The holiday has come and gone, and now only we remain. The good news is that I discovered that:

1. Brussels sprouts taste surprisingly good if they're tossed in olive oil and roasted briefly in a hot oven, then sprinkled with coarse salt.
2. I can knit four giant gauge hats in one afternoon.
3. If you're under 10, wearing a princess costume and a rhinestone tiara to a regional theater matinee isn't considered overdressing.
4. This year's Beaujolais Nouveau is lighter and less banana-riffic than last year's and as such is more pleasant for afternoon sipping while the bird is being basted. But find something with more backbone to go with the dinner itself.
   

The bad news is:

1. I don't like Idena Crazy (also and confusingly marked with the Asa Gjestal distributor name), a heavy sport/light DK weight yarn intended for socks. While it knit up fast into an attractive but rather pedestrian striping, it's relatively scratchy for sock yarn, plus it had knots and uncomfortable sized slubs. Not one I'll be buying again.
2. If your roasting pan is too large and impedes the flow of hot air in your oven, your turkey ends up cooked with a dried out, hard integument instead of a deliciously toothsome skin, even if the meat is juicy perfect.
3. There is nothing so kitschy on earth as a bad crafts fair.
   

The story behind it all. We had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday with my husband's mother. In spite of the turkey disappointment dinner was quite nice.

Friday we went to a large crafts fair. I was expecting something like the ones I'd gone to in Northern Virginia - a mix of holiday stuff, trite crafty nonsense, but with a nice proportion of pieces displayed by artisans with talent.

Instead what we found was an indoor quarter acre of Polarfleece doll clothes; badly covered footstools tricked out with sports logo prints; cutesypoo faux rustic signs suitable for hanging in (some people's) bathrooms, dried floral arrangements that looked more like what's left over after the haystacks are neatened; fuzzy scarves worked up from Lion Fun Fur, marked at $30. each (since they weren't selling, I'd say the fad has finally passed); cheap silver jewelry imported from China and India; and countrified things with ruffles but without purpose. No decent watercolorists, pewterers, silversmiths, potters, or printmakers. The kicker was one booth that was stocked entirely with beer cans into which someone had put clock hands and mechanism. One fellow had nicely turned wooden bowls. One person was showing not horrific pieced glass ornaments. One outfit had some interesting wooden puzzles and brain teasers. The only thing we ended up buying was a jar of respectably hot horseradish mustard, made in Vermont. Our amusement came mostly from pointing and laughing.

Saturday made up for Friday's craft fair fiasco. We took the kids and MIL to a regional theater production of Beauty and the Beast. The cast was quite talented, much better than I expected, and there was something refreshing on seeing a play that relied on their talents rather than $10,000. costumes and intense special effects. If you're local to the Boston metro area and want to bring kids to live theater without breaking the bank on big-production ticket costs, check out this production. It's well worth it, even if you end up having to borrow the kids.

Several people wrote to ask about the 42-stitch hats I mentioned yesterday. I attempt to answer.

The pattern (such as it is) is widely available. Cleckheaton has a version that they authorize yarn shops to give away with purchase of Gusto 10 that's written to be specific to the yardage of that product. I've also seen very similar hats in several of the beginners' books so popular now, distributed as shop patterns by LYSs, and posted other places on the Web. Basically, it's a hat boiled down to its barest essentials - a very large gauge stockinette tube with a crown formed by simple decreases. The brim is formed by the natural tendency of stockinette to roll.

1. Find at least 55 yards of yarn that knits up to about 9 or 9.25 stitches = 4 inches. I got 9 with Cleckheaton Gusto, and 9.25 with Brown Sheep Bulky Spun. The Bulky Spun hats measure a bit under 18.5 inches around the lower edge, and stretch for a comfy fit on adults. The Gusto hats are just under 18.7 inches around the lower edge.

2. Cast on 42 stitches, and knit stockinette in the round. I used plain old half-hitch cast on to avoid a tight edge, and to conserve yarn. I did the whole thing on a set of four size US #13 DPNs, but if you hate double points you could do it on two circs, or start on one short circ, then move to DPNs.

3. Knit tube until it's long enough to both cover your ears and reach just under the crest of your head. That's about 7.5 to 8.5 inches, including the rolled brim (which should be flattened out to measure). If you've only got 55 yards of a superbulky, don't make this part deeper than 8 inches.

