Thursday, April 03, 2014

New follower, welcome!

I can't tell you much about World War II. Archie was tired. His days had been full of walking, and nobody gets much sleep on a school trip. And he was worried about getting up at 4 a.m. for today's travel. Dresden was boring, Berlin good, Auschwitz still tells its story. There is a room full of shoes, with a walkway down the middle. “It's as long as from here to that traffic light; they're as high as that tree.”

He seems to have departed, and should be airborne by now. I heard the taxi's double ring on the telephone at 4:30. It's a direct flight.

Knitting

I've just watched the most engaging video on my iPad called “How To Knit Like an Icelandic Man”. He's not in fact knitting, he's doing Tunisian crochet, and that's interesting too. I'd provide a link if I could. It's on something called Vimeo, new to me and apparently incompatible with my computer. The link came from a website called Wannabegirl.org. I can get there, but I can't find her link to the Icelandic man. He's well worth pursuing if you're more adroit in these matters than I am. Maybe it goes better on an iPad.

Things went well with the Unst Bridal Shawl yesterday. I'm now doing round 23. There are only 30 rounds on the first of the three “long charts” so I will soon move on to the next one. That's progress. And I have joined in the fourth ball of yarn. Sharon said I'd need nine 25-gram balls, and I've got them, but I'll be surprised if I finish the 6th.

On the other hand, I did some modest counting and multiplication and realised that I've already added more than 100 stitches with all those YO's, and there's a long way to go.

I had a lot of trouble in the early rounds of the border, with the stitch count being slightly out in the garter stitch bits, especially when approaching a corner. I don't know what I was doing wrong. It didn't happen consistently enough to allow me to draw conclusions. It was easy enough to add or subtract stitches unobtrusively in the right places, but it was a bit worrying.

But that seems to have subsided.

As for the big problem, that messy corner where I turn around, I think we're on the right track. I added an extra stitch to pivot on. Cam's idea is to knit the first and wrap the second, every time. But I began to wonder, as I knit my way around to that point again – why wrap? If I knit those two stitches, first from one direction and then from the other, maybe that's all I need do. Wrapping prevents holes in short rows, I understand. In this case, where would the holes appear? Those two stitches form a centre line up the mitred corner, with a ladder of YO's on either side of them.

I think the YO's are going to be tidier, now that I'm doing it this way. That's the big question.


I appreciate all your concerns for my problems. FiberQat, I wonder if the line of wrapped stitches is going to be such a problem in cobweb yarn? (Especially if, see above, I abandon the practice altogether.) I think the shawl in which it was conspicuous, was knit in lace-weight yarn, coloured at that.

I'd better get on with the day.

4 comments:

  1. Loved the video. Here's the link: http://vimeo.com/16783518

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  2. I'm not sure I could face Auschwitz, Archie is braver than I (or is it braver than me? My brain isn't work this morning), but then it has very personal associations as my great-grandfather died there.

    Hope the lace behaves, it all sounds very complicated. I'll stick to my garter stitch baby bootee, more my brain level today!

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  3. I am always interested to hear your struggles with the shawl. I am loving the shawl I am knitting (it was all the talk of yours that inspired me). It has a knit-on lace edging and I haven't ever done that before. It is so addicting.

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  4. I visited Auschwitz last fall. I also lost family there but was glad I went. I was prepared for the pile of shoes, but was overwhelmed by the tiny knit cardigan with bunnies around the edge. I've knit sweaters like that for my grandchildren.

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