the state of the stole; comments; blah

1. Hiawatha!



As you can see, I finished the second Starlight section, and have started on the side section. I'm one pattern repeat in, and enjoying it now that the patterning is more established. It's a bit complicated to get the feel of this section, because it's really 3 different lace patterns in a total of 5 sections, with faggoting between them. To make things even more fun, the wrong side rows aren't just purl for every pattern. To help myself stay sane and keep track of all that's going on, I did this:



There are too many charts to fit on one 8.5x11 sheet of paper, and I didn't want to work off of the original, so I scanned, printed, cut, and taped. I need to use stickies to help keep track of rows because I don't know where my other magnets are. And you can see all the notes below, including notes that come with the pattern (for special WS row instructions), and my own notes to help me keep track of what to do on WS rows and how to knit the patterns in the proper order. Now that I'm a repeat in, I don't really need all those notes anymore. But they were extremely useful to have all in one spot as I was starting out on this section.

For the record, I'm not doing the k1, purl across, k1 on the WS rows of the Arrowheads pattern. I'm just purling across because 1. I think it looks nicer, and 2. I'm not convinced that they really mean it when they say k, p across, k. To me, that reads like vestigial instructions from when the pattern lived alone, as a single lace panel, not for when it's incorporated into a larger structure. I don't really know whether it's a pattern mistake or not, but I like it better without the stitch of garter stitch at the beginning and end of that pattern, so I'm doing it my way.

I have about 9 more repeats of the side section charts to go. The pattern says to do 10 repeats, and I think I'll probably stick with that, because using much smaller needles will do enough to keep the stole from being ridiculously long.

2. Stuff from comments:

• Molly asked if I'd be knitting the cover sweater (Autumn Color Cardigan) from Sweaters From Camp. That's actually the sweater that got me to buy the book, and is definitely on my list. Probably sometime next year, when I've finished current projects, knit up yarn I have sitting around (I don't like to have a big stash), and have the money to order the yarn. As a side note about that sweater, I realized a couple of months ago that the patterning is very similar to the patterning of the Komi mittens in Schurch's Knitting Marvelous Mittens. It's no wonder I was so drawn to that sweater, now that I know that I love that type of colorwork patterning. This also means that the colorwork in the sweater will be quite easy, without long floats. The shaping, on the other hand, will be a fun challenge.


• Alice suggested I submit the photo of the Hedera sock with cherries to the Knitty calendar contest. I've been thinking of doing that, but am still unsure about whether the photo I have is high res enough. (The info given is contradictory - one can't get an 8.5x11 photo with the DPI requested with a 3 megapixel camera, as suggested. So I need to find out exactly what Amy needs for a final photo, because I only have a 3.1 megapixel camera, and don't want to submit something she wouldn't be able to use if my photo were selected.)


• Lotta wants to know more about my experiences submitting knitting to the fair. I'll have more on that after the fair is over, in a week, and will be happy to post here and send you an email. I dropped off Ingeborg and the Nordic Mittens yesterday. It was a bit difficult to hand them over to a stranger. I got little claim tickets in return, and have an hour window to pick them up again next Monday, or else I'm not sure what happens to them. eek! Let's just hope that they stay far away from dirty, grubby fingers, and that there isn't a massive disaster in the building that causes all the jars of preserves and shelves of homemade pies to smear themselves all over my woolen goodies. (Yes, I know they'll be fine. But I still worry.) I'm a bit disappointed with my county fair because of the very limited number of categories for knitting. They have two separate categories for afghans (regular sized and baby), but only one category for every type of sweater (not subdivided for, say, colorwork and textured patterns), no categories for socks, no categories for bags, slippers, pillows, or other accessories that aren't winter outerwear. And you're only allowed to submit one item per category, which means I had some big decisions to make. I say they should expand the categories, and just get rid of the cash prizes. It's only $4 for first place, which means I'll cover the cost of admission if I win first place for both items. Whoopee? The money seems a bit superfluous. I think ribbons would be sufficient prizes, and would allow more categories if they're limited themselves for financial reasons.


• Thanks for all of the wonderful comments over the past few weeks that weren't specific questions covered above. Blogger comments aren't really set up for replies, but I appreciate all of the comments I receive, even if I can't send direct replies.

3. Ack. My sidebar is still decimated. I knew there was something I was supposed to do, but didn't do, this weekend. Yeah, the stuff that was magically deleted should be back (non-magically, with lots of tedious work) today or tomorrow.