Finished Object: A Tribute to Valerie

I always accuse Valerie of copying me (because she does!), but in reality, she and I simply have similar taste in knitwear and yarn. We are of one mind. I decided that instead of her trying to be me and me trying to be her, I should just WEAR her.

Pattern: Val from RYC’s AM to PM booklet
Yarn: RYC Baby Alpaca DK, 100% alpaca, color 200 Blossom, 10 balls
Needles: 2.75 mm, 3.25 mm, and 4.0 mm (US sizes 2, 3, and 6)
Comments:

• Another sample knit for Yarntopia. They wanted something relatively simple and none of the stockinette patterns jumped out at me, so I picked this one. I’m very happy with it. Such a lovely stitch pattern—the parts between he eyelets look braided to me. It was a quick and easy knit. (I could even working on it while watching movies with subtitles!)

• But just because something is easy doesn’t mean you can’t make it technically challenging. First challenging feature: tubular cast on! I have practiced the tubular cast on, but this was the first opportunity that I’ve had to use it on a garment. Boy is it pretty! However, the version of the tubular cast on that I used isn’t as stretchy as I would like. I the future, I will try other methods.

• Challenging feature number two: Tubular bind off! First time that I’ve ever done it. Again, very pretty. It took me a bit to figure out how tight to pull the yarn during the bind off, so the first bit of the bind off is a little more sloppy than the rest. But I’m still happy.

• Challenging feature number three: Shortened sleeves. I’m sure that doesn’t sound very challenging, but let me explain. The stupid schematic made it impossible for me to easily find out the finished sleeve length. So I didn’t know if the sleeve was going to be too long or not. (Past experience with RYC patterns tells me that either I have abnormally short arms or British models are mutants with abnormally long arms.)

To determine my correct sleeve length, I measured from the back of my neck to my wrist and measured some well fitting sweaters. I needed a sleeve about 76 cm long from the back of my neck to wrist. Next, I had to measure the shoulder length of the completed back piece and subtract it from the back-to-wrist length to find the total sleeve length: 76 – 17 = 59 cm.

THEN I had to count the number of rows in the sleeve cap, multiply the number of rows by the row gauge to find the length of the sleeve cap, and subtract the sleeve cap length from the total sleeve length: 59 – 18 = 41 cm.

So 41 cm was the length of the sleeve before the sleeve cap shaping. Lo and behold, the math worked perfectly. The sleeves are the right length!

I’m sure you’ve all noticed that I’m not wearing the sweater in these photos. Trust me, it fits well. I tried doing the self-timer thing and no amount of good lighting, good focusing, and good photo composition can make up for awkward poses and goofy facial expressions. So I had to resort to Scout-modeled photos.

(In case you are wondering: Getting Scout into the sweater was not a problem at all. She liked it! Her own alpaca sleeping bag! Getting her out was not as easy. She didn’t want to leave. No, she’s not a stuffed cat.)

A good thing, a bad thing, and an other thing

A Good Thing

Furry, fuzzy, pink yarn! Sarah sent me some amazing pink angora. “Vintage!” she said. Apparently it is from stash that she inherited from a relative. It came in a little box and I really want to play with it. But it looks so nice in the box and (as evidenced by the messy looking ball in the lower right corner of the box) I’m unable to put the yarn back into the box as nicely as it was before. Thank you so much Sarah!

A Bad Thing

I knitted another sweater for Yarntopia. That’s not the bad thing. The yarn is yummy, the sweater is well designed, and the pattern was clear—all that was good. The bad thing was the schematic. What’s the point of this schematic? It doesn’t contain any information to make it useful! All the measurements in it could be read of the pattern. But to make a bad thing even worse: That’s not the sweater in the pattern! The schematic shows nice, feminine waist shaping. The sweater has straight sides. Sigh!

An Other Thing

I’ll bet that you thought “An Other Thing” was a typo. It’s not. My other thing is that I’m pursuing a new hobby. This week, I went back to school to take a Basics of Photography class at the Rice University School of Continuing Studies. I want to know how to use all those manual settings on my camera. I want to know how to take better photos.

As a result, I think my knitting and certainly my knit blogging will slow down over the next few months. However, I will be uploading feeble attempts at completing my class assignments on my Flickr page. I even created a new collection for the class. Each assignment will go in its own set. I can only show two photos per assignment to the class, so comments on the photos posted are welcome, appreciated, and desperately wanted.

A Really Long Post

This post was originally twice the current length. Seriously. Apparently I thought I was so important that I needed to say much more. The first version of this post was a description of all my trials and tribulations with Morrigan (so far). But I decided that it would be too boring for anyone not making Morrigan. I considered not publishing the post at all, but thought that those 15 or so of you who are knitting Morrigan might actually want to read what I have to say. So I present a two-part post: Part 1 is general interest and Part 2 is obsessive compulsive ramblings about Morrigan.

