Copy cat

I'm just a copycat, a week or so ago I was at spin night when N was knitting a sock, a good looking sock a strikingly good looking sock. Then this last week I was at spin night again, and there was N knitting that sock again, or so I thought. I asked about the sock, but turns out that it was a second pair of the same design. This sock that N was knitting had been so admired she had cast on a second pair to share the love. The sock in question is Welsh County Sock by B. Walker.

Fast forward a few days, and Bear has chosen a sock yarn in Vintage Purls latest sock update, Tumeric, an orange that was slightly, ever so slightly dulled by brown. A quick fossik through sock yarn stash and the perfect complement was found, Lang Jawoll in brown grey. So inspired by N, I am being a total copy cat in that I've cast on for a new project, following the pattern, except for working it toe up. This sock is a little more fun this way, toe up means the colour work and the colour change happen quite soon after starting. And as if this was all planned, the ink in my pen just happens to be orange ...karma.
Being me, and being unable to follow instructions without overthinking the options and making changes ... I have also added a small panel of 2x2 rib to each side. I have a slight fear that a plain stocking stitch sock will have less elasticity and so require a more exact fit. By adding to small panels of rib I hope to provide a little bit of built in adjustment.

Here is the next installment in the artisan bread in 5 minutes a day. This dough was wetter, and as predicted harder to handle and shape. This mean that I didn't knock the air bubbles out, which is nice. I'm beginning to see that all those years of reading that I needed to be kneading bread for ten minutes is ok but results in a even, and finely textured bread, this method is the trick to producing this kind of open arty bread. Oh and the crust, the fridge storage, keeping the dough on hold for days in the fridge results in a thick, crispy chewy crust, and heaps of oven spring, nice round loves, not flat mean ones. I'm learning that just like knitting, with bread there are a whole host of options that all have distinct advantages.

So now I just have to knit the gusset increases, and think about if I want a contrast heel a shoe row heel, an afterthought heel, or a flap heel. Oh and I'm teaching zippy knit things next year at Unwind, along with a group of amazing crafters teaching other things, so if you are likely to be around and keen to be part of Unwind 2014 ... head on over and sign up.
Na Stella,

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I'm one of those knitters, you know the ones who keep a knitting workbook

Recently the Yarn Harlot blogged about meeting a knitter who actually kept a knitting journal, she said it was like meeting a mythical creature, a knitters version of a unicorn. To quote her "some of us even buy knitting journals, but none of us really write in them more than once or twice before the habit falls off". I'm one of 'those' knitters, those mythical knitters who keep projec notes, I keep a knitting journal, I have since 2006, except I prefer to call mine my knitting workbook. 2006 was well before Ravelry, and I have to say the project notes on Ravelry are an excellent way of keeping knitting notes, and honestly I think if Ravely had been around in 2006 I might not have have started a paper journal that was quite so detailed, but now I'm in the habit of doing so I will keep recording things on paper as well as on line.

I keep records of the yarn, the pattern, and gauge in the journal, I write down when I start, and when I finish, and I make drawings or plans on which I work out the increases or decreases or sizes. I paste in a ball band, and make notes of what didn't work and what was frogged, and what my new plans were for completion. I also try and include photos of the projects, both in progress and finished. The largest journal here, showing the mittens, started in March 2006 and was in a spiral bound art 'visual diary', sized A4. Over the years I have tried a few different formats. I found I liked spiral bound - as it lets me add in photos and other things without the pages bulging at the binding. I found I disliked working in a small book, the red one was really too small, and project notes ended up split over too many different pages. Thinking about it .. a paper journal lets me keep drawings and scribbles and trial calculations in a way that a database system like Ravelry can't. Ravelry is more of a record of what worked .. my workbook is more a of a record of how I worked it out.

My current workbook is a spiral bound one with graph paper. I'm liking it, slightly smaller than A4 ... but big enough. This is a hand drawn chart of the edging I used on the linen basket liner, together with notes on decisions I made and why, for example I used garter stitch not my favorite slipped stitched edge so it would stretch enough when blocked. The fact I can hand draw a chart or schematic is one of the attractions of a paper workbook, I can do that sitting on the couch with my knitting beside me and there is no need to head off to a computer and make it look pretty and perfect and find a knitting font and check there is paper in the printer. The cubs raid the printer tray for drawing paper .... and whist I encourage their artistic endeavors that leaving the printer with no paper is one of those little things that can get to be annoying.

