I'm delighted to announce that at least one other human being has the courage, fortitude, and profound lack of reason to attempt my North Truro Counterpane. Not only is she doing the pattern, she's simplifying it a bit by cleverly knitting some of the pieces together, avoiding several seams in the process

High-fives to Sandra B. who is busy knitting on this right now, but who took the time to send me the snap above. She made my day! (The photo above is hers, reproduced with her permission).

Technorati : knitting

[Repost of material originally appearing 7 August 2006]

More North Truro questions from my inbox:

Why are there blue boxes on the hex graph? They're not in the symbol key.

That's an example of what happens when you write for yourself, use the same graph oodles of time, and then release it into the wild without doing a due diligence review. I shaded them for myself, as a reminder that those stitches were supposed to be purled because on the first couple of iterations, I'd forget and breeze right over them in stockinette. When I publish a full version of the pattern I'll remember to kill the blue shading.

How do you cast on at the center of the hex? Your directions just sort of assume that there are six stitching somewhere. How do they get there?

For this particular piece, I usually cast six stitches onto one needle, using a half-hitch cast-on. Then I move three stitches onto a second needle. I hold the two needles like this,




and using a third needle, begin working my rounds, starting with the first stitch I cast on. I'll introduce more needles as the thing grows, redistributing the stitches (or mentally spanning one side over the spot where two needles meet if required). By the sixth round, I'll have all seven needles employed (one per side, plus one in the hand).

Do you use the same cast-on for all the units?
No. For the squares and triangles, I do a standard long-tail cast-on, but work it over two needles held together. This introduces a bit more looseness into that first row, which can be impossibly tight in a non-stretchy yarn like my cotton. Credit for this very simple trick goes to my mom, who showed it to me an aeon ago during her initial fruitless attempts to teach a 10-year old me how to knit.

How many hexes did you knit this week?

Sadly, none. It was super hot here last week. I couldn't bear to knit anything at all. This weekend though I have started in again, easing my way with a sock. Pix as soon as I find my misplaced camera and the batteries to power it.

Technorati : knitting

[Repost of material originally appearing on 3 August 2006]

First, here's a picture showing one finished meta-unit, plus one that's mid-assembly. You can see the swirl hex in the center, plus where the square and triangle units fit.



In the layout I'm using, these meta-units fit together with plain triangles inserted at the point where three meta-units meet.



I suppose I could have made just one big triangle for those spots instead of four smaller ones. That design variant will have to wait for a future blanket. In the next photo you can see how the concept above actually works:



Finally, here are some other arrangements for the same basic units. The swift will note that the one in the upper right is in fact the layout I am using:



In addition to these, the squares and triangles can also be used by themselves, or in combo. LATE UPDATE: The two layouts on the right are in fact different. While both employ entire meta-units, with plain triangles where they meet, the top one butts the meta-units up against each other by uniting the edges of the squares, the other unites the edges of the triangles. The differences are subtle, but the lines of the piece do look different if the lower right hand arrangement is made.

In terms of technique used and hints for seaming - the squares fit stitch for stitch along the edge of the hex. Due to decrease ratios, the triangles are in fact just a bit wide at the base. To eat up that extra width, I play with ease, plus I sew them in using mattress stitch. I take a slightly bigger "bite" out of the triangles' sides than I do out of the edges of the squares to which I am sewing them. So far it has worked out well enough. Other spots where cast-on/bind-off edges meet are sewn together with whip stitch, picking up the innermost edges of the chains formed by the cast-on or bind off (or if no chain was formed, the equivalent edgemost stitch).

I do note that I've gone back and forth several times between working the hex, then sewing on the squares, or working the hex, then working the squares directly onto it's live stitches. I had forgotten I had done this as I began this summer's production, but looking at my finished blanket, I'm hard pressed to identfy the abberant sewn-on squares. I'll go back to the knit-on method on the next meta-unit. In the mean time, I'll just sit here in the heat and think about knitting, because at over 100-deg F indoors, it's too hot to actually do anything more than sit in one spot and pant like a dog.

