Well, the inaugural night of Knitting Chatters couldn’t have gone better!  It was great fun - we chatted, talked about current projects hooted and hollered and just had a wonderful time.  Thank you so much, all of you who dropped in!  We had a blast; the only thing missing was the fireworks!

I was working on this last night:

This idea has been running around in my head for a long time and finally came together.  There’s an old crochet afghan pattern called Trail of Tears.  I’ve always liked the technique used, but didn’t want to be crocheting something in one piece as big as an afghan.  Besides, I already have the entrelac monster-ghan to neglect :)

So I got to wondering if the pattern would make a decent scarf and decided to try it and see what happened.  I hauled out my favorite bright colors (worsted weight), a size H hook, and gave it a shot.

Chain 36

Row 1: Dc in 4th chain from hook and in next 10 chains, ch 10 skipping 10 base chains, 12 dc.  Ch 3, turn

Every row is worked the same way and I’m changing colors every three rows.  Then, when you’re all done, you haul out your largest crochet hook and chain up those lines in the middle :) Like this:

It occurs to me that you could set up the scarf so that you had four solid sections of, say, 6 dcs each and three chain columns.  You could chain up the first and third column in one direction and chain the middle column down in the opposite direction.  I’m curious enough to give it a try now because I want to see what it looks like!  LOL!

I’m seriously thinking about trying Grumperina’s Jaywalker Socks.  I have a beautiful pink/purple variegate that would work wonderfully in those chevrons.  I’ve been thinking about socks - adult sized, sock/fingering weight yarn socks (as opposed to little bitty worsted weight socks) for a while now so this might be the pattern :)

Anyway, I expect to have a fun weekend playing with things and trying stuff out :)

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Tonight, as you probably know, is the opening of Knitting Chatters,what I hope will become our regular, Thursday evening, virtual SnB.

You will get there by clicking on that button in the sidebar - right under the Dulaan button - the one that says “Knitting Chatters” (doh!).  Right now the sub-heading indicates that the chat-room isn’t available.  But tonight, when things are opened up, it will show how many people are in the room - we may even achieve double digits!  Heheh…

Okay, you’ve clicked on the button and you’re looking at this:

So now what do you do?  You have a couple of options.  All you have to do right now, is fill in the Username field with your first name or whatever nickname you’d like to use on-line.  Ignore the Password field and just click on Login That will take you right to the chat room.

You can, also register by clicking on the [Register] and if you decide to try that, you’ll see this:

Fill in Username
Fill in Password - with whatever you like or will remember :)
Confirm your Password
Fill in your e-mail address.
Click the Register button

That will bring you to a page that thanks you for registering and tells you to “Click here” to login.  On my monitor, those words are not bolded or italicized or in a different color from the rest of the text on the screen so there’s no immediately apparent way to see that it’s a link - but it is.  Click on the words Click here and you will then go right into the chat room.

For future logins, just fill in your username and your password and click Login

Registering, while not at all necessary, does give you a couple of advantages.  Your username goes into the database which means it’s registered to you and no one else can use it.  If your username is Penelope and you decide to register, you’ll be the only one who can use that name.  The next Penelope would have to change it slightly and use, say, Penelope2 instead.

Registering also enables you to fill in biographic information, should you so desire and add a picture of yourself (or an avatar) - no more than 100 x 100 pixels, please :) Your email address is simply so your password can be sent to you should you forget what it is.  No one will ever have access to it.

Okay, now we’re in the main chat room:

At the top, under the banner, you’ll see this:





From left to right, they are:

UserCP - User control panel.  You can click this to change various parameters to suit yourself.  You don’t have to change anything, of course, but if you want to, you can :)

Status This indicates your status: Away, Available, Be right back, Be back later.  These are more appropriate to a chat room that’s open 24/7 rather than something like this that’s only around for a few hours, one night a week.  But you can certainly use them if you wish.  Your default status will always be “Available”.

Help This will open another browser window with the help manual for the chat software.  Self explanatory.

Logout This logs you out of the chat room.  You should always click this before you leave for the night.

Then there’s the main action :)

That big window is where all the chat takes place.  Your username and the time will always precede any statement you send to the chat window.

