DRAGON – DONE AND BLOCKING
A lousy picture, to be sure:
But I’m finally finished. Dragon has been washed and is now laid out with my blocking wires. Trapezoidal distortion is an artifact of standing at one end and photographing at an angle, then presenting the photo rotated 90-degrees.
Oncemy panel isdry I’ll darn in the ends, embroider my initials and a date in the corner, and hang the thing on the door. Why am I waiting to darn in the ends until after the initial blocking? Mostly because I knew that blocking would stretch the thing out considerably. I was afraid that if I darned them in before that stretch I’d risk having a puckered area where elasticity was hampered. I do have a little bit of a ripple along the edge of my original cast-on row, (along the tree behind the knight) but I’m hoping that it will settle in over time.
I promise one last picture of Filet of Dragon once it’s hanging up on the door.
Blue Poncho
The unplying continues. And continues… I can report progress though. I’ve almost got enough to begin swatching, and the Target Daughter has picked out a couple of stitch patterns that she likes from other things I’ve knit and from my library. Leading candidates include "Lace Ribbon Stitch" from Walker II (p. 284); K3, P3 rib; and a mock cable. Both are true lace stitches in that they have YOs, and decreases on every row, with no intervening plain rows. I’ve also got three colors of blue to play with. I’m thinking of running them side-by-side Intarsia style, withthe colors corresponding to the lace orribbing panels used. It may be just another poncho, but who says knitting it has to be boring.
More on this tomorrow, too as I get more of the initial swatching and drafting done.
WORKING REPORT – BLUE PONCHO YARN REDUCTION
I can now safely agree with everyone who has ever told me that I wasn’t in my right mind. The proof is in the venture I embarked on with my daughter’s blue poncho.
There’s no ponco yet. There’s not even a gauge swatch. What there is is this:
This is one skein of three-ply construction Paternayan RN1685 Wool, after it has been de-plyed into a two-strand and a one-strand ball. While this stuff is most often sold in short lengths used for needlepoint and embroidery, it is occasionally sold in larger hanks for knitters and weavers. Time expended? Just under three hours. Sanity factor, considering this is just one of seven hanks? Nil.
Still, a promise is a promise and sad-child puppy eyes brook no delay. I’m midway through the second skein. Once I get one of each three colors, I’ll begin swatching. With luck by that time ponchos will still be in style.
Dragon Thread
People In Other Countries have asked for more description of the #30 crochet cotton I’m using for the dragon panel. Here’s the scoop straight from the label:
J.P. Coats RoyaleExtra Fine Size#30 Crochet Thread. 100% Mercerized Cotton. Article #160; Color #226 (Ecru). 500 yards per ball. Weight unmarked but registering around 100g on my Kitchen Scale of Dubious Accuracy.
Recommended crochet hook – .75mm/#12. Machine wash delicate cycle, 40-deg C/104-deg F. No bleach, ho dryer, may be ironed on hot. Blocking recommended.
Made in Hungary. Distributed in the US by Coats & Clark, P.O. Box 12229 Greenville, SC 29612; Distributed in Canada by Coats & Clark Canada; Mississaugua, ON Canada L5T 2T5.
While the Coats and Clark website is also listed on the label: http://www.coatsandclark.com, don’t bother looking for Royale there. It’s not listed. Royaleis definately shinier and silkier thanCoats Big Ball Size 30. I’ve never seen Coats Opera thread, so I can’t say how it compares to the Royale. I bought mine at evil big box craft store Michaels. Their own listing says that the stuff is exclusive to their stores.
DRAGON – GETTING THERE
I don’t know when this will make it live. Blog City is doing some maintenance today, and public posting may be delayed a bit.
