The body of the kimono coat is about half done - a little more than half, say.

If this comes out even remotely like the picture in my head, I will be very happy :) SO far, so good.





This multi-colored stripe runs down the center back and a similar stripe will border the entire garment when it is finished.  I still haven’t decided whether the sleeves should be cuffed or not.

It has gotten very warm here - up into the high 80s or low 90s most afternoons.  As a result, trees and shrubs that had been looking like they’d passed on over the winter have suddenly budded and burst into leaf - seemingly overnight!

Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of knitting/crocheting getting done either because it’s just not real comfortable to have something big and wooly sitting in your lap :) Time to work on more socks, I guess :)

And, speaking of socks, this one is coming along.  It seems I try something new with every sock I make.  With this one, it’s knitting with 5 needles instead of four.  That’s one of the reasons I had hoped the bamboos would work out - they come in sets of 5.  As I’m sure you all know, good, old metal American DPNs usually come in sets of only 4.  Consequently, because I only have 4 size 1 metal needles, the 5th is a size 0.

I’m finding working on four needles to be fairly easy.  I’ve tried it before and found it nothing but awkward and uncomfortable.  This time, something seemed to fall into place in my head/fingers and I’m finding this a rather pleasant way to go - easier to divide the stitches up between needles too.  And, as far as I can tell, the rotating presence of the size 0 needle doesn’t seem to be posing any problems.

Happy hump day!

Note: 6-07-05
Apparently I hadn’t had enough coffee yesterday morning when I created the diagrams for this post.  In the second illustration, the one for increasing for circular knitting, I put the numeral “10” into each of the pie wedges.  It should, of course, have been “12”.  This has been corrected and I sincerely apologize to anyone who might have found this confusing.

I thought I’d share my increase method.  No, not how to do the actual stitch but how to figure out where and how often to increase when your pattern says “Increase 12 (or however many) stitches evenly”.

So, you’re humming along nicely on a piece that has, say 60 stitches and the pattern tells your to increase 5 stitches evenly across.  What do you do?

Flat Knitting

For flat knitting, it goes like this.

1. First, you need to know where you’re going to put those 5 increase stitches.  So take the number of stitches you want to increase and add “1” to it. 

5 + 1 = 6

This shows that you’re going to be dividing the current number of stitches into 6 sections between each of which you will make an increase.

2. Now you need to know how many stitches you should knit before and between the increases.  So divide the number of stitches you already have by the number you got from the first step.

60 ÷ 6 = 10

This means, basically, that you can work an increase every 10 stitches to get where you want to go:

3A. If your preferred method of increase is to create two stitches in the base stitch, you might do it: 

K9, increase.  Repeat this 4 more times (5 increases in all) and K10 to end.

3B.If you use an M1 type of increase you would do it:

K10, M1.  Repeat this 4 more times (5 increases) and end K10.

Knitting in the round

In the above section, “1” is added to the number of increase stitches desired to give you the number of segments you’ll have to increase between.  Because you have edges in flat knitting, that number is always going to be one higher than the number of stitches you actually want to add.  In circular knitting, there are no edges so the number of segments you need to figure with is going to be equivalent to the number of stitches by which you want to increase.

Assume the same 60 stitches and the same 5 stitch increase (evenly spaced, of course) only worked circularly.

1. 60 ÷ 5 = 12.  You will have 5 segments with 12 stitches in each.

2A. If your preferred method is to create two stitches in the base stitch, you might do it: K11, increase.  Repeat this 4 more times.

2B. If you use an M1 type of increase, you would do it: K12, M1.  Repeat this 4 more times.

These will work even when the numbers don’t come out as evenly as our examples.  Say you have 53 sts and want to increase by 7 stitches.

For a flat piece, you would add 1 to 7 to get 8 (8 stitch segments to increase between).  Dividing 53 by 8 gives us 6 with a remainder of 5.  In this case, split the remainder for your first and last segments.  So, using an M1 increase, you would do this:

K2, M1, *K6, M1* (repeat 7 more times), K3.

For a piece knitted circularly, you would divide 53 by 7 which would give you 7 with a remainder of 4.  Here you will distribute your remainder stitches among your segments so that 3 segments would have 7 stitches and 4 segments would have 8 stitches.  Using an M1 increase, you might work it thus:

*K8, M1, K7, M1*; repeat three times and end K8, M1.

This, anyway, is what works for me and I hope it might be useful to you as well :)

I did a little stash acquisition yesterday.  I got these:

...in hopes of using them to work this:





...only to discover that the bamboos are larger needles than the metal ones.  My needle gauge indicates that a size 1 needle should be 2.25mm in diameter.  The Skacel bamboos are 2.5mm.  This is a big enough difference for me to feel and big enough that the Skacels won’t fit into the size 1 hole on my gauge.  Interestingly enough, I notice that KnitPicks carries a Skacel needle sizer that, naturally, indicates that a size 1 needle is 2.5mm in diameter.

