The Spider Queen Part 3

Shortly after I started work on The Spider Queen, I searched on Ravelry and Google to see whether I could find any information on how knitters who had knitted this shawl had handled the borders. I found photographs of some very lovely completed Spider Queens, and several unfinished projects on Ravelry. But the most interesting finding was the blog of a woman who is fairly well known in knitting circles. Her blog includes a lot of very good technical advice, and she is quite inventive. I was excited to see that she had tackled The Spider Queen back in 2007 because I thought that she had perhaps devised a way to knit the borders without having the ugly seams.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that this knitter seemed to hate this shawl. Not only did she think the border patterns were so ill-chosen that she designed her own borders using different patterns, she claimed that the instructions given by Hazel Carter, the shawl’s designer, are wrong, wrong, wrong. She had worked a gauge swatch using the spider pattern from the center of the shawl and following Hazel Carter’s instructions to the letter. She posted a picture of the swatch, and it looks pretty awful. The reason for this, she claims, is that she followed the instructions to alway read the center chart from right to left. Now, normally a chart written for back-and-forth knitting, as opposed to knitting in the round, is read from right to left on the right-side rows and left to right on the wrong-side rows. So she knitted another swatch reading the charts in the standard way and got much better results. You can see the pictures of her two swatches by clicking here.

When I found this blog entry, I was quite taken aback because I had already completed most of the first spider section of the shawl center. I had followed the instructions to always read the chart from right to left, and my results were exactly as intended.

The “spider” pattern in my Spider Queen center reading the chart from right to left on every row.

I don’t know where the other knitter went wrong, but it wasn’t the fault of Hazel Carter or the pattern. In fact, the pattern is totally symmetrical, and every row (except 3, 9, and 15) actually reads the same whether one goes from right to left or left to right. If a knitter failed to read the instructions carefully and missed the part where Carter says to read the center chart from right to left on every row and simply knitted the chart in the usual manner, the pattern would work just the same.

I suspect the reason Carter instructs the knitter to always read the chart from right to left is because there are a couple of rows that begin and end with a single decrease (k2tog), but the pattern repeats are separated with a double decrease (sl1, k2tog, psso), so she uses a different symbol for the last stitch of the repeat.

Anyhow, regardless of the complaints of other knittings, I have been happily knitting away on The Spider Queen and after completing two repeats of the center

Two repeats of The Spider Queen center dry-streched.

I’m very happy with how my always-right-to-left spiders look.

The Spider Queen “spiders” knitted according to the designer’s directions.

The Spider Queen Part 2

Last night I watched the Devils demoralize the Rangers in the third round of the Stanley Cup playoffs by scoring a goal late in the 3rd period to win 4-3. The Devils had jumped out to a 3-0 lead, scoring 3 goals in the first period, but the Rangers came back in the second period with 2 goals and tied the game early in the 3rd period. But the Rangers are not a high-scoring hockey team and rarely score more than 3 goals in a game. And, sure enough, in front of their home fans, they were unable to score a 4th goal.

For those of you who aren’t hockey fans–Why isn’t everyone a hockey fan? It’s the most elegant sport in the world, and, folks, the players are wearing ice skates! Come on!–the Rangers are based in NYC and play in MSG (Madison Square Garden), the most famous sports venue in the world, and the Devils are based in Newark, NJ. Both teams have won The Cup before–the Rangers are one of the original six NHL teams–and they both play in the same division (along with my beloved Pittsburgh Penguins, so I hate both teams). Both teams have players I like as well as players I don’t like, but I find that I am cheering for the Devils. I’m shocked by this. The Devils are notorious for playing the most boring hockey in all the world. They try to score the first goal, then put everyone, including the opposing players, to sleep with the trap. Ugh! But the Devils have a new coach, Peter DeBoer, and he has totally changed the Devils style of play. They are more physical and more offensively minded. Dare I say it? The Devils are actually playing offense!