Now. Has anyone else tried the hex yet?

Technorati : knitting

[Repost of material originally appearing on 2 August 2006]

As promised, here is the third unit needed to build my North Truro Counterpane. I won't say the last, because I still intend on squaring out the sides and adding coordinated strip-knit coordinated trim. That will require some half-hexes, half-squares and the trim itself. But I'm not there yet.

Like the square, the triangle is knit flat and is quite straightforward. In addition to the patterned piece graphed below, I also make some plain triangles to fit in between the larger meta-motifs. In essence they are the triangle graph below, but without any patterning. To make them I cast on 31, then work entirely in stockinette, employing only the shaping directions shown at the ends of the right-side rows.



[Click on pix above for larger rendition]

I think that I might have done the patterned triangle a bit differently if I were to assay it again now. I might have eliminated the YOs and companion decreases down the center on rows 1-11. Or maybe not. I'd have to play with it to see if I liked the meta-unit (and how multiple metas fit together) after assembly without those radial spikes.

Tomorrow I'll discuss again how these go together, and present some alternate arrangements.

Technorati : knitting

[Repost of material originally appearing on 1 August 2006]

As promised, here is the square I use to build my North Truro Counterpane - the first of the companion units needed to build the thing along with yesterday's hexes.

I could see someone making a blanket of only the squares, or only the triangles (tomorrow's post), but I did design them to fit visually with the swirl counterpane to make up the larger star meta-motif. I like the contrast between the patterned, almost embossed central swirls and plain stockinette. The lines of the square extend and frame the swirl's motion, spreading the design out beyond the borders of the hex itself.

The square is knit flat, back and forth on straights. I use two of my longer DPNs for all the smaller units. Since these are quick and almost never languish on the needles, don't bother finding a pair of traditional straights with end buttons.


[Click on pix above for larger rendition]

Now, why did I go to all this trouble? For the classic reason. Why not?

I'm not a big fan of pieced quilting. I think it can be visually quite lovely, and value it as a medium for artistic expression, but I don't enjoy manipulating all those little patches of cloth myself. I am however fascinated by simple geometry. Things like tessellations tickle my fancy. I can't pass by a bit of interesting mosaic or brickwork without pausing to appreciate regular polyhedral tiling. Traditional Islamic non-figural ornamentation is a source of wonder to me. When I stumbled across Phillips Knitting Counterpanes I skidded to a halt and hung on every page.

Since then I've kept my eye open for more pieced counterpane style patterns of all levels of complexity. But I notice that very few are built on layouts beyond all squares, triangles, or hexes; or (at the most) on octagons plus small squares. I wanted to play with some of the more unusual layouts - to see if I could bend knitting around them. There are lots of ways to tile an area with simple regular polygons, and simple regular polygons are easy to knit. Why not mix squares and triangles? Or hexes, squares and triangles? Or (be still, my heart), dodecagons, hexes, and squares? North Truro is my first attempt.

I wonder what trouble i could get into if I departed the single plane, and ventured into the 3D world of polyhedra? Hmmm....

Technorati : knitting

[Repost of material originally appearing on 31 July 2006]

O.K. Apparently I'm not the only crazed loon out there that's interested in knitting something with ten thousand ends. So in response to requests, I share my North Truro Counterpane.

Please note that as a pattern, this is still in Beta stage. I have no yarn quantities, gauge estimates, or recommended needle sizes. There also may still be an error lurking in the upper right double moss area on rounds 35-43, after the centered leaf motif. I think I've corrected it on this version, but since I mostly work my motifs on autopilot at this point, I can't swear that I've payed close enough attention to test-knitting this particular edition of my graph. If you run into oddness, remember that the double moss area on each side of the center leaf should mirror. If it looks like you're developing a rib on row 37 or 39, invert the knits and purls after the center leaf and all will be well.

