In which I demonstrate how to recover from a dropped cast on stitch without ripping back and then I show four (count 'em - FOUR) ways to cast on in pattern. And then the video ends abruptly.
I really do intend to get better at this.
Also, apparently I forgot about Wednesday Master Knitting Update. I actually have made some progress (not a lot, but some), which I will try very hard to update you on next Wednesday. We'll see how that goes.
Meanwhile -- enjoy the video!
If anyone has further questions about the long tail cast on, or would like to see specific video tips they haven't seen anywhere else, leave your questions/requests in the comments or in the Rox Rocks group on Ravelry.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Sock it to the socks
Project update:
The good news: I've reduced the number of unfinished projects by two!
The bad news: I didn't actually finish those projects, I've just permanently abandoned them.
First, the red sock. I was working with Handmaiden Casbah, a delightful blend of superwash merino, cashmere and nylon, wonderfully soft and cozy. At 9 sts/in worked in stockinette, the yarn lost a lot of its charm. The sock was too stiff, not terribly stretchy, and the sock was plain boring. I wasn't having fun knitting it, and when I tried it on, it felt like it was cutting off the circulation at my calf. I'm thinking that if I knit a yarn of that thickness to a gauge that tight, I might not be able to have as much negative ease as I'm used to (an inch). So rather than finish the sock, and then never get around to the second one, I decided to frog and wait for Cookie A's sock book that's coming out this spring. I'll knit at a gauge more suitable to the yarn, and take advantage of the near-solid nature of the sock to use a great stitch pattern.
Second, the green mitten. God, I hate that mitten. I hate the color, I hate the mitten pattern that came with it, and I hate the resulting mitten. I can't think of any situation that would compel me to make another one.
So, what have I actually made progress on? Well, I worked on the pink sock yesterday, while at the Minnesota Knitters' Guild annual tea.
Mostly, I've been working on Nina's bedroom. All painting is complete, the shades have been re-hung, the closet is finished, the curtains have been hemmed and hung, and the fabric has been washed, ironed and cut for the slipcover I'm making for the couch that will go in her room. She set up her old bed (it'll be a few weeks before the new one arrives), but she has the new bedside tables and lamps in place.
many hours later...
The couch slip cover is complete. I'm pretty happy with it,.
and Nina is too, which is a relief.
The good news: I've reduced the number of unfinished projects by two!
The bad news: I didn't actually finish those projects, I've just permanently abandoned them.
First, the red sock. I was working with Handmaiden Casbah, a delightful blend of superwash merino, cashmere and nylon, wonderfully soft and cozy. At 9 sts/in worked in stockinette, the yarn lost a lot of its charm. The sock was too stiff, not terribly stretchy, and the sock was plain boring. I wasn't having fun knitting it, and when I tried it on, it felt like it was cutting off the circulation at my calf. I'm thinking that if I knit a yarn of that thickness to a gauge that tight, I might not be able to have as much negative ease as I'm used to (an inch). So rather than finish the sock, and then never get around to the second one, I decided to frog and wait for Cookie A's sock book that's coming out this spring. I'll knit at a gauge more suitable to the yarn, and take advantage of the near-solid nature of the sock to use a great stitch pattern.
Second, the green mitten. God, I hate that mitten. I hate the color, I hate the mitten pattern that came with it, and I hate the resulting mitten. I can't think of any situation that would compel me to make another one.
So, what have I actually made progress on? Well, I worked on the pink sock yesterday, while at the Minnesota Knitters' Guild annual tea.
Mostly, I've been working on Nina's bedroom. All painting is complete, the shades have been re-hung, the closet is finished, the curtains have been hemmed and hung, and the fabric has been washed, ironed and cut for the slipcover I'm making for the couch that will go in her room. She set up her old bed (it'll be a few weeks before the new one arrives), but she has the new bedside tables and lamps in place.
many hours later...
The couch slip cover is complete. I'm pretty happy with it,.
and Nina is too, which is a relief.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Friday Video - I did it!
I am still fighting with Windows Movie Maker, although we have come to an agreement in which I copy the AVI files from my digital camera to my laptop, import them into individual WMM projects save them each as a WMV file, then re-import them into WMM in order to use several of these video files together with the wmv files my web cam creats into one Movie Maker Project that I can edit and save without my laptop blowing up. Which I then save as one big wmv.
It's not very elegant.
I realize there are issues with different sound levels depending on which camera I was using, and I realize I'm not the smoothest talker and I have an annoying habit of tsking at the beginning of every sentence. Also, I could use some hand cream. Nothing like filming your hands with the macro setting to make that abundantly clear.
I'll work on it.
I'm just so delighted that I *did* this. It's not easy to knit yourself a movie!
It's not very elegant.
I realize there are issues with different sound levels depending on which camera I was using, and I realize I'm not the smoothest talker and I have an annoying habit of tsking at the beginning of every sentence. Also, I could use some hand cream. Nothing like filming your hands with the macro setting to make that abundantly clear.
I'll work on it.
I'm just so delighted that I *did* this. It's not easy to knit yourself a movie!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Behinder and behinder
Yesterday was supposed to be Master Hand Knitting update day, but apparently I'm still thrown off by the Presidents' Day weekend.
Progress: I wrote one paragraph for one of the knitting book reviews. Whoop dee doo.
I also went to Home Depot for the 18th time in the past week. I seem to have some sort of measuring deficit disorder.
Nina's closet door is six feet wide. Inside the closet, to the right, is a recessed area two feet deep that was formerly occupied by a built-in dresser. We pulled out the dresser (the drawers always stuck, so she never used them) and she wanted a closet rod installed crosswise in that little alcove. So I measured it. Twice, because that's what you're supposed to do, and I wrote the measurement down. I used a measuring tape I don't like, but it was the only one I could find. Every foot, it starts the inch count again, so if you want to know the total inches you have to do the conversion yourself. This is not difficult for me. I am so good at mental math that as a sixth grader, when my brother and I rode our bikes to the grocery store to do the weekly shopping, I would add up the grocery total in my head as we went through the aisles, to make sure we had enough money for everything. I was accurate down to the penny, including the tax on taxable items. (We had a single mother who was re-writing her PhD dissertation while in her first semester of medical school. Grocery shopping was the least we could do.) Nina's closet is 27" deep. I know this, because I measured it twice. And wrote it down.
I went to Home Depot to the Closet Maid aisle and got a 3' closet rod. I asked one of the workers to cut it down to 26 1/2" inches. I planned to put caps on the ends of the rod, and wanted enough clearance in case the wall width varied anywhere. I also got a 6' shelf cut down so I had 2 26 1/2" shelves. And I bought a 3' hang track which I would have to cut down myself with a hack saw.