4. Divide the stitches into 6 groups of 6. If you're on DPNs, that means placing a marker (or remembering the spot) in between the two center most stitches of each DPN. Finish the hat by working six consecutive rows of knit with decreases, always working a decrease just before a marker or (if you're on DPNs), the needle's end - that's six decrease points around the hat. You can work either K2tog or SSK, as you prefer, choose one and work it throughout the piece. If you pick K2tog, the decreases should stack up and spiral in counterclockwise to the center. If you pick SSK, the spiral should end up running clockwise. When you've got only six stitches left, thread break off the yarn and thread them up on the tail, drawing them up purse style. Darn in ends.

Note that you can make this hat larger or smaller by adding multiples of six stitches. A little kid size hat out of the same weight yarn would start out on 36 stitches.

If you pick a lighter-weight yarn, increase the cast on number by units of six, how many will depend on your yarn. For example, if you're using a yarn that's 10 to 10.5 stitches = 4 inches, 42 stitches would probably be a bit small, I'd aim for 48 stitches and hope that the fit wouldn't be too large.

I wouldn't attempt this hat with yarn that's much lighter than 2.75 stitches per inch (11 stitches = 4 inches) for two reasons. First, much of the charm of this rustic-looking funky hat depends on the bulk and body of the yarn used. The silky firmness of dense Gusto is more satisfying than the less-dense Bulky Spun. Lighter weight yarns would be even more floppy. Plus I'd need to do more experimentation to satisfy myself that every-row ratio of crown decreases would work out as nicely as it does on the heavier-yarn hats.



Finally I have to note that I don't like knitting yarns at these huge gauges. I can knit non-stop for hours on sock weight yarn, but this big stuff tires out my fingers. Also this is the first project I've ever worked on DPNs where if you look closely, you can pick out where my DPNS met. Feh.

Caught unawares by the early date for Hannukah, plus the realization that Christmas isn't far behind, I take a detour into knitting small gifts for friends, family, and other deserving folks.

[Side brag] The Older Daughter just finished her second project - the classic Cleckheaton Gusto 10 42-stitch hat. She learned to knit on DPNs in the round, and I got a great hint for a flock of small presents.

Gusto 10 is a very dense superbulky yarn. It's not very expensive, but at $9.00 US per hat (55 yards), it can add up quickly. I'm making several of the same hats, but instead I'm using Brown Sheep Burly Spun.? It's just a tad less dense than the Gusto, but at $14.00 for 132 yards, I can get two hats from each skein with a bit left over. Last night I did the first two in about 45 minutes each. I've planned to make four - two deep red and two royal blue. I may get an extra skein in another crayon color and make three more - two more solids, plus one striped one from the leftovers of all three skeins. Or I might make a couple of earwarmer bands from the red and blue leftovers. All in all, not an exciting set of projects, but a satisfying and quick one.

Other gifts in the works - several pairs of socks, knit at sport gauge rather than my standard personal-consumption teeny gauge. (Again the time factor). Plus I think I'll give the Spring Lightning Scarf as a gift.

On the kid's knitting, she's getting too quick to keep feeding her superbulky yarns and giant gauges. I won't be able to afford both our knitting habits. [grin]? So I've started her on a set of wristlets, done in sock yarn in the round on US #2 DPNs. We're adding purling to her skills set with this ribbed project. Those should keep her out of trouble for a while.

Something must be in the air, because several people have written to me this week asking if toe-up socks are more difficult than standard cuff-down socks, or if I could venture an opinion on how they fit and wore compared to cuff-down socks. Perhaps this is a product of all the people hoping to knit up one last holiday present before the end of the year. In any case, I'll try to answer.

Why Toe-Ups?

1. I detest doing that last boring slog from heel to toe, especially because I find all on-foot patterning to be uncomfortable inside my shoes, so my feet are always done in plain old stockinette. If I leave the feet for last I'll NEVER finish the socks. So I do them first, get them over with, and then have the fun of the patterned ankle part.

2. I'm not particularly fond of grafting. I can do it, but it's a pain. Toe-ups let me avoid that step.

3. I like being able to pause and slip the growing socks on to make sure the fit is perfect. That's easy with toe-ups.

4. I like not having to worry about yarn consumption. If I'm using 50g skeins, I knit the ankle part until I run out of yarn. If I'm using a 100g skein, I knit to the same length as another pair of socks, or if I want to eke out every inch, I put Sock #1 aside without binding it off, then knit Sock #2 on another set of needles. Once both are the same length, I'll finish off the ribbings side by side, one from either end of the ball, making sure that I use every scrap.

