Done with the reposts! I hope. Here's something from String, first appearing on 27 June 2004.

INVESTIGATIONS - FILET KNITTING AND CROCHET

More investigations on filet knitting and filet crochet have convinced me that while filet knitting will be worth doing, provided I use very fine threads and 4/0 (1.25mm) needles or smaller, it's not going to work out for my dragon panel.

I'm having gauge problems working my design into the desired dimensions, even if I eke out the too-narrow dragon motif band with additional borders top and bottom. For the record, my design is something like 43 units tall by 135 units wide. I've got a space to fill that's 19 inches tall by 30 inches wide (although I can go over a bit on this). That means for the width, I've got to hit something like 4.5 rows per inch. Now in filet crochet, looking at a series of filet patterns with gauges found at the Stargazer site, I'm seeing gauges the smallest gauge I see (size 30 crochet cotton) is something like 10 rows = 2.3 inches. That's about 5 rows = 1.15 inches. My 135 rows at this smallest gauge would be something like 31 inches wide. By contrast, the smallest I've been able to do so far in knitting is 3 squares = 1 inch (that's about 14 or so knitting stitches per inch). At 3 squares per inch, my 135 units turns out to be 45 inches wide. I suppose I could hunt down longer size 5/0 or 6/0 needles (or make them) and finer threads, but I'm not inclined to do that right now. Interim verdict: Filet knitting is certainly worth further experimentation, but it's not suitable for this project.

I think I'll have to fall back on filet crochet to do my door curtain. I think I'll take it and my Crazy Raglan with me as my official vacation projects.

Crochet Dragon Panel Pre-Project Calculations

Using these theoretical base calculation points for two thread sizes, I posit these rough dimensions and yarn consumption factors:

• Base for Size 20 cotton - 10 squares x 10 rows = 2.2" x 2.4"; a piece that's 100x50 squares or 21.3 inches x 12 inches will take 519 yards, using old US size 9 steel crochet hook.
• Base for Size 30 cotton - 10 squares x 10 rows = 2.1" x 2.3"; a piece that's 100x50 squares or 20.4 inches x 11.5 inches will take 485 yards using old US size 11 steel crochet hook.

Doing the math for Size 20 cotton (and working across the height instead of across the width to preserve sanity), that means my piece of 43 x 138 squares would be 9.16 inches x 33.12. Since my piece is 5934 squares total (138*43), and the original was 5000 squares, mine is roughly 19% bigger. I'll round up to 20%, and I come up with a new yardage consumption estimate of 519 *1.2 or roughly 623 yards. I'll add 10% to that for a fudge factor and round up - 686 yards. Repeating the operation for Size 30 cotton, I get an estimated finished dimension of 8.8 inches x 31.74 inches, and an estimated yarn consumption forecast of 641 yards. Remember that these yardage estimates are for the base dragon strip alone. I need to make it taller because the window space I need to cover is taller. With height estimates of 9.16 and 8.8 inches respectively I'll need to either find or design complementing border strips that roughly double the project's height. That means I need to double my yardage estimates - 1372 yards or 1282 yards for size 20 and 30 cotton, respectively. These estimates are VERY rough at best, but with luck should be good enough to get me started.

Now on to crochet hook sizes. The circa 1919 instructions on which I've based these calculations specify size 9 and 11 steel crochet hooks for sizes 20 and 30 cotton. According to various authorities (very few of whom agree), an 11 can be as large as 1.1mm, and as small as .75mm; a 9 can be as large as 1.4mm or as small as 1.25mm. My modern Susan Bates set goes from 0 to 10 (2.55 to 1.15mm). I'll have to play and see what I can achieve using those sizes.

I haven't decided which size thread or hook to use yet. Much will depend on what I can find locally, and on what size hook I can dig up without staging a raid on the storage cubby where all my tools and goodies are stashed.

So apologies. This knitting blog is going to take a side trip into crochet. But since I'll be doing it during a forced blogging hiatus, I'll only bore you with a couple large gobs of progress rather than by reporting in inch by inch.

Answer to a quick question:

Can the Fleur de Lys motif shown yesterday be used for knitting?

Sure. Like anything graphed, the fleur can be knit, but with a caveat. In cross stitch, the individual units that build a motif are square. They have a 1:1 aspect ratio, as wide as they are tall. Likewise, needlepoint units are (mostly) square. They're worked on a square grid, but if they're in tent stitch the stitches themselves are a diagonal spanning that square. Therefore the edges of color areas don't always appear as neat and trim as in cross stitch. This graph is composed of square units, and is intended mostly (but not exclusively) for stitchers.

Knitting presents a different challenge. It's rare for a knitting stitch to have a 1:1 aspect ratio. Knitting stitches are usually wider than they are tall. It's not uncommon to have a stitch gauge of 22 stitches = 4 inches, but a row gauge of 30 rows = 4 inches (that's the standard for a classic DK weight yarn). That works out to an aspect ratio of 22:30 or 5.5/7.5 if you simplify the representation. That's NOT square. If you knit up a graph that's been drawn out on a square ratio grid in this aspect ratio, you'll end up with a motif that's somewhat squished looking north/south direction.

There are several ways around this. First is to choose designs that have a bit of north/south spread in them to begin with. They'll look different when compressed, but if they're elongated enough to begin with, they'll end up with a reasonable set of visual proportions. My lion graph, shared eons ago for people who wanted to do lion sweaters as described in the Harry Potter books is this kind of design. It's got enough "natural" height so that it looks o.k. if worked verbatim in a somewhat squashed aspect ratio.

The second is to graph out your design on a grid that has an aspect ratio that matches your knitted gauge. If you want to do this, the English language Japanese website ABCs of Knitting features a very nice graph paper generator. It's listed among the tools on the page's lower right.

A third way to get around this problem is to blow up the design. Very simple motifs can sometimes be made quite dramatic by reading a unit of two knit stitches by three rows for every square on the grid. Not practical for larger gauge knits, as even a small motif could outgrow the area intended for display, but occasionally useful none the less.

A fourth fix is more of a fudge. Depending on the complexity of the motif you want to knit, you can take a plain old square unit graph and by repeating every third or fourth row (depending on your gauge), you can stretch it out to compensate for aspect ratio squish. Obviously, this works best for simple motifs rather than complex ones, and at finer gauges. I've done it in sport weight yarn or finer, and it has worked well enough, with the duplication fading into the overall look and not being evident. This method can be problematic though for things like graphed letters adopted from cross stitch samplers, and for ultra-small geometrics whose motifs are built on single square units. For the latter, I might be tempted to use the third method, above.

