Everybody wants a rock...

Whoa Nellie!

Odessa Chemo Cap
Originally uploaded by thomasina.

WIP Wednesday - the camera decided to throw color balance out the window, and show the nice wine colored Cascade Fixation as a day-glow red. Go figure. No chance to re-take, the camera batteries barely made it through the download stage.

This is being knit as a chemo cap for breast cancer. I am mostly a one-project-at-a-time kind of person, so Sunday charity knitting doesn't really work for me. I figure if I finish a couple of items a year, it all works out in the end. Not much time for knitting, this was actually started the Sunday before last.

Tessellations

Lucy Neatby tessellated intarsia fish
Originally uploaded by thomasina.

I've been thinking about tessellations in knitting recently, since Lucy Neatby is going to be teaching at Borealis Yarns this November. As a warning, knitted tessellations require either extensive intarsia, or extensive seaming. Two-stranded knitting in a few cases might work.

First off, a how-to guide and gallery (including an extensive collection of Escher tessellations) from Tessellations.org.

Lucy Neatby has two tessellated patterns, the Duck Sweater and Fish Wallhanging - a closeup of Lucy's wallhanging is shown here.

The Tessellated Fish Blanket has been a popular subject on the Internets. Hytrevant Knits has an example of the original fish blanket, as designed by Paula Levy and published in Knitter's Magazine 51 (Summer 1998; OOP). April Brokenarrow has reverse engineered a similar pattern; example fish.

Once I started looking for knitted tessellations, it was like learning a new word - you see it everywhere. My Little Fishy is a child's raglan with three bands of two stranded knitted fish. Designed by Marie Grace Smith at The Garter Belt. (This might be stretching the definition a bit, since it has more distinct bands than typically seen in tessellations - but it does satisfy the requirement of interlocking tiles that can be tiled on a plane to infinity.)

Another SP gift revealed...

Upstream SP gift for Weaselrina
Originally uploaded by thomasina.

This was for my upstream SP5, Weaselrina. She was a wonderful upstream - I asked to split the SPing with my sister, who had just gotten into knitting, and was in a tough spot with health and money issues. Weaselrina gifted her with great patterns, needles, yarn, and accessories for a new knitter. I never blogged about the last package - unfortunately I was quite sick with pneumonia when I got it - there were four skeins of worsted weight Misti Alpaca in green (lurve!), three cedar balls, two skeins of blue Lamb's Pride Worsted, and one Vogue Knitting book (which wasn't even available here at the time!). (Plus, one Fuzzy Feet pattern, for the yarn - and yes, we really need slippers up here!). One of the cedar balls was immediately grabbed by the cats, so I quickly popped the other two into WIP (aka UFO) project bags... the books and patterns live with their brethren, the Lamb's Pride went with my sister, so here is what is left to photograph:

Green Misti Alpaca worsted:


Oddly enough, the Mrs. Beetons pictured above were the first pattern that I've knit out of the online magazine, Knitty. This used up bits of leftover luxury yarn, that I felt bad leaving to languish away unloved in the bits 'n' bobs bag. The green on top is Elsebeth Lavold Angora, the light green is Kidsilk Haze in Jelly, and the white peeping out is Plymouth Baby Alpaca DK. The beads are czech glass in green and bronze.

Mini Me

Fair Isle Vest for Bobbi Bear, back
Originally uploaded by thomasina.

Now that I've actually been getting packages out, I can start sharing some of my past SP knitting. This was for my downstream SP5, mtwelovett; it was designed for Baby Bobbi Bear, but might end up fitting her typical model, Teddy, better. I designed and knit this in a fever-induced haze on the last weekend of the Olympics. I had finished the knitting on the Roscalie Vest the month before, and was stuck in finishing purgatory. I wanted a nice quick fair isle project, and I wanted to try designing my own fair isle in minature, while the large one was still fresh in my mind. The designing took most of one day - I designed the fair isle patterns from scratch, but the real challenge was planning the dimensions. With the fever, I was constantly calculating and re-calculating and forgetting what I had already figured out (even with writing it down in the notebook). Fortunately the fever abated the next day, and I could knit it up without feeling like a Typhoid Mary. Then the real problem came - I had had the fun break of knitting it up, but then there was twice as much fair isle to finish.

Front of the vest:


Mini Me on the Full-sized Roscali:


I am partially consoling myself with the fun fair isle that I've done, since I only got 5th place at the state fair. Guess the first place last year was beginner's luck. Plus I think the fair has gotten a lot more competative in the past year or two. Ah well, at least it leaves me room to work my way up next year. Small Child wants a ribbon to go with the Reef fair isle cardigan I am going to knit for him (I don't know why he thinks he is going to keep it though...)

Hand-dyed wool

hand-dyed wool
Originally uploaded by thomasina.

