Well, just to prove - in case you had any lingering doubts - that I can’t leave anything alone, here is one last Chinese wave thought. In the comments to Friday’s post, Nat asked if there was a way to compensate for the compression of the slipped stitches and the tendency that has to make a wider and shallower triangle than usual.
I’m not sure I’d want to compensate - but that got me thinking. And thinking got me knitting :)
Yet another swatch/test
Thing is, I started this with a garter stitch border as though I were doing a shawl. And, at least to my eye, the triangle looks pretty good. Do you suppose the garter stitch is enough to diffuse the compression ratio? Anyway, the formula was this:
Cast on 3 stitches
Row 1: (and every odd-numbered row) Knit
Row 2: K1, M1, K1, M1, K1
Row 4: K1, M1, K3, M1, K1
Row 6: K1, M1, K5, M1, K1
Row 8: K1, M1, K3, sl1, K3, M1, K1
Row 10: K1, M1, K3, sl1, K1, sl1, K3, M1, K1
The idea is to have 5 garter stitches at each side for a border while the wave pattern grows in the middle. That section will always be two stitches larger on each pattern row and will always start and end with a slipped stitch.
And then it occirred to me that this would be a perfect and fairly easy shawl or scarf pattern for a yarn that doesn’t block well (synthetics and some blends) because it doesn’t pull up and doesn’t curl - and still it looks nice! So I also started a shawl with Woolease sport weight yarn on size 10 US (6mm) needles. I’ll show you that when I’m a little further along :)
Maureen over at Irish Knits was talking about beautiful, autumn-type things and that reminded me of something my mother had said. We had been talking about the beautiful October skies (for me, the most spendid skies of the year) and she mentioned a poem she had read once. All she could remember of it though, was the phrase “October’s bright blue weather”.
I plugged that line into Google and, lo and behold, found the poem. It was written by Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885) and is a lovely piece, evocative of autumn. I wish I could have shared it with my mother, but I can’t. So I’ll share it with you instead :)
October’s Bright Blue Weather
O SUNS and skies and clouds of June,
And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October’s bright blue weather;
When loud the bumble-bee makes haste,
Belated, thriftless vagrant,
And Golden-Rod is dying fast,
And lanes with grapes are fragrant;
When Gentians roll their fringes tight
To save them for the morning,
And chestnuts fall from satin burrs
Without a sound of warning;
When on the ground red apples lie
In piles like jewels shining,
And redder still on old stone walls
Are leaves of woodbine twining;
When all the lovely wayside things
Their white-winged seeds are sowing,
And in the fields, still green and fair,
Late aftermaths are growing;
When springs run low, and on the brooks,
In idle golden freighting,
Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush
Of woods, for winter waiting;
When comrades seek sweet country haunts,
By twos and twos together,
And count like misers, hour by hour,
October’s bright blue weather.
O suns and skies and flowers of June,
Count all your boasts together,
Love loveth best of all the year
October’s bright blue weather.
Happy Monday :)
No trackbacks yet.
Gorgeous poem - thanks for sharing. :)
Knitting pretty things on large needles. Priceless.
Pretty poem. Isn’t Google wonderful?!? 
Lovely poem - thank you so much for sharing it.
I always love your swatching adventures.I’ll be interested to see thos works out. I love the poem… I was just saying today about the sky being so blue.Happy swatching! 
Bron - I can’t say I’ve ever been much of a poetry fan - except for pieces like these, full of color and images, making a point beautifully. Not at all what modern culture thinks of as good poetry.
Ha! Don’t know what they’re missing :)
Laurie - When Mom was telling me about this poem, I’d never even heard of the internet. I wish she could have seen how easy it was to find - would have tickled her several shades of pink :)
Kathy - You’re very welcome :) I’m delighted to share the wealth!
Maureen - I think I’m going to proceed with the scarf as is but I believe I’m going to rip out the shawl and re-start with a wider border :)
Thanks so much for the post that reminded me of that conversation with my mom :)
I love the pattern that your swatch is making. You wrote this can be a scarf pattern. Can this be worked into a straight scarf for my winter coat? If so, will I have to do anything different other than removing the center increase stitches? Thank you, smidget
