Friday, March 19, 2010

I have a more-than-uneasy feeling that the Mystery Project is turning out to be too small, just when I’ve finished the slightly tricky bit and am ready to coast home. I retreated to Ketki’s socks last night – ribbing of second sock done – and today will have to face up to frogging and starting again. Bugger.

Especially as I am now rarin’ to go on the jabot. Matthew Newsome replied promptly - o si sic omnes! – and forwarded my message to his wife, who has also replied, most helpfully. (It’s really funny that you know him, Mel.) I think I’ve now got a serious line on how to do this.

I wish I had kept better notes (=any notes at all) during my earlier attempt, but I think that essentially what I tried to do was, Firstly, to knit an edging pattern and hope to attach it to the jabot backing in the zigzag fashion which has been explained to me and which I don’t understand; and, Secondly, to knit a Christine Duchrow pattern.

I’m now sure that my edging was far too narrow. I like the chap on the site I linked to yesterday who says that you want a piece of lace about the size of a computer keyboard for this purpose.

I could try that. But I also like, even better, the idea of knitting three separate tiers and attaching them gathered but straight, not in a zigzag at all. I agree with your remark about fullness, Dawn. My current thought is to knit rectangles, and to edge them with a narrow but distinct edging, and when attaching the top one to the jabot backing, to put the line of stitching along the point where the edging is attached. The bottom two tiers would only need to be edged on three sides.

Joannie Newsome is an awesome knitter. She’s JMN on Ravelry. She means to post her jabot pattern there as a free download, now eagerly awaited by me. It will certainly be the first Eng Lang knitting pattern for a jabot as a gent’s kilt accessory, and the “Eng Lang” restriction in that remark is almost certainly not needed. I don't count Hazel Carter's -- although it was that that gave me the inspiration for this project -- because it doesn't have overlapping tiers at all.

Once the Mystery Project is out of the way, I see my days as spent jabot-knitting, with sock-knitting and Koigu-swatching whenever I need light relief. But tonight’s frogging stands between me and that sunny upland.

Non-knit

In the absence of knitting photographs, here are two just received of Springtime in Greece. Helen and David recently sold their beautiful house on Mt Pelion because they felt oppressed by carrying two mortgages – they also own a flat here in Edinburgh. They then bought an utter ruin nearby, "The Blue House", which they plan to do up bit by bit, as funds allow. The first stage is to make it habitable for camping-out-in. Rather them than me.

6 comments:

  1. That is a large project to undertake! We are doing some work at my house, but it looks like nothing next to the Greek ruin.

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  2. =Tamar5:24 PM

    The three separate tiers looks like the way to go. I'd still take some lacy commercial fabric and test different shapes before knitting.

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  3. The zig zag is like this ... if my diagram actually posts:

    _____
    '
    '
    _____'
    '
    '
    '_____

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  4. Sorry, the diagram didn't come through correctly. The horizontal lines are okay. The verticals (hyphens) are at one end between two horizontals on one level and at the other end of the horizontal for the other.

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  5. Anonymous5:59 PM

    The Pelion house looks absolutely perfect (I see beond the repairs needed). I'd get a ruin like that any day if I could.
    Philhellene

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  6. It looks like one of those projects from "Grand Designs" - hopeless to start with and no doubt magnificent when finished.

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