Back from a fragmented long weekend full of family, and finger-healingI present what progress I’ve made to date:
It’s getting tough to photograph this puppy because it has grown so large. Maybe by the end of this weekend it will finally be done. To calculate how long I’ve been working on my dragon curtain – I started experimenting back at the end of June, and began working on the piece over my July 4th week vacation. That’s over four months andaboutfour balls of size 30 crochet cotton. Given the low per-ball price, I’d say (aside from time)this was the most economical major project I’ve ever undertaken. Costs were something like $2.95 per ball, plus $1.50 for the crochet hook.
On where I was and what I was doing this weekend past – we had a wedding in my extended family. My cousin married a really nice guy from Finland. The wed locally, and my weekend was filled with family and festiviites. Many of the groom’sfamily made the trip over for the occasion. I regret that time and a language barriermade communication withthe new Finnishfamilydifficult, becauselate in the weekend I found out that the groom’s aunt is an avid knitter. Since (believe it or not) one of the largest sources of hits for wiseNeedle’s knitting glossaryis Finland, I would have loved to have discussed knitting with her.
In any case, if word filters back through family channels (some of them are String readers) – feel free to pass the word along. Is there a general renaissance and new generation of younger knitters there, too? What are people making over there – are trends towards the traditional shapes, motifs and garments, or are they leaningtowards reinterpretations? I get to chat (or read along) with knitters from many other parts of Europe, but Finnish is a barrier that’s hard to penetrate.
WORKING REPORT: DRAGON, DRAGON
Still working away at it, I’m afraid. I had hoped to be done by the end of this week, but it looks like another two weeks ofthe bottom borderlie before me.
It’s not procrastination – it’s injury.
To get this piece to look nice and solid, I’m working rather tightly. That means that each double crochet that’s worked into a one below involves a little bit a jab to pierce the previous stitch. Unfortunately, the way I hold my work and form the stitches means that that jab goes right into the tip of my left hand middle finger. Now for most crochet it doesn’t matter, the hook is nice and big. But for this piece the hook is just pointy enough to make long sessions painful. This weekend past I cracked the stitcher’s callousthat I’ve been building up,and had to put my curtain aside so that I wouldn’t stain it as I was working.
There are various solutions to this problem. Quilters, stitchers and crocheters who often run afoul of finger-sticks use a band-aid or piece of tape on the receiving finger. Others use thimbles or leather finger protectors. There’s even a couple of products sold for this purpose – small dot-like patches of adhesive plastic, and paint-on "second skin" acrylics. I’ve tried some of these, but always found that I had a harder time controlling tension and placement with anything that got between my fingers and my work. I guess Irely too much on feel. So instead I try to pace myself to avoid breaks like the one over the weekend. I can’t give up on it now, though. I’m too close to the end to let something silly like bodily injury slow me down.
WORKING REPORT – RETURN OF DRAGON
I’m still plugging away. Here you see the finished top border and the start of the border on the bottom:
I think the framing contrasts are working nicely. At the current rate of production, I hope to have this puppy finished in two weeks. Three weeks, tops.
In other projects, a couple of people have asked what happened to the things I was working on when Dragon Fever hit. I’d been doing an entrelac project, and a raglan in a self striper. The answer is both are AWOL. I started Dragon just before our July 4th vacation, about two weeks before we moved to the new house. The bag with those projects in it was packed as part of the general relocation. I know that box is somewhere in the new house, but I haven’t found it yet. To be fair, we’ve got upwards of 30 boxes as yet to be unpacked. Most are books, waiting patiently until we can get bookcases.
The rest are miscellaneous and/or poorly marked boxes each?containing a grab-bag of whatever. Most of those are destined for storage in the under-eaves box rooms behind our closets, but we can’t move them there until after the roof is redone. We’re now playing the hurry up and wait game with the roofer. So the boxes (including the Mystery Box with my knitting projects in it) are sitting in out of the way corners, waiting for the post-roofing reassortment of storage.
Ahhh. The joys of moving!
DRAGON ANNOYANCE
Grrr.
As of yesterday, I’d finished the top edging, run the solid two-row strip down the left hand side, chained out to establish the bottom edge, and was three rows into the charted part of the remaining border strip.