Part 1: Finished Object: Baby Bobbi Bear

Pattern: Baby Bobbi Bear published by Blue Sky Alpaca
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpaca Sport Weight (100% baby alpaca), natural white, 3.5 hanks and scraps of natural light tan
Needles: 5.5 mm (US size 9) DPNs
Comments:
• Drew gave me the kit to make this bear. I love love love the bear, the yarn, the pattern—EVERYTHING!

• Like S t a c i before me, I ran out of yarn. S t a c i had graciously offered her extra yarn, but I didn’t take it because I wanted an excuse to visit Twisted Yarns. I had never been to that store before and I thought that it was time to go. While I was there I picked up yarn for another Baby Bobbi Bear (did I tell you that I love this pattern?) and I stumbled upon the most gorgeous shade of Silky Wool that I had ever seen. (Click the link! See the pretty yarn!) I bought it with the intention of making the Twisted Yoke Cardigan from the latest Interweave Knits, but now I think it is destined for something else.

• I have not yet determined if the cats are a threat to Bobbi. I haven’t had the courage to allow Bobbi to sit out unsupervised. So far Scout has attacked Bobbi’s ribbon and Cleo has licked Bobbi. Was Cleo getting a taste of Bobbi for future feasting? I don’t know and I don’t want to find out.

Part 2: Morrigan “Errors”

Things happened as I was knitting the body of Morrigan. Everything worked out fine for me, but I went through a lot of charting and mathing and thinking and discussing and waffling to finish the body of the sweater. (This is the real reason why it took me so long to get from the armpits to the shoulders on Morrigan.)

After all that, I was pretty sick of Morrigan and I jokingly said that I was thinking about turning Morrigan into a vest. I really had no intention of making a vest. In fact, I’ve started the sleeves. But anyway, onto the business at hand.

If you are looking for tips, hints, or errata for Morrigan, you have two choices: Easy or Convoluted.

Easy:
Other than the teeny-tiny error that I found in Chart B, the instructions for the body of Morrigan are completely correct. Do not follow the correction to the side chart that I mentioned in an earlier post.

Convoluted:
Part 1: The Side Chart “error” and its ramifications
I posted the Side Chart corrections on the No Sheep for You KAL. It just so happened that the person who tech-edited the pattern saw my post and commented on it. Apparently, the “error” was in the original pattern but the tech-editor didn’t realize it was an error. (Which is completely fine, the pattern still works, the error really is just a matter of esthetics.) But here’s the rub: The tech-editor worked out ALL the stitch counts from the armpit up with the “error” in there! What’s the problem? If you correct the “error” in the way that I posted your stitch counts will not match the stitch counts in the pattern.

Okay, I’m highly math enabled. I can rework stitch counts, no problem. Thankfully, I decided that I would work out the stitch counts BEFORE I started any “error” correcting. With the help of math, a diagram that I built in Excel, and a careful study of the photos in the book, I noticed something interesting about the “error” and my possible correction. Look at the photo. Along the shoulder seam there is a column of twisted knit stitches. Very elegant, don’t you think?

That column of stitches is Chart F in the pattern. If I corrected the “error” I would not have that nice, strong column of stitches next to my shoulder seam. Instead, Chart C (that pretty cable next to the column of stitches) would be right up next to the seam. So I had a dilemma: Fix the “error” as my anal retentive side said or ignore it to please my artistic side. I chose to ignore the “error.” (gasp!)

Part 2: The error that both there and not there
I should pause for a moment to tell you that as I was working through all these error/no error issues, I was corresponding heavily with the tech-editor. She’s a saint. I think I love her.

In our email conversations, she noted that when you finished working all the armhole and neck shaping, you would have three more stitches on the back shoulders than you would have on the front shoulders. However, one must have the same number of stitches on the front and the back to do a proper three-needle bind-off. So, Ms. Tech-Editor told me, she had worked in decreases on the back shoulders to get rid of the extra stitches. I checked my math, confirmed what she said, and went on my merry way.

But then I got an email from someone else who was making Morrigan. Janis had surged ahead of me during all my mathing and charting and futzing. She was up to the shoulder shaping already and had a question about what she believed to be missing markers. Somewhere in the back shoulder shaping, the instructions say something about knitting to a marker and turning. The marker indicated one side of the back neck shaping.

What Janis didn’t realize (or forgot) was that the markers for the back neck shaping were placed on the VERY FIRST ROW of the pattern. Janis had placed markers all around her Morrigan and didn’t realize that back neck shaping markers were different from all the other markers on her needles. Anyway, I didn’t email Janis back immediately because she emailed me at night and I didn’t check my mail until the morning. So she emailed Jenna, too.

