Finished Object Dance

and Himself has his good-boy "Yes, Dear," down pat as I excerpt bon mots for him.

In other news, I have 5 more hours of triangles to go, and then the top border on the Forest Path Stole. Off to my friend Kimberly for blocking -- will it be ready in time for November 18ths BCMS concert? I think so!

And I've started a carry-around project of this year's winter felt hat. Last year I was dubious about how felting worked, so I had some hot pink that I used with the Fiber Trends pattern and it came out just fine. Sometime within the last 5-7 years (I think) I had gotten a Cherry Tree Hill skein of the Wool Pak Yarns NZ 14 ply recommended specifically in the pattern, but, fear of failure again, couldn't bring myself to work with the "good stuff" because what if I ruin it?

Friends, I'm going to start working with my good stuff out of stash, because otherwise, what's the point of having gotten it in the first place. There are shawls with hand-dyed yarn in the future here at Finished Object.

Hat pictures (progress or finished?) to come after the weekend.

I started timing myself to see how long it takes to do the edging along each triangle and it seems to be pretty consitent: one hour.

I'm not counting how many more I have to go, but at least we know the pace.

The Forest Path is within one triangle on the right side of having that border finished. That still leaves the left side, but usually second things go as well or faster, I find. Other than that, there's a charity hat that's mostly done, and the curret perpetual sock is midway up the leg of the second one.

To continue the Reading Your Knitting piece:

It can also be useful to do a patterned stitch row and examine it at the end of each row to see what it should look like. After a couple times through, you will automatically know what row to start with when you come back to the project.

Below is a sample of a 4 round (knit in the round, but the even rows would be purled back if it were being done back and forth) lace pattern to practice seeing how each round looks when it’s completed.

Purl lace pattern
Round 1 -- *k1, yo, p2tog, p1, p2tog, yo, rep. from *.
Round 2 – k
Round 3 – k
Round 4 – k
At the end of round 1:

At the end of round 2:

Note the 2nd stitch from the right. In the first picture, it’s still a yarn over with a hole below it, but now you can see there is the hole below, stitch above that, then the stitch on the needle.
At the end of round 3:

Now you see the hole, the stitch above that, the full looking stitch, and then the one on the needle
At the end of row 4:

You can see the hole, and 3 stitches above it.

One thing that’s difficult to know is what row you are on, particularly when decreasing and cabling. Each time you knit a row, a line of yarn goes across. You can count the lines between the stitches to know how many rows you have finished. Most times decreases come every other row (or round). These pictures show a sequence of decrease and non-decrease rounds when making a sock:

The decrease on the right is a k2tog (knit 2 together), which leans to the right. Can you tell which picture had the decrease happen in the prior row, and which in the row before that? (hint, look for where the loops of the stitches pile up on top of each other.




This decrease on the left is an SSK (slip, slip, K2tog) which leans to the left. Which picture gets the decrease?

In each case, in the first picture you're looking at the decrease from the row before -- i.e., you did the decrease last row, and now you're coming back up on it again. In the second pictures, you're coming up on it the second time. So, if the instructions are to decrease in one round and then knit the next round plain, repeat until all decreases accomplished, and you need to know when to recognize that you did the decrease in the last round and now need to knit plain, or that you knit plain last time and it's time to decrease again.

I brought this home to make socks for me and Himself. He says I may keep the light grey/blue for me, and other than that the colors are up for grabs.







I left this behind at Mind's Eye for everyone else. She's got in a mix of the 4 fadig 75% wool/25% Polyamide, and the color stretch (which I didn't bring any home so I don't have label details, but if you have it, you'll know what I mean).

The Mind's Eye Wednesday night knitting group has been joined by some new-to-the-craft knitters over the last few months, and it's refreshing to get their perspective. I'm finding it interesting to hear their questions, just because I haven't looked at things that way in so long. There's a joke about "we hold these truths to be self-evident." Well, it is self-evident to those of us who've been doing it for so long we've forgotten we ever needed to learn such a skill in the first place.

Every so often I teach a class in Reading Your Knitting, and Lucy thought it would be a good idea if I posted the handout as a series of blog posts. I'm not always posting from the same computer, so it probably won't be sequential, but I'll get it up over the next few weeks.