Below the window are more buttons.  They will allow you to change the parameters of your text.  Again, from left to right:

Font You can click this button to change the font on your screen.  It will only change what you type.

Font size This will change the size of what you type.  10 pt is the default, but you can change it to 12 pt or 14 pt if you’d like it to be larger.

Color This will change the color of your text, if you’d like to do that.  Black is the default, but you can change it to anything you want.  Don’t set the color too light though or you’ll have trouble seeing it in the window :)

The next three buttons you’ve probably seen before.  B - bold, I - Italics and U - Underline.  If you’d like to bold, italicize or underline your words, click the appropriate button.

Smileys Clicking this button will open a small window with a selections of smileys in it.  Click on the one you’d like to use :)

Finally, at the bottom, is the text window.  Simply click inside of it and type whatever you want to say.  Hit the enter button to send your words to the chat window - or click the Send button.

And that’s really all there is to this.  Please don’t hesitate to comment or write with any questions you might have.  I have tested this on Internet Explorer (IE), Firefox and Opera browsers.  Opera had a bit of an issue, but I’m not using a terribly current copy and that’s probably all it was. IE and Firefox had no problems at all.

See you tonight! 

This seems to have been the week of knitting mistakes.  Nothing major, just stupid! 

When I was making a sock last week, I got to the heel.  All went well and I got to where I was picking up the gusset stitches.  I was thinking it felt a little tight but I figured maybe I was just knitting with greater tension than usual.  I tend to tighten up on socks anyway.  But there were the stitches to pick up too - there didn’t seem to be enough along the side of the heel flap.  Oh well, I thought, these things happen and I fudged a couple of stitches (yes, on both sides of the flap - doh!) and proceeded to start the gusset decreases.  I actually got a couple of rows worked before I realized I hadn’t turned the heel - went straight from the heel flap to the gusset!  How dumb is that?

And then, I did the same damned thing again last night :) Brain turning to tapioca pudding, eh?  At least I discovered it while I was still picking up stitches.

I really love the way this looks with the bright pink leg/foot and the heathery magenta cuff, heel and toe.  So it was especially annoying to discover…





...(I stuck my mouse in for the sake of perspective) ...I don’t have enough yarn for another one.  Not even enough for half a sock.  Pout…

This, however, has gone better :)

I acquired a second size 9 circular yesterday afternoon and transferred half the shawl stitches last night.  I am tickled pink to report that the operation was a success and the patient is doing splendidly!  The new one is the red one on the right in the picture - it’s still pretty curly from being coiled up in the packaging.  I did run it under very hot water, but it only about half-relaxed.  I imagine working with it over time will help :)





I am so in love with this stitch pattern!  I love the gentle rippling so much I’m seriously thinking about not blocking it.  Well, I probably will but it’s really lovely just as it is.  I do still need to get more stitch markers though, as I’m down to my last usable one!  We’ll be in Maine tomorrow; perhaps (if I remember - tapioca brain!) I can pick some up there :).

We are all ready to go for Thursday night!  I’ve been setting up, decorating and generally getting things ready.  Thursday, I will post instructions and images so that, should you decide to join me, you will know how to get there and what to expect.  It’s no big deal.  If you have ever been on IRC, it’s very similar to that.  If you haven’t, it doesn’t really matter because there isn’t much to learn and it’s all very simple!  Drop by and bring your knitting (or crocheting, or tatting or whatever) - it’ll be a blast!

There was not a lot of exciting knitting over the weekend.  Successful (see-saws hand in the air), to an extent, but exciting?  Unh-unh :) I completed the mate to the sock in Friday’s post and it took a surprisingly long time.  For some reason, I just couldn’t focus properly so I’d do a few rounds and the put it down. 

I also tried to start work on a watch cap for dad.  Some of the sock-yarn that Barb sent up was Knitpicks Sock Landscapes in the Cape Cod colorway.  These deep evergreens, navys and tans are dad’s colors to a T.  He didn’t want socks, but he conceded that a nice stretchy wool cap would be a wonderful thing.  So I wound the yarn (to use double) and cast on to size 6 needles.  After a few rounds, it became clear that this was going to be too small.  Grump… See, I don’t always swatch and sometimes it bites me on the bum :) So that got frogged and will wait until I have a bit more patience.  Dad’s not going to need it this year anyway.  More snow, we may get (though it doesn’t look likely) but we’re past the serious cold.