But that’s not why I find myself cheering for a hated rival of the Pens. No, I’m not cheering for the Devils because they are playing a more exciting brand of hockey; I’m cheering for them because I love their goaltender, 40-year-old Martin Brodeur. It’s hard not to like Brodeur. Although he’s an old guy (for a professional hockey player), he is still one of the best net-minders in the NHL. I just can’t help but pull for him and his team.

The series now stands at Devils 3 games, Rangers 2 games, with game 6 to be played in Newark on Friday. Can the Devils win the Eastern Division championship and the coveted Prince of Wales Cup at home? Stay tuned.

Of course, during last night’s game, which was, by the way, quite exciting, I worked on The Spider Queen. She’s coming along at a rapid pace.

The Spider Queen progress 5-23-12

The J & S cobweb yarn is wound on a large cardboard core, and unwinding the yarn is a bit of a PITA. I decided that a Lazy Kate would make the unwinding easier,

A Lazy Kate

but I don’t have a Lazy Kate. So I improvised. I stuck a knitting needle through one side of a box, put the needle through the “spool” of yarn,” and stuck the knitting needle through the other side of the box. Voilà!  A Lazy Kate!

My improvised Lazy Kate

 

The Spider Queen Part 1

Many years ago, I bought a kit for Hazel Carter’s The Cat’s Day Shawl from Blackberry Ridge.  Like many of Carter’s designs, this shawl tells a story, the story of the a day in the life of a Shetland cat. The lace patterns used in the shawl all represent elements of the story. A Cat’s Day was the first Shetland-type shawl I ever made, and much to my surprise, it was not at all difficult.

The Cat’s Day Shawl

The yarn is a nice heavy-laceweight wool-silk blend that feels good against the skin and that wears very nicely. I’ve used the shawl a lot, mostly as a coverlet. It is lightweight and  perfect to use when napping in air conditioning or for layering with other covers when it is cold.

I love this shawl so much that I bought several other Hazel Carter kits from Blackberry Ridge, including The Spider Queen Shawl, which I think is dramatic-looking.

The Spider Queen Shawl by Hazel Carter

The Spider Queen kit includes Blackberry Ridge’s Thistledown yarn, a cobweb-weight single. The kit marinated in my stash for a long time because I thought it would be difficult to knit. You see, the lace patterns used for the shawl are the type that have pattern stitches every row. A lot of lace patterns alternate a pattern row with a row that is plain knit (or purl), and I have little difficulty with this type of lace knitting. But the few times I have attempted patterns that include pattern stitches on every row, I have given up in despair. My Melanie Shawl has sat untouched for years because I found the going incredibly slow due to the difficulty I had getting the pattern correct. So I guess it’s understandable that it has taken me a long time to work up the courage to tackle The Spider Queen.

But the lace patterns aren’t the only difficulty I had with starting The Spider Queen. Another reason I avoided The Spider Queen was because the borders are knitted individually, then sewn up. The seams look awful in the picture on the pattern, and I know that mine would probably look much, much worse, being that I really hate sewing up knitted pieces. I have to come up with a way to knit the borders without having those ugly, ugly, ugly seams.

But in spite of these obstacles, I had an overwhelming desire to knit The Spider Queen, so I took the plunge. The kit includes Blackberry Ridge’s Thistledown yarn, a cobweb-weight single. I cast on in Thistledown and started knitting away. I got this far before I stopped.

Thistledown is a yarn with great variation in its thickness (or thinness, depending on how you look at it), and I was not pleased with how the thick sections looked.

The Spider Queen in Thistledown. The fuzzy thick sections of the yarn ruin the appearance of the pattern.

There was no way I was going to put so much work into this shawl using this yarn. I wasn’t about to end up with bunch of fuzzy places ruining the ethereal appearance of my shawl. So I decided to order some Jamieson & Smith cobweb in natural and start over. The Thistledown will be used for some other project somewhere down the road.

When the J & S arrived, I realized it was even finer than the Thistledown, so when I cast on The Spider Queen for the second time, I went down a needle size. The J & S cobweb is also a single that has variation in its thickness, but the variation is considerably less than the Thistledown. In comparison to Thistledown, the J & S is nearly uniform in thickness, and it knits up beautifully without the difference in thickness being noticeable.

