I went through my UFOs this morning and you know what?  There weren’t nearly as many as I thought there were.  There is only one small item (though there are a few large items), the blue and scarlet fuzzy scarf (Yikes! I’ve got to finish this by Thursday!!) which is still in the car as that’s my KIP piece right now.  The fingerless mitts have gone the way of the frog pond.  I discovered a mistake quite a lot of rows back and got this hopelessly snarled when I tried to rip .  I’m sure you’ve all noticed that I frequently have more ideas than patience :) Chances are there won’t be another mitt project this winter because things are warming up here and the cold fingers that inspired the project are (I hope) a thing of the past for this season.  Likewise the fuzzy hat, scarf and gloves I wanted to make for myself.  Actually, that project does stand a chance as I really would like that set and I can put it away for next winter - at which point I will probably want to try the fingerless mitts again too :)

Big Green Thing

I started this long before I even had the yarn for the Kimono and it was kinda based on the same idea.  I had thought that since I had all this green yarn (a failed afghan project for Dad - he loves green) I might as well play with it.  It’s lain on the shelf under the coffee table for months now and I’m still not sure what to do with it.  I doubt very much that I want to continue with this piece, but when I think about frogging it...well...somehow it doesn’t seem right.  I guess it will go back on the shelf to age some more until I can figure out what this yarn actually wants to be!

The Sea Blues Poncho

This is still definitely a go but has languished in its bag for a while now while the Kimono, various small gift-type projects, and the stole took precedence.  I love the yarn and I love what this somewhat shapeless piece of knitting is becoming - no chance of it being frogged.  It probably won’t get a lot of work for a while because it’s getting heavy and warm to work on.  As spring begins to shake out its skirts in New England, the poncho becomes a less attractive project to work on.  But the weather won’t always be warm and I would like to have this done so that I can actually wear it next fall.

Kimono Sweater - back

Yes, I’m sitting here feeling embarrassed and guilty for getting so bored with this project.  It’s coming with me on my next trip and I hope to finish it up then.  I am looking forward to having this sweater to wear, but I don’t think I’ll be tackling anything else like it for quite some time.  Easy - yes!  Nice yarn - Indeed!  Cool finished project - Indubitably!  Interesting to work - Bleah....  However, I’m determined to finish this thing even if it means I have to give up reading before bed and use this as a sedative instead :)

Zen Garden Stole and Interested Observer

This should be done in the next couple of days - maybe even by tonight if my arm holds out.  I want this for the trip (I’m leaving next Monday) and am sufficiently motivated to make sure that it gets finished in time.  I may have to block it on the ship (wouldn’t that be interesting!) but by God the knitting will be complete!

I’m heading out next week for another cruise with my father - a simple trans-Atlantic crossing from Florida to Portugal.  This will be the last trip for quite a while (my decision).  I have loved the opportunity to travel and experience life on board a luxury ship but, basically, I’m a homebody.  I enjoy the food and the wine on the ships, not to mention the entertainment.  But I miss Myria dreadfully.  I miss our cats.  I miss you folks and the blogging.  And no matter how perfect things are on vacation, I can’t seem to relax effectively anywhere but home.  So I’m looking forward to this; it’s a new line to me and it will be interesting to see how it compares to the other ships I’ve been on.  But I’m also looking forward to it being over.  This will be the third cruise since last September (at my Dad’s encouragement and request) and that’s enough.

More than enough :)

I am going to set up tutorial posts for the two Fridays that I’ll be gone and Myria will post on Wednesdays for the “And Now For Something Completely Different” entries. 

Happy Monday everyone!

I know a lot of people think bobbles are kinda frou-frouy.  They take up a fair amount of yarn and they’re a pain in the butt besides.  But, judiciously placed, bobbles can add real textural interest (as in an Aran sweater) and they can be easy and fun as well.

This is my favorite technique for the little fellas. *

When you get to the stitch were you want to place the bobble, do a double-increase.  Here, a [K1, YO, K1] all in one stitch is used.  This bobble is just three stitches wide but you can use as many YO, K1s as you like to make as big a bobble as you want.

1.  Knit 1.
2.  YO and knit again.
3.  Remove stitch from left needle.

Turn work and purl these three stitches.  Knitting backwards is a real time-saver here, but turning and purling works just fine :) Then turn the work back to the front side.  Insert the right needle from front to back into the second stitch on the left needle.  Lift it up and over the first stich and let it drop off.  Do the same with the next stitch back on the left needle.  You have one stitch left.  Knit into the back of this stitch.

1.  Right needle inserted into stitch.
2.  Lifting up and dropping over and off.
3.  Knit the last stitch through the back.

When you’re working back along the wrong side row, you can also purl the bobble stitch through the back.  It isn’t absolutely necessary but there are a couple of reasons to consider it.  First, it virtually guarantees that your bobble will never “drift” to the back of the material.  The double twist (from knitting the bobble through the back on the front and then purling it through the back on the back) also serves to give the bobble a bit more height and definition.