I did get to work on the shawl a little but the needle I’ve got it on is getting pretty crowded.  I really do have to get a longer needle.  I’m trying to imagine what the alternatives could be.  Could I just get another size 9 circular and put half the stitches on each one?  Anyone ever done anything like that before?  I can’t see why that wouldn’t work :)

Anyway, that’s what the weekend knitting was like - nothing exciting :)

Has anyone played this?

It’s just about too cute to live.  You play a little human character (boy or girl) who lives in the town populated with animals of various types.  The chief of police is a fox, the postmistress a pelican and the owner of the local emporium is a raccoon.  You have a little house which you need to keep up and you can change the décor and accoutrements as you desire.  You fish, plant flowers and trees, and collect shells.  You can also go to the museum coffee shop, or (in the evenings) up to the museum’s observatory where you can even map out your own constellations.  You might also dig up buried fossils or other artifacts and, if you are diligent, you may also find that sometimes money does fall from trees :)

The little world is just beautiful - bright and pleasing to the eye even on rainy days.  The characters you interact with are goofily charming and will alternately demand things from you or give things to you.  There are holidays and contests - even a singer who stops by to do a few sets in the coffee shop on Saturday night.  He’ll even give you a song if you ask.

We had played this game on the Game Cube and enjoyed it then but this version for the DS is possibly even better.  The graphics haven’t suffered at all in the transition and some of the conventions of the game have been modified to streamline them a bit more.  For example, when you dig up a fossil you should get it identified as it will then be worth more.  In the Game Cube version, that meant sending it off and waiting a day for the results.  Here, in the DS version, the curator of the museum has taken a couple of courses in fossil identification and so can do it on the spot for you - no waiting!

This is an open ended game; there’s no bad guy to beat, no puzzles to solve.  Your avatar just lives in this cute little town, interacts with the cute little animal people, and leads a cute little life.  As a game it’s distinctly different.  As an antidote to an overdose of the real world, it’s pretty darned cool :)

And now for Something Completely Different!

I am going to install, well, have Myria help me install a chat room as an adjunct to the blog.  This isn’t going to be available 24/7 or anything like that, but I will be there, and it will be open, from 7:30 PM - 11:00 PM EST on Thursday evenings.  I envision this as a kind of virtual SnB and thought it might be a fun thing to try :) Come by and say hello!

And happy Monday :)

Note, 3/33/06 - I have made a couple of corrections to the instructions.

1. At the beginning of the heel flap, where I had originally (foolishly) written Knit the next 14 stitches (the 7 remaining stitches on needle 1 and the first 7 stitches from needle 2), I have changed the “Knit” - which is wrong, to “Move” - which is correct.

2. After the instructions to pick up the first 9 stitches for the gusset, I said you would have a total of 16 stitches on that needle.  That was wrong - you’ll have 17 stitches :) Assuming, of course, that 8 + 9 still equals 17.  The complicated stuff I can handle - it’s the simple stuff that kills me every time!

In the comments to Wednesday’s post, Amaryllis expressed both a desire to make the socks pictured and some confusion over the use of two circular needles in the Basketweave Toddler Socks from which these evolved.  She also indicated that, though used to DPNs, she had never knit socks before.

Well, as I think these socks would be perfect learning material (small, cover all the basics and fast to work), I decided to present the pattern in tutorial form.  Hopefully this will prove useful to others who are considering taking the sock plunge.

Diamonds and Purls, a toddler-sized sock :)
...also know as Diamonds in the toes of my shoes - great Dulaan socks - wonderful for any charity, really :)

Okay :) Ready?

Start with 50 grams of worsted weight yarn (you will use around 66 - 80 yards for the pair) and four size 4 or 5 (US) needles.  If the yarn is heavy worsted or aran weight, you might want to use size 6 (3.5, 3.75 or 4mm needles, respectively).

Cast on

Cast on 28 stitches - loosely.  The cast on is a place where a lot of knitters, myself included, tighten up.  But, for a sock, you want that row to be as stretchy and flexible as the ribbing.  Usually, I cast on to needles two sizes larger than the ones I plan to actually knit with.  So for these socks, which I am knitting on size 4s, I cast on with size 6s.

