ABSOULTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH KNITTING
I was poking around my hard disk in the wee hours, and happened upon this illustration. Since summer is in rapid retreat, it looked like a good idea to get it out there before we allreturn to our wooly cocoons for the winter.
Yes, I used to wear bandannas this way. Now I’m old and not ready for fall. [sigh]
CHEST OF KNITTING HORRORSTM – TATANIA
I mentioned my experience with this project before. Tatania is a pattern by Berroco, written for now discontinued SensuWool. Berroco probably won’t like to hear this, but I used a different yarn – the confusingly named King Australian Merinos/Rosina Stampata. That was the yarn with the ambiguous label I wrote about in March.
Tatania has had two visits in the Chest of Knitting HorrorsTM. The first happened while I was knitting. The Berroco pattern has a glaring error in it. The piece has a neckline of unusual shape, although it’s hard to see here:
It’s sort of a squared off reverse Vee. It’s a neckline found in late Renaissance gowns, and one that looks quite good on me, so I bit and made the thing. But if you read through the pattern, you’ll discover that the directions say to DECREASE during neckline shaping. That leaves too few stitches on the needles to make the shoulder join, and inverts the shaping of the neckline. Here’san excerpt fromletter I wrote about it to Berroco:
Dear Berroco,
Thank you for making your website so complete, informative, entertaining
and easy to use. I especially like the way you have associated your
patterns and yarns.I am in the middle of working up your Tatania pattern. I am
enjoying it immensely and am looking forward to wearing the final product.
I did however find what I believe to be a rather serious typo in the
version available at this URL:http://www.berroco.com/188/188_tatania.html
The problem is in the front, at the point just after the bodice stitches
are bound off across the front of the squared neckline, as you are
beginning to work the sides of the neck opening.Here is the problem statement:
DEC ROW (RS): Work in ribbing to 2 sts before marker (dec 1, k2,
p3). Working in ribbing as established, dec 1 st before marker every 4th
row 4 times, then every other row 8 times…I did this, and ended up with far too few stitches to mate the front and
back shoulders properly. Plus, the piece I ended up with reversed the
angles of shaping for the neckline – with the two shoulder parts sloping
outwards instead of inwards.When I did the computation of stitch count by gauge it became obvious that
I should have INCREASED instead of DECREASING each time "dec" is specified
in the pattern.I am now proceeding to finish my Tatania, using increases in place of the
decreases in the pattern.I thought you might like to know about this problem so you can correct your
on-line pattern. The design is striking and it shows off the yarn to good
effect. It would be a shame for knitters to get so far into the thing only
to face frustration. I am sure you would not want that frustration to attach
itself to your sterling reputation.
I’m afraid I never heard back from Berroco, and the pattern is still uncorrected on their website. (I’ve since learned that the hard copy edition in Book #188 – Holiday also sports the same error.)
As you can see, I did muddle on through and produce the final piece. As expected, the welted center panel does draw up a bit in the center. That’s probably why the model was posed with her hands covering that spot. Even so, it’s a striking, form-fitting and very flattering piece.
O.K. So why did it go back to the Chest of Knitting HorrorsTM?
The yarnI used isjunk.The color is beautiful – a combo of deep blue with a ragg-type strand of brights twisted in. It’s wear-against-the skin soft and luxurious. But since knitting it has begun disintegrating. Without provocation (no moths, no mold, no laundry stress, no rough handling, no careless storage, and after only two wearings), spots here and there have broken. I’ve got a half-dozen safety pins in the piece right now, holding stitches to prevent them from laddering down. I need to find my leftovers and do some aggressive duplicate-stitch style darning, in effect Kitchener grafting the broken bits together. I’m especially annoyed because I had no clue this would happen as I was knitting. Grrrr.
More on Yarn Names
In response to yesterday’s rant about yarn names I got one note that pointed out something I didn’t know. It was from someone who works for a yarn manufacturer. That person pointed out that there are very few ways for a committee thinking up yarn names to check to be sure that the name they pick hasn’t been used recently. One way is to look in the index of Valuable Knitting Information, a twice-yearly spiral bound volume listing yarns going back abouta decade or so (the recent 40th edition goes back all 20 years). VKI although large does not list all yarn manufacturers, and does not associate yarns with any sort of date, so it’s tough to see how old an entry might be unless one checks through back issues to spot when it appears.
Another way they’ve been using lately is to look up the name on wiseNeedle. Although our list is smaller and dates aren’t precise, they do exist and can give a clue as to whether or not the name under investigation might still be on the shelves. Interesting! This is a use for wiseNeedle I didn’t consider. The note went on to say that the maker the author works for does check the yarn reviews for their products and greatly appreciates both positiveAND negative comments.
