Just because lace is an abiding addition, I had the yarn in the house and the book beside my favorite knitting chair, and I can't stand to be without something to twiddle, I started another interim project from Duchrow's Volume III.

This one is a stab at one of the in-the-round tablecloth patterns. The chart I'm using is on page 76 if you've got the book. (Aside to Long Time Needlework Pal Kathryn - yes, this is one of the charts guaranteed to make eyeballs bleed...)

However, I'm finding this chart a bit more open to reinterpretation than Duchrow's rectangular ones. To date, I've found her charts to have been exacting to follow but largely consistent and error-free. But on this one I've found a couple of spots where the symbols were flat out wrong, and a couple of others where the in-book English translation might be off. For example, in this particular pattern the symbol:

ll

is supposed to mean a double YO. In many but not all instances it's followed on the next patterned row with the symbol

$

which the glossary calls out as being a K1 through the back of the loop. But unless you knit both of the stitches previously formed by the double YO together, the stitch count and resulting look/feel of the piece are both flat out wrong.

It's also not a given that the double yarn over is supposed to carry only one knit stitch on the subsequent plain knit row, with that second YO loop being dropped (which would make the single k1tbl logical) because in some but not all spots I need that extra stitch to be eaten into a later k2tog or ssk decrease. So the first repeat on each row has been an exercise in looking at the tiny blurry engraving of what the final product is supposed to be, counting stitches and proofing the repeat chart.

Still, the thing is beginning to grow. Here's the traditional lousy String snapshot of yet another snood-like object wadded up onto needles.

In terms of the yarn - what I'm using is pretty thin. It's 75% cotton, 25% linen marked as 2/30 - thinner than cobweb or Perle Cotton. I'd say it's the equivalent of two plies of standard embroidery floss. I'm working it on nice, big 2.5mm needles and getting a quite satisfactory light and open texture. I do have a minor concern with ruffling, but unless I stop and put the whole piece on a temporary holder and spread it out, I won't know how justified that concern might be.

Olive green may be a bit non traditional for lace, but over a navy tablecloth on my kitchen table, underneath white dishes with navy rims, it will look smashing. And once more, copious thanks to Friend Dena the Lace Enabler, who gave me the cone of yarn.

Technorati : knitting

I took the kids today out on one of our now traditional Spring jaunts - the Gore Place Sheep Shearing Festival in Waltham, Massachusetts. We've been there most years since we moved here in 1996, missing only a couple of the rainiest days.

This year I am of mixed feelings about the day. To be fair, there are far more activities and displays now than there ever were. The festival has grown quite a bit over the years. They've added a magic show, expanded the food offerings, added more animal exhibits (oxen, chickens, sheep, goats, vicunas); they've added an equestrian demonstration, and now feature a Revolutionary War era re-enactment bivouac. The day is full of things to see and do. Attendance is way up, especially among those with kids under the age of 10. But sadly what fiber arts focus there was in the past appears to be on the way out.

Sheep are still being shorn, both with mechanical clippers and hand-operated snips. The family that does the sheepdog demonstrations still does its fascinating display. The lacemakers are still there, working their exacting way through spectacular pillow lace patterns. There are some beautiful vicunas on display, and one fiber-related exhibit tent remains. Four out of six slots were filled in the fiber tent. One was local shop stalwart Minds Eye Yarns. It was an excellent booth, filled with lots of yarn, but most of it was commercial product that I can buy in the shop itself, or in my local yarn store. Minds Eye did have a display of their own hand-dyed - mostly sock and worsted weight. Bartlett Yarns also had stock of their rustic Maine style worsteds and heavy worsteds. There were two other yarn vendors there, too. One selling rovings and combed/dyed fleeces, and one selling spun hand-dyed worsted.

There were a couple of other yarn sellers scattered through the crafts fair and historical display areas. One was a vendor offering reclaimed cashmere yarn - she buys discarded sweaters, unravels them, washes the yardage, and plies it into sock and DK weight. Interesting but short yardage, and I would have preferred non-pastels, and something that was lace weight. The other two were hand spinners offering a variety of their own products. One was nice enough but in short quantity and plied to worsted weight. The other had mostly yarns whose unevenness, color combos, and overtwist plying were appealing to some, but left me cold.

