Here It Is

As promised, a picture of the completed Tiger, Tiger Scarf. I'm almost done with writing up the pattern, just need to weigh the scarf so I can get a more accurate yardage estimate, and then calculate from that how much more would be needed for the shawl version.

Putting it All Together

The North Wind doth blow,
And we shall have snow,
And what will poor Robin do then, poor thing?

It's that kind of day. So this seems like a good time to finish up the Tiger, Tiger scarf. I have both pieces done. I finished each by working a pattern row. (This is one of those patterns that have plain purl on the wrong side rows). I did this on purpose, because it means that the grafting stitches will be replacing a plain row. So even though some of the stitches I'll be joining are yarn overs, I will just be grafting in knit. Well, that's not entirely true, because there's a four stitch garter border at each side. I'll have to graft those stitches in purl. But I can manage that, especially since I'm going to leave the markers in place to remind me when to switch. I'm just not ready to take on working yarn overs and decreases as I go.

First I'm taking a tapestry needle threaded with crochet cotton and running lifelines through the live stitches on each needle. I didn't use lifelines while knitting the pieces, because the yarn was large enough and the pattern (relatively) simple enough that I didn't have any trouble figuring out where I was when I ripped back. But if I have to pick back any grafting I will feel more secure in having the lines in.

I left the markers in place, but did not run the lifeline through them.

I lined up the knitting needles with the right sides of the fabric facing outwards (wrong sides together), and the grafting yarn coming off the needle farthest from me, and away I went.

Some of the grafted stitches are a bit loose, so I will use the tip of the tapestry needle to tighten them up, one by one. The lifelines are going to be useful here, too, in indicating which row I'm tightening (the stitches between the lines, not on them).

So, a few more stitches to graft, a mere four ends to weave in, and then on to blocking. I'll post a picture when that's complete.

Baby It's Cold Outside

Given that the temperature was ten below when I left the house, I thought I might have a slow morning at the library. But by the time I closed at noon, thirty-one people had been through, which is just about average for a Saturday morning. Most came in with a comment about the weather, and left with a "Stay warm!" But everyone was rather jolly about it. The cold does bring out a nice sense of camaraderie, at least once you're inside where it's warm enough to linger and chat....

When I got home, yee-ha! Mr. S. had been to the Post Office, and my package from Angelika's Yarn Store (aka yarn-store.com) had come. I had been to the closest LYS last Sunday in search of a particular circular needle, but they didn't have it in stock. So having tried to "buy local" I thought I would give Angelika a try. Was I impressed by the service! I ordered Wed. The package arrived today. Along with the five needles I ended up deciding I couldn't live without, she sent some really beautiful Lorna's Laces yarn samples.

Plus there was a sock pattern, and a nice flyer for Oat Couture patterns, so it was a fun package indeed.

I abandoned swatching for the afternoon (none done yesterday due to various Places I Had to Be, including one that involved the always semi-hallucinatory experience of having my eyes dilated.) But I did finish up knitting the first half of the scarf version of Tiger, Tiger.

I have tightened up the spacing of the motifs a bit, and used plain garter for the edging. I rough blocked "on needle" after about the first third of it, and I think a good blocking is going to be enough to keep the curl under control. So on to the second half, and to getting the directions down on paper in a fashion readable to someone besides me.

The new Patternworks Catalog and the Woodland Woolworks updates arrived in the mail, too, so I'm set for tonight's bedtime reading. Life is good.

I thought I was going to use that for yarn, but....

There is actually a book for sale titled "Never Too Old to Knit: Beautiful Basics for Baby Boomers." Well, get out of the way. There's going to be a stampede of Fifty-Something women trying to get their hands on if. "Oh thank God! You mean I'm not too doddering to learn a basic handcraft? At my age? Oh I have to get a copy right now!"