In terms of materials, I can say that I'm using a insanely inexpensive unnamed coned cotton flake yarn found in the back room at Webs. It's soft, with some open and relaxed sections, rather than a tightly spun mercerized cotton. In terms of weight it's probably closest to fingering, with occasional puffy bits making it hard to describe. I'm getting 16-17 wraps per inch.

For needles, I'm using 3mms. NOT US #2s, which tend to be 2.75 mm, but true European 3mm needles. I've got a mix of 10-inch and 8-inch long steel DPNs of that size, and am working my hexes on four, moving to seven when the number of stitches on the needles makes that more comfortable (one needle per side, plus one to knit with). Now not everyone is as DPN happy as I am, so if you prefer using one or two circs, try starting out with a set of 4 DPNs, (two hex sides per needle), and using them until the piece is large enough to make the transition practical - probably around round 23 or so.

Please remember to note the one-stitch transition on round 35. I shunt the beginning of the row one stitch to the left on that round. You should knit the first stitch of Round 35 onto the last needle of Round 34, then work around, doing that terminal K2tog on the last stitch of each repeat and the first stitch of the next one. If you're using circs and markers, move the marker to after that K2tog. The final repeat of Round 35 will work out even - the last K2tog will combine the previous final stitch of that repeat plus that stitch you knitted and transferred at the beginning of the row.


[Click on pix above for larger rendition]

I will post the graphs for the companion square and the triangles tomorrow. The hex can be used alone or in combo with the other units. In fact, the geometry of the thing allows several possible assembly layouts I'll write more about that later in the week.

Finally, there's one more reason why this is just in Beta. I haven't finished the total counterpane design yet. It is my intent to (eventually) draft out companion half hexes and half-squares, to finish the piece off as a rectangle, then trim the whole caboodle with a custom-designed edging that complements the design elements of the motifs.

Needless to say, I'm not there yet.

Technorati : knitting

[Repost of material originally appearing on 28 July 2006]

On the North Truro Counterpane, it really is an ideal summer beach project. The pieces are small and quick to finish. I've memorized the triangle and square units (I still have to refer to the pattern for the big hex). The soft cotton handles nicely in hot weather. I can sit and knit a pile of pieces during the day, then sew them onto the growing blanket in the evening. Or now that I'm home, I can knit pieces one by one and sew them on as I finish them. Note that I'm not bothering to block these. I suppose I should, but given the sheer number of units, doing so would be unwieldy. In this case laziness wins. As far as my rate of production now that I'm home and back to knitting only an hour or two in the evenings, I'd say that I can complete about one meta-motif in a week. Not a fabulous rate of progress to be sure...

I'm considering posting the graphs for the units here if enough people are interested. It won't be a finished pattern, as I will not be doing the calculations for yarn consumption needed for various size blankets, nor will I make a yarn recommendation (the stuff I used is an anonymous coned Webs special, roughly between DK and Sport in weight). So having said that - here's my progress.



Between beach work and finishing up at home (in and around the Baby Surprise and other projects) I managed to complete two more meta-motifs, and start a third. I've got eleven now. The blanket is sitting on a 6x8 foot rug, so it's just about 5.5 feet across its widest dimension. I am still aiming for something to put on my queen size bed (about 7.5 feet x 8 feet) so I'd say I'm a little over a third of the way there.

The biggest drawback of a project like this? No. It's not that it takes a geological age to finish - even more if you only work on it seasonally like I do. It's the *)#$-load of ends to darn in after sewing all those pieces together.

With each meta-motif using 13 units (1 hex, 6 triangles, 6 squares), plus one plain triangle between units, so far I've got 28 ends x 11 meta-motifs (more or less). That's 308 so far even though I've been leaving tails long so I can use them to sew the motifs together and avoid introducing even more to end off. I've not been fastidious about ending them off right away because I do sometimes need to go back and use an available tail for that purpose. Although I've been nibbling away at that greater total, I fear that even when I've finally finished the thing (invented half hexes and companion units to square off the edges plus a coordinated lace edging to finish all) I'll still have at least another summer of just darning in before I'm truly done with my Truro.

