Crochet Away

I was inspired by a recent essay by Franklin Habit asking why knitters and crocheters can't just get along. And genetically, my ancestors were more crocheters than knitters, most notably my great-great Aunt Gladys. Several online friends were branching out, too, so I thought I'd try my hand -- and wrist -- at it.

I took a class on making granny squares from my friend Staci a while back and i found crocheting came back to me rather quickly. I don't know that heavy cotton yarn was the best thing to knock the rust off with, but it was at hand. I tried a few different patterns, but settled in the Diagonal Dishcloth by Amanda Judkins. I like that it's done on the bias, so I could try increasing and decreasing.

I'm not sure I got the best combination of yarn and hook. It looks a bit open to me. And there are some obvious tension issues. But with help from Staci's crochet videos, and some input from Stephanie at Saturday morning, I got through it. It's a bit big, but it might make a good hot pad. This is basically just rows of single crochet, done on the bias into the backs of the stitches, with increases at the edges to the halfway point and then decreases back to the point.

A Twisted Pair

After doing a little bit of yard work before it got too hot today, I settled in to watch some episodes of Independent Lens that had been waiting for me and knuckle down on the Spiegel Socks that I've been knitting forever. Before I knew it, I was done. I really wanted to finish these before the summer semester started. Mission accomplished.

They fit fine and I'm pretty happy with them. There is one modification I'd make we're I to attempt these again; I would have added an inch more ribbing on the cuff before starting the Bavarian stitch motif. It turns out I had enough yarn, but I followed the pattern because I was worried about running out. They could sit just a tad higher on the leg. There was also something I didn't think was right in the pattern in the large size. I'll write about that on the Ravelry project page.

I'm not sure what to tackle next. I'm still waiting for some yarn to come in so I can start that yoked sweater for my brother. I don't want to get too involved in something else should that arrive. I might also try my hand at some crocheting with some of the yarn I got at the swap. I also have a work colleague who is expecting. I need to think about what I might make for the impending bundle of joy.

Now, I've got to go straighten up. Tomorrow, a very talented photographer and neighbor of mine is coming over to make some portraits of us and the dogs. He says he wants us to wear sweaters.

Oh, we got sweaters...

Big Bend

If you've been following me at Flickr or on Twitter, you'll have seen a few of these photos from our getaway to Big Bend National Park this week. I'll be posting more photos later, but I wanted to get out a quick post while I had wifi access and a little spare time on our last day here.

We got here Sunday afternoon and immediately had a bit of drama when the vet, where the dogs were being kenneled, called at the last possible moment of mobile reception to tell us that a lump we'd noticed on Pona's neck should probably be biopsied or removed. We had to make some quick decisions. All correspondence has been via spotty email, but Pona's mass was removed, it was benign (a histiocytoma) and he's right as rain. Can't wait to see him -- and Kate -- tomorrow.

On Monday, we hiked down to The Window, a pour-off out of the Chisos Mountains that drops several hundred feet to the desert below. Watch your step! After getting back, we drove the thirty miles down to Santa Elena Canyon where the Rio Grande has carved a deep divide through solid rock. It's just one of my favorite places on earth and I never tire of visiting it. You can't see it here, but the river follows the bluff along the Chihuahua side to the left for several miles, forming a steep wall.

Tuesday was our major hiking day. We did a 12-mile loop that went up the Pinnacles Trail to the top of the Chisos Mountains, up through Boot Canyon out to the South Rim, and then back through Laguna Meadows. We're sore today, but it was worth it. I first did this same hike half my lifetime ago, and it's gratifying to know that I can still do it.

We saw lots of Mexican Jays and other birds during our walk, but unlike four years ago, no bears. And, lucky for us, no mountain lions. Apparently, they've been getting a bit bold as the continuing drought forces them to seek water near the campgrounds.

Today, we headed to the east side of the park and drove down the rather primitive Old Ore Road to Ernst Tinaja. A tinaja is a hollowed out pool in a canyon stream bed, that, being somewhat deep, tends to hold water most of the time, even if the stream is dry. Since we'd had a storm the night before, it was quite full with dark, tannin-rich water. The folded pink and gray rocks around it are beautiful.

