Tricotomania and more

I get the headline for the Globe and Mail emailed to me so I don’t completely lose track of what is going on around here. Today the following were one after the other

Ottawa considers joining rival to Kyoto protocol

Jane Jacobs dies

In other news, the surprising (NOT) fact that the Conservatives child care proposal gives least to poorest

I didn’t vote for these people. I think everything they stand for is crap with the possible exception of reducing GST though probably not for the same reasons. (My reason is that consumption taxes are regressive — they hit poorer people harder. Thus reducing sales tax and raising income tax, especially higher bracket income tax, is a good idea in my book. Fiscal conservatives can find another blog to comment on. I know your arguments and I also don’t accept that economic growth is always and everywhere a good thing, especially when it relies on vast income and wealth disparities and the destruction of the environment.)

Furthermore, my copy of The Walrus has a cover article that I am procrastinating about reading because it will just confirm my view that the folks I did vote for are nothing more than the best of a very bad bunch. It would be really great if there was some real choice in elections. And those of you who support the NDP (either with time or money) would do well to emulate Redneck Mother who has decided to stop giving money to the Democratic National Committee until Democrats start behaving better.

Off to maybe do a little more work or interact with my kid or something.

Since I am really bad at documenting what I do when I’m designing by the seat of my pants, I thought I’d write it out for you here. Like Janine I “encourage freedom and experimentation” so this one isn’t going to be resized for some standard set of sizes. Hopefully by seeing how I’ve done it, you can do your own, using your own measurements.

The yarn: Mission Falls 1824 Cotton (from before the move, but I don’t think it would matter) in Aubergine, Merlot and Ecru. I really like this yarn and it knits up to something with a kind of soft sweatshirt-y feel. So that’s what we are aiming for.

The needles: 4.5mm bamboo circs

The swatch: in these circumstances you need to do one of these just to work out how to start. I knit a 7″ square. Amazing. My swatches are never square. Because I decided on a garter stitch garment, I knit the swatch in garter stitch. My swatch measured 30 stitches by 50 rows (25 ridges) for that 7″. I’ve done all my calculations using the 7″ gauge because the more rounding you do the further out you are.

For those who want to try this yourselves, don’t worry about getting my gauge. Worry about getting a fabric you are happy with in the yarn you want to use. Switch needle sizes if necessary (though I’d start with whatever the ball band recommends modified for what you know about whether YOU knit loose or tight). When you have a nice fabric, measure the gauge of that.

The basic idea: a side to side construction à la Sonnet. I have made the kid’s version of this once (called Haiku; you can find it in the knitty archives). But this sweater is not Sonnet. It’s another side to side garter stitch cardigan.

The measurements: I measured a cardigan that I have that fits well. It is the retro prep that Stephannie gave me. It measures 21″ long at the centre back and 46″ around the chest. Measuring straight across the neck opening is 9″ and the armscye is about 11″. It is a different shape. It has raglan sleeves and the body is shaped (the bottom measures only 42″ for example). I consulted with my partner about whether I wanted to make it longer (perhaps with slits in the sides) and whether there was anything else I should consider changing. He said it was fine the way it was.

The schematic:

I’ve drawn this in Word by attaching a bunch of boxes together. If anyone knows how I can do it without all those intermediate vertical lines, let me know (though I think maybe it helps see how the sweater is constructed). My measurements as I’m going along are a little bit off of what is stated because there isn’t a whole number of ridges per inch but you get the idea. I’ll add to this and modify it as I go along. You will note that, as yet, there are no sleeves. (and I just realized that I forgot the armscye measurement which is about 10.5 or 11″)

How I have proceeded: I cast on 90 stitches using a provisional cast on for the centre back. I am knitting towards the front. After 4″ (15 ridges), I cast on an extra 2 stitches at the neck edge of the next 2 ridges (for a total of 94 stitches which is what gives 22″ in my gauge). I then continued straight to the armscye (21 ridges). I cast off (coming down from the neck edge on the wrong side of that last ridge) 44 stitches (leaving 50 to work) and then knit 18 ridges. I cast-on 44 stitches at the neck edge, and worked … well I’m in the middle of this so it needs to match the shoulder at the back — 21 ridges will happen here and then I will start to decrease one stitch at the neck edge of each ridge until I am down to 78 stitches. I’ll cast off for the front opening. Then pick up from the provisional cast on and go the other way.