Of course one can always ignore the problem all together, placing the borrowed motif so that the stretched dimension becomes a design feature and not a bug. This is what I did with last year's crocheted dragon curtain. I worked across the narrow dimension of the curtain rather than starting along the bottom edge, in part because the non-square nature of my filet crochet blocks would distort the motif too much if worked in the latter direction. You can see the original proportions of the graph, and the finished piece.





If you look the knight, you'll see that in my crochet he's taller and a bit squashed east/west compared to the original. But if I hadn't called out the difference, I'd bet you'd not have noticed.

Rogue

Rogue progresses. I'm another two inches or so into the body. Not much more to show beyond yet another blurry photo of a slightly larger blue object, so I'll hold off until I can post pix with more content. I can say that in spite of competing demands on my time reducing the total amount I can spend on the thing, now that I'm past the pockets and my multiple mistakes, it is fairly flying along. I am looking ahead to the next set of complications - alterations to the armhole area and beginning of the hood's frame that might be necessary due to my gauge re-computation.

Sock Class

I'm beginning my prep for my upcoming sock knitting class, reading up on and trying out the Magic Loop technique. It may be heresy to admit, especially for someone who is going to be teaching a workshop on this method, but I find it to be fiddly and (for me) much slower than using DPNs. But I realize that there is a legion of DPN-haters out there who view this method as being their ticket to finally making socks. So I'll persevere for their sake.

The plan is for a three-hour workshop, during which I'll hand out an original pattern for a very abbreviated small cuff-down sock - roughly baby size, but with sadly truncated ankle and foot parts to save time. The idea is to walk the class through that ENTIRE sock in the given time, from the cast on, through the heel, and finally down to the toe. A normal size sock would be too time-consuming to get far enough for a meaningful experience, especially around the heel, so I'll cut back on the plain old stockinette areas, leaving in just enough to get familiar with the manipulations of the needle(s). I'll also hand out an original pattern for a normal size sock that the class can take home and use for practice.

One further complication - I prefer to teach on socks knit at DK or worsted gauge - again, fewer yet larger and easier to see stitches. But the extra-long circs for the Magic Loop method are in short supply, and are quite expensive. Likewise for the two circs needed for that method. I don't think it's fair to ask the class to come equipped with needles in a size that they (probably) won't be using for their regular sock knitting, so I'm going to do the thing using standard issue sock weight yarn.

I've taught knitting classes before, mostly on toe-up socks, basic crochet, and on beginning knitting. I've been told I pack too much detail into the time alloted. In this case I will have to agree. Ideally I'd do either single oversized circ or two circ socks, not both. I do intend the choice to be either-or, as the methods are largely compatible. Learners will get their choice of working one or the other, and except for needle manipulation the basic sock-making steps should be the same for both. Obviously more thought on this is in order. If any blinding insights of clarity and nuance suggest themselves to me, I'll post them here. Otherwise, it's just more socks.

It's the last day of the year, and like everyone else I should be looking back over the year past, and ahead to the year future.

Lessons Learned for 2004

First and foremost - blogging is fun and (I hope) less of an imposition on people than is?writing interminable posts to the knitting-related mailing lists. At least the audience here is self-selected. Plus I've never kept a knitting-specific journal before. I find myself going back and looking up what I've written before to see how or why I did something in a specific way. Who knew?

I learned a lot this year about the periodicity and use of variegated or hand/dyed yarns. Although the projects on which I employed them aren't completed yet (Crazy Raglan, Entre deux Lacs Tee, and Birds Eye Shawl), I did spend lots of time figuring out how to get the color effects I wanted given the color cycle repeat lengths. This remains a fascinating topic for me, and as each skein of hand-dyed offers up new challenges, won't be an area that becomes boring any time soon.

Filet crochet. I've done piddly little things in crochet before. Even blankets count as "piddly little" because they are generally very simple in motif and technique. Snowflake ornaments, a table-topper round cloth of simple design, several blouse yokes in the '70s, a couple of ill-conceived faux Aran style kids' sweaters, but nothing as complex as the filet dragon curtain. It turned out to be an even bigger project than I thought, and consumed the better part of five months. Lessons learned include the fact that no two companies' crochet hooks are the same size (even if so marked); the effect that near imperceptible differences in hook size can make on gauge; how to do a near-invisible join on adjacent strips of filet crochet; and how well the old graphed patterns for Lacis and other Renaissance needle arts can look in filet.

Along the way to the filet crochet project I learned that none of the methods of filet knitting I tried worked particularly well, nor were they fine enough in gauge to handle the complexity of the dragon graph. I'm not through with this subject yet. I did do some experiments in alternate techniques that were less cumbersome than the methods I had read about. I'll probably revisit this in the future.

Entrelac is much faster if you can force your fingers to knit backwards. I'm still no speed demon at left-to-right knitting, but I'm faster at it than I am at knitting and flipping at the end of each mini-row. Especially when those rows are only six stitches across.

I also learned (via my Suede Tee) that novelty yarns can bring a world of interest to a simple, well-drafted pattern, but at the same time can be a *(#@ to knit. Side note:? I am also not that pleased on how the Suede is wearing. The microfibers do tend to be grabby, and catch on even the slightest roughness.

I learned several methods of knitting a lace edging directly onto a piece, rather than making it as a strip and sewing it on later. The most fiddly but most satisfying came via the Forest Path Stole. I used it again on my Spring Lightning Scarf:

Under "miscellaneous," I learned a nifty I-cord trick that applies a band of cord to both sides of a strip of knitting (apologies for the blurry photo):

I also used?a highly trendy but extremely boring to knit kiddie poncho to experiment with double width I-cord treatments to help tame edge curl in large stockinette pieces.

And finally, I learned an important lesson about something to avoid in the future. If any of you have ever looked at a loosely plied yarn like the Paternayan's normally sold for needlepoint, and thought about how nice only one or two of those plies might be for lace knitting - take heed. Spare yourself. The yarn for the Larger Kid's simple drop-stitch rectangle poncho took longer to de-ply than it did to knit up. For this one, I still bear the scars...

Next year?

Who knows. If you've been reading along, you'll have noted that I'm more of a whimsy knitter than a planner. Projects leap up and seize my interest. Sometimes that interest wanders before I finish, but I (almost always) go back and work to completion. Eventually.

I'm finishing up a couple more unanticipated last minute gifts right now - more socks, and a pair of quickie Coronet hats from Knitty (one hat = one evening). Then it's back to the Birds Eye shawl and the Crazy Raglan. While I don't as a rule knit to deadline, the Raglan is for The Small One, and the one thing certain about 6-year olds is that they're a moving target growthwise. The shawl is a present that I really should finish by the summer. Unless another killer project like the dragon curtain ambushes and drags me off first...

