are the buttonhole swatches. I have several of each, all stuffed in a ziploc bag and none tagged. I found my hand written notes from what I did on the last reknit, but I will have to study them to see which swatches actually correspond with the notes. (Have I mentioned lately that detail is not my forte?)

I have two versions of Swatch 21, which is the picked up stitches for the simulated neck, and I have a couple of inset pockets (Swatch 22). They all look better than they looked to me when I was working on them last fall, and I'm fighting the urge to knit that pocket one more time.

Mostly what's missing are the sheets that are to be included with most swatches that describe the technique used, plus references. I somehow missed that instruction when I first knit everything, because I treated the swatch instructions as all about knitting, and the questions as being the related written work. I remember now ripping out all the seams in my swatches last fall to see what I had done when I had knit them the year before, because I couldn't remember.

Action:

• Figure out which buttonhole swatches are the ones I will submit.
• Make sure I have sheets in each of the swatch sheet protectors that have to identify the technique used for that swatch.
• Figure out if I am going to submit any of the existing lace swatches, and then select the patterns to be used for any swatches that still need to be knit.
• Select which of the Swatch 21 and 22 choices I will use

Questions
I have all 19 questions done, with the exception of #13, but that one is in rough draft.

Action: Finish answering question #13

Reviews
I have 2 book reviews done, with a 3rd started. There need to be 4 altogether.

Action:

• Finish 3rd Review
• Write 4th Review

Report
I have none of the history report done, although I've done plenty of reading. Which I will need to read again, because I didn't take notes. I'm not sure what I want to focus on in my report.

Action:

• Figure out focus of report
• Write the report

Projects
I have 2 of 1 argyle sock done. I actually wove in the ends and blocked the second one. There is one weird seamed stitch on one of the gussets that I have determined is due to me ripping back the gusset at some point, and then not getting the selvage stitch back on the needle correctly, so that when I seamed (using a 1/2 st on each side), it looks strange. The only way to fix it would be to rip the entire foot back to that point. I would rather acknowledge and explain the peculiarity in my notes. I can't imagine the sock would fail on that basis. There are plenty other worse things they could say about it.

I have 1 of 1 vest done (and beautifully so, I must say). I'm so proud of the vest. Provided I submit in time and get it back in time, I plan to enter it in the State Fair this year.

I have 2.5 of 1 Fair Isle mitten done. None to my satisfaction. I couldn't find any of them this afternoon. I did find two boxes full of yarn in the upstairs room I'm trying to pretend is a knitting office. I sorted through that tangled mess, which will soon go down to the basement craft room.

(Hey --I just got my YarnOver registration confirmation from the Minnesota Knitters' Guild in the mail today, and I'm taking Sally Melville's Two Colors, Two Hands class in the morning. Score! Of course, I'm hoping to have the binder sent off by then, but in the event the judges scorn my Fair Isle mitten, I will have new skilz to impress the judges when I resubmit. The other class is Joan Schrouder's Entry Level Entrelac, which I will need for Level III. Because I will finish Level II very soon.)

Action:

• Find partially completed 3rd Fair Isle Mitten
• Finish 3rd Fair Isle Mitten
• Stop angsting about the Fair Isle Mitten

To be clear, those action items are all the things that have to be done, as near as I can tell. I'm not going anywhere near the "proof read all tags" aspect until I get all that other stuff done. I'm too easily distracted and overwhelmed by thinking about that kind of detail before it's time to do so.

Photos would probably help here, wouldn't they? I will add later, if I remember. I have to make dinner now...

Man, oh Manon

Last spring, for my birthday, The World's Best Mother-in-law™ took me to lunch in NE Minneapolis and while we were waiting for our lunch to arrive at the table, she handed me a birthday card. Inside was a gift card (for a sizable amount) to a newish yarn shop I hadn't yet been to (Bella Lana). The shop is on the same block as the restaurant, so after lunch we stopped in and I got to see a shop filled with nothing but luxury yarns. I didn't mention that in addition to the gift card, she gave me a sizable amount of cash (in case I didn't want to spend it my whole gift all in one place). This is only one of many reasons why she is The World's Best Mother-in-law™.

I knew I wanted to knit Manon, but I didn't know how much yarn I needed, so the shop owner let me log onto Ravelry from her computer so I could look it up. I bought enough Sublime extra fine merino/silk/cashmere yarn to do the job, plus I got a new ball winder, as mine was not behaving, and went home, happy with my bag of charcoal yarny goodness and upgraded yarn winding capability.

I have used the ball winder countless times since then, but until a few days ago, I had done nothing about knitting my Manon. Okay, that's not entirely true. In September, I knit the center back triangle, but decided for some reason it wasn't satisfactory, so I ripped it out.


(This is the triangle I knit the other day, but it looks exactly like the one I knit in September.)