So by the time I did check my mail, I had the original question from Janis and a forwarded correction from Jenna in my in box. (Jenna also took the opportunity to point out that someone was beating me on Morrigan.) But wait! It gets more exciting!

Jenna ALSO didn’t realize that the back neck markers were already placed! So in her correction, she added a line right before the back shoulder shaping instructions saying to place markers X many stitches from each side of the back. BUT what I immediately realized was that the originally placed markers were not X number of stitches away from the sides. In fact, the original makers were X+3 stitches from each edge.

You see what’s happening, don’t you? The whole time Jenna meant for the number of stitches on the shoulders to be the same. The markers placed in the very first row are placed in the wrong place! Each marker should be placed 3 stitches closer to the center of the work.

But if you do this, you should not do the decreases on the back that get rid of the extra stitches because the extra stitches will not be there! If you move the markers to the corrected positions and do the decreases, you will end up with 3 fewer stitches on the back shoulders than you have on the front shoulders. (Whew! did you follow that?)

So what did I do? I moved the markers and didn’t do the decreases because it made much more sense to work it that way.

If you managed to read all of that: Congratulations! Sorry it was so long, but you know what it says at the top—I use too many words to describe what I’m doing.

Purple Mountain Majesty

Hey Williams knitters! I know you're out there because every now and then one of you emails me and says that you read my blog. Here's your chance to actually leave a comment on my blog.

Have you seen these?

The pattern is from Sweaterscapes. I really want these socks. But it's a combination of two knitting things that I don't like: socks and intarsia (I think. It could be stranded, but that doesn't improve things that much.)

I want them so much that I'm tempted to say that I'll buy the pattern and the yarn if someone else would knit them for me. Tempted. Very tempted.

Doily!

Pattern: Doily by a doily designer
Yarn: A doily-appropriate yarn. Seems to be 100% cotton. Dark Green
Needles: Doily-size needles. Something small. Maybe US 0 or 1.
Comments: Okay, you caught me. I didn’t knit this doily. Monkee did. When she finished it, she threw it at me. She said I could have it if I wove the ends, blocked it, and blogged about it. So here it is: ends woven and trimmed, blocked, and blogged.

Does the fact that I have a pink phone surprise anyone?

[Note: the following is a change in topic without any type of transition]

LOOKIE!!!

(Can I tell you how tempted I am to do the neck edging, add edging around the armholes, and call it a vest?)

Boing! Thump!

Did you hear that? That was me jumping on the bandwagon. What prompted this fit of unoriginality in me? Well my friend M and his wife H surprised me by having a baby. Now I say “surprised” in the most tongue-in-cheek way. M and H have produced kids like clockwork: every two years in June or July a new addition to their family. The first four kids are a girl, a boy, a girl, and a boy. Last fall, I was talking to M on the phone (they live in Austin) and I jokingly asked if H was pregnant. He said yes. Then I teased that baby #5 would most certainly be a girl. (M and H never find out the gender of their children in utero.)

Well, M and H had baby #5, a girl, in mid-July. From their track record, I knew that this would happen even before H got pregnant—it wasn’t a surprise at all. But for some reason, I chose to ignore the impending arrival. When I heard the news about the new baby, I realized that I needed to knit something. Fast.

So for M and H’s newest bundle of joy, a February Baby Sweater and a Vine Lace Baby Hat.

Pattern: Baby Sweater on Two Needles (actually, I used only one circular) by Elizabeth Zimmermann and Vine Lace Baby Hat by Sandi Wiseheart
Yarn: RYC Cashsoft DK, color 520, 3 balls
Needles: 3.75 mm (US 5) for the sweater and 3.5 mm (US 4) DPNs for the hat

Comments:
In complete lemming form, I paired the hat with this sweater after seeing it on Guro’s blog. It just reinforces the fact that I could not think for myself on this project.

The sweater pattern is not difficult. It should have been knit in a few hours with no problems. However, this is me. I made an easy sweater hard:

* After knitting four or five rows, I decided that the front edges would looks so much better if I used a slip-stitch selvedge. So I ripped and started over.

* After knitting a few rows past the first increase row, I decided that the increases looked better on the wrong side of the work. So I ripped back to two rows before the increase row and increased on a wrong-side row instead of a right-side row.

* Apparently, my mind decided to take a vacation when I started the second sleeve. The sleeves start by casting on 7 stitches on each side of each sleeve. I managed to do this properly on the first sleeve. But I cast on stitches only on one side on the second sleeve. That’s right: I followed the directions correctly THREE TIMES and then screwed up on the fourth time. Rip, rip, rip.

But all in all, I’m happy with the project. Despite all my foibles, I still managed to finish the two items in three days. Cute, fast, and PINK! Thanks for having a girl, M and H!

