Not much progress here. My knitting (and blogging) time is severely curtailed by work obligations. I have moved a bit further into the pattern. It's slow going. In addition to not having lots of time to sit down and make an systematic investigation - the pattern itself continues to present challenges.

I'm still struggling with the $ notation. Sometimes it means k1tbl, sometimes it means k2tbl. At this point I'm using the chart as a point of base information on my quest to make the finished knitting look somewhat like the book's engraved illustration. Each row is an exercise in winging it, with occasional rip-backs after a repeat or two if they don't quite work out.

As you can see - I'm close. Right now I've just finished the row where the triple peacock tail like elements are topped off with a double decreases, bringing their three lobes to sharp points. After that I've got a couple of rounds of a ground type pattern with vertical stripe like lace bars, then I launch into the supplemental graph for the zillion petal border repeat.

It's hard to say exactly how large this piece is right now, all scrunched together in typical snood-type style on my circs and unblocked, but I estimate that I'm at about 24 inches across. Based on a crude assessment of proportions, I'd say that by the time I'm done with the petal section, I'll be at 36-40 inches across. Still too small for my intended table, but I'll worry about that when I get there. Maybe I'll add another simple ground element, and then a judiciously chosen edging knitted around the circumference as opposed to center-out.

I take it from the astounding silence on recent projects that I'm pretty much the only person in the blogosphere (or at least the tiny minority of the knitworld that visits here) who is working from the Duchrow books. This is a pity, because in spite of the difficulties I'm having now, they are a marvelous source of inspiration. Don't be daunted by the antique notation, the fact that they're written in another language, and that on occasion a bit of creative insight has to be applied to make things work out well. This last bit hasn't been common. I've worked up about a dozen items from various Duchrow charts and this is the first one that's been a struggle. This stuff is Xtreme Knitting at its purest. If you like lace and like a challenge, consider this set.

Rats. I just noticed that I knocked two repeats off the end of the needle getting the radius measurement. Perfection in my work as in everything else, is asymptotic.

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I imposed upon a German speaking co-worker today, asking if he could help me with a line or two of the Duchrow annotation. Although fluent in his native language, he didn't speak knitting, but between the two of us we pieced together a bit more detail.

It turns out that the instructions on this one have a special note that II is in fact to be interpreted as one YO, not two. But again - about half the time in order to make the required stitch count on the next patterned row the intervening plain knit row needs to place two stitches into that YO. There is no alternate direction on when to k2 into a YO and when not to do so; nor is there direction on when $ means k1tbl, and when it means k2tbl. So even though I now have the relevant bit of annotation translated, I am no more enlightened than I was yesterday.

To answer some privately posted questions

• The yarn I'm using was a gift. I'm afraid it has no brand name, and I'm unfamiliar with its original provenance.
• I'm knitting directly off the cone. I haven't bothered to rewind a smaller quantity.
• I don't have a good feel for how big my final piece will be, and that doesn't bother me one bit. The directions say that the finished cloth is around 60cm (a little over 23.6 inches), but I think my piece will be larger. Probably on the order of 30-33 inches across if I work it as given. I'd like to go significantly larger - possibly 56 inches across. I may add a course or two of other repeats. We'll see when I get there. There's a ton of yarn, so the only limits are my own perseverance and willingness to tinker.

Now I have questions of my own.

• Is there anyone else out there working from the Duchrow series?
• If not those books - has anyone knit from the K. Ichida "Knitted Lace Designs of the Modern Mode" series - the Japanese language Modern Lace series reissuing classic European patterns?

Progress? Not really. I'm entering another chaos period at work, and had to rip back tonight. I managed to drop some stitches when I did yesterday's photo. I wasn't able to rework them, so I had to go back four rounds. Three steps forward, one step back.

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Just because lace is an abiding addition, I had the yarn in the house and the book beside my favorite knitting chair, and I can't stand to be without something to twiddle, I started another interim project from Duchrow's Volume III.

This one is a stab at one of the in-the-round tablecloth patterns. The chart I'm using is on page 76 if you've got the book. (Aside to Long Time Needlework Pal Kathryn - yes, this is one of the charts guaranteed to make eyeballs bleed...)

However, I'm finding this chart a bit more open to reinterpretation than Duchrow's rectangular ones. To date, I've found her charts to have been exacting to follow but largely consistent and error-free. But on this one I've found a couple of spots where the symbols were flat out wrong, and a couple of others where the in-book English translation might be off. For example, in this particular pattern the symbol:

ll

is supposed to mean a double YO. In many but not all instances it's followed on the next patterned row with the symbol

$

which the glossary calls out as being a K1 through the back of the loop. But unless you knit both of the stitches previously formed by the double YO together, the stitch count and resulting look/feel of the piece are both flat out wrong.

It's also not a given that the double yarn over is supposed to carry only one knit stitch on the subsequent plain knit row, with that second YO loop being dropped (which would make the single k1tbl logical) because in some but not all spots I need that extra stitch to be eaten into a later k2tog or ssk decrease. So the first repeat on each row has been an exercise in looking at the tiny blurry engraving of what the final product is supposed to be, counting stitches and proofing the repeat chart.

Still, the thing is beginning to grow. Here's the traditional lousy String snapshot of yet another snood-like object wadded up onto needles.

In terms of the yarn - what I'm using is pretty thin. It's 75% cotton, 25% linen marked as 2/30 - thinner than cobweb or Perle Cotton. I'd say it's the equivalent of two plies of standard embroidery floss. I'm working it on nice, big 2.5mm needles and getting a quite satisfactory light and open texture. I do have a minor concern with ruffling, but unless I stop and put the whole piece on a temporary holder and spread it out, I won't know how justified that concern might be.