Completed Bobble

This is an adaptable technique.  The demo was made over three stitches, but you can use as many sitches as you like or can handle.  You can also work more rows to increase the vertical size of the bobble.

Assorted Bobbles

The top row are 3-stitch bobbles, worked over two rows.  The second row are 5-stitch bobbles - also worked over two rows.  Notice they have a slightly flatted appearance.  Another couple of rows here would have rounded the shape more.  The bottom bobble was done over seven stitches and 5 rows, but, as an experiment, I did a 3-stitch bobble in the center of it.

So I guess this one is more like a booble :)

Booble

Wrong Side

Experiment - play with the number of stitches and rows and see what you come up with!

Have a nice weekend, everyone!

*Note: I re-wrote this somewhat over the weekend as the original post seemed murky to me.  I want this to be helpful, not confusing!

We’re better than halfway home here and this stole is more and more appealing to me as I go along.  The finished piece will be about 19” wide and around 66” long.

I hadn’t thought I would like bobbles; I’m just not a bobble kind of gal - but these are different.  Unless you’re very close to the stole, they’re difficult to see.  It’s a perceptional shift - pick up the garment and you can certainly feel them :) But from any distance at all, they disappear.  Very cool!







It occurs to me that small bobbles could be used to incorporate a simple Braille message into a piece of work - “I love you”, “Be warm” or “Nana went to England and all I got was this bumpy scarf"…

Happy Thursday, all!

Inspection Reflection

I got my car inspected yesterday.  It should have been done in February, but when the state doubled the price, I decided to move things up a month every year.  At the end 13 years, I’ll have gotten the equivalent of a free year’s inspection.  I know it’s lame, but it’s the principle of the thing :)

For those of you outside the US, most states require a yearly inspection of motor vehicles to determine whether the vehicles are fit to be on the road.  This could be a matter of kicking the tires and making sure the windshield is clean enough to see through or could include all kinds of tests including emissions.  Massachusetts does the latter type of inspection and charges the driver $29.00 for the privilege.

Years ago, I drove an Oldsmobile Cutlass.  I loved that car.  It was big enough to be comfortable yet not so big that it was hard to maneuver or be a real gas hog.  And it had a digital dash.  Man, I thought that was the coolest thing on wheels.  In fact, the car came to be referred to as the “Starship” because of that awesome digital display. (Aside:  One morning when we were getting ready for work and both in the bathroom, I mentioned to Myria that I had dreamed the Starship had been broken into.  Her puzzled eyes appeared over the top of the shower door. “The starship was broken in two?” This seriously tickled my funny bone and I giggled to myself for days whenever I thought of it) Unfortunately, after a year or so, the display became sulky and intermittent.  It would only actually display anything when the car had been well warmed up - say 6 hours or so.  Even then, it might decide to offer the information in Medieval Martian, rather than in conventional English.

This became problematic for me regarding inspections because I knew they wanted the mileage and the digital odometer usually refused to cooperate.  I went for about a year without getting the car inspected because I was afraid they’d give me a rejection sticker - good for about two weeks during which time you’re supposed to get the problem fixed and then get the car re-inspected.  Except there was little money for what I saw as an essentially cosmetic repair.  I acquired two warnings and three real tickets during that period of time.  The tickets cost $50 apiece - initially.

In Massachusetts, car insurance (also mandatory) is regulated by the state.  And the state, in it’s supreme wisdom, regards any ticket as a moving violation.  Therefore, it goes on your record and your insurance costs go up proportionately - for the following 7 years.

I know, I know - it was stupid to avoid the inspection in the first place.  After the last ticket, I finally decided to see what would happen and I brought the car in.  The new microscopic inspections hadn’t been instituted at that point.  You drove your car into the bay and an inspector stood outside the car and checked tires, shocks and ball joints.  Then he’d have you run through the head, tail and directional lights and hit the horn.  At that point, they would generally lean in the driver’s window to check the odometer.  This time, the inspector simply stood beside the door and asked me what the mileage was.  Stunned, I gave him my closest guess which he wrote down on his clipboard.  One sticker and $15 later, I was on my way - legal for the first time in a year.

Inspections aren’t nearly so distressing now.  I’m a little smarter about things and my last two cars have been good cars.  But getting myself into the station to actually have the thing done is still a bit unnerving.  The inspector could tell me that the frammis is gone and has to be replaced because the knobjig could implode at any moment.  And what could I do?

The station I usually go to is a family business.  The son runs the main garage now and Dad has taken over inspection duty.  He is pleasant and polite in the way of older men who have never understood or accepted the sexual revolution.  He returned Lily after about 15 minutes, handed me my registration and the printout that said Lily was in acceptable condition and said, “Thank-you dear.  Have a nice day!”