YOUR FRIENDLY KNITTED-UP SPIDERMAN
Somewhere out in the dark of nightlurks Mark Newport; a fiber artist with time, imagination, and a fullattic of vintage comic books.
Mr. Newportknits head-to-toe superhero suits. You canpurchase his one-of-a-kindSpiderman; Mid ’60s Batman; Daredevil (with nifty ribbed hood) or Mr. Fantasticoutfits. If he selected a nice, springy wool,he’s probably figured out what I never could as a kid – howReed Richards wasable to stretch his arm to ten feet long butneverburst out of his suit. (Later when I got older I thought of the implications of being his wife Sue Storm, but that’s another speculation left over from a more innocent time.) My embroiderer and comic-collector selves also really appreciate the oddity ofMr. Newport’s embroidery on papercomic book samplers, too.
Mr. Newport’s work is being gathered into an upcoming exhibit at the Greg Kucera Gallery in Seattle, Washington. Be warned however – he overembroiders or embellishes many types of printed matter in addition to comic pages, including what in a more genteel era would have been called "French Postcards." The gallery’s site does explore those materials as well.
Yarn Reviews at wiseNeedle
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Since yesterday 24 new reviews have been logged in. That’sthe most reviews received in one day since early ’95, when the collection was just starting out! Knitters everywhere will be extremely grateful as they find your comments on all those yarns. I’m particularly impressed with the blog community, and the way that it’s rallied behind this project. I feel like I’m back in ’94,part ofa happy band of knitting zealotsspreading their shared banner throughthe electronic ether. Thanks also to the folk from the KnitList who slogged on over to the site to add their experiences to the pile. I also really appreciate all the people who took time to say they’d miss the yarn review collection if it disappeared.
I’ve still not decided what to do to make the collection self-supporting, but I did get a couple of good ideas to chase down, both left as comments on yesterday’s page and mailed to me directly. I notice that other people don’t have the ethical/editorial independence problem I see with accepting ads from yarn makers or retailers. One person wrote to suggest that I offer a "buy me" sidebar, with a list of vendors appearing whenever a review is pulled up. The logistics on that might not be feasible, especially considering that many individual yarns have the half-life of a mayfly, and the indexing would have to be done by manufacturer’s line rather than individual offering. Plus, I’m afraid that if I become dependent on money from industry sources, the collection will become less impartial as people become hesitant to criticize the same stuff they see advertised. Also I might be swayed (even unconsciously) to favor advertisers over non-advertisers. Perhaps I’m too much a stickler here. More thought is needed.
Another intriguingidea was to see if sellers of knitting inventory software might be interested in licensing the database. Another was to sell bags or tee-shirts with knitting-related stuff on them. If anyone has had experience with Cafe Press or similar collateral services, could I beg a little guidance? (You can send me an eMail off-blog at using the "contact" link at the right.)I also got a suggestionto add a line of for-pay patterns to the free ones already there. I’m not convinced though that anyone would pay for these as the more complex ones are working descriptions rather than stitch-exact direction sets; and the less complex ones are so intuitive that I can’t believe people would plunk down a fee for them. Then again, there are people selling other simple patterns on the web and on eBay at surprisingly large prices…
Buttons?
Some people asked for a closer view of the ceramicbuttons I’ll be using on the fulled pillow. Here they are, both with and without the little yellowplastic onesI’ll be using to hold them on.
REQUEST FOR SUPPORT
As most of you know,I’m the person responsible for wiseNeedleand its on-line yarn review collection. That collection is now nine years old. It began in 1995 as a round-robin text file I collected then circulated among members of the old KnitList mailing list (back in its pre-Yahoo days).The databasehas grown to fully searchable index of basic info on more than 4,800 different yarns, and contains around 2,000 reviews detailing more than 1,300 products (many yarns have more than one review).
I provide the forum, knitters world-wide write in to report their experiences on real knitting projects. No yarn maker or distributer subsidizes the site in any way, nor is it backed by any magazine, publisher or yarn retailer. It’s a 100% volunteer consumer-to-consumer info sharing effort in the best tradition of the early Internet.
It’s been fun, but now I am wondering if this all-volunteer effort has outlived its usefulness. There are now other commercial forums that provide yarn reviews. While foot traffic through the site has remained more or less on the same level, the number of reviews being submitted is way, way down. Plus the majority of the visitors are now coming for free patterns rather than to the yarn review collection. People just don’t seem to be interested in providing info, although there still seems to be limited interest in obtaining it.