I’m such a dabbler

Some time ago I teased you with a photo of a craft that I had recently tried. For some reason (laziness), I never got around to blogging about it. The photo I showed back then was an example of origami tessellation. Last month I took classes at a local store during their origami festival. I took two tessellation classes from Joel Cooper. (Please click on his name to see his amazing work. Look at his Masks and Tessellations sets. I cannot describe how incredible his work is.)

I learned a lot from Joel by my work is not quite up to his level. If you want to see more of what I’ve made you can go here. Sadly there isn’t a book from which I can learn more about tessellations—it appears to be a try-it-and-see type of craft.

And speaking of other crafts that I do (good segue, huh?), I decided to answer the craft meme seen on Grumperina’s blog. I segregated the crafts listed under #3 because, apparently, I’m quite a dabbler.

1. I have no interest; complete lack of creativity in this area.
card making, cartooning, collage, decorating, doll house making, etching, gift wrapping, lucet, shibori, spinning, stamping, straw marquetry, string art,

2. Would love to try it.
flower arranging, glass bead making, glass blowing, graphic design, millinery, tatting, quilting

3. I do or have dabbled in it.
As an adult (college or later):
crochet, designing/pattern writing, dyeing, entertaining, felting, gardening, lace making, origami, sewing, scrap booking

Special geeky cases as an adult:
* balloon animal making (I got a balloon animal kit to make tetrahedral models for a science textbook photo shoot. Then, I played with the left over balloons.)
* paper making (as part of a science project in college)
* soap making (as part of a chemistry class)

As a dabbler young ‘un:
appliqué, basket weaving, beading, book binding, calligraphy, candle making, doll or toy making, embroidery and cross-stitch, jewelry making, macramé, mosaics, needlepoint, painting or drawing, papier-mâché, poetry, pottery, rug hooking, story telling-acting-stage work, weaving, video/film making, wood carving

As an obsessed young ‘un:
music (piano, clarinet, harp, trumpet, recorder)

4. Love it! This is my thing.
baking, cooking, knitting, pattern editing, photography, writing

And I have plans to start this up again: music (cello)

WHEW!

I was a very crafty kid, wasn’t I? When I was younger, I was very interested in arts and crafts. Between my artistic dad, my crafty mom, The Best Elementary School Art Teacher in the World, and my many years as a Brownie and a Girl Scout, almost every art or craft whim that tickled my fancy was indulged. My parents’ house is still filled with some of my more successful (but still childish) works of art.

A parting photo
Guro asked to see Morrigan again. So here she is. I’m mere inches away from finishing the body. I’ve shaped the front neck and divided for the front and the back. In a fit of insanity, I decided that I would knit the two fronts and the back at the same time. So I have three balls of yarn attached to the project.

I had hoped to finish the body by now, but my fingers are currently busy working on another super-secret project for Kristen. I was refraining from blogging about Morrigan because there were some interesting pattern developments that I didn’t feel like writing about. I will do so as soon as I finish the body.

Finished Object: Bunny Blanket Buddy

What do you do when you are sick of working cables on both right-side and wrong-side rows using 3.25 mm (US 3) needles? Well, you make something out of fluffy novelty yarn on ginormous needles, of course!

Pattern: Bunny Blanket Buddy or Blanket Bunny Buddy or some combination of those three words. Available for “free” from the Lion Brand website. (Actual retail cost: the personal information that you don’t want Lion Brand to have)
Yarn: Plymouth Heaven, 100% nylon (and 100% fluffy!), color 12 (yellow), 2 balls. Plus scraps of Rowan 4-Ply Cotton for embroidery
Needles: 6.5 mm (US 10.5) and 5.0 mm (US 8)
Notions: A little polyester fiberfill
Recipient: someone’s baby

Comments: I chose this pattern because it looked easy and kinda cute. But, much to my delight, I discovered that the pattern is very, very clever. The bottom part (from the neck down) is pretty straightforward. The most exciting bits are when you cast on and bind off for the arms. (More on that later.) But once you get to the neck—hold onto your hats!—all cleverness breaks out.

The head is double-knit! You knit the front and back of the head at the same time, creating a “pouch” to stuff later. The ears are shaped and attached to the top of the head using short rows! After stuffing, the top of the head is gathered like the top of a hat! So there is NO seaming at all. How nifty-keen is that?

I’m so pleased as Punch about this toy. I thought it would be boring and mindless, but it turned out to be an interesting knit and super cute. I knit up the toy in a couple of hours and then spent almost as much time embroidering the face. Artistic I am not.

Helpful Hints:
• The pattern doesn’t say to WRAP AND turn when working the short rows. So I didn’t. Bad idea. Wrap those stitches to prevent holes. You don't even have to bother picking up the wraps because they will just disappear in the fluffiness.

