A happy New Year to everyone who celebrates the same this week.

Progress continues on the Mystery Project. Apologies to those who have written in dying to know what it is, but I can't reveal more details without permission from those who have contracted for the article in question. I haven't asked them yet if I can do so. Being late on delivery doesn't put me in a position of moral certitude from which to ask special favors.

What I can say is that it's fulled, it's knit from Classic Elite Renaissance in purple, it's double stranded, and it's being embroidered right now. In addition to the base purple, I received several complementary colors of the same yarn in which to do the ornamental stitching. The design I've sketched out is a fanciful fruit, sort of like a Renaissance pomegranate. Given the colors supplied, it was either going to be that or autumn leaves, and leaves are all too commonly seen. Because the stitching yarn is worsted weight and the ground is fulled quite thickly, I'm taking pains to use stitches that cover ground and anchor without requiring that the stitcher pierce the fulled cloth completely. Yanking a needle full of worsted through a tight fabric is a huge pain. There's also a bit of couching, in which a lighter thread is used to fix down the heavier worsted.

On yarn consumption - I've seen people dither at yarn shops because the project they wanted to make required just a bit of a contrasting yarn for the ornamentation. They've wondered if it's truly necessary to buy a whole skein for just a yard or two. Sometimes it's not. If you've got a good stash and have yarns roughly comparable to the suggested one on hand and you are comfortable color matching (or selecting a whole new color suite) - there's no particular reason to buy a whole skein for a tiny bit of embroidery or other embellishment. Stitching in the same color as the ground is also a possibility, especially for fulled items, as the color/texture play of the original texture yarn used for the stitching and that of the fulled background can be very effective. Or if wools are being used, I sometimes look to the yarns sold for needlepoint. They're thinner than knitting yarns, but can be worked multi-stranded to make up the equivalent. Personally, I prefer the look of stitching when done in thinner wools, so I'd probably use tapestry in less than worsted thickness equivalents, but a commission is a commission and for this item at least I'm sticking to the "use what's furnished" paradigm.

I'm still not 100% pleased with the item. In spite of intensive swatching, my final row:stitch gauge fulling ratios were off a bit and the shapes didn't turn out as I had hoped. I wish I could do it again, taking the lessons learned on this piece to make the second one better. That's a big problem with fulled pieces compared to plain knit ones. Unlike unfulled projects where you can always rip back and start again, you only get one shot at the fulling. After that you've got what you've got and you can't return to the beginning.

Heroic efforts not withstanding, I am now an Official Failure. I did not manage to complete my Mystery Project to meet the contractual deadline. Last minute complications included a surprise 14 hour work day (my career takes precedence over my hobbies); and the fact that the miserable excuse for a clothes moistener acquired as part of last year's house purchase is totally inadequate to the job of fulling (it barely washes garments). I gave up after four washes and ended up fulling by hand. That was very time consuming.

I can however report a success!? The yarn I used - Classic Elite Renaissance - given an adequate method of fulling does in fact do so beautifully. My stockinette piece is soft, dense, and without stitch detail, although one area where I carefully lined up decreases does show, and is now a nice textural contrast to the rest of the surface.

The piece is still not totally done, but I do intend on finishing and furnishing the pattern even if it's late. Having taken two nights (or one evening plus what was left of the other after my 14 hour day) to full the piece, I now have to do some minor seaming and the embroidery. Flowers, leaves, abstract paisleys or acanthus-like scrolls - all are possibilities. I'm a stitcher though, so the embroidery I feel might be achievable by knitting advanced beginners/intermediates might in fact be too much to attempt.

I invite comment. There are many embroidery stitches that could be used, although the selection is somewhat limited due to the thick and dense nature of the felt ground. I am thinking of using variants on Romanian couching, herringbone, or other mostly-surface type stitches instead of satin stitch, which most embroidery beginners find easier to understand, but very difficult to execute cleanly. Perhaps a chain stitch variant, plain couching or knot stitches (coral stitch?) as well. My question is - this is a knitting project, not an embroidery project. Given clear stitch diagrams, including motif placement and how-tos for all stitches, what's your threshold level beyond which a program of embroidery becomes unmanageable?? How much is too much, or how complex is too complex?? Where do you draw the line?