I miss the booths of some of the other smaller producers - Moorehouse Merinos, Nicks Meadow Farm, and several other concerns that have offered beautiful hand-spun or dyed sport weight and finer yarns. I also missed the fiber/textile facts tent sponsored in previous years by the Boston Area Spinners and Dyers Guild. That one had hands-on activities for the kids, and was something they looked forward to, too.

Maybe the early date of the event posed problems for the Guild and the other fiber tent regulars. It's usually around mid-May. Maybe for the small suppliers the cost of attending wasn't covered by income earned at previous events, or travel expense is prohibitive given current gas prices. Who knows... But I can say that this is the first year I tried hard to find something interesting, preferably unique but well made, in a color that sang to me, and came up with nothing.

Yes, it's true. I came home from fiber festival without a single bit of yarn.

Technorati : knitting

Of late my life has been ruled by deadlines. The pressure should abate somewhat soon because we've managed to find another proposal person at work. I am looking forward to evenings and weekends again. Also knitting.

In the mean time more in the manner of keeping sanity rather than making any real progress, I dashed off another pair of socks last week. This one was on huge-as-logs 2mm needles, standard toe-ups with the figure 8 toe and short rowed heel, on only 64 stitches (not my usual 72-80) . No fancy patterning, no nothing. Just mindless stockinette to let the yarn's native colors play. The result looks rather Star Trek - with the standard Trek swoosh - albeit sideways - in crew uniform colors on a dark navy background.

The yarn's official name is Regia Galaxy 4-Fadig Color. I suspect that in Europe it's sold as Regia Jupiter, because of the small blurb about Jupiter inside the label. I worked it on such large needles because the color repeat didn't work very well at my standard smaller gauge. The label recommends 2-3mm needles. As you can see, the swoosh factored in nicely enough at 2mm.

I'm not quite sure what larger project to begin next. I'm still finishing Elder Daughter's Kyoto sleeves. But that's my downstairs project, for when I have time to sit with the family and play video games or watch movies. My upstairs project sits in the library, where the adults of the house take their relaxation after the kids have gone to bed. That's usually the most involved thing I am working on at any one time, and the project for which I now find myself in need of inspiration.

Technorati : knitting

Like most parents, I spend a lot of time rolling my eyes at what passes for homework and school assignments. There are way too many feel-good tasks - making posters and collages, even well into high school. Where are the analytical reading pieces? Where is learning how to write a convincing essay? But every once and a while something engaging and creative is requested.

This month Smaller Daughter (now 9) had to construct a Rube Goldberg device, with a goal of popping a balloon. I sat on my hands and watched her experiment for the better part of a week. She scribbled out her designs and went down several possible paths before settling on her device components. She constructed (and re-constructed) each station scrounged from toys and oddments at hand, testing out each one individually, then assembled them into her final chain reaction. Eventually, after much tinkering she got it just right, and the whole thing worked as intended.

I wish I had a video camera, but you'll have to use your imagination. Especially the part where the balloon makes a satisfying pop, and she leaps up in triumph.

Click on any thumbnail on this website to see detailed pix.

Someday I will loose this proto-engineer on the world. I hope the world will be ready.

In knitting news - not much. I've been working like a demon. All I've had time to do over the past two weeks is one mindless sock. For me to take two weeks to knit one sock says a lot. This one is a standard 72 stitch sock with a figure-8 toe and short rowed heel, worked using five DPNs. That calculates out to 18 stitches per needle. My insertion strip is 18 stitches wide as graphed below, so I do the pattern in its entirety once on each of the four working needles. I've stuffed a piece of white paper inside the sock so you can see the diamond patterning. and provided a chart for the simple design .

I used Meilenweit Mega Boot Stretch, knit at about 9spi. The shaded reds with the touch of orange is color #709. I'm not wild about this yarn. It feels nice and cushy knit up, but I don't enjoy tensioning it. The stretch is throwing my gauge off a bit, especially on my heel's purl rows. It also is rather lofty unstretched, and prone to catch and split on needle tips. I'll post a review of the stuff when the pair is finished.

Technorati : knitting, rube goldberg