As you probably figured out, I posted a couple of days of entries in advance. So to get back to feedback from Monday, thank you all for your kind words about Dragon. I hope (if nothing else) I've proven that projects like this that look overwhelming when done are worked in stages - everything is possible given time and determination. Pick up a favorite chart and try out filet crochet. There's no law that says you have to do it in teeny string to start. Size #20 or #10 cotton will give nice results and will both go faster than my piece.  On to questions:

Dragon Questions

What did you use to block?

The same hardware store brass tubing I used to block the Forest Path stole, and my daughter's Waterspun poncho.  The stole write-up describes them  They're described in more detail at the bottom of this post.

Why are the edges rippled?

As I wrote, I was a bit nervous about how much the piece had contracted in the wash, so when I blocked it I blocked it to the full north-south dimension.  I shouldn't have been so aggressive.  I ended up with a piece that's not under tension north-south in spite of being threaded on stretcher bars.  The next time I wash it I will go for east-west stretch instead because I could stand to gain an inch in that dimension, and go for the on-door mounting bars to provide the requisite tension.  That should elminate some of the looseness at the left and right edges.

How did you know how big to make the holes for the curtain rods?

After I'd done a couple of rows I tested them out with the bars from the curtain scrap left behind by the previous house owners.  They fit.  If they hadn't I'd have figured out an another way to hang the curtain panel.

Are you afraid the curtain rods will discolor the panel?

Not very.  It's true they're brass, but they're quite old and the tarnish doesn't rub off.  I don't intend on polishing them (I don't want to get polish residue on the curtain).  The curtains will get dusty over time.  The thread I used is machine washable.  In fact, I tossed my  Dragon in the light color/warm water wash just after completion, before blocking.  After an entire summer and early fall of being dragged around accumulating hand-dirt, sunscreen, household dust, and the odd fleck of wine it seemed like a good idea.

Did you steal the dragon pattern from these towels?

http://hometown.aol.com/noramunro/Perugia/ shows several beautiful set of woven towels by Alianora Munro (another member of the SCA).  The last set shown has a very familiar dragon on them.  She used the same ultimate source as I did:  Johann Siebmacher, Schon Neues Modelbuch, published in Nurnburg, 1597.  My version is the one I graphed up for inclusion in my book The New Carolingian Modelbook:  Counted Embroidery Patterns from Before 1600.  There's also a nifty drafting of the original in my friend Katheryn's reissue of patterns from that work under the title Needlework Patterns from Renaissance Germany.  (Both books are hard to come by these days, but occasionally surface used or on eBay.)  I have also seen at least one commercial chart for a counted thread sampler that has a simplified version of the same motif, but I can't find it on line right now.

Can you send me the pattern?

No.  Why is at the bottom of this page.

Washing machine!! You put THAT in the washing machine?

Well, yes.  The string is marked as being warm water machine washable (no dryer, no bleach).  I had a load of white and light colored t-shirts with no buttons, zips or adornments to melt, snag, or run, so I put the curtain in along with them for a normal warm water/cool rinse wash.  I took it out and blocked it wet.  Was I nervous?  Not particularly, but I had already made and test-washed a swatch, so I knew that the yarn would survive the process.

Poncho Questions

I've only seen the Paternayan yarn in cut lengths ready for needlework.  Where did you find whole skeins?

I lucked into it at Wild & Woolly in Lexington, MA - my local yarn store.  I don't know if they had it left over from long, long ago when they might have stocked needlepoint yarn, or if they had it more recently, but by the time I found it at one of their legendary semi-annual sales all that was left was a heavily discounted mixed bag of blues - a refugee from at least two prior mid-winter sales events.  I have however seen other retailers on line selling the stuff in large uncut hanks.  A quick Google search on "Paternayan wool" will turn them up.

How big will you make the poncho's rectangles?

I don't know yet.  Probably something like 13 inches wide and 39 inches long each.  That's a nice eye-pleasing 1:3 ratio.  When I get up to that point I'll cut out some paper and tape it together to make sure the target child approves of the size.

Why bother?

Why not?  I have to admit that right now I'm on a bit of a yarn diet, constrained by new house expenses to using up yarn from my stash before buying new.  The target child saw the bag of mixed blues and fell in love with the color.  I knew that at the full three plys I wouldn't have enough yardage, and that she wanted something lacy anyway.  So I began unplying...

Why do you do everything the hard way, figuring out your own patterns or just starting stuff without a good idea of how it will be accomplished?

Again, why not?  People knit for different reasons.  I enjoy confronting problems, figuring out solutions, and making my own way.  Yes, it's not the most productive method of working as there is more two-steps-forward-one-step-back motion than most people prefer.  To me though learning something on the journey is more important than the end product, however nice.  So I make a mad plunge forward on almost every project.  Sometimes I shelve them for greater or shorter lengths of time. Sometimes everything falls into place and I finish.  Usually I do learn something along the way, even if the thing at hand ends up vacationing in The Chest of Knitting Horrors^TM.

Other Questions

What about the Crazy Raglan and the entrelac piece?  Are you going to finish them?

Both were in the same bag and went AWOL during our move.  I finally found them over the weekend and will (eventually) finish them.  In the mean time, I've got other obligations lined up.  After the poncho I'm on the hook for a triangular knitted shawl for the sister who didn't end up with the Forest Path lace stole.  I'm thinking of the Heirloom Knitting Bird's Eye Lace free pattern, done in Lorna's Laces Helen's Lace in purples and blues.  Possibly adding a border strip to the long top edge of the triangle.  But if I think too much about that project I'll get derailed from the poncho, and those sad puppy eyes brook no delay.

And the Cursed Socks?

Those I AM working on right now, in between winding yarn for the poncho.  After all, I can't schlep the swift and ball winder with me to appointments.  I'm about half-way through the heel of Sock #2, and hope to be done in the next couple of days so I can write up the pattern for wiseNeedle and post it along with the pattern for the Summer Lightning lacy scarf in time for people looking to knit holiday gifts.

What do you call those nifty looking cross-hatched windows next to the door in your house?

My friend Kathryn (who knows lots of neat stuff) tells me that the proper name for a window divided into small panes is "mullioned."  Mullioned windows appear to come in many types, including ones with lead as well as wooden dividers.  Lozenge is the name for a diamond shaped pane, so I guess I've got a circa 1912 Arts and Crafts style two story bungalow (bungaloid?) with casements featuring mullioned lozenge transoms in the living room and dining room.  Which is a long winded way of saying "old house with nifty windows that are a pain to dust."

The dragon blocked, finished and mounted.  From the outside:

and inside:

Close up from inside, showing the brass rods running through the top and bottom double-wide meshes:

Signature (KBS, '04)

As you can see I was a tad overly aggressive in blocking north-south.  I noted that it had shrunk a bit in the wash (yes, I machine washed it), and stretched it severely.  I needn't have because the stretcher bars that are used to mount the thing would have taken care of that.  I could instead have stretched it more east-west so that the edges don't draw in so much.  The next time I wash and block my dragon panel, I'll do just that.

