Switching swirls and revisits

All of the swirl polygons in Mary Thomas and in my Positively Polygonal online seminar have the increases at the start of the polygons' sides. This makes the swirl clockwise (aka to the right).

Making the polygon swirl the other way really is as simple as putting the increases at the end of the polygons' sides. This lets you mirror your polygons for a less directional and more appealing look.

While the shift from start of sides to end of sides is a simple enough thing, the actual knitting can be a bit fiddly (meaning markers and rearranging stitches on the needles are important) especially if you're using the three needle and knit with a fourth I used in knitting heptagons.

My recent pentagon projects have me revisiting the number of stitches to cast on for each pentagon and how to work the first three rows. More on the starting changes and the fiddly knitting involved in switching the swirl direction when I've better light and more photogenic yarn on the needles.

When designing with polygons it is often helpful to draw things out to see the possibilities but don't trust the drawing completely. Knitting is one of those areas where often the math says one thing and the knitting says another.

In just fiddling about with a 12x12 square for a one day contest (and free admission) to the San Diego County Fair, I'm finding that a design I abandoned as impossible based on drawings is looking not only possible but very promising.

Other rethinking and regroup news means that my runagogo round 2 (still unrecorded) mileage is up to 51.5 miles which is well off the mark of where I'd hoped to be. Worse still, the events of the last few weeks had me backsliding a bit on diet too so I've had a bounce up that needs to be corrected before day job deadlines make the effort even more of a struggle.