Well, shoot.  The needles aren’t a loss by any means and they will work just dandily with other sock yarns that I happen to have.  But this yarn is a bit thin and the bamboos are just too big to give the fabric the substance I want.  So, back to the metal pins for this one.

I also got some yarn.  I wasn’t really looking for any except in the sense that I’m always looking for a good deal and this was a good deal.

It’s a thick and thin cotton, DK weight and I thought this mocha to mauve to white was just too pretty to pass up.  It has been discontinued I understand but since I was able to get 10 balls and since the yardage is very good (around 224 yds), I should be able to do something nice with it.

Oh!  Yesterday, mid-morning, a brilliant male cardinal visited the feeder.  He stayed for two or three minutes (while I held my breath) and had breakfast.  Then, around 4:30 in the afternoon, a house finch showed up for an early supper.  This is so cool!

Have a great weekend :)

I’ve finished the left front of the kimono coat and started across the back.

So far I’m happy with the way things are shaping up.  The armscye turned out to be much simpler than I’d thought it would be.  It is, however, connected at the top as I didn’t cut the yarn and rejoin.  I finished the last row of the front, chained the number of stitches I needed, joined at the appropriate spot and went on.  I don’t think that should be a problem.





I finally began the mate for the peppermint sock - not that I’ve gotten very far yet, as you can see.  Basically I’ve just gotten the toe established and begun the ribbing pattern.  It will be my fill-in (when I’ve got a few minutes free) and my take-along project.  I’m glad to have it finally under way because I’ve got some very nice sock yarns waiting in the wings that I would like to use.  The idea of having nice warm, wool socks this winter makes me very happy :)





Looks a little thoughtful this morning, doesn’t she?  Probably wondering how she can get the sparrows on the feeder to come inside and play :)

Myria’s been playing a new game and I want to tell you, it is seriously unsettling.  This comes at the end of a string of things that ranged from not too interesting to downright annoying ("The Hobbit”, “The Bard” and “Fable").

The game is Fatal Frame…

...and it’s really something.  It certainly uses every trick in the book - strange sounds, barely heard whispers, dilapidated surroundings, low light, etc. - to create a spooky atmosphere and it succeeds admirably.  I am not really a horror-survival type game fan but even I have to admit how cleverly this game works at getting the hairs on the back of your neck to stand up.  Even Myria, who does like this gaming genre had to turn it off (the first time she played) after about half an hour because she was so creeped out. 

Wear your Depends for this one :)

Basically this is a ghost story involving a haunted mansion, ancient rites and rituals and a missing boy.  The ghosts are plentiful and malevolent and the rites horrific.  An author and his team came to the mansion to gather material for a novel.  They disappear and are never heard from again.  A teenage boy is next as he tries to find out what happened to the novelist.  Finally there is you, a young girl.  You’ve come to look for your brother since he’s been gone for two weeks with no word.

The device of a camera is used to conquer the ghosts and to the extent that it lends a whole new interpretation to the term “shoot” it’s a cute idea.  Film is your ammunition and you find it in various places all over the mansion.  A well taken photograph can exorcize a spirit though some of the stronger ghosts will require that more than one photo be taken before they are completely gone.

In, what I am beginning to feel is typical fashion, things are somewhat vague and unclear.  Nor do I have any real hope of achieving clarity by the time it’s over. However, the game really isn’t about telling a story in a coherent and cohesive way; it’s about atmosphere, creating an environment that’s unsettling, disconcerting and unnerving.  In this respect Fatal Frame is...erm...dead on target.

As you may suspect, when we’re through with this game, we often want an “antidote”.  And here, I’m about to divulge a secret that involves an old game console and what is usually considered to be a kid game.  When we’re completely keyed from having the wits repeated scared out of us, we pull out the old Nintendo 64 and play Pokemon Puzzle League.

Right, I can hear you all snickering :) What can I tell you?  It’s fun!  Yet another version of the old arcade “Tetris attack”, it’s done up very well with lots of variety, lots of characters, and competitive modes in both 2D and 3D.  It also doesn’t take itself too seriously.

We sit there, juggling both falling and rising blocks and trash talk one another.  Sometimes we wind up laughing so hard that everything has to stop until the tears are cleared away and we can see the screen again.  It really is a lot of fun and well done fun at that.

There are a couple of caveats, unfortunately.  Neither the N64 nor Pokemon Puzzle League are made any more.  A place like Gamespot may carry the console but the game will be harder to track down for a couple of reasons.  First, as already mentioned, N64 game production has been over for years.  Second, and more to the point, it’s a puzzle game and has, essentially, infinite re-playability.  People tend to hang on to these kinds of games so you don’t often see them in the used market and when you do, they tend to be relatively expensive.  The last thing is the controller for the console - way too big and clunky.  Don’t plan on spending a day doing this; your fingers will never forgive you.  But, for an hour’s entertainment - definitely do-able :)

Go for it!