Double Helix

missing

PeachPit, her scarf, and the rest of her gear went to school yesterday. PeachPit, her gear, but not her scarf, returned home. Husband looked everywhere. PeachPit looked everywhere. The afternoon teacher rendered an account of PeachPit and the scarf, made murky by fairly impenetrable English. Bottom line: PeachPit thinks I should just make her another one. However, she was warned: lose the scarf and that's it. She still has the blue one in Berroco Suede which will just have to do.

too late

On first glance, this appears to be Ganymede Completed, but consider the ruffled edge. Adding some flares after the penultimate openwork motif seemed desirable at the time, but the resulting ruffle does not suit the structure of the shawl. The strong lines and shaped shoulders really demand a stoic edge.

In addition to contorting the edge, each of the ten offending increases create a vertical line that subverts the beauty of the horizontal motif.

The shawl has been frogged back to the lower edge of the lower motif. To ease the tedium of repeating about 15,000 stitches, I will add a third motif to the group before finishing the shawl the way I should have in the first place. No funny business this time; just traditional Faroese shaping.

swatch redux

Blocked swatch for husband's sweater. The suggested gauge is about 20 percent tighter than what I've got. Not that I need to get the suggested gauge; I'm more of a slave to my own opinion. (That last bit sounds narcissistic, but it's true, so I'm leaving it.) However, too much daylight comes through the fabric, so it's time to drop down a needle size and repeat the swatch. Alternations of knits and purls are strangely harder to memorize than lace; hence the index card.

still in orbit

Ganymede is steadily moving toward completion, with about five inches to go until the planned end of the shawl. Right now, there are 500 stitches on the needles, and if I run out of yarn before the last design element, it means frogging and getting those 500 suckers back on the needle. Time to push my luck and add some modest flares.

all wound up

PeachPit loves my ball winder. I love my ball winder because it works well, and I want it to stay that way. For the past half year or so, PeachPit and I have had a push-me-pull-you relationship with the winder. She would want to wind, I would give in, after a brief go she would reverse direction, and then I would remove her from the instrument. This time, PeachPit wound the left skein almost entirely without assistance. She was pleased as punch, as was I. My ball is quite a bit tighter, but I'm not so sure that's preferable.

purloined

"The Bible contains six admonishments to homosexuals and 362 admonishments to heterosexuals. That doesn't mean that God doesn't love heterosexuals. It's just that they need more supervision. ~ Lynn Lavner

But the photo is not purloined:

I just love vines crawling along walls and buildings.

entertained

You.
Can.
Only.
Type.
One.
Word.

No.
Explanations.

1. Yourself: velvet 
2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend (spouse): cashmere
3. Your hair: boucle  
4. Your mother: superwash 
5. Your father: cabled
6. Your favorite item: loops
7. Your dream last night: fuzzy
8. Your favorite drink: coffee
9. Your dream car: smooth
10. The room you are in: dropped
11. Your ex: distant
12. Your fear: complacency 
13. What you want to be in 10 years? younger 
14. Who you hung out with last night? muse
15. What You're Not? mercerized
16. Muffins: yes
17. One of your wish list items: qiviut
18. Time: relative
19. The last thing you did: tinked
20. What you are wearing: flannel
21. Your favorite weather: mohair
22. Your favorite book: paper
23. The last thing you ate: chocolate 
24. Your life: progressing
25. Your mood: entertained
26. Your best friend: frogged
27. What are you thinking about right now? purple
28. Your car: oxidized
29. What are you doing at the moment? sorting 
30. Your summer: gone
31. Your relationship status: textured 
32. What is on your TV? dust
33. What is the weather like? cathartic
34. When is the last time you laughed? yesterday 

for Mafia

First things first: Today is Femiknit Mafia's birthday. If you don't already read her blog, consider it. She's fiesty, creative, and real. (Come to think of it, these are some of the highest compliments in my book.)

On the Mafia topic, she left the following comment on my post about my husband's next sweater: "Ms. Scorpio, that's a whole lot of vague. Tell us more!  The yarn is beautiful." So, relevant details include:

yarn: Riata
source: Brooks Farm Yarn
composition: 48% wool, 36% kid mohair, 16% silk
suggested gauge: 5 stitches per inch
suggested needle size: US7 to US9
skein yardage: 365 yards
total yardage: 1825 yards
skein cost: $34.00
total cost: $170.00
total with tax: $183.81
sweater style: crewneck
size: medium tall
stitch pattern: Inverness diamonds (BW#1)
expected completion: 12/24/06, 11:30 pm
knitting beverage: just a little port

Swatch is not yet blocked.

the problems with hats

In the spirit of full disclosure, I will say that my general dissatisfaction with hats is intensified by DPNs being required in their manufacture, and their tendency to induce flattened, staticky hair when worn.

On to the nit-picking.

Problem: Hats are usually constructed by beginning with a cylinder and finishing with a cone or a truncated cone. Heads, however, are more approximately dome-shaped. This incongruence is usually remedied by winching the top of the hat closed and hoping for the best. Sometimes it works out, but more often there's a telltale flabbiness around the closure.

• Solution: Shape dome by using graded decreases, starting slowly and finishing more aggressively. I've done this once to my complete satisfaction, and I hope to do it another ten times and write some very general formulae for executing in any gauge.
• Unsolved: Best percent ease for dome section unknown. I suspect no ease or about 5 percent is right for stockinette. Also unsolved: best texture for dome.

Problem: Closing the hole at the top by pulling the working thread through unworked stitches leaves those stitches unsatisfyingly longer than the rest.

• Solution: Work the stitches and bind them off.
• Unsolved: The hole still needs to be closed.

Problem: Width of rim, texture of rim, depth of rim, and cast on tension seem entirely hit or miss.

• Solution: Another job for provisional cast on! Work dome first, pick up live stitches, work brim, then bind off.
• Unsolved: Width of rim, texture of rim, and depth of rim. But at least working the dome first will allow me to experiment with this in a less painful way. I suspect that negative ease is the way to go, and that garter stitch may be a good alternative to the traditional rib. (Not that there's anything wrong with rib.)

This just about covers it for the time being.

hat of shame

So two Saturdays ago, Husband put a hat on PeachPit, and it was not hand knit. It had no vague possibility of being hand knit. I was so ashamed I hopped off the bus at Brookline Village instead of waiting until Longwood, and got some yarn for a PeachPit hat.

The simple thing would have been to buy some more Bunny Print to match her scarf, now completed and proudly worn. I was up for more of a challenge. I got some Lamb's Pride, since the color and weight was a good match, and picked up some Kid Silk Haze (really) to carry along with it and give it a little more interest. Now to get past my hat hangups.