Knititude

Better late than never

Fall is my favorite season, hands down, but if spring in New England had more days like today, where the sapphire hue of the sky is more September than April, and a slight breeze is stirring the bloom-laden branches of the weeping cherries...plus, I realized that very young leaves range in color from yellow to chartreuse to burgundy, which is not so different from...the range of leaf colors in the fall!  A detail I probably should have noted at some point during the last several decades I've spent on the planet, but hey.  Better late than never.

Also BLTN:  this photo of a rejected Chinese Lace sleeve prototype.  I knit it weeks ago and tossed it in a pile with all my other Chinese Lace flotsam; I'm surprised by how intriguing it appears in the picture, but trust me, it's not so good on the arm.  I tried an eyelet rib to transition between the lace and stockinette, and then I tried making all of the sleeve increases just above the rib, to give the sleeve a full shape above the elbow--well, I think that look works better with a handkerchief-weight cotton or linen, or an organza, than with knitted fabric.  Also visible is the decreases I tried working into the lace pattern (the panel that comes to a point just left of center) to create a bell shaped cuff.  Not terrible, but I can do better; in fact, I'm thinking that if I can really do the decreases nicely, Chinese Lace would make a cool hat.

Really early or really late

I would imagine that a hat is one of the last things on the average knitter's mind right now; it's a gorgeous spring day, and my thoughts are certainly turning to, if not knit bikinis (never!), then sleeveless, short sleeves, lace--that sort of thing.   Well, this hat is kind of lacy, anyway; I've decided I like lace patterns for hats because they get stretched on the wearer's head and display the stitches nicely. 

As simple as this little number looks, it has gone through a number of alterations; I added the ribbed edging so it grips the head better (although I'm also working on a version that has no ribbing), and I re-worked the crown decreases probably a half-dozen times.  I think what I've ended up with carries the pattern nicely to the top.  I used the "spiral" pattern I found here.  The yarn is Jo Sharp's Desert Garden Aran Cotton, color "Solstice".  I like this yarn a lot; it's an aran weight blend of cotton (65%) and microfiber (35%), and springy and soft to work with.  When I finish the version without ribs (and in which I tried using SSKs instead of k2togs), in Jo Sharp Silk Road Aran "Merlot", I'll post both patterns gratis (the only real work involved was figuring out the decreases, which I take a geeky pleasure in doing anyway).     

Lace & ribs?

Here is the latest version of Chinese Lace; I've decided to try a wide rib that aligns with the lace pattern repeat.  This is looking much more sculptural than it will after blocking, but after my last WIP wet-block attempt, I've decided to play it safe.  I didn't see any color bleeding into the water, but just in case, I'll wait until I finish this front piece before blocking it.  I may go back to straight stockinette above the lace, but I'll take this a little further before I decide.

Elissa, I love you

I have no idea who Elissa is, but I do know that my LYS, Elissa's Creative Warehouse in Needham, MA, has a great selection of yarn, lots of books, nice salespeople, and OK, they never seem to have current issues of Vogue Knitting or Interweave, but compared to the place I just visited yesterday, that is a very minor quibble. 

True, both are located in a sort of industrial park, but this Jupiter, FL LYS has the odd concept of organizing yarns by color, making it a little hard to find them by fiber content or brand.  I could get used to that (although their selection didn't excite me), but the attitude!  I mean, listen to this monologue:

"This one customer, she's a regular but seasonal-- you know, a snowbird--she's the type that sits in her car in the parking lot, waiting for us to open...so what I usually do is, I get in early, get things organized, and a few minutes of ten, I open the door.  Well, she comes in, and she says to me, 'Your clock is wrong.'"  (Commiserating chuckles from the yarn cronies.)  "So I said, 'Well, that's the clock we go by here.'  And she was fine--no further trouble.  But she's just the type, if you let her push you around...."

I have to admit, that customer doesn't sound like a prize.  But can you imagine trying to go to the BANK on your way to work, and trying to open the door at 9, and ten minutes later, they open it and say, "Well, we go by our OWN time here.  We're on CHASE MANHATTAN time here!  GFY!"  Or the supermarket--"We're on PUBLIX time here!" 

Elissa, I love you.  And WEBS, I love you too:  sometimes it's easiest to just order yarn online. 

If this is Tuesday, then I must be in Jupiter.

Vacation does that to you--disorients you so you don't know which day it is.  And then there is THIS (pictured), which was totally unexpected; I just wanted to make sure this sweater wouldn't be too small for me, so I did a quick WIP wet-block, and...WTF?  Those two balls of yarn were from the same dye lot, weren't they?  The color in this photo is off; in reality the lower portion is distinctly grayer than the upper.  I thought maybe I just hadn't wetted the upper part enough and it had some, I don't know, SIZING on it or something, so I wetted it all again, and...same thing.  How annoying.  I looked through all of the various swatches and sleeves I have for this Chinese Lace project, and one of them did in fact match the lower part shown ( I had begun this piece from an already-started ball.) 

Well, in spite of the husband's kind comment that he liked it that way, this piece is now history; the scary part is that when the yarn is wound, it's VERY hard to discern any difference in color.  Oh well; I'm going to make it a bit bigger, anyway; I intend for this sweater to be close-fitting, but I don't want that pulling across the lower back that results when something is a little too tight around the hips.

The good news?  I don't think I'll have to worry about running out of yarn before we fly home on Sunday--a prospect which was making me a little anxious.  Even better news:  I think I'll go to the Jupiter LYS anyway, just to check it out... for future reference....   

Travel Bulletin:

Attention Flying Knitters:  I just flew Song from Boston to Florida two days ago and carried on, with no questions asked, a set of metal Skacel double-pointed needles and a small pair of scissors.  I also noticed that just before passing through the security line at Logan Airport, there is now a kiosk where you can purchase a mailer for any items they won't let you carry on (in case TSA suddenly changes their mind about allowable items once again). 

Good News/Bad News

Although I've been knitting furiously for the past week, little or none of it has been bloggable (bad news).  However, by next week, I should have 2 or 3 completed pattern submissions to send off to knitty in time for the deadline for their July issue (good news).  My limited experience with submissions for publication, whether print or online, has been that rejections are to be expected (bad news).  I've heard that knitty's editor, Amy Singer, at least lets you know quickly whether your pattern will be used (good news), and if NOT (bad news), then I will be posting those patterns here on my blog, instead (good news).

I haven't given up on Chinese Lace, and the other day I was flipping through the yellowing pages of 1500 Patterns, a softcover "Knitting Encyclopedia" from Mon Tricot that I've had for about 20 years, when I found this.  Look familiar?  Aside from using k2togs instead of SSKs, it is a block of four pattern lines from Chinese Lace, and that lovely diagonal has me thinking I might resurrect this idea--or at least the mock wrap part of it, combined with C.L. sleeves.