So, I’m in a quandry. Do I continue to shell out to support the tenth year of an effort that isn’t earning hearts and minds in the greater community? Do I pull the plug? Do I muddlethrough for another year or sohoping that the idea will someday catch on?
Or do mutatewiseNeedle in some way so that it becomes self-supporting? If the last option is pursued, what can be done? Charging for membership? Accepting paid advertising from the yarn industry? Selling patterns or collateral material? Flogging the whole site to an interested buyer, providing some entity could be found?
Ideas and suggestions are greatly appreciated.
WORKING REPORT – ENTRE DEUX LACS TEE
A retrograde forwards-and-back type progress continues to be made on my tee. I’ve decided that I want to use a series of vertical strips, joined with something other than entrelac (more experimentation needed). I’ll bury increases and decreases in the join areas to give the garment a bit more shape. Here’s how I envision placement of the strips. Don’t worry. I’ll fill in the missing parts, like the bulk of the arms and add some kind of neck and bottom edge treatment. Possibly I-cord, possibly ribbing, depending on how I feel.
And here’s the first completed strip:
To answer the people who have written to ask why I’m not doing a knit-along or other shared project, I’d have to say I’ve always been a lone wolf knitter. Sometimes I do things inspired by others, but very rarely do I jump in when everyone else is doing them. There was a good five year lag time between the time I read the first Dale Lillehammer feeding frenzy on line, and the time I decided to knit one. I can’t say why this is. Perhaps there are always more things I want to try than I have time to try them so new ideas need to get in queue before they’re addressed.
Today is my birthday. Or rather it’s the day on which I celebrate the anniversary of my 21st birthday. I have no plans in particular, other than taking advantage of the day off to get as much as possible done in preparation for our upcoming move. We’re also suffering birthday cake exhaustion in the house, as both of my kids had birthdays last week. But if you’re itching to pony up good wishes, I would ask you to share that good will with the rest of the on-lineknitting world instead of with me.Consider adding a yarn reviewto the yarn review collection at wiseNeedle. The easiest way to do this is to look up your yarn by name on the search page, then click on the "review this yarn" link.
And for the few of you who may not have heard about this yet (and in honor of the US holiday of Memorial Day), I point out that the Red Cross is currently selling commemorative WWII knitting kits. This offering is paired with an on-line museum exhibit, and a historical article. Their assistance toservice people. and for civilians caught in both man-made and natural disasters deservesrecognition and support.
SEPARATION ANXIETY
The Chest of Knitting HorrorsTM is now safely packed away into a public warehouse storage cubby, along with my entire yarn stash, (except for the Suede T still in progress) and I’m feeling at odds with myself over not having had time to knit in the past couple of days.
Will I survive putting this place up for sale? Will I manage to get everything clean and uncluttered by 4/12? Will finding termites, disconnected plumbing,andbare wire/knob style wiringin the new place crush our desire toshell out for it? Will I spiral downwards into terminal knitting-withdrawal before I can reclaim my goodies from storage? Will the Suede T ever be finished?
Who can say?HoweverI don’t believe I will everstop smelling Pine Sol…
WHERE HAVE ALL THE ENTRIES GONE?
Beats me…
They were just here, but seem to have hidden themselves. They’re not gone though. I can see them all on my admin page. To help people find info, I’ve added sidebar links to most of them.
With luck blog-city will get itself into gear, or someone will be able to tell me what I might have done to cause this mess. In the mean time, help yourself to the (side)bar.
UPCOMING EVENT – GORE PLACE SHEEPSHEARING FESTIVAL
It’s spring! Although the weather service promises heavy snow tonight, it’s mud season in New England. In addition to mud, one sure fire sign of spring is the annual Gore Place Sheepshearing Day in Waltham, Massachusetts on April 24. It’s certainly one my daughters and I enjoy immensely. It’s a micro-event in terms of the bigger sheep/wool festivals, but this small, local event is great fun.
The site is very hilly, but manageable even with small children in tow. Light strollers should have no problem unless it’s very wet. Wheelchairs might have a greater problem given the hill and the soft ground common in Massachusetts in the spring.
There are usually about fifty general handcrafts vendors; a sheepdog demo; sheepshearing, spinning, dyeing, knitting and weaving demos;live music and dance performances; a barnyard animal zoo, and food vendors. There are also usually between three and ten small, localyarn and fleece sellers, and a couple of vendors selling spinning equipment.
Pack a picnic, dress in warm wools, and (with luck) enjoy a post-winter day outside.
String-Or-Nothing 