Mail and comments have brought some inquires:

How did the panforte turn out?

Looks great. It's extremely dense, but not brittle-hard, with a deep cocoa/spice/fruit aroma. The recipe calls for coating the entire cake in bittersweet chocolate before serving. We plan on having ours at a party on Sunday. Since I won't be tempering the chocolate, I didn't want to coat it too soon. To do so would mean I'd have to find fridge space for it. So I covered it tightly in plastic wrap and let it sit out on the sideboard. (I might pour something spirituous over it between now and Sunday, just for fun.) Sunday it gets coated and served. Reports on Monday for sure.

And the cookies?

I'm still behind on cookie production. So far I've done the peanut butter cookies, the chocolate chip cookies, the brownie crinkles (to die for!). plain old sugar cut-outs (mine are flavored with lots of lemon), the rum balls, and the Mexican wedding cakes. Today's agenda includes Oysters but with walnuts instead of hazelnuts (I ran out of hazelnuts, but have a ton of walnuts left), and a cookie with marzipan filling. I'd originally planned on doing a chocolate cookie with the almond filling, but I've already got several chocolate varieties. Perhaps a cinnamon cookie instead... I'll be figuring this one out on the fly. That leaves two more before we've got the requisite 10 kinds in house, not counting the party-destined panforte. One may be orange drop cookies (recipe in hand from a dear friend who lives far away). Not quite sure what I'll do for the last one yet. Suggestions are welcome.

The monitor?

"It's dead, Jim."

It's a classic case of you get what you pay for. I didn't have much to spare at the time I got it, so I opted for a bargain basement model. There's a reason it was so inexpensive. If you're monitor shopping, avoid Samsun SynchMaster 997DFs, even if they're so cheap they're almost free.

However I'm happy to report that a solution is on the way. Having had the foresight to register this dog, it's still under warranty. The horizontal control transistor problem is well known. The official Samsung remedy for blown horizontal transistors still under warranty is to replace the whole thing. So they're shipping me a new unit. For free. When it arrives, I'm to box up the dead one and mail it back. (They do hold a credit card deposit until the dead one arrives back at the warehouse). So with luck, by the New Year - give or take a couple of days, I should be able to work outside my 3-inch square box. Which is just as well. Squinting at the type in this teeny window is tiring in the extreme.

What am I going to knit when the gift knitting is done?

Back to the Birds Eye shawl and the Crazy Raglan. The latter item just turned up. It sprang out of nothingness as I was hunting for the boxes in which we stowed the holiday cards. (I never found the cards...) Which proves the point. If you've lost something and can't find it, look for something else and your problem child is sure to turn up.

I'd mentioned knitting the 42-stitch hats earlier. I've got them, they're cute, but I thought they needed a certain something to make them truly special. I've got six now, two each of red, purple, and blue because each skein of Brown Sheep Burly Spun makes two hats with a tad left over. So I went looking for inspiration in several spots that have trims, embellishments and the like.

Of course I checked out Epstein's Knitted Embellishments and her new Knitting on the Edge. I won't be buying On The Edge, too much duplicates the KE book already on my shelf, plus I have most of the sources she drew upon, so there's very little there new to me. Nice photos, though. Useful if your library isn't as out of control as mine, or if visual inspiration is key to your thought process.

I also looked through Thomas' Knitting Book to check out picot point knitting, and a couple of other books that had tassels or other freeform motifs. I even dipped into my crochet resources, but crochet in finger-wide bulky yarn looks ridiculous to me. I tried out several knit flower and leaf type motifs, but nothing quite hit the spot as being bold enough for the ultra-bulky hat.

Then while taking my daily blogstroll, in a fit of serendipity, I hit on Nanette's Knitting in Color (she of the stranded colorwork book and bunny haven). There she'd posted some directions for knitted stars, worked from the outside edge in. Even in supergiant yarn with a distinctly ruffled look her stars are perfect for my hats!



I played with them a bit, working them up in the round instead of flat to spare myself the joy of a purl side double decrease and a seam, and using a double decrease that leaves the centermost stitch on top. (This first pilot star was done with the decreases as described in the original directions). I had just enough left over from each skein of my Burly Spun to make two stars, plus have a bit extra for sewing and surface embroidery.

More holiday gift socks. Nothing special, nothing exciting (and nothing learned).

I knit these last night from Schoeller+Stahl's 6-ply version of Fortissima Colori/Socka Color. It's a smidge lighter than DK weight. I've added into on the length of its color cycle to the striper repeat chart I posted earlier. All in all a very quick and satisfying pair. A bit heavy for my own sock wearing preferences (I prefer 4-ply regular sock weight yarn knit at tiny gauges), but nice none the less. Another blurry photo:



I find it easier to knit self-stripers when I'm watching TV or a computer game. Otherwise I'm tempted to watch my fingers and micro-adjust my tension to modify the striping effect. That never quite works out right. So I save this type of autopilot knitting for when I'm otherwise distracted.

Cookies

I've gotten some good-natured ribbing back on the cookies. For the record, I'm no domestic diva. Martha Stewart makes me think of those Victorian women's magazines, filled with advice on decorating a status-conscious parlor, complete with directions for crocheted chair leg cozies and decorated cardboard toothpick holders. Then I shudder.

I'm more of a tallish, glasses-wearing, workbooted, aging grrlnerd with a weakness for needlework, history, books and good food. Not necessarily in that order.

My holiday knitting. I'm pleased to say the Hannukah socks were graciously received by someone who both knows and appreciates hand knitting.

The scarves aren't scheduled for distribution until later this month, but as all are to be mailed, should be boxed up as soon as possible. Here they are:

First, the blue one for which I offered up the texture pattern earlier in the week.



Not terribly exciting, but soft and warm. And blue. I'm debating whether or not to fringe this one. Fringes aren't my favorite edge treatment as they often look ratty too quickly, but I have a feeling that this recipient would like them.

Second, the gray alpaca Kombu scarf is finished. Here's another blurry photo to prove it:



And finally, after sitting completed (but never used) since earlier this summer, the Spring Lightning scarf joins its siblings in this year's gift parade:



I love it, but I think the intended target will love it more. Plus, I can always make another. I did however want to take a final good picture of it for use in the pattern I plan on posting on wiseNeedle (which I'm still writing).

Two more hats and two more pairs of socks and I can return to my regularly scheduled knitting.

Last week I posted a review of the Debbie Bliss Yarns website. The Blissfolk were kind enough to offer up feedback. You can read it in the comments appended to that day's entry.

Although I accessed the old site and reviewed it on November 30, 2004, apparently the site I visited had been replaced by a newer one, although redirects from the old to the new URL weren't working a month after the stated fix was published. That error has been corrected. So in the interests of fairness, I review the site again.

Debbie Bliss Knitwear

The beneficiary of a general look/feel aesthetic overhaul, the new Debbie Bliss website is still divided into three main sections, patterns, yarns, and information. It offers up much the same material as before, with a couple of clarifications and enhancements. As noted before, the site offers limited retail capability, but a clarification has been added in several spots, noting that it sells pattern books direct, but not the yarns. The books are offered to customers world-wide, and there's an exchange rate tool to see how costs work out in international currencies.

DB now offers a for-fee membership club, similar in concept to Rowan's. It's implied that there will be a members-only chat area to support the club, but any password-protected or limited access section of the website isn't active yet. Personally, I'm not fond of this trend. Even though members get a scarf kit, newsletters, and supplemental patterns for their annual 28? (international cost, about $54.50 US at the current exchange rate) , I don't like the idea of creating two-tier systems of paid customer support. While it works for appliances, I find the thought of restricting help to an "inner circle" who pay above and beyond the cost of the base books to be antithetical to the concept of publishing in general. Perhaps I'm missing something, and there's a subculture of designer-devotee knitters out there that work both exclusively and enough from one maker's line to justify this sort of fee, but I've never met one.

The yarns section is the most changed. It's vastly improved from the previous sketchy offering. Yarns are illustrated by small color chips. Fiber specs, yardage/weight, recommended needle size and gauge are all documented. There are no photographs of yarns in their retail put-ups, nor are there photos of swatches. Yarn appearance has to be deduced from the roughly 2.5cm square color chips alone. There is an on-page link to local UK stockists and international sources on each yarn page, although the international source page lists Knitting Fever, Diamond Yarns, and Woolshack (the US, Canadian and Australian distributors), relying on their resources to provide links to actual retailers. The roster of UK stockists doesn't appear to be yarn-specific, so even if you call one up from a particular yarn's page, call before you visit the shops listed because they may or may not carry the entire Debbie Bliss line. There are no links on the yarn pages to patterns made with specific yarns.

The patterns section as before shows the various books available, with thumbnails linking to more detailed pages for the contents of each book. Most but not all contents are shown - especially for the yarn-specific later books - and the layout of the detail pages has been made easier to use. Most patterns now bear a difficulty rating, needle requirements, sizing, yarn requirements per size, and the name of the color(s) used in the accompanying photo. There are links back to the yarn detail pages, and it's easy to browse all of the designs shown for each book. Navigation among books is also easier, with a nested link history line provided at the top of the patterns page.

There is no explanation of the criteria used to classify the patterns into the various difficulty ratings. Almost everything is "Easy" or "Intermediate." The only "Advanced" patterns were both large Intarsia pieces I'm assuming were worked from big charts. A hover-over pop-up that listing a brief bunch of basic skills that define each level would be a nice touch. (Carefully worded, that list could be the same for every "Easy," "Intermediate," or "Advanced" symbol site-wide.)

There's an errata section listing corrections for existing books up to and including Simple Living. About the only ease of use link I'd add here would be a link back to the pattern revisions page from the main book page for any item that has associated errata.

There is no historical info provided beyond pattern errata. I am not familiar enough with the DB lines to say whether or not any of the offerings have aged out of current distribution, nor am I familiar enough with the individual books to note which designs are not shown. If there are lines no longer being sold having historical info on them would be of great use, especially if there were contemporary substitutes among the still-active products. Also some of the DB books sold on the site are now of "classic" status - I doubt that the yarns they use are still current. A list of some of the more prevalent with suggestions for substitutions in the current lines would also be a very consumer-friendly touch.

On the information section, aside from a general neatening, little has changed. The news column still discusses the summer/early fall trade shows, and speaks of one offered back in early October as being in the future. There's not even a mention of the new improvements to the website itself. The workshops heading lists a past offering and no upcoming ones. The contact page lists major distributors of the yarns, but there is still no contact for DB itself - not even on the errata page for those who have found problems and wish to report corrections. T

So to sum up - the clarification that yarn is not offered for sale here, plus remedying the major info lack on the yarns themselves make this set of site improvements very welcome. I still wish for more historical info, a more shelf-recognizable illustration of the yarns themselves, timely oversight of the information pages, and for some sort of direct contact mechanism. Recent fixes pull the Debbie Bliss website mark up to an A-, in spite of the incipient members-only club.

I can't say I'm going any faster, but I'm in the swim of things with my gift knitting. I have to admit a tinge of guilt this year. In years past, I'd done a fair bit of it far in advance, sometimes using especially mindless gift knitting (like socks or scarves) as bliss-out-on-the-beach pieces during our summer vacation. Or I've doodled up little projects between larger ones, while I was waiting for my ideas to set. By this time I've usually got a basket of goodies ready for holiday giving. Unfortunately, this year nothing got done ahead of time, and I've been forced to do something I detest - knit to deadline.

I hate knitting to deadline because in my professional life, all I do is march to deadlines. I'm a proposal manager, and I've lived my career in 30-day increments. Other people will say things like, "Dear, remember '91 - that was the year little Brunhilde was born," or "Yeah, 91. Cousin Ildefonse was in Desert Storm." I say, "Fall '91. That was that big military IT/hardware support proposal, we had an extension that got eaten up by the sheer bulk of the revised reporting schedule requirements." From this you can well deduce the heart-stopping excitement of my daily life.

Knitting has always been a blissful interlude, a no-deadline finish-it-whenever sort of pursuit. That's one of the reasons why I've shied away from pursuing commercial publication for my patterns. Squeezing my knitting life into a tight deadline sucks all the joy out of it.

So here I am. Doing frantic knitting on a couple of Hannukah presents (it's early this year, adding further complications). The Kombu scarf, four hats, and two pairs of socks are done. That leaves three scarves, two more pairs of socks, and possibly couple of kid's size earwarmer bands to go.

Today I plan on casting on for a very simple scarf done in Sandnes Lime (a mostly cotton, very soft yarn) for a friend who is wool-sensitive. I've used and reviewed the stuff before and not been wildly pleased with it, but for a scarf it should work out fine. Although most of the detail will be obscured by the textured yarn, I'll probably work it in this simple knit/purl pattern - just to give it a bit more interest:


I like this one for scarves because it adds a bit of loft and like all patterns with near equal amounts of knits and purls on each row - it lies nice and flat without curling.

I'll try to get a good shot of this one. It's in a charcoal-grey alpaca, a notoriously difficult color to photograph.



The stuff is sport weight. I mentioned before that I got it at a Maryland Sheep and Wool Show, circa '95 or '96. There was a big rainstorm that year, and many of the vendors in outdoor tents were soaked through and/or blown over. The Tess Designer Yarns booth was particularly hard hit. Sunday afternoon as the owner was packing there was still a large pile of sodden yarns laid out on a tarp that were being sold as-is. I bought this one-skein orphan, took it home and dried it out and wound it, and have been trying to figure out what to do with it ever since. There's a ton of yardage on this 8 oz. ball. I've barely scratched the surface and could probably do another three or four scarves with what's on there.

My gauge over my Kombu is K1, P1 rib is roughly 6spi , on US #4 needles. This gray scarf is about 6 inches wide, measured point to point. I've completed about three feet so far, averaging about eight inches per hour. Both the center pattern and lace edges are quick to memorize and knit. Alternate rows of the center are K1, P1 rib; alternate rows of the edgings are all knit. Because the scarf is based entirely on a combo of ribbing and garter stitch it lies absolutely flat, without curling.

I hate to brag, but I really like this pattern - even though it's one of my own. It's rare I go back and do another of anything I've finished. Even that Dreaded Second Sock can be agony, but this is the fourth Kombu I've done. Two were done in Little Lola (including the same photographed on the pattern website) at a slightly smaller gauge (befitting the slightly thinner yarn). The other was done on US #7s and a 4.5 spi in pink/turquoise/yellow/lime green Red Heart variegated, picked out by a (then) 4 year old. Both my eyes and fingers hurt doing that one, but the kidlet was delighted with the all too bright result after she decided that the yarn wasn't so scratchy that she couldn't wear it as an "outside the coat" type scarf.

First, a recap. I've covered these sites so far:

• YMW I - Berroco, Knitting Fever
• YMW II - Karabella, Adriafil
• YMW III - Rowan, Spinrite/Bernat
• YMW IV - Cascade, Classic Elite
• YMW V - Patons, Lion Brand

Today we hop over and look at websites maintained by Debbie Bliss Knitwear, and Estelle.

Debbie Bliss Knitwear

The Debbie Bliss website is divided into three main sections - patterns, yarns, and information. It also has a retail section for direct orders. Starting with the yarns page we find a complete listing of the yarn lines and colors available this season. However, yarn information is rudimentary at best - listing only fiber content. There is no gauge info, no wash info, no recommended needle size, no ball weight or yardage indicated. There are no photos of retail put-ups, labels or swatches, but color is shown by a small chip style photo of the yarn, so you can kind of see the texture of the yarn. Sort of, because the chips are small. In the yarn section are also listings of retail sources. Looking up US sources generates a bounce over to the Knitting Fever website, where there's a proximity to zip code search function (difficult to spot, in the upper left of the page).

The patterns section is a bit better enabled. Each current book is displayed. Most but not all have a link to view selected contents. These detail pages show a few of the designs from the book. A few of them go on to list the size options, the yarn used and the number of balls needed for each size. Even on pages with additional info, not every item shown is completely detailed. There are no links between the pattern and yarn pages. The patterns section also offers up an errata page with corrections offered for Baby Knits and earlier books. There's also a free pattern for a button-finished pillow.

The information section provides contact info is listed for the major overseas contributors, but there is no eMail or ground address provided for Debbie Bliss Knitwear itself. (There's also the caution that DBK is unable to provide help with individual patterns over the Internet.) Other offerings under "information" are pretty cursory. The newsletter mentions a trade show that happened two months ago, and the workshops listing shows classes that were held back in September. I did not attempt a retail purchase.

Overall this site is easy to use, but is sorely lacking yarn info. My guess is that this is done on purpose - to ensure that people making DB patterns use DB yarns and only DB yarns. Still, not offering up so much as care guidance for the yarn lines is an oversight. Major points are taken away for lack of basic yarn info. Some are earned back by having easily found pattern corrections, and for the half-hearted attempt to provide yarn use specs for a minority of the designs in the various books. More points are taken away for lack of direct contact info (What happens if you bought yarn direct from the site, and it was defective? While this is uncommon it can happen. To whom do you then report the problem?) Debbie Bliss Knitwear's site gets a C-, especially considering that it offers retail capability and as such should be of more help to customers. There's no way I'd buy anything from it without more complete information.

Estelle Designs and Sales

Estelle is another of the omnibus importer/distributors like Knitting Fever. They're Canadian, and handle Estelle, Lang, King Cole, GGH, Dale, Tivoli, and Scheepjeswol yarns, plus Rebecca Magazine. Registered and pre-approved retailers can place orders through the website, but I don't believe that they sell directly to end-user consumers. The site is divided into sections for yarns, books, contact info, a shop finder, and free patterns. Yarn shops have their own section (Customer area).

The yarns section is divided by maker line. Under each maker is a list of current and about-to-be-current yarns. Clicking on items in each maker's list will pull up a detail page. The data contained on the detail pages varies from yarn maker to yarn maker. Estelle's include fiber content; yardage/weight; suggested needle size; and suggested stitch and row gauge. There's a large close-up shot showing the yarn's appearance, plus color chips of each color and (for some yarns) a close-up photo of a knitted swatch. Each page is dated (a nice touch that provides assurance that the colors listed are current). Wash info is not provided for Estelle yarns. King Cole and the Scheepjeswol pages list fiber content, yardage, suggested gauge/needle size and wash info. All have color chips, but only a few have yarn close-ups. No King Cole pages show swatches. Lang has fiber content, gauge/needle size, yarn close-up and color chips (some of these show link broken); plus wash info for some but not all yarns. Dale is similar, with fiber content, suggested gauge/needle size, wash info, yarn close-up, label graphics, and color cards. GGH's list is the most cursory. There's a long roster of names, fiber content, yardage, and suggested needle size. No photos of the yarn or available colors, gauge or wash info.

No yarns on the site are shown in retail put-up, nor is there info on historical products. Yarn info pages list that makers' booklets for some but not all of the lines.

The Knitting Books section shows covers of the various leaflets and books distributed by Estelle. Except for photo lists for Estelle's own line of patterns, no effort is made to show the contents of any other book or leaflet, pictured either here or under the individual manufacturer pages. The Estelle pattern lists show leaflet contents. Each design names the yarn used to make it. No info on sizes or yarn quantities is offered. No links are provided back to the yarns themselves. Amusingly, all the Estelle projects (including the blankets) are shown modeled by the same woman, and there don't appear to be any patterns for children, babies, or men.

The contact page includes eMail, telephone and ground addresses. The free patterns page offers up mostly scarves, but has a smattering of other projects, too. Few of them however are illustrated. (Note: the presence/absence/quality of free patterns do not affect my grade of the site). There's a shop finder that provides shop names, towns, phone numbers and (if available) web links, but not street addresses. There's also a "what's new" page that describes the latest additions to the website.

Estelle has clearly aimed its website at shop owners as its primary customers. End user knitters are given thought in the free patterns and shop finder areas, but those services are secondary. Points are awarded for the availability of current yarn info. Points are taken away for the unevenness and partial completeness of that info, lack of info about the patterns, lack of historical info, and lack of pattern errata. I'll factor the shop-owner focus into the grading here, as the thing isn't intended to be a retail site. Even so Estelle emerges with a C+. If the yarn pages were more uniform in info content and included wash instructions, and if a list of historical info was provided I'd bump it up to a B-.