Afterwards, we headed to the newly re-opened border crossing and took a boat across to Boquillas del Carmen in Mexico. This town was hit hard when the crossing was shut down after 9/11, and it's good to see it open again. A nice guy named Gabriel gave us a ride into town -- in his truck, not on these burros -- and showed us around, and answered our questions. We grabbed a beer at one of the bars in town and bought a few trinkets from some of the local kids. It's a miracle this former mining town has hung on as long as it has -- here's hoping the tourists start coming back.

Heading back to Austin tomorrow. Oh -- and I didn't knit a stitch while I was here, even though I brought the sock I'm working on. I'll get back to it when I get home!

 

Swap Analysis

Ever get tired of looking at the yarn in your stash and thinking, "What the hell was I thinking?" Or maybe, "What will I ever do with that?" If so, consider organizing a yarn swap. Some of my regular group of knitters got together last weekend and did just that. We had a potluck, did a little drinking, and brought our yarny trash, in hopes that we might snag someone else's fiber-y treasures. It's the third time we've done it over the years, and it was a blast.

Here's how we handle the process: we draw numbers in rounds. So, if there were 8 participants, we'd draw the numbers 1-8 out of a hat for round one. Then we'd draw numbers 9 through 16 for the second round, etc. You can base the number of rounds on the numbers of "lots" of yarn, or just decide how many up front. Then we dump all the yarn that everyone brought onto a big table. Usually, if you have multiple balls of the same yarn, it's bagged together into a lot. Then person 1 gets the first choice, and on through all the numbers. It's fun to paw through as people "shop," trying to hide things under the pile until their turn comes up. After we're all sated, what's left gets donated to a charity.

I usually go thinking of it as an opportunity to declutter, but I always come back with cool stuff. This time I got 7 hanks of Cascade 220 -- 6 in dark green heather and one in a light grey/green heather. Not sure if it's enough for an adult sweater -- but maybe for a nephew? I also got to thinking about crochet lately after reading a recent essay by Franklin Habit, and a Twitter conversation that followed. This pile of red Pima cotton yarn should be good for that. And then I got 6 skeins of a weird wool/mohair/acrylic blend from Dalegarn that I have no idea what I'll do with -- but I like the olive tweed color. If creativity fails me, I can always contribute it to the next swap!

Tomorrow, Jeff and I are headed for Big Bend National Park for a few days of hiking and relaxation under those big west Texas skies. This will be the first time we've visited during a new moon, so I'm really looking forward to seeing a beautiful night sky. "The stars at night, are big and bright..." -- you know the rest. We will try to find some wifi and share a bit of our adventures while we're there.

 

Greyscale

I needed a breather after last week's posting spate, but it seems I'm still fixated on one of the themes: grayness. Despite all the beautiful colors growing and blooming this time of year, my eyes are still drawn to the gray, all along the scale from white to black. If you've been watching Game of Thrones this season, you'll know that greyscale means something quite different in that world. I like our use of the word better. Poor, sweet Shireen Baratheon. But I digress...

I managed to finish the first of the Spiegel socks this week. Such a strangley interesting pattern. The pattern runs down the outside of the leg, then splits with one side twisting over the instep, pushed into position by the expanding triangular pattern on the cuff. Also, the heel is only half as high as most heels, and the turn is square rather than shaped. Turns out this suits my square heels just fine. I did have a bit of a hole on one side of the ankle, but I was able to gather it in on the inside with some careful stitch tracing and reinforcing. I've started the second sock, which I hope will progress more quickly.

Looking forward, I was able to get some of the yarn for the Grettir Sweater at Hill Country Weavers today. These are the contrasting colors used in the yoke. For left to right they are Snowbound, Cast Iron and Sweatshirt. The main color, Soot, is out of stock most places, so I may just have to wait until they go back into production next month. Grrr. I can be as grouchy as a two-year-old when I have to wait for yarn. It's not fair!

While at the shop, I perused a Shelter and Loft trunk show, with several items made from all of these wonderfully earthy shades. I imagine some of them were knit by Jared Flood himself, but I did see one green dress that a friend of mine made. It was like seeing an old friend.

KCBW Day 7: Looking Forward

Today, the last day of blogging in the 4th Knit and Crochet Blog Week, we are supposed to think about our craft, and how we hope to be expressing it, what we hope we will have learned and what goals we might reach by next year's exercise.

Frankly, the thought of all that is rather daunting. It took quite a bit out of me too keep up this week. True to my manatee nature, I tend to go with the flow. True, I plan individual patterns that catch my eye as they catch my eye. If they involve some new technique, I reckon I'll just learn how to do it when the time comes.

