A Bluestocking Knits

Thoughts on Yorick

The moment I saw this scarf at Knitty.com, I knew that I had to make it for a friend of mine whose birthday is on Halloween, and is fascinated by the holiday and death customs throughout history.  We've traipsed around cemeteries any number of times, doing genealogical research and teaching each other things about history and archaeology, and having a grand time.  Anyway, needless to say, she has a lot of folk art and artifacts, with quite a collection of sugar skulls, so the Yorick scarf will fit right in.

It's an easy knit -- the shaping of the inner holes is a bit strange, when one is used to trying to keep holes out of one's knitting! but it comes together very quickly.  I've never fulled anything before, at least not on purpose, and so that was an interesting half-hour, too.  I filled the sink with hot water and a nearby basin with cold water and ice, and alternated bashing the scarf around between the two.  Julia was very interested in the process, and helped rub the scarf for a while, until she got tired of that and had more fun with the bubbles, and so she would play in the cold water while I had the scarf in the hot, and then we'd switch, so it worked out all right.  It probably took about twenty minutes, maybe a bit less -- the same amount of time for a pot of water on the stove to boil, and the pasta for our lunch to cook, really -- with a finish in the washing machine.  (The skull on the left in the top photo is the reverse side, and the other the right side.)  The stockinette edges do still curl under a bit along the scarf edges, but on the whole I'm quite pleased at its skulliness and the interesting stiff-soft feel of the fulled angora.

Ten Things You Didn't Know About the Bluestocking (A Knitting Meme)

Here's a new knitting meme started by Grumperina, ten "knitterly" things you probably don't know about me.

1. I've started my Christmas knitting already!  Can't show you, of course.

2. I've got a bad case of the knitting jitters lately -- you know, when you can't decide what project to do next, and you start one only to look longingly at another, and another, and maybe even another.  A shawl?  Jaywalkers in Shepherd Sock "Lakeview," perhaps?

3 and 4. I dreamed about this last night --

It's from Romantic Style by Jennie Atkinson.  I bought the book for this pattern, although luckily it has a lot of other interesting things as well, because I try not to buy knitting books unless I want to make at least half of the things in it.

5. I answer almost every comment made here, and for those I don't answer specifically, I return a comment on that person's blog.  This comes from my feeling that this blog is supposed to be a dialogue as much as a monologue, and also that if a reader takes the time to comment, I can take the time to reply.  (I apologize to anyone whose comment I apparently ignored the past couple of weeks -- TypePad's notification feature hasn't been working again lately, and so I haven't seen a number of the comments.)  The knitting-related part comes in because I regard this blog as a knitting-group substitute, and enjoy the back-and-forth of commenting very much.  (That said, I'm actually not much of a talker, and don't seem to comment much on the blogs that I read.  I'm trying to change this.)

6. Like Grumperina, I find myself often baffled by Rowan's designs.  But then a lot about Rowan baffles me.  Why is 4-Ply only 2-ply?  Why if Yorkshire Tweed is "a classic" is it being discontinued already?  What color is "Turbid," anyway?

7. My oldest unfinished project is at least ten years old.  No, maybe not that long, but it's old.  Many years ago, I bought up just about every bit of the extra-fine wool at Super Yarn Mart, in hopes of some day knitting a Norwegian luskofte.  After making a Swedish Halland-style sweater, and not being able to wear it more than two or three times a winter, if that, I thought of making a luskofte-style scarf, using Elizabeth Zimmerman's sock-toe scarf idea from Knitting Without Tears and some of the Setesdal luskofte charts in Sheila McGregor's The Complete Book of Traditional Scandinavian Knitting.  It's still a pretty good idea, I think, and a nice scarf, but it is so fine and the needles so tiny that it makes my hands hurt and it takes forever to work even one round.

Well, I can't even find the scarf, it's been so long, but here's the Halland sweater --

8.  But since I started blogging, I finish a lot more things than I used to.  Maybe I'll pick up that scarf more often.

9.  I learned to knit two-handed on the Halland sweater, so it was 1989 -- but for some reason I've never tried to knit Continental on its own.

10. When I had long hair and wore it in a knot, I used to stick my needle in the knot instead of setting it down beside me.  Sometimes I'd forget and walk around with it there half the day.  It was very handy, though, and I miss my hair so much that I'm letting it grow out again.

Thoughts on the Random Rib Socks

My eccentricities, as I've implied recently, tend to whisper rather than shout.  I love the idea of those little details that you don't see right away, like an interesting curtain bracket above a window or the glimpse of a Fair-Isle sock cuff just under a skirt hem.  Some time ago, when I saw a ribbed sweater of Teva Durham's and the Random Stripe Generator within an hour or so of each other, my subconscious rather liked the two ideas together.  Thus, the Random Rib Sock,

 

at first glance with an ordinary rib, but in fact a randomly-generated series of ribs, different on either sock.  The pattern has been written up in a wide variety of sizes, from woman's small to man's extra-large, and includes a unique rib for each sock.  The shaping itself is quite straightforward; the rib requires a fair amount of attention, as it does not of course settle into a repetitive rhythm, but it is not difficult once the sequence has been established.