5. If I feel like using the two-circ method, my toe-ups with their short-rowed heels adapt with no fuss at all to that method.

Toe-Up Fit

Toe-ups with short rowed heels are narrower at the point where the ankle joins the foot than are standard heel flap/box heel socks. Some people, especially those with high insteps find them confining. I don't, even though I have BIG feet for a fem (recently remeasured to Euro 42/US 10.5EEE). If you feel this might be a problem, look for a toe-up pattern with an inverted standard heel rather than a short-rowed heel.

Ease of Working

I don't find toe-ups to be any more difficult than heel flap socks. In fact, I find them easier. Using the short-row heel and five needles, once I'm past the initial toe I ALWAYS have the same number of stitches on each needle - even during heel production. That makes it easy to put down and restart my socks. That's a good thing because socks are usually my briefcase project and get done in tiny spurts.

Many people complain about my favorite cast-on for toe-ups - the no-sew figure-8 toe. (It's Judy Gibson's, I'm just one of her sock disciples). They say it's too fiddly, or they can't get it to work, or it's too loose. To be fair, it IS fiddly, but it's worth it. The secret is letting that first row be miserably ugly and loose, but taking care not to split the yarn as it is worked. Once a couple of rounds have been established, it's very easy to go back and use a needle tip to snick up the looseness. A little care will work the looseness past the knot that forms at the base of the tail, and out from the sock to become part of the dangling end.

If you give up or just don't want to bother with the no-sew figure-8 toe, there are tons of other toe-up sock patterns out there that use different starting methods. Wendy has one. Or you can start with a provisional cast on, then go back and Kitchener darn the toe up later.

Look of Short Rowed Heels

Knitzanknitzanknitz asked about how short-rowed heels in self stripers look. Here are a couple of mine:



With a little care and willingness to make the sock a row or two longer/shorter you can plan your heels to miter on the breaks between the striper's color changes.

Sources for Toe Up Patterns

To be immodest - there are mine. wiseNeedle has toe up patterns for several gauges.

The toe-up pattern that started me off and running is by no-sew toe guru Judy Gibson. Wendy Johnson has a popular toe-up pattern, and there's another at Needletrax. There's a toe up tutorial at the Socknitters website, and Flor's got one as well. One of the oldest toe up patterns on the web was done by Manny Olds. Google on "toe up socks" for zillions more.

It's growing on me. I like it more now that there is more of it done. I'm still not 100% pleased, but I'm no longer at the edge of the rip back and start all over mindset.



I think I made the right call by not continuing with the birds eye pattern uninterrupted for the entire piece. I've switched over to plain garter stitch for the center, ornamented with a coordinating band of eyelets marching up the spine.

For the record, I've made a slight change in the Birds Eye pattern that I think looks just a tad better. On the chart provided, on rows 3, 7, 11, 15, 19 (etc.) I work the ssk that forms the right hand corner of the big eyelet as a K2tog. This gives a slightly better definition to that corner of each ring.

I tried to abstract out just one column of eyelets from the main design for my spine, but I didn't like the look. Because the original does that half-drop translation thing (staggered like brick walls are stacked), the eyelets ended up being spaced too far apart. Instead I used a similar design lifted from one of the edging patterns in Miller's book. It's from "Ring Shawl Lace Edging with Spider Insertion." I'm using just the Spider insertion strip. It complements the all-over Birds Eye pattern in that it's also ring based, but it's slightly different. Spider is one row shorter than the Birds Eye, and the eyelets stack directly one on top of each other. In BE, the slightly embossed eyelet rings all appear on the same side of the piece. In Spider, they alternate front and back. It's still good looking and being airy, matches nicely, but the ring units ARE different.

Now I'm looking at my shawl and I'm beginning to think that with this growing plain garter stitch area something interesting floating in it might be quite effective. Or maybe not (that variegated yarn color problem again.) Hmmm.....

Back at station. There's a giant hole in the world today where a dear friend of mine used to be. "Kinsmen die, cattle die. Every man is mortal, but one thing never dies: the?good name of one who has earned it." Havamal, 75.

My heart aches for his wife, son, family, and household.

---

As promised, here is the second review of the set - Montse Stanley's Creating & Knitting Your Own Designs for a Perfect Fit, New York,?Harper and Row, 1982.