This is the current 'I want you off the needles project'. I wonder if other knitters have that need, occasionally to clear the project basket of wip's before starting new projects. The lace I chose is working out nicely ... although in hindsight I see that the corners could have been filled with a smaller lace motif. Next time, I also worked it in stocking stitch, instead of garter stitch. That was just a simple mindless mistake knitting every round instead of purling every second, but there seems to be enough texture in the lace to work well with the garter stitch center section. There are three or four more rounds to workbook, work of this lace repeat, then I need to decide if there is a narrow band of eyelets worked in blue before I switch to a darker grey for the cast off lace boarder, and I have to find a lace that I want to use ... so there will be more fun browsing thru lace books again.

I have not made use of the linen basket liner yet ... as the cubs are home with me until next Wednesday when school (and work) starts they have gobbled up much of my baking before it even leaves the cooling rack. For now it is resting amongst all the boxes of 'fancy' cutlery that we inherited from older family(and almost never use). My plan is that the linen basket liner is more used than the cutlery.


so ...... I'll leave you with four years of knitting workbooks ....keeping a workbook is not hard, keep one in your 'knitting place'. Choose a nice book that you want to write in, some thing with a nice cover and nice paper. Pull it out when you are knitting and use it to tick off repeats, note down needle sizes, make comments about changes that you think might work. Copy graphs and paste them into it .. so you don't need to take the pattern with you. Leave spaces for photos, and every few months sit down at the computer and print out a page or two of photos and then take a few minutes to stick them next to the project notes.

Then when you meet knitting idols like the Yarn harlot .. you can ask her to sign your knitting workbook ... and impress her!

take care
na Stella

Well that was interesting!

I'm back, and unfortunately plowing thru a pile of ironing, a combination of my fiber snobbery (cellulose fabrics feel so good to wear but they crease), and Bear and Grand-dad spending the weekend hedge cutting - not keeping up with the domestic chores. Still, I'm not complaining. Today I've got a workshop report (made me think), a shopping report (inevitable), and a new project starts and finishes. I have made some minor progress on the Andean hat, but it is a photo rich post, so more about that next time, and nothing to report on my Bro Amos socks. Plus a great bit thank you to all of you who said nice things about Fannigan, I'm 'chuffed' (is that a unique NZ word, do you all understand it?) that you took time to stop and admire and let me know. Now - what can I do with those lighter clasps that are now spare?

So - workshop, Knit to fit with Barbara Paley (scroll down). Two other knitters and I headed of late Friday, to a weekend of knitterly girly things, we had a historic beautiful cottage booked in Clyde, and the weather could not have been better. I do recommend this workshop if you ever get the chance. The workshop was held at Touch Yarns, a wondrous place. Since discovering EZ and the magic of EPS, I have knit the round and seamless shaped sweaters but Barbara took us thru the basics of recognizing what a straight arm scye and fitted shoulder line could do for a less than ideal body and suggested that there were some significant fitting benefits of knitting a sweater in sections. Now I teach pattern-making and we use standard measurement charts, the very ones that result in all those poorly fitted garments you all buy, but Barbara pointed out for many people a custom fitted sweater can provide a much better look than standard measurements. Barbara, was lovely, and managed to communicate clearly the intricacies of drawing sweater sections, then making patterns to fit ourselves, including sleeves to a group of 'novice' pattern makers very well. Here you can see some of my workings, complete with sleeve diagram.


So - can I give up knitting sweaters in the round? I'm not sure, Barbara felt the resistance at 'our end of the table', Lorna, Pam and I want to knit in the round, and on day two Barbara had us practice seaming, short rowing and decorative deceasing. I think she thought we knit in the round to avoid seams, but hey - we like the concept of shaping all in one. Here you can see my mattress stitch sampler - sewn in red yarn, but apart from the seam 'bump' really truly invisible on the right side (also shown). I've mattress stitched before - but it was nice to practice under an experts eye. And a matching 'top of shoulder' seam sample as well. Can you spot my little mistake, I'm so used to slipping the first stitch to make a neat chain edge I found it really hard to knit the first and last stitch - so some times I got a little confused about that. To answer my own question - will I knit in the round, yes probably, but will work set in sleeves or strap shoulders rather than raglans perhaps?




