« March 2009 | Main | June 2009 »
.jpg)
But still nameless (suggestions welcome!). After my latest unbloggable prject is finished, I'll get to work deciphering my notes from a year and a half ago, so I can write up the pattern.
Finalmente finito! Ma ancora senza nome (suggerimenti benvenuti!). Dopo il mio ultimo progetto segreto e' finito, cominciero' di decifrare i miei punti da un' anno e mezzo fa, cosi' posso scrivere il modello.
While knitting away on one sleeve of my yet-to-be-named top-down pullover, I realized that I probably wouldn't have enough yarn to make the sleeves as long as I wanted (slightly past wrist length). To the rescue: the large swatch I made when I was working on the proposal for the Wakame Lace Tunic pattern, published in the Summer 2008 issue of Interweave Knits. (An interesting side note-- this was one of the few patterns I've written where the yarn I swatched turned out to be the yarn used in the finished pattern.) After reclaiming it, I'm sure I'll have enough yarn!
Un giorno nella vita di un' espatriata in Italia
This morning after I dropped my son off at middle school, I saw this poster on the wall outside the school. Apparently the Lega Nord thinks that Italians, like the Native Americans, will all end up on reservations if immigration into Italy is allowed to continue ("They allowed immigration-- Now they live on a reservation!"). There are so many reasons that this is ridiculous that I won't even try to enumerate them.
Stamattina, subito dopo ho accompagnato mio figlio alla scuola, ho visto questo posto sul muro esterno della scuola. Sembra che la Lega Nord pensi che gli italiani, come gli indiani d'America, finiranno tutti sulla riserva se l'immigrazione sara' permesso di continuare. Ci sono cosi' tante ragioni perche' questo e' ridicolo che non provi di elencarle.
On a more amusing note, I stopped at a gas station around 1 p.m., so of course (like most stores in Italy) it was closed for lunch-- but one could still buy gas at an automated pump by inserting an ATM card or cash into a machine. I tried over and over again to feed a crisp new 20 euro note into the machine, and it kept rejecting it; finally a motorcyclist who was waiting to fill his own tank told me (in Italian) "It's too new-- look, try this." He crumpled up the bill he was holding, straightened it out again, and inserted it into the machine-- which immediately swallowed it. Only in Italy!
Un' argomento piu divertente: Mi sono fermata ad una stazione di servizio circo l'una, quindi era chiusa per pranzo (come la maggiorparte dei negozi in Italia)-- pero' introdendo una carta del bancomat oppure una banconota, si potrebbe comprare la benzina alla macchina automatica. Ho provato ripetutamente di inserire un contante nuovo di 20 euro nella macchina, e l'ha ripetutamente respinto. Finalmente mi ha detto un motociclista "E' troppo nuovo-- guardi, io lo faccio cosi'"-- ha spiegazzato il contante nella sua mano, l'ha rilisciato, l'ha inserito nella macchina-- e l'ha subito inghiottito. Solamente in Italia!
(By the way, if you are filling your tank at a gas station here, don't put "gasolio" into your gasoline-powered car-- in spite of the name, it's actually diesel!).
So bene dove ho sbagliato....
So I got the body of this sweater re-knitted; it's now longer (in the year-and-a-half since I started it, I've gotten to like the elongated silhouette that now seems to be in fashion), and has a wider edging at the bottom (above photo). I took out the twisted stitches that were supposed to shape the waist but in fact did nothing, and I planned to make the sleeves a bit elongated too.
I knew making everything longer would mean using every bit of yarn I had, so I reclaimed most of my swatches and ended up with a gaggle of tiny gomitoli (below)-- an ugly sight for someone who hates to work in ends, but hopefully I'll have enough yarn to finish.
I finished one sleeve and started on the second, but when I got to the bottom edging, I realized it was angling in the opposite direction compared to the first sleeve. I didn't see how this could be possible: since this pullover is worked in the round from the neck down, the stitch pattern begins at the exact same point for both sleeves, and thus should end at the same point. It took me several go-overs to find the mistake, and of course, once I did, I couldn't believe I had missed it: when I unraveled the bottom edge of the first sleeve and started 
knitting again, I repeated the same 8 pattern rows twice-- you can tell because the eyelets inside the cable don't switch from left to right.
Then I noticed another error-- I had added an extra row of eyelets, or two extra rows, to each cable section. Oops! And I suddenly realized why I did this. For the edging, I just kept knitting until it looked wide enough, and it turned out to be 16 rows long, which I noted was the same as one repeat of the main stitch pattern, which includes two cable crosses. Then when I started to lengthen the sleeves, I was thinking "8 rows between cable crossings, or 4 eyelet rows," and I forgot that the cable cross itself takes two of the stitch pattern rows, meaning that each cable section should have only 3 rows of eyelets. RRRIPPP!!
.jpg)
One of my patterns is in the new Spring/Summer 2009 issue of Knit.1! The Leaf Yoke Top is sleeveless and is worked in the round from the top down, starting with the lace yoke. It's a fun knit, and goes quickly in a worsted weight yarn-- I highly recommend it!
When I first started thinking about the design, I was picturing a wide, ornate circular collar like those shown in drawings of ancient Egyptian royalty; you can see from the submission sketch (below) that I tried to pose the model and draw her head in such a way as to suggest an Egyptian influence. Originally I wasn't sure whether I would try a Fair Isle or a lace pattern for the yoke, and I wasn't planning to work from the top down-- but then I discovered Marianne Kinzel's First Book of Modern Lace Knitting
(originally published in 1954). This book contains lace patterns worked from end to end as well as square and round lace patterns worked from the center out, and shows them used as tablecloths, placemats, doilies, curtains and bedspreads-- but not in any type of garment! Nevertheless, I immediately thought that if I could omit the very center of one of the round lace patterns, I could adapt it for use as a wide collar.
I decided to try "Primula," a lace design intended for use as a coffee cloth (whatever that is!). The instructions in the book call for crochet cotton, which is much finer than the yarn I wanted to use, and I knew I would only be using a small part of the entire lace pattern, so I really wasn't sure how the yoke would turn out until I swatched it.
First I tried Filatura di Crosa Brillante, a sport weight cotton/rayon blend with a slightly metallic sheen, which I happened to have in a light gold color. I loved it! I then made a bigger swatch so I could figure out how to transition from the yoke to the body, which I did using short rows. (The large swatch I made is pictured draped over my shoulder.) I also made a swatch using Sublime Organic Cotton DK, just to see how it would look in a heavier yarn; after doing some calculating, I then decided that the pattern wouldn't work in a heavier yarn, because the yoke would just become too large, meaning that I wouldn't be able to do enough repeats to make a circle without the diameter getting too big, or else it would have to start too high up at the base of the neck, and perhaps end up coming down too far over the top of the arm.
Of course, Knit.1 then decided they wanted me to use a worsted weight yarn (Tahki Nova)! So I did some more calculating, and although you can see that the yoke does start higher up than with the Brillante, it works just fine. The yoke is bound off and then stitches are picked up along the bound off edge and worked down, in stockinette; I shaped the waist using decreases and increases along the sides, and used a turned hem to give the bottom edge enough body to balance the wide yoke-- and voila.