I carefully measured the hang track, marked it, and sawed off the end. I took it to the closet and held it up against the wall. It was too short by about 3" on each end. I measured the track. 26 1/2". What the heck? I had Michael measure the closet depth. 2 feet 7 inches. It seems I somehow forgot that a foot has twelve inches. Michael charitably proposed that perhaps I thought the U.S. had actually converted to the decimal system. So back to Home Depot.
I'm not going to go into how I bought a 6' closet rod to hang curtains which will replace her closet door and came home with a rod 5'8" long.
Progress: I wrote one paragraph for one of the knitting book reviews. Whoop dee doo.
I also went to Home Depot for the 18th time in the past week. I seem to have some sort of measuring deficit disorder.
Nina's closet door is six feet wide. Inside the closet, to the right, is a recessed area two feet deep that was formerly occupied by a built-in dresser. We pulled out the dresser (the drawers always stuck, so she never used them) and she wanted a closet rod installed crosswise in that little alcove. So I measured it. Twice, because that's what you're supposed to do, and I wrote the measurement down. I used a measuring tape I don't like, but it was the only one I could find. Every foot, it starts the inch count again, so if you want to know the total inches you have to do the conversion yourself. This is not difficult for me. I am so good at mental math that as a sixth grader, when my brother and I rode our bikes to the grocery store to do the weekly shopping, I would add up the grocery total in my head as we went through the aisles, to make sure we had enough money for everything. I was accurate down to the penny, including the tax on taxable items. (We had a single mother who was re-writing her PhD dissertation while in her first semester of medical school. Grocery shopping was the least we could do.) Nina's closet is 27" deep. I know this, because I measured it twice. And wrote it down.
I went to Home Depot to the Closet Maid aisle and got a 3' closet rod. I asked one of the workers to cut it down to 26 1/2" inches. I planned to put caps on the ends of the rod, and wanted enough clearance in case the wall width varied anywhere. I also got a 6' shelf cut down so I had 2 26 1/2" shelves. And I bought a 3' hang track which I would have to cut down myself with a hack saw.
I carefully measured the hang track, marked it, and sawed off the end. I took it to the closet and held it up against the wall. It was too short by about 3" on each end. I measured the track. 26 1/2". What the heck? I had Michael measure the closet depth. 2 feet 7 inches. It seems I somehow forgot that a foot has twelve inches. Michael charitably proposed that perhaps I thought the U.S. had actually converted to the decimal system. So back to Home Depot.
I'm not going to go into how I bought a 6' closet rod to hang curtains which will replace her closet door and came home with a rod 5'8" long.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
What I did on my Presidents' Day vacation
So I realize today isn't Monday, but yesterday was President's Day, the kids were home and we were working on a big weekend family project, which is still in progress.
Before
(these are actually the after pictures from the last time we did this particular project)
The girl in that photo had just turned 10 years old.
She is now 14 and has very different ideas about what her room needs to look like. Her plans included painting parts of her room black. So this weekend, we painted. And so far, the room looks like this:
Tonight we will install the closet shelving system. Over the next few weeks various other things will arrive to fill the room, such as a new bed, bedside tables and lamps (courtesy of Nana, aka The World's Best Mother-in-Law™, who is moving to new digs), curtains to cover the now-doorless closet, plus a new bedroom door with mirror. We have a few things left to pick out, like an area rug for the floor. Her dresser is moving into the closet, so she's going to have more floor space and will need another piece of furniture, such as a chair or couch (we just haven't decided which of the two pieces we have will look best yet.)
In knitting news, I finished the I-cord edging for the garter stitch blanket and wove in the ends. What a difference the I-cord made -- the rippled edges are gone, and it looks great. I still need to wash it to give it a final finished blocking, but that will have to wait for another day.
Before
(these are actually the after pictures from the last time we did this particular project)
The girl in that photo had just turned 10 years old.
She is now 14 and has very different ideas about what her room needs to look like. Her plans included painting parts of her room black. So this weekend, we painted. And so far, the room looks like this:
Tonight we will install the closet shelving system. Over the next few weeks various other things will arrive to fill the room, such as a new bed, bedside tables and lamps (courtesy of Nana, aka The World's Best Mother-in-Law™, who is moving to new digs), curtains to cover the now-doorless closet, plus a new bedroom door with mirror. We have a few things left to pick out, like an area rug for the floor. Her dresser is moving into the closet, so she's going to have more floor space and will need another piece of furniture, such as a chair or couch (we just haven't decided which of the two pieces we have will look best yet.)
In knitting news, I finished the I-cord edging for the garter stitch blanket and wove in the ends. What a difference the I-cord made -- the rippled edges are gone, and it looks great. I still need to wash it to give it a final finished blocking, but that will have to wait for another day.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
First Friday Video Failure
So you may have noticed I didn't post a video yesterday. Apparently, Windows Movie Maker is not a real, working piece of software. It merely pretends it is. If I want to edit wmv files, I merely have to endure random software crashes. If I want to introduce some AVI files, well, I can hardly expect the program to play video at a particular starting point, now, can I? I also can't expect the software to show moving pictures. That's just silly.
Crashing software makes Mommy cranky, so you can imagine how the rest of my day went after I was recruited to drive three 7th graders to Mall of America to buy an outfit for a party and one 9th grader to IKEA to buy bedroom accessories (we're painting her room this weekend).
It appears I will be using iMovie, which is on the Mac Mini which is attached to our "media room" system. This means I will be able to use the actual knitting video I shot, but none of the webcam video. It also means learning to use a new piece of software, which wouldn't be so bad, except did I mention the Mac Mini is attached to the media room equipment? This is the same equipment that requires three remote controls and the memory of an elephant in order to remember how to turn the system on so I can watch live TV.
This ought to be fun.
Crashing software makes Mommy cranky, so you can imagine how the rest of my day went after I was recruited to drive three 7th graders to Mall of America to buy an outfit for a party and one 9th grader to IKEA to buy bedroom accessories (we're painting her room this weekend).
It appears I will be using iMovie, which is on the Mac Mini which is attached to our "media room" system. This means I will be able to use the actual knitting video I shot, but none of the webcam video. It also means learning to use a new piece of software, which wouldn't be so bad, except did I mention the Mac Mini is attached to the media room equipment? This is the same equipment that requires three remote controls and the memory of an elephant in order to remember how to turn the system on so I can watch live TV.
This ought to be fun.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
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:
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:
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:
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:
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...
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...
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Outline Stitch Bind off
I'm having a printer crisis, which is going to be a problem for one of the knitters in my Reversible Cabled Scarf class tonight, because I have 4 students, but only 3 handouts and my printer wants to print only on the left side of the page, in weird colors. This is a problem, given my photos are on the left and the text on the right.