I did have one other problem, I knit my gauge and seam swatches for the workshop in my Alpaca, Eki Riva and it spirals, I'm not sure if you can spot it in my samples - but there is some definite left leaning going on there. Bother, I have a sweater lot of this stuff, and it was not cheap. According to a very good source - the spirality means I have to knit in a texture with equally balanced knits and purls, to correct for it. Double bother, I had been planning a little cardigan with a lace leaf lower boarder, and stst all over. Well that was before Barbaras workshop and now I realise that those kind of details need to be up around my face, not around my wider bits. Any way - you can see the lean much clearer here. I've clearly got some thinking to do on this one, before i cast on.




Now with the workshop being held at Touch yarns, the temptation was to much, two 9am-4pm day classes surrounded by soft beautifully naturally and hand dyed coloured yarns. I gave in, quite simply and straight forwardly, there was no reason or point in fighting any more. If I drove home - well I knew I'd be back within weeks to buy anyway. So what did I buy? Well, since you asked, from left to right:

• 3 skeins of worsted weight Possum merino, super soft - enough for a little cardigan for me, or more probably a little sweater for Toby. That boy has a real soft spot for super soft things, and why not indulge him?
• 800g of super fine pale green merino, for moi, sport weight
• 100g of sock weight super fine (21 micron!)merino, for socks, for moi, or poppy, who really knows with stash.

I confess my stash enhancement started even earlier, on the way to Clyde, on Friday, we passed thru Lawrence, where a weaver known to my travel buddies, has a shop studio. We stopped and talked, and in her oddments basket I found 2 balls of Patons Super Chenille, for a rock bottom price. I've been looking for some since seeing Chenille wash cloths in Tara Jon Mannings Mindful Knitting. One of which is already a wash cloth, garter stitch, 4mm needles, 40 sts, cast off earlier today, it was a good car knitting project. I'm still to knit up the green. This was to be a baby gift, a super soft chenille wash cloth amongst some luxury baby and mom items, but Poppy discovered how soft it was, and it has gone to bed with her as a snuggly! Toby will want the other one when it is knit.




And spinning, well - great news, I've organised a beginner spinner workshop for 5 friends and I in Feb 2008. The workshop is to be taught by Betty Kelly, and you can see the caliber of her work here by being included in an Interweave Press Project. Betty is held in high esteem throughout Otago and further afield, and is charging only a nominal fee. I almost can't wait.

And the visiting knitter, Emily was great, very easy to be with, we had two nights of knitting, I let her play on my new wheel (see I am a nice person!) and I took her to knit night to meet the others, but she has gone now to greater NZ. Good luck with the travels Em, safe trip home!

lots of little things ...

Well nearly back to normal. Still on leave from work for another week, so a temporary 'stay at home mom', we bake, we go to the park, we walk to the local shops for a loaf of bread, we feed ducks, we hang out washing and sit on the swing. Life is slow and kind of easy - could I do this full time ? - no! I need the challage of my work, my research, and adult company. Still for short periods of a few weeks it is good. Bedtime is also good, as is another adult coming home to talk to and help parent.

Spent time today tidying wee Poppy's room, purchased some storage cubbies, as kitsets, and assembled these. The households two menfolk were macho busy elsewhere, big one was mowing the lawn, and the little one was busy with a Finding Nemo game on the computer. So we got to be furniture assembly girls without any males taking over.
Then the wee one and I sorted toys. Would Maisy mouse and her clothes live in the green cubby or the pink one? Atomic Betty, did she need a cubby close to the dolls house or a bigger cubby further away. Was the $2 shop doll the same sort as Barbie? Could she live in the same basket on a shelf? And the answer was yes after some discussion - it surprised me that Barbie was seen as different to the cheap tart with too much blue eyeshadow and whose legs fall off all the time (leggless!) from the $2 shop - but Poppy (aged 4 and a half) has no preconcieved notions of Barbie and feminism, so argued she was 'better' for playing with therefore different.