What I’m doing with the colour: This was the main reason that I cast on from the centre back. I am making up the stripe sequence as I go along. If you are a planner, you could start at the front edge and knit right around without any problem. I decided that I wanted a wide purple stripe in the centre back. I then decided to play with Fibonacci sequences so the stripes wouldn’t all be the same width but I’d have some organizing principle (I don’t do random very well). As a reminder, the Fibonacci sequence is 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13… (each number is the sum of the 2 preceding it). I decided that I didn’t want stripes wider than 5 ridges (which is a little over 1″ in my gauge). Initially I forgot about the 0 but when you have 3 colours using the 0 can be interesting. I didn’t have that realization until I hit the armhole.

So, I cast on in Aubergine (P) and knit 2 rows (intending to knit 3 the other way to make this a 5 ridge stripe). Then I introduced the ecru (W) and merlot (R) at the low end of the sequence. Here is what the stripe sequence is so far (from centre back around the right side to the front)

2P, 1W, 1R, 3P, 1W, 1R, 2P, 2W, 2R, 1P, 3W, 3R, 1P, 5W, 2R [you can see here that I decided to take the ecru right up to the 5 wide but only took the merlot up to 3 wide before coming back down the sequence], 2P [I started back up without going down to 0], 3W, 1R, 3P [the cast off for the armscye is in the middle of this], 2W, 1R, 2P, 1W, [0R], 1P, 1W, 1R, 1P, [0W], 1R, [0P], 1W, 2R, 1P, 1W, 3R, 1P, 2W, 5R, 2P… that’s where I am right now. That wide merlot stripe is on the front nearish to the armscye.

I was planning out where I will go from here. I think I have 25 ridges left to get to the front. The next 9 will be 3W, 3R, 3P but then I have some decisions

Option 1: 2W, 2R, 5P, 1W, 1R, 3P, 1W, 1R

This would put a wide aubergine stripe on the right front of the cardigan but everything else would be narrower.

Option 2: 5W, 2R, 2P, 3W, 1R, 1P, 2W

This would make the right front very ecru dominant.

Option 3: 5W, 2R, 5P, 3W, 1R

This option is more balanced in terms of colour and when considered with what is already there on the right front would result in 3 wide stripes, one of each colour.

My thinking so far: I plan to do all the edgings in the aubergine so that will dominate (which is what I want). I have more of it, as well. Also, although I started out intending to make the colour sequence symmetrical from that centre back stripe, I have changed my mind. I now plan to vary the sequence so that the wide white stripe on the right back is mirrored by a wide red stripe on the left back. I could then go for wide stripes under the left arm (there are narrow ones under the right arm, that’s where all the 1 ridge stripes and 0s are) and a bunch of narrow stripes on the left front.

The upshot of that is that I’m going to go with option 3.

I think, for now, that the central panel will be symmetrical (those 1W, 1R bits amongst the declining aubergine sequence) and I’ll reverse the order the 3 colours come in (Right side: P, W, R; Left side: P, R, W) but then I’ll probably take the ecru back down after it gets to 3 ridges wide and let the merlot go up to 5 ridges… After that, I’m not sure. I’ll update you when I’m making those decisions.

I’m not at all sure why I want to blog about this topic. I’m the kind of girl who steadfastly refused to do the crunches the midwife recommended after giving birth. I figured that if one needed abs to walk (and when you have well and truly blown your abs giving birth, you realize that this is the case), then walking would strengthen my abs.

So I don’t go to the gym.

Basically, if it isn’t fun, I’m not going to do it.

A couple of weeks ago a friend asked if I wanted to go to an African dance class with her. She knows the instructor. It is held in a community centre rather close to my house (5 minute cycle ride; unfortunately downhill all the way, which means uphill all the way home and more than 5 minutes). So I said yes. It is great fun. This week the usual teacher was away and we had someone else. It was more of a workout than usual. And still fun. And it exercises odd muscles (like those ones between your shoulder blades).