Technorati : knitting

Still plugging along. Progress will stall though after this for a bit as I have some rather intensive fulling and knitting on the Mystery Project to accomplish.



As you can see, I'm missing a couple of solid triangles left and right of the motif at the lower right, but the final result is becoming increasingly more clear. I like the play of the large starry areas and the solid white bits. Seaming is a pain, it's true - but not so big a pain as I thought it would be. Of course I've got a zillion ends at this point. I may just take the odd moments of this week I can spare from the Mystery Project and end off as many as possible. That would be productive yet mindless work that could be done in stolen time.

Although I was out of town tending to family matters last weekend, knitting was accomplished - mostly on the flights and in the airports as I waited between planes. In addition to yesterday's swatches, I did some work on my counterpane.



As you can see there's a pie slice that's missing from the leftmost motif. My guess is that my missing triangle is now loose in the Orlando airport - a stopover on my way to my final destination. I doubt my feral triangle will cause more than a moment's pause as it is swept up and tossed away. So it goes.

As this piece grows larger, I can say I've definitely overbought my white cotton coned yarn. I have four enormous cones. I've gone through about a third of just one of them. I think I'll end up using just two of them to make the whole thing. Here's consumption so far. The untouched cone on the left weighs 1250g. It's the smallest of the four, with the others ranging up to about 1300g. The nibbled into cone on the right weighs 825g, and started out at around 1300g. Which all makes sense because my blanket so far weighs about 475g. (It's always pleasing when the math actually works out).



Since I've got about 20% of my estimated total surface area done, but have used only about 8.3% of my yarn (a third of one of four cones - roughly a 1/12 of my total available yarn), I'll have LOTS leftover. Still, I don't mind. It's nice yarn and there will be enough for another project (perhaps another counterpane). As an added bonus, the stuff was a very inexpensive back room find at Webs. I paid about $10 per cone for it. Since this project will last for about eight months at the current rate of production and I anticipate using only two cones, that works out to $2.50 per month of knitting enjoyment. It doesn't get any more economical than that.

How to knit on the cheap?? Don't buy what's trendy. Big fat yarns and glitzy yarns command a premium, but plain finish yarns, even first quality good wools and cottons can be had at very reasonable prices (even without resorting to reclaiming yarn).

Think smaller gauges. This stuff isn't particularly small being very close to DK weight (5.5spi), but even DK is lighter than many of the more favored yarns today. And think of? projects that get their zing from the knitting rather than from the yarn. Yes, they take a bit more time and attention than some plainer pieces, but isn't the entire idea to have fun knitting? No, if you are on a limited budget you won't be able to knit that fancy fulled cardigan from imported Japanese hand-dyed, but I bet with a little effort you could find a 100% wool sport weight yarn that would make a smashing texture stitch or stranded colorwork jacket and not break the bank - especially if you consider how many weeks of knitting time you'd get by investing in such a project.

Still plugging along on the counterpane, at the approximate rate of one meta-motif per week. Week seven ends with this accumulation, shown on the top of the bed that it will (eventually) grace:



As you can see in spite of having completed one circuit, there's still a long way to go:



I still stick by my estimate of approximately 26 motifs (plus half motifs) to get good coverage for my queen-size bed. I might take a break this week though and use my knit-time to tend the ever growing forest of ends. That's 36 ends per meta-motif. Plus 12 more for the solid triangles shown above. Plus two more from finding and cutting a knot out of my yarn. So I've already got about 50 ends to deal with in the fragment shown above. Which should keep me busy for a bit...

As you can see, motifs continue to accumulate on North Truro:



The observant will spot more evidence of my continued existence in the photo's lower right. Apologies for the quality of this shot. I recently replaced the hand-me-down 1.3 mega pixel camera I had been using with a hand-me-down 3 mega pixel camera. In theory, the best quality setting of the latter should be better than the best quality setting of the former. Apparently there is room for contention in this theory. Still, you can see how the design continues to grow. Next week's progress shot will feature the thing on the top of a queen size bed so you can see how far I've got to go.