Am I happy with it?  You bet!

A lousy picture, to be sure:

  But I'm finally finished.  Dragon has been washed and is now laid out with my blocking wires.  Trapezoidal distortion is an artifact of standing at one end and photographing at an angle, then presenting the photo rotated 90-degrees. 

Once my panel is dry I'll darn in the ends, embroider my initials and a date in the corner, and hang the thing on the door.  Why am I waiting to darn in the ends until after the initial blocking?  Mostly because I knew that blocking would stretch the thing out considerably.  I was afraid that if I darned them in before that stretch I'd risk having a puckered area where elasticity was hampered.  I do have a little bit of a ripple along the edge of my original cast-on row, (along the tree behind the knight)  but I'm hoping that it will settle in over time.

I promise one last picture of Filet of Dragon once it's hanging up on the door.

Blue Poncho

The unplying continues.  And continues...  I can report progress though.  I've almost got enough to begin swatching, and the Target Daughter has picked out a couple of stitch patterns that she likes from other things I've knit and from my library.  Leading candidates include "Lace Ribbon Stitch" from Walker II (p. 284); K3, P3 rib; and a mock cable.  Both are true lace stitches in that they have YOs, and decreases on every row, with no intervening plain rows.  I've also got three colors of blue to play with.  I'm thinking of running them side-by-side Intarsia style, with the colors corresponding to the lace or ribbing panels used.  It may be just another poncho, but who says knitting it has to be boring. 

More on this tomorrow, too as I get more of the initial swatching and drafting done.

I can now safely agree with everyone who has ever told me that I wasn't in my right mind.  The proof is in the venture I embarked on with my daughter's blue poncho.

There's no ponco yet. There's not even a gauge swatch.  What there is is this:

This is one skein of three-ply construction Paternayan RN1685 Wool, after it has been de-plyed into a two-strand and a one-strand ball.  While this stuff is most often sold in short lengths used for needlepoint and embroidery, it is occasionally sold in larger hanks for knitters and weavers.  Time expended?  Just under three hours.  Sanity factor, considering this is just one of seven hanks?  Nil.

Still, a promise is a promise and sad-child puppy eyes brook no delay.  I'm midway through the second skein.  Once I get one of each three colors, I'll begin swatching.  With luck by that time ponchos will still be in style.

Dragon Thread

People In Other Countries have asked for more description of the #30 crochet cotton I'm using for the dragon panel.  Here's the scoop straight from the label:

J.P. Coats Royale Extra Fine Size #30  Crochet Thread.  100% Mercerized Cotton.  Article #160; Color #226 (Ecru).  500 yards per ball.  Weight unmarked but registering around 100g on my Kitchen Scale of Dubious Accuracy. 

Recommended crochet hook - .75mm/#12.  Machine wash delicate cycle, 40-deg C/104-deg F.  No bleach, ho dryer, may be ironed on hot.  Blocking recommended. 

Made in Hungary.  Distributed in the US by  Coats & Clark, P.O. Box 12229 Greenville, SC 29612; Distributed in Canada by Coats & Clark Canada; Mississaugua, ON Canada L5T 2T5.

While the Coats and Clark website is also listed on the label:  http://www.coatsandclark.com, don't bother looking for Royale there.  It's not listed.  Royale is definately shinier and silkier than Coats Big Ball Size 30.  I've never seen Coats Opera thread, so I can't say how it compares to the Royale.  I bought mine at evil big box craft store Michaels.  Their own listing says that the stuff is exclusive to their stores.

I don't know when this will make it live.  Blog City is doing some maintenance today, and public posting may be delayed a bit.

Back from a fragmented long weekend full of family, and finger-healing I present what progress I've made to date:

It's getting tough to photograph this puppy because it has grown so large.  Maybe by the end of this weekend it will finally be done.  To calculate how long I've been working on my dragon curtain - I started experimenting back at the end of June, and began working on the piece over my July 4th week vacation.  That's over four months and about four balls of size 30 crochet cotton.  Given the low per-ball price, I'd say (aside from time) this was the most economical major project I've ever undertaken.  Costs were something like $2.95 per ball, plus $1.50 for the crochet hook. 

On where I was and what I was doing this weekend past - we had a wedding in my extended family.  My cousin married a really nice guy from Finland.  The wed locally, and my weekend was filled with family and festiviites.   Many of the groom's family made the trip over for the occasion.   I regret that time and a language barrier made communication with the new Finnish family difficult, because late in the weekend I found out that the groom's aunt is an avid knitter.  Since (believe it or not) one of the largest sources of hits for wiseNeedle's knitting glossary is Finland, I would have loved to have discussed knitting with her. 

In any case, if word filters back through family channels (some of them are String readers) - feel free to pass the word along.  Is there a general renaissance and new generation of younger knitters there, too? What are people making over there - are trends towards the traditional shapes, motifs and garments, or are they leaning towards reinterpretations?  I get to chat (or read along) with knitters from many other parts of Europe, but Finnish is a barrier that's hard to penetrate.

Still working away at it, I'm afraid.  I had hoped to be done by the end of this week, but it looks like another two weeks of the bottom border lie before me.

It's not procrastination - it's injury. 

To get this piece to look nice and solid, I'm working rather tightly.  That means that each double crochet that's worked into a one below involves a little bit a jab to pierce the previous stitch.  Unfortunately, the way I hold my work and form the stitches means that that jab goes right into the tip of my left hand middle finger.  Now for most crochet it doesn't matter, the hook is nice and big.  But for this piece the hook is just pointy enough to make long sessions painful.  This weekend past I cracked the stitcher's callous that I've been building up, and had to put my curtain aside so that I wouldn't stain it as I was working. 

There are various solutions to this problem.  Quilters, stitchers and crocheters who often run afoul of finger-sticks use a band-aid or piece of tape on the receiving finger.  Others use thimbles or leather finger protectors.  There's even a couple of products sold for this purpose - small dot-like patches of adhesive plastic, and paint-on "second skin" acrylics.  I've tried some of these, but always found that I had a harder time controlling tension and placement with anything that got between my fingers and my work.  I guess I rely too much on feel.  So instead I try to pace myself to avoid breaks like the one over the weekend.  I can't give up on it now, though.  I'm too close to the end to let something silly like bodily injury slow me down.

I'm still plugging away. Here you see the finished top border and the start of the border on the bottom:

I think the framing contrasts are working nicely. At the current rate of production, I hope to have this puppy finished in two weeks. Three weeks, tops.

