A Quick Touching of Base

The non-Wallaby Wallaby progresses well. I put in a row of purl bumps, in the end (not a contrasting yarn), where the pouch will be attached. I may reach the Actual Moment this evening. Next will be the problem of figuring out how to size the pouch -- the original Wallaby pattern doesn't give a row gauge, but phrases its instructions for the pouch in terms of the number of rows.

Common sense should see me through. I'll start out the Wonderful Wallaby way, decreasing one at each end of every other row. After all, I'll have more stitches, since I'm working in a finer yarn. There may be little agjustment needed.

The next question, once our friends leave, will be to decide whether to carry on, or whether to go back to the Fair Isle cardigan. I've found a pattern that fits fine, both ways. Maybe a bit too easy, but certainly symmetrical.

Perhaps the answer is to press on with the Wallaby until the pouch questions are settled, which shouldn't take long, and then work alternate days on alternate projects.

Fergus's Wallaby 

Fergus's Wallaby

I've finished the ribbing. It's blissful stuff to handle, and it produces a wonderful soft but somehow sort of crisp fabric, although it is undoubtedly _very_ orange. No wonder it was on sale.

I'm going to put a kangaroo pouch on the front. I made a genuine Wonderful Wallaby once, and found the attachment of the pouch rather difficult. In that pattern, you knit for about four inches above the ribbing, then go back and create a pouch just above the ribbing by pulling yarn through stitch by stitch with a crochet hook. I found it surprisingly difficult to keep going in a straight line.

I posted this problem to the Knitlist the other day, and Linda suggested (brilliantly) either knitting twice into every stitch along the stretch where the pouch is to start, and then separating every other stitch onto separate needles to serve as background and pouch; or putting in a row of purl stitches there, so that you can be guided by the purl bumps during the crochet-hook manoeuvre. I think maybe I'll refine that latter idea by actually knitting the stitches in a different yarn -- a scrap of Koigu should do nicely.

This whole enterprise is intended as mindless knitting to carry me through a visit from old friends, starting today. The trouble is, after I've knit four inches above the ribbing, I've got to attach the pouch, and that's _not_ mindless. I'll have to lock myself into the lavatory with a crochet hook. At the very least, I must locate a suitably small crochet hook and read the Wallaby instructions several times before our friends arrive. They are going to bring us some quinces from their tree! Unobtainable in shops here, and exquisitely delicious.

Chardin: The Lady Taking Tea 

Ever Onward

I think I'll post this as a separate entry, too, hoping to preserve the image.

The picture is in the Hunterian Art Gallery at the University of Glasgow. It's beautiful and deeply peaceful and I got out the postcard yesterday and started choosing colours for the Stillwater-replacement, using it as a guide. (Kaffe Fassett's idea, and a good one. I've done it before.) With the severe restriction that I'm NOT going to buy any yarn.

I've got nine or ten colours, and I like the way they look. The main lack is a red to represent the cupboard-in-shadow in the lower right, and perhaps not enough charcoal grey to do the shawl. I started looking through pattern collections and making calculations, too, so far without success -- if it fits vertically, it doesn't fit horizontally. But I've got lots more to look at, including a book of Starmore's entirely devoted to charts for colour knitting. I find myself -- and it's totally unreasonable -- rather anti-Starmore after the Stillwater experience, and I am concentrating so far on my beloved Sheila Macgregor's Fair Isle book. We shall see.

For actual knitting, I cast on a sweater for grandson Fergus, as mentioned yesterday. The yarn is Rowan's 4-ply Soft, and there's no doubt, it's orange. I love the feel of it. For gauge I used the figures on the ballband -- quicker than swatching -- and for size, the "small child" schematic in Vicky Square's book, "Knitting Great Classics". Except that she gave 24" for the circumferance and I threw in an extra inch. It's a very useful book. It's currently at Kirkmichael, where I used it for Theo's Koigu sweater (Adult extra large) and now for Mungo's. The book gives stich-counts for a variety of gauges, as well as schematics.

Decision

I think it might be safest to make this a separate entry, in case Blogger feels inclined to remove either of the pictures below. They tell their own story.