So in an attempt to make it up to one of those students, I'm posting a slightly modified version of handout for the Outline Stitch Bind off, also known as the "Casting-On/Cast Off."
The edge of a long tail cast on is made up of a series of backwards loops that resemble cursive letter e's strung together.
The Outline Stitch bind off is a type of sewn bind off that matches the long tail cast on. If you're knitting a scarf, or other item that has both the cast on and bind off edges exposed, it's a nice technique to have. (Note: when I say this is a "type" of sewn bind off, I mean just that. It's not the bind off known as "the" sewn bind off, which produces a different edge. Incidentally, the tubular bind off is also a type of sewn bind off.)
The bottom set of blue loops represents the backwards loop portion of the long tail cast on (the part created from the long tail hanging over your thumb). The "heads" of those loops wrap around the base of the stitches above them. At the top of the drawing is the path of the Outline Stitch bind off, which (if you turn the picture upside down) wraps around the base of those stitches. In truth, the loops wrap around one leg of one stitch and one leg of the stitch next to it, so (as with grafting pieces together that were knit in opposite directions), the bind off is actually a 1/2 stitch off from the cast on.
Here's how to do it:
Work the last RS row of your fabric (assuming the smooth side of the cast on is the RS). Keep the side just worked facing you.
Cut a length of yarn 3 times the width of the area to be bound off.
Thread the yarn through a tapestry or darning needle.
Hold the yarn above the knitting needle. Insert the darning needle down through the center of the 2nd stitch ...
..and up through the center of the 1st stitch.
Let the 1st stitch come off the needle.
Make sure you hold the yarn up above the knitting needle and out of the way of the threaded needle that's being pulled through the loops. You don't want to pull that threaded needle through the big loop of yarn, the way it's shown in the photo below.
If you're just the teensiest brave and you can see your stitch orientation, you can pull the knitting needle right out and sew directly into the loops.
If it looks sloppy when you're finished...
...tighten up the loops, starting at the left edge and pulling gently on each loop.
>Does it really match the cast on edge?Depends on which side you look at
Garter and Seed Stitch
and seed stitch isn't bad, either
Stockinette looks great on both sides
And ribbing looks pretty good.
That's all for now -- I have to eat and then head over to the yarn shop!
So in an attempt to make it up to one of those students, I'm posting a slightly modified version of handout for the Outline Stitch Bind off, also known as the "Casting-On/Cast Off."
The edge of a long tail cast on is made up of a series of backwards loops that resemble cursive letter e's strung together.
The Outline Stitch bind off is a type of sewn bind off that matches the long tail cast on. If you're knitting a scarf, or other item that has both the cast on and bind off edges exposed, it's a nice technique to have. (Note: when I say this is a "type" of sewn bind off, I mean just that. It's not the bind off known as "the" sewn bind off, which produces a different edge. Incidentally, the tubular bind off is also a type of sewn bind off.)
The bottom set of blue loops represents the backwards loop portion of the long tail cast on (the part created from the long tail hanging over your thumb). The "heads" of those loops wrap around the base of the stitches above them. At the top of the drawing is the path of the Outline Stitch bind off, which (if you turn the picture upside down) wraps around the base of those stitches. In truth, the loops wrap around one leg of one stitch and one leg of the stitch next to it, so (as with grafting pieces together that were knit in opposite directions), the bind off is actually a 1/2 stitch off from the cast on.
Here's how to do it:
Work the last RS row of your fabric (assuming the smooth side of the cast on is the RS). Keep the side just worked facing you.
Cut a length of yarn 3 times the width of the area to be bound off.
Thread the yarn through a tapestry or darning needle.
Hold the yarn above the knitting needle. Insert the darning needle down through the center of the 2nd stitch ...
..and up through the center of the 1st stitch.
Let the 1st stitch come off the needle.
Repeat across the row, inserting down through the center of the 2nd stitch and up through the center of the 1st stitch, then letting the 1st stitch come off the needle.
Make sure you hold the yarn up above the knitting needle and out of the way of the threaded needle that's being pulled through the loops. You don't want to pull that threaded needle through the big loop of yarn, the way it's shown in the photo below.
If you're just the teensiest brave and you can see your stitch orientation, you can pull the knitting needle right out and sew directly into the loops.
If it looks sloppy when you're finished...
...tighten up the loops, starting at the left edge and pulling gently on each loop.
>Does it really match the cast on edge?Depends on which side you look at
Garter and Seed Stitch
Not so great from the “smooth side” of the cast on/bind off, as the top row is knits, interrupting the continuity of the stitch pattern.
From the back side, garter looks good
and seed stitch isn't bad, either
Stockinette looks great on both sides
And ribbing looks pretty good.
That's all for now -- I have to eat and then head over to the yarn shop!
Monday, February 09, 2009
What's going on in my knitting bag
Excuse me while I blow the dust off this blog...
I started this blog a few years ago so that I could keep track of my projects. I'd been knitting for 20 years and had almost no photographic evidence of the hundreds of items I'd knit. The blog was a big help to me in keeping track of what I was working on, but I was never a prolific blogger, and there were plenty of projects that never got documented. Then Ravelry came along, and my whole world changed. It's easier for me to track my projects as complete units, keep notes I can refer back to, but I also love the Techniques forum, where I get to share what I know about knitting with people who want to hear what I have to say.
In the meantime, the blog has suffered. That's about to change, because now I have a way to use my blog differently than I have in the past, but also in a way that is different from what Ravelry does for me.
I'm going to try to blog three times a week. On Mondays, I'm going to do show and tell on my projects in progress. Wednesdays are going to be Master Knitting Wednesday, at least until I finish Level II, because I'm close to the end, but I have some loose ends to finish up (and some writing), and I just want the thing done with. Early April will mark 2 years since I began, and I'd like to finish before then. On Fridays, I'm going to try video blogging, demonstrating various knitting tricks and tips. I have some ideas about how to make knitting videos different than they usually are. Hopefully, they'll be interesting and informative, too.
So here's what I'm working on at the moment:
Koolhaas Hat, in Mission Falls 1824 wool, color 029 (it's a nice raspberry red).
It's been a year or so since I've knit any 1x1 cables, and these are mostly a ktbl over a purl, so it took me a round of doing that with a cable needle to realize I would never last through the entire hat if I didn't remind myself of how to cable without a cable needle. (Hey, maybe that will be my first Friday video tip!) Next time I take a photo, it will be better. Can you see the purple Magic Loop cable in my hair, and the needles stitcking out of the back of my head?
Next up is the Garter Stitch Blanket from Elizabeth Zimmermann's The Opinionated Knitter. I started this monster at the end of December, and finished the knitting in just a couple weeks. I used two strands of Great Wool bulky from my knitting buddy, Julie, who has a sheep farm up in Sauk Centre. Her sheep are Rambouillet ("French merino"), and I have to agree they produce "great wool." The yarn has a wonderful springiness to it that makes it fun to knit.