Today I had to rip out everything done after Saturday. I had made the only absolutely fatal error there is on this piece. I forgot to work the last double-width eyelet hole on the top edge, so there was no way of putting the last inch of my curtain onto its curtain rod.
As of today I’ve finished the ripping back, have created the missing hanging hole, and am in the forever bands of solid double crochet at the leftmost edge. As a result I don’t have the nifty-looking progress shot I’d hoped to share today. Instead, in response to some requests for a closer look at the join between the old and new work (and provided my photog skills cooperate), I present a detail shot of the edging join area:
Remember – you’re looking at the piece sideways compared to the working direction. (Also as it turns out, from the wrong side, but that doesn’t matter). My working direction proceeds from the right edge of the photo to the left edge. There’s a schematic of the stitch logic for this join in a previous post.
One thing that may or may not be seen in the resolution-stripped photo above – the J&P Coats Royale brand name size 30 cotton thread I’m using has a nice sheen to it compared to most crochet cottons. I have to say I really like the stuff. It does appear to have limited distribution though. Even the Coats website doesn’t? list it. So far the only retailer I’ve found that mentions Royale crochet cottons?is the big-box crafts store, Michaels, and I’m loathe to shop there on principle, much preferring to patronize smaller needlework specialty shops.
DRAGON AND GEN III KNITWITS
More progress on Dragon.
I had hoped I’d have finished off the entire top border by today, but I’m three rows away from finishing.
A couple of people have written to ask for a more detailed explanation of how I’m managing the vertical join between the old and new parts. I’d posted some thoughts on this before, but then contradicted myself and said I was doing it another way. To top it off, I neglected to describe exactly how.
If I’ve got an two empty meshes stacked one on top of each other at the end of my row just before the join, I’m working my penultimate square as usual, then I’m working a horizontal half double crochet to connect the new work to the old. Then I chain up two, and work another horiztonal half double crochet. Finally I flip my work over and proceed back in the direction I came.
If I’ve got two solid meshes stacked on on top of each other at the end of my row just before the join, I work my penultimate square as usual, then work two DCs into either the stitches or the space of the row below. Then I join the last of these DCs to the established edge with a slip stitch. The existing edge of the old work makes the fourth stitch to complete the new square. To make the next row a bit more even, I do a backwards slip stitch into the stitch one before the stitch on my needle; chain up two, and work another slip stitch into the next attachment point. Then I do another backwards slip stitch as before. Finally I flip over my work and work two more double crochets to finish out the filled square that commences the new row.
Here’s a schematic. More or less. Apologies for the lousy picture quality. I’m wrestling with Visio right now. I installed Office XP Service Pack 2 (the big security update) and it messed with Visio. I then installed several layers of Visio upgrades to get it working, but the export to JPG feature isn’t quite fine tuned yet.
Mindless Kvelling over Gen III
The kidlets are captivated by knitting!? Who would have thought it, because before the Knit-Out neither one showed much interest. I myself never could sit still long enough to learn from my mom (Knitting Goddess, mostly retired). I’m amazed that they have come so far, so fast.
The Larger One sprang right from her initial "learn how" bit of garter in livid green acrylic to a garter stitch scarf done in a fuzzy yarn. She polished it off in two days, then went out and got more fuzzy yarn to do another for her friend. The Smaller One found a thick yarn and big needles easier to manage than worsted weight and size #7s. She knit a?6-stitch wide strip from a superbulky yarn, then asked me to end it off into an earwarmer. She began it Friday, and wore it to school this morning. Now that they’re comfortable with the knit stitch, this week’s lesson will be purling and casting off.
I may have created two monsters though. Both are now eyeing my stash and asking what they can make next. The Larger One is searching the web because she wants to do "a bag from that yarn that shrinks."? The little one wants to do a blanket for her favorite stuffed animal, and appears to have an affinity for hand-dyed variegateds. I’ll offer up pix of the proud knitters?once they’re home from school. Now off for a new experience:? Hiding Yarn From Children.