The Spider Queen in Jamieson & Smith’s cobweb. No fuzzy thick spots.

I’ve knitted one-and-a-half repeats of the center pattern so far, and I’m amazed at how quickly it has gone. Even though nearly every row includes pattern stitches, the pattern is easy to follow and the knitting is easy to read. I’ve had no difficulty whatsoever.

The Spider Queen 1.5 repeats of center

The Spider Queen dry stretched.

I have even been working on this shawl while watching the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It’s my lucky knitting, bringing good fortune to the Los Angeles Kings, who beat the Phoenix Coyotes last night to win the Western Conference championship, the Campbell Cup, and the right to face the Eastern Conference champion (either the Devils or the Rangers) in the Stanley Cup finals. Go, Kings!

A Finished Object

Blue Teardrops Scarf in the breeze

 

Blue Teardrops Scarf after blocking

No More Tears?

After bitching to high heaven last week about how boring scarves are to knit, and how bored I was with the Blue Teardrops Scarf, the knitting deities restored my beaded lace scarf mojo, and I have been knitting away most happily on Blue Teardrops while watching the Stanley Cup playoffs. I have made so much progress on the scarf that I have only one repeat left to do before doing the happy dance.

Blue Teardrops Scarf nearing completion

 

I have to add that  I did the happy dance when the New Jersey Devils, having opened a big can of whoop-ass following their loss to the F%^ers in the first game of round 2, won 4 straight games to knock the detestable and detested F%^ers out of the hunt for The Cup. Oh, and they did it in Philly, which was the icing on the cake. Bye-bye, F%^ers! Don’t let the door knob…

It’s A ‘Burgh Thing

From the Washington Nationals’ Twitter feed:

The best view in baseball–PNC Park in beautiful Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Trust me, the view is just as gorgeous at night. I love PNC Park.

A WIP

More alphabet soup, this time a WIP, a Work In Progress, the Blue Teardrops Beaded Scarf. I included a 12-inch ruler in the picture so that you can see how far I’ve progressed, and how far I have to go.

Blue Teardrops Beaded Scarf in progress

The yarn is Jaggerspun Zephyr laceweight, a wool/silk blend; the beads are Miyuki 8/0 round seed beads in silver lined sapphire; the pattern is Jackie E-S’s Beaded Lace Scarf.

Two Unfinished Objects

In an earlier blog entry, I introduced you to the world of UnFinished Objects, UFOs in knitters’ parlance. I thought you, dear reader, might like to meet a couple of my UFOs.

First up is the Stonington Shawl. I started the Stonington as part of a KAL (Knit-A-Long) on the Yahoo! Group, EZasPi, a group devoted to the designs of knitting god Elizabeth Zimmermann. I was using the instructions found in one of her books, the title of which I forget. Maybe The Knitter’s Workshop. Anyway, in the book the shawl is just plain garter stitch, so I added Old Shell for the border.

The shawl is knitted using a technique that EZ “unvented,” and I thought I’d give it a try. I personally think the technique would have been better off not being “unvented,” but I’m sure there are knitters who strongly disagree. Anyway, after knitting the shawl, I ended up with a garment that was too small to be used for anything, and the Stonington technique doesn’t allow for adjusting the size of the shawl by adding more rounds to the border. I decided I had two choices. One was to travel to the frog pond (more knitter’s parlance) and rip-it, rip-it! But ripping it out was not an appealing option because the yarn I used is very hairy and ripping it back is a royal PITA. (That’s a general acronym that needs no explanation.) The only other option, as I saw it, was to knit a second border using the knitting-in-the-round technique.

Shawl ready for second border

So I knit the set up rows and set the project aside because, quite frankly, I was sick of looking at it.

Stonington Shawl in its project bag

But lately this shawl has been creeping into my thoughts, and I think that it will soon become a WIP again. EZ completely defeated me with that abomination known as the Adult Surprise Jacket, but I won’t be beaten again. I will conquer the Stonington and have a lovely, or perhaps not so lovely lace shawl to show for it.