This weekend I seamed the pieces together. I had some help
Sometimes, I had too much help.
It's hard to seam when the dog is lying on your crochet hook. At about 1/2" thick, this is one comfy spot to sleep.
Here's the whole thing seamed, but without ends woven in.
I still need to work attached i-cord around the circumference, then wash and block the thing, as it's a bit rippled. It weighs about 5 pounds at this point, so it's not a portable project.
I think I will love this blanket for its warmth and cushiness. I liked the puzzle piece aspect of this afghan, but I wasn't crazy about EZ's instructions. While I wholeheartedly endorse her efforts to teach knitters to think, she doesn't always do a good job explaining what *she* was thinking when she used a certain design element, which I think is important when the design is so unusual. I love to think for myself, and substitute design elements, but the reason for some of her design choices weren't clear to me even after I swatched alternatives, so I made some changes, and then later realized what she was thinking, and why.
The biggest problem was the matter of the selvages. EZ suggests slipping the first stitch of every row and purling the last stitch in order to give the edge a nice chain effect. This works if you slip knitwise, which is a common, but not obvious choice for selvages. Her method of seaming these edges didn't appeal to me when I tried it on a swatch, and since I've had some experience seaming garter stitch edges flat with a nice result, I decided to do that. It wasn't until later, when I realized I would be seaming cast on and bind off edges to side edges, not just edges to edges, that I realized my potential mistake. EZ's method would provide a 1:1 chain match up for seaming, whereas I had some ridged edges and some chained edges. On the other hand, I still didn't like her method of seaming, so I pushed on, deciding this was a freaking afghan for the basement, not an heirloom, so I would figure out the seaming later. I searched around Ravelry, and saw brooklyntweed/Jared Flood's method of single crocheting the seams and decided to try that. I used one strand of the bulky for the seams, and tried a few ways to seam: by incorporating both legs of both edge stitches in the seam, just one leg of each edge, and finally, one leg of a garter stitch edge with both loops of a bind off chain.
In the end, I chose to seam only one leg of any given garter stitch edge to another edge. When the other edge was a cast off chain, however, I did use both legs of the chain. If I used just one leg of the cast off chain, the other leg was obvious on the reverse side, which wasn't true of the garter stitch edge.
But wait, there's more
Before I crocheted the seams on the afghan, I decided to become better at crocheting. I tried to learn last summer, but I chose the wrong project (and wrong yarn) to start with, and gave up. This time, I worked through learning all the basic stitches: slip stitch, single crochet, half double, double, triple, and double triple. I'm using Crocheting for Dummies as my reference. I find it speaks to me in exactly the way I like, particularly as someone who is starting from absolutely no background in crochet. Every question I have is answered and explained thoroughly.
So here's my crochet project: a stash busting afghan
I'm using worsted yarn from my stash (I got some help from Nina to make sure the colors I chose worked together), and most evenings I do a row or two before bed. Since I learned to crochet, I've been studying the crocheted acrylic ripple afghan my paternal grandmother made that I've had since high school. The ripple pattern is slightly different than the one I'm using, so I had fun figuring out how she did hers. In the process, I realized Granny didn't crochet "correctly." She crocheted every row by going through the chain (just like you have to on the first row) , rather than under both loops of the chain. It's still good work, but it took me a while to figure out why my double crochet didn't look quite the same as Granny's. I kept thinking I must be doing something wrong!
There's one more project on my needles at the moment, a sock in a merino/cashmere/nylon yarn, but I seem to have misplaced it. I thought it was a nice contrast at 9 sts/in to the 2 sts/in garter stitch bohemoth. Must locate.
That's all for now. See you Wednesday for my Master Knitting update!
I started this blog a few years ago so that I could keep track of my projects. I'd been knitting for 20 years and had almost no photographic evidence of the hundreds of items I'd knit. The blog was a big help to me in keeping track of what I was working on, but I was never a prolific blogger, and there were plenty of projects that never got documented. Then Ravelry came along, and my whole world changed. It's easier for me to track my projects as complete units, keep notes I can refer back to, but I also love the Techniques forum, where I get to share what I know about knitting with people who want to hear what I have to say.
In the meantime, the blog has suffered. That's about to change, because now I have a way to use my blog differently than I have in the past, but also in a way that is different from what Ravelry does for me.
I'm going to try to blog three times a week. On Mondays, I'm going to do show and tell on my projects in progress. Wednesdays are going to be Master Knitting Wednesday, at least until I finish Level II, because I'm close to the end, but I have some loose ends to finish up (and some writing), and I just want the thing done with. Early April will mark 2 years since I began, and I'd like to finish before then. On Fridays, I'm going to try video blogging, demonstrating various knitting tricks and tips. I have some ideas about how to make knitting videos different than they usually are. Hopefully, they'll be interesting and informative, too.
So here's what I'm working on at the moment:
Koolhaas Hat, in Mission Falls 1824 wool, color 029 (it's a nice raspberry red).
It's been a year or so since I've knit any 1x1 cables, and these are mostly a ktbl over a purl, so it took me a round of doing that with a cable needle to realize I would never last through the entire hat if I didn't remind myself of how to cable without a cable needle. (Hey, maybe that will be my first Friday video tip!) Next time I take a photo, it will be better. Can you see the purple Magic Loop cable in my hair, and the needles stitcking out of the back of my head?
Next up is the Garter Stitch Blanket from Elizabeth Zimmermann's The Opinionated Knitter. I started this monster at the end of December, and finished the knitting in just a couple weeks. I used two strands of Great Wool bulky from my knitting buddy, Julie, who has a sheep farm up in Sauk Centre. Her sheep are Rambouillet ("French merino"), and I have to agree they produce "great wool." The yarn has a wonderful springiness to it that makes it fun to knit.
This weekend I seamed the pieces together. I had some help
Sometimes, I had too much help.
It's hard to seam when the dog is lying on your crochet hook. At about 1/2" thick, this is one comfy spot to sleep.
Here's the whole thing seamed, but without ends woven in.
I still need to work attached i-cord around the circumference, then wash and block the thing, as it's a bit rippled. It weighs about 5 pounds at this point, so it's not a portable project.
I think I will love this blanket for its warmth and cushiness. I liked the puzzle piece aspect of this afghan, but I wasn't crazy about EZ's instructions. While I wholeheartedly endorse her efforts to teach knitters to think, she doesn't always do a good job explaining what *she* was thinking when she used a certain design element, which I think is important when the design is so unusual. I love to think for myself, and substitute design elements, but the reason for some of her design choices weren't clear to me even after I swatched alternatives, so I made some changes, and then later realized what she was thinking, and why.