The other thing I do is play basketball in a women’s recreational league. This is great fun. I’ve learned a lot and really improved my skills. And my teammates don’t seem to care that I don’t notice what the score it. The are practically jubilant if I score (not often; my personal best is 4 points in a game and yes, you get 2 points for a basket). And very encouraging. I’m the oldest person on the team and possibly the least fit. Others play Ultimate, run marathons, and that sort of thing. But no one minds. We have a blast.

I also take an Aquafit class at a local community recreation centre. Because I work for myself at home, I go in the day. I’m the youngest in that class which makes me feel really fit (though, quite frankly, some of those 70+ year old ladies are probably fitter than I am). Again, it’s fun. For some reason aerobics in the pool doesn’t feel as hard as it does on land. And they wonder where I’ve been if I miss a class.

For some reason it appears that everyone has a gym membership and exercise has become this chore that we all have to do. I don’t buy that at all. I cycle (not all winter like some in this household, but now the weather is better we’ll cycle more). I walk. I do fun things that are also good exercise. And I feel pretty good and am pretty healthy.

I don’t aspire to a particular sort of feminine figure. I’m a beer drinker and that has consequences. But I feel good.

Okay this is all starting to sound a bit preachy or something. Like I said, no idea why I felt like blogging about it. I’m going to go drink beer and knit. Replace some of the calories I burned off dancing and then cycling up hill.

I have picked up the Mission Falls stripey raglan cardigan that I started last May. I had pulled the needle out of it for another purpose and discovered today that I never noted what size I was using. I think it was a 4.5mm and that went back into the stitches just fine so I’m going with that.

Here is what I was doing: first post, second post

That seems to be all I had to say on the subject. There is a couple of inches of this cardigan done (one piece, neck down). I’m still having issues with the striping and the way the colour combinations are working. I knit a few more rows today. Not sure. Not sure at all.

Trouble is there is not enough of any one colour to make anything substantial. 8 balls of purple, 7 balls of merlot, 6 balls of ecru. A couple balls each of a few mid tones and leftovers from other projects. I know the yarn is now coming back but with a different producer and the folks in my LYS think it feels different (they were swatching to see how it knits up).

I love the colours. Not sure if I like how they are going together or not…

I might persevere. I seem to recall that in the comments to one of the earlier posts, Emily said that it didn’t matter and I could wear it for gardening if worst came to worst. Which may be a good way to think about it.

Or…

I could rip it out and do a Sonnet. I quite liked the little tiny one I did for the doll (did I tell you about that?) which I finished off by picking up the bottom edge and knitting a few rows of garter stitch making a horizontal border. I know M-H has made a stripey one (there is a wee photo in her right side and the advantage would be that the stripes are vertical. And textural (since it is garter stitch).

This is sounding better and better. I think I’m convincing myself. Of course garter stitch eats yarn but I’m sure I can cope. I have a whole 17l tub of the stuff.

Now, the question is, do I want that square neckline? Or should I modify it for a V-neck? M-H, do you have any views (since you knit this a couple of times)?

Okay, Tigger wants to play Risk. I managed to con her into promising to do math every day for 2 weeks if I join in. So I’m joining in.

A while ago I had a correspondance with Becky about art. She has lots of great resources in older posts on her blog. I have practically no background in art at all and it is one of those subjects that makes me feel really stupid and inadequate. Through talking to Becky and also Rachel, I got some ideas about how I could make sure my daughter didn’t have the same educational deficiencies that I do. I am blessed to live in our National Capital, which means that I can go to the National Gallery any time I want. I have now bought a family membership. (For those of you interested in art education but not living near a large gallery, the CyberMuse part of the website (link in the first part of the e-mail to Tigger) has links to images of some of the paintings so you could do some study virtually.)

So last week, Tigger and I went down there and went into the Canadian collections. We then spent some time in the bookshop. We purchased a book for kids with biographies of 6 Canadian artists –
Alex Colville, Tom Thomson, Emily Carr, Cornelius Krieghoff, and Kenojuak. Tigger has read it and expressed an interest in looking at the works of some of these. So that gives a bit of a structure to our visits, which she wants to make weekly.

