I am too miffed at the xenophobic, fundamentalist?Red States to be very coherent this morning, so I beg your indulgence. I'll do more yarn maker site reviews when I've cooled down and can be more objective. ?Also, posting a shot of a large piece of stockinette in blue is guaranteed not to awaken those who also stayed up to watch election returns, so I'll skip a boring progress report on the blue poncho until I can show it raveled and sewn together.

Hardware

Yesterday however I did pop by the hardware store. I find it almost as much fun as a knitshop, and almost as full of Useful Knitting Gadgets. I thank The Knitting Curmudgeon for?writing about the wealth of gizmos in hardware stores back in her pre-blog days.

Yesterday's acquisition was an inexpensive caliper:

What for?? I've got lots of tiny needles, smaller than US #0 (2mm). I had hoped that it would be precise enough to parse out the difference between a 1.5mm and a 1.25mm. Unfortunately, it's not. It does help me see which sets belong together (something that can be hard to do with fingers alone), but for the tiny needles it's just not accurate enough. What it IS accurate enough for is discovering the real metric size of various needles. As we all know, just because something is marked as 3mm, it doesn't mean that the marked size is true. I know I've got "big sevens" and "small sevens". Now I know what the difference is between them.

I'll still need to shell out for a sub-zero needle gauge or micrometer, but this tool at $6.00 is still useful.

Other useful thingies in hardware stores include washers and o-rings of various sizes (stitch markers, especially for giant size needles); tool boxes and roll-up pouches for needle storage; measures of all types; the yardage?estimators used by fishermen; slabs of drywall or other soft, flat materials for blocking or pin-out boards; PVC pipe for building blocking frames for shawls and other huge flat things; lengths of thin non-rusting wire or tubes to use as blocking wires (ask for brass music wire or stainless steel welding wires); wooden dowels for create-your-own needles; and hard finish cotton twine or thin wire for knitting.

Software

This has nothing to do with knitting, but I've finally wrestled the camera into submission and can show you the Pumpkins that Ate My Sunday:

Let this be a cautionary tale. If you tell children, "We'll carve anything you want on the Jack o'Lanterns this year," be prepared for major surgery.

The wolf was a canned pattern that came with the little carving tool set, and was a special request of the smaller daughter. The dragon was an original drawing by the larger daughter.Both kids helped, but I did the bulk of the finer work. ?I can wholeheartedly recommend those carving sets. The small plastic doodads and saws really make the impossible possible, and saved me from lopping of fingers, hands, and the heads of the pumpkin requesters.

A break from the monolith of text that this blog has become.

I've been having an on-line chat with a knitter looking for something to do with a pile of small balls/many colors of worsted weight yarn salvaged from a ravelled back Intarsia sweater. I recommended the Ridged Raglan from Knitters Magazine #54,?Spring 1999 issue.

This is my 6-year old's all-time favorite sweater:

Also please excuse the blurry photo. Some days the camera and I get along, others we war. Believe it or not, this is the best of ten shots.

This pattern is by Gerdine Crawford Strong, and in my opinion is the last thing?Knitters published that was a "gotta knit it" project, and the last thing I've made from their pages. But my disappointment in their current direction is food for another day's post.

Ms. Strong's pattern is pretzel-clever. It's knit vertically, with the arm and front (or back) panel knit at the same time - decreases form the raglan lines. The "ribbing" bands at waist and cuff are actually garter stitch worked at the same time as the sweater arms/body. The idea is presented in sizes from little kid through adult XXL, and as both a pullover and as a cardigan. It calls for a worsted weight acrylic, but anything knitted to the same gauge can be used.

I hate to make more than one of anything, but I've done three of these sweaters. One was a two-blues cardigan in Encore (a mostly acrylic/wool blend); the one above is a pullover in three citrus colors of?Record 210, an Aran weight unmercerized cotton; and one was?a pullover in Tahki Cotton Classic, all in tiny balls salvaged from a five-pastel intarsia project abandoned by my mother. For the latter two I had to play a bit with the pattern to accommodate differences in gauge.

As you can see, there are tons of scope for fun with this project. It's a great vehicle for using up bits and drabs. You need one color for the purl welts that?unite the piece as a whole (in my case, navy blue, orange and white respectively), but the individual stockinette stripes can be anything, from scraps leftover from several different projects to one of those hand-dyed yarns that can be so challenging to use effectively.