I think I thought the k2togs on the right edge looked big and sloppy. whereas the SSKs on the left edge were tighter. They looked exactly the same this time around, only I wasn't as anal about it. I was coming off a stint of working swatches for the Master Hand Knitting program and I tend to get perfectionistic at those times, which causes me to step away from the MHK program for a few months (without understanding why). I do this over and over again. My path to self-actualization is full of clueless detours. My unconscious self knows me far better than my conscious self. Perhaps I should spend more time being unconscious.

For now, I am knitting for pleasure and for myself. Here is the Manon so far:



The bottom half of the sweater is complete. I picked up the back waistband last night and worked about 2" (the part that's curled up along the center back) and I'm about to start the armhole decreases.

Here is a closer shot of the left triplet



I'm knitting for myself because on Friday night I distributed all the Christmas knitting I did at the end of October. The occasion was Christmas Dinner at a Restaurant with the Princesses. (It's a long story. Suffice it to say that we are all writers and all mentally about six years old. I am Princess Fiona.)

It was at dinner that I bestowed upon each princess a pair of Fetching fingerless mittens. I then forced them to model the mitts even though the cuffs were held together with yarn and a tag. You could say they were handcuffed.

Here we have Tina (Princess Xena), in a cobalt blue handpaint from Cascade


Monica, pronounced mo NEE ka (Princess Jasmine), in maroon Cashmerino from Debbie Bliss


Mary (Princes Leia) in Reynolds Odyssey (blues) 100% merino


Rosemary (Princess Buttercup) in Odyssey (purples)


Helen (Princess Wannabe) also in Odyssey (reds)


Chris (Princess Frostine) in Odyssey (greens)


Becky (Princess Aurora) in Odyssey (oranges)


Then there was Katie (Princess Quay of the Milky Way), who received sage green Cashmerino mitts. Katie's favorite color is red, and I knew it, but somehow while I was knitting all those Fetchings (including several extra pairs, because I couldn't stop myself), I didn't count up how many pairs of red mitts I needed and compare them with the number of princesses who love red. Instead I ended up with two extra pairs of green mitts, plus a twin to Tina's cobalt handpainted mitts.

I brought all the extras to the restaurant and told her if she wanted, she could exchange the sage Cashmerinos for whichever ones she wanted. She looked at the other choices in the dim light and decided she was happy with what I had given her until I told her there was one other choice. I pulled a Branching Out lace scarf in cranberry from my bag and before I could even explain what it was she said, "I'll take that!" and snatched it before I could blink.

Monica tried to protest, declaring the situation unfair, because she wanted the lace scarf. While Monica is famous for talking anyone into or out of anything, she had a tough time selling her point because a) she had received a pair of Fetchings in her favorite color (red) and b) she had laryngitis. Plus, I think if it came down to it, Katie could totally take Monica down. Through a flurry of hand gestures and notes written on the backs of receipts, Monica did manage to extract a promise from me to knit her a lace scarf for her 40th birthday, which is coming up in a few months. I guess she won after all. Hmm.

Here is Katie



I can't explain why this photo is so bad. One of us might have been the slightest bit tipsy when it was taken. We were, after all, in the wine cellar of Amore Victoria. Or maybe she was just drunk with happiness, because I let her keep the mitts, too.

I'm starting to think Katie and Monica are conspiring to achieve maximum hand knit acquisition.

Vestibular Knitting

Well, I failed miserably at the whole Ravelympics thing. I got my argyle sock done, but didn't even look at the yarn for my vest, nor did I finish the zipper installation for the Samus cardi.

However.

I did get started on the vest last week, and let me tell you, I was a machine.



I started with Eunny's Deep-V Argyle Vest pattern and using my powers of knitting conversion I did a reverse twist on the trick most knitters want to master: I took a perfectly fine pattern meant to be worked in the round in order to avoid pesky seams and converted it to be worked flat so that I could seam it. I also eliminated the two-color stranded knitting pattern and replaced it with plain stockinette on the back and a lace and cable pattern on the front. Stranded knitting is beautiful, but not my cup of tea. I love texture. Since I'm not a vest wearer by nature and I wanted to make something I would wear, I chose a vest shape I loved and added a stitch pattern I would have fun knitting.

Level II focuses on finishing techniques, much of which involves things like seaming and picking up stitches. The judges will accept vests that are knit in the round and steeked for traditional stitch patterns, so I think if I had done the two color stranded pattern, I would have been okay. The thing is, I've never done steeks, and I really didn't want my first steeking effort to be sent in for judging. I've seamed a million sweaters and I love knitting flat, so I basically tossed out Eunny's directions (although I did read through them, and that is one great pattern), and used the chart for the silhouette so I knew which rows to decrease and increase.

I swatched and worked out how to deal with the neck decreases eating up pattern stitches.



I made a spreadsheet that reminded me where cables crossed and where decreases and increases occurred, and which calculated exactly how many stitches the vest had, so I could feel assured that I had enough yarn.

Then I sat down in front of my computer and watched a series of fairly awful "Instant Play" movies from NetFlix while I knit.

Yesterday morning, I did this:



I had some help:


Cotton loves the smell of wet wool.

I like the look of the lace and cable design.


Today...let the seams begin! (I even have enough leftover yarn to seam using the light gray color)