I've finished the knitting on my Mystery Project. I fear I will miss the extended deadline, though. This will be the first deadline I've defaulted on in my knitting and I'm disgusted with myself over it. I didn't count on some personal stuff getting in the way, or in three high intensity weeks at work. Family and earning a living do come first.

In any case - I've got one shot to do this; to take the knitting, full it, and finish the project. I will sew the piece together partially before fulling. I'm afraid to join segments where a horizontally knit section meets a vertically knit one. Row and stitch count shrink at different rates. Something that's smoothly sewn now will end up a rumpled mess after fulling. So instead, I'll sew the seams that butt up pieces knit in the same orientation before fulling, and the other seams after fulling. Then do the embroidery (which I haven't designed yet.)

I'll set a wash going before I leave for work today, and do the first dry when I come home. If sufficient fulling isn't achieved (and I bet it won't be based on previous experience), I'll run the thing through again tonight, or do some hand fulling. With tons of luck I'll be able to finish the piece tonight. And if I'm even luckier than that, I'll be able to figure out a way to turn it in to meet the photo shoot deadline tomorrow.

Oy.

News flash via NPR!

Love to knit?? Is stranding a way of life for you?? Want to retreat from the hubbub of the big city?? Fair Isle - yes, THE Fair Isle, is looking to increase its population. Not much there in the way of employment opportunities outside knitting and the building trades, but oceans of beautiful vistas, friendly people, and the depth of character that living on the edge in a non-cushy environment can bring. Listen to Anne Sinclair, knitter extrodinaire on this All Things Considered audio clip, broadcast last evening.

I am ever so thankful that the deadline for my Mystery Project has been extended. Over the weekend I ended up trying out and then scrapping two more construction schemes. The worst of which was a re-work of the center-out disaster from last week. The result still looked like one of Madonna's nose cone outfits. I can't show pix for several reasons, not the least of which being that I'm working from a very limited amount of yarn, and the abortive attempts have been ripped out and re-used.

The latest attempt circles back to the original idea - a stockinette piece knitted back and forth in the flat. I've moved back to double strand, as the single strand stockinette after fulling was too flabby for my intended use. I moved the increase points several stitches in from the edges. This is creating a smoother contour, and a shape more true to the design paradigm furnished with the assignment. The flat construction is also much easier to describe in written directions, a good thing as part of my directive is to create a project that's not too intimidating for relative beginners.

I've finished one of the two identical pieces that make up my Mystery Project, and am well along in piece #2 (a duplicate of #1). The third piece is differently shaped, and needs to be knit in an inconvenient direction in order to keep the coefficient of shrinkage uniform among all three. Why three pieces?? In this case I thought that having a seam would be a strengthening and supportive feature, with the extra thickness of the seam allowance acting as a skeletal element.

Of course the scariest part will be the fulling. I've adjusted the proportions of the knit original to mirror the shrinkage ratios of the swatch. It looks rather odd - longer than it's wide but if I'm lucky, it should end up being close to the target measurements. To top it off, I'll probably be fulling this by hand rather than in the washing machine. My machine is not very good for this sort of thing.

As someone who believes in statistics, probability and the value of planning rather than luck, I am not that comfortable right now. Plus I'm fighting off project fatigue. That's the feeling I get when I've learned about all I can from a particular effort or am confronted by a problem I don't think is worth the tedium to solve, and am not looking forward to the slog to completion. Deadlines make it worse. This is the point when I often set work aside, or feel the seduction of a parenthetical project. Several are calling to me siren-like right now. Not the least being a beautiful skein of blue/green hand dyed sock weight merino graciously given to me by uber-talented June Oshiro. That's calling out to become a pair of fingerless mitts. It's a reedy little voice, but an insistent one, and it gets louder every time I sit down to work on the Mystery Project.