• This kind of fluffy yarn is quite bulky and does not have much stretch. Therefore, when you cast on and bind off for the arms and ears you must choose your methods wisely. Traditional cast ons (like knitting on or the cable cast on) and bind offs can yield very stiff edges. I used a backward-loop cast on and a lace bind off and my edges are soft and flexible.

More Cosmic Twinness

Over the last couple of years, Rachel and I have gotten to know each through our blogs, email, and gmail chat. In that time, we have been surprised at the many things we have in common. Rachel says its cosmic twinness.

Because we know each other so well, it seemed perfectly natural to me when Rachel told me that she was going to come to Texas and wanted to visit me. She would be visiting friends in Austin and San Antonio and then would swing by Houston for a brief stay. “Sure I’ll pick you up at the bus station, let you sleep in my yarn room, and then take you to the airport!” I told her.

Now let’s step back a minute. Pretend that you aren’t a knitblog reader or a knitter. Pretend that you are normal a safety-conscious person. What would you think if a good friend of yours told you that someone who she met over the Internet was traveling halfway across the country to visit her and that she would be picking up said Internet friend at a bus station in a highly dodgy neighborhood and then letting this “friend” stay overnight at her house? Well when you put it that way . . . .

Luckily for me (and Rachel), we discovered that we had even more things in common. For example, neither of us are axe murderers, sex offenders, or sleezy men who created innocent knitblogger personas with the sole purpose of luring an unsuspecting knitter into a friendship so that they kidnap her and steal all her money. Whew! Are you as relieved as I am?

Sadly Rachel could not fit her Starsky into her luggage so we couldn’t do true Sweater Twins photos, but she did manage to click a few other photos.

I'm such a geek

Seen on Roxy's blog:




I scored 100% with no cheating--I even got the questions in life science (my weakest science subject) right.

In which I appear to be copying Rachel again, but I really didn’t

One of the many things that Rachel and I have in common is a complete lack of interest in pursuing other fiber arts and/or crafts. We don’t want to spin or sew or dye or what-have-you. However, Rachel recently delved into the dyeing world. And believe it or not, so did I. I swear we didn’t talk to each other before we did this.

Last fall during the International Quilt Festival, I picked up a shiny hank of silk laceweight from the Habu Textiles booth. I wasn’t so happy with the white color, but the person in the booth assured me that it would dye easily. I particularly wanted this yarn because it is reeled silk rather than spun silk so I bought it figuring that I would worry about dyeing it at a later time.

Then, last month I was shopping at KPixie and happened upon some natural colored cobweb-weight “pashmina.” Twelve dollars! One thousand yards! Click the “add to basket” button! (I don’t know if they carry this anymore. I can’t find it on their website now.) In the photo, the silk is on the left and the pashmina is on the right.

Now that I had a second hank of blah colored yarn, I had to do something about both. Hey Kool-Aid! (That’s from a commercial, in case you young ‘uns don’t know.) I went to the store with the intention of buying pink and red Kool-Aid. I’m so predictable. Well, there are a lot of varieties of Kool-Aid including a handful of pinks and billions of reds. So I grabbed several hoping to find colors that I liked. I settled on Slammin' Strawberry Kiwi for the pashmina and Cherry for the silk.

At first I tried the microwave method—you know, shove yarn in a Mason jar and nuke. That resulted in splotchy yarn. I was not happy. I decided that the pink pashmina was done well enough and I was worried that if I tried to dye it again, it would felt. (It threatened to felt after the first dyeing process and I really didn’t want to chance it.) However, the Cherry silk needed serious help. So back to the store for more Kool-Aid.

FYI—When you use those self-check out things at the grocery store, after scanning something you have to put the item on the scale thing on the end so that it can make sure that you’re not stealing. The self-check out freaks out if it doesn’t detect an item being placed on the scale thing. The scale thing CANNOT detect individual Kool-Aid packets. If I ever hear, “please put the item in the bag” again, I’m going to scream.

The partly red silk and additional Cherry Kool-Aid were cooked in a pot on the stove—not crammed Mason jar this time. I wanted the yarn to swim. The results are perfect. Now I have to figure out what to do with my new pink and red yarns.

Foreshadowing things to come

The title of Rachel’s latest post implies that she will be showing more things that she doesn’t normally do. *cue Twilight Zone music* I am also planning to show something else that I don’t normally do. It’s entirely possible that Rachel has been working on the same “art” that I am. I worry that she’s going to beat me to the punch again. So here’s a sneak preview of my extra-extra-curricular activity:

Finished Object: Katherine (Sal Crochet Cap)

Pattern: Sal from Rowan 31, one size
Yarn: Rowan 4 ply Cotton, color 120 Orchid, less than 1 ball
Hook: 3.75 mm (US size F)
Peter’s Comment: I don’t think that’s going to keep your head warm.

