Why does Google apparently have a picture of Virginia
Woolf to mark Rabbie Burns’ birthday?
I have absolutely nothing to tell you today. Well,
perhaps it’s a bit better than that. I have finished the third ball of yarn,
for the baby shawl. Surely eight balls are going to prove to be too many. I do
hope so. (Although I will continue to allow myself 12.5% progress in the sidebar,
for each ball finished.) And – if I were still using charts – I have finished
Chart D. Chart E is even more confusing and I am glad not to be relying on it.
There are no more zig zags for the moment, just
roundels.
Comments
I don’t know about dexterity, Cat, but I can hold one
yarn in each hand when I am knitting Fair Isle, and I make quite brisk progress.
What I can't do is put aside the right-hand yarn and knit continental with the
yarn remaining in the left, although I don’t see why not. I have signed up for
several Craftsy classes which promise to speed up my knitting, so far without the
slightest success.
But I feel, as I said, that I ought to try corrugated
ribbing. The Six Nations rugby season is about to begin, and if Scotland should
win the Calcutta Cup perhaps Alexander’s Fair Isle vest could have it. That
swatch scarf is still visible in the sitting room, and my current thought is to
use the whole thing as the model for the vest. I was playing around with
different arrangements of the same six or seven yarns, derived from Edward
Hopper’s “Gas”.
(It's in MOMA, in NYC.)
My final attempt was the most satisfactory, and I had
decided to go ahead with it, changing the Fair Isle motifs for each row as in the
Jamieson
& Smith sweater I have been referring to as the Museum Sweater. But not
changing the motifs within the row – that’s a level of expertise beyond my
ambition.
But now I think I may change the arrangement of the
yarns for every row, as for the swatch scarf, whose overall appearance is
rather harmonious. I’ll try to take a picture tomorrow.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2018/jan/25/this-burns-night-consider-celebrating-virginia-woolf-instead
ReplyDeleteYES:)!!!
DeleteI've seen suggestions recently (ahem, lurking in Kate Davies' group on Ravelry, I think) to do corrugated ribbing in two passes, one for each colour, slipping the stitches that aren't in that colour. Apparently it makes it come out more evenly, and can be a lot easier.
ReplyDeleteI have used that method twice now and it is a lot easier for me. I also make sure that I use the same needle size and stitch count as the sweater body. Using a smaller needle and fewer stitches creates a rather ugly border.
DeleteA project in Fair Isle would be a complete change from your lace shawl, so a good choice.
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, following your lead, I knitted two waistcoats, one of which has different lozenge patterns within the row. Once you have the chart drawn out, this is no more difficult than anything else, as the skeleton of the lozenge shapes remains constant. It was certainly much easier than knitting Uncia.
I love the look of corrugated ribbing and use it in most of my Fair Isles. It’s quickest for me when I hold the purl color in my right hand since I started out as a thrower and I don’t particularly enjoy continental purling.
ReplyDeleteChanging the lozenge patterns within the round isn’t difficult, just slower since you have to refer to the chart for each one instead of having it memorized after the first one or two....I won’t be doing that again! I do like varying them by round though.