I'm afraid that while this piece remains interesting to knit, I'm rapidly running out of things to say about it. I don't anticipate any earth shaking discoveries until I get up to the bit where I have to improvise half motifs to go around the edges:

Since I prefer the look of a nice straight edge and matching edging to the rippled look of a "bare motif" spread, I'll also have to invent something to eke out the east/west sides. Plus the actual edging of course. You can see the full motif smack in the center of this layout (full yellow hex in the center). The half hexes are in blue. They'll pose a bit of a challenge because they'll have to be knit flat as opposed to in the round, but since I chart my patterns by repeat, I don't need to do any redrafting - just remembering the circ/flat inversion and only working three rather than six "petals."? The squares on the edge next to the half hexes also need to be modified. There will be left and right halfies to preserve the pattern's lines. The hardest part will be the half triangles needed to eke the thing out east and west. Fiddly but easy to do. I never quite like the way they turn out.



Thought for the day:? Life is only as complicated as you make it.

Four motifs done. My guesstimate is that four represents about 15% of the total finished area. That means I'm looking at something like 26 or so in total, with some of them being halfies.



It looks like the trillium background shapes will form rings around the star motifs. I'm really looking forward to seeing that develop. My next step though may be to work out the half-width motif set. That would include a half-hex, three normal triangles, one normal square and two half-width squares.

UPDATE - Looking for past posts here

I do try to post stuff here that I hope is useful. I also realize that much of it might not strike a reader as being useful today, but might stick in memory somewhere and pop up when the specific need is encountered. I've gotten a couple of questions (including a comment early today) about how to find past posts. I've tried to provide tools to do that.

First, for the knitting projects and some broad subject areas, I've set up category tags. You can see them in the right hand sidebar (you might have to scroll right a bit because of an over-large graphic I posted last week). Projects all are named something like "Project - Lacy Scarf" and index all the posts that mention each project. The broad subject categories also work that way. Clicking on the "Reference Shelf" tag will bring up all the posts that I thought people might find especially helpful, likewise "Embroidery" should find all the posts that discuss that subject.

Some particularly popular posts have merited direct access under the major category "References," also in the right hand sidebar. Yarn Labels 101 and 102 for example are two posts that get lots of traffic from people just becoming familiar with yarn labels and how to read them.

Finally for all those search needs that keyword indexing didn't anticipate, there's a search box in that same sidebar. You can type a word in there and bring up all posts that mention it, or you can click on the "advanced search" tag right below that box to do more complex multi-word or time-limited searches. Typing "booties" in the search box should find the posts I did on A. Krekel's pattern for booties that really do stay on.

I know I said I wasn't going to bore anyone with further progress on my North Truro Counterpane, but I did get to an interesting point yesterday, and my inbox has been graced with several questions.

First, the show and tell:



As you can see, I finished a couple more side squares of Motif #3, and seamed in most of the other little triangles that I knit over the weekend. That let me join #3 onto the two units I had already completed. I like the accidental trillium flower of negative space that forms where three motifs join. I'd love to say that was intentional, but it wasn't. There's lots that science doesn't know about this designing stuff, yet.

Now for the mailbag:

Aren't you going to have a bushel of ends to deal with?

Two bushels. Even though I'm knitting the squares out from the hex center, there's two for the center hex, plus two for each for six squares, plus two each for six triangles, minus one for the hex end I use to do the first square, and one for the end that doesn't get started at the outset of that first square. 24 in all for each motif. As you can see in the pix, I like to leave them long so they're available for sewing the motifs together. As I get further into the thing, I'll know WHICH I need to leave particularly long, and which I can plan to be shorter. Still, I plan on darning in ends incrementally as I go along rather than waiting for the end of the entire project.

Why aren't you blocking the motifs before sewing them together?