In the days before knitting software, books like this one, personal apprenticeship, or trial and error were the ways one learned how to draft out one's own patterns. Not knowing anyone who was doing designs to ask for help, I relied exclusively on the "books plus making lots of mistakes" scenario for most of what I knit. A couple of books in particular were worth their weight in gold. This was one. The pictures and projects illustrated in C&K are now a bit late '70s funk/frumpy looking, but the basics of this book are as good as ever.

This book is so good in fact that I have used it in training classes for budding technical and professional writers, to illustrate how a complex set of technical concepts can be conveyed to an audience that includes both the experienced and novices without losing either of those readerships. The blurb says Stanley was an architect. I believe it, and would love to find out what sort of things she designed because the clarity of her thought processes rings from her pages.


It's a survey course in knit design and technique, packaged up in an amazingly brief 175 pages - including index and custom graph paper. Like Perfect Fit, this book covers taking measurements and turning them into dimensioned schematics. Like PF, it skips over making a sloper - but unlike that book it translates the measurements directly to specific vectors on the garments, rather than to an abstract and idealized shape. Therefore short waisted people end up with garments that start out being custom-fit to that figure type, rather than taking a standard shape and altering it to meet their needs. Stanley goes further, taking the brilliant step of introducing ratio-based graph paper into the garment design. You knit up a swatch, figure out your stitch:row ratio, and select the graph paper that matches the closest. You can then lay out your collar shapings or other details "in real time."? Need a 40-degree angle?? Slap a protractor on the graph paper and draw your line. The graph boxes under it each represent a real stitch, and the rate of increase or decrease needed to achieve that angle are easily seen and counted. The book includes about ten pages of ratio graph paper for photocopying. I don't know if anyone else wrote a knitting book that advocated the use of ratio-based graph paper before Stanley, but nothing else I've found has so clearly explained how to use it.

Stanley didn't just publish a graph paper book, she includes an extensive section on knitting technique, including finishing, grafting, short rows (darts),? mitering, picking up, and types of increases and decreases. She's got a stitch dictionary section? (all prose, none graphed); sections on materials and suitability, color, composition, and garment shapes - including a huge array of body, sleeve, closure, neckline, collar, and pocket options. Each garment shape is illustrated with a little line drawing, and has a brief prose description - usually enough to get one started drafting out that option on one's own. The placement of critical measurements on these little drawings enables seeing how the garment works in relation to body shape/size.

There's a section on moving beyond combos of these garment shape units; how color, knit direction, motif/texture placement and trim can greatly alter the look of a basic garment. Again this is illustrated with little line drawings, some woefully '70s in feel. Even though some are out of date, the wealth of them can start the reader's thought processes ticking.

The book closes out with a section on troubleshooting - what to do to correct styles (too long/short, narrow/wide), miscalculations (messed up texture or colorwork patterns), misplaced openings or buttonholes and the like. Add on some basic size charts, growth allowances charts for kids' clothing, ease allowance charts, a few other quick calculation look-up charts, some color photos of finished items and discussions of them (but not whole patterns) and you've got this book.

I admit that a book like this is less valuable today than it used to be. Knitting design software has enabled a much wider audience to do basic pattern drafting without resorting to calculators, graph paper and pencil. But this book will still be very useful for anyone who wants to move beyond? the "black box" mystery mechanism use of that software. For example, you can start off with a knitting software-generated simple cardigan, then get inspired by this book to turn it into a jacket with an asymmetrical closure slanting from hip to shoulder. Stanley won't tell you the exact stitch count or formula for that translation, but you will emerge from reading the her brief on that style with enough knowledge to make the change on your own. I suspect that everyone who has written a knitting design software package has?C&K on her or his shelf.

Montse Stanley's work (in combo with?that of a couple of other authors) has made a tremendous difference in the way I knit, the way I look at and use patterns, and the scope of what I feel is within my own limited competence.One warning - this book IS?hard to come by, and sells used at a premium above cover price. But if you can find it and afford it, and?want the inspiration and enabling it contains, I strongly recommend adding C&K to your library.

Just knitting along on the Birds Eye shawl. I'm not entirely pleased with the way the color interferes with the eyelet patterning. Perhaps I should rip back and make something plainer.