Olive green may be a bit non traditional for lace, but over a navy tablecloth on my kitchen table, underneath white dishes with navy rims, it will look smashing. And once more, copious thanks to Friend Dena the Lace Enabler, who gave me the cone of yarn.

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I took the kids today out on one of our now traditional Spring jaunts - the Gore Place Sheep Shearing Festival in Waltham, Massachusetts. We've been there most years since we moved here in 1996, missing only a couple of the rainiest days.

This year I am of mixed feelings about the day. To be fair, there are far more activities and displays now than there ever were. The festival has grown quite a bit over the years. They've added a magic show, expanded the food offerings, added more animal exhibits (oxen, chickens, sheep, goats, vicunas); they've added an equestrian demonstration, and now feature a Revolutionary War era re-enactment bivouac. The day is full of things to see and do. Attendance is way up, especially among those with kids under the age of 10. But sadly what fiber arts focus there was in the past appears to be on the way out.

Sheep are still being shorn, both with mechanical clippers and hand-operated snips. The family that does the sheepdog demonstrations still does its fascinating display. The lacemakers are still there, working their exacting way through spectacular pillow lace patterns. There are some beautiful vicunas on display, and one fiber-related exhibit tent remains. Four out of six slots were filled in the fiber tent. One was local shop stalwart Minds Eye Yarns. It was an excellent booth, filled with lots of yarn, but most of it was commercial product that I can buy in the shop itself, or in my local yarn store. Minds Eye did have a display of their own hand-dyed - mostly sock and worsted weight. Bartlett Yarns also had stock of their rustic Maine style worsteds and heavy worsteds. There were two other yarn vendors there, too. One selling rovings and combed/dyed fleeces, and one selling spun hand-dyed worsted.

There were a couple of other yarn sellers scattered through the crafts fair and historical display areas. One was a vendor offering reclaimed cashmere yarn - she buys discarded sweaters, unravels them, washes the yardage, and plies it into sock and DK weight. Interesting but short yardage, and I would have preferred non-pastels, and something that was lace weight. The other two were hand spinners offering a variety of their own products. One was nice enough but in short quantity and plied to worsted weight. The other had mostly yarns whose unevenness, color combos, and overtwist plying were appealing to some, but left me cold.

I miss the booths of some of the other smaller producers - Moorehouse Merinos, Nicks Meadow Farm, and several other concerns that have offered beautiful hand-spun or dyed sport weight and finer yarns. I also missed the fiber/textile facts tent sponsored in previous years by the Boston Area Spinners and Dyers Guild. That one had hands-on activities for the kids, and was something they looked forward to, too.

Maybe the early date of the event posed problems for the Guild and the other fiber tent regulars. It's usually around mid-May. Maybe for the small suppliers the cost of attending wasn't covered by income earned at previous events, or travel expense is prohibitive given current gas prices. Who knows... But I can say that this is the first year I tried hard to find something interesting, preferably unique but well made, in a color that sang to me, and came up with nothing.

Yes, it's true. I came home from fiber festival without a single bit of yarn.

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Of late my life has been ruled by deadlines. The pressure should abate somewhat soon because we've managed to find another proposal person at work. I am looking forward to evenings and weekends again. Also knitting.

In the mean time more in the manner of keeping sanity rather than making any real progress, I dashed off another pair of socks last week. This one was on huge-as-logs 2mm needles, standard toe-ups with the figure 8 toe and short rowed heel, on only 64 stitches (not my usual 72-80) . No fancy patterning, no nothing. Just mindless stockinette to let the yarn's native colors play. The result looks rather Star Trek - with the standard Trek swoosh - albeit sideways - in crew uniform colors on a dark navy background.

The yarn's official name is Regia Galaxy 4-Fadig Color. I suspect that in Europe it's sold as Regia Jupiter, because of the small blurb about Jupiter inside the label. I worked it on such large needles because the color repeat didn't work very well at my standard smaller gauge. The label recommends 2-3mm needles. As you can see, the swoosh factored in nicely enough at 2mm.

I'm not quite sure what larger project to begin next. I'm still finishing Elder Daughter's Kyoto sleeves. But that's my downstairs project, for when I have time to sit with the family and play video games or watch movies. My upstairs project sits in the library, where the adults of the house take their relaxation after the kids have gone to bed. That's usually the most involved thing I am working on at any one time, and the project for which I now find myself in need of inspiration.

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As promised yesterday, pix of the Doodle Scarf - finished and visible on a light-color background:

The whole thing blocked out to be nine feet long, and point to point, about 17 inches across. I combined lace patterns from the Duchrow series (as described before), one edging and one insertion strip. I mitered the corners on the fly, not bothering to graph them out until after the fact. I am quite pleased with the way it turned out, and will probably keep this one for myself.

There's some clear congruity to be seen among patterns in these books. Here are some other things I've done from insertions and edgings adapted from these books - another scarf and the big shawl from laceweight, and two baby blankets worked at DK gauge:

(A couple of the edgings were cribbed from Heirloom Knitting). I seem to have taken my inspiration so far from the family of diamond-based patterns. There's lots of other stuff in there, including some in-the-round pieces. I think it's time to branch out and try some of the patterns based other motifs.

Is anyone else out there playing with the Duchrow books? Or combining other older or traditional patterns into original lacy pieces? Or might be interested if I were to issue some or all of these in a leaflet?

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