At several times Poppy sighed deeply and said " I've just got too much toys". She is right, in a small way, a spoilt we girl, especially a few weeks post christmas. Imagine that - to many toys. and her mum has a 'new' antique swift, a complete set of 5" Brittney, and new jewellery, we are all spoilt.

latest projects, Well as you can see, Curly bear got a jersey to match Poppy's. A tiny wee pink merino raglan, knit in the round. This was made from the scraps of the jersey I knit for Poppy - known usually as Popsi-daisy, last november. Curly is a well loved bear, as you can also see below. Poppy has very blue eyes, she is a mini me, so not sure what is going on here in the digital photo with the brown ones - digital gremlins?

A few other smaller projects have been flying of the knitting pins a Nano sock, a special request from my Chris, who got a i-pod Nano version 2 for Christmas. But the silicon cases to protect it were all for version one. Version 2 is smaller and slimmer by a few mm's and the case was 'loose', baggy almost, not a good look. After shopping all over town with no luck, and internet cruising Chris found Apple sold 5-packs of 'i-pod socks'. So a formal request was made for a home made one. We have a saying that things are 'knitted with love' to make the kids appreciate my knitted gifts. The sock was made in left over Opal, and on 2mm Brittney needles. Part of my xmas gift from Chris. I was shocked at how short they were, and had thoughts of returning them, but found them a dream to knit with. The 5" length is perfect for small diameter knitting, so easy to turn, much less snagging of the ends of knitting pins on yarn as you go. The sock is shown on my older larger version 1 nano, but fitted his beautifully. On a roll from that I knit a felted bowl for my wee mans i-pod. Toby inherited Chris's old shuffle, which he uses to listern to music in bed and we are working our way thru the story podcast websites. We found the complete audio book of robinson crusoe online for free
Then for myself I have been knitting Widdershins from Knitty. Brenda Dayne - disussed her new found love of toe up socks with a full gusset and heel flap in her podcast late last year. I had tried knitting Widdershins before, but was far to clever so stuffed it up. I had used a firmer guage, so sized it up with extra stitches and got very confused half way thru the heel abou the math - I didn't write down what I did as I knit and lost my way. So that one got frogged - cables and all. No big loss cables and self patterning yarn sort of cancel each other out. My latest version is doing well, I knit it in the same Pattons patonyle yarn, cheerful but cheap, a very 'girly' self patterning colourway. No cables this time, no adjustments to the number of stitches, its just about me understanding the heel.

I tried to get gauge, using the stated 2mm dpns, but even when i when i went up to 2.5mm I got 31stitches in 4" not the required 28. I don't think i am a tight knitter, things flow and are easy, but as I knit alone (not by choice - I can't find a knitting group to join that has out of work hours meetings) I don't have anyone to compare to. Maybe Squeaky the designer is a very loose knitter? Maybe it was 3mm's? Maybe I knit tighter than tight and don't know it? Anyway I completed the toe, as a final swatch and found the stock stretched to my 9" foot ball, when it was only intended to fit an average 8" foot ball, so I continued. First sock image is of the 'backwards gusset', looks like a traditional sock but the needles are on the 'wrong' side of the gusset. I finished this in 3 days, and it fits beautifully. Havn't done a wear test yet, but looks very promising. Also in use here are the short Brittany knitting pins, easily long enough for an adult sock. Next is my foot , all size 9 or 25 cm of it neatly and very comfortably encased in Widdershins sock, The pair or 2nd sock is 1.5" from finishing. My other modification was to knit the leg in 2x2 rib, and the last 1.5" on 3mm needles with a stretchy bind off. I hate socks that fall down.
The last image is of my knitting workbook and sock kit - all I need to work a sock, I went thru the pattern after I completed the first sock and noted my changes and worked out the proportons/percentages for heel stitches, gusset increases, etc.. Only to find today that the designer Brooke Chenoweth, had posted a quite detailed and more mathematical formulae for this very thing. I can work the formulae but am in awe of some who can write script to calculate such things automatically. This sock is fast becoming a classic, as other bloggers have taken up the explaination challange and done simillar work. Maybe this is a new Jaywalker, or classic? Jacywalker snuck in there as i plan to knit her next, I sucumbed to sock yarn on line via webs americas yarn store after tuning in to their podcast/radio show. Very tempting site, lots on sale.