In the meantime, we decided to see the Norval Morrisseau exhibition before it is gone at the end of the month. So on our first trip we bought a video about Morisseau and other aboriginal artists. We watched that this morning and then went to the gallery this afternoon. Very interesting work.

Next week we are going to start on the Group of Seven. I looked up some material for her to read (she likes to have information about the art and there isn’t much in the gallery itself) and sent links to her by e-mail so she could work on it herself. She prefers to be self-directed. Here is that e-mail.

Dear Tigger,

To prepare for our next visit to the Gallery, here is some information about the Group of Seven from the National Gallery website. They have a special part of the website called CyberMuse

Maybe you could bookmark that main site to use in the future to find information about art.

For your study of the Group of Seven:

1) Here is a virtual Gallery of the work of the Group of Seven.

If you click on the button that says ‘view items in the gallery’ you will go to a page with some of the pictures on it. Click on each picture and there is a bigger image and some buttons on the side that link to biographies and audioguides for that picture.

OR, you can go here, where there is a slightly different set of paintings. When you click on the painting you get a short description. The magnifying glass lets you make the image bigger.

2) If you go to this page, you will be able to look at some comparisons of similar paintings by different artists in the Group of Seven. There is a short explanation of what to look at and if you click on the little magnifying glasses you can get a bigger image of the painting. There are 4 in there. Click on the numbers in the blue stripe to move on to the next one.

3) If you go to this page, there is a link to a timeline of the Group of Seven. Click on the one of the Printable timeline (DO NOT print it but scroll through it to read it.)

Have fun. And ask me for help if you want to. I’d love to learn more about the Group of Seven with you. Remember we can take more than one week to learn about this.

JoVE/mommy

We have created a separate blog as a space for Tigger to post about what she is up to. Although she was very excited the day we designed it, she has been less than keen to use it. However, today, she wrote a poem and agreed that that would be a good thing to put on her blog. I typed for her.

You can find her here.

The title of this post is more or less a direct quote from my partner. I was doing some calculations the other night while watching CSI and he caught sight of the notes. The calculations determined that I did not have enough of that nice blue cotton chenille (that is a bastard to knit with) to make a throw blanket for Tigger.

I suppose I should explain. Not the most recent Spin Off but the one before that had an article on spinning novelty yarns, paired with an article suggesting something you could do with novelty yarns. I’m not that interested in spinning novelty yarns at this stage. I’m still working on getting my spinning to not look like a novelty yarn by accident.

But the companion article was about weaving a wrap on a warp weighted loom (if you try to say that too fast, you end up with womb which produces a kind of bizarre image). I had told Tigger about this idea, since she is really interested in weaving. She wasn’t that keen. She wants a ‘proper’ loom. But the idea was fermenting at the back of my mind.

Then I was downloading a bunch of podcasts and burning them onto CDs the other day (I had got horribly behind because I don’t want to knit in the kitchen where the computer is and that seemed like a good way to have the podcasts as something to listen to while I knit where I want to knit, in the living room). It was taking an age and I decided that while I was waiting for things to happen, I could rip out the abandoned chenille sweater so that the yarn could go to my mom for weaving with when Tigger goes to visit at the end of the month.

Well, you can guess what happened next. I started thinking about weaving with this stuff myself. Hence the calculations while watching CSI. And on Friday, I just decided to do it. I thought maybe a wrap for Tigger to wear while sitting and reading (something she does a lot) would be good. I have some co-ordinating ribbon yarn that would liven it up.

A warp weighted loom is basically a dowel secured in some way with the warp attached by larks head knots and then weighted at the other end. You weave from top to bottom. I figured a curtain rod was already secured to the wall and would work just fine. I have heavy curtains in the living room so thought that would hold whatever weight this thing would be.

So I proceeded to cut lengths of chenille, fold them and attach them to the curtain rod of one of my living room window. I did 72 lengths so that meant 144 warp threads. I then weighted them in groups with cutlery. I used teaspoons and dessert forks, splitting the groups so that going in one direction I could just lift the spoons to get every second warp-thread (I just did a plain weave). That didn’t work in the other direction so I used one of those bamboo skewers as a pick up stick. (One of the podcasts I listened to while doing this was Weavecast and I learned some new terminology in the process.) I had to stand on the sofa (which is in front of that window) to reach for the beginning.