My only caution is that if you do choose to use cotton take care with the cuffs. Knit an extra garter stitch ridge, and try to work them loosely otherwise they can be too tight for quick dressing. Wool and wool blends however are naturally more elastic than cotton, and don't present this problem.

If you go searching for the Knitters #54, Spring 1999, it looks like this:

A final note to US citizens - go vote or lose your right to complain for the next four years.

For such a butt-simple project, this poncho has taken me on more twists and turns than I care to think about.  Perhaps it's knitting it for a new teen.  Perhaps it's that I find ponchos to be such boring things to make. 

Latest iteration - my choice of the texture pattern is "too heavy" in the opinion of the target wearer.  Something lighter is called for.  So I've thrown in the towel on coming up with something original, and am retreating to a freebie pattern on the 'net:  the Classic Elite Charmed Poncho.

Of course I won't be making it in the cashmere blend Charmed or all cashmere Lavish.  Prices for Charmed hover around $32. US per skein; Lavish is something like $64. US per skein.  I'd need four.  Maybe your teen deserves such spoiling, but it's not going to happen in this house.  Besides which, were I to miraculously come up with the funds, she'd expire at the thought of blowing it on yarn instead of a PlayStation game console.  

Current plans include sticking with the un-plyed blue Paternayan yarn for the thing.  She adores the colors, and being in stash - is already paid for long ago.  One other good feature of this pattern is that it's in ladder stitch (knit stockinette, deliberately unravel every 3rd stitch top to bottom).  That means that for the width it's VERY yarn-efficient.  While that's a good thing if you're knitting with $64. per skein yarn, it works out well for me, too.  The poncho as written requires only 520 yards of yarn.  It's small though - more like a ponchette.  I'll be making this one a bit wider and longer, but will still have plenty in my bag of mixed blues. 

Although my gauge is roughly 3spi, as my unplied isn't as heavy as the original yarns.  Not a problem though.  Airy works.  I'll do a multiple of 3 stitches, plus 8 edge stitches.  According to the printed gauge, the original works out to be 16 inches wide before the laddering (18 inches after unravelling).  That's an expansion factor of roughly .125 (18/16).  If I work my piece on 53 stitches (15x3 + 8), my before-ladder width should be about  17.7 inches wide (17 3/4, rounded up).  After laddering, it should be about 19.9 inches wide (20 inches, rounded up).  To keep the proportions of the original 18 wide:26 long, I need to make my rectangles about 29 inches long (26/18 = 1.44; 1.44 * 20 = 28.8) .  I'll also add two selvedge stitches which I'll slip to make sewing up and crocheting an edge easier. 

In another serendipitous occurrence, having de-plyed the yarn, I've got all this one-ply stuff that matches it exactly.

Why is this a good thing?  I note that the original poncho sports a minimal crocheted finish along the edges to stabilize the ends after laddering back.  I'll work the crochet, but I'll probaby use a simple edging pattern instead of just plain old single crochet.  Since crochet's product is thicker and bulkier than knitting given the same yarn, working the crochet out of one instead of two plies should make the edging more in proportion to the knitting than it would be if I used the whole, unsplit yarn.  This plain old stockinette piece will be ultimo boring to knit, but will be an interesting experiment to prove or disprove some of the points in my past crochet diatribes. 

So there you have it.  Cast on 55 stitches.  Working the first and last stitches as a slipped selvedge edge, work in stockinette until the piece is 29 inches long.  Work last purl row and finishing as described in the Classic Elite original.  Sew up, finish all edges with some simple crocheted edging to be chosen later.  I've got to save something to write about later next week, as pix of two large striped blue stockinette rectangles will put everyone to sleep.  (Even those who have made it through the math of this entry.)

Pork in the Trees?

Well, as a somewhat pessimistic follower of Boston baseball, I had to go out and inspect the tops of the neighborhood oaks.  Surely pigs flew last night, and some might still be up there.   But on to needlework.

Not OOP Book Review - Bead Crochet

I'll break with my pattern of only reviewing long out of print books, and pick on something contemporary.  I found Bead Crochet by Bethany Barry in the library (Interweave Press, 2004). 

I have to say, I was highly disappointed.  Maybe my taste is entirely in my mouth.  I do like demonstrative jewelry and embellishment, but aside from a couple pix of historical and contemporary pieces in this book, the contents - especially the projects - left me stone cold.  

