The Knitting Scotsman

I don’t have any pictures to post right now, but I’m glad to say I’m caught up on my Capathon.

For February, I knit Cap Karma Hat.  It was a pretty good pattern.  It ended up a bit longer that I would have liked.  Overall it’s a good solid design.

 For March, I gave up on the free hat pattern route, and just made a hat.  It’s a rolled brim, stockinette stitch, no-pattern hat.  I like it so much, I might make one for myself.  I really like how easy it is to adjust the length of the hat, by just rolling the brim up or down.  If your ears get too warm, just roll that brim up a bit and you’re good.

I haven’t posted in a long time.  It’s been over a month since my last post.  I’ve been busy.  I’ve done a lot of knitting.  Have a lot of updates to give.

However, I’ve got some very sad news to share.  Everything else can wait.

Joel was killed in a terrible car accident last week.

Most of the people who read this blog probably know Joel in some way or another.  I know him from Ravelry.  He was the founding member of the S.M.A.C.K.group.  I met Joel when I joined S.M.A.C.K.  He was friendly, and very welcoming.  He went out of his way to make sure everybody was included.  He encouraged participation.  He set up several “SMACKtivities” to keep people entertained.  He really created a community.

A few weeks ago, Joel made me a S.M.A.C.K. moderator.  The only instructions he gave me were to make sure the message boards stayed clean, and to greet new members and make them feel welcome.  I’ve never seen any posts that were inappropriate in the group, and I suspect there haven’t been any.  The reason he wanted more moderators, was to make sure everyone who joined, or visited, felt welcome and included.

I didn’t know Joel for very long, and I didn’t have time to get to know him well.  I know he grew up a few miles from where I live now.  His parents live very near me.  I know he left behind a wife and two children.  I can’t speak for everyone, but the Joel I knew was a good man who cared for others. 

Joel, I’m going to miss you.  I know many others will miss you as well.  I can’t begin to imagine the loss your family is feeling right now.  I hope that they will continue on the best they can, and I send them my deepest condolences.

After much cussing (and I do mean a LOT of cussing!), My January Chemo Cap is finished (yea, it’s way late).  It’s only as late as it is because I was 80% done with a different hat and I decided it was entirely to sucky to finish.  So, I frogged and went to work on another.

Well, that one proved to have it’s own challenges.  I ended up with Coronet from Knitty.  The band around the bottom is knit horizontally, then grafted together, and stitches are picked up along one edge to knit the body.  That all sounds easy, and until this project, I’ve enjoyed doing the Kitchener Stitch.  However, that all changed here.

 I finished the band, and I went to graft away.  I put the stitches from my provisional cast onedge onto a needle, untwisting the twisty stitches.  I grabbed my tapestry needle, and grafted away.  What I ended up with was, well, sucky.  So, I ripped out the graft, and tried fixing it.  I tried all sorts of things.  I spend DAYS working on this silly graft.  I ripped the cast on edge back a half patter repeat, I knitted the same amount back on the other edge, nothing worked.

Finally, I found a link to an alternate method of doing a Kitchener stitch.  I can’t seem to find it now, but the essence of it was to knit to the point you are ready to graft, then switch to an alternate color, and knit in pattern for a few more rounds (this was done for the toe of a sock).  Then you line up the stitches as you want the graft to look, and use the stitches in the contrasting color to guide the direction that your graft yarn should follow.  Once the grafting is done, simply rip out the contrasting color from the back, and fix any tension issues with the graft.  This worked very well for me and the graft looks great, even with purl stitches and the fact that I’m grafting to a cast-on edge.

If I were to make this hat again, I’d save myself some time, forget the provisional cast-on.  It really only gave me trouble.  I would just cast on with the contrasting color, and knit a few rows, in pattern (don’t need to do the cables, just the knits where the knits go, and the purls where the purls go).  Then switch to the working yarn and go to town.

 I wish I had taken some pictures of the grafting process, but I was so frustrated at that point, I was ready to rip some more and start a different pattern.  Maybe next time.