Arrange the stitches so that there are 8 stitches on needle 1, 12 stitches on needle 2 and the last 8 stitches on needle 3.

Ribbing

Join and work (don’t forget to switch your needles) in K2, P2 ribbing for 8 rounds (or K1, P1 - whatever you prefer), or for about an inch (2.5 cm).

Leg

Begin Dot pattern (multiple of 4 stitches - in the round):

Round 1:  K1, *P1, K3; repeat from * around, end K2
Round 2:  Knit
Round 3:  *K3, P1; repeat from * around
Round 4:  Knit

Repeat these four rows 6 times, 24 rows, about 2.25 inches (6.5 cm).

Knit the first stitch of the first needle onto the end of needle three.

Move the next 14 stitches (the 7 remaining stitches on needle 1 and the first 7 stitches from needle 2) onto one needle and arrange the remaining stitches on needles 2 and 3 so there are 7 stitches on each.  We will ignore these for now while we work the heel.  Try not to let the instructions get the best of you.  If you haven’t done it before, turning a heel can seem very confusing.  Just do what the instructions indicate and as you go along, you’ll see how it all fits together :)

Heel Flap

This is worked in, what is often called heel stitch The alternate slipped stitches on the right side rows compress the fabric and give it a thick, cushy feel.  It also helps the heel, as it is abraded by the shoe, not to wear out.  Slipping the first stitch of every row also gives you a convenient row of chain-like stitches along the sides of the heel flap in which the gusset stitches will be picked up when the time comes.

Row 1:  *Sl1, K1; repeat across row.
Row 2:  Sl1, Purl across

Repeat these two rows 7 times (14 rows).

Work row 1 one more time.  This is what you should have:

Turning the heel

Slip 1, p7, p2tog, p1. Turn.
Slip 1, k3, ssk, k1. Turn.
Slip 1, p4, p2tog, p1. Turn.
slip 1, k5, ssk, k1. Turn.
Slip 1, p6, p2tog. Turn.
Slip 1, k6, ssk.

You should have 8 stitches left on your needle and your sock should look like this:

Gusset

Now we’re going to pick up the gusset stitches on the sides and return to working in the round instead of back and forth.  See that chain of stitches that runs down the side of the heel?

We need to pick up 9 of those stitches, starting at the end of the needle you just worked (and using that needle for the new stitches) and going down the side to the first the first of the 7 stitch needles.  Use whatever method you’re most comfortable with.  I usually use the needle and knit the new stitches right on to it but many people find it easier to pick up the stitches with a crochet hook and then slide them onto the needle.  The best method is what ever works for you:)

When you’ve picked up your 9 stitches, you’ll have a total of 17 stitches on that needle.  Not to worry; we’ll be moving some of them at the other end of the round :)

Now, with an empty needle, knit the next 14 stitches off both of the next 2 needles, so that all 14 stitches are on one needle.  This will now be known as the instep needle.

With another empty needle, pick up 9 stitches up the side and knit 4 stitches off the end of needle one.  Your new starting point (where you are right now) is the center of the heel.  This will be the beginning of the round for the rest of the sock.  You should have 13 stitches on each of the heel needles (half of the heel stitches plus nine picked-up stitches) and 14 stitches on the instep needle.

Now we will begin decreasing the gusset stitches until we are back to our beginning number of 28 stitches total.  And, by the way, you can relax now.  The tricky stuff is over and the rest is simplicity itself :)

Round 1: Knit

Round 2:  Knit to 3 stitches before the end of needle 1, K2tog, K1.  Knit across instep stitches.  On last needle, K1, SSK, and knit to the end.

Repeat these two rounds a total of 6 times (12 rows).  Each heel needle should now have 7 stitches on it and the instep needle should still have 14 stitches.  It should look something like this:

Foot

Now the foot pattern begins - for the following 16 rounds, the stitches on both heel needles are knit plain.  Since the diamond pattern takes place solely on the instep needle, only those stitches are being described.  So you would knit 7, do the appropriate instep pattern row and knit 7 for each round.