I modified the pattern slightly from the written-up version for the socks in the photos because David has a high instep, and this made the generic sock sit very low over his ankle -- it was a simple matter of lengthening the heel flap to his heel measurement, and then continuing the gusset decreases down to the indicated number of stitches.

I don't (yet!) have a PDF writer, and so I've merely added the instructions to the photo description, in the new Patterns album in the sidebar.

We-ell....

Now, I knew when I chose Shepherd Sock for the Nether Garments that things would happen, that with the shaping of the piece the color shifts would go in different, even unexpected directions.  It's the nature of hand-painted wool, of course.  I figured that I would just be kind of zen about it, and let the colors go where they would.

Along the ankle and calf, I like this.  It's pleasing and fairly regular.

This, at the knee, I can live with -- it has a little jolt where the calf shaping begins, but it sorts itself out.

This is getting weird --

And this, above the thigh shaping, is just bizarre.

I'd been thinking that I'd use the tights for yoga, being warm and close-fitting, you know, but I don't find anything about these flashes the least bit meditative.  Want to see the full effect? --

The moral is, you never know.

Now, that said, the garment itself is very comfortable so far.  It looks a bit bulgy at the top, but that's from the circular needles pulling it in; the above picture is a view of the front, with the thigh shaping at the inseam.  It fits my leg perfectly, of course, being made to measure, and with Elizabeth's careful planning and simple formulas it all went together without a hitch.

Here is a photo of the shaping, the back of the knee at the right and the beginning of the inseam at the left.

And I like the Shepherd Sock, too.  It's a bit splitty on the fine needles, but it feels nice in my hands.  I was thinking, even as late as when I turned on the computer this morning, that I might keep up with it, finish it anyway, not wanting to give up on my Almanac project for this month (and I have eight skeins of the wool!).  But the colors are just not working for me this way -- lightning bolts on the thighs! I don't think so -- and I don't see how I could reknit it -- maybe working with alternate balls, it could work! -- and still finish by the end of the month.  These Nether Garments didn't have much appeal to me at first, but now after actually trying on at least a part of it, it is not uninteresting.  (This may seem a little like Westley's remark in the Fire Swamp, something along the lines of "It's not too bad, really," but I'll leave it there.)  Mary at The Knitting Zone very kindly calculated the yardage for the Shepherd Sock for me, and it looks like eight would be plenty, as I've only just added the third one -- I was going to acknowledge her help in the final post on this project, but I think that for now this is it.  For those who might pass this pattern over, it's worth another look.  In a lighter wool like Shepherd Sock, they would make excellent yoga wear or ballet leg warmers, for those in less Wisconsin-like climates, or something warm and cozy in a thicker wool for those long winters in the North.  Like with the Chainmail Sweater in the March Chapter, yarn selection can make the world of difference!  I would only suggest a solid color....

Eva, thanks for the link to Zimmermania, a new knitalong dedicated to Elizabeth's patterns and wisdom.  I'll join when I feel a little less incompetent!

I needed a bit of a confidence-booster last night, and this came off the needles only an hour or so past my bedtime -- another Odessa, with beads this time.  The blue is the color Julia chose for her hat, and Laura's will be the lilac-pink.

"Knit on"!

Booking Through Thursday: But Enough About Books --

But enough about books (for a while at least) -- Booking Through Thursday wants to know what else do you read?

Magazines? Newspapers? Professional journals? Cereal boxes? Phone books? Purchase invoices? Homework? (Please be specific. There may be a test later.)

My extra-book reading is rather staid.  I subscribe to a number of magazines, with a special fondness for what they call "shelter magazines" for some reason -- a less-inspiring name could hardly be found.  I get "Better Homes & Gardens", "Cottage Living", "Interweave Knits", "Martha Stewart Living", and "Real Simple", and I buy occasional issues of "Country Living" and "Natural Home" and other things that catch my eye here and there, if something in it is worth saving.  I have quite a weakness for the UK edition of "Country Living," too.  My mom gives me her old copies of "Sunset", which is one of my favorites.  Nothing literary, alas -- I keep hoping that "Civilization" will start showing up again.  I don't read parenting magazines anymore -- not that I know everything, I just don't have the time! -- although I did pick up "Wondertime" the last few months and found it very appealing.  I am very disappointed -- and told them so -- that Martha Stewart has decided to cease publication of "Kids," which I thought was a wonderful magazine and one of the few that I save whole.  I also read David's "National Geographic" and the "Westways" that comes with our Auto Club membership, and the girls' "Ladybug" -- we'll be adding to their list as birthdays roll by.  I'm looking forward to my Christmas present to David of "The Economist", for which we unexpectedly found a discount coupon in Laura's Brownie fundraiser!