As I worked in the yard today, I thought about how rarely I take time to reflect on and enjoy my surroundings. And now's the time to do so, before the heat really sets in and the mosquitos arrive. So I sat in the front yard this evening, watching bees pollinate the lavender. Just this manatee and some humming bees -- no peacocks or monkeys seemed to be around. But perhaps one of the things I can take out of this exercise is to think about the other Houses and how I just might share some of their characteristics, too. Being well-rounded is an important part of success in any craft, I suppose.

I do plan to apply for the extra credit, and cast on for the sweater for my brother that I mentioned on day 2 -- just as soon as I get these socks finished. This has been fun. Thanks, Tony, for bringing it to my attention, and to Eskimimi for pulling it all together. It sure got me thinking about this thing I love to do.

KCBW Day 6: Cool Tools

We're getting down to the wire with this week of daily posting, and I, for one, am glad. I'm exhausted! Today's assignment is to pick a "tool to covet." We're directed to pick just one, but I couldn't narrow things down easily. I don't really have any tools that I use daily, and I'm interested in all sorts of knitterly gadgets. I've posted about hooks and needles I inherited from my great-grandmother via my Aunt June, and a darning egg I found at Grandma Self's house -- so I do admire a well-loved bit of technology, no matter its age. But I've given it some thought and picked out a few things I'm using these days.

First off, I've mentioned it before, but I'm really enamored of the knitCompanion app for the iPad. It's made chart reading so much easier -- even if it's a bit hard on battery life. I really appreciate being able to follow multiple charts at once. There's a bit of a learning curve on this, but after you figure it out, it's not so bad. In the example in the image, I'm on the 19th row of Chart D of the socks I'm currently working on. I can flip from chart to chart and increment one row as I complete each one. It's kind of fun. Since I'm not constantly knitting charted projects, I can't really consider this indispensable, but it sure is handy!

This next picture shows a handful of tiny tools that I really like. On the bottom are my green size 1 (2.25mm) dpns, with a little elastic band with two rubber caps. This is perfect for keeping dpn projects on the needles while they're in a bag. Above that is a pink thingie that's pointed on one end, a crochet hook on the other -- perfect for picking up dropped sock stitches. Plus, it can double as a cable needle in a pinch. And finally, at the top, a teeny tiny pair of scissors given to me by my friend Melissa. I've never actually used them, come to think of it, but I really like looking at them. I think one might actually be able to sneak these on a plane.

KCBW Day 5: Anapestic Tetrameter

Today is a day to post otherwise,

For sharing one’s interests in some other guise.

Now, please don’t groan -- I could do much worse

than sharing my pathway to knitting in verse.

It started eight years ago, in late December

(don’t ask me the date, I can’t quite remember)

When a visiting friend forthwith pulled out her work

and caused me to pause with a slight inner smirk.

“How quaint, how cute,” I practically laughed,

“to practice a bygone superfluous craft.

“All that time, all that bother,” I thought, rather jaded.

“It’s so slow, so boring, and so complicated.”

But sitting and talking and watching her stitches,

the needletips moving in rises and pitches,

And seeing the yarn as it looped and it traveled,

my biases melted, or rather, unraveled.

There’s some magic there, I began to perceive,

when needles and hands work together to weave

a sweater, some socks or some other thing

where once there was only a long strand of string.

I thought back to childhood, my mom and my aunts

and my Granny, all sewing when they had the chance.

But when I showed interest, my mom would defer;

There had to be boy stuff I’d rather prefer.

But I always liked indoors and calmer vocations

And admired the skills of my female relations.

I didn’t enjoy all the rough and the tumble

(I have to pause now, tummy’s starting to rumble)...

....

And now I am back, wait, what, where was I?

Ah, complaining about what it’s like as a guy

to be “crafty.” Let us halt now this long inventory.

Enough of this whining -- get on with the story.

When my friend packed and left I mulled it around

And went to a chain craft store branch in my town.

I bought me some needles, aluminium, size 8.

Good choice for a starter? That’s up for debate.

I purchased some green yarn, worsted, acrylic,

(NOT a good choice due to harshness dactylic)

Finally, a manual, a book of instruction --

I got one by Stoller -- now on to production.

I read and I read and I tried to cast on

not realizing the need for finesse over brawn.

It took me two hours, sweating aplenty,

to manage a long-tail cast-on of just 20.