NEW YEAR’S DRAGON
So I lied. I said I wouldn’t post another progress picture of Filet of Dragon until I had finished the border across the top. But I’m writing this yesterday and dating it to auto-post today. (That’s an odd time-bending sentence.)? Today is?the Rosh Hashana?holiday, so I’m off doing other things.
I’m in the danger zone on this project now. As much as I desperately want to finish it and hang it on the front door, I’m thoroughly tired of this border. And I’m not even half-way done.
WORKING REPORT – DRAGON, DRAGGIN’ ON WHILE TREES FLY
Another in an interminable series of progress shots. This one shows more of the top border.
Although I was iffy about it when I first began, I think that it’s working now. Yes, introducing another motif makes the piece rather busy, but in spite of that – I like it. To be immodest, I’ve been scouring the web looking for filet crochet work, and I haven’t seen anything remotely like this – either for complexity of the motifs, or scale of the project. It’s going to look killer on the front door window.
Now to finish out the top and bottom edges. I promise no more incremental photos until (at least) the top edge is finished.
Tree Today, Gone Tomorrow
Some pix of my de-treeing. This majestic 35-year old spruce was certainly pretty from this angle, but it was planted two feet away from the house. It was leaning on my walls and roof, and its roots were invading the basement. It’s sad, but the spruce had to go.
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(Sorry about the shot of my neighbor’s SUV.)
Likewise two four-story tall Norway maples in the back yard were given honorable discharges. In their case, they were completely hollow – to the point where the remaining ring of their trunks was about an inch thick. Both had canted, and were looming over my garage and my neighbor’s house. They were disasters poised to happen.
The treeguy used a boom crane to extract them from a tight space, lifting the pieces up and over the house and sparing injury to the surrounding trees. The eighth-of-a-tree limb that’s flying here looks small, but once down on the ground it looked every inch of about 20 feet – larger than some entire free-standing trees. Given yesterday’s winds and the number of branches down in my neighborhood (the result of the last anemic puff from passing hurricane fragments) I’m delighted that the hazard was removed just in time. Plus, I’ve still got six healthy maples and locusts in the back yard, one so huge it dwarfed the two that were taken out.
TREE DAY
Today is Tree Day here at String Central. A crew of treeguys?is outside even as I type, taking down several large hollow trees that are looming dangerously over?our house, the garage, and the neighbor’s house. While I’m usually a tree-and-let-live person these did represent real risk, and had to go. I look forward to an airier, sunnier, safer yard. Also quieter, once the chainsaws, chipper/mulcher, and boom crane all depart. Before and after pix another day, once the leafy chaos has subsided a bit.
In knitting news, I have to ‘fess up now that June posted her blog entry about the DNA cable. I read her initial complaint, and thought she deserved a wedding present, so I redrafted her cable for her. I wasn’t going to say anything about it, but she was sweet enough to post a credit, and to leave me a Mysterious Present in my mailbox (it turns out we live quite near each other):
I’m thoroughly tickled by the mystery gift (in a favorite color combo, no less!). I’m now honor-bound to knit up this nifty June-dyed fingering weight so?I can report back to her?how effective her color placement strategy was in avoiding blobs. I think that it will be appropriate if I do up a pair of DNA cable socks with it.
It also turns out that I’m on the hook for a poncho. In this case, the fomer tween-ager Elder Daughter? has requested what appears to be the fashion accessory du jour. So I sigh, and like a good parental unit, will make one, no matter how boring. I’m still caught up in Dragon though, and I don’t want to be sidetracked from it. Socks I can make my portable project. A poncho however is another story. Hope I can complete it before fashion obsolescence kicks in.
On Dragon – not enough progress to warrant posting a photo, but I’m getting happier and happier about the twist panel at the top. With a few more repeats done, the design is easier to pick out, and the denseness of the new panel frames the lighter areas nicely. I think I’ll keep it.
String-Or-Nothing 