Playing Around

Click me for a closer view.

Although I've been absent from the blog, I've been accomplishing a lot in my absence. Looking back on my aspirations from earlier this year, I'm proud to say that I've done pretty well. I wanted to work more on my own designs rather than answering the siren call of commercial patterns, keep a realistic number of projects on the needles, and balance my life out by reading more and exercising more regularly. In the months since I first "aspired," I've designed seven new pieces, three freebies and four that will be published, read several great books (I highly recommend The Life of Pi and The Kite Runner), and run a half-marathon (slowly, but the next one can be faster, right?). Three of the designs that I completed this weekend are going to be in an upcoming book that a friend is working on. I can't tell you what an amazing experience it is to really put your nose to the grindstone and finish such an endeavour. My hat goes off to Harlot and the girls over at MDK - I can't imagine what it must feel like to finish an entire book. All I can say is that if you've been making modifications for a while and dreaming of designing - go for it! It's a very rewarding experience once all the math and ripping is behind you.

Still, I haven't been all work (yes, even knitting is work if there is a deadline - trust me!). Even when I'm cramming to finish something and working crazy hours I have to cheat every once in a while and play around with something that I don't have to work on. Hence, the cables you see above.

A few months ago my best friend and I met in Charlottesville for a half-marathon (a word to the wise: if the race is called "bad to the bone" or some other scarily descriptive name, it may well be a good idea to avoid it and instead opt for the "flat as hell" race the following weekend). I was supposed to work on one of my submissions while we were there - cabin in the mountains, best friend who knits, hours of productivity, right? But she mentioned that she would like to make the cable-eight top in Interweave Knits in a finer gauge. And the fabulous LYS we visited had Tahki Cotton Classic in a lovely leaf green (por moi) and light orange (for her). So it really had to be done.

We sat around under the covers in our cute little cabin (it was still cold then and we had run over 13 miles, so staying under the covers the next morning sounded like a great idea), and re-gauged the pattern. It was very fun, and the swatch that I made (above) turned out beautifully. Most of all, it was fun to do with a friend.

Even better, we learned some things. Usually, if I make modifications to a pattern I usually feel they make the piece better, or at least better for me. This time the result was simply different. I love what we came up with using a new gauge, but I also had a really fun time "rediscovering" why the designer did what she did.

Originally, I thought that the piece was a bit bulky, and I thought it would look better at a smaller gauge. I also thought that it would be more flattering if it draped, rather than stretching as it is designed. The thing is that the large gauge really does give the cables a much more dramatic look (our version is lovely, but more subdued) and the stretch that is incorporated opens the cables and gives them the figure-eight look that they have (ours have nice drape but the shape is elongated). It was very fun to walk in the designer's footsteps and learn a little about the design.

Anyway, that was my playtime, and just as I aspire to design work, I also aspire to this kind of play. Anyone else have a similar experience during their playtime?

The Mighty Mitre!

Every once in a while I interrupt something that I'm working on rather diligently (in this case, the Crusoe socks) to play around a bit with something I haven't done before.

The reverse side is even lovelier, in my opinion.

The swatch project du jour was mitred squares, inspired by the amazing Kay over at Mason-Dixon Knitting. Both Ann and Kay are famous for their over the top, quilt-inspired (and sometimes simply quilted [scroll just a smidge]) projects, and the Psychadelic Afghan that inspired my swatching is one of my personal favorites. (Click here for the original story on the Afghan.)

This type of random swatching is something that I like to do to get the creative juices flowing. I teach a beginner's knitting class, and my goal for my students has been to start them off in a manner that will make them feel free to experiment. We rip constantly, and we swatch a lot during the sessions to try out and compare different techniques.

Recently, two students of mine were learning seed stitch. They hadn't ever used the knit and purl stitches in the same row before, so they didn't know that the yarn must be carried between the needles when moving between the two. Since they were helping each other they both ended up making several yarnovers. After a few of these, they realized the mistake and asked what was happening. I told them to keep on as they were, knit another row and see what happened. As a result they discovered lace! (Wooly lace, but lace nonetheless.) Their excitement over the discovery and interest in seeing what would happen was really inspiring to me, and reminded me that it might be time to play around a little myself.