The biggest problem was the matter of the selvages. EZ suggests slipping the first stitch of every row and purling the last stitch in order to give the edge a nice chain effect. This works if you slip knitwise, which is a common, but not obvious choice for selvages. Her method of seaming these edges didn't appeal to me when I tried it on a swatch, and since I've had some experience seaming garter stitch edges flat with a nice result, I decided to do that. It wasn't until later, when I realized I would be seaming cast on and bind off edges to side edges, not just edges to edges, that I realized my potential mistake. EZ's method would provide a 1:1 chain match up for seaming, whereas I had some ridged edges and some chained edges. On the other hand, I still didn't like her method of seaming, so I pushed on, deciding this was a freaking afghan for the basement, not an heirloom, so I would figure out the seaming later. I searched around Ravelry, and saw brooklyntweed/Jared Flood's method of single crocheting the seams and decided to try that. I used one strand of the bulky for the seams, and tried a few ways to seam: by incorporating both legs of both edge stitches in the seam, just one leg of each edge, and finally, one leg of a garter stitch edge with both loops of a bind off chain.
In the end, I chose to seam only one leg of any given garter stitch edge to another edge. When the other edge was a cast off chain, however, I did use both legs of the chain. If I used just one leg of the cast off chain, the other leg was obvious on the reverse side, which wasn't true of the garter stitch edge.
But wait, there's more
Before I crocheted the seams on the afghan, I decided to become better at crocheting. I tried to learn last summer, but I chose the wrong project (and wrong yarn) to start with, and gave up. This time, I worked through learning all the basic stitches: slip stitch, single crochet, half double, double, triple, and double triple. I'm using Crocheting for Dummies as my reference. I find it speaks to me in exactly the way I like, particularly as someone who is starting from absolutely no background in crochet. Every question I have is answered and explained thoroughly.
So here's my crochet project: a stash busting afghan
I'm using worsted yarn from my stash (I got some help from Nina to make sure the colors I chose worked together), and most evenings I do a row or two before bed. Since I learned to crochet, I've been studying the crocheted acrylic ripple afghan my paternal grandmother made that I've had since high school. The ripple pattern is slightly different than the one I'm using, so I had fun figuring out how she did hers. In the process, I realized Granny didn't crochet "correctly." She crocheted every row by going through the chain (just like you have to on the first row) , rather than under both loops of the chain. It's still good work, but it took me a while to figure out why my double crochet didn't look quite the same as Granny's. I kept thinking I must be doing something wrong!
There's one more project on my needles at the moment, a sock in a merino/cashmere/nylon yarn, but I seem to have misplaced it. I thought it was a nice contrast at 9 sts/in to the 2 sts/in garter stitch bohemoth. Must locate.
That's all for now. See you Wednesday for my Master Knitting update!
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Merry Manon
I decided to handle re-knitting the Manon in a somewhat systematic way. First, there was no way I could just rip it all out, even though I was pretty sure I was going to re-knit the whole thing.
Instead, I started by ripping out the top back and front stockinette sections and then knitting the center back triangle with that yarn to see what sort of difference that would make in the size and drape of just that piece. Turned out I liked it quite a bit more, so I cast on for the right triplet and picked up stitches along the right side of the center triangle. I finished the right triplet before I ran out of yarn.
Here's how the original, too-drapey, wrong gauge peplum looks next to the new, improved, just-right drape, correct gauge peplum. Or rather, how the new peplum looks on top of the old one.
Here's an up-close look at the original center triangle
And here's a look at the new center triangle
It's really hard to see a difference unless you hold it in your hand. With the original one, it felt like it would end up stretching out over time. The new one feels like it will hold its shape.
I made one change to the pattern based on two things: the way the picked up stitches for the stockinette looked in the original knit job, and another knitter's modification that made that transition point look better.
After you work the back triangle, you're supposed to cast on a mess of stitches, which will be the base for the horizontal ribbing for the right front as well as the two triangles that are not attached to the center triangle. Then you pick up stitches along the right side of the center triangle, which will become the base for the third triangle of the right triplet, and then you cast on 18 more stitches, which will be for the ribbing across the right side of the back of the sweater. The pick up row is a RS row. On the following row, the pattern says to establish the 18-stitch ribbing by working (p1, k1) 9 times. That would give you a knit column for the selvedge on the RS, and would give you a purl column next to the edge of the adjacent triangle. When you then go to pick up stitches across the ribbing selvedge, that knit column ends up on the inside of the sweater, and the stockinette transitions from the purl column. Here's a really crappy picture of how that looks:
That purl column ends up looking like a sloppy pick up. The notes I read from another knitter showed that she changed the ribbing so that it was established on the WS as (k1, p1), which meant the selvedge column on the RS was a purl column. This puts the stockinette at right angles to a knit column, giving a much neater appearance. It also puts a knit column adjacent to the edge of the triangle.
There was one other thing that had bugged me the first time I knit it, and which sent me back again and again to check the instructions the second time to confirm I wasn't missing something. The center back triangle has 3 garter ridges at the base (6 rows), but the triplets have a base of only 2 garter ridges. I went ahead and knit it this way, even though it bugged me and it wasn't until I was well into the second triplet that I looked closely at the photographs illustrating the pattern. The photograph clearly shows 3 garter ridges on the triplet. The inset photo showing the back detail also shows that the ribbing was worked as (k1, p1), not as the specified (p1, k1). The errata for the pattern only corrects stitch counts for the right triplet, and not these two other errors, neither of which affects the shaping of the garment, but only some fairly minor aesthetic details.
Onward and upward. I'm well into the left triplet now. I had to rip out the original peplum in order to recover the yarn to do it, so all that is left of my original knitting are photos. I expect to finish the left triplet some time tonight, and then it's on to the stockinette back...
Instead, I started by ripping out the top back and front stockinette sections and then knitting the center back triangle with that yarn to see what sort of difference that would make in the size and drape of just that piece. Turned out I liked it quite a bit more, so I cast on for the right triplet and picked up stitches along the right side of the center triangle. I finished the right triplet before I ran out of yarn.
Here's how the original, too-drapey, wrong gauge peplum looks next to the new, improved, just-right drape, correct gauge peplum. Or rather, how the new peplum looks on top of the old one.
Here's an up-close look at the original center triangle
And here's a look at the new center triangle
It's really hard to see a difference unless you hold it in your hand. With the original one, it felt like it would end up stretching out over time. The new one feels like it will hold its shape.
I made one change to the pattern based on two things: the way the picked up stitches for the stockinette looked in the original knit job, and another knitter's modification that made that transition point look better.