I read the Los Angeles Times every morning, although to be honest I usually have time only to browse the front page, and read the local and Calendar sections, although I do love the Food and Home sections on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

I use to read cereal boxes a lot when I was a kid (Quisp! Cap'n Crunch!), but I usually eat homemade granola or toast for breakfast these days, so no boxes --

Booking Through Thursday: Men and Women

Booking Through Thursday asks a rather provocative question this week --

1. Do you tend to read more books written by one gender over the other? I haven't ever considered this!  Upon reflection, the last three books I've gotten from the library -- assuming that cookbooks don't count, although in the strictest sense of the issue, I suppose they should -- A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by William Shapiro, The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton by Kathryn Hughes, and Anne Boleyn: A New Life of England's Tragic Queen by Joanna Denny makes it two to one for the women. 
2. If so, which one? Men? Or women? Is this a deliberate choice? Or just something that kind of happened?  I am glad to say that I do not choose books on the basis of their author's gender, but instead on the interest said books may hold for me, the recommendation of another reader I trust (as a personal friend or as a professional reviewer), or on other writings by the author.  The only situation I can imagine where this might happen is that of encouraging certain categories of author, such as regional, cultural, maybe even occupational.  It doesn't seem to me, thank heavens, that women authors need that kind of promotion much these days.  That said, one of my favorite subjects is women's issues, but I don't consider the author's gender in the choosing, but whether he or she writes well, knows the subject, teaches me something that I didn't know before, and so on.
3. And (without wanting to get too personal), is this your gender?  I am in fact female.

As a postscript to this question, looking at my short list above, I did notice that of the three books I checked out from the library a few weeks ago, I bought the one written by a man after reading merely the first two chapters, finished reading one of the two written by a woman (the biography of Mrs. Beeton), and am seriously considering dropping the second of the two written by a woman (the Anne Boleyn biography) due to clumsy writing and egregious scholarship.

Lakeview

Marie was curious about how the Lakeview Shepherd Sock looks when knitted up.  The colors have shifted now that I'm doing the increases, but this is probably how it would look on a sock leg.  Pretty, isn't it?

Thoughts on the Pi Shawl

Well, I don't know if it was the effect of the Addi Turbos,

but I have taken to calling them the Nickel-Plated Beauties.  I finished the shawl on Tuesday, and worked the border Wednesday morning.

It's about 62 in./1.5 m. across, which around my shoulders is just slightly small, so if anyone wants to make this with Koigu and US6 needles, I would recommend 10 skeins just to be safe.  I did want a rather warm everyday shawl, and so of course a looser gauge would take less wool.  (Another option might be to increase the needle size at the increase rows, thereby making a shawl that is actually more than a circle, sort of crescent-shaped when folded in half, which would make it sit on the shoulders better.)

David came upon it stretched out to dry on the floor, and stared at it for a few minutes, mesmerized by the rather psychedelic sensation of falling into the center, both from the increasing/decreasing eyelet rows and the color smudges.  (The curious funnel shapes in some of the larger plain circles are actually a result of resizing the photos, one of the downsides of my camera's phobia about straight lines, and are not in the actual shawl.)

I really enjoy the Gull Stitch, as it's both very simple to work and very pretty.  I can see, though, why Elizabeth didn't care much for the crocheted-loop finish -- she starts off by saying that it's "good," and goes on to describe the method, but then adds, "I no longer finish shawls in this fashion, so have not much of an opinion to offer" -- it seems a bit anti-climactic here, although in other situations I think it is quite effective.  I didn't want to do the sideways knitted-in border though, as it made the Koigu's color smudges go in a different direction all of a sudden, which I found rather jarring.

Laura is quite taken with this shawl -- purple is her favorite color!

All You Need is Love

I couldn't think why this song was in my head all of the time lately.  "All you need is love -- rum, da da-da da -- All you need is love!"  I've been blind-stitching the binding around the edges of Laura's quilt -- have been at it one whole evening, and boy, is it slow going.

But now I know where the song came from.

Becalmed

To be honest, I've had the knitting doldrums for a while.  I like the Pi Shawl, am fairly happy with the Koigu (not as nice to knit with as Supersock, though not unpleasant, by any means), but -- well, I've been busy with the start of school and all the little things that need to be done, with reading, sometimes with just sitting.  The join on the circular needles that I was using is a bit tetchy, and I got increasingly frustrated with having to stop and pull the stitches up to the needle-end, to the point where I put the whole thing right away for a while, convinced that there was only one thing that would make it go faster --