On Knitting, Mostly
There now, I finished the colour-work yoke last night having only had to unpick two rows in total, where I'd evidently been concentrating more on the plot of what was on TV rather than the knitting*. I'm now on the neck ribbing. Button bands, buttons, underarm seams (found a good way of doing them) and steek to do. Which is really Just As Well, last night it was getting a bit warm to be sat with a lap full of wool! The yoke colourwork is a bit uneven at present. I may totally break with tradition (mine) and actually block this cardigan, just to see if being washed (actually got wet then dried) really does even up the knitted fabric - which is what all the Knitters Who Block (and Advocate Blocking) say.
What with the cardigan nearing completion, and getting kinda warm to knit under, I downloaded a new sock pattern. Curry, by the Sock Monkey, aka Josiah Blaine. It's a pretty looking little sock, with eyelet lace pattern down the front and back leg finished with an i-cord bind off. Aaaarrrggh, i-cord! No, srsly, Dear Knitting Reader, an i-cord bind off on a sock is of limited length and not likely to drive you mad! Furthermore the money you pay for the pattern, think it was about $6, goes to a charity which gives sewing machines to widows in India so that they can support their families. Win- win situation. The widows get the sewing machines, their families benefit from having Mum working (but not doing hard labour) and you get the pattern for a sweet pair of socks. What's not to like?
Another point is that Curry uses Cat Bordhi's Sweet Tomato Heel. Should you be fed up with the traditional "knit the back, then pick up stitches and knit a wedge decrease" (going top down), or the usual Short Row Heel, this could be for you. I might try it some time when I'm knitting socks all in the same colour yarn, rather than my more usual, at present, main sock with contrasting toe, heel and rib. The thing about that kind of sock - with the contrasting bits, is that if I have 100g of a fancy yarn - self striping or some such, I can make two pairs of socks per 100g ball of fancy yarn. The contrast bits take maybe 20g of toning yarn, which can easily be leftover from another project. There now, two pairs of socks for the price of one. What's not to like? What's even better is that the female members of my family have feet of such sizes that I can pair various women so that, eg: Sis, who has size 7 feet, goes with Mum, who has size 5 feet, and SiL, who has size 4 feet, goes with Niece, who has size 8 feet. The only rub comes when I knit myself a pair, I have size 6 feet - no-one to pair with.
Ah well. I'll just have to pair with Mum, or SiL, and have a bit leftover for another pair of socks. Come to think of it, my sock yarn stash isn't that large at present, but the stash of leftover bits is ever growing. Maybe it's time I knit a pair of crazy striped socks to use up the oddments. I did, once upon a time, knit a scarf, in dominoes, from the two boxes of oddments I had. Trouble was I bought some other colours to use in the scarf and finished up with the scarf and two full boxes of oddments! Still, what have I got that'll look good as a Curry sock? I do know that I shan't be using that awful yellow/green/gunge curry sauce yarn colour Josiah uses. He may have called the pattern Curry, doesn't mean I have to knit it as that.
And Finally - should you think that the current themed ranges of Lego are not as stimulating to children's minds as the original undirected sets of bricks, they certainly seem to be stimulating some.
eg: Lego Beauty and the Beast, by Philip Glass, act 1, and all in glorious black and white.
or, for that matter, a Lego harpsicord! Ok, so it's a bit clunky, but some lad invented it all by himself. Cool!
And then there's Siegfried. Which just goes to show that Opera has great music but a really thin plot, not to mention dubious.
I must just share this with you - Bobby McFerrin and the MozART GROUP with Mozart's Eine Kleine Nacht Musik, sorta.
'K, off to finish the cardigan before the weather gets any warmer. Y'all have a good day now!
*Note that I can knit a round yoke, in two or three colours per row, and get most of it right first time while watching TV. So much for modern TV programmes, and one of them was about finding gravity waves in space!
What with the cardigan nearing completion, and getting kinda warm to knit under, I downloaded a new sock pattern. Curry, by the Sock Monkey, aka Josiah Blaine. It's a pretty looking little sock, with eyelet lace pattern down the front and back leg finished with an i-cord bind off. Aaaarrrggh, i-cord! No, srsly, Dear Knitting Reader, an i-cord bind off on a sock is of limited length and not likely to drive you mad! Furthermore the money you pay for the pattern, think it was about $6, goes to a charity which gives sewing machines to widows in India so that they can support their families. Win- win situation. The widows get the sewing machines, their families benefit from having Mum working (but not doing hard labour) and you get the pattern for a sweet pair of socks. What's not to like?
Another point is that Curry uses Cat Bordhi's Sweet Tomato Heel. Should you be fed up with the traditional "knit the back, then pick up stitches and knit a wedge decrease" (going top down), or the usual Short Row Heel, this could be for you. I might try it some time when I'm knitting socks all in the same colour yarn, rather than my more usual, at present, main sock with contrasting toe, heel and rib. The thing about that kind of sock - with the contrasting bits, is that if I have 100g of a fancy yarn - self striping or some such, I can make two pairs of socks per 100g ball of fancy yarn. The contrast bits take maybe 20g of toning yarn, which can easily be leftover from another project. There now, two pairs of socks for the price of one. What's not to like? What's even better is that the female members of my family have feet of such sizes that I can pair various women so that, eg: Sis, who has size 7 feet, goes with Mum, who has size 5 feet, and SiL, who has size 4 feet, goes with Niece, who has size 8 feet. The only rub comes when I knit myself a pair, I have size 6 feet - no-one to pair with.
Ah well. I'll just have to pair with Mum, or SiL, and have a bit leftover for another pair of socks. Come to think of it, my sock yarn stash isn't that large at present, but the stash of leftover bits is ever growing. Maybe it's time I knit a pair of crazy striped socks to use up the oddments. I did, once upon a time, knit a scarf, in dominoes, from the two boxes of oddments I had. Trouble was I bought some other colours to use in the scarf and finished up with the scarf and two full boxes of oddments! Still, what have I got that'll look good as a Curry sock? I do know that I shan't be using that awful yellow/green/gunge curry sauce yarn colour Josiah uses. He may have called the pattern Curry, doesn't mean I have to knit it as that.
And Finally - should you think that the current themed ranges of Lego are not as stimulating to children's minds as the original undirected sets of bricks, they certainly seem to be stimulating some.
eg: Lego Beauty and the Beast, by Philip Glass, act 1, and all in glorious black and white.
or, for that matter, a Lego harpsicord! Ok, so it's a bit clunky, but some lad invented it all by himself. Cool!
And then there's Siegfried. Which just goes to show that Opera has great music but a really thin plot, not to mention dubious.
I must just share this with you - Bobby McFerrin and the MozART GROUP with Mozart's Eine Kleine Nacht Musik, sorta.
'K, off to finish the cardigan before the weather gets any warmer. Y'all have a good day now!
*Note that I can knit a round yoke, in two or three colours per row, and get most of it right first time while watching TV. So much for modern TV programmes, and one of them was about finding gravity waves in space!