After you work the back triangle, you're supposed to cast on a mess of stitches, which will be the base for the horizontal ribbing for the right front as well as the two triangles that are not attached to the center triangle. Then you pick up stitches along the right side of the center triangle, which will become the base for the third triangle of the right triplet, and then you cast on 18 more stitches, which will be for the ribbing across the right side of the back of the sweater. The pick up row is a RS row. On the following row, the pattern says to establish the 18-stitch ribbing by working (p1, k1) 9 times. That would give you a knit column for the selvedge on the RS, and would give you a purl column next to the edge of the adjacent triangle. When you then go to pick up stitches across the ribbing selvedge, that knit column ends up on the inside of the sweater, and the stockinette transitions from the purl column. Here's a really crappy picture of how that looks:
That purl column ends up looking like a sloppy pick up. The notes I read from another knitter showed that she changed the ribbing so that it was established on the WS as (k1, p1), which meant the selvedge column on the RS was a purl column. This puts the stockinette at right angles to a knit column, giving a much neater appearance. It also puts a knit column adjacent to the edge of the triangle.
There was one other thing that had bugged me the first time I knit it, and which sent me back again and again to check the instructions the second time to confirm I wasn't missing something. The center back triangle has 3 garter ridges at the base (6 rows), but the triplets have a base of only 2 garter ridges. I went ahead and knit it this way, even though it bugged me and it wasn't until I was well into the second triplet that I looked closely at the photographs illustrating the pattern. The photograph clearly shows 3 garter ridges on the triplet. The inset photo showing the back detail also shows that the ribbing was worked as (k1, p1), not as the specified (p1, k1). The errata for the pattern only corrects stitch counts for the right triplet, and not these two other errors, neither of which affects the shaping of the garment, but only some fairly minor aesthetic details.
Onward and upward. I'm well into the left triplet now. I had to rip out the original peplum in order to recover the yarn to do it, so all that is left of my original knitting are photos. I expect to finish the left triplet some time tonight, and then it's on to the stockinette back...
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
The way I knit, sometimes
Like many knitters, I'm self-taught. I learned to knit while I was living and working in Ireland, back in 1986. There wasn't much to do in the evenings other than huddle around the coal-fed fireplace and watch television. The biggest excitement was when the electricity ran down and we had to feed another 50p into the meter.
One Sunday, my life changed forever. One of my flatmates came home from a weekend in County Meath, where her parents lived, and she was knitting a sweater. I wanted in on that action.
When I got paid that week, I went to the department store near where I worked and bought a pattern and yarn. (Isn't that cool that you could by yarn in the department store?). I had learned to knit when I was in 5th grade during "X Period," a once-a-month afternoon where we could sign up to do a fun activity, but then, as now, garter stitch didn't excite me, so I abandoned it, not knowing what else I could do.
In Dublin, though, I had three flatmates who all knew how to knit, having been taught by nuns (and corrected with a ruler smack if they didn't hold their hands just so) My flatmates showed me how to cast on using the knitting on method, and corrected me when I wrapped the yarn in the wrong direction, without the use of corporal punishment.
Then the weekend came, and they all left town again, and I wanted to learn how to purl. So I went to the bookstore and found a book on knitting. I had spent that week's disposable income on yarn and needles, so I couldn't afford to buy the book, so I studied the pictures, trying to understand exactly what to do. By the time they all returned Sunday evening, my hands were cramped and my neck hurt, but I had managed to cast on and make progress on the bottom k1p1 ribbing.
I learned a lot from books and patterns after that, as I was good at following directions (I even helped my flatmate with her sweater when it came time to do simultaneous neck and shoulder shaping), but what I never managed to do was get the yarn tensioned around the fingers of my right hand so that I could hold the needles and wrap the yarn for stitches. What I did instead was to develop a style of knitting that worked for me, which was to avoid holding the right needle at all. I anchored the right needle at the junction of my hip and thigh. The nuns would never have approved.
I still use this method when I knit flat (I knit continental with dpns and circs) and I find it extremely comfortable, physically. The weight of the knitting is held by the needle, not my hands, so I don't get fatigued, and I have nice, even tension. Because my right hand isn't holding the needle, it is free to do other work. The yarn is tensioned against the palm of my hand with my ring and pinky fingers. When I wrap the yarn, my thumb and index finger take over tensioning the yarn while my index and middle fingers do the job of wrapping the yarn. When the stitch is finished, the yarn is back in my palm, held there by those ring and pinky fingers while my other fingers move the new stitches down the needle shaft.
Here's a video of me working a row of k3, p3
I won't win any speed contests, but it's efficient enough, and as I mentioned, very comfortable physically.
One Sunday, my life changed forever. One of my flatmates came home from a weekend in County Meath, where her parents lived, and she was knitting a sweater. I wanted in on that action.
When I got paid that week, I went to the department store near where I worked and bought a pattern and yarn. (Isn't that cool that you could by yarn in the department store?). I had learned to knit when I was in 5th grade during "X Period," a once-a-month afternoon where we could sign up to do a fun activity, but then, as now, garter stitch didn't excite me, so I abandoned it, not knowing what else I could do.
In Dublin, though, I had three flatmates who all knew how to knit, having been taught by nuns (and corrected with a ruler smack if they didn't hold their hands just so) My flatmates showed me how to cast on using the knitting on method, and corrected me when I wrapped the yarn in the wrong direction, without the use of corporal punishment.
Then the weekend came, and they all left town again, and I wanted to learn how to purl. So I went to the bookstore and found a book on knitting. I had spent that week's disposable income on yarn and needles, so I couldn't afford to buy the book, so I studied the pictures, trying to understand exactly what to do. By the time they all returned Sunday evening, my hands were cramped and my neck hurt, but I had managed to cast on and make progress on the bottom k1p1 ribbing.
I learned a lot from books and patterns after that, as I was good at following directions (I even helped my flatmate with her sweater when it came time to do simultaneous neck and shoulder shaping), but what I never managed to do was get the yarn tensioned around the fingers of my right hand so that I could hold the needles and wrap the yarn for stitches. What I did instead was to develop a style of knitting that worked for me, which was to avoid holding the right needle at all. I anchored the right needle at the junction of my hip and thigh. The nuns would never have approved.
I still use this method when I knit flat (I knit continental with dpns and circs) and I find it extremely comfortable, physically. The weight of the knitting is held by the needle, not my hands, so I don't get fatigued, and I have nice, even tension. Because my right hand isn't holding the needle, it is free to do other work. The yarn is tensioned against the palm of my hand with my ring and pinky fingers. When I wrap the yarn, my thumb and index finger take over tensioning the yarn while my index and middle fingers do the job of wrapping the yarn. When the stitch is finished, the yarn is back in my palm, held there by those ring and pinky fingers while my other fingers move the new stitches down the needle shaft.