Row 1:  K6, P2, K6
Row 2:  K5, P1, K2, P1, K5
Row 3:  K4, P1, K4, P1, K4
Row 4:  K3, P1, K6, P1, K3
Row 5:  K4, P1, K4, P1, K4
Row 6:  K5, P1, K2, P1, K5
Row 7:  K6, P2, K6

Row 8: Knit
Row 9: Knit

Repeat Rows 1-7 for second diamond.  End at center heel, ready to begin toe decreases.

The toe decreases are very similar to the gusset decreases except that we are now doing it on both the front and back of the sock.

Round 1:

Needle 1: Knit to within 3 stitches of end of needle. K2tog, K1.
Needle 2: K1, SSK, knit to within three stitches of end of needle, K2tog, K1
Needle 3: K1, SSK, knit to end.

Round 2:  Knit

Repeat these two rounds 3 times, for a total of 6 rounds.  There should be 4 stitches on each of the heel needles and 8 stitches on the instep needle.

Now work Round 1 only, two times.  At the end of the second round, knit the last two heel stitches onto the other heel needle.  You have two needles holding four stitches each.

Now, you can graft (kitchener stitch) the toes or use the three-needle bind-off.  Or (deep breath) you can try this - which is what I’ve come up with since the three-needle bind off is lumpy and I seem to be utterly incapable of grasping the kitchener stitch.  This method is a bit fiddly, but it is easy and produces a nice, neat, non-lumpy closure.

Are you game?  It goes like this.  You now have 4 stitches each on each of two needles.  Look to see where your yarn is coming out of the last stitch you worked.  Turn your needles so that this stitch is on the lower left.  Take an empty needle and, from between the holding needles, pick up the first stitch on the back needle (the needle furthest from you).  Then, again from between the holding needles, pick up the first stitch from the front needle. 

Pick up the next stitch from the back needle and then the next stitch from the front needle.  Continue transferring stitches this way until you have all eight stitches on one needle, having ended with the stitch your working yarn is coming from.





Now, pick a smaller needle than your working size (say a size 2 if you’re using size 4 needles).  Make sure the working yarn is on your left.  Slip the first two stitches on the right-hand side to the smaller needle.  Then lift the second stitch over the first and off the needle.  Slip the next stitch from the main needle and lift the second stitch on the smaller needle over it and off.





Continue this way until you have worked all the stitches off the main needle.  You should have one stitch left.  Cut your yarn, leaving enough of a tail for you to comfortably work with.  Thread the end through a tapestry needle and insert the needle through that last stitch.  Pull gently to tighten down the stitch so that it lays flat and in line with the other toe stitches and tack down with a couple of tiny stitches.  Bring the yarn to the inside of the sock and weave in the end.





Weave in the cast on tail and congratulate yourself!  You’ve made a darn cute sock.  When you get your breath back, make its mate :)

Does that help, Amaryllis?

Have a wonderful weekend!

I got a couple more things done for the Dulaan bag :)

These are based on my usual pattern, but I made some changes.  I used size 4 needles rather than 5s, trying to get a denser (i.e. warmer) fabric.  I used dot stitch down the leg (a plain multiple of 4 does the job nicely) and I used two purl-outlined diamonds on the top of the foot to count the necessary rows until it was time for the toe decreases.  That was cool and I liked it because while I do enjoy math, counting rows drives me right up the wall!





See, when you finish the gusset decreases, according to the pattern, you still have 16 rows of sock foot to knit.  So arbitrarily decided that I didn’t want to count those 16 rows and that I would let the stitches do it for me.  Just purl the Xs in the graph above.  Each motif is 8 stitches wide and 7 stitches tall and there are two rounds between them.  So when the second diamond was finished, the toe decreases started.  Neat, eh?

I also did a scarf, as much to stop the wool from haunting me as any other reason.

This is just half double crochet worked over 11 stitches - chunky yarn and an enormous hook, took maybe an hour to do.  Nothing special :) But I had this yarn and intended to use it for last year’s Dulaan bag.  I’ve been dodging it because I hate working at that scale.  I find it uncomfortable for my hands and fingers and I absolutely cannot get into the rhythm of things.  It is as bad for crocheting as it is for knitting, but crocheting is much, much faster.  I just couldn’t let that wool languish in my work bag for another year when someone might get some good use out of it.