My Comments: I think it’s a cute cap, but I’m not sure it’s cute on me. Sort of hippie chick. But as Drew says, it will be good for bad hair days.

I tried very hard to get a good close-up photo of the cap on my head, but it was not working. All photos were either poorly framed or out of focus. So I had to find a better model. First, Scout was recruited. But despite her best efforts, she couldn’t pull it off. The hat was simply too big for her. Plus, she put it on inside out. Silly cat can’t dress herself properly.

So I had to construct “fake Laura head” out of a tripod, an inverted bowl, and one of Peter’s black running shirts (don’t worry, it was clean).

I actually finished this cap more than a week ago, but didn’t get around to blogging about it because of an insane work schedule. Though, it turned out to be a good thing that I didn’t blog earlier. I think the hippie-chick hat may have prevented me from earning a . . .

Rockin’ Girl Blogger Award

Whoo Hoo! Rockin’ Valley Girl Agnes nominated me because I’m a scientist knitter. Who knew that geekiness could turn into Rockin’-ness?

Now it’s my turn to nominate five more bloggers for a Rockin’ Girl Bloggers award!

How could I not nominate Rockin’ Rachel? She’s my sweater twin, my Best Blog Friend (according to her), and the co-founder of the Apathetic Sock Knitters Club.

Then Superhero Sarah gets the tap. Sarah is a mild-mannered archeologist by day and Microfarmer Sarah by night (and weekends). She has 5 cats, 2 dogs, 1 llama, 4 goats, 12 chickens, and 6 SHEEP! She’s going to adopt me so that I can live on her farm.

Next up is Über-creative Elizabeth. I love Elizabeth’s blog because she allows us to peek into the mind of a knitwear designer. And she’s a great nature photographer—but watch out for the bug photos if you’re easily creeped out like I am.

Of course Biker Debby is rockin’. After all, she has a PINK bike. Debby is also co-hosting this year’s Tour de France KAL in the most fun way. Compete for jerseys! Learn about the Tour!

Last but not least is Mad Scientist Jeanne. Jeanne has been conducting experiments in her kitchen as she dyes with natural dyestuff. And she does math during these experiments! What could be more rockin’?

Red Alert! Error in Morrigan!

Okay, so it's probably not a major red alert seeing as I'm probably one of about 10 knitters worldwide who are knitting Morrigan. (I found 3 others started on the web, I'm not the only crazy one.) BUT it is a major error.

I emailed Jenna and her entire response is below. The error is in the number of times that rows 69–76 of the Side Chart are worked.

Crap! you're right! That should have been 4 times. I checked back
through all my drafts, and I had written it as 6, (6, 8, 8, 8, 8)
throughout, but obviously the math doesn't work that way!

Because I used AppleWorks (since uninstalled and I don't know what we
did with the install disks), I can't check the spreadsheet notes to
figure out where the mistake originated... all my text notes show
that I miscounted, and evidently thought that rows 77-84 of the side
chart were only 6 rows, not 8. The tech editor must have done the
same thing, too!

So, the Side chart should indicate that the repeats of rows 69-76 are
4 (4, 5, 5, 6, 6). Here's the logic:

Total rows before bind-offs according to Chart A count: 140 (140,
156, 156, 164, 164)

Side:
4 rows of foundation pattern (chart rows 1-2)
8 rows of patt (chart rows 3-10 x 1)
32 (32, 40, 40, 40, 40) rows of rep (chart rows 11-18)
50 rows of patt (chart rows 19-68 x 1)
--at this point, we've worked 94 (94, 102, 102, 102, 102) rows; 46
(46, 54, 54, 62, 62) to go before bind-off--
32 (32, 40, 40, 48, 48) rows of rep (chart rows 69-76 x 4 (4, 5, 5,
6, 6))
8 rows of patt (chart rows 77-84 x 1)
--this adds 40 (40, 48, 48, 56, 56) rows; another 6 rows to work
following rows 85-92 as necessary--

Thinking about it, I'm positive I kept counting rows 77 to 84 as 6
rows, because I recall I thought that it would end neatly with row 84
for the smallest size, and then I must have incorporated that set of
rows into the repeat count by accident. You could, if you wished,
treat this as a 5x repeat, which means that instead of working rows
77-84 before the bind-off, you'd only work rows 77-82; on the bind-
off row, you'd integrate three double decreases. This would make the
cable pattern fill the underarm all the way up to the bind-off,
rather than leaving a 6-row gap of reverse stockinette across those 9
rows. [edit: she means "those 9 stitches"]

Well. Considering the complexity of the pattern, I'm grateful that
you found only this and that symbol in row 1 in Chart B...