Here is a picture of the finished hat:

Here is a picture of the one I ripped out:

My FLAK is making good progress.  I’ve moved the back to scrap yarn, and I’m picking up stitches for the front.  I made a minor change to the pattern here.  The instructions call for knitting the right front, then putting it on holders, kitting the left front, putting it on holders, then going back to the right front, and working across it, casting on the center, then working the left.  I despise tails (and this thing has about a thousand already, who thought 50 gm balls were a good size for yarn anyway!), so I started on the left, I’ll put the stitches on a holder, knit the right, cast on at the end, then pick up the left and continue on.  Should work fine.

 I really like the way this is turning out.  I can’t wait to finish it up.

 (The photo is from a few days ago, so it’s not quite current)

Many of you know that my father died from complications after a bone marrow transplant.  He developed Leukemia late in life, and was just not able to survive the treatment.

One of the things that made the horrific treatment a little more bearable was the generous gifts that people made and donated for Chemo patients.  There were always hats, or scarves, or shoulder throws that were available to all patients when needed.  Since my father past, I’ve spent some time raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society.  I’ve been trying to give back, and help others.

I decided late in January to knit a Chemo Cap every month this year, and donate it to one of our local cancer centers.  I’m already a month behind, so I’ve got to get caught up.

Stay tuned, I’ll post progress as I go.

I finished this up, and gave it to Gwen as a Christmas present.  But we haven’t been able to get her to wear it!

She finally put it on this morning.  Isn’t she adorable!

P.S.  She only wore it for about 5 minutes.

I finally had enough of the sloppy, not fitting ribbing on my Triquetra Cable Gloves.  So, I cut the ribbing off, picked up the stitches and knit a new ribbing with different yarn and smaller needles.  I originally used size 6 with Queensland Collection Kathmandu Aran, which is 99.99% inelastic, with zero memory.

So, they are ribbing was always completely “stretched out”.  It pretty much never pulled in like you expect ribbing to do.  For the replacement ribbing, I used Mission Falls 1824 Wool, which seems to be my new favorite yarn.  I also used size 5 needles, and switched to a K2P1 rib instead of the K2P2 I used originally.  Now, the observant of you will notice, that I had to K2tog once, as 40 is divisible by 4, but not by 3.  However, 39 is.  When I was finished, I cast off loosely using a size 6 needle.

This produced a much more elastic and useful rib for a glove.  Not to mention that the gloves stay on now.

I finally broke down.  The ladies at my LYS have been “gently encouraging” me to try the magic loop for a while now.  I had a pair of mittens to make for Gwen, so I decided to try it.  I went on over to knittinghelp.com(very instructional website) to learn how to do the loop (everyone is doing it!).  I watched the video once, and saw how to do it.  The problem I saw, is that even in the instructional video, it looked like a lot more work that it was worth.

 I watched Amy spend a lot of time sliding the work around on needles, and fighting with the transition from cable to needle.  The video sure didn’t make it seem any easier.  But, I decide to try it myself.

Well, I’m able to do it.  However, it seems like it takes a lot longer to make progress, as so much time is devoted to dropping the yarn, and sliding the needles around.  I might try it again sometime, but right now, I still prefer my DPNs.

Anyway, loop or no loop, I like the mittens:

The yarn arrived for my sweater yesterday.  I was so excited that I got right to work.  After taking some measurements, and some quick (and painless) math, I knocked out the shoulder saddles.  I can’t wait to get to work on this sweater!

 I heard some slightly sad news.  Janet Szabo is no loner offering this patter / design template for free.  However, it is well worth the $8.00 she is asking for it.  She was discussing not offering this pattern long term, so if you are at all interested, I would purchase it right away.

I finally finished up my socks.  I started them when I came down with influenza.  That was not a terribly fun experience.  I spent two days with a fever and wicked cough.  On the third day, I went to the doctor, who gave me Tamiflu (wonderful drug, but soooo expensive).  The very next day, I had to take Shannon to her doctor, as she was now infected.  I spent the rest of the week taking care of her and Gwen, who miraculously didn’t get sick.  The little shreds of time that I wasn’t taking care of someone or sleeping, I spent knitting my socks. 

Hence the name, Influenza Socks.

They are knit in Mission Falls 1824 Superwash Merino Wool, which seems to be my favorite yarn of late.  It’s soft, it’s smooth, and it knits really well.  It’s an aran weight, slightly larger than worsted at 8 wraps per inch.  I used a contrasting color for the toes and heels, just because I felt like it.

Best of all, they keep my feet really, really warm!