Grrr gauge or when is #18 not #18

One of the perils of knitting with non-standard materials is that the materials don't always have to meet any sort of knitting QA standards.

I mean, come on, the world will not end and the job will not stop on a job/construction site if the #18 Mason twine from one package to another is not quite the same weight as the last batch.

That's my current excuse for not getting gauge or, more precisely, not seeing much difference between several different runs at the same project with different stitch counts on the same size needles.

I'm not unfamiliar with the idea that sometimes that's not the issue but rather that the thread/yarn whatever will only bend/morph change so much within the range of needles that it can be worked with -- or to put it another way, it doesn't effin matter what you do your spi isn't going to get tighter no matter how much pain you put yourself through.

So I'm still on the deconstruct and reconstruct side of the fish afghan. I'm thinking that the story of the fish afghan blanket will be right up there with the how Theo came to be born (aka the delivery saga) and I'm hoping that when blankie finally meets baby for more than a casual nod in a bar that they will bond.

And you know what? Even if that doesn't happen Jen, Tony & Theo are so special and such good people, the finished product is working up to be so wonderful, and the journey has been worth it.

Helping hats or the 1000 fab hats project

When I was a kid I loved hats and I wore them well.

Later on my little pin head and lots of hair combo made hats a more problematic issue but I was still not above stealing Panamas, Cookie Cutters, and other dashing haberdashery items from male friends on the unprincipled principle that they looked better on me.

Come to think of it, I had something of the same MO when it came to the hats of my youth.

I know for a fact that one of my favourites was a cream coloured felt number with a jaunty tilt that I'm pretty sure I stole from my mother.

Wish I still had that hat as I am now coming back around again to being now old enough (rather than young enough) to pull off the eccentric vintage thing.

But enough about me and even about my hats, this post is about a hat project called 1000 Fabulous Knitted Hats and I still need to do some photography to get my projects in for consideration.

This is a project put together between Annie Modesitt and Rockport Publishing (aka Quarry Books) and the original deadline for the photographs was 1 July but it has been extended to 15 July.

So:

• Click on the links to get the information & forms
• Get out your digital cameras and set them to take PRINT rather than WEB quality photos -- yeah, I know, you may have to actually read the instruction manual & clear some space on your memory card -- and shoot some of those masterpieces.
• Or, if you happen to have a lovely cache of digital photos of great hats, go through the files and pick a winner.

I know I'd love to see the Mary Lee Herrick Chicken hat that got away from me during the DAE 2002 Knitter's Auction and not for want of bidding btw turn up in the pages of this project.


In case you're wondering, the panda hat shown is, as far as I know, still in the possession of the person I knit it for and also occasionally getting linked to by Myspace people without my approval as documented in this 2007 blog posting. With the extended deadline, I may try to get the hat back for a photo shoot even if I wouldn't really relish revisiting that design.

The other for consideration hats hit another snag today when fave bartender was not on Whistlestop patrol at our knitting Sunday. Still, I'll work it out and clear that memory card to make room.

Big Fish Story or why you can never have too many needles

The last update on the fish blanket/afghan was that the # of stitches picked up along the edge of one panel was way off from the live stitch count of the other panel it was to be grafted to.

Live stitches were living on a 32" circular and I was guess-timating that the final panel was at least close to the same length as the others.

Two things that changed my world view on this one.

I finally pulled the picked up stitches out of the final panel. In the process I discovered that one of the segments of the panel had had some stitch failures along the selvedge edge.

So, I decided to frog it and take the grafting out so I could reknit and regraft.

Since I was already going to undertake this effort, I decided that it probably would be a good idea for me get a real sanity check about why the stitch counts on the two sides were so off.

To that end, I carefully transferred the live stitches onto a length of heavy gauge fishing line (great stuff for blocking btw) and, sure enough, the final panel with the problematic picked up stitches is at least four inches longer than the other panel. That pretty much explains the problem.

So, while I may be picking up stitches soon and grafting the last panel into place, first there's a bit of frogging and reknitting that has to happen first.

Rainbow icord for the season

So what do you get if you knit five stitch icord using rainbow nylon twine on 3.25mm needles?

If you're me, you get a perfect rainbow cord suitable for Pride season. Or for someone who likes rainbows.

The prototype icord key chain that I've created with this bit of frivolous knitting needs a rethink when it comes to attaching to the keyring, I don't dislike the end product enough to keep it from making a trip to the Pacific Northwest as a gift.

Colour me clueless

The launch party for KITS was at Knitting In La Jolla on the 16th of the missing May.

I was really fun to see the other designs, the other designers, the book and knitters.

In true show of maybe I'm not as full of myself as some people think I am, I was shocked to discover that people wanted me to sign my design in the book.

I was also clueless as to the fact that it, like several other designs, my design had a photo in the book other than the ones directly associated with the pattern pages. So colour me clueless.

So those of you with a strange scribble that might vaguely look like a signature on my pattern page -- you have a collector's item but only if you also snagged autographs of other designers on site in addition to Kristi's.

I hope to be somewhat more polished at this weekend's signing and meet and greet at Bonita Knit & Sew.

Santorini swatching

I was so charmed by Lisa Limber's jacket in Knitting In the Sun that, even though I have said that I don't want to knit anything for the size I am now, I decided to make an exception.

I looked with some lust at the elann samples for May and June and even swatched a couple but budget and practicality prevailed.

So I turned to stash and after a couple of that could work -- oops not quite enough outings, I actually started to inventory my stash and capture the information on Ravelry.

Thus began the process of stash swatching for suitable yarns.

Quite a few hit the not quite enough yardage wall and others, like the cone of recycled yarn in a nice neutral failed the even remotely correct gauge test.

Not shockingly, even the suggested yarn failed the gauge test.

Although I was leaning toward neutrals or at least something on the subtle side with perhaps a bit of a green or yellow tone, that's not what has hit the needles at least for this go 'round. Think Aegean blue

I may or may not written about this before but most edgings are very directional and while that works pretty well for pullovers and for shawls that are round or rectangular it can present a bit of a problem for cardigans and triangular shawls.

The edging on this cardigan/jacket is lovely wave lace pattern that, by the nature of the location of increases and decreases creates a flat side and a "jut out" side.

If you look at the picture of the cardigan on page 109 of the book (great picture BTW), you can see how that plays out in the front of the garment.

So pretty much, the right side of the bottom bit of the pink swatch is the right front side of the cardigan and the left side of that same swatch would be the bottom bit of of the left side.

To be more clear -- | meets <> meets < ? Right now I'm leaning toward > meets <. But that creates another set of problems.

Junkyard from Jersey & a subtle shift on the corner

One of the "new in the hood changes" I've seen recently is a funky vintage boots, vinyl and some such shop in the ever changing small kine space next to The Flame.

The new shopkeepers are originally from the Jersey shore (think Red Bank, Colts Neck and such) and they have been putting it together a bit at a time.

The official opening is slated for the end of June.

Another change just down the way is that the car repair shop on the corner is not, at least for now, going to go away and become yet another condo project. The change in this case is a more ethnic change with the Asian owners out and Hispanics in.

A subtle shift and I'm told they do very good work by a fairly reliable source.