Who is doing the marketing on this one? I envision a twenty-something editor (beg the goddess not a woman) who thinks like this:
1) Hip young women buy knitting books 2) Baby Boomers are not hip young women 3) therefore Baby Boomers will not buy knitting books unless we put it right in the title that they really aren't too f*****g old. I won't even try to list the ways this logic and this title are wrong.

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Well, now that I've got that off my chest, I did a swatch with the grey alpaca for the Tiger scarf. It's lovely yarn, but the pattern didn't show off well. So I picked some yarn from the stash. This is an older version of Paton's Kroy, from back in the day when it had a full 85% wool and was a touch more loosely twisted than the current version.

The color on my monitor looks a bit dark. In real life it's a very pretty dark lavender or light bluish-purple heather.



I think I will take it with me to the Yarns Ewe-nited group tonight. It is not conversational knitting, but these women are mostly natural fiber handspinners and I just can't bring myself to show up with my acrylic garter stitch. Besides, once supper is over it's OK to work and not talk. The one's who aren't spinning tend to bring complicated knitting, too. They understand.

Preliminary Evaluation

I've blocked the Tiger, Tiger Stole by dampening and patting to shape. (I think of this as "rough blocking") just to get an overall view. Now it's time to evaluate.



Overall, I like it just fine and will either happily wear it or give it as a gift. (Mother's Day is coming up). But I would like to do it again with a little tweaking. Still want to shorten the plainer section between the Tiger Eye sections on each side (maybe 1-2 fewer repeats). Possibly lengthen the plainer section at the very center.

Visually, I like the straight lengthwise sides, but only four stitches of garter based edge may not be enough to control the curl (haven't actually picked it up yet to see - it's still slightly damp).

I would like to try a single panel as a scarf. I may head down to the Argyle Fiber Mill to see if they have any fingering to sport weight alpaca. Also, when thinking of writing up the pattern, I want to try it in a yarn whose yardage I actually know. (This was stash yarn from a kit marked only "100% wool - lace weight).

In terms of execution: my gauge loosened up noticeably on the second side, the grafting isn't perfect. Just things for me to notice and work on.

things learned the hard way about grafting lace

Put lifelines in on the final row of each piece to be grafted.

I guess that's just one thing, but it should be said at least twice. I started grafting the two pieces of the Tiger, Tiger stole together on Friday. It should have been pretty straightforward. I planned ahead so that the grafted stitches would be a plain row, in knit. Somehow, I got off by a stitch about 2/3's of the way through.

Picking out grafting on lace is not fun. I had a "walk away from the knitting" moment. It was not pretty.

I did finish yesterday. Oh, there was another thing learned. It's harder to match tension nicely on lace than it is on a sock toe.

That's all. No picture. We are hoping for the magic of blocking.

A good gift

The love of language is the love of truth, and this brings one into conflict with authority, since power employs deceit and is so fond if it--Rexroth said: "The accepted official version of most anything is most likely false...all authority is based on fraud."--but the love of language is a fundamental connection to our fellows and is the basis of true civility. -Garrison Keillor, Good Poems

This book was another favorite Christmas gift. For one thing, the introduction is one of the most sensible discussions of poetry I have read in a long time. For the other, it has a lot of good poems, and most of them are new to me. I would like to copy out many of them here. I also genuinely respect the concept of copyright. So go buy the book. Or check it out of the library.




When the weather is at zero, you can't beat the spot behind the basement door. But he's missing a lovely day.



view from back door - no kittie prints





The second half of "Tiger, Tiger" is almost complete. Then the grafting.... I've done plenty of sock toes, so I'm hoping it won't be a big deal (though the way this project has seemed to be jinxed, who knows). I still haven't decided whether to add an edging - think I'll block it before I make up my mind.

Grit Teeth and Rip

I finally got back to the Tiger Tiger Stole, and thought I was waltzing along nicely, when I glanced down and saw this



Down toward the bottom. Three holes where only two holes should be.