I was also extremely surprised that any book presenting a capsule history of crochet put out by Interweave can fail to cite Lis Paludan's wonderfully complete Crochet History and Technique - another Interweave Press publication.  The background of crochet given in the Beading book is vague at best, and flat out contradictory at worst.  It repeats the old nun's work saw on crochet's beginnings, and offers up a disciples-of-Christ origin for shepherd's knitting.  She mentions advanced bead crochet being taught in a Philadelphia academy in the 1820s (which seems a bit early to me based on other readings), but gives no exact citation  for it.  There are several exquisite examples of late 19th century beaded crochet in the book.  Most of these can be seen in the Amazon peek-inside preview. Unfortunately the rest of the text has nothing to do with them.

O.K., picky history criticisms aside, as this is clearly not a needlework history book.  On to the techniques and projects.  You see that large chaotic rope of beads on the cover?  All the projects inside look like that.  Large ones, small ones, square ones, pouch-style ones, flower shaped ones, ones done with eyelash yarns, and ones done with smooth yarns.  If you like the necklace on the cover and want to learn to make lots more encrusted things exactly like that, this is the book for you. 

To be fair, there is one project featuring instruction on how to crochet a basic beaded rope.  That's useful.  There are four pages of basic description for simple off-loom needle beading techniques (peyote stitch, brick stitch, square stitch, African herringbone weave) - but these things are described in passing, as adjuncts to the book's main premise - beaded crochet.

What was I expecting?  More substance, perhaps less art.  More detailed techniques, dipping into historcial sources for something besides clumps of randomly-encrusted crochet.  Maybe I wanted to see a range of things that can be done in bead crochet, and learn some techniques to make them.  While the gallery section at the back does show a wide range of pieces (some of which I do like), there is no relation between them and the techniques presented earlier.  

So to sum up - I'm glad I borrowed this one from the library before buying it.  As much as I like crochet and adore embellishment, I won't be adding this one to my permanent collection.

Several people have written to ask for the pattern for the teeny Red Sox sock. 

It's pretty much the same as the sock patterns on wiseNeedle.  If you've done a toe-up sock with a Figure-8 no-sew toe and a short rowed heel, you've got it.  I don't want to re-write the entire thing with detailed instructions here.  For that you can go to any of the sock patterns on wiseNeedle:

http://www.wiseneedle.com/knitpatterns.asp#socks

But here's an abbreviated version.  For any how-tos or further details, refer to the comparable section of any of these other sock patterns.

Teeny Red Sox Sock
(c) 2004, Kim Brody Salazar
Permission granted to link to this pattern and make socks for personal
consumption, but not to reproduce the pattern or make socks for sale
 without the author's consent

1 card Special Blauband darning yarn, bright red
1 card Special Blauband darning yarn, white
1 set of five double pointed needles in any teeny size you have, preferably #000 or smaller

Gauge:  Pretty much unimportant, although the darning yarn looks best at 12 stitches per inch or smaller.

Using the white yarn, work a figure-8 cast on starting with two needles and four loops on each needle.  Knit the first row as usual, taking care to untwist the stitches that will be mounted wrong on one of your needles.

Toe and Foot:
Row 1: k1, M1, k1. Using another dpn, k1, M1, k1. Using a third dpn, k1, M1, K1. Using the fourth dpn - K1, M1, K1. You should now have 4 live needles in your work, each with 3 stitches on it.

Row 2: Knit all stitches.

Row 3: *k1, M1, k2. K2, M1, K1* repeat.  Each needle should now have four stitches on it.  Your toe is done.

Row 4: Switch to red and continue knitting until sock measures approximately 3/4 of an inch measured from the tip of the toe.


Heel:
Determine where the bottom of your foot will be.  With white yarn, work the following on the two needles that hold the stitches for the bottom of the foot.  Think of the two needles that hold those stitches as being one unit:
Row 1 of decrease: K7, yf, slip next stitch purlwise onto right needle. Turn work.

Row 2: Yf (wrapping the yarn around the slipped stitch that was just slipped and return it to the right hand needle - it should look like it has been lassoed by a noose), p6, slip the next stitch purlwise (keeping the yarn in front of the work). Turn work.