Projects often get set aside, like Stonington, or jettisoned altogether, like the Adult Surprise Jacket, because the pattern just isn’t working for the knitter. But sometimes a project goes from WIP to UFO for more benign reasons.

The latter is the case for my Dale of Norway St. Moritz sweater. The Heilo yarn is wonderful to work with, the colors are beautiful, the pattern interesting.

Dale of Norway St. Moritz in progress

But because I’m knitting the crew-neck version instead of the zippered version of the sweater, I have to refer to two different charts to knit the central motif, and the charts are on different pages. It’s confusing and tedious to have to go back and forth between the two charts, and it’s easy to make mistakes. Knitting this part of the sweater takes concentration. It isn’t television knitting, at least not if the television program actually requires the vision part. I guess I would describe knitting the central pattern as being okay for television listening, but not okay for television watching, if you get my drift. St. Moritz isn’t football knitting, and it sure as heck isn’t hockey knitting. It isn’t TCM (Turner Classic Movies) knitting, either.

Once I get past the central pattern, St. Moritz will become mindless knitting again. But getting the central pattern done is a big obstacle. And so, here sits St. Moritz, all forlorn, sadly watching me knit lace shawls, socks, hats, all manner of things, while she patiently awaits the knitting spirits to move me to tackle the remainder of that central pattern.

St. Moritz in its project bag

Someday.

A Finished Object

Last time, I talked about knitting acronyms and elaborated on some of my UFOs (UnFinished Objects). But today, I’m going to do the happy dance and share an FO (Finished Object) with you. I’m not certain whether this really qualifies as a finished object because it is just a single sock, and I have another one to complete before the project is finished. But, hey, a finished sock deserves a happy dance, so I’m counting it as an FO.

I’m making this pair of socks for my DH, and knitting socks for the DH requires some extra planning. First off, I have to make sure I have enough yarn. A 100-gram ball of sock yarn is sufficient to knit a pair of socks for my 10-inch-long puppies with a little to spare. I can count on 50 grams of yarn per foot to be more than enough to complete a pair of socks for me. But when I knit socks for the DH, I need at least 55 grams per foot because I have to cast on more stitches, knit a longer cuff, knit a bigger heel, and knit a longer foot. This means that I cannot knit a pair of socks for my better half from my stash on a whim. I have to purchase yarn specifically for him. Oh, darn! I have to purchase yarn!

The current man-sock project, a pair of garter rib socks in a lovely Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in the Kindling colorway, is a little more than half-way finished. Sock #1 was finally completed last night, but not without a battle. The first time I finished the sock, I had the DH try it on before finishing off the toe, just to make sure it would fit. Alas, the sock was about an inch too long. No big deal, really. Just rip back and reknit the toe. Toes don’t take long to knit. I can easily complete a toe during a hockey game.

So, I ripped out the toe and ripped the foot of the sock back about an inch. The next night I reknit the toe while watching hockey. Being a cautious knitter, having learned some lessons the hard way, I once again had the DH try on the sock before finishing it off. I was certain it would be a perfect fit. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The darned thing was still too long. So, once again, I ripped out the toe, ripped back some more of the foot, and set the sock aside for the next night’s hockey viewing.

So, last night, while I watched the New Jersey Devils deliciously destroy the hated Philadelphia F%^ers in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, I once again knitted the toe. And once again I had the DH try the sock on before finishing it off. Happy, happy! Joy, joy! to quote Ren and Stimpy. Like Cinderella and the glass slipper after the ball, the sock fit! I gathered up the live stitches, fastened them off, wove in the ends, and voilà!

Garter Rib Sock #1 finished

Take that, sock! You think you can defeat Pinko Knitter? Why, projects far more difficult than you have tried to get the better of me and cried “Uncle!” in defeat. There’s no project the great Pinko Knitter can’t handle. Except EZ’s Adult Surprise Jacket. But that’s a battle that isn’t worth fighting.

I’m happy with the way this colorway knