It's no secret that I don't see as well as I used to. Between eye infections and all-purpose aging, I need help. For most things glasses work just fine, but there are a couple of minor annoyances even with glasses. One is the teeny labels etched onto most circ needles - especially the ones smaller than US #4s.

Now, if I were one of the Super Organized, I'd have a system for storing my circular needles. Perhaps one of the sorting hanger thingies (see below), or a binder notebook full of pockets. But I have a lot of circs and little patience for filing things away, so I make do. Most of mine live in a hand-me-down wood box that once held a bottle of gift wine. The lucky few among them get replaced in their original packaging. Not all of my needles are lucky. The less fortunate among them live in an incestuous tangle, stuffed into that same wooden box. Figuring out which needle is which is always a challenge that involves finding the size gauge that's supposed to live in that same box, and playing "size me" until the right one turns up. Either that or calling over one of my offspring whose eyes function better than mine and having them do the squint work for me.


I'm not this organized.

Enter my latest acquisition, hot off the gadget rack at my LYS.



It's another clever invention from Nancy's Knit Knacks - the Circular Needle ID tag set. (No affiliation). Tags are packaged in two sets - one for US#0-4, and one for larger needles. (Engraved labels on larger needles are easier to see, so I didn't buy the larger set.)?

I can find and read these tags in my needle jumble with no trouble at all. Needle ID bliss! Of course one still has to remember to put the tag back on the needle after the project is over, and manage not to lose the thing in between - but that shouldn't be too hard. I've stapled the little plastic zip bag of tags in the circ box and will stow the tags there between uses.

I also note that Nancy's has been busy, issuing a new needle sizing gauge that goes down to 000 (always welcome, although I wish it went down to 00000), and an electronic version of the old katchaa-katchaa style counter. I don't use the things but I know that many people do swear by them. It looks like the electronic one can subtract, which is nice if you need to rip back. I'm surprised though that it seems to have only one memory register. It would be even more useful if it could remember two things at once (like total rows, and rows in the current repeat).

High tech

Low tech

No affiliation here between Nancy's and me. I am however impressed that they manage to identify and market to so many niche needs, including the whole Knit Kard info system, the yardage gauge, and the WPI tool. There are lots of companies selling knitting notions, but most seem to be content with the old standards. Nancy's is one of the few that seems to be actively seeking out innovation.

Last week was a very Life-Dense week. I didn't get as much time to knit as I usually do, so progress isn't as dramatic as it otherwise might have been. Still, I got another meta-motif done and sewn onto the ever-growing counterpane:



At the rate of one meta-motif per week, I think I'll be working on this queen-size blanket for another 25 weeks or so. That means March or April '06 is my earliest possible completion date at the current rate of production. I'd better start (or resume) another project and work on the two in tandem just so that I have something interesting to report on. Production on this piece will slow down if I'm time-splitting my nightly hour or two of knitting. Possible completion well into 2007?? Stay tuned...

Yesterday during the attack of Life that kept me from blogging, I did find a minute to answer a question about winding balls from hanks. I tried my best to describe how to do it, but was very frustrated not to be able to show how. So this morning The Small Child and I dug out some scrap yarn and took some pictures.

Start by spreading out the fingers of your left hand (right hand if you're a lefty). Stash the free end (as opposed to the end attached to your hank) between your index and middle finger.



Wind the yarn in a figure 8 around your thumb and little finger until you've got a hefty butterfly going.

Once it's too big to wind this way, take it off your fingers and fold it in half. Note that I've still got the free end between my fingers. The end that I'm winding is hanging down in front.

Now hold the folded butterfly in your left hand, with your finger sort of encapsulating the thing. (When I teach kids to do this, I have them think about holding a baby bird in a sugar cage.) Winding your yarn around your fingers, begin to build up a ball. Wind a bit in one direction, then shift your grip and wind in another.



The goal is to make a very soft, squishy ball so that the yarn isn't flattened or stretched out. When my fingers are full (like in the photo above), I pull my fingers out, rotate the ball in my left hand and start winding again in a different direction.



Eventually the ball will outgrow your grip size and you won't be able to fit it between your fingers as you wind. Don't worry. Continue to wind LOOSELY until you're through, preferably over at least one finger to introduce extra "give" into the wind so the yarn isn't stressed. If you want to use the thing as a center pull, avoid capturing the free end as you wind. (It's just above my thumb in the photo above). Keep going until you've finished.



The end product. A nice fluffy ball. You can see the center pull end trailing off past my thumb, and the outside end trailing off the bottom.

Even though I have a ball winding machine, I wind more than half of the yarn I use this way, mounting the hanks on my swift, but making the balls by hand. The biggest exception is lace weight yarn. Anything that comes in hanks of more than 700 yards is going to take an eon and a half to wind by hand. That's worth hauling out the winder and wrestling it into submission.

After Friday's post on using Microsoft Visio for graphing knitting patterns I received some questions:

What's Visio?

Microsoft Visio is a professional level drafting/drawing program - something I've co-opted into serving as a pattern development tool, not something that was designed for that purpose. It's main use is technical and scientific illustration - Gantt charts, flow process models, flowcharts, conceptual diagrams, infrastructure diagrams, business graphics, organization charts and the like. For example, network planners use it to lay out routing diagrams for offices, as it not only can handle a dimensioned architectural drawing, but it can also keep count of the networking hardware placed on the drawing, producing a "need to buy" list as the plan progresses.

In my work life, I'm a proposal writer working in engineering and telecommunications companies. I use Visio extensively to do? technical illustration and project planning. Visio isn't the sort of thing that most people have lying around the house, but because I have worked as a consultant I have had to buy my own copy. I use Visio Pro. Visio Standard (the entry level version without some of the industry-specific bells and whistles) is about $200.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX010857981033.aspx

What's a stencil?? Can I use these with other programs?

One feature of Visio (both versions) is the ability to establish a collection of standard shapes, and call that collection up when needed. These collections are called stencils. I created a set of stencils for Visio that contain knitting stitch and graphing symbols. I attach the stencil to the active drawing, and then using all of Visio's drafting features - draw up my chart.

Visio stencils are unique to that program, and cannot be used with others. There may be (emphasis on uncertainty here) one other program that can import them, but I do not own that program and have not tried it. It's called SmartDraw, and the suite edition that includes templates sells for just under $300. It purports to import Visio output, but there's nothing there that says it takes the stencils directly. I suspect that you'd need to take the sample Visio drawing I include in my template set, then use it to create a new SmartDraw symbol library. As far as lower cost/hobbyist targeted programs with the same functionality - I don't know of any that import Visio stencils. Please chime in if you do.

Can you do everything in Visio that dedicated programs like Aran Paint or Stitch and Motif Maker do?

No. I'm NOT using a program that knows the slightest thing about knitting, or that is optimized for this sort of thing. There are no limits that keep me from using impossible combos of stitches, and no tools that let me do things like replace all the red stitches with pink stitches everywhere in the active document. There's no blank canvas that can be flood filled by a background stitch. Instead I have to build my diagrams stitch by stitch, adding my stitchs (or groups of stitches) like a kid laying out a doll's dance floor of alphabet blocks.

What I do have is an unlimited size and shape canvas on which to work; and the ability to group, layer, copy/paste, rotate and reflect my custom symbols as needed. If I'm doing colorwork, I have an infinitude of possibilities, and even do color matching by Pantone or other color codification system. I can make up custom symbols on the fly, adding to my library as I go along and am not limited to the symbols present in a knitting font package (in fact, I don't even bother with one). I can also export my designs to all standard web graphics formats, or paste them into other documents as desired.

Is Visio easy to use?

While large parts of the thing would be intuitive to anyone familiar with other drawing programs, Visio isn't the easiest program to learn if you've never used any drafting program before. There are lots of inexpensive training courses out there, some web-based, and some at local community colleges. Or if you're adventurous you can do what I did - just start monkeying around with the thing.

Can I do the same thing with other drawing programs?

I'm pretty sure you can, although not every drawing program works in exactly the same way. ? In ages past, I co-opted Aldus Superpaint (on my late lamented Mac) for doing stitching and knitting diagrams. That one was a hybrid drawing/drafting program. I set up a series of ground textures that corresponded to filled and unfilled grid squares (some with specific symbols in them). Then I created a paintbrush the same size as one grid square. By selecting the background fills and using the paint brush as a stamper, I "daubed out" my charts. This is how I did all of the charted illustrations in The New Carolingian Modelbook.?

I also have convinced Canvas to serve as a knitting/stitching design aide, but that was a bit more painful. The version of Canvas I used did not have a robust stencil capability. You could make libraries of symbols, but they weren't as accessible as in Visio. I ended up making one document with reference copies of my symbols. Then in a new document I established a snap-to grid equal to the size of a stitch square, and copied/pasted the symbols from my library document into my new design. It worked, but it was cumbersome.

I also know that some people use non-drawing programs for this purpose. Others have written quite extensively about creative adaptation of Microsoft Excel and other spreadsheets (and even MS Word) as stitch chart creation programs.

If you've smacked another drawing program around for this purpose and have some hints to share with others please feel free to add your comments to this pile.

As you can see, motifs continue to accumulate on North Truro:



The observant will spot more evidence of my continued existence in the photo's lower right. Apologies for the quality of this shot. I recently replaced the hand-me-down 1.3 mega pixel camera I had been using with a hand-me-down 3 mega pixel camera. In theory, the best quality setting of the latter should be better than the best quality setting of the former. Apparently there is room for contention in this theory. Still, you can see how the design continues to grow. Next week's progress shot will feature the thing on the top of a queen size bed so you can see how far I've got to go.

I'm afraid that while this piece remains interesting to knit, I'm rapidly running out of things to say about it. I don't anticipate any earth shaking discoveries until I get up to the bit where I have to improvise half motifs to go around the edges:

Since I prefer the look of a nice straight edge and matching edging to the rippled look of a "bare motif" spread, I'll also have to invent something to eke out the east/west sides. Plus the actual edging of course. You can see the full motif smack in the center of this layout (full yellow hex in the center). The half hexes are in blue. They'll pose a bit of a challenge because they'll have to be knit flat as opposed to in the round, but since I chart my patterns by repeat, I don't need to do any redrafting - just remembering the circ/flat inversion and only working three rather than six "petals."? The squares on the edge next to the half hexes also need to be modified. There will be left and right halfies to preserve the pattern's lines. The hardest part will be the half triangles needed to eke the thing out east and west. Fiddly but easy to do. I never quite like the way they turn out.



Thought for the day:? Life is only as complicated as you make it.

I've blogged about using Microsoft Visio to do my charts here before. At great length.

In short, I've devised a set of stencils (shape templates) that covers many of knitting's basic stitches. I assemble them like a wall of alphabet blocks to make my charts, and have used them to build all the knitting and embroidery pattern graphs here and at wiseNeedle.



That ever insistent inbox of mine has disgorged a couple of requests for my Visio templates, so I've decided to post them here, free for the taking. Eventually I'll remove them from this blog and file them up on wiseNeedle where they will enjoy a more permanent home.

To use these templates you'll need a full registered copy of Microsoft Visio 2000 or later (up to and including the latest Office 2003 edition) - any flavor, for Windows. Sad to say Visio is not a inexpensive tidbit of a program one can pick up on a whim. It's a major tool used in offices and schools, mostly for engineering and other planning type drafting, and is priced accordingly. Still, I am sure there's a subset of technoknitter nerds who like me use the thing in home businesses, or who have access to it during lunch hours at work or as a student in a media center.

I might have tweaked the symbols a bit since I last updated this set, but nothing major has happened to them. I include three templates - one for basic symbols, one with cable crossings, and one with an extended set of increases and decreases, all bundled into this handy compressed *.zip file. Download it, then copy the *.vss files into the Visio template space on your local hard drive (probably the same place as the folder entitled "Visio Extras"). If you do that you should be able to access them off the standard Visio stencil menu.

Yes, I know that there are whole companies that do nothing but sell Visio template solutions, and here I am giving one away. It's "teachware." If you use it, teach someone else how to do something (especially something knit, stitch or fiber related), and I'll consider myself well paid. You may use my templates to create original knitting and stitching charts of your own. A credit for the tool would be nice if you publish any of the resulting charts, so that others can find it and use it too. You may not however repost these templates on another site nor may you claim them as your own. (If you do, major demons of vile vengance will haunt your dreams forever, should your kneecaps escape me and my trusty stick.) Linking back here is fine and dandy.

When you try out these templates you'll find that the symbols are not use constrained. You can stack the stitches any way you want, there's no effort on the part of the template to limit use to "knitting legal" configurations. But I did include a minor bit of shiny with the template symbols themselves. For most of them (except for some of the really esoteric cable crossings) hovering your cursor over the symbol in the template stencil window will pop up a how to knit annotation for both right side and wrong side application.

If you do play with these, please let me know. Suggestions for additions, improvements, or other use case advice are most welcome.

Several people have asked about the blocking board Laura used for her Paisley. I've sent the question to her, and will post any reply.

In the mean time, here's another suggestion. When I'm not being lazy slinging things down willy-nilly on towels, I do follow a bit more of a method. First, I clear out furniture in the room with our largest area rug (I've got no wall to wall carpeting). Then I lay down a heavy cotton quilt type blanket to protect the carpet from any moisture, and to give me more depth into which I can pin. Finally I cover the blanket with a rally check patterned sheet, one of two I stumbled across in a discount store. Once all is smooth and ready, I pin out my item, using long rust-free pins:




The item above is my Spider Queen shawl. It stretched out to be about 7 feet across. I began with a rough estimate of how large my finished item should end up being, then I started at the center points of each edge. I pinned them first, working from side to opposite side and tensioning the piece across between counterpoised pins. Then I stretched out the corners and did them, too. After that I just zipped back and forth across the piece ping-pong style, pinning in the middle of each remaining unpinned length until I had placed a pin in each of the edging's points:



About the only caution I offer (beyond being prepared for the labor intensiveness of this effort) is that the cheap Dritz pins I used were long enough and rust-free enough, but they were too thin and too fragile. They bent going in and the little bead heads pulled off when I pulled the pins out. Not fun.

I know that rally check print sheets are not an every day item, but any even check or Tattersall or windowpane style plaid will work equally well. So would yard goods in gingham or similar "graph paper" type patterns.

My friend Kathryn gently chides me about blocking my Kinzel Rose of England, languishing in my Chest of Knitting Horrors? since 1991. While the method above would work for that piece it's not on my current schedule. ROE was the first bit of lace knitting I ever attempted. It's a testament to the precision and logic of that pattern that I was able to do it with no prior lace experience.

At the time though, I wasn't very appreciative though of my materials. I used a mish-mash of size 30 white crochet cottons from various makers, bought at different times. You can see where each purchased lot begins and ends, some by slight color difference, some by texture. I got about four courses of leaves into the final outside area and stopped at the point where I ran out of thread (again) and when I was no longer able to delude myself that the thread lot problem wasn't noticeable. I'd need to figure out where I was, buy more mis-matched cotton, finish out another course of leaves, and do the final crochet-off finish before I could even think of blocking. Either that or ravel out a course or two of leaves and finish the thing from that point. So you can get an idea of what the (eventual) goal is, here's Judy Gibson's ROE.

I know some people are asking about when I will be blocking my Alcazar shawl. I'm afraid the Larger Daughter took a fancy to my loud rally check sheets and took them off to sleep away camp. No large item blocking will happen here until she and my sheets return.

I get a big kick out of seeing what others have made from my patterns or pattern pieces. It's a bit like meeting up with old friends years down the road and finding out what they've been up to. I'm delighted to be able to show off any photos of their work here in the Gallery section.

My latest vicarious bit of happy warmth was provided by my knitpal Laura Need. She decided to do the Interweave Knits Paisley Shawl from the Spring '05 edition, but to finish it off with the simple edging I noodled up. She sent me the picture below and gave me permission to post it:



Laura used Zephyr, and her Paisley pinned out to about 46 inches square. She did a much more even job of the knitting and blocking than I did. Plus she had the wisdom to use a solid color. You can see the difference:



Laura's paisleys and eyelets really pop out. You can see the edging especially well. The piece's texture patterning isn't fighting for your attention with ground color variations. That's a big improvement. I took the lazy way out of blocking, using my wires rather haphazardly and patting them in place rather than pinning them down to tension the work. She did it the more labor intensive way that produces better results - pinning out the individual points evenly on a dimensioned blocking surface. (Hers also pinned out to be six inches larger than mine.)

All in all I'm extremely impressed and quite pleased that Laura found fun in my minor contribution to this pattern. A great job!