Moral of the story:? Knit for fun, not profit.

My deadline looms and I'm nowhere near done. Not even close. I've even moved to mocking up with yarns other than the one provided because I won't have enough to finish the project otherwise.

I have a tricky shape to create prior to fulling. I've tried knitting flat with end row increases/decreases. I've tried short-rowing to build my contours. Neither worked well. I'm now in the middle of trying to knit a flat medallion, center-out, differing the increase points and rate of increase, plus adding short rows (rounds actually) to deform the thing into the configuration I want. So far this last method is producing the most shapely results, but I fear that the written directions will be complicated to follow. Here's one sample round:

*K1, M1, K19, M1, K1*; slip marker; K1, M1, K4, M1, K28, M1, K4, M1, K1; slip marker; repeat ** once

No two rounds are alike, increase points migrate all over the place, and the logic of the increase progression changes several times over the course of the piece.

To top it off, I haven't gotten up to the fulling step yet. I have no idea whether or not my complex shape will full into a nice flat piece, or whether it will crumple up like a head of Boston lettuce.

Frustration, frustration.

Maxim number one, repeat as necessary: If you knit for relaxation, as an enjoyable way to escape a high pressure, deadline-driven career, taking on a commission that's also deadline-bounded is a Bad Idea. Especially if unforeseen events and multiple major work-related responsibilities wolf down the majority of what you thought was discretionary time at the outset of the assignment.

Kim's Corollary:? Nothing knit under extreme time pressure ever turns out well.

AAARGH.

Mostly working. It's been an high pressure week, with Life encroaching on knitting time. As a result, I'm woefully behind on my commission, and have done no personal knitting at all.

After all my swatching work (unsuccessful), I am now forced to do the exact thing I wanted to avoid - winging it. Making the project up as I go along rather than sitting down to do a bit of rational planning. While winging it isn't a problem on one-offs or things I am making for myself, in this case I have to write down detailed notes as I go because the outcome is to be not only the finished piece, but also an intelligible pattern. There are some shaping challenges here, too that are complicating matters. In effect, I am making a flat motif in the round that isn't symmetrical. I have to control for an even rate of increase, and hope that after fulling I end up with a flat piece instead of Mt. Fuji.

The other annoyance is of course, texture. I have had excellent success producing a flat and ultra dense fabric by fulling garter stitch, but I did it using other yarns. This yarn fulls nicely, but not to the extent of the other yarns I had used before. I will sacrifice a bit of extra oomph and sturdiness for a sleeker, less corrugated finish.

But enough whining. It's off to work, and after work - to droning away to finish my Mystery Project.

Over the weekend I fulled the swatches from Wednesday's post, with only equivocal success. The washing machine in this house isn't very good. As you can see, there's a little fuzzing, some uneven shrinkage, and no loss of stitch definition, even after trips through the wash/dry cycle with all six of the family's weekly loads.


Swatch 1: Double strand, knit on US #10.5, 3.75 spi, 8 rpi. 15 stitches cast on.

• Pre-wash: 12mm wide x 10mm long.
• Post-wash: 10.5mm wide x 9.5mm long

Swatch 2: Double strand, knit on US #11, 3 spi, 6 rpi. 15 stitches cast on.

• Pre-wash: 13.5mm wide x 11mm long.
• Post-wash: 11.5mm wide x 9mm long. Very distorted

Swatch 3: Double strand, knit on US #13, 2.75 spi, 5 rpi. 15 stitches cast on.

• Pre-wash: 14.5mm x 12mm long
• Post-wash: 12.5mm wide x 9.5mm long

Swatch 4: Single strand, knit on US #10, 4 spi, 9 rpi. 18 stitches cast on.

• Pre-wash: 12.5mm wide x 10mm long.
• Post-wash: 10mm wide x 8.5 (to 11)mm long. Most distorted of all
  

Swatch 5: Single strand, knit on US #9, 4.2 spi, 10 rip. 18 stitches cast on.