Here's a video of me working a row of k3, p3
I won't win any speed contests, but it's efficient enough, and as I mentioned, very comfortable physically.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Alpaca my bags
One day last week, it was really cold (maybe 10 degrees), overcast, and snowing. By 4:30, it was completely dark outside. Michael IM'd me.
"It's like Ice Station Zebra out there."
"Just think," I IM'd back, "In one month, it'll still be this dark and desolate."
Turns out it wasn't much better inside his office, where he gets little sunshine in his northwest corner office even when it isn't overcast. It wasn't snowing inside, but it's possible there were icicles forming off the edge of his desk, it was so cold. I noticed he was adding extra layers in the mornings before he headed out. He worries about his server room overheating when all the machines are running, so he worked it out with the building maintenance people to not send too much heat his way. While good for computers, it has an obvious downside for humans. Last winter, he would sit in the office with his coat and hat on, typing with fingers encased in thermal-lined leather gloves.
Over this past weekend, though, the temps soared to the mid-thirties, melting some of the snow, and making us believe that winter wasn't so bad. But yesterday, a new weather system hit Minnesota and one look at the Monday forecast (high of -6 F) had me digging through my stash.
Here's what I whipped up yesterday for my alpaca-loving husband.
Fetching (what else?)
I used a sport-weight alpaca I bought at Shepherd's Harvest over Mother's Day weekend, held double and used size 7 needles to give me a slightly firm stockinette gauge of 5 sts/in.
Modifications:
CO 50 sts, rather than 45
4 cable crossings at the wrist, rather than 3
22 rows of k4p1 for the hand, rather than 16.
A second cable crossing and one more plain row before casting off with a regular bind off (not the picot bind off)
I think I made the hand between the cables and the thumb hole too long, as it's bunching up a bit. I probably could have done without adding those extra 5 sts, perhaps making some of the palm multiples k3p1 rather than k4p1. Ah, well. He likes the extra length above the thumb covering more of his fingers, but that means there's extra material on the palm side that interferes with his typing.
Next time I'll make him a pair of fingerless gloves and give him a proper thumb gusset rather than a peasant thumb.
"It's like Ice Station Zebra out there."
"Just think," I IM'd back, "In one month, it'll still be this dark and desolate."
Turns out it wasn't much better inside his office, where he gets little sunshine in his northwest corner office even when it isn't overcast. It wasn't snowing inside, but it's possible there were icicles forming off the edge of his desk, it was so cold. I noticed he was adding extra layers in the mornings before he headed out. He worries about his server room overheating when all the machines are running, so he worked it out with the building maintenance people to not send too much heat his way. While good for computers, it has an obvious downside for humans. Last winter, he would sit in the office with his coat and hat on, typing with fingers encased in thermal-lined leather gloves.
Over this past weekend, though, the temps soared to the mid-thirties, melting some of the snow, and making us believe that winter wasn't so bad. But yesterday, a new weather system hit Minnesota and one look at the Monday forecast (high of -6 F) had me digging through my stash.
Here's what I whipped up yesterday for my alpaca-loving husband.
Fetching (what else?)
I used a sport-weight alpaca I bought at Shepherd's Harvest over Mother's Day weekend, held double and used size 7 needles to give me a slightly firm stockinette gauge of 5 sts/in.
Modifications:
CO 50 sts, rather than 45
4 cable crossings at the wrist, rather than 3
22 rows of k4p1 for the hand, rather than 16.
A second cable crossing and one more plain row before casting off with a regular bind off (not the picot bind off)
I think I made the hand between the cables and the thumb hole too long, as it's bunching up a bit. I probably could have done without adding those extra 5 sts, perhaps making some of the palm multiples k3p1 rather than k4p1. Ah, well. He likes the extra length above the thumb covering more of his fingers, but that means there's extra material on the palm side that interferes with his typing.
Next time I'll make him a pair of fingerless gloves and give him a proper thumb gusset rather than a peasant thumb.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Never underestimate yourself
I am plugging along on the Manon. In fact, the entire back is complete, and I just finished the front left. I am part way into ball #8.
I was contemplating whether to do the right front or one of the sleeves, checking the schematic to see what the sleeve length was and trying to figure out where the top of the sleeve cap would hit my shoulder when I decided to check the width of the sweater back. It's supposed to be 19" and even though I always hit gauge, sometimes a small fraction of a stitch difference in the 4 inch swatch measurement can add up to 1/4" or more for the entire sweater back.
The back is a little more than an 1" too wide. Which means the sweater will be more than 2" too big around.
This is not good.
I laid the measuring tape across the back expanse of stockinette, where I should be getting 18 sts/4". I get 17 sts. I measured again, in a different area. Same thing.
I checked my needles, thinking I had somehow used a size 10's instead of the size 9's the pattern specifies. Nope. 5.5mm. That's a US 9.
I swatched back in September when I knit the back triangle the first time (and ripped it out for a pretty lame reason) and I know I got 18 sts/in. I made a nice big swatch, too. I almost always swatch even though I always get the gauge on the yarn label using the needles specified. For certain projects, you can use the project itself as a gauge swatch, but this was to be a sweater and this particular sweater doesn't have much stockinette until you get to the upper back. I couldn't just cast on the first triangle and use it as a swatch. There's too much texture and cable action going on. So I swatched, because I am nothing if not a conscientious knitter.
After this horrifying confrontation between my assumptions about my knitting and reality, I accepted the truth, but I couldn't understand how it happened. I stared at the gauge specification in the pattern when a horrifying realization occurred to me. I didn't use the yarn specified in the pattern, which calls for size 9 needles to get 18 sts/4 in. I used a different Aran weight yarn.
I pulled out a ball of the Sublime Aran yarn and examined the label.
Yep, I always get gauge when I use the needles specified on the yarn label. What I don't always do is remind myself of changes I have made by noting those changes in the pattern book.
I was contemplating whether to do the right front or one of the sleeves, checking the schematic to see what the sleeve length was and trying to figure out where the top of the sleeve cap would hit my shoulder when I decided to check the width of the sweater back. It's supposed to be 19" and even though I always hit gauge, sometimes a small fraction of a stitch difference in the 4 inch swatch measurement can add up to 1/4" or more for the entire sweater back.
The back is a little more than an 1" too wide. Which means the sweater will be more than 2" too big around.
This is not good.
I laid the measuring tape across the back expanse of stockinette, where I should be getting 18 sts/4". I get 17 sts. I measured again, in a different area. Same thing.
I checked my needles, thinking I had somehow used a size 10's instead of the size 9's the pattern specifies. Nope. 5.5mm. That's a US 9.