I mastered the knit, not so quickly the purl

My frustration was such that I wanted to hurl

the whole mess, but I stopped and I took a new tack

when I realized my problem -- I’d purled through the back.

My 20 did vary, some rows more, some rows less,

No semblance of tension -- a green yarny mess.

Quite some time later, I came to the end,

And binding it off, sent the thing to my friend.

      

With no advance warning, she was quite surprised.

Her friend Steven, a knitter, newly baptized!                             

And she couldn’t be blamed, to my mind, if she’d thought,

“I’ve created a monster! What have I wrought?”

But she’s kept the sad square, with its gaffes and its botches;

That beginner's attempt, that most abject of swatches.

A ragged token of crafty caprice,

To this day displayed upon her mantelpiece.

So I thank you, Janelle, for lighting the spark

That brought early interests back from the dark.

And for helping me learn, and for listening, too.

(Don’t worry, dear readers, this thing’s almost through)

A craft neat and simple, with variation untold,

An artform to wrap me and keep me from cold.

From this time and onward until life’s last thrill

I hope to be knitting, while sitting, still.

KCBW Day 4: Color Review

Today's assignment is to consider my thoughts on color, and then take a look at the evidence.

I've probably already let the cat out of the bag when I discussed signing up with Team Manatee. I like deep, dark colors. Gray, brown and green are probably my favorites. I don't dislike other colors, really, it's just that these are the ones that draw me in. I like all their subtle shades, and how dark colors work well with heathering. I also like stitch patterns and cables using dark colors -- they may not pop as much, but I like that you might not see the detailing at first glance, and then it slowly appears. Simplicity rather than flash -- the way of the manatee.

In looking at past projects, this tends to bear out. I've made several sweaters for myself -- two are gray, one brown, one black, one dark blue. The stranded knitting vests I've made for myself have featured brown/green and dark blue. The three sweaters I've knit for Jeff -- all shades of brown.

But, I do see some flashes of color. And when I do want something a bit brighter, I gravitate toward red. Usually a darker red, but still red. It was one of my favorite colors growing up. And, it seems I've knit a lot of pink. Looks like I've totally caved to the Traditional Gender Color Industrial Complex. I'm pretty sure that's a thing.

And, lately, it looks like I've been taking a walk on the wild side and delving into the aqueous world of teals, turquoises and blue-greens. I guess I like these, too.

So, pretty much what I expected. You can head on over to Ravelry and take a look at my projects yourself if you want to see the whole palette.

One final thing about color -- I don't think I have a good sense of it. I don't have much confidence in my ability to match, contrast or combine colors in interesting ways. I get lucky a lot, I suppose. Lately, I've been following some of the Color Scout photos that Stephen West posts at Tumblr and shares via Twitter. He has such a great eye for color, and sees interesting combinations all around him, all the time. Seeing these photos has gotten me thinking about using my surroundings as inspiration. There's a wonderful world of color out there.

KCBW Day 3: Infographic

Today's assignment for the 4th Knit & Crochet Blog Week is to create an infographic. I love infographics. I link to the Daily Infographic website from pages I'm responsible for at work. And I'm totally enamored of all those Edward Tufte books. Although, after you see this post, you'll be justified in wondering whether I read them very closely. With that in mind, behold, the Manatee of Steven's Ravelry Projects!


I had a lot of fun and learned a lot pulling this together -- even if it doesn't look as impressive as it did in my mind. This represents the number of projects I've started per year according to my entries in Ravelry. I couldn't squeeze in the numbers, but there should be 3 projects each on the nose (2005) and the tip of the tail (2013).  As you can see, I average in the low teens -- slow, steady and manatee-esque.

It turns out I've done right around 100 projects since I've started tracking them in Ravelry, so it was pretty easy to divide the manatee into hundredths. Tufte would point out that this graphic is a bit misleading, because it implies that the area of each shaded section has informational meaning, but really, you should just look at the horizontal distances between sections. Guilty as charged. It would have made more sense as a bar graph. But manatee graphs are way more interesting than bar graphs.

Here are a few details about how all this came about. I used a Google image search for manatee outline to find this graphic from the Save the Manatee Club. I also used some instructions I found online for pulling Ravelry projects data into an Excel spreadsheet. I was going to build a chart via Excel, but that didn't really go anywhere. I pulled the outline into Gimp and spent way to much time figuring out how to draw lines and shade things. Mostly, I used Gimp because I wanted to make the background transparent in GIF format. As you can see, I'm no graphics expert, but I did enjoy doing this!

