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Diane, who is neither previously known to me nor related to me, knitted mitts for her SiL, Cathie. Now, this isn't unusual; people I don't know make mitts for other people all the time. What makes *this* particularly special to me is that she made them using My First Published Pattern, Simple Top-Down Mitts. And she got mitts out of them! (Yes, I realize that's the whole point of a pattern, but still. It seems like Magic right now.) Wheeeee!!!
Diane's project page is here [Ravelry link]. And she very sweetly allowed me to share her photo of her completed mitts:
Diane's Mitt, modeled by Cathie
Thanks for letting me know, Diane!! I'm all-to-pieces excited about this!!
ALSO: Okay, hitting everywhere with this one: Threadworks, purveyor of really lovely (!!!) threads for needlework, has started an online magazine.
IT IS REALLY, REALLY PRETTY!!!! 50 pages of full-color pretty. Patterns. Book reviews. Threads. Stitch instructions. Pretty.
All one has to do to get it is to sign up through the blog, http://threadworx.typepad.com/. Yep, you give your name and e-mail - something I tend not to do, but a Trusted Thread Friend raved about it, so I did (yesterday) and had the e-mail with the links to this lovely magazine - and my Joined-Before-March special gift - waiting for me.
May I just say? WOW.
And you don't have to print it out even, thus saving Trees and Postage and all that. But I totally printed mine, anyway, and will be getting a pretty little binder for it. Magazine ♥ Love!!
What I read last week:
"Crime de Cocoa" anthology, JoAnna Carl (aka Eve K. Sandstrom) - includes "The Chocolate Cat Caper", "The Chocolate Bear Burglary", "The Chocolate Frog Frame-Up" and a bonus short shorty, "The Chocolate Kidnapping Clue." New to the Lee McKinney mysteries, I read the book in order, starting with the short story, Lee's first appearance (and first mystery solved). In each of the tales, the reader is given the clues along with the heroine (although one or two pieces of the puzzle are revealed before Lee notices them), and everything is tied up tidily at the end of each story. (I have to admit that about halfway through "The Chocolate Bear Burglary", I was letting my mind drift while I knitted, and figured it out early. Miss Marple knew what she was doing with all that innocent-looking knitting!) There's a breath of romance from time to time, and Lee's "malapropisms" - which seem to upset her more than anyone else - are an interesting character quirk. The characters are broadly drawn, with more detail going into (a) regular characters (Aunt Nettie; the local police) and (b) the ones who turn out to be crucial to solving (and possibly who have committed) the murder. Filled with fascinating minutae about the chocolatiers' business (which is different from making candy!) and set in a lovely just-off-the-Lakes Michigan town, this is a light, bubbly read with an engaging heroine.
The Back of the Jacket:
The Chocolate Kidnapping Clue - The first appearance ever of Lee McKinney! With her parents going through a messy divorce, a mopey teenage Lee is spending the summer working in her aunt and uncle's chocolate shop. When a wealthy customer is kidnapped, she quickly discovers an unsuspected talent for seluthing.
The Chocolate Cat Caper - When a high-profile defense lawyer dies after eating a cat-shaped candy laced with cyanide, it's up to Lee to find out who tampered with the recipe - before she ends up behind not-so-chocolate bars.
The Chocolate Bear Burglary - After a burglary at the shop, antique dealer Gail Hess turns up dead - and the main suspect in the murder is Lee's troubled teenage stepson. Lee sets out to clear his name, but awakening long-hibernating family secrets might be more than this daring crime solver can bear.
The Chocolate Frog Frame-Up - The first customer to buy one of the store's new chocolate croakers is the town crank, Hershel Perkins - just after getting into an altercation with Lee's boyfriend, Joe. When Hershel goes missing, the police suspect foul play. Joe seems the most likely suspect, and Lee must find the chocolate clue that will lead to the real killer.
Genre(s): Mystery
Audience: teens, adults
Online Extras: Fun bits of Chocolate Lore at JoAnnaCarl.com!
Reading Time: Four days (hey, it's three books, that's not bad)
Recommend: Oh, go ahead and buy it. It's three books for the price of one!
I read a lot. Given how much I knit, I really shouldn't have time for eating - but I tend to eat at least two meals a day at work (by myself), and I don't want food on my knitting, so - I read. I'm not reading as much as I usually do, since the Monster Yarn Pattern Project thing is taking over chunks of my evenings (it's going to be a while before there's little enough yarn left for it to be a "portable project"), so I'll share what I've been reading. It's pretty eclectic, and I'm not a critic. Pretty much anything I pick up, I read; I don't tend to pick up things I don't think I'll finish. Don't expect anything in-depth, but you may find something you hadn't heard of that you might want to track down to read yourself.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
MLK
portrait quilt by Diana Bracy, Las Vegas, NV
from
President Obama: a Celebration of Art Quilts,
curated by Dr. Susan Walen.
