On Green

"But they are not unthrifty, who spend it in a shame" --Autin Clarke, The Young Woman of Beare

A striped manscarf



the beginnings of a handwarmer


the end of a handwarmer


handwarmer on a hand

KnitPics

My first Balloon Scarf goes public:



The close-up:



My one and only perfect block (it's getting better with time):

One down, one to go

'Tis the season of scarves. The weather has finally taken a turn for the colder, a bit of snow has stuck to the ground, and the temperature is staying well below freezing. Which only means one thing: scarves, hats, gloves, and ear warmers are in order. And to keep warm, I've taken to my knitting needles and set about outfitting friends and relatives for the weather.

I've made good progress on the balloon scarf that I'm knitting as a birthday gift for my CA Dad. He doesn't need a scarf for practical reasons but he's worn the scarf I knit him two Christmases ago to a quick. My Mom is ready to throw the old one out the window which I took as a sign to replace it with a new and improved one. The pattern is beautiful, fun, and frustrating, all at once. Frustrating because you want so badly to do it right but the chart is easy to get lost in. It's one of the best in Scarf Style and is worth being worn around any man's neck.

On a much easier note, I finished a classic man scarf made of all knits. It was the first scarf I've made with long, vertical stripes. It takes a lot of shoving and elbow grease to work 171 stiches onto a needle but the final product was well worth it and made for a nice break from the crazy balloon pattern I'm still working away on.

Pictures are coming. As soon as I figure out the techy logistics.

Knitting Charts 101

Jack's How-to Guide: Reading Knitting Charts

Do not be fooled by knitting charts. They are out to confuse you. Like any good magic show, most things on the pattern that you are likely to be working with are not as they seem. A few good examples from my own escapades in working knitting charts:

1. "A dot is a dot is a dot"- many charts will use solid dots and empty squares to indicate "knits" and "purls." But beware that if a dot on the RS indicates a "purl," it does NOT indicate a purl on the WS. On the WS, a dot is a "knit." Very tricky, I say.

2. "Knitting charts are bilingual"- Reading knittinh charts is not like reading English. Nor is it like reading Arabic. It is like reading English and Arabic at the same time. What's important here is to see that the chart you are using should be an exact copy of whatever is hanging off of your needles. To create this effect, read the RS rows as you would Arabic (starting from the right). Read the WS rows as you would English (starting from the left). You know you've got it right when your eyes move, not like a type writer, but like a snake, winding back and forth over the chart (just be sure you are winding in the right direction).

3. "Look before you leap"-most knitting charts don't include selvedge stitches (ie. the knit stitches that bookend the each row to keep the edges straight and clean). Its helpful to write these knits into your pattern. If you don't it's easy to forget they're there and jump right into the pattern, mistakenly.

4. "Just do it"-mistakes are inevitable, especially with nasty, hard charts. But stick too it; keep going; it's not worth reworking the same three rows over and over again and letting one misstich stop you. The odds are, no one will notice anyways, and patterns only become fun once you truly get going.

That said, discovering knitting patterns, bashing my head against one for hours on a long Sunday, and then conquering it late into the evening, opened up a whole new knitty world. Patterns complete the picture; you can finally see what stitches make what designs. And once you learn how to read patterns, not only can you knit them, being to see how you can create your own designs. Get knitting, you nazy critters!!