KCBW Day 2: Mascot Project

On day two of this exercise, I am to come up with a mascot project, one that epitomizes the house into which I've been sorted. The project I've chosen to represent manatee-ness is the Grettir yoked sweater designed by Jared Flood.

To me, this design fits into the manatee theme in several ways. First of all, one of the colorways in the sample photos (see right) is fairly gray-intensive, with Shelter colors like Sweatshirt, Soot and Cast Iron. Also, it's a mix of comfortable techniques that I've done before -- in-the-round seamless construction, stranded knitting, sleeves joined at the armpit -- there won't be too many surprises there. I'll be making the crewneck version.

It does have something new for me. I've never done a yoked sweater. I've done raglan-style construction, but never a sweater where the decreases for the pattern are evenly placed around a yoke. And, in another first, this will be the first adult sweater I've ever made for someone else.

I am planning to make it for my brother. I was talking to him yesterday, discussing his family's upcoming move to Germany for a few years. He's taking German language classes at his local community college, and really looking forward to being over there with his wife and kids. I don't get to talk to him enough, and I'm going to miss him while he's over there, although Jeff and I are planning a visit or two. My brother and I are as different as night and day personality-wise, and we've certainly had our clashes growing up, but he's one of the most centered and steady people I know. We share a lot of interests, like history and hiking and there's never any doubt that I can turn to him for anything. I want to make this for him to keep him warm while he's away.

While we were talking yesterday, I casually brought up jacket sizes so I know what size to make -- I'd guessed it already. Are manatees psychic? Probably.

KCBW Day 1: Manatees in the House!

Our first assignment for Knit and Crochet Blog Week 4 is to assign ourselves into houses ala entering classes of students at Hogwarts. Our choices are the Houses of Bee, Manatee, Monkey, or Peacock. Each house embodies different aspects of these animals' traits and personalities. Right away, I chose Manatee -- or, I suppose I should say, the Manatee chose me.

Since I was a kid, when asked what animal I'd like to be, I would always come up with some aquatic sea mammal -- otters, sea lions, seals, whales. I'm not sure why -- maybe it's the way they seem to fit so comfortably into the worlds they inhabit, yet not quite -- living their lives in water, but still needing that connection to the atmosphere. Manatees weren't really on the mind of this northwest coast boy then, but they do seem like a good fit. Then there's the gray. I love gray. The socks I'm working on now? Gray. The last pair of socks I made? Gray. The office cardigan I made last year? Gray.

How do I "knit like a manatee"? Even though I can knit rapidly, I'm fairly slow in my choosing of patterns and yarn. I've had things in my Ravelry queue for years that I still need to think about some more. I've spent years with some projects on hold, but I always get to them in time. Slow, steady persistence. I also think of manatees as being introverted. I like the calmness and steadiness that manatees portray. For proof, just check out the name of this blog.

And finally, when I think of manatees, I think about this bit that Jim Gaffigan did on Dr. Katz years ago. It always makes me laugh.

See you tomorrow.

Spring Slump

In the Spring, a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love -- and gardening, and generally being outdoors. Unfortunately this not-so-young man can't seem to turn his thoughts to knitting. It appears in my annual springtime knitting slump.

I hardly knit a stitch this week -- or last -- until this morning. I've been working on the somewhat complicated Spiegel socks, but I hit a mental block. I know I needed to think it through by walking away from it a bit. The problem revolved around stitch counts and the locations of some shaping. It seemed to work. The break let me look at this project with fresh eyes and I think I'm back on track.

This is unlike any pattern I've knit before. The heel flap is about half as long as most, and the heel is turned without shaping. It's quite square -- but then, so are my heels. There is no real gusset shaping, so it's almost like knitting a bent tube, keeping the same stitch circumference throughout. I'm really liking how the caduceus shape at the top splits and then twists across the instep toward the toes. I just need to remember to go in the opposite direction for the left sock.

As part of an effort to get out of my knitting (and blogging) doldrums, I'm planning on participating in Eskimimi's 4th Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week. Each day, bloggers are given a theme to blog about. I found out about this via Tony at Bonito Club. It's a do-able challenge, and one that I hope shakes me up a bit. Start looking for posts on Monday.