I had a really good time ripping out the Stillwater, and I'm absolutely sure I did the right thing. I've been laying out new colours this morning (more about that tomorrow) and looking through books for an allover pattern. I know my gauge, and so there's no excuse for not actually planning what I intend to do -- so that the pattern starts at a reasonable point, and, even more important, achieves a reasonable leaving-off point at the shoulder.

I have a feeling that once, in my old Fair Isle days, I had the idea of laying out all the colours (an odd number of them) in a circle, and proceeding as before with three rows of foreground and three rows of background, never changing both on the same row -- and simply taking the next colour in the circle each time, so that any particular colour would appear first as foreground, then as background. What I can't remember is whether I ever actually did this. If so, it was reasonably successful. I'll trawl back through my old photographs.

Meanwhile, while thinking and planning, I intend to cast on a sweater for my delicious grandson Fergus. It'll be plain, good mindless knitting for the weekend when our friends are here, but I want it to have a kangaroo pouch like the famous Wonderful Wallaby pattern. For general shaping, I'll use Elizabeth's Percentage System (Elizabeth Ziummermann) again. The yarn is some bright stuff I bought in the Liberty sale last summer. I thought it was red, but it appeared awfully orange when I took it out of the cupboard yesterday. Never mind -- it's cheerful.

I had a lovely message from Judith this morning -- she actually reads my Blog! My email address is jean@jeanmile.demon.co.uk. One day I'll get it a permanent position in the sidebar.

Stillwater, today 

Stillwater, yesterday morning 

Struggles

I have just spent a gloomy half-hour downloading and struggling with BlogJet, thinking it would solve all my problems such as yesterday's lost photograph. But I'm no forrader.

I'm perhaps an inch, perhaps less, forrader with the Stillwater, increasingly hating it. I like the result; it's been on my wish list for so many years that I feel constrained not to quit. I could rip the whole thing back to the ribbing and knit a symmetrical pattern.... Oh dear

I got the holiday Vogue Knitting yesterday. Zilch, but it's always fun to get it, and I find with Vogue that when I go back a couple of years later, lots of things look better than they did originally. I subscribe to VK, IK. Knitters, the new(ish) British magazine Knitting, and Woolgathering, and I'm a member of the Knitting and Crochet Guild (GB) and the Lacy Knitters' Guild. I think if I had to narrow it down to one, it would be Woolgathering.

Mungo's sweater, again 

Kirkmichael knitting

I got back into the swing of the Stillwater last night, if it could be said to have a swing. I actually finished the pattern repeat -- 58 rows. I figure it will need another 30 rows or so before I start the armhole steeks. Can reader interest be sustained?

Here, with colours somewhat garishly enhanced is

Mungo's Koigu sweater


as I left it behind in Kirkmichael on Saturday morning. The first two inches are in a knit-and-purl diamond pattern. While I was doing it, I thought the beautiful Koigu was completely swallowing the stitch pattern, but now that I've left it behind, I think it looks rather well -- and much more legible than this photo suggests. Sort of like brocade.

The rest is a simple series of ten-row stripes from my ample Koigu stash. I think I'm about halfway to the armpits. The whole enterprise looks rather large, but, hey! he'll grow into it. I'll use ordinary ribbing for the start of the sleeves, not the diamond pattern -- a chap needs to be able to push his sleeves up.

Some energetic friends will be coming to stay with us this weekend here in Edinburgh -- it will be quite impossible to knit the Stillwater while talking to them. That project can only tolerate the company of a silent husband and uninteresting television. That was the great attraction of the idea of bringing Mungo's sweater back -- it's blissfully mindless knitting. But I didn't, so I'll either have to start something else (I know what) or just knit the current travel-sock after solving the problem that presented itself at the doctor's office last week.

