Archives for June 2004

A question in the blog comments yesterday:

Do you ever make mistakes in your knitting?

Who, me? Never! I’m perfect.

Did anyone believe that? No, I didn’t think so.

Yes, I make mistakes. All the time.

I’ll direct your attention to this blog entry. That’s probably the most dramatic mistake I ever made.

Nowadays I make small errors that come about because I’m not paying attention. I may cross a cable the wrong way, or knit a stitch in the wrong color on a colorwork project. But 999 times out of 1,000, I notice it immediately and fix it then and there. That 1 time out of 1,000 I won’t notice it until the next round, and I’ll fix it then.

I do it my way.

Sorry, I had to say that.

Ingrid Update

Ingrid went to the office with me yesterday. I knit her on the train and briefly at lunch. She makes great commuter knitting! The pattern is easily memorized and she’s fun to knit.

A couple of comments about the colors of Ingrid. She’s not black and white. She’s very very pale mint green and a variegated brown/olive mix. I’ve taken a photo of the Koigu in the skein in an attempt to show her true colors.

Lookie Here

This is Laughing Lizard “Tabitha,” a cotton rayon blend that I bought at Knit Happens. I’m pretty sure this is the yarn that Kristine and Liz said was too much of a pain to dye, so it’s a one-off. I no doubt showed it to you before.

Well, it’s been calling out to me lately. I do believe I’m going to use it to attempt a Bottoms-Up Bucket Hat for the summer portion of Becky’s Bucket-Along. I will no doubt have to adjust the pattern somewhat as I’m betting Tabitha is a heavier yarn than called for in the pattern. It’s also slubby, which will make a difference. But that’s what makes life interesting, right?

Stay tuned for reports of success or disaster . . .

Swatch-o-rama!

Lucy Sez . . .

Please pass the SPF15!

Some info about Ingrid.

Yes, it’s my own design — I’ve added it to my sidebar. You know you can always get the straight dope there, right?

It’s knitted at 32 stitches/36 rows to four inches, so it’s not a fast knit. The Swedish sweaters from the 1800s that I’ve been looking at were often knitted at up to 42 stitches to 4 inches but that’s kind of impractical these days. It’s harder to find such fine yarns and harder still to find the time to knit to that gauge!

Koigu, which I am using for Ingrid, has a suggested gauge of 7 stitches to the inch, but going down to 8 stitches to the inch was not problem. My gauge on colorwork is always a tad tighter than for knitting in one color anyhow. Most fair isles I have done are knitted to a gauge of 8 stitches to the inch, so I think you could easily sub a shetland jumperwieght yarn for this design for a less expensive sweater.

I’m loving knitting it in Koigu though. I like the effect of the variegated foreground color against the solid background color. For my next trick — er, design — I might reverse ’em: use the variegated for background and the solid for foreground. And of course Koigu is incredibly soft and luxurious to knit.

Ingrid is being knitted in the round and I’m using the traditional Norwegian technique for the armholes — machine stitched and cut, with the sleeves knitted separately and inserted.

Lizzie Update

I’m nearly done with sweet Lizzie — what a lot of fun she’s been to knit.

I need to sew her together and knit the neckband, and she’ll be done.

Ingeborg Button Loop Details

A request in the comments for a close-up and explanation.

The way I made the button loops was to pick up three stitches on the edge of the band where the loop is supposed to be, and knit a three-stitch i-cord. Twleve rows was just the right length for the size loop i needed (using size 2.5mm needles). Bind off, then attach the bound-off edge of the loop to the edge of the band next to the beginning of the loop. Presto-change, a button loop!

The Lion Brand Kitty Bed

I posted the link to the Lion Brand kitty bed kit just because it was pointed out to me, and it looks alot like mine. I never said I thought they stole it from me, though my design may certainly have influenced its creation. It’s not felted, for starters (at least I’m pretty darn sure it isn’t.) Someone mentioned that there’s a similar pattern for a kitty bed in the “Stitch and Bitch” book which I’ve never seen, but it was no doubt designed before I designed mine — I think the book’s been out for a while, hasn’t it?

But even if this kitty bed was inspired by mine, my kitty bed is a free pattern, so it’s not like I’m losing any money.

Speaking of this, have you visited the kittybed gallery lately? There are lots of new cute photos there. Link is in the sidebar.

And Another Thing

The link to the blogger’s disclaimer provoked some interesting comments, which is what I was counting on by posting it.

No, I don’t agree with everything in it totally. No, I don’t consider my blog private. Anyone can read it. It’s quite possible if I discovered a blog written by an ex, I’d read it. But only if it was interesting. But I most emphatically would not leave comments on it, or pester the ex via email.

The part I totally agree with is that blog readers have no right to expect more personal information than is divulged on a blog. I have the right to ignore comments and emails to which I don’t wish to respond. I also reserve my right to delete comments that offend me enough to warrant such treatment. Apart from spam, I very rarely delete comments. But I have once or twice.

I think of a blog as a newspaper column. Anyone can read it, and is free to agree or disagree with the writer. You can send a “letter to the editor” but there’s no expectation that you’ll get a response.

Lucy sez

So there!

I stumbled upon this in my online wanderings over the weekend: A Blogger’s Disclaimer.

This is something everyone who reads and comments on blogs should look at and think about.