• Pre-wash: 13mm wide x 9mm long
• Post-wash: 10.25mm wide x 8.5mm long

As to texture - all of the swatches firmed up somewhat. There was very little difference in drape between #4 and #5, although of the two, #4 was the more fulled. It had spots where the stitches were almost melded together. Unfortunately it was also the most unevenly treated, to the point where getting an accurate measurement on it was very difficult.

I was surprised at how the heavier two-strand swatches turned out. I really expected to see more shrinkage, and a tighter, denser fabric with less stitch definition. While they're nice and dense, I haven't lost the corrugation of the original garter stitch. I also expected the swatches knit on larger needles to shrink more in relation to their original size than the ones on smaller needles.

I wouldn't consider any of the results I got suitable for producing a knitted bag, but I also don't think my swatches have fulled to their limit. I am going to try again tonight, working by hand with a pot of boiling water and a pot of ice water, and see what I come up with.

One aside - the color in today's swatch photos is much more accurate than the earlier photo.

Still plugging along. Progress will stall though after this for a bit as I have some rather intensive fulling and knitting on the Mystery Project to accomplish.



As you can see, I'm missing a couple of solid triangles left and right of the motif at the lower right, but the final result is becoming increasingly more clear. I like the play of the large starry areas and the solid white bits. Seaming is a pain, it's true - but not so big a pain as I thought it would be. Of course I've got a zillion ends at this point. I may just take the odd moments of this week I can spare from the Mystery Project and end off as many as possible. That would be productive yet mindless work that could be done in stolen time.

Although I was out of town tending to family matters last weekend, knitting was accomplished - mostly on the flights and in the airports as I waited between planes. In addition to yesterday's swatches, I did some work on my counterpane.



As you can see there's a pie slice that's missing from the leftmost motif. My guess is that my missing triangle is now loose in the Orlando airport - a stopover on my way to my final destination. I doubt my feral triangle will cause more than a moment's pause as it is swept up and tossed away. So it goes.

As this piece grows larger, I can say I've definitely overbought my white cotton coned yarn. I have four enormous cones. I've gone through about a third of just one of them. I think I'll end up using just two of them to make the whole thing. Here's consumption so far. The untouched cone on the left weighs 1250g. It's the smallest of the four, with the others ranging up to about 1300g. The nibbled into cone on the right weighs 825g, and started out at around 1300g. Which all makes sense because my blanket so far weighs about 475g. (It's always pleasing when the math actually works out).



Since I've got about 20% of my estimated total surface area done, but have used only about 8.3% of my yarn (a third of one of four cones - roughly a 1/12 of my total available yarn), I'll have LOTS leftover. Still, I don't mind. It's nice yarn and there will be enough for another project (perhaps another counterpane). As an added bonus, the stuff was a very inexpensive back room find at Webs. I paid about $10 per cone for it. Since this project will last for about eight months at the current rate of production and I anticipate using only two cones, that works out to $2.50 per month of knitting enjoyment. It doesn't get any more economical than that.

How to knit on the cheap?? Don't buy what's trendy. Big fat yarns and glitzy yarns command a premium, but plain finish yarns, even first quality good wools and cottons can be had at very reasonable prices (even without resorting to reclaiming yarn).

Think smaller gauges. This stuff isn't particularly small being very close to DK weight (5.5spi), but even DK is lighter than many of the more favored yarns today. And think of? projects that get their zing from the knitting rather than from the yarn. Yes, they take a bit more time and attention than some plainer pieces, but isn't the entire idea to have fun knitting? No, if you are on a limited budget you won't be able to knit that fancy fulled cardigan from imported Japanese hand-dyed, but I bet with a little effort you could find a 100% wool sport weight yarn that would make a smashing texture stitch or stranded colorwork jacket and not break the bank - especially if you consider how many weeks of knitting time you'd get by investing in such a project.