The way that I knit is generally pretty structured, and I think that can sometimes stifle my creativity. Since I am a naturally structured person, I make a point of departing from my planned projects whenever I'm feeling a little stale and just swatching around without much of a goal in mind other than to see what I can come up with. Today's experiment was the mitred square, a simple technique that I've never gotten around to using before.

I worked with scraps of three very different cotton yarns (though it may be hard to tell this from the photo). The first yarn is Filatura di Crosa's Brilla in Burnt Orange - a stiff, shiny mercerized cotton. The second - also a solid yarn, though softer - is Brown Sheep's Cotton Fleece in Perry Primrose (a pretty raspberry color). The third is GGH's Mystic, leftover from my Honeymoon Cami prototype, in Cream. It's also a mercerized cotton, but not at all like the Brilla. It's soft and drapey and splits if you look at it sideways. The combination of the three is very nice. It's the perfect mix of drape, softness, and structure.

I have to admit that the colors do remind me vaguely of my Great Uncle Haddie's crocheted doilies,* but I like them together nontheless. Moxie thinks they are the color of curtains from a 1970's vintage VW bus. Whether you take that as a compliment depends on your feelings about the '70's, I suppose. I choose to be flattered.

As predicted by Kay, I find that the mitres are quite addictive.** So addictive, in fact, that like a craft crack addict, I have to make at least a small attempt to get you hooked. [To get this candy, go to the extended entry below.]

*My Great Uncle Haddie was a WWII veteran who walked with a cane and lived in a trailer in the western Pennsylvania mountains. He crocheted at least 500 rather intricate doilies during his lifetime. These doilies varied from one another only in color. Imagine, making the same doilie pattern 500 times. I only wish he were here today so that I could ask him about them. That is resolve, folks. Of the doiliest kind.

**Not quite as addictive as doilies, perhaps....

Lest you think that I forgot my Crusoe sock completely:

We have heel! Click here for a close-up of that little beauty.

A recipe for a mitered square of any size in any gauge:
[Use any yarn combos you like, alternating every two to four rows and carrying the unused colors up the side of your work.]

First, make a test swatch and determine what you would like your gauge to be. Reduce that gauge to sts/inch.

Next, decide how big you want your "big square" to be. It will take four of the "little squares" shown above to make one "big square". You can decide how big you want the "really big square" or Afghan to be later.

Multiply the number of inches that you would like your "big square" to be by your guage in sts/inch. Cast on this number of stitches. [Your cast on edge will actually form two sides of your "little square". When you put two of these together (2x1/2 cast on), you get one side of the "big square" - get it?]

Calculate what one half of the number of sts cast on minus two is - we'll call that number "M" for mitre. Knit M sts. K2tog twice. Knit M more sts.

On the reverse side you can either purl (for a stockinette st square) or knit (for a garter st square) - you choose! Mine is a silly garter.

On the next (3rd) row, Knit M-1 sts, K2tog twice, Knit M-1 sts, again. Continue on, knitting one less stitch before and after decreasing on each subsequent row. [M-2, M-3, M-4, etc. See, basic algebra is useful!] When you are down to four sts, K2tog twice. When you have only two sts left, slip one, knit one, and pass the slipped stitch over. Cut your yarn and put the end through the loopy thing. Voila! Make three more - get crazy and vary the stripes if you like - and seam. You have a psychadelic square.

Some "Progress" Pictures:

When you first start out you will have evidence that the corner of the little square is forming in the middle of your row:

Check out the nipple in the middle of that cast on - risque!
The square above shows you where that corner will end up.

Here we are pretty far along. If you made two little squares, cast them off at this point, and sewed up the sides leaving little holes for arms, you'd have a Chevron Tank for a Blythe Doll.