I’ll start by recommending a few books for how to look at your knitting. Knitting in Plain English by Maggie Righetti is an excellent textbook for learning how to read your knitting and make “bookmarks” to find your place when you put it down. Stitch ‘n Bitch by Debbie Stoller is a comprehensive text covering a lot of basic information. Knitting Without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmermann is the best book of knitting philosophy, with practical advice, that I know.

Let’s start by looking at some knitted samples. It has been said that there is one stitch in knitting, with two sides to it. A purl stitch is the reverse side of a knit stitch. The stitch looks like a V in the front, and a bump in the back.

Recognizing stockinette/reverse stockinette: Can you find the row that’s different? What is the stitch that surrounds the sample? How is it formed?

Ribs are formed by vertical lines of stockinette and reverse stockinette placed next to each other. The bottom section is K1P1, the middle section is K2P2, and the top section is single knits and purls alternating on top of each other. Sometimes this is known as seed stitch, other times moss stitch. There's no hard and fast rule which is seed and which is moss, sort of like which is a water fountain and which is a bubbler. If someone asked you where to find one, you'd point to the thing coming out of the wall that squirts water so a person could theoretically drink out of it.

Try looking at your project to determine whether you are knitting or purling, then compare it to the written instructions. This will help develop your sense of what the project should look like in different situations.

Next time, how to examine a pattern row by row, to know what it should look like when it's knitted up.

Remember last week's post about the adolescent square that just wouldn't come together? Last night I finished him (except for putting in ends) and blocked. At ten p.m. I started another square, and finished it (except for ends) at 10 p.m. tonight, a day that included going to work, an hour session with my accupuncturist/massage therapist, and another hour getting my spreadsheet in order to visit the endocrinologist on Thursday morning. I don't know how I did it, but this square just came together without any question and got itself made, before bedtime, before breakfast, during subway and bus rides, after lunch and on the couch after 9 p.m..

First picture is the two of them together, also serving as a before and after picture of the wonders of blocking. The pattern is Beeton's Flower, out of Knitting Counterpanes by Mary Walker Phillips. I don't know what made her feel she had to invent new terminology to write her patterns, but, fortunately, there is a glossary at the front, so I was able to scribble it down in abbreviations I understand. If you find yourself feeling like you're knitting while patting your head and rubbing your stomach, you may want to do the same. It's a nice pattern and on size 4 needles, with Cascade 220 Quattro, loosely cast off, it came out about 10 inches unblocked, and blocked nicely to 12 inches square.

Next is a close up, though somewhat blurry, of the unblocked square. Note the contrast between the largely stockinette center and the mostly lace outer edges, and how the stitches are taking up all 3 dimensions. The center really wants to bubble and wave. The trick to turning it into a flat piece is blocking.

I happen to have a blocking board, just because I found it one day when I had the money for it and knew I would use it. There are plenty of substitutes, Knitty has an article from Winter 02 on blocking here that describes how to make your own. In the first picture, note also the t-pins and spray water bottle. Before beginning, one thing to make sure of is that your spray bottle is set to "spray" and not "stream" (ahem). You want a thorough but gentle mist to get the object and a bit of the surrounding countryside really, really damp, not a squirt that will move delicate items with the force of its stream.

I start with just a few pins, spray dampen the item, and then keep pinning and spraying. I find that dry items will stretch less easily than dampen items, and the name of the game with lace is to stretch it. Stretching while damp will also help flatten the differing gauge portions.
How much to pin? Enough. Avoid wavy scallops in edges that are supposed to be straight.
How much is enough? It's a matter of judgment.
How will I know? Develop some judgment.
The wonder with blocking is that you can always do it again, though getting the object back to smaller is tough.

I make a point of coming back every so often to redampen the item and surrounding countryside, and then letting it dry again. Lace is usually airy enough that it will dry in a few hours, though I tend to leave things pinned out for a day or two, just to let it know who's boss.