In other projects, a couple of people have asked what happened to the things I was working on when Dragon Fever hit. I'd been doing an entrelac project, and a raglan in a self striper. The answer is both are AWOL. I started Dragon just before our July 4th vacation, about two weeks before we moved to the new house. The bag with those projects in it was packed as part of the general relocation. I know that box is somewhere in the new house, but I haven't found it yet. To be fair, we've got upwards of 30 boxes as yet to be unpacked. Most are books, waiting patiently until we can get bookcases.

The rest are miscellaneous and/or poorly marked boxes each?containing a grab-bag of whatever. Most of those are destined for storage in the under-eaves box rooms behind our closets, but we can't move them there until after the roof is redone. We're now playing the hurry up and wait game with the roofer. So the boxes (including the Mystery Box with my knitting projects in it) are sitting in out of the way corners, waiting for the post-roofing reassortment of storage.

Ahhh. The joys of moving!

Grrr.

As of yesterday, I'd finished the top edging, run the solid two-row strip down the left hand side, chained out to establish the bottom edge, and was three rows into the charted part of the remaining border strip.

Today I had to rip out everything done after Saturday. I had made the only absolutely fatal error there is on this piece. I forgot to work the last double-width eyelet hole on the top edge, so there was no way of putting the last inch of my curtain onto its curtain rod.

As of today I've finished the ripping back, have created the missing hanging hole, and am in the forever bands of solid double crochet at the leftmost edge. As a result I don't have the nifty-looking progress shot I'd hoped to share today. Instead, in response to some requests for a closer look at the join between the old and new work (and provided my photog skills cooperate), I present a detail shot of the edging join area:

Remember - you're looking at the piece sideways compared to the working direction. (Also as it turns out, from the wrong side, but that doesn't matter). My working direction proceeds from the right edge of the photo to the left edge. There's a schematic of the stitch logic for this join in a previous post.

One thing that may or may not be seen in the resolution-stripped photo above - the J&P Coats Royale brand name size 30 cotton thread I'm using has a nice sheen to it compared to most crochet cottons. I have to say I really like the stuff. It does appear to have limited distribution though. Even the Coats website doesn't? list it. So far the only retailer I've found that mentions Royale crochet cottons?is the big-box crafts store, Michaels, and I'm loathe to shop there on principle, much preferring to patronize smaller needlework specialty shops.

More progress on Dragon.

I had hoped I'd have finished off the entire top border by today, but I'm three rows away from finishing.

A couple of people have written to ask for a more detailed explanation of how I'm managing the vertical join between the old and new parts. I'd posted some thoughts on this before, but then contradicted myself and said I was doing it another way. To top it off, I neglected to describe exactly how.

If I've got an two empty meshes stacked one on top of each other at the end of my row just before the join, I'm working my penultimate square as usual, then I'm working a horizontal half double crochet to connect the new work to the old. Then I chain up two, and work another horiztonal half double crochet. Finally I flip my work over and proceed back in the direction I came.

If I've got two solid meshes stacked on on top of each other at the end of my row just before the join, I work my penultimate square as usual, then work two DCs into either the stitches or the space of the row below. Then I join the last of these DCs to the established edge with a slip stitch. The existing edge of the old work makes the fourth stitch to complete the new square. To make the next row a bit more even, I do a backwards slip stitch into the stitch one before the stitch on my needle; chain up two, and work another slip stitch into the next attachment point. Then I do another backwards slip stitch as before. Finally I flip over my work and work two more double crochets to finish out the filled square that commences the new row.

Here's a schematic. More or less. Apologies for the lousy picture quality. I'm wrestling with Visio right now. I installed Office XP Service Pack 2 (the big security update) and it messed with Visio. I then installed several layers of Visio upgrades to get it working, but the export to JPG feature isn't quite fine tuned yet.

Mindless Kvelling over Gen III

The kidlets are captivated by knitting!? Who would have thought it, because before the Knit-Out neither one showed much interest. I myself never could sit still long enough to learn from my mom (Knitting Goddess, mostly retired). I'm amazed that they have come so far, so fast.

The Larger One sprang right from her initial "learn how" bit of garter in livid green acrylic to a garter stitch scarf done in a fuzzy yarn. She polished it off in two days, then went out and got more fuzzy yarn to do another for her friend. The Smaller One found a thick yarn and big needles easier to manage than worsted weight and size #7s. She knit a?6-stitch wide strip from a superbulky yarn, then asked me to end it off into an earwarmer. She began it Friday, and wore it to school this morning. Now that they're comfortable with the knit stitch, this week's lesson will be purling and casting off.

I may have created two monsters though. Both are now eyeing my stash and asking what they can make next. The Larger One is searching the web because she wants to do "a bag from that yarn that shrinks."? The little one wants to do a blanket for her favorite stuffed animal, and appears to have an affinity for hand-dyed variegateds. I'll offer up pix of the proud knitters?once they're home from school. Now off for a new experience:? Hiding Yarn From Children.

So I lied. I said I wouldn't post another progress picture of Filet of Dragon until I had finished the border across the top. But I'm writing this yesterday and dating it to auto-post today. (That's an odd time-bending sentence.)? Today is?the Rosh Hashana?holiday, so I'm off doing other things.

I'm in the danger zone on this project now. As much as I desperately want to finish it and hang it on the front door, I'm thoroughly tired of this border. And I'm not even half-way done.

Another in an interminable series of progress shots. This one shows more of the top border.

Although I was iffy about it when I first begain, I think that it's working now. Yes, introducing another motif makes the piece?rather busy, but in spite of that - I like it. To be immodest, I've been scouring the web looking for filet crochet work, and I haven't seen anything remotely like this - either for complexity of the motifs, or scale of the project. It's going to look killer on the front door window.

Now to finish out the top and bottom edges. I promise no more incremental photos until (at least) the top edge is finished.

Tree Today, Gone Tomorrow

Some pix of my de-treeing. This majestic 35-year old spruce was certainly pretty from this angle, but it was planted?two feet away from the house. It was leaning on my walls and roof, and its roots were invading the basement. It's sad, but?the spruce?had to go.

Before

After

(Sorry about the shot of my neighbor's SUV.)?

Likewise two four-story tall Norway maples in the back yard were given honorable discharges. In their case, they were completely hollow - to the point where the remaining ring of their trunks was about an inch thick. Both?had canted, and were looming?over my garage and my neighbor's house. They were disasters poised to happen.

The treeguy used a boom crane to extract them from a tight space, lifting the pieces up and over the house?and sparing injury to the surrounding trees. The eighth-of-a-tree?limb that's flying here looks small, but once down on the ground it looked every inch of about 20 feet - larger than some entire free-standing trees. Given yesterday's winds and the number of branches down in my neighborhood (the result of?the last anemic puff from passing hurricane fragments) I'm delighted that the hazard was removed just in time. Plus, I've still got?six healthy maples and locusts in the back yard, one?so?huge it dwarfed the two that were taken out.

