Thursday, July 27, 2006

Cooling down?

Woke up this morning and immediately it felt different. Cooler. Maybe even less humid? The forecast is good. Temperature is at a downtrend for the next few days. Crossing my fingers.

Blogger is up. Blogger is down. Blogger is up. Blogger is down. :: sigh ::

I haven't done much with fiber. Knitting or spinning. Just too hot and sweaty. However, I did experiment with Francesca's Italian style tubular cast-on. I want to see if it works with knitting in the round. I wasn't successful, only because I lost the last cast-on stitch. Very tricky to get that one to stay put doing it in the round.

But I did find out a few things that I will keep in mind the next time I try.

1. Not recommended for DPNs. Too tricky with too many needles.

2. Francesca showed the cast-on knitting in the flat. I noticed that everything is reversed doing it in the round. When joining to knit in the round, you start with the first cast-on stitch instead of the last cast-on stitch. Also, you are looking at the other side of the knitting when you knit the first round. So, everything is reversed.

Francesca did the first row knit one, slip one wyif, repeat to the end. Knitting in the round should be slip one wyib, purl one, repeat to the end of round. The next row/round is the same for both, knit one, slip one wyif, repeat to the end. Of course, I still have to try it to see if it would really work.

3. Have to find some way to hold the last cast-on stitch in place so I won't lose it before I get to it. Very tricky that one.

I think this can work. I'll give it another try with the next hat project. :-)

Look what I have here. It is an update of Kerry's knitting. PLUS, a first showing of Kerry's partner Clive's current knitting project.

This is Clive's current lace project, Rosemary Shawl, design by Gemma Ord. This is the fourth time that Clive's knitted this shawl. He's at the border (edging?) now, which has 120 "points". Once that's done, he'll graft the ends together, then pick up 960 stitches on the inside and work toward the center. 960 stitches!!! Wow!

Here we have Kerry's current projects. The top one is "Midwest Moonlight Scarf" from "Scarf Style". I love the color and the design. I also have this book. Hmmm... could be a future project. Gosh, my to-do list is getting long.

The bottom one is a sock. Aija would love this. It is a pattern from the latest Knitty, "RPM", designed by... Aija! It is looking way cool. Which yarn are you using, Kerry? Who will be wearing them? :-)

Must be nice knitting in Australia now. Much cooler. :-)

6 comments:

Agnes said...

Mmm ... that Rosemary shawl is interesting ... working from the outside towards the inside. Hoping to see more of the updates on the progress.
It's starting to cool down here too. It's just so good to sleep with the natural freshness rather than air-conditioning.

Charles said...
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Sachi said...

Hm... Scarf Style, heh? I'm going to have to check it out.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the link to the great tutorial! :) Hope things are cooling down....

Anonymous said...

Thanks for showing our work, Jason. The sock wool is Socks That Rock in Blarney Stone, and the scarf is 2ply merino Kaalund in Wine variegation. And thanks to your readers for their kind comments.

I'm not sure I understand what is happening to your last stitch.

Jason said...

Thanks for all the comments! :-)

Agnes, Charles & Sachi, feels better that it's cooling down. Still humid though, huh?

Alice, you are welcome. :-)

Kerry, the last stitch of the setup can untwist and disappear if you are not careful. I think that's how you describe it. But I am now experiementing slipping the last cast-on stitch to the left needle and start knitting that stitch first. I think it's working. I will post about it soon. :-)