You can see my more manual and old fashioned scribbles along side the printed pattern in my workbook.

The last blog before 2007

and whats on the needles, well ongoing with the Kangaroo jersey for my Toby, aged 7. I have been lazy with updating the blog, lazy or busy, not sure which. Just the blog has been lower down the priority list than finishing study, christmas baking, wrapping prezzies, tidying up ... getting on top of the washing.

Don't you just love that saying, who in their right mind would want to get on top of a pile of dirty washing?

Progress photos, Toby is here testing the kangaroo pocket, and it works, kind of boring knitting, but what the boy (and his dad want). But first the background work behind the kanga jersey. I completed the swatch a while ago, scanned it with a measure tape, washed and dry it and scanned it again with a measure tape for scale. I have done this with the last few swatches, and it provides a great record and counting teechnique for gauge. I print it out at between 100 & 200% and the stitches are easily countable, I can tick each stitch off and use the measure tape as a scale to find 10 cm or 2 inches or whatever.

Here is what came out of that. I measured a top that fit Toby, and used gauge to work out my stitch count for various parts of the jersey. I did a bit of math, just planning and working. Then I did a bit of sketching of what could be. I know that most 'designers' would sketch first, but I do lean towards the maker side of design. So before any thinking about how 'it' can be I have already quantified some limits, like the width of this jersey, the proportions, sleeve lengths, and such. so mine is a made jersey, no developmental leaps in this one. The next two pages in my work book show playing and planning how the shape and stripes can be, and the pocket. I really wanted to knit it in the round as much as possible, not to sew it in. It took me a lot of over thinking to work out a very simple solution was th best and most straightforward. Sometimes I can be brainy-stupid like that.

So my design, cast on half required stitches, plus 4, garter for a few rows, 2x2 rib for 12 rows, garter for a few more rows. this is the hem for the front, repeat to get the hem for the back. that gives me a narrow yet 'manly' gansey type hem. To join these two hems I overlaped the last 4 stitches of the front with the first 4 of the back, and knit one stitch from front together with one from the back. This technique reduces the pull of stress on that join stitch, repeat for the other vent. I put a stitch marker at the mid join mark.



Then I knit abut 4 cm straight in the round, to give the pocket some depth. I didn't want small toys nd collectable cards falling out. Starting the pocket flap, about 7 cm in from the side seam, in this case 30 stitches in, and kniting back and forth, stocking stitch. I wanted slanted openings, I drew vertical ones but like the look of the slant on the sketches. less boxy maybe? to achieve that slant on the knit rows I knit the first 2 stitches tog, and the last 2 tog, ssk'ing the last two to make them lean in the right way. I continued until this slanted edge looked wide enough to let a hand with a toy in easily. I strung these stiches on a yarn holder and broke the knitting yarn free.
To make the inside lower bag of the pocket, I picked up and knit stitches on the inside of the hem, the top of the garter edge. I picked up across the width of the pocket plus 3 extra each side, so the inside flap was 6 stitches wider overall. I knit back and forth until the inside flap was the same height as where i had started the pocket flap, and then joined this into the body stitches. I used the same technique of overlaping the extra 3 stitches behind the first and last 3 of the body stitches. Knitting two together.



I then knit the body until it meet up with the top of the flap, and this took ages. It repeadedly seemed like one more row would be enough and then, once done, still another row was required. I knit across the top of the pocket, knitting the pocket flap stitches into place with the body stitches. And above you have Toby demonstrating that there is a working pocket in the kangaroo jersey. I have now completed a few more rounds and have sewn the little open lower edge of the pocket lining into place. This last photo shows that little line of almost invisable seaming.

For us this holiday season brings travel, we are off to visit distant relatives this year, which involes a plane and lots of exitement from our two small people. But not any space to update or check blogs or mails so bog until the new year. My fav podcast cast-on is off air until Brenda is better, so i am sending get well wishes her way.

stella