Good question. Sometimes I do block the motifs before I assemble them. This time I didn't. This particular no-name yarn and needle combo seem to produce motifs that lie relatively flat, showing the openwork well without the block. I suspect my squish problem WOULD be partially fixed by blocking, but leaving the hex motif live on the circular as I finish out the squares isn't exactly conducive to the knit-block-assemble production method. Plus pinning out each night's production means leaving the ironing board up to do the blocking, and I don't want to trip over it for the next umpteen months.

Are you going to leave the edges wavy?

I could. You can see that the lower edge makes a nice gentle wave. I could leave the thing raw, edge it with I-cord, or sew on a (yet to be designed) complementing edge strip just as it is. But I probably won't. Just on the principle that the biggest fun comes from the most abstruse and useless effort, I'll probably do up half hexes and half squares to produce a nice straight edge, then affix that as yet mythical edging to it.

Lovely crib blanket! You're nuts for spending so much effort on a baby blanket.

Huh? This is destined to be an oversized Queen-size spread for my own bed. (I've knit a blankie for each of the kids, why can't I have one, too?) If you think I'm addled for attempting this as a mini-throw, I'm sure you think I'm a gibbering raving loon for doing one that big.

I was busy this weekend past.



I worked out the plain triangle and made two. Both are sewn into the growing group. One is indicated by the arrow. I do have a bit of a scrunch problem, but probably not so much that it can't be ignored. The sides of my triangle are less tall than its base is wide. Therefore, when I'm sewing the bases of the patterned triangles onto the sides of the plain one, I have to squish them up a bit. You can see the slight rumples that result.

I do however like the way the points of the stars align. While the orientation I tried last time had more movement in it, because the stars were offset, this one will have less background area.



For those who have asked how I add arrows or other annotations to my photos - I use Macromedia Fireworks to slim, retouch, or otherwise manage my images. I cheat - the arrows are Wingding font "letters" added with the text tool.

Shoe size chart

Some people have pointed out that their European shoe sizes are off a bit from the chart shown yesterday. Mostly at the upper end. The chart's represented equivalent for US shoe sizes Women's 9 and above seems to work out one unit larger than people are reporting. So a 10.5 would be closer to a 42 than a 43. Grains of salt are advised.

More bits and pieces are accumulating. You can see I'm more than half way done with the second meta-motif. I've got two triangles to sew on (I don't actually do the stitching until the squares on both sides of a triangle are complete.



In this photo you can better see what the motifs look like individually. The center hex is pretty straightforward. The triangle is knit base to tip. The tip's center is a textured stitch. The square (shown attached to the center hex at the bottom right) also features the same textured area in the parallelograms that flank its center spine. When the motifs are placed together, these textured areas join up to make the star-shaped framing device that surrounds the center hex's flower.

Unfortunately this sort of project isn't very good for blog progress reporting. From here on in it's going to be more photos of exactly the same thing, done again and again and again and again. You get the idea. I'll probably mark the completion of each meta-unit, and show a couple more photos of significant milestones - like joining the motifs using the plain triangles I wrote about last week, but I'll try to avoid boring everyone with needless repetition. Which means I'll have to think up something else to write about.

As you can see, I'm making slow progress on my counterpane.



Athough you can't read the tape measure, one meta-unit unblocked measures around 15.5 inches across.

I've started the second motif, and done the hex,? half of its squares, and one triangle. Here I've lined up the two as I intend to sew them together. I will need a fourth motif when I finally get enough done. It will probably be a solid stockinette triangle, to go in this spot:



Either that or I need to engineer something with lines of YOs that match up with those on the bordering squares.

I did spend quite a bit of time trying to make a triangle knit from the tip down that is as close as possible to the one I've got that's knit from the base up. So far no dice. I just can't get a congruent pattern on the rows that use YOs and double decreases in the original. My triangles end up being rather rotund, and I lose the lacy openness of my original. Plus the nifty lines formed by the YOs are shifted somewhat, and no longer align with the squares when all is to be sewn together. My counterpane will have to remain assembled from lots of smaller pieces. Perhaps the next one I play with will be an honest dodecagon rather than this assembled one.