I was pretty good about keeping the warp threads reasonably spaced at the top part but as I went along it started drawing in a bit. So my finished product (yes, I finished. Yesterday.) isn’t a perfect rectangle. But I kind of got the hang of it. Part way through I went and dug out the camping cutlery and divided my weighted groups because a visible line was started to form where the grouping of the threads was pulling them off vertical. I used some of the ribbon and also some navy silk that I had to make some stripes (these don’t show up very well mainly because the warp got closer together).

Yesterday, I could just move the sofa and stand behind it to work. Much more comfortable. Standing on the sofa is hard on your legs. I stopped when it got difficult to pass the weft through the shed (See, I told you I learned new terminology. Not sure I’m using it quite right, but there you go.). I untied the cutlery and returned it to the drawer and then tied fringe (4 threads to a knot) along the bottom. Then I cut the loops of the larks head knots to free the thing from the curtain rod and tied that end. This morning, I trimmed the fringe.

Tigger really likes it. Chenille is really soft and I quite like the feel of it. But it is now weaving yarn. Much more pleasant than knitting with it.

Of course, I didn’t use all I had. I might very well have had enough for a throw. Particularly if I had thought of that navy silk and done some warp stripes as well as weft stripes with it (I also have some navy cotton, come to think of it… hmmmm, a cotton blanket with some chenille stripes…). But my mom says she has a table loom that Tigger can have so maybe the chenille can just sit in a box of ‘weaving stash’ for that eventuality.

BTW, my silk came in the mail the other day. More browns than I expected but caramel browns and the colour way does look very nice. I’m now trying to be patient about my new spindles. I think the silk should be spun on the little one.

And I’ve received books from Needlearts (link in the Knitting Links list on the sidebar). In Sheeps Clothing, Sensational Knitted Socks, and Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook — can you tell that the other idea fermenting in the back of my mind is spinning sock yarn?

This hasn’t been the greatest week. I had little patience with Tigger who didn’t seem to feel like doing anything that remotely resembled homeschooling. At some point I realized that I am probably premenstrual and although that probably explains my grumpiness it doesn’t really make it go away. I suspect she actually did learn things this week but we also had a couple of conversations about the particular frustrations of the combination of her not wanting me to tell her what to do and protesting that she is only 8 and thus shouldn’t have to make decisions. ARGHHH!

So the other day I took a little surf over to Treenway Silks and bought myself a little bit of this in the colour Musgrave Melody. Only $10 worth but I figure it is a pretty colour and I would like to see what it is like spinning silk.

I may now take Ted’s advice and go here and get a Tracy Eichheim spindle. My lighter spindle (not from Tracy) keeps coming apart when it falls on the floor. I think that’s a design flaw. Anyone who expects you not to drop it on the floor doesn’t understand much about spinning.

I have also been working on spinning more lighter weight yarn in the Persimmon Tree fibre that I bought at Rhinebeck (photos in the gallery). I think I have enough for a smallish lacy scarf. I looked through the patterns I have and ended up thinking I’d go with the old standard (wavy triangles from the Summer 2005 Vogue Knitting; I did the grey romney-angora in that and have also done one for a friend in some alpaca/cashmere/silk blend I got from Elann). But then I remembered a mobious pattern I got from Elann and looked around a bit for it and I think that will be perfect. I’ll make it narrower than written (since I only have about 140 yds).

After consulting with friends on my knitting list, I have cast off the first sock. I used a crochet cast off (basically the same as a normal one but you use a crochet hook to manipulate the stitches instead of the needles) adding an extra chain once every 6 stitches. Seems to work well. I cast on the toe of the second sock yesterday evening. I’ve also done a bit more of the 2nd sleeve of Tigger’s sweater while a friend was here with her kids the other day.

I found listening to an audiobook while knitting to be very nice but I’ve now finished Eventide. Must get another one when we go to the library this week.