We knitbloggers are more of a community and our blogs are somewhat interactive, so I don’t think all of the blog rules there apply completely. But there were a lot of points that rang true.

Here’s one:

Never contact the writer for more details on events or personal information than what they have already provided on the site.

With the emphasis on personal information. Information on works in progress and yarn, etc. is fair game, I think.

Here’s an important point:

Ex-friends, lovers and estranged family members who have been cut out of the writer’s life should refrain from reading their journal. If the relationship has ended, there is no reason you should get daily updates on the person’s life. If you simply can’t help yourself, do it quietly, and never repeat what you read or use it to hurt the writer.

One more, then I’ll move on:

Never assume a writer owes you any response. They may receive from a few to hundreds of messages per day.

No, nothing specific has happened and I’m not pissed off. I just thought this was a good thought-provoking piece of information.

As I said, we knitbloggers are a pretty interactive group. we have exchanges and knitalongs. A sense of community. But the bottom line is that a blogger is a total stranger to 99% of the people who read his/her blog. On my blog I share a teeny tiny slice of my life, and that’s as much as I’m willing to share.

Does This Look Familiar?

Eklectika sent me this link last week. Does this remind you of anything?

Inge-buttons!

I got my Inge-buttons in the mail. Not from the original vendor, who never sent them nor responded to my email inquiry about order status, but the second set I ordered. This is the poifect Inge-button, I think:

So I sewed them on the Borg, made i-cord button loops. La voila:

Finis!

Ingrid

I made a bit of progress on Ingrid:

And a close-up:

Lucy sez . . .

The heck with Ingrid! Lizzie makes a wonderful kitty bed!

Good, productive day yesterday on our field trip, but very tiring. Consequently, not a whole lotta knitting progress last night.

But I did make a good start on the front of Lizzie:

Here’s a close-up of the big-ass cable running up the front:

Like I mentioned before, this is a fast, fun project to knit!

Someone mentioned in the comments yesterday not being able to find the Laughing Lizard yarn anywhere other than Knit Happens. Laughing Lizard is Knit Happens’ own brand of hand-dyed yarn. An exclusive!

What’s Next?

Another comment yesterday asked what my next big project is. This:

Remember the swatch knitted from Koigu I showed you the other day? Well, I cast on for what it’s going to become: Ingrid. Another WendyKnits original design.

I’ve always wanted a Swedish sweater, but there are very few patterns around. I designed this sweater using motifs based on a traditional Swedish design. I’m using a very plae green Koigu (color #2331) for the background color and a variegated brown/olive/green Koigu (color #P315) for the foreground.

It’s knitted on a 3mm needle at 8sts/inch.

Nope, I didn’t gave it an “L” name. Ingrid was my Swedish grandmother’s name.

And hopefully I’ll have a bit of progress into the pattern to show you on Monday.

Lucy sez . . .

Relax this weekend!

I did some finishing work on Ingeborg last night.

I swear, I could hear her whimpering quietly from the depths of the knitting bag.

“Why doesn’t she like me? Why won’t she finish me? I’m pretty — so what’s wrong with me?”

The guilt was killing me, so Ingeborg and I spent some quality time together, just us girls.

But Then Lizzie Started In

Whimpering. Whining. “Pay attention to ME.”

Sigh.

I really need to do something about these voices in my head.

I did finish the back of Lizzie.

And a sleeve.

The Big Lizard yarn is a thick and thin 100% wool. Very very soft, and very very fun to knit. At 2.5 stitches per inch, you can whip out a sweater in a very short time.

Side Seams Question

In the comments yesterday Katie asked if Lucky was knit in pieces for the same reason I designed my cotton sweaters in pieces — stability. The answer is yes!

The Jaeger silk knits up into a very soft, fine fabric, wonderfully silky and drapey. I think the finished garment knitted in pieces and seamed has more structure and durability than it would if I had knit it in the round.

Don’t get me wrong — I love knitting in the round. I don’t particularly like to purl, so stockinette in the round is a little slice of heaven. But still, the only sweaters I knit in the round are pretty much fair isles and Norwegian designs. Well, colorwork, that is. Most everything else I knit flat and seam.

Speaking of Seams . . .

Have I ever mentioned that I almost never use mattress stitch to seam garments? Almost always backstitch.

A long time ago at a knitting workshop on finishing techniques it was demonstrated to me that backstitch is stronger than mattress stitch. Mattress stitch looks nicer, though. I’ve mattress stitched some sweaters I made for myself, because I knew I’d be careful with them. But all sweaters for other people are backstitched. And I’ve fallen into the habit of doing it for sweaters for me, too.

New Wendy Icon

I got a comment asking about my new Wendy icon below my photo in the sidebar. I made it at the Portrait Illustration Maker site.

It was so much fun, I made another one:

This made using the Portrait Icon Maker.

Lucy says “That so does not look like me!”

Button Update

The vendor from whom I ordered my buttons has not replied to my email. Harrumph. I ordered more buttons from another vendor and they are on their way to me.

Field Trip

Out of the office today! I’ll be spending the day at a contractor site, testing a database query system. Wheeeeeee!

The fact that I’m very much looking forward to this should give you some clue about the pathetic geekiness of my life.

Later, chick-a-rinos.