Thursday, October 02, 2008

Back to Real Life, the Princess, the Fall of Western Capitalism, the Vice-Presidential debate. I hope Biden can rein himself in sufficiently to let Mrs Palin self-destruct. We heard most of the first debate last week in our middle-of-the-night elderly-insomniac radio-listening, and found it, I am sorry to report, banal. Like a high-school debate. Both had mugged up their facts and figures, and spewed them forth. Neither seemed entirely to grasp that the sky was falling. I gather that if one actually saw it, McCain looked old.

The Princess

I have something so dreadful to report, I wish I could avoid mentioning it. I have been anxious about this for some days, but eyeballing seemed to reassure. Now – I knit half-a-row this morning before embarking on the day – I know it’s true. I offset the pattern when I started the seventh repeat.

There’s no life-line. I can’t take out 20 rows. It’ll have to stand. I think the thing to do is to proceed in the new mode, rather than reverting to the former one and leaving the seventh repeat off on its own. I’ll consider the question anew when the seventh repeat is finished. Perhaps revert after the ninth repeat? We shall see.

Cynthia, I would love to know the formula which would tell me how much more knitting I’ve got to go on the centre. I agree, that this is a project to be savoured for the experience, but still, it’s an intellectual question which I think I might have been able to solve myself when younger. Certainly not now.

I hope your border proceeds well. The border is more fun than anything, and you can measure your progress by the picture on the front cover of Heirloom Knitting, and that’s fun too.

I’m enjoying it as much as ever, despite the disaster just mentioned. I even considered taking her with me to London, but decided that that was too dangerous. Instead, I worked on the current travel-sock.


There hasn’t been much waiting-room or travel lately; it was good to get to grips with it. It’s an Araucania Multi with which I knit a sweater for one of Alexander’s sons; I thought it might amuse to use the same yarn for socks for Daddy. I’m doing a k6,p2 rib for the body of the sock – not as quick or as blissful to knit as round-and-round in st st, but it makes a neat sock.

Don’t miss – I’m sure no one ever does – Franklin’s recent essay on difficulta. (Speaking of difficulty, I don’t even know how to produce that accent on the “a”.) I’m going to order “Inspired to Knit” right away. I’d send for an edition of Statius’ “Thebaid” if Franklin told me to.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:04 AM

    Here's the formula for the total number of stitches knit in a triangle: take the number of stitches, multiply it by the number plus one, and divide the result by two.
    (N)x(N+1)/ 2

    For the total number of stitches in a triangle, N is the number of stitches in the last row. To see how many stitches you've already knit, N is the number of stitches on your needle.


    For the center of Princess, that's 647 times 648, or 419,256, divided by 2: 209,628 for the entire center triangle.

    Do the same for the number of stitches you've already knit, which is the number of stitches on your needle. For example, if you've got 300 stitches:
    300x301/ 2= 45,150.

    To find the percentage completed, divide the smaller number by the larger number 45,150/209,628, or roughly 22%

    This is the only formula I remember from a statistics course in college, but I use it all the time for lace. Yes, I'm still enjoying ( loving) Princess, at least through row 62. It becomes addictive.

    Cynthia ( cindersall on Ravelry if anyone has questions)

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  2. McCain did look old. at least to me. He seems older and crankyer every time I see him on TV these days. Tonight should be telling. One pundit said the other day she wins if she does not drool on herself.

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  3. I feel your pain for Princess. I would offer to take it out for you but I don't think it is worth shipping across the pond.

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  4. Franklin is strangely compelling, isn't he?

    Sorry about the Princess.

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  5. The state of the world AND your princess bad news gives new meaning to EZ's quote, "Knit on, with confidence and hope, through all crises."

    I agree with Sandy - McSame looked old - especially when they showed both candidates on the split screen. McSame also looked like a petulant arse by refusing to look at Obama throughout the entire debate.

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