So, I made my husband a Danica scarf last year, and while he wore it all last winter, he's only worn it once this year, and reluctantly at that. Why? He's worried it's going to fall off and be lost. So, off I go on a Noble Quest to find a Scarf That Won't Fall Off. There's the moebius method: Tonya's got some great photos of hers. There's Mutant Penguin's approach, which is a stick-one-end-through-the-other via the magic of construction.
Neither of these time-tested methods for scarf stop-loss will do, though, so I'm left with the following (spouse-cited) criteria:1. It can't fall off.
2. It should have long ends, so if it's extra-cold, the ends can be wrapped about the head/neck for additional warmth.
3. One of the ends should have a secure pocket for a Metro SmarTrip card (works on the whole DC-Metro subway/bus system).
4. It should be long enough to look "normal" on someone in the 6'4"-6'6" range.
5. It should be machine-washable.
6. It can't fall off.
I decided the following would probably work: 1. moebius-style cowl
2. with two long floppy ends grafted (or knit) on in such a way that it'll fool the eye into thinking it's a normal scarf with
3. A built in pocket.
That's all great... but how?
To make a thick fabric from the get-go, I'll be doing a k1p1 rib in worsted-weight yarn on small (size 4) needles. I've done a Noro moebius cowl before (see here) over 40 stitches. No way that's going to be wide enough. Hm. My striped scarf was done over 50 stitches, in somewhat thicker yarn than the Noro (Lorna's Laces Worsted, I believe). Close... but probably not wide enough.
So, this Adventure in Spouse-Requested Knitting will begin with 60 stitches in a k1p1 rib, with a color-change every four rows between a "bright color that will show up" and "something that looks cool with it". (It looks like an '80s era computer monitor.) It will start with a close-fitting moebius cowl (I'll be grafting the moebius effect, which is cheating, but hey, it worked just fine for mine), which will take a while, since it's 60 stitches on size four needles, and my husband has a large skull, over which the cowl must fit snugly (but not TOO snugly).
Here's what I've got so far.
Looks like quite a bit, until you realize that it's going to be OVER EIGHT FEET LONG by the end. (I'm thinking this'll be a nice scarf for NEXT winter, but I'm going to try to finish it this year. It'll be my carry-around project once Clapotis is done.)
The project: Knitting all the stitches in KnittingOnTheNet.com's Stitch Directory.
The yarn: Anything you want. I'm using a Phentex "Monster Ball of Yarn" (32 oz. 100% acrylic), which won't block, but will give good stitch definition.
The needles: Again, whatever you want that goes with your yarn. I'm using my beloved Lantern Moon size 7s, because they're pretty.
Why this is happening: Because lots of people want to learn new stitches this year!
This week's stitches: Box Stitch (#3), Broken Rib (#4), Checks & Ridges (#5) and Chevron (#6).
I've already stitched my six rows of seed stitch - or at least I'm trying to be good and "finish" each pattern area with the seed stitch rows so I can just jump right into the pattern the next time I pick up my strip-o-swatches!
So, first, Box Stitch, aka Double Moss Stitch. This stitch calls for "(multiple of 4) + 2"; I'm going to use (4x4)+2=18, which means I'll knit six border stitches, place a marker, knit the first pattern row, place a marker, and knit six more border stitches. I'm trying to center the patterns as much as possible inside their little seed-stitch boxes.
Since this is a stitch pattern over four rows, I'll planned to repeat it six times, then do my six rows of seed stitch. Instead, I did three repeats (12 rows) as written, then another twelve rows as follows:Row 1: k2, *p2, k2*; repeat from * (right side)
Row 2: p2, *k2, p2*; repeat from * (wrong side)
Row 3: k2, *p2, k2*; repeat from * (right side) - or "repeat row 1"
Row 4: k2, *p2, k2*; repeat from * (wrong side) - or "repeat row 1"
Row 5: p2, *k2, p2*; repeat from * (right side) - or "repeat row 2"
Row 6: k2, *p2, k2*; repeat from * (wrong side) - or "repeat row 1"
This makes one repeat of a "three row" box pattern.
Now, here's a brief foray into how tricky it can be to get a decent photo of some knitted patterns. Getting the box stitch to show up? It's not easy to do with artificial light!! Here are three shots of the swatch, with slightly different cross-lighting, in an effort got get the boxes to show up better than they do in the photo above. (I bet I get better results once it's above-freezing outside so I can use sunlight!)