I thanked him, went out to admire the new sticker and then went home.

Trauma over for another year :)

"The pine tree’s voice is always
Whispering,
Yet, how many pause to listen?
For when the churning mind is still,
the Diamond-Heart within
Reflects even the falling dusk that
shrouds every eye and branch,
And hears, but listens not.

Walking, then, with Courage
and Kindness,
never ceasing to walk in Wonder,
we follow our ancient path.
For the Way of the sword is
folded two;
Like the rose we have thorns,
and like the rose, we unfold.”

- Ji Aoi Isshi

Evidently, the Silk Garden was quite amenable to the stole idea and it and I are making good progress - nearly a third of the way through.  I pored over books and patterns this weekend, searching for something appropriate - something a little interesting but not busy.  I came up with bupkis, of course :) However, something apparently lodged in the caverns of my thick little skull when I was leafing through the lace and bobble section of The New Knitting Stitch Library.  Eventually, after playing around for a while, I came up with a pattern I really like (and which I will post when the stole is complete).

The Zen Garden Stole

Overall, I’m very happy with how this is working out.  The bobble/eyelet thingy isn’t terribly apparent when you look at the fabric.  But it is there and can be discerned upon closer inspection.  I like this.  I like that it’s not obvious - seems to fit in well with the yarn.

Bobble Lace Motif

What I Like About Silk Garden

I love the way the colors drift quietly from one shade to the next with no hard line of demarcation.  Not a subtle person under most circumstances, I find myself enormously enjoying the subtlety of the way this yarn is painted.  It is so carefully handled that even when I’m working on it, I have to hold it up and away a bit before I can see the change-over. 

I love the luster (also quiet - nothing bold about it) that the silk contributes to the fabric.  Even this colorway - mostly muted earth tones - is something extraordinary when presented in this fashion.

It’s easy enough to work with though the thick and thin aspect of it took a bit of getting used to.  Oddly, while a single strand in the fingers feels somewhat rough and unyielding (almost hempen), the knitted fabric is soft and comfortable against my skin (I could never use Shetland wool - I’d scratch off my entire epidermis!).

What I Don’t Like About Silk Garden

The !@#$%^&* plants embedded in the yarn!  I knew about this going in, many people have mentioned it.  It’s not like it ruins the yarn or anything and you can pick it out easily enough.  But it’s a right pain in the arse and not what I want from a luxury yarn.

I can’t say that Silk Garden is going to become a staple of my stash - but it’s one of those yarns that will be perfect for some things.  I expect it will suggest itself when appropriate and, in the meantime, I will continue to do my knitting with more standard yarn types.

All in all, this has been an interesting experience and is the first time I’ve consciously tried to come up with a pattern that compliments the material (rather than picking any old stitch pattern that happens to trip my trigger).  I’m pleased with the results.  I’m going to love this stole and it’s going to get lots of use :)

Knitting backwards is actually a method of purling without having to turn the work.  It won’t work for things like ribbing or seed stitch; the whole row has to be purled.  But, even with that restriction I have found this to be a tremendously useful technique and really, once you get the hang of it, it’s kinda fun!

I am a “thrower” not a picker.  So these instructions are geared toward throwers - knitters who carry the yarn in their right hand and manually wrap it around the needle to make a stitch.  I’m sure there’s a way for “pickers” to manage this technique, but I have no idea how it would work and apologize for not being able to cover both bases.  But I can only show what I know how to do :)

Position of the right hand

The position of the right hand isn’t really any different than it is when you’re knitting in the regular way, that is, not backwards :) It’s one of the advantages of this technique.  Your yarn, your needles and your hands all stay right where they are, uninterrupted by having to turn the fabric around to purl.  At least in my case, this does wonders for my tension!

Inserting the left needle

Insert the left needle into the back of the first stitch on the right needle.  The yarn is behind the needles, being held with the right hand.

Catching the yarn

Slide the needle back under the yarn and sort of scoop it forward.  Keeping a moderate tension on your yarn makes this simple.  You can wrap it manually but you will have to watch your tension carefully if you do it this way.

Pulling the stitch through

Then just pull the yarn through and drop the stitch off the right needle.  Picking up the yarn and drawing it through are all one motion even though they’re shown here as two different steps.

New stitch on the left needle

This business of purling from the right side of the fabric is useful in many ways.  It’s indispensable for Entrelac and very helpful for some types of bobbles (makes working them a lot less annoying!) and short rows.  It saves so much time not to have to stop, turn the work, get your hands and yarn in position, etc.  For me, it means there’s better flow to the work process - things move along more smoothly.

Pretty good tension

My tension isn’t too bad when I purl in the regular fashion though I tend to purl a bit more loosely than I knit.  When I’m knitting backwards, my tension pretty good and my stitches are nice and even - so I use this technique a lot.  It improves my knitting :)

See you on Monday!