Today is Tree Day here at String Central. A crew of treeguys?is outside even as I type, taking down several large hollow trees that are looming dangerously over?our house, the garage, and the neighbor's house. While I'm usually a tree-and-let-live person these did represent real risk, and had to go. I look forward to an airier, sunnier, safer yard. Also quieter, once the chainsaws, chipper/mulcher, and boom crane all depart. Before and after pix another day, once the leafy chaos has subsided a bit.

In knitting news, I have to 'fess up now that June posted her blog entry about the DNA cable. I read her initial complaint, and thought she deserved a wedding present, so I redrafted her cable for her. I wasn't going to say anything about it, but she was sweet enough to post a credit, and to leave me a Mysterious Present in my mailbox (it turns out we live quite near each other):

I'm thoroughly tickled by the mystery gift (in a favorite color combo, no less!). I'm now honor-bound to knit up this nifty June-dyed fingering weight so?I can report back to her?how effective her color placement strategy was in avoiding blobs. I think that it will be appropriate if I do up a pair of DNA cable socks with it.

It also turns out that I'm on the hook for a poncho. In this case, the fomer tween-ager Elder Daughter? has requested what appears to be the fashion accessory du jour. So I sigh, and like a good parental unit, will make one, no matter how boring. I'm still caught up in Dragon though, and I don't want to be sidetracked from it. Socks I can make my portable project. A poncho however is another story. Hope I can complete it before fashion obsolescence kicks in.

On Dragon - not enough progress to warrant posting a photo, but I'm getting happier and happier about the twist panel at the top. With a few more repeats done, the design is easier to pick out, and the denseness of the new panel frames the lighter areas nicely. I think I'll keep it.

Fits and starts, but back on track. Here's the beginning of the top strip:

I'm not quite sure where I got this pattern from. It's in one of my sketchbooks, but the accompanying notes only?say "Dover," so I may have gotten it from one of the Dover collections of graphed patterns, possibly their booklet of Celtic-inspired designs. I know it has no absolute historical citation in any one artifact or early book. In any case, it's four meshes narrower than my original choice. That's eight meshes for the whole piece (top and bottom strips both).Eight meshes would have been enough to make the thing too big to fit on the stretcher bars at the top and bottom of the door's window. The beaded looking bit between the solid edge and the knotwork strip is produced by leaving a double-wide mesh every five rows. Those double-wides are going to be the holes through which the stretcher bar style brass curtain rods?will be threaded.

On whether or not motif strip"goes" with the rest of the piece - I'm not quite decided yet. I picked this pattern because the knotwork was interesting, because the knotwork picked up the curves in the dragon piece and the floral border, and the interlaces echoed the knots in the side panel. Plus, I thought the solid-strip negative-space nature of this design might be a nice contrast with the rest of the piece, in which the filled meshes present the design rather than the empty ones. I do like the solid strip nature of this one as a framing device, but I'm not entirely sure that the negative-space interlace is easily discerned. I'll do a bit more to see if more repeats aid in visual interpretation. If not, it's rip out and start again. Again.

One thing of which I'm quite proud - look at the bottommost row of solid meshes that makes up the new top strip. That's the one that fastens the new work to the old. Not bad for an afterthought join.

Grrr. Apparently no effort of woman nor beast can nail down an exact reference to an item in the V&A database because linking is dynamic and is recalculated for each new session. Therefore if you really want to dig through and find the items I mentioned yesterday, you'll have to search on their accession numbers yourself. Open any V&A search page, and enter these numbers:

CT55633 - to see the crocheted purse
CT59053 - to see the knitted purses
CT57667 - to see the sampler

Apologies for all wild goose chases that ensued.

Filet of Dragon

Progress on Dragon is both positive and retrograde:

?The good news is that thanks to advice so graciously shared by Vaire and Kathryn, attaching the side strips as I work them looks much better and more even than I hoped. I'm not using the exact method I posited in my last post. Instead, I'm doing a scrumbly combo of techniques. If the joining mesh is empty, I'm doing Vaire's method of horizontal DC as bride. If the joining mesh is solid, I'm doing a combo of a technique Kathryn sent plus more advice from Vaire. I'm working that join mesh up to the point of the join (first leg, plus first "inside" dc), then on the second "inside" dc, I'm doing a slip stitch to mate it to the mesh leg of the existing work. After that I'm chaining up three, doing another slip stitch to mate the little chain to the old work, then working one "inside" dc plus another as the next mesh leg. The little chain up serves as the first dc of the "inside" pair. And there's more good news in that the double-height empty blocks I am leaving for the curtain rods fit well and work great.

But all news is not good. See that little strip sticking up in today's photo?? It's gone. I've ripped it completely back and started again. It turns out that the original pattern I had selected for the horizontal strips is too wide (again the gauge problem). I am going to use an entirely different strip pattern, plus finish the entire thing around with two rows of solid DC to ensure a stable edge.

So there you have it. Dramatic progress, and dramatic failure. All in one day.

Remember two days ago I said I'd be delighted to show off any projects that other people did either from or inspired by my designs?  I've started the blog category "Gallery" for just this purpose.  First off, here's a nifty example of a piece adapted from a stitching design in my book:

This hat is part of an Elizabethan costume made by a fellow participant in greater Boston, MA area SCA activiites.  The stitcher's SCA name is Lady Lakshmi Amman, and the recipient (and model) is Mistress Morwenna Westerne.  Click on the photo for more detail shots of Lakshmi's work, including graphs for her adaptations of my winged undine from Plate 75:1 of The New Carolingian Modelbook.  (Lakshmi's photo appears here by permission.)  Because the piece was made to celebrate the artistic accomplishments of Mistress Morwenna, Lakshmi's undines each carry something associated with Morwenna's favorite pursuits.  There's an embroidering mermaid, a cooking mermaid, a performing mermaid, and several others.  Very clever!

More on Crochet

I've gotten some more feedback and help on ways to attach edging and borders to pre-existing filet pieces; and advice on how to better keep 1:1 true square proportionality when forming meshes.

First, advice from Vaire, the Innocent Abroad on making my squares square.  She says that try as she might, she was never able to achieve true squareness using the base-4 style mesh I'm using.  Instead she switched to base-3.  That's one double crochet between the legs of the mesh to form a filled square, and one chain stitch between the legs of the mesh to form an open one (I do two of each right now).  She said that this reduced the width spread of her squares.  Vaire went on to suggest another method of increasing mesh size:  using 3 ch betwen trebles, instead of 2 ch between doubles.  This makes a larger, more airy mesh, and opens opportunities for partially as opposed to solidly filled squares (tr, ch, tr, ch, tr).   Thank you, Vaire!  Both are intriguing ideas, well worth experimentation.