And for those who have written to say that I'm a crazed loon for trying to knit this higher complexity tesselation instead of sticking to plain old squares or hexes, you're not telling me anything new. Go play with geometry.

I have now survived my week from hell, managed to recuperate (somewhat); and we have returned the house to something resembling order. It's not a very close resemblance, as this family's housekeeping skill set is rather deficient, but horizontal surfaces can now be seen, laundry is no longer threatening to avalanche, and a machete is no longer needed to find the front door.

Add to that some progress on my counterpane:



As you can see, I've finished the first meta-motif, including seaming in the corner triangles. It's a bit smaller than my original estimate, but not by much. Plus it will be stretched a bit not only in the blocking, but also by the natural tension of the surrounding motifs once it is in place. One thing I'm pleased with is the lack of cupping in the center hex. Too tight blocking plus that extra seam between the bottom of the squares and the sides of the hex constrained the stretch of the thing the last time around. Working the squares directly onto live stitches around the hex appears to have eliminated that problem.

Now there's a new thing to consider. I've got a dodecagon (a twelve sided figure) here. Right now the triangle units are knit base to tip. But if I figure out a way to flip the design over, it's conceivable that I could translate the thing into a tip-out piece. AND if I can do that, it's possible for me to add those units to the squares, already worked center out, and instead of a bunch of smaller seamed pieces, produce the twelve sided meta-unit as a single piece.

Food for thought here...

How do you start the hexes?

There are quite a few ways to start off a flat knit piece done both in the round and center out. I keep gravitating back to the I-cord method. This piece is a hex, so I start by casting on a three-stitch I-cord, and working one round (I'd start off an octagon with four stitches). On the second round of the I-cord, I take my first needle and knit one, then make an increase in the space between the just worked and next stitch. If I want a more open center I'll do a YO. If I want a more solidly filled center, I'll do a make 1 lifted bar increase (a devil to do on the second round of an I-cord). Then I'll take another needle and repeat the K1, increase 1 unit. And again on a third needle. Now I have three needles in the work, each bearing two stitches, plus one in the hand to work with. At this point I flip over and begin following my pattern. For an octagon, I'd do much the same, but with a set of five instead of four needles.

Why bother with the multiple units when you can just assemble the hexes into a perfectly good counterpane?

For pretty much the same reason I make cassoulet instead of being happy with franks and beans.

How big are your motifs?? How many are you planning on making?

It's difficult to get a gauge on this stuff, but if forced, I'd say I'm getting approximately 6 stitches and 8 rows per inch over the stockinette areas. Unblocked, my center most hexes are about 10 inches across at the widest point. The squares are about 5.5 inches on a side. The bases of the triangles are also about 5.5 inches across. One entire meta-unit of hex surrounded by squares and triangles (unblocked) is about 21 inches across. I haven't measured my bed yet, but it's only a queen size. Given the vague bed linen sizes posted here and there, my counterpane should be a square or a rectangle something between 85 and 100 inches on a side. I'll need at least 4 units across and 5 units head to foot. Given my chosen layout, that's about four rows of four units, plus three rows of three units, or 28 units. That adds up to 28 hexes plus 168 squares and 168 triangles. Plus half hexes, and the smaller units needed to square out the edges somewhat (they're never going to be exactly linear), and an edging of some unknown depth. I'm not quite sure how many of the other shapes I'll need yet.

Doing the same size counterpane using only the hex units would mean making about 10 rows of 8 units, and 9 rows of 7 units - that's 142 hexes, plus edge half hexes and a border.

This project should keep me busy for a while.

A few knitting and non-knitting related questions from the inbox:

How did Killer Bunnies go?

Tons of fun. We played as a mixed-age group, with the youngest being 7. We had hoped to get the Red Expansion Pack at Puzzle Me This in Provincetown, but they were out. We settled for Violet, the next one in sequence. The game plays more smoothly if you add them in order because each pack builds on the last, but we were able to use most of the Violet cards anyway.