Saturday, we wound up not going to Peterboro. In the first place, I was hampered by a severe lack of ambition, which was disconcerting. I like going dancing, so why was I not compulsing around packing how many combinations of fresh underwear, skirts and t-shirts to last through how many hours of enthused dancing, to say nothing of knitting for the breaks? Dunno. Himself was reading aloud flood warnings of rivers we would be near or going past. We got a lateish start from Cambridge, headed to Lexington to pickup Himself's stuff, were grateful for other people going through the unexpectly deep puddles first to show us just where they were, and then looked at each other when, as we turned onto his street, the news on the radio announced that Governor I-may-or-may-not-be-
running-for-a-different-office had declared a state of emergency. We decided against driving about an hour and a half away, last part over 2ndary roads, and then having to get back. The photo is of his swimming pool, which, never opened this year, may have a second life as an artificial pond.

I made some progress over the weekend on the Forest Path Stole. Progress can be steady when you get going, but it's the fishing the loop through the selvedge before starting every other row that gums up the works and slows things down. It gives you a good reason every few minutes to stop and do something else if you're at all inclined, as opposed to one of those thousand stitch shawl rows that have you committed for a half an hour. The good news is you can mark progress every time you come to where one side triangle butts up against the next. The bad news is, there's still a lot of length to cover. And, of course, I take the closeup of the uninteresting side, but I got flummoxed by the low battery signal. Trust me, there will be plenty of opportunity ahead to still get a shot of the how to fish the loop through the selvedge. The patternwriter does make a point of telling you to be sure which part of the loop you're working with, for a reason. Checking you're on track with the seed stitch helps, too.

Sunday, we had an enjoyable hike, I figure probably about 5 - 5.5 miles. Down the bike path to the Dunkin Donuts in the Heights for coffee, back up MA Ave to Wilsons for vegetables, and then back home for lunch. In the afternoon, I was cooking lunches into the future (broiling chicken breasts and roasting a pork loin) and stayed near the stove with the current iteration of Perpetual Sockage. Finished the first, and started the second of the pair.

As of this evening, Porter Square Books has an update on status of the Yarn Harlot: having ordered 5 copies early in September when it first came out, their 5 copies are now on backorder, awaiting the second printing and are expected October 27th or thereabouts. Sigh.

BCMS opens their season tonight and we are there, Jordan Hall, orchestra house right, close enough to see where on the page they're playing from and watch them make faces at each other.

I'll be the one in the sweater and shawl, insisting there's a draft. I think I'll take the electric blue sheep shawl from FiberTrends.

It's not nice to the performers and other audience members to knit during the performance, but there's always before curtain and during intermission. The perpetual sock in my bag should be through the instep and up the foot sometime this evening.

And it's Himself's birthday today! And our anniversary. Our first date was the Fall Ball, and we're going back there tomorrow. He's promised me any waltz I care to dance with him, and we'll figure out who's turn it is to lead when they happen. Looking into his face and seeing he trusts me enough to close his eyes and just follow where I'm telling him to go is a sign of somethingorother. And he's damn cute, too.

I have nothing to show today because the work I did yesterday was tinked at the end of the evening. I've been playing with the Beeton's Flower motif out of Knitting Counterpanes by Mary Walker Philips. I won't go into what possessed her to start making up her own terminology for increases and decreases, but now that I've translated them into terms I recognize, work progresses.

It's a nice motif and about the 3rd or 4th one I've done. For some reason, though, this iteration is having difficulties. What was puzzling me last night at knitting group was that the row I was working on would be off because the prior working row (i.e., every other row is just plain knit) was off in the lace. So I'd tink it back to fix, and said row would count out just fine. I is confuzed. It was doing the same thing Monday night. Maybe it's hit puberty.

But it was good to get out to the Wednesday knitting group, even if I got there late. Good company and all.

The Fall Ball is coming up in Peterboro on Saturday. I'm not sure about one of the callers, though. When he's called at Cambridge, he has trouble commanding the respect of the dancers so the teaching is tough. He also uses strange terminology (he's from Iowa) so rather than neighbor, which immediately tells me who to head for, he's using corner, which takes just that extra fraction to translate. (Contra dancers will know how vital that extra fraction can be in a phrase and we don't like to lose them.) And I have found his choreography not interesting. I expect him to bring dances I haven't danced to before, and he's calling standard beginner stuff.

Everyone else on the ticket is hot stuff, though, and Peterboro puts on a nice dance. I'm thinking of taking sock yarn and doing kids sock when I sit out.

