[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.

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