Why is it that some projects flow smoothly, while others are just one roadblock after another? Were the stars out of line when I started? Do I unconsciously not care, because I really want to be getting on to something else? It isn't the difficulty of the pattern - this section is extremely simple.


Well, I'll take it as an opportunity to practice self-discipline and build character. I'll do it, but I won't like it. I hate ripping out.

Ti-grrrrrrr!

Yesterday I put the Christmas knitting in the mail, so now it's back to




The first half of the stole is almost done, and I confess I am not satisfied with the arrangement of the patterns. The simpler bit in the middle is just too abrupt and clunky. I have a couple of ideas as to how I want to change it. Sigh! I could either think of this as a very large swatch and start over, or push on and finish the second side to match this one anyway. I'm going to push on, because this is, among other things, a stash reduction project, and I will not buy any of the WEBS alpaca silk lace weight that I am longing for until the stash actually is reduced.

I find myself goofing up on the Tiger Eye pattern more than I would have expected, and have been trying to figure out why. It's a fairly logical pattern, despite the changing stitch count in the first half. The quadruple yarn overs don't phase me. I think it's just logical enough that I get a bit too comfortable and go on semi-autopilot; my mind starts to wander; and then I trip up

"In the forests of the night", indeed!

Completely unrelated: I am standing a bit in awe of my daughter, who, I just found out, performed the Heimlich Maneuver on someone last Thursday, and presumably saved his life. I'm proud of you kiddo! (Always was, but this adds a new dimension.)

Burning Bright

At this point in the Tiger Tiger stole I'm going to transition back into the Tiger Eye pattern. But, it occurs to me that if I had made 2-3 more repeats wide, and if I had worked it in crochet cotton, I could now work a row a lace holes, bind off, and I would have a very pretty cafe curtain.
Maybe one less repeat of the Tiger Eye at the bottom, and a couple more repeats of the top pattern for proportions sake...

I'm just sayin......

Tiger, Tiger

Generally speaking, these two don't settle down in the same room, much less within three feet of each other, but it's a rainy day and for now they are peaceable kingdom tigers.



The other tiger in the house is the in-progress shawl/stole.



I'm about halfway up the first side. I'll work a few more repeats of the little design at the top, then go back to the Tiger Eye pattern. But before I do, I'll have to wind off another skein of yarn. This still feels closer to what I think of as fingering than what I think of a lace weight. I suppose I should do a WPI check just for the record. I think I'm going to like this, but I think I would like it even better in a lighter yarn. (I also think just one panel would make a dandy scarf.)

Swatching Again

The rummage through the stash did turn up 1) The Bryspun circs I hadn't seen in a few months and 2) a Blackberry Ridge shawl kit I bought 3-4 years ago. The pattern with the kit is a nice Two Old Bags pattern to be worked as either a triangle or a square. The yarn is a two ply wool in natural cream. The skeins weren't individually labeled. I'm assuming it is the regular BR lace weight. It seems a little on the heavy side for lace, but it's not real tightly spun, so maybe it's just "lofty".

When I initially bought this, I thought it would be my first shawl, but obviously that's not how it turned out. I want to stress that the pattern is very nice. I'm just not interested in knitting it right now. I have the Kerry Blue for a square shawl in natural wool, and I have my own Progressive* for a triangle shawl in natural wool. So now I'm thinking rectangle.

The Tiger Eye pattern has appealed to me for a long time, so that's what I'm messing around with. Of course I could just line up a few repeats across and go, and it would probably be very pretty. But I want to do something with a little bit of variation/design progression.

After knitting and picking out, and knitting and picking out (and believe me it feels as if I've picked out more stitches than I ever knit), here's what I have so far...




I think I just about have my motifs worked out to where I like them, now it's a question of proportions/arrangement.

*and speaking of the Progressive, a wonderfully generous, knowledgable test knitter/tech editor (you know who you are) is working through the pattern now.