Sunday night, just before bed, I started the right border for the Forest Path Stole. I was a bit dubious of the instructions, with the strange join. There's nothing like just doing what they tell you to do and seeing what happens, however. I can see what they're doing with the pull big loop through selvedge and use that to work row thing, but I can't quite articulate it to someone else yet. I'm a couple inches up the side, with about 5 more feet to go at a rough guess. Then there's the left side. On the plus side, I've only had about a half an hour to work on it yet, so lack of progress is not necessarily indicative of difficulty. I doubt it will go to the Fall Ball this weekend, so it's time to start thinking of what projects I bring for breaks in dancing. Hats? Socks?

Speaking of which, Mind's Eye will have the tree for the Somerville Family Network this year, starting the weekend after Thanksgiving, so it's time to start thinking of garments to make for that.

In other news, the French Market Bag is still drying, not unusual considering how humid it's been in the last few days and how thick the fabric is. I'm surprized at how square-flat bottomed this one is being, where the others have been much rounder. It will be interesting to see what it does under use. The colors have blended very well together.

I'm finally recovering from the throat/nose something that I've been fighting for the last few days, and there's progress on projects to report.

The French Market Bag has been felted. Original posts in August are available here, here and here. Here it is pre-felted, and with a gauge measure. I'm not finding notes on what size needle I used, but I think this time it was an 8 (5.0 mm) vs. a 6 (4.25 mm) as I had done in the prior 3. It's looser knit and bigger before felting than the other 3 I've made and I think that made a difference in how the fabric felted. Most everything else I've felted before you can still make out stitches when you get in close, even though it's a solid fabric. This one you can make out the line of color changes, but not stitches quite so much. It's drying now, but I'll see if I can get better close-ups in a few days when it's completely dry.

I used a dryer for felting, soaking the FMB and the 2 towels first. The dryer started at 3:10 p.m. with high heat. First check was at 3:40 p.m., and there was a fair amount of mohair lint in the lint catcher. Next check was at 4:20 p.m., things got resoaked and there was more lint coming off. At 4:45 p.m., it seemed 'done,' so it came out, got stuffed with plastic grocery bags and left to dry. The last time, no more mohair had come to the lint trap. The bag has a bit of halo fuzz. The wool is still holding a fair amount of water, so 24 hours later, it's still on a rack above a drip tray, and this morning it was releasing water a few minutes after it was moved to a new position. It may be a little smaller than the other 3 I've done, but not much.

The Forest Path Stole has had some hiking. The 23 tiers are done (in this picture) and this afternoon the top triangles were finished. That leaves the side borders to be put on. Unfortuantely, it's at the attractive nuisance stage, so it won't be going to Wednesday night knitting group. People won't take no when I say it hasn't changed appreciably since they last saw it, and it really is too big, too tangled in itself and too prone to wanting the bottom stitch holders to snag on other parts of the work to make me comfortable with getting it spread out just for their enjoyment.

Plugs, or things to point out
Schoolhouse Press has put the Knitting Glossary on DVD, with updates. I may order it for myself, rather than chance it as a Christmas Present (ahem).

Franklin, a Chicago blogger, knitter, photographer and, as it turns out, cartoonist, has lately been making hand-drawings to illustrate his blog that are just hilarious. He now has a Cafe Press site with garments/bags (mugs coming soon he says) of his drawings and sayings he's crafted. I love the Knitting is the New Yoga image, but I already have so many t-shirts I don't wear, I can't justify another. Maybe he'll publish prints?

Mind's Eye Yarns is putting together an order for solid color sock yarn, Regia 4fadig. For those of us who have been looking for plain sock yarn for slightly less than forever, Lucy is looking to hear what colors folks would like to buy. The link above is the first of 3 color page sites (follow all three) and has more colors than the color card she has in the store but should work reasonably well as a reference (she just may not be able to get some of them). The 2/4/6/8 numbers above are the weights of yarn, so look for the /4/. There 3 and 4 digit numbers with the names for those of us who are so arrogant that we don't speak German*.