Things I noticed about this pattern: It is reversible - looks the same (more or less) both front and back. It's very easy to let one's mind drift and suddenly have eight or ten rows of k2p2 rib (watch out for this). It, like the Basketweave variants, is a stitch that gives a nice flat fabric that doesn't curl. It would make a nice, textured fill stitch if you didn't want regular moss stitch. I think I prefer boxes worked over three rows, which makes the boxes more square shaped (then it's not double-moss stitch any more, mind).
Now, on to Broken Rib. This stitch can be worked over either an odd number of stitches or an even number of stitches. Since my "pattern area" is 20 stitches, I'll be using the "even stitches" set up. So, I'll knit five border stitches, place a marker, knit the first pattern row, place a marker, and knit five more border stitches. Also, since this pattern starts with a knit-across on the wrong side of the fabric, I have to get there, so I've done a knit-across row on the right side to set up.
Since this is a two-row pattern, I'll repeat it six times, switch so I'm working the "wrong" side of the pattern on the front of my fabric for another six repeats, then do my six rows of seed stitch. I proceeded in the pattern until I had twelve rows knitting, which found me on the end of a right-side row. So I could bring the "wrong side" of the pattern to the front, I started the k1p1 row immediately, then did the knit-across row (row 1) on the front of the fabric, and proceeded from there until I had my 24 rows.
Things I noticed about this pattern: While this pattern is considered reversible, the two sides look quite different. Both lie flat, and the "wrong side" pattern looks like a rib, but doesn't collapse in on itself, which is pretty cool. The "right side" pattern would make a pretty fill stitch. Plus, it just looks cool. Seriously. It seems to take up quite a bit more yarn than stockinette, which makes sense, since it's closer to garter stitch than anything else thus far. (Since I'm doing roughly 24 rows of most of these patterns, I'll have a pretty accurate Master Row Gauge disguised as a blanket, someday.)
Next, Checks & Ridges. Once again, this stitch calls for "(multiple of 4) + 2"; I'm going to use (4x4)+2=18, which means I'll knit six border stitches, place a marker, knit the first pattern row, place a marker, and knit six more border stitches. It's a four-row pattern, so six repeats will give me my 24 rows, and since I'll be ending with a wrong-side row, I can do six rows of seed stitch top border. Pretty straightforward, but once again, a bear to photograph.
Things I noticed about this pattern: Yep, it's reversible, and lies flat. It has a nice almost-shell effect..
Finally, Chevron. This pattern calls for "(multiple of 8) +1"; I'm going to use (8x2) +1 = 17, so this is my narrowest pattern bit thus far. This time, I'll knit six border stitches, place a marker, knit the first pattern row, place another marker, and knit seven border stitches, making sure I start on the correct stitch to keep the seed stitch going the way it should. (Since it's an odd number of stitches on the left-hand border on the right side of the project, I know it's going to start with a p1.) This is a sixteen-row pattern, so I'll be knitting one complete pattern repeat, then knitting rows 1-8 of the pattern again to bring me to 24 rows. Here is the swatch after the first pattern repeat:
Things I noticed about this pattern: Okay, here's the first one so far that doesn't lie flat. Here is the swatch, just sitting on the needle:
And here it is again, pulled taut.
This is a pattern I won't recommend for acrylic yarn - it needs to be knit in something that will block, or it will just puff in on itself. I will have a slightly squooshy-looking section of blanket, here - which is okay, since the whole point of this exercise is to see how the patterns actually behave in the wild. Knowing at a glance that this pattern will need some blocking? That'll save some heartache in the future!
Since at the end of this bit of knitting I've got six "pattern areas" in one strip, I'll measure to see if making a blanket is realistic (or if it may have to be two blankets!). The strip of six patterns thus far is two and a half feet, or 30" long (yay for square-foot floor tiles!). This means twelve patterns will be about five feet (60"); fifteen will be a bit over another foot, or 6", which is a good length for a blanket strip. So, looks like I'll have a blanket-sized Master Swatch after all!
A note on the whole project: Since there are 139 stitch patterns (some are listed under multiple headings), plus 7 different edgings in KnittingOnTheNet.com's Stitch Directory, I'll be trying to do two to three stitches a week, minimum. This should get everyone a goodly number of new stitches by the end of the year, and hopefully get me a blanket. No worries if you "fall behind" or "start late" - this is for fun & education, there isn't *really* a time limit of any sort on it. If you're just discovering this project, this link will take you to the beginning, and this link will pull up all the related entries. Just knit on, and have fun!