Back from Kirkmichael

I got a lot done on Mungo's Koigu sweater while we were there -- I'll post a picture tomorrow. For today, here's a picture (also taken at Kirkmichael, in August) of

Jamie in his Koigu sweater


and me in my political tee-shirt. Jamie's sweater is compound of sufficient different elements that I regard it as my own pattern -- it's given in full on my website www.jeanmile.demon.co.uk. I went to the supermarket one day with tape measure in hand, to measure something plausible in their children's clothing section for size. The children's clothing section was shut that day, so I picked a likely-looking boy in the vegetable section and asked his mother if I could measure him.

She was very nice about it, and my victim's brother gave me a parsnip. The baby himself looked as if he would have liked to call security had he had the vocabulary. But the result was spot-on, size-wise.

I had a lovely time at Kirkmichael knitting Mungo's Koigu. Our next visit (which should be soon, d.v.) will get me to the armpits. The Tempter suggested that I bring it back -- Koigu is delicious to knit with. If I worked on it in Edinburgh, Mungo could have it for Christmas....

I resisted. Good thing, too. The heart utterly sank when I picked up the Stillwater last night. I will never again knit a Fair Isle pattern which isn't symmetrical. Is there a break-even point in a knitting project after which one carries on and finishes it, no matter what? I doubt it. It was hard (despite good notes) to figure out where I was and what was going on. I succeeded in the end, and knit a couple of rounds, but it wasn't fun.

Stillwater -- Latest

I got past the point last night where I had calculated that the underarm gussets would have to start, so the Die is Cast -- no gussets.

I also found myself knitting another dark-on-dark section. I gave some thought (especially in view of what I had written on the subject yesterday morning) as to whether I should change the colour sequence to avoid it, but decided to go ahead. This time at least the pattern colour is in the red range with all the others, and I think the eye will be able to make the connections.

What an odd pattern this is! I wonder if it is computer-generated in some way.

I'm also far enough along, and happy enough with the work, that I feel more confident about the idea of putting it aside in the late evening to knit grandson James his hat. So I spent some time yesterday evening winding the chosen skein of 20th Century Yarn.

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday which saw the heel turned on the current Travelling Sock, and stitches picked up to form the gussets. Unfortunately I discovered while knitting for a few more moments after my flu injection (in case I collapsed on the floor) that a stitch has escaped, in one of those difficult corners between the heel flap and the instep stitches. I decided when I saw that, that I felt fine, and left to catch my bus. I'll deal with it another time.

Off to Kirkmichael today. No more blogging until the weekend, therefore. I've posted an appeal in the Bloggers Users Group for help on how to put a page of current pics "behind" the blog somehow, so that it could be constantly appealed to. Cue for picture of Burnside, Kirkmichael here.

Things are Going Better

I'm increasingly happy with the progress of this strange garment. I still haven't finished the first full pattern repeat, but I've now done enough that the undulations are becoming pleasingly conspicuous. This is how much

further forward


I was by last night. The picture doesn'tdo justice to the dark band in the middle -- there is a tendency, with my colour system (where the background and foreground colours change in relation to each other and to the pattern) for bits of the pattern to disappear, especially in the dark-on-dark sections. Usually, it doesn't matter -- the eye can supply any deficiencies by knowledge of the overall pattern.

Here, that doesn't work, since the overall pattern is so odd and indeterminate. There is one point where it disappears, that green stripe early on -- it just looks like a green stripe. But despite what the picture seems to show, it carries on perfectly legibly through the dark centre band.

I have reached, sure enough, the point where an underarm gusset would have to start. The prototype, Helen's Wedding Sweater, has one. My notes don't have any suggestion of why, nor of how successful the result was. Alice Starmore's Fair Isle Handbook, which I am using as a vade mecum, shows gussets on pullovers but not on cardigans. I think it might be altogether too much fabric under the arms, and decided last night to leave gussets out this time. Any comments? Today's the day, as far as this decision is concerned.

Ever Onward

Yesterday I began to hope that the whole Stillwater thing is beginning to pull together. I felt something of the old pleasure in colour knitting. I remember, in the old days, knitting some Fair Isle sweater or other and wondering why I ever knit anything else. Well, it wasn't quite like that, last night, but I could imagine feeling that. Maybe I'm getting the hang of memorizing 18-stitch sequences.