Row 3: Yf (wrapping the yarn around the stitch you just slipped and returning it to the right hand needle), K5, yf, slip the next stitch knitwise onto the right needle. Turn work.

Row 4: Yf (wrapping the yarn around the stitch you just slipped and returning it to the right hand needle), p4, slip the next stitch purlwise (keeping the yarn in front of the work). Turn work.

Row 5 (first increase row :) K4, knit the next stitch through the back along with the wrapped loop around its base. (I do this by picking up the loop on the point of my right hand needle, then knitting the loop and the stitch together), yf, slip next stitch knitwise onto the right needle. Turn work.

Row 6: Yf, (wrapping the yarn around the slipped stitch so that there are now TWO wraps at its base and returning it to the other needle), p5, purl the next stitch along with the loop wrapped around its base, slip next stitch purlwise (keeping the yarn in the front of the work). Turn work.

Row 7: Yf (wrapping the yarn around the base of the slipped stitch and returning it to the other needle), k6, knit the next stitch through the back of the loop along with the two loops wrapped around its base, yf, slip next stitch knitwise onto right needle, DO NOT TURN WORK.

Ankle and Ribbing:

Switch back to red, and continue knitting entirely around the ankle of the sock.  On the first row of the ankle when you get around to the white stitch at the right hand edge of the heel, knit it along with the wraps around its base.  Continue to work in stockinette until it is approximately 3/4 of an inch measured from the top of the heel

Ribbing Row 1:  *K1 red, K1 white* repeat

Ribbing Row 2 and 3: *K1 red, P1 white* repeat

Bind off all stitches using red.  Darn in ends.

Fully fashioned toe-up, short row heel sock with corrugated ribbing, 16 stitches around.  Knit from Froelich Special-Dekatur reinforcement yarn using US #00000 (1.0mm) needles.  Approximately 1 inch (2.5cm) from top of cuff to bottom of heel, and approximately 13spi/20rpi.  I may not be wearing my heart on my sleeve, but I will be wearing a tiny sock on my lapel.

Well, teens are known for being fickle and changing their minds.  My just-barely-teen is typical.  She's decided she didn't like the patterns I'd been swatching, and picked out another from my stitch dictionary library.  It's "Serpentine Rib" from Barbara Walker's Fourth Treasury of Knitting  Patterns, p. 216.  The kid has good instincts, though. I have to agree with her.  The stuff I'd been playing with looked way too clunky in the scale yarn I was using.  We're both happy now, and I'm off an running.

One very minor glitch -  I have to say that I've caught the sainted Barbara in a rare mistake.  Her graph presents even numbered rows (right side rows) of the pattern.  The direction for the set-up and subsequent wrong side odd-numbered rows is given in prose.  It's given as "*P2tog, YO, P8: rep from *, end last repeat p2.  It's off by one stitch (not a big mistake), and it's pretty obvious if you've ever worked faggotting in lace knitting.  If you start the wrong side row at that point Walker does, you won't produce the neat wavy lines of openwork as shown in her illustration. 

Here's my own graph of the corrected pattern, showing both odd and even numbered rows.  If you try this one, be sure to remember that it does start on an odd numbered, wrong side row:

In the mean time, I've cast on for the poncho and have knit about 2 inches, the first of which is in seed stitch so that the edge doesn't curl too badly.  I don't like the width though.  I may end up ripping back and working one fewer repeats, narrowing the body somewhat.  Otherwise I have the sneaking suspicion that I'll run out of yarn.  Not a good sign if I'm unsure this early in the project...

Still unplying.  Nothing much to report that's interesting on that front, so I turn to an old stand-by.  Yet another review of A Knitting Book that Time Forgot^TM.

This one is This is Knitting by Ethel Evans.  It was published in New York by Macmillan, and bears a copyright date of 1948.  Here's a typical page.

Evans book is clearly different from the Teenage Knitting book I wrote about earlier this week.  For starters, it's aimed at a general knitting audience, not one that's mostly high school and college aged.  It's divided more or less in half.  The first half presents about 40 knitting patterns for women, plus 20 each for babies, and men.  The second half of the book is a stitch dictionary, giving photos and directions for about 80 or so knitting standards, including knit/purl textures, simple cables, basic lace stitches, and even some tweedy linen stitch style colorwork.  There are no stitches in this collection that aren't also in either Walker 's First or Second Treasury. 