My pal Kathryn also continues to ply me with great ideas too numerous to all list here.  Several have been for methods of joining filet sections.  There's been a step-style join that makes a mitered corner.  I need to try that one out before I can explain it better.  At first I was afraid that my not-square squares would throw the miter off, but used in combo with Vaire's base-3 idea, it sounds like it would work quite well.   She's also sent me quotations from pre-1920 books that discuss methods like overhand basting to hold sections together; and picking up and working an edging in another style of crochet.

Finally Vaire also suggests using double crochets as horizontal "brides" (reseau) to attach the new bit to the old.  This is also a nifty idea, and one I considered, but I was doomed by a poorly planned design choice.  I want a two-mesh strip of empty meshes all the way around the piece.  I've already made that.  To do the bride method, I'd have to have done only one, as the row of attachment would provide the second.  Since I want most of the joining row to be solidly worked, were I to do it with horizontal double crochets I'd run afoul of the proportionality problem again.  Again, thank you!  A good idea for a future project, but I've pretty much painted myself into a corner on this one. 

More progress. 

I'm only three rows from being done with this side panel, so I turned my attention to figuring out how to join the top and bottom strips.  I think I'll end up doing something like this:

I'll be working this strip the long-narrow direction, joining it to the side of the existing piece.  I think the joins will be visible if you know to look for them, but they shouldn't be too distracting because except for the first two and last two rows of the piece, the column of meshes that is being attached are all filled in, and any additional heaviness should be visually lost in that solid line.

In the mailbag I had a couple of questions on why I thought that filet crochet is clunky and heavy looking.  The people who wrote thought my piece was anything but.  However, to me filet is heavy by comparison to Lacis - the style it emulates. 

Lacis is worked by darning in the meshes on a hand-knotted net background.  You start with a netted ground, then with needle and thread, weave in the meshes that need to be worked solidly.  There's a wonderfully arcane logic to designing one's path of stitching so as to minimize ends.  If you like the mental excercise of working double-sided blackwork or cross stitch, you'd really enjoy Lacis.  For delicacy though, filet crochet just can't compare:

This photo is from a photo catalog of household and decorative arts held by the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.  The book is in Russian and French, published in 1974.  It identifies this piece as being Italian, 16th century, but says very little beyond that. 

To my amateur eyes, it looks like this piece of lace was cut down for re-use, because not only are motif roundels rudely interrupted, both the tape at the top and the applied needle lace lappet edge at the bottom are sewn on to roughly cut edges that in some places slash meshes in half.   Even so, look at the extreme contrast between the darned solid bits and the spiderlike open areas formed by ever-so-thin single thread mesh ground.  Now THAT'S delicate!  You can also see yet that the use of the borders and central panel area is yet another bit of inspiration that stewed around before the idea for my dragon curtain was birthed.

This designs in this particular piece are on my "to-do" list to graph up for Ensamplio Atlantaea.  My postulated but not yet realized sequel to The New Carolingian Modelbook.  Little things are holding up that production - like the lack of a good graphing platform, not having a publisher, that so many other people are now plowing the same turf and I don't want to repeat material others have issued.

How did I lay hands on the Russian decorative arts catalog?  It's amazing what you can find in the damaged goods deep-discount boxes at some Cambridge, Massachusetts used book stores.

Still plugging away on the dragon:

Thanks to my friend Kathryn Goodwyn (who many of you may know from historical needlework mailing lists as Kathryn Newell) I've got a couple of ideas on how to do a surrounding border in filet.  Unfortunately several of the methods can't be backwards engineered at this point, but the core concepts are very strong. 

One very promising method she sent to me involves working stepwise at the corners, forming a piece mitered more or less on the diagonal.  I played with it a bit last night, and found that my rather squished ratio of height to width for my meshes doesn't behave nicely with the concept.  Plus I'd need to rip back the end bits and start them again.   More tinkering is in order because this technique has real potential, but I think I'll settle for butted strips on the top and bottom. 

I have to admit, when I started this piece it seemed like a long slog was ahead.  While it has taken longer than I anticipated, I've enjoyed the process more than I thought I would (I was rather product-centered at the outcome).  I'm definately thinking of doing more with filet - perhaps combining it with knitting into garments. 

General Questions: 

I know there are knitting purists out there that recoil in horror at the thought of knitting patterns/mags including crochet, let alone combining the two crafts in the same piece.  I'm less parochial in my views.  Would you be interested in wearable pieces that combine both?  I'm talking delicate and fine gauge stuff, as opposed to some granny-square travesties I've seen lately. 

With all the blather about quick-to-knit and one weekend pieces, is there interest in finer gauge, greater effort projects?  Or is everyone interested in producing hats, scarves, or felted bags that can be finished before the credit card bill carrying the yarn charge arrives?  Is the cohort of new and returning knitters that started with those projects ready to "graduate" to larger efforts?

It seems like I can't please everyone.  Either people write and ask to ask why I'm ignoring knitting, or people write to ask if I'm still working on the crocheted dragon panel.  I am - and here are my results to date:

I'm chugging along through the right hand border, still not quite sure how I'm going to manage attaching the top and bottom strip.  I have however gotten several notes of encouragement, not the least of which was from my old friend (and crochet expert) Kathryn Goodwyn.  I'll keep plugging along and report what tangled thought processes I encounter along the way.

Ugly Ducks and Eye Candy Avalanche

Other questions have come in about my needlework and my duck confit.  A couple of people have asked when I get all of this done.  I point out that I've got the advantage of being able to dig up stuff I've done over many years.  You see it all tossed up here now, but much of what I've shown isn't recent production.  The red yoke is from the mid-70s.  The strip sampler is about 10 years younger than that.  The blackwork sampler is from 1983.  The putter cover is from the late '80s.  The lobster sweater is three years old now.  Eventually I'll run out of this type of stuff and things to write about it all, but for now I'm still armed and dangerous.

On the duck, we've done it several times now.  Usually some time in the spring or summer we'll stumble across a special on fresh ducks.  We'll bring two home and plan our Ugly Duck Dinner.  Why Ugly?  Because we take the brace of ducks and remove the thighs and legs, leaving ugly, partially hacked carcasses.  We heavily salt and pepper the lower extremities and put them in the fridge for a day or two.  Meanwhile, we cook the rest of the duck.  Depending on the season and what we feel like doing, we either leave the hacked carcasses whole, steam them then roast them to finish; or we split them, steam them, then barbeque them.  The steaming serves two purposes - first, it's a great way to melt off tons of fat.  If you didn't steam them first, barbequeing would end up as a general invitation for the fire department because all that fat would lead to severe flare-ups and burned meat.  Second, it makes the ducks - usually not as tender as chicken - meltingly soft.  