It was a dreich day -- I think another such is dawning -- and that may have helped. Warm, cosy colours.

I've done just short of nine inches, including of course the ribbing. Today I'll make some preliminary decisions about the underarm gusset.

Next week in Kirkmichael, of course, attention turns to a completely different project.

Kirkmichael was where I knit Theo's big Koigu sweater -- you'll have to trawl back through the archives to see it, since my plans for a picture page somewhere in the background remain un-realised. Grandson Mungo admired it extravagantly when he was here last summer -- we confine grandchildren to Kirkmichael as far as possible -- and so I am knitting him one. Using the EPS system again.

Meg Swansen has an idea for edging sweaters which she calls purl-when-you-can, so I'm doing something like that for Mungo. Not ribbing, but a little diamond pattern. The idea is that there are enough purl stitches that the edge won't curl, although of course it also won't pull in. It seems to be working, and next week things ought to get to a point where a photo actually shows real progress.

Mungo's sweater

More Progress

This is meant to be a closeup picture of the Stillwater pattern as rendered by me. It doesn't so much look meandering, as runic.

Closeup

This is how things stand


at the moment. After all this fussing and grumbling, I'm making enough progress that it is time at least to begin thinking of how far it is to the underarms. The model, Helen's Wedding Sweater, has underarm gussets. I might as well attempt that again. My copious notes about the knitting of the earlier sweater are mostly concerned with fitting in the rows of motifs. I find that I have written "sleeve gusset - 25 stitches -- row 8 of swan" and "40 rounds above armpit of swan" -- that doesn't make any sense, and neither remark is very helpful.

I'm still not enjoying myself much although yesterday may have been a bit better. I'm still fiddling with the colors.

Blogging seems to have settled down (touch wood). My next two objectives are to incorporate an "email me" button and figure out how to have a page of useful pictures, not many, always accessible. On it at the moment would be Helen's Wedding Sweater, and -- permanently, I think -- our house in Kirkmichael, where we're going next week.

Decision

Well, I decided yesterday that it was too soon to give up on my chosen colour scheme for the Stillwater, so I plodded on, and I think I'm pleased with the result. Another picture promised soon.

It's difficult knitting, though. Apart from not being symmetrical, the pleasant, meandering pattern seems to Just Happen -- knitting one row gives me no feeling for what the next one is going to be. I remember starting to knit Kaffe Fassett's "Ancient" pattern once -- and I'm an accomplished KF knitter -- and after about eight rows I decided I couldn't STAND doing those cloud-like shapes, for much the same reason. I ripped the eight rows out and used the yarns to knit his "Afghan" pattern instead. Slow, hard work, but with some logic to it, and a great success in the end.

So I continue to be tempted to cast on a baby hat for the weary fag-end of the evening when memorising the color sequence for another round of Stillwater is just too much. But at the same time I'm afraid to lay something difficult down for fear I won't pick it up again.

Progress on the Stillwater

I am feeling very rabbit-in-the-headlights about this project. The photograph below conveys something of the same mood, having been taken by flash in the dark early morning.

I've done a few inches, as you see. Last night, I decided I didn't really like the top, dark bit and should maybe rip back to the first inch, which is more or less dark purple on grey (one of Starmore's colourways!) and see if I have enough yarn to do the whole thing like that.

The Stillwater in progress


This morning, when I went in there just now to take the pic, I felt a bit more cheerful about it. Maybe I'll just press on. There are adjustments to be made, certainly. The transition from light background to dark background is too abrupt, and a line of green in there just above the red doesn't look remotely Titianesque, it looks Christmas-y, which is NOT what we want. But these problems can be dealt with on the next pass through the yarns -- green will simply not be called on again, and the background shades can be rejigged too.

When daylight finally arrives, I'll have a good look at the whole thing. Still two months to go until the solstice, and daylight is getting a bit scarce.

But I sort of wish I had a lot of projects going, so I could do something else today.

Maybe I'll start a baby hat. If I can get sizes right, I could toss off a couple more for Christmas presents. Grandson Archie, for instance, who is eight and lives in Thessaloniki, does a lot of ski-ing in the winter.