*{in 2003 I was at a several-days party in Italy populated mostly by German people who already knew each other. Himself was raised speaking German, I've had smatterings of French, Spanish and Russian in the course of my education. No one was coming over to introduce themselves to us and speak English to me and I wasn't about to go break into their conversation in a language I don't know. There was a 92 year old woman there who's major claim to fame was that she was 92. She spoke to me in English saying it was arrogant of me to have never studied German, how could I expect to get along in the world not knowing German? I didn't get to tell her it's so little used in the US that most schools don't even offer it. I was making a red sweater in lace weight yarn on size zeros at 9 sts. to the inch. I got a lot done on it at the party.}

Thanks to the transformer giving up the ghost on Walden Street (fortunately while NSTAR were there working on its buddy), we had a period of flashlights and candles last night. Since I'd been going through my snailmail when it happened, I just kept going by tealight. I'll need to go through the new Wool Gathering a second time, but I was getting the gist of the new books and the Faux Cardigan.

In other news, a couple friends of mine have sent me their pictures of the Knit-Out. We have me and Kimberly minding the booth, the charity knitters, the scarf judging and an unnamed spinner who looks like she's enjoying the day. Thanks, Hobbit and Joanne!

On a side note, my personal email has come back up, though it looks like there's still more backlog to come through. If you were looking for an answer on something, please send it again.

The site that holds my mail has been down since Monday, and it looks like only today has it gotten restarted. If you sent me something between 7 a.m. Monday and 5 p.m. Wednesday, I probably didn't get it. Please resend.

Yes, I've seen the news item about the kid in Florida who had his insulin pump ripped out of him by the substitute teacher who didn't see that the "cell phone" had tubing. Sheesh. It takes force to get the infusion site to pull out, though it can be sheared off relatively easily if you get the angle right. What is any teacher doing applying that much force to an object on a student's body?

You ever start a five-minute job and realize it's going to take 15, but you've only got 5? Hence the edits.


As I mentioned through the mid to latter parts of September, I found myself compelled to enter the scarf contest at the Knit-Out. Okay, the kitten still needs a leg and so forth, but there was also the draw of it being an easy way to do charity knitting for the Boston area. Most of the time my charity knitting goes to Afghans for Afghans, just because they are seeking wool, and that's what I work in for the most part.

The rules of the contest were that it had to be original and could not be out of Scarf Style. I made two scarves. Niether was overly difficult.

The orange one was one skein Cascade 220 Quattro, cast on 231 stitches in K3 P3 rib and k3 p3 rib until the skein was about to run out. When it came time to cast off, I picked a pattern of dropping a stitch in the P3 at regular intervals, alternating 1 P3 and 2 P3s cast off between dropped ones (see the picture, it's hard to describe). I was going for the question how simple it could be and still be considered original. It would be a good beginner scarf because of the ribbing, but the rows are very long and at just about the right "length" for such a scarf, you're ready for it to be over.

The second prize winner was the moebius. I first made moebiuses when Elizabeth Zimmerman published Knitting Around, and I've made several of her Moebius Vests over the years. The moebius is the one-sided piece turns around and joins on itself. The problem is how to have it be reversible? Even rowed stripes are going to have a an obvious sidedness to it. My stripes are 31 rows long, so each color starts on the opposite side from the prior stripe. I start in the middle of one stripe with a provisional cast on, then when it comes back around to be joined, make the other part of the stripe before grafting the garter stitch together.

The part I like is the twisted I-cord around the edging. It's Joyce Williams' development, described in her book Latvian Dreams, also available from Schoolhouse Press. I have her pamphlet on Twisted and Braided Applied I-Cord, available direct from Joyce. Notice the lack of color blip?

I don't normally crow about presents, but, hey, everyone else in the blogworld seems to post about things showing up in their mailbox so.....

Lucy sent me a birthday present! Just to show how busy a Knit-Out makes a knitter, I hadn't had a chance to open it until now. And now, because of her and the $10.95 every book sale at Audible that ends today, I have: A Few Quick Ones, Galahad at Blandings, A Pelican at Blandings, A Damsel in Distress, and Lord Emsworth and Others to listen to as I work on whatever project takes my fancy next.

Thankyou,Thankyou,Thankyou,Thankyou and big hug.

How to wrap up a birthday weekend? 1. Be on the Common at 6 a.m. and watch them put up tents (brightness enhanced, it wasn't that light yet).