Once the fat is steamed off the ducks, we save it for the confit.  To do this right, we usually end up using all the fat from the two ducks, plus a bit rendered from previous ducks or geese that we've stored in clean jars at the back of the fridge.  We take the legs and thighs and pat off some of the salt.  Then we put a little bit of fat in a cast-iron Dutch oven, and lightly brown them in a single layer, skin side down.  After that we completely cover them with the reserved fat, turn down the heat and let them simmer in the barely bubbling fat for about an hour and a half, until they are soft.  While they're still warm, we put the legs and thighs into scalded jars (dried off, off course), then pour in the fat to cover. 

The resulting jars of duck and fat then sit in the back of the fridge (or freezer) until mid-winter.  Some time in the cold months we get a yen for cassoulet, which is nothing more than a fancy version of beans and hot dogs.  In our case it's small white beans, tasty smoked sausage, and some of our preserved duck.  Add friends, a crusty crumb topping, some crunchy bread, and several bottles of wine and I guarantee you'll find the effort well worth the trouble.    This year we'll be toasting to Julia, without whom we would never have attempted such nonsense, nor have learned how much fun it can all be.

A quick post today as I dash from errand to errand.  More progress:

I've finished the border panel on the left, and am starting its companion on the right.  I'm still nooding out the logistics of attaching the top and bottom borders.  I'm still favoring the crochet-on-as-you-go method, but I admit it would have been easier had I not decided early on to leave a two open mesh divide between all pattern elements.  I've got my two empty rows top and bottom.  Now to do the attach-as-I-go top and bottom strips, I'll have to do my slip stitch on a filled rather than empty mesh.  That may turn out to be a bit more noticeable.  Tinkering is called for...

And in response to still more requests - tune in tomorrow to see what the back of the red embroidery looks like.  Off to get my car (belatedly) inspected.

More questions from my inbox:

Can you use the same type of charted pattern for knitting?

Why not?  It's a plain graph.  You can use any charted pattern for knitting, darned net, embroidery, colorwork or filet crochet so long as you understand the proportions of the units your chosen craft employs.  Even though the original was graphed in square units, my units are rectangles.  As a result, my piece is a bit squashed left to right because my units are wider than they are tall, and I worked across the piece's short dimension.  Had I worked the long way across, my dragon and George would have been squashed top to bottom instead. 

By carefully choosing the direction of one's work one can either minimize the effect of non-square units, or employ it as a design feature.  Here's a cross-stitch embroidery I did on white muslin.  The original graph was square.  The muslin's weave wasn't.  The flower units end up being squashed top to bottom, but that turned into a design feature. 

There are some ways around the problem if you want to work a square graph on a non-square medium but want to preserve the original height:width ratio.  Depending on their gauge, some knitters replicate every third or fourth row when working from a square unit chart.  This practice is built on the premise that knitting stitches are usually wider than they are tall (more rows than stitches per inch).   Others use drafting software with layering capabilities, importing the original chart, then overlaying a custom grid built to their stitch height:width ratio, finally knitting or crocheting off the new gridding.  Finally, some people manipulate their craft to produce units that are more square.  For example, I've seen some knitters take graphs and translate each box unit into a unit of 2 stitches x 3 rows.  While that "blows up" the design, making it a much larger piece than would working one stitch per one charted square, it usually does produce a result that is more visually true to the original.

Me?  I don't bother regraphing.  I play with the ratios and pattern placement instead.  For example, the Knot A Hat headband on wiseNeedle is worked from a square unit graph (available as a *.pdf via link on the pattern page). 

My knitted version is elongated along the length because my stitches are like most stockinette - wider than they are tall.  But I don't care.  I think the design's stretch isn't out of place and until I pointed it out, you probably wouldn't have noticed.

How did you get your mesh to look so even?

The same way you get to Carnagie Hall - practice, practice, practice.  [grin]  Seriously, in crochet just like in knitting one gets used to the hand motions of making a stitch, and providing the optimal tension on the thread becomes second nature.  I find if I concentrate on keeping things even, they go all to hell, but if I relax and just do the work - my stitches are all the same size.  Some crochet beginners strangle the hook, pulling the loops way too tight and making the formation of stitches more difficult than it should be.  Others make their stitches waaaay up the needle's shaft where the shank gets wider to accommodate gripping.  Those folks often end up with loose, irregular stitches as their too-big loops are distorted by the actions of making a stitch.  Again, not to be a smart-ass - but practice and patience are key.

Filet looks nifty.  I didn't know crochet did more than granny square blankets.  What other types are there? Where can I learn more?

There are all sorts of crochet books out there.  Not as many as there are knitting books, it's true, but there are quite a few.  Some are pattern collections, some are technique instruction books, and some are toss-the-rules and be creative sources of general inspiration and encouragement.  Crochet history however is harder to come by. 

The best source of info on crochet history and styles I've got is Lis Paludan's Crochet:  History and Technique.  It's a fair size tome that details not only crochet's murky historical beginnings, also covers how the craft developed over time.  It gives copious illustrations of various styles, mostly from engravings and other period sources, and even has a nifty how-to section in the back.  Unfortunately it appears to be in rather limited supply, although I still see copies at the original retail price on bookstore and needlework specialty store shelves.  It's also pretty well represented on library shelves.  [Reminder to self:  Add rider to homeowner's insurance to cover out of print needlework book collection!]

Progress continues.  Here's the latest:

I've included the tape measure because a couple of people who have seen the thing in person thought it was much larger, and were surprised by how small the individual meshes were.  It's not exactly teeny, but at around 8x6 meshes per inch, it's not exatly honking huge, either.

You can see the edge frame, now well developed along the left.  In the original (and in my book) it appears as a single-wide.  Here I've mirrored it along the long side.  There will be another block of the same at the right edge, but the top and bottom (right now) look like they're going to be single-wide.   I have to say I like the piece, and I'm quite pleased.  It will be killer on the door.

In house-related news, String Central is mostly put back together.  We've completed the network wiring on the basement and first floor, and I've been able to unpack and set up my base station machine and comfy chair.  Goodbye laptop!  Goodbye typing on top of the oil tank!  Slowly but surely I'm making a dent in the Continental Divide of boxes that separates room from room.  Yesterday's find was the long-lost lid to my spaghetti pot.  At this point I'm truly thankful for similar small points of progress.

Other questions that have come in via eMail:

How is crochet to do for long periods compared to knitting?

I find crochet slightly more tiring.  The way I hold my hook and thread involves a good deal of wrist rotation to form stitches.  By contrast, my knitting requires almost no wrist movement.  Also at the small gauge I'm working, my overripe eyes need a fair bit of light, otherwise I end up squinting and workng by feel.  Stab.  Ouch.  Got it?  Nope.  Re-stab.  Ouch.  Go