Thanks for forging on ahead!
Jenna

Finished Object: Flower Basket Shawl

Pattern: Flower Basket Shawl from Interweave Knits
Yarn: El Coyote Ranch 100% Mohair, one hank
Needles: 4.0 mm, US Size 6
Finished Size: about 50” wide and 27” tall
Comments:
1) Yet another little shawl. Apparently, I am incapable of making an average-sized shawl. Either I make enormous shawls or I make small shawls. I thought about making this shawl larger, but I didn’t want to start the second ball of yarn.

2) The reason why I didn’t want to start the second ball of yarn was because I wasn’t very trilled about the yarn when I was knitting it. The yarn was rather scratchy and I didn’t care to keep going with it. But, after washing and blocking, the fabric softened up nicely. It’s still a bit scratchy, but not as bad as I thought it would be.

3) I think the shawl will make a nice scarf. It seems sort of “rustic” to me, so I wouldn’t wear it to anything dressy, but I could see myself wearing it with jeans.

4) I really wish I had used a centered doubled decrease instead of s1, k2tog, psso, but I didn’t think to do that until after I and knit a couple of repeats. The yarn is just sticky enough to make annoying to frog easily. So I just lived with it. If I make it again, I would change the decrease.

And a Thank You

Thank you everyone for your compliments on my new hair. Believe it or not, I’m still getting used to it. Similar to people who have had limbs amputated, I’m suffering “phantom hair.” I still try to flip my nonexistent hair and I’m always moving invisible hair out of my way when I put my head on a pillow.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Jo took off her bonnet, and a general outcry arose, for all her abundant hair was cut short.

“Your hair! Your beautiful hair!” “O Jo, how could you? Your one beauty.” “My dear girl, there was no need of this.” “She doesn’t look like my Jo anymore, but I love her dearly for it!”

As everyone exclaimed, and Beth hugged the cropped head tenderly, Jo assumed an indifferent air, which did not deceive anyone a particle, . . . rumpling up the brown bush and trying to look as if she liked it.

--Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

Ever since I first read that passage as a young girl with waist-length hair, I’ve wanted to sell or donate my hair for wig making. The last time that I went from very long hair to very short hair, I inquired about donating my hair, but could not find information about it. (That was before everything-you-need-to-know-and-some-things-you-don’t was on the Internet.)

BEFORE



AFTER



I did not cry, though my heart was racing and I was trembling when I felt that first cut of scissors. My agony was prolonged because the hair was cut in three fat ponytails which each took the hairdresser a long time to hack through. It did not help when the hairdresser in the next station looked over and yelled, “OH MY GOD!!!”

And the hair? It’s on its way to Locks of Love.

Finished Object: Birthday Socks

Pattern: Started as Alison’s ankle socks, changed to Laura’s intuitive socks, and finally morphed into variations on a heel by Joanna
Yarn: Koigu KPPPM in unknown colorway, 1 hank
Needles: 3.25 mm (US Size 3) DPNs
Comments: I had 10 g of yarn left over, I suppose I could have made taller ankle socks instead of these little footie-style socks, but I didn’t know that until I finished and by then I wasn’t about to rip the socks (again).

Who wears wool footies? I guess these seem terribly impractical, but I’ll probably just use them as bed socks.

You can see the pretty short row heels and toes here.

With Friends Like These, Who Needs Enemies?

It all started when Valerie showed me Cookie A’s socks. Now, as you know, I don’t get excited about socks, but I do always appreciate a beautiful knitting pattern—even if it’s a pattern that I’m not likely to knit. So was the case with the Cookie A patterns—I loved them.

A few weeks later, Tania mentioned that she could get printed versions of the Cookie A patterns at a discount through a co-op. “Hmm,” I thought, “printed patterns.” I don’t have a color printer, so I don’t like to purchase patterns that are primarily available as downloadable PDFs. So, I asked Tania to buy the Millicent and Twisted Flower patterns for me—just so I could have them and admire them. Certainly NOT so I could knit them.

Fast forward to a couple of days ago. A package arrived bearing enough RED sock yarn to knit Millicent. Apparently, Valerie and Sarah have decided that I must start knitting socks. They are ignoring my constant “ho-hum” attitude toward socks. They are obviously conspiring against me. I’m sure they hate me. Okay, maybe they don’t hate me. If they hated me they wouldn’t have sent such luscious yarn in the most perfect shade of red. I love the yarn. Thank you Val and Sarah!

Don’t worry Debby, despite all this sock and sock-yarn action, I’m not going to abandon the Apathetic Sock Knitters Club! Knit on! er… Apathy on!

Look Ma, No Needles!

For a few years now, I’ve been coveting Sal—the lace cap in Rowan 31. (However, I hate that name. It needs a prettier name like Katherine or Amanda.) But Sal, henceforth to be known as Katherine, is crocheted and I didn’t have the foggiest idea of how to read a crochet pattern. Enter Drew aka The Crochet Dude.