2. Gather with a passel of your new friends at 8 a.m. (and this was before coffee and Munchins were delivered, bless you Melissa for bringing those). And yes, that green can be spotted from blocks away!3. Have the help of some very nice Rangers. Yeah, the powers that be make you hire them for private detail for your event, but they are handy to have about the place.

4. Have a nice place to hang your sign and be ready for folks to hang out and have a good time.

5. Encourage your president to wear her tiara. It does make it easier to identify her to folks she's never met before.

7. Don't forget to get the shop exhibit set up ! Thanks, again to Melissa for aesthetic sense and arrangments.
Come to think of it, I think next year we need to plan on those of us in the Shameless Promotion Department getting there at around 11. We had folks wandering through the Exhibit tent as early as that (some exhibitors weren't even there yet) when the Knit-Out itself didn't officially start until 12.

At this point it becomes a blur of people I know I know and can't think where (meaning which fiber event/yarn store) I've met them, and "20% off with the coupon next week (at Mind's Eye), please do sign up for the mailing list" on endless repeat. If you didn't get a coupon, we ran out about 1/2 way through. Early birds and worms, sorry. A friend stopped by later in the afternoon and took pictures. When I got home after 6, he tried to talk to me about memory sticks and this that , the other. Later this week there will be photos from the front side of the table. Many thanks to Kimberly, the aforementioned Melissa, Katie and Laura for helping to staff the booth itself, and to Kerri (who I'm not sure is a Kerri or a Kerry or some other spelling) who demoed spinning on the side of the Mind's Eye booth, passed out coupons and newsletters, and sent people with further interest our way.

I did manage to get a couple brief breaks. The Berroco people in the Sponsor tent had bags they were giving away. It wasn't until this morning that I realized what they are are kits to make the project on the page that's also in the bag. Pretty generous, I'd say. The Nashua people had Kaffe Fassett wrapping paper, which will be saved for special occasions.

I'm suprized I didn't see as many blogger nametags go past. I traded blogcards with a fellow named Dean, and passed out a few up at the blogger table. I was so tired at the end of the day, that when Dean came back as we were packing up, and wanted to give me a shawl pin he'd made, since I only other blogger he'd traded cards with that day, I thought he was looking for a lost and found and tried to shoo him up to the info booth.

And then at 3:30 friends came running up and said, "you won 2nd place for something, go up to the bandstand." Okay, I'd entered two scarves (posting on each later in the week), so I was curious to know which one. It's a lovely collection and I need to send a thank-you note to the folks at Interweave for coming to us and sponsoring the contest.

It was a long and happy day. Anyone who was there and didn't have a chance to make suggestions to someone (and even if you did), please send email to info@bostonknitout.com soon. We'll be having a wrap-meeting shortly and would like to incorporate any idea to make it better in the notes for next year. If you'd like to volunteer for next year, either for the day or as part of the Boston Knit-Out & Crochet, Inc. organization to help organize, again, please send email to info@bostonknitout.com and we'll get in touch with what needs doing.

Thanks for coming!

We kicked off birthday season last evening (we will ignore the massive transit delay of the morning making me an hour late for the Company president's biannual state-of-things presentation), with dinner at one of my favorite Cambridge restaurants, a nice stroll home through a crisp, clear fall evening, and a Red Sox win over the Yankees. Himself has a delight habit of listening to me and, since I expressed a fondness a few weeks back for Wally and his chair when they show Jerry Remy in the TV booth, there this was in giftwrap when I came home.

The boys had breakfast together this morning, before himself left on his roadtrip. He'll be back in time for his birthday. Sigh.

In the meantime, today is the day for doing things before I get up at dark-thirty to help Lucy get over to the Common at 6 a.m. to set-up for the Boston Knit-Out. So far, I've hauled a load of older sweaters (but still in good condition) over to the Salvation Army like I've been meaning to do for weeks. Having taken a took at the collection that remains, I am completely undecided what I need to work on for me this winter (i.e., subtract the volume to fill 1 small duffel bag and the basket still fills right back up to the top), but I'm sure some project will raise its hand and say "Make Me!"

I may felt the bag I made in August, when it was just too hot to be running the dryer for so long.

And finally, a shout-out to my nephew, who sent me a nice thank-you email for the knitting bag, et. al. Let me know if you have any questions.