You can best make out the eyelets near the bottom point. For the record, I'm knitting on 2.5mm needles. Without the jumble of color, both th eneedles and the eyelets would be more visible. For all the complexity of the chart, the repeat is actually quite easy to? memorize. It's 4 rows x 6 stitches, with a half-drop translation.

I've now worked into the spot where I'm modifying the pattern by inserting a region of plain garter. As soon as I have more of that done, I'll take another photo to see if the difference in texture is worth the effort. Or perhaps I'll throw in the towel and find or create another visually simpler pattern.

The blue poncho is done!? I had wanted to do something more elaborate with the crocheted border, but the Target Daughter reminded me that it being for her, I might like to hold off on the wild part. I had forgotten that as an early teen one wants to be different from everyone else in exactly the same way as all of one's friends. Target Daughter thought that too much crochet would make the piece too frou-frou. and requested something simpler.

I ended up using the chain selvedge edges as my foundation, and working with only one ply of my de-plied yarn (in contrast, the knitted part is worked with two plies). Into each of the existing?elongated selvedge edge stitches I did?this unit:

2 double crochet, (chain 3 slip stitch in base of chain to make picot), 2 double crochet

I fudged as best I could along the cast-on and bind-off edges of the rectangles. This made a very simple slightly scalloped edge, with little picots marching along it. Using the thinner yarn kept it delicate and in proportion to the lacy bits made by the knitted drop stitch technique.

While this wasn't my favorite project ever knitted, my dislike for this project was mostly due to the interminable un-plying. The piece itself knit up and trimmed out extremely quickly. I really like the post-wash softness of the wool I used, and the airy drape of the finished poncho. If you wanted to achieve a similar effect, use a yarn that's thinner than the one called for in the original Classic Elite pattern. Although the yarn as a whole before I unwound the plies knits up like a heavy sport weight (not quite DK), my unspinning it made it alot more lofty My extracted single plies?are about a fluffy as opposed to hard-twisted?fingering weight in thickness, two of these fluffy beasts knit on conventional as opposed to the wildly large needles I used would knit up at standard DK gauge (22 st=10cm or 4 inches, probably on a US #5 or so).

Birds Eye Shawl

On to the next project. My Birds Eye shawl, done in Lorna's Laces Helen's Lace in purples, and adapated from the free pattern posted by Sharon Miller on her Heirloom Knitting website. I'm about?6 inches into the thing, measured from the starting point at the triangle's tip. I'm having fun with it, but I think the variegated yarn is overpowering the eyelet design. Since it's turning into massive effort for less of a return than I had originally hoped, as described before I'll work a wide band of eyelets left and right, and a single eyelet column as a spine up the center back. The rest I'll do in garter or stockinette. I've started on this modification, but have had to rip back a few times because I hadn't quite gotten the math right on the pattern transformation. I was ending up with too many stitches because I was including some YOs that had no accompanying decreases. More charting is my next step. I'll report back on this in my next post.

More on Blocking

A couple of people have asked where I do my blocking, or if I use a blocking board. I have to admit that I'm not that organized. Until recently I didn't have a place to stow a piece of wallboard or a commercial blocking board. We have a mostly bare floors house, with?8x10-foot rugs in only a couple of the rooms. Two kids, but no free-range pets. Depending on traffic, whether or not the piece might bleed dye, I throw some beach towels over either the white Berber style rug (my bedroom) or blue fake oriental?rug (family room)?and pin out on the towels.

General Kvelling

See this??

Aside from a couple of fuzzy narrow scarves in garter stitch, it's Target Daughter's first knitting project!? She used some bits of leftover Manos del Uruguay?from my stash, and we started with the Booga Bag pattern. I admit we didn't actually follow it, but we did borrow its general idea - a rectangle of garter stitch, pick up around the edges and work a tube in the round, in stockinette. Make I-cord for handles.

In total I think there's about skein and a third of the brown/paprika Canyon color, a third of a ball of dark brown (the bottom of the bag, plus the first three or so rows of the tube); and a third of a skein of gold (the stripe and the handles). It's hard to give exact totals though as all was in little balls and I didn't bother to weigh it first. We fulled?the bag?in the washing machine by tossing into two hot wash/cold rinse loads of dark colored towels.

Her next project is the one-skein Gusto 10 hat, and mastering double points and decreases. After that it's on to purling, and wherever else knitting takes her. She's muttering things about replicating sprites from her GameBoy games, so perhaps it will be Intarsia or stranding...