knitting,

a pictureless post

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D#2 is away until Sunday and has my camera with her. This was a maternally sanctioned borrowing (unlike many other times) so I have no one to blame but myself for lace of FO pictures. And there have been FO’s!

I completed the Raindrop Lace socks. I knit them using Cherry Tree Hill yarn. Love the yarn, love the pattern It’s by Evelyn Clark, so how could I go wrong? I also finished another mobius – the same Cat Bordhi pattern, but this time using my hand-spun. I can’t remember a thing about this hand-spun, so I must have done it a long while ago. I think this mobius is great for hand-spun because it doesn’t take a lot of yardage – plus is a very cool thing.

Another thing I don’t have a picture of? my new kitchen table – yay! It arrived yesterday and I adore it. Here is a link to Scott’s website. Our table looks a lot like the trestle table on the right. I made a pot roast dinner last night just to christen it (and yes, it has been damp and dreary enough to warrant pot roast in August).

And now for the answer to my two truths and a lie post …… you seem to be under the impression that I am a wild thing. Or that I was a wild thing. And the truth of the matter is that number three was the lie – but not because I wasn’t toeing the line.

The way Cara and Julia did the game was that all three answers were true except one had a small lie within it, so my little lie is within my third answer. I really, truly have led a dull and boring life (although I have a rich interior life shall we say). But I never got a bad grade in English. I come from a long line of English teachers – it simply wasn’t allowed. My educational struggles were all in science and math.

I have to run along now and polish my halo. : )

Möbius

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Here is a picture of my completed Möbius by Cat Bordhi. I am so glad that Rachael linked to this pattern – it is a mind bender! Once you get past the cast on, it goes quickly. I started this on Friday and finished last night. I used Noro Kochoran – it is my first time using this yarn, but certainly won’t be the last.

So how about some helpful tips for that ever so tricky cast on?

  • first off, the directions are well written and it’s one of those times where you should just do what it says and NOT try to figure it out. I spent some misguided time trying to envision what was happening which only resulted in a headache.
  • here is a link to a video clip of the cast on – scroll about ½ way down the page it is on the left side.
  • and another link to an explanation of möbius – that bit about painting it in one color made it suddenly clear to me.

and now for the things the pattern and clip don’t tell you ……..

  • set the yarn up for using the long tail cast on method
  • you will need to make the tail long enough for twice the number of stitches than the pattern says – so it calls for 80 stitches, make that tail with enough yarn for 160 stitches.
  • in the directions when it tells you to put the yarn over your index finger use the strand that is going to the tail and not the strand that is going back to the skein.
  • when you get to the end of the cast on, you will wonder how that last stitch will stay put. If you read further in the pattern, it says, knit the first slip knot, then the next 79 stitches and then it says to knit into the double strands of the next stitch (this is the motion that anchors that last cast on stitch)
  • if you don’t trust that, like I didn’t, when you get to the end of the cast on, simply tie a little hitch in it with the yarn that’s left in the tail.
  • and one more thing – when you get to the end of your cast on, slide all of the stitches along until they get to the other needle before you place your stitch marker. This means that the right hand needle (the one that gets the stitch marker) is your working needle.

Mine came out less ‘shawly’ and more ‘scarfy’ than either Rachael’s or the one pictured with the pattern. I am hoping that it will expand with wear and am also reminding myself that in the middle of August I don’t want it wrapped around my neck, but will have a different opinion come January. I also went down a needle size with the Noro and that definitely has something to do with it.

If however I wanted it bigger, it occurs to me that the answer would not be in knitting more rows, but in casting on more stitches – so if you are using a tighter gauge yarn bear that in mind. I believe it is an 8 stitch pattern, so you would need to increase the stitch count in increments of 8.

stroking my genius ; )

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Yesterday I had an ephiphany. I teach a knitting class and a few of the students are in the midst of their first sock project. Do you remember how confusing all the shaping seemed to be? Little reminder notes would go a long way during the various decreases. It occured to me to get out the string tags that I usually use to identify finished spinning projects . I attached them right by the appropriate stitch markers and wrote the decrease directions. This particular student is following a seamed sock pattern. The crappy picture was taken by my palm pilot, but if you squint a bit you can make out the K2tog and SSK directions. Voilá!