Drew, S t a c i , Jeanne, and I have a slacker breakfast SnB. Slacker because we meet during “work hours” and breakfast because we eat breakfast (obviously). This week at slacker breakfast SnB, I asked Drew to teach me to crochet. Drew is an awesome teacher. Within the first few minutes of our lesson, I learned the following gems of wisdom:

• “Blue” is not a proper designation of crochet hook size.
• You can’t pick a crochet hook because it is cute. You have to pick a hook based on gauge.

I wonder if those tips are generally included in crochet books or if they are special techniques that Drew has developed. Anyway, I’m now making a hat. I’m not very far along because I haven’t had much time to work on it (and because I keep ripping the dang thing out), but I hope you can imagine this stringy thing turning into a hat.

Meanwhile—I’m sure there is a large portion of the viewing audience who has been impatient for a Morrigan update. I know, I’ve been such a tease. First I had a big build-up leading to me casting on for the sweater then one measly photo of progress. But there’s a reason for it. Let’s review the facts.

1. There are 300-or-so stitches on my needle.
2. I’m working on 3.25 mm (US size 3) needles.
3. Every round of the pattern includes cable crossings.
4. On the odd numbered rounds, the longest I ever go without a cable crossing is about 4 stitches.
5. Each round takes me approximately 20 minutes to complete. (And I’m supposedly a fast knitter!)
6. After about 2 hours of knitting, my hands HURT.

So you see, progress is not so swift. However, I finally do have something interesting to show. One of the most nifty-keen things about this sweater is that all the shaping is done in a cable pattern. The photo shows the side cable with all the decreases for the waist shaping completed. A couple more rows and I’ll start increasing. Are you as impressed as I am? Jenna Wilson is just brilliant.

Science Geeks Unite!

We have a winner!

Joanna is the winner of the Oh! Science! contest. She was one of only eight people who got the first question right. The reason why the bottle was crushed was because of differences in atmospheric pressure. Atmospheric pressure decreases as altitude increases. I drank almost all of the water in the bottle during our hike up a mountain and then I closed the bottle thereby trapping low-pressure air inside the bottle. We then hiked down the mountain, got into our rent-a-car and drove to an even lower altitude. (I think we lost about 3,000 feet in altitude.) At the lower altitude, the atmospheric pressure outside the bottle was much greater and it squished the bottle.

The other people who got question one right were Janelle, Beth, Tania, Paula, Aimee, Laurie (Etherknitter), and Terby. (Forgive me for not linking to all of your blogs.)

The answer to the second question is that I got excited about the bottle because I am a complete and total science geek. I accepted any variation on that theme as correct. Pretty much everyone who got the first question right also got the second question right. (Is that because only science geeks answered that question and can relate to my geekiness?) Joanna's name was pulled by a random number generator, but as you will read, her winning sock yarn from me is eerily appropriate.

And finally, the caption “I didn’t hear any oboes playing” on the photo of Peter and the Duck is a reference to the piece of orchestral program music by Prokofiev called Peter and the Wolf. In that composition, different instruments represent different characters in the story. The Duck is played by an oboe.

Meanwhile—there has been knitting. I just haven’t been writing about it.

Last year, Jennifer sent me some beautiful Koigu for my birthday because her husband and I share the same birthday. When I left for my Colorado trip, I didn’t want to drag Morrigan along. So I decided to make Birthday Socks using the birthday yarn. I figured that I would easily finish a pair of socks by my birthday (yesterday). No such luck.

I started the socks using this pattern and short-row heel tutorial. I finished the first heel before I got on the plane to Colorado. Just minutes before the plane was to board, I decided that my short rows were ugly and ripped out the heel. (Imagine me trying frantically to get the yarn and needles in order before they called my row.) Then, on the plane, I had to start the heel again—without any instructions on how to do a different short-row heel. Oh sure, you expert sock knitters are probably scoffing at me now, “What do you need directions for? It’s just a short-row heel.” Okay, how many of you made your first short-row heel without directions, hmm?

I inferred how to do a wrap-and-turn short-row heel on the plane. It worked okay. At least it looked better than my first short-row heel attempt. I finished the sock the next day and was not exactly impressed with my handiwork. Although one side of my heel was passable, the other side had rather large gapes—not holes—just gapes. At this point, I could have started the other sock and finished it by the time I got home, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to cut the yarn. So, there was no more knitting for the rest of the trip.

After I got home, I read about Joanna’s magical garter-stitch short-row heels: no purling, no picking up wraps. I emailed Joanna and asked her for instructions. (Now that I had regained Internet access, I figured that I should use it to my advantage.) Armed with the new instructions, I produced ONE birthday sock yesterday. I’m not sure when the other sock will be produced. Maybe it will be a week-after-birthday sock. But look! Pretty heel!