This is neither an acquisition nor a work-in-progress... my camera is in use right now at the lab, but I stole it back for a shindig at the Science Museum yesterday. I took the Small Child; cuteness factor in safety goggles while excavating fossils, and later dressed in too-large lab coat, safety glasses and disposable gloves, was off the charts. There was an exhibit of naturally-dyed wool, all from plants except for the indigo in the center. There were claims of books on natural dying in the gift store, but we were having too much fun to check that out.

Photo of the part I am tangentially responsible for:

Small Child liked the engineering at the side - he built a ring dam that kept in water, and learned about maximum water depth due to angle of repose, and deepened the pond by expanding the diameter of the dam. I like the middle, natural part the best, though.

WIP Wednesday

Socks and new knitting bag
Originally uploaded by thomasina.

Here we have: a pair of socks! Well, almost. I am truly a disgruntled sock knitter: I enjoy wearing handknit socks, but don't really enjoy knitting them. I've taken about 3.5 weeks to get to this point (almost at past the second gusset). In comparison, the Roscalie fair isle vest took me three weeks. Aren't you glad that I just started showing WIPs now, instead of last month? Don't worry, I have half-a-pair that will need to be finished too.

More exciting - cute sock bag! Almost makes it all worthwhile. Unfortunately, I've discovered etsy - lots of very cool bags (amongst tons of not so interesting ones). I've never been a purse person, but I want my knitting to be clothed in style.

Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Glacier Teal
US Size 1, Clover Bamboo
3x3 slip stitch ribbing
Men's 9-10

Geeky Mondays, Take One

First, an update: Dr. Sarah-Marie Belcastro's Home of Mathematical Knitting has moved to her new website, Toroidal Snark. Her work is a mainstay in the Geeky Knitting links, so it will take awhile to re-link.

I would also like to introduce the podcast Math4Knitters. This is mostly focussed on utilizing math in knitting, in a practical sense, but the underlying appreciation of math also comes through. Highlights include an interview with Meg Swanson (Episode 8), and a guest spot on the podcast Cast-On on fibonacci sequences (Episode 23).

To Blog or Not to Blog...

I originally started this blog to track my knitting progress, and to provide motivation to do the finishing portion of the projects. I've advanced to the point where I don't need a journal for progress, and I haven't been good about posting finished objects. (To be fair, this is partially because I've largely been knitting socks lately, which I don't find as interesting to knit or to look at, but *really* enjoy wearing). I do really enjoy the geeky knitting section, and would like to continue to maintain that part of the site.

I am going to try maintaining a regular posting round, as time allows:
S.E.X Sundays (Stash Enhancement Expedition) - new yarn and equipment - includes gifts.
Geeky Mondays - updating and maintaining the geeky knitting section.
W.I.P. Wednesdays - no matter how dull it may be! You are guaranteed an update.
F.O. Fridays - I have quite a backlog, so this can run for awhile. It might be supplemented by swatches.

Package #1 from my C@SP!

C@SP
Originally uploaded by thomasina.

Here is the first package. She really pegged my food interests well. There are recipes for sushi, nori seaweed to wrap the rolls, and wasabi sauce, for a complete dinner. Also, dark chocolate with espresso - there really cannot be a more perfect combination of foods. Unless there is a hidden cache of Guinness dark chocolate with espresso, that is. There were two carmelly-nutty bars - one had a little, um, accident on the way to the camera. More blocking pins (can one ever have enough?), and gel pens in many yummy colors.

I try never to use the items before photographing, blogging, and properly thanking the person... so now I am free to go to town on this! Yay! (Though I must admit I did cheat a bit on the pens, the package is opened and they have gone on little trips from time to time...)

RAK from jpknits

RAK from jpknits
Originally uploaded by thomasina.

I love knitting. I love books. It stands to reason that I really, really love knitting books. Add to this the spur that the books might go out of print, and get driven up to insane prices (Alice Starmore, Knitting Lace, Principles of Knitting, anyone?) has made for some hurry-up-and-buy it book collecting. Would it scare you to know that book #100, Elsebeth Lavolds Second Collection of Viking Knits, just came home with me?

But today we are talking about book #98, Kaffe's Classics, sent to me by the wonderful jpknits, my upstream SP4. When she was looking for a swap on the knittyboards for an extra copy, and I expressed interest, she insisted on sending it as a RAK. And, she sent more goodies to boot. A red washcloth to go in my red kitchen (I already have other red items from her in there!), and two packets of tea and an exotic-looking chocolate bar.

And, besides showing off the new couch, why has this become the new background? Sadly, the kitchen table is wholely occupied right now by packages in various stages of being packed, that need to be mailed out. I am making a resolution to mail out one package a day, but it will still take awhile to get through the backlog.