Directions are entirely in prose and like the other book, avoid confusing shorthand but are incomplete by modern standards.  Finishing directions are rudimentary at best "Press pieces, sew up."  Shaping isn't dealt with well.  Some photos of the adult garments clearly show more shaping than the pattern pieces as written will yield (perhaps judicious tailoring was done during sewing up, but that isn't mentioned).  Buttonhole placement isn't described at all, although directions for buttonholes follow some patterns.  I-cord trim used on some adult jackets is only hinted at, although it is clearly shown on the photos.

Some other odd things stand out about this book.  First, there are no patterns for kids garments between about two years of age and late adolescence (when they can wear grown-up stuff).  Second, the rudimentary how-to section is illustrated by flat photos of knitting on knitting needles - no hands holding them or in-process shots.  It's tough to see what is supposed to be happening in those photos.  My guess is that the how to section is just preaching to the choir.  I don't think the author ever intended for anyone to actually learn knitting from this book.  Maybe to use it as a refresher to remember skills learned long ago, but certainly not as a prime source of knowledge.

That being said, patterns here are more of the classics.  Simple cardigans, pullovers, jackets and vests, almost all with shoulder pads.  There are a couple of patterns written at worsted gauge (5spi); but most hover around 8spi.   Mens patterns are restricted to very conservative vests.  Even so, if you like fine gauge retro classic, you'll find several wide-ribbed, body hugging women's (and men's) pieces that might pique your interest.  

The two more valuable sections of the book are the baby patterns and the accessory patterns.  All of the baby knits are very simple, classic shapes that are wonderfully wearable today.  There are several layette sets with matching hats, sweaters, booties and mittens abound.  There is a surplice sweater plus several baby blankets that are particularly nice - the blankets being mostly the center panel in a texture stitch/wide garter or seed stitch border type.  All of the baby things are very simple in design, but again like the adult patterns, the write-ups aren't as detailed as new knitters might like.  Still, shapes and techniques are basic enough for an adventurous newbie to use this book, provided he or she is of the plunge-on-through mindset.   Sadly the copy I borrowed had several pages torn from the center of the baby pattern section, including the instructions for both the sweater and blanket I liked best.  (Death to the mutilators of library books!)

Accessories can be found throughout the thing.   There's a triangular head scarf that my daughter tells me would pass muster in her high school today.  Gloves, socks and mittens are here, too.  The glove patterns look especially nice.  There's one pair with triple cabled back I especially like.  One shortcoming - the argyle sock pattern in this book is severely simplified, and doesn't sport those nifty cross-hatchings that distinguish a true argyle from a plain old diamond pattern - probably because NO charts are used anywhere in the directions and the write-up on where to put all those single-stitch wide lines (or to position them using duplicate stitch) would have driven the copy editor mad.

Like most of these older books anyone trying to duplicate patterns will probably run into yarn substitution problems.  Looking at the list of yarns used in the book, my starting (and unswatched) swapping suggestions would be:

Yarn/typical gauge in book	Modern Substitute
Knitting Worsted/5-6spi	Modern DK weight wool, like  Heirloom Easy Care 8-ply
Germantown yarn/5spi	True worsted, like Cascade 220
Sport Yarn/7-8spi	Fingering weight wool (too many different styles of item use this in the book to peg it down to just one)
Shetland Floss	Light fingering weight wool, like Jamiesons Shetland Spindrift
3-ply Saxony/8spi	Easy care fingering weight baby wool.  Dale Baby Ull would work.
2-ply Saxony/10spi	Lighter weight fingering.  Patons Kroy 3-ply?  Brown Sheep Wildfoot? Regia 3-Ply?
2-Ply Angora/8spi	Fingering weight angora. Austermann Angora Wolle?
Sock yarn/8spi	Most modern sock yarns, Regia, Socka, Fortissima
Crochet cotton/9 spi knit	Modern cotton sock yarns. Fortissima Cotton, Regia Cotton

To sum up - not as useful nor as easy to follow as the Teenage Knitting Book.  This is Knitting has some items of note, especially in the baby section and for glove knitters, but other than those, the book is interesting more as a historical document than as a still-living instruction book.

Side question:  Do people find these reviews interesting or useful?  Does anyone else care about old books found in musty library stacks, or about knitting's recent history?