What size needles did you use for the two versions of your counterpane?

The old version in the heavier cotton was knit on one of my odd size needles, it's a set of old long steel DPNs, they're probably antique 9s - and just a bit larger than standard US #4s (3.5mm), but closer to #4s than #5s (3.75mm). The new piece is knit on 3mm needles, which in some makers' lines is a US #2, and in some is somewhere between a US#2 and a US #3.

Did you finish that embroidery doodle while you were away?



Are you planning on assembling the counterpane in the same way as the last try?

No. These units can be joined in many ways. Last time I butted the triangles together. This time I plan to join squares. My goal is to do the layout shown at the upper right. Last time I used the one at the lower right. Both use some plain solid triangles in addition to the pattern bearing units.



Where did you buy the counterpane pattern?

I didn't. I made it up, starting with a standard spiraled star. I added the outline-like bars to emphasize the motif, and played with several treatments for the ground behind the star. This one like my Mountain Laurel counterpane plays with a textured ground and smooth star, but unlike that piece, plays a bit more with the ground. I also wanted to do a counterpane that was an tessellation of more interest than a flat tiled hex or a plain octagon and hex. That's why there are four units - the center hex, a patterned square, a patterned triangle, and a plain triangle. The layout above is actually an early draft showing how I played with the concept, looking at ways in which I could use the patterned units to extend the lines of the center hexes.

Can you send me the pattern?

Be patient. I plan on posting it to wiseNeedle this year - probably after I've gotten considerably more done on the thing and have a decent representation of the piece's final look. I'd also like to noodle up a complementing half hex and border.

The only problem with starting out the summer with one's vacation is that while there's lots for the kids to look forward to in July and August, to me it feels like summer is already over.

While we had great fun on our week away, the weather wasn't ideal. I didn't mind the wet and cold because I was at my favorite place on earth - the beach in North Truro on Cape Cod. This is sunset over Provincetown, as seen from the deck of our room on one of the nicer days.



We had a couple of good beach days at the start of the week, then the weather turned cold and nasty. Luckily we were there with friends, and between good companionship and copiously applied wine, were able to keep both warm and entertained.

I did get in some knitting, but progress was slow. I was re-creating my North Truro counterpane pattern - invented in the very same spot - from my sketchy notes. I got off to a couple of false starts, regraphed some probelm areas, made some of the lines of the piece crisper, and played with various methods of joniing that avoid some need for seaming. Here's the result:



As you can see, I'm mid-motif. The initial unit is the hex in the center. I knit that starting on some 3mm DPNs, moving to a circ as it got larger. Instead of binding off, I purled my final row, and left the thing on the circ. Then I attached my yarn at what looked to be a good corner point, and holding the thing with the reverse side front, knit one side's worth of stitches. That produced the appearance of two rounds of purl on the front at the base of my soon-to-be-knit side square. I then worked the side square out using two DPNs. I worked my side squares attached like this, one at a time. After I got a couple done, I knit a side triangle separately (it's worked base to tip) and sewed it into place.

I also experimented with skewing the attachment of the square unit. Since it really doesn't matter where on the center hex the sides begin and end, I knit one square on katywumpus - aligning its center to the point of the star instead of to the center of the leaf motif in between the star arms. You can see it above. It's the lone square that I've pointed out with the arrow. I've decided I like the original orientation better and left it intact just long enough to photograph.

Well and good. Things look like they're working out. I've avoided working all those squares separately and the seams joining them to the hex in the center. My bargain basement Webs-find yarn is working out well, with a very soft slubby cotton hand. I like it a lot. Compare it to my first iteration of this idea:



I don't know if you can see it, but the older yarn is MUCH heavier. It's a very dense cotton worsted - almost a twine. The newer yarn is a 90% cotton, 10% acrylic blend, and is somewhere between DK and sport in thickness, plus it's much less densely structured than the older stuff. The lighter yarn drapes better, plus it shows off the motifs better. All in all, things look quite promising!