And, I have been working on the shawl and making good progress.  I am enjoying this project enormously and still can’t quite believe my eyes when the fabric blossoms into the pattern I hoped it would.  It’s quite a feeling!

It is currently 46” wide and about 20” from top to bottom and I’m up to 160 stitches.  My poor needle can take maybe one more pattern increase before I’ll have to get another, longer circular.  I’ll probably do that next week sometime.  Oh yeah, and more stitch markers too!  I’ve been using them between every pattern repeat - not something I usually do but it’s saved my bum a couple of times already, so I’m glad I decided to go that way :)

I had an appointment with the eye doctor on Friday; my father kindly drove me there because I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to see well enough to drive afterwards.  I really didn’t have any idea of what to expect since I had never had the pupil-dilation thing done before.  Despite the fact that I have been seriously myopic all my life and had been seeing optometrists and ophthalmologists regularly since I was in fourth grade, I had always managed to dodge that particular bullet.

But this appointment was to see if the diabetes had damaged my eyes and if it had, how much damage was there?  So I really couldn’t pull my usual shtick.  I had to be a grown-up and just deal.  Okay then, I’ll deal - deep mental breath - this will be fine.

And then Thursday night, I had a dream - a nightmare - in which the drops were placed in my eyes and I became blind.  There were many doctors there, men and women both, discussing the situation calmly in contrast to my rising terror.  Then a voice told me that more tests would have to be done and that they were putting me in the hospital.  I started to cry, and finally woke up.

Of course there was nothing to worry about.  The doctor said my eyes were in good shape and that with a little care, he didn’t see any real problems down the line.  That was good news.  And, when I walked back outside into the winter sunshine, the world looked like an over-exposed photograph - no more than that and sunglasses corrected the situation nicely.

I found it interesting that I hadn’t known I was afraid until I woke up from the nightmare.  I would have described it as a mild sense of discomfort but nothing that couldn’t be dealt with easily.  After all, I’m an adult - right?  In my dreams :)

Saturday was a banner day, but not because of anything I did.  I received two (two) packages in the mail.  The first came from Anne at Busy Needles and contained these:

There were four of these absolutely beautiful blue-green enamel and silver stitch markers in a little green tin.  Of course, I immediately worked them into the shawl where they hang prettily from the needles :) There was also this:





I figured out that if I divide this into many small pieces, I can allow myself one every now and again with little risk.  This doesn’t have a lot of sugar in it to begin with and a small piece has only about 3 grams of sugar carbs - and only 40 calories.  And the taste is, well, it’s so good it’s almost wicked :) Thank you so much, Anne, for your thoughtfulness and kindness!

But that’s not all.  There was a second box, this one from our own barb-in-east-texas and it contained...well, look:

At the top is 850 yards of merino from Handpainted Yarn in their Red Java colorway - all copper, russet and cream loveliness.  Bottom left is 440 yards of Knitpicks’ Shimmer (alpaca and silk) in their Happy Dance color way and 1320 yards of Alpaca Cloud in Iris.  My mind has been on overtime, imagining all the things I can do with this beautiful lace weight stuff!

The box was also stuffed with sock yarn (six skeins - enough for three pairs) and undyed fingering weight yarn (three skeins) along with Paas easter egg dyes to play with!  I am looking forward to that, though I’ll probably wait until the weather warms up a bit and I can open the windows so the vinegar doesn’t asphyxiate us all :) Even that wasn’t all!  Barb included (knowing my pathetic addiction) coffees - two kinds - a New Orleans blend with chicory (which I have been drinking all weekend - delish!) and a Kenyan varietal from Gevalia which I am saving for a bit :) Oh, and one more thing -

Koigu!

I have never seen this outside of a web page - none of the stores I can easily get to carry it.  I begin to understand all the noise about the fabulous colors.  This is gorgeous stuff and I’ve wound it up already because I’m desperate to try it!  I have a skinny scarf in mind that, because of the rain-forest rainbow of colors, will go with just about everything I own!  Thank you Barb - I am going to have such fun with this unexpected bounty.

I did also get in quite a bit of knitting this weekend, but I’ll save reporting on that for later :)