I swatched back in September when I knit the back triangle the first time (and ripped it out for a pretty lame reason) and I know I got 18 sts/in. I made a nice big swatch, too. I almost always swatch even though I always get the gauge on the yarn label using the needles specified. For certain projects, you can use the project itself as a gauge swatch, but this was to be a sweater and this particular sweater doesn't have much stockinette until you get to the upper back. I couldn't just cast on the first triangle and use it as a swatch. There's too much texture and cable action going on. So I swatched, because I am nothing if not a conscientious knitter.
After this horrifying confrontation between my assumptions about my knitting and reality, I accepted the truth, but I couldn't understand how it happened. I stared at the gauge specification in the pattern when a horrifying realization occurred to me. I didn't use the yarn specified in the pattern, which calls for size 9 needles to get 18 sts/4 in. I used a different Aran weight yarn.
I pulled out a ball of the Sublime Aran yarn and examined the label.
Yep, I always get gauge when I use the needles specified on the yarn label. What I don't always do is remind myself of changes I have made by noting those changes in the pattern book.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Crafting=Cheap=Cognitive Dissonance
One of the Minnesota-related Ravelry groups linked to this Star-Tribune article. A number of crafters were insulted, both in the article's comments and on Ravelry because she suggested that hand made gifts were not the way to go, the implication being that they were cheesy. Or just plain awful. I spent a good amount of time today hand crafting an email response to Kara McGuire, and in the process I've decided that maybe she wasn't wrong to discourage the making of hand made gifts.
First, the article is about giving gifts this year when you don't have much money. Anyone who's spent $25 or more on hand painted merino wool sock yarn knows that homemade does not necessarily mean low cost.
Homemade=inexpensive is a reality that evaporated along with U.S.-based manufacturing. Nobody sews their own clothes or knits their own socks because they can't afford to buy them. They do it either because they enjoy the process or because it's impossible to buy something ready made that fits right.
Second, the focus of the article is about price tags and perceived value of things, and how to give someone a gift that appears to have a price tag of $X, without having to actually spend $X. For example, she suggests exchanging credit card rewards points for gift cards. You can give someone a $50 gift card to Best Buy, for example, without forking over a dime, and the recipient will have a gift worth $50. Easy and painless, and the recipient feels like you "spent" $50 on him or her.
Calculating how much a handmade gift is worth is incredibly complex. It isn't simply a matter of knowing the value of the materials. It's a matter of knowing the values of the people involved in the gift exchange. Will they understand how much time you spent on them? Will they care? In a good way?
Third, Selecting the right gift -- whether it's hand knit fingerless mitts to ward off frozen typing fingers, or a gift card purchased using rewards points -- is about knowing the recipient.
If what your recipient cares about is what the price tag on the gift says, then the absolute wrong gift is something hand made. By all means, go get that gift card.
Giving something you made by hand is far riskier than giving someone a gift card acquired by cashing in your reward points. Just think of the psychological ramifications of receiving a gift someone made for you that clearly took a lot of time and effort. More than one boyfriend has been scared off by a hand knit sweater or scarf. Worse, what if all that time and effort was put into something completely wrong for the recipient? What does that say about the relationship? A gift card is impersonal enough to make the recipient wonder if the giver cares at all, and possibly impersonal enough for the recipient not to care either, but what if the gift is a hand made lime green, fun fur hat with doggie ears? What does that gift say? What if it's a cashmere, cable knit pullover in just the right color and fit, and you've only been dating three months? When you give a hand made gift, you're giving a bit of yourself, too. Sometimes the bit you're giving is more than the recipient wanted.
I will say that exchanging rewards points for gift cards is a good idea. We got Target gift cards for the four of us a few weeks ago by using our rewards points. The first thing Nina bought was supplies to make a scrapbook of the Disney vacation her Nana took us on last winter and the trip to LA Nana took her on as an 8th grade graduation gift. Nana doesn't need a gift card, and no amount of money or rewards points could buy the time and effort going into that scrapbook. Nina knows her recipient.
It takes time to develop skill in a given craft, so I think it's fair to steer the uninitiated crafter away from making holiday gifts two weeks before Christmas and Hanukkah. Aside from the stress of mastering a new craft sufficiently well enough to make presentable presents, it's freaking expensive.
First, the article is about giving gifts this year when you don't have much money. Anyone who's spent $25 or more on hand painted merino wool sock yarn knows that homemade does not necessarily mean low cost.
Homemade=inexpensive is a reality that evaporated along with U.S.-based manufacturing. Nobody sews their own clothes or knits their own socks because they can't afford to buy them. They do it either because they enjoy the process or because it's impossible to buy something ready made that fits right.
Second, the focus of the article is about price tags and perceived value of things, and how to give someone a gift that appears to have a price tag of $X, without having to actually spend $X. For example, she suggests exchanging credit card rewards points for gift cards. You can give someone a $50 gift card to Best Buy, for example, without forking over a dime, and the recipient will have a gift worth $50. Easy and painless, and the recipient feels like you "spent" $50 on him or her.
Calculating how much a handmade gift is worth is incredibly complex. It isn't simply a matter of knowing the value of the materials. It's a matter of knowing the values of the people involved in the gift exchange. Will they understand how much time you spent on them? Will they care? In a good way?
Third, Selecting the right gift -- whether it's hand knit fingerless mitts to ward off frozen typing fingers, or a gift card purchased using rewards points -- is about knowing the recipient.
If what your recipient cares about is what the price tag on the gift says, then the absolute wrong gift is something hand made. By all means, go get that gift card.
Giving something you made by hand is far riskier than giving someone a gift card acquired by cashing in your reward points. Just think of the psychological ramifications of receiving a gift someone made for you that clearly took a lot of time and effort. More than one boyfriend has been scared off by a hand knit sweater or scarf. Worse, what if all that time and effort was put into something completely wrong for the recipient? What does that say about the relationship? A gift card is impersonal enough to make the recipient wonder if the giver cares at all, and possibly impersonal enough for the recipient not to care either, but what if the gift is a hand made lime green, fun fur hat with doggie ears? What does that gift say? What if it's a cashmere, cable knit pullover in just the right color and fit, and you've only been dating three months? When you give a hand made gift, you're giving a bit of yourself, too. Sometimes the bit you're giving is more than the recipient wanted.
I will say that exchanging rewards points for gift cards is a good idea. We got Target gift cards for the four of us a few weeks ago by using our rewards points. The first thing Nina bought was supplies to make a scrapbook of the Disney vacation her Nana took us on last winter and the trip to LA Nana took her on as an 8th grade graduation gift. Nana doesn't need a gift card, and no amount of money or rewards points could buy the time and effort going into that scrapbook. Nina knows her recipient.
It takes time to develop skill in a given craft, so I think it's fair to steer the uninitiated crafter away from making holiday gifts two weeks before Christmas and Hanukkah. Aside from the stress of mastering a new craft sufficiently well enough to make presentable presents, it's freaking expensive.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
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.
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.
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