 

Chirality

I'm shuffling through some ideas for some larger projects, and thought it would be good to have a little something on the needles. Alway Be Knitting. And when I need a standby, backup project, I think of socks. After looking through a ton of patterns, I decided on Donna Druchunas' Spiegel socks from the first Fall 2012 issue of Knitty.

These socks use the Bavarian knitting tradition of traveling stitches to make intricate patterns that really pop. I'm using some gray yarn that I got in Boulder last summer at Gypsy Wools. Its color is less solid than I thought, but not so variegated that the stitch patterns will get lost. The design you see runs down the outside of the cuff. This pair will have mirror-image left and right foot designs.

Druchunas uses a chart system that I've never seen before, but I'm picking it up rather quickly. I transposed the charts from image files to PDFs and imported them to Knit Companion, which is making it very easy to keep my place. So far I've completed the first chart. Things are about to get complicated, following multiple charts at once. Probably not a good idea to tackle this next section while watching subtitled movies.

 

Bandana Cowl

I told you chunky needles, chunky yarn and non-blue-green were in my future. I need to hire a better model, though.

Immediately after finishing the stole, I cast on for a chunk-style Bandana Cowl using some thick handspun Polworth from my friend Stephanie in a colorway she called Black Cherry. Not a palette I usually work with, but I welcomed the change. It put me in mind of Shasta Black Cherry soda, my childhood drink of choice for picnics at Mt. Rainier. Steph spins some cool stuff -- check out her Etsy shop and get some of your own.

I knew right away that I was going to have to make some modifications to the original pattern. I started on 6mm (US size 10)' but quickly switched to 8mm (US size 11) to get a bit more drape. I scaled all the numbers for cast on and other stitch directions down by a quarter to get close to the final dimensions. I'll post details on the Ravelry page soon. All in all, a fun project. I plan to wash it and set it out to dry tonight.

Even though I'm modeling this, it's not for me. I'll think of someone, I'm sure. I've already got someone in mind for the stole. But, being a process knitter, I don't always have to have a plan for every finished project, do I? There's so much joy in just the doing.

Stint O' The Wave

It's over! I finished the Print O' The Wave Stole yesterday. I soaked it and put it on the blocking wires yesterday afternoon, and went in to take a look this morning, after leaving it under the ceiling fan all night. There it was, in all its lovely laciness. I'm so happy!

Despite the mid-project disaster, this was a really fun pattern. In fact, it only has two charts to follow and neither of them is overly complicated as long as your are willing to embrace the K3tog. Mostly, it's a marathon. And like, most garments with a knitted on border, when you have the main part finished you're really only half way there.

For me, once the external instructions get incorporated into internal rules of knitting grammar (the K3tog stitches always look like this, every other odd-numbered row has a yarnover 3 stitches from the beginning of the row, etc.) the whole process seems to flow. As I described to a friend yesterday, it's like anything you learn by rote; what seemed so foreign at first almost becomes second nature. Although I kept the sheet with the edging pattern on it handy for the past few weeks, I rarely consulted it. However, it can be hard to get back into the flow state when you get interrrupted. For instance, I don't recommend watching intense TV shows while knitting this pattern. I'm talking to you, Breaking Bad. I'm convinced watching this show dragged out the timeline on this stole significantly.

As I've mentioned before, the hard thing for me about knitting lace is waiting for the payoff, which doesn't happen until the blocking. Until then, it all looks like a wrinkly mess. And I had trouble with the blocking. I really wanted to make it fit the dimensions in the pattern -- 80" x 25". But when I tried to stretch it to these dimensions, my blocking wires started bending and pins started popping out of place. I'm lucky I didn't break any of the stitches. The pattern calls for blocking it "aggressively," but I think I was bordering on abusive. I backed down to 72" x 22", which, considering I had knit on size 3 needles instead of the recommended size 4, seems about right.

I didn't make this with anyone in mind, so I'm unsure of its fate. I mostly just wanted to get some more practice with lace and to burn through some lace yarn that I'd gotten at a swap. So, mission accomplished. I can recommend this to anyone wanting to attempt a lace project involving grafting and knitted-on edging.

My next project will not be aqua, blue-green or turquoise, will not take two months to knit, and will be done on gigantic needles.

Murder, She Knit

I’ve been watching a lot of streaming stuff this week while trying to plow through the knitted-on edging of the lace stole. Some of it good, some of it not so much. But I did run across a neat little documentary that I found fascinating, and which included a bit of knitting.

Of Dolls & Murder covers the contributions of Frances Glessner Lee to the field of forensic medicine and the development of crime investigation. Lee, who was from a wealthy family connected to International Harvester, was not allowed to seek higher education. However, through her brother and and one of his college classmates, she became interested in the science of crime investigation and endowed the department of legal medicine at Harvard. But her unique contribution to the field was her creation of 18 incredibly detailed miniature dioramas of crime scenes that are known as the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death.

They’re amazing. At first glance, they look like regular little dollhouses. But then you see the bodies, and the blood splatters, and the signs of a struggle, and the open windows. Supposedly, only a select few know the “answers” to the mysteries outlined. And though they were created in the middle of last century, they’re still used to train forensic investigators today. Lee created these herself, by hand, even knitting the victims’ stockings on what must have been very fine-gauge pins. Despite their grim nature, they are quite beautiful.

On the personal knitting front, I continue to plug away at the Print O’ The Wave Stole. I’ve completed three sides of the knitted-on edging, and “only” have one more long one to go. I really want to be able to stretch this thing out so I can see the pattern better. For right now, it just looks lumpy. One of the nerve-wracking things about lace knitting is having to wait so long for the payoff. But the end is in sight. I suppose it’s time to put some serious thought into what I might tackle next.

The Needles on the Edge of Forever

I've literally turned the corner on this stole. The hole is fixed, the pieces re-grafted, the yarnover setup edge finished, and I've completed one short edge, plus a corner of the knitted-on edging.

I love how knitted-on edging works. But I couldn't figure out how to start. I'd forgotten that one has to work clockwise around the work, in the opposite direction of usual in-the-round knitting, in order for the edging and the body to be joined on the backside of the work. When I got started with the edging, I just stared and stared, wondering why everything seemed backwards. Then it just came to me in a flash. Thank goodness. I've completed 11 of the 73 repeats of the 16-row edging. Although that sounds daunting, I'm actually quite pleased that I've gotten as far as I have. But still a long, long way to go.

The college is on spring break this week, so I'm hoping I'll have lots of time to make more progress. But I'm also playing bachelor for a few days while Jeff is out of town, so I have a few more responsibilities around the house than I normally do. I've managed to maintain a certain level of civility and haven't devolved into a caveman yet. Smooth sailing, so far. Just ask Pona.

Wave Function

Just a quick post to show that I've been able to get my problems with the Print O' The Wave Stole fixed. Jeff and I stretched it out for a thorough inspection. No holes this time!

Yesterday, I finished knitting the two sides and this morning I completed the grafting. I hit a snag where I came up with an uneven number of stitches during the grafting process, but ungrafted about a dozen or so stitches and found the problem. I purposely grafted very loosely, and then snugged up the grafting across the piece stitch by stitch to match the tension of the two sides. You can still tell where the grafting is since it's the only 3 rows of stockinette in a field of lace, but it's as smooth a transition as I can manage.

First I need to weave in some ends, and then pick up stitches around the edge. I did some math, and I'll have to pick up 7 stitches in every 12-row pattern repeat, plus two more somewhere along each edge. And I can look forward to unzipping those pink crochet chains soon.

Stole Survivor

All is not lost, and the Print O' the Wave Stole is back on track. I've fixed the hole of yarn barf -- the knitting version of norovirus.

After calming down, and after listening to everyone's sage advice, I realized this was a pretty straightforward, if nerve-wracking fix. I un-grafted the two pieces carefully. My original plan was to put one side directly back on a needle -- until I realized I was saving the side with the hole. So I just picked out the grafting yarn.

Once I had the pieces separated again, I set about identifying a good fallback position. The 11th row of the pattern has a distinctive 3-stitch decrease bordered by several groups of 5-stitch stockinette sections. For each side, I marked one of those 3-stitch decreases, frogged back to the row before, and then slowly removed Row 12 as I carefully put Row 11 back on the needles. I had a few minor mishaps, but was able to fix them.

So now, I have two pieces, one with 16 of the 17 pattern repeats intact, and one with 13 -- the side with the hole. Turns out it must have been a slipped stitch since the yarn wasn't broken. The dogs are no longer canines of interest in this case.

Shouldn't take too long to catch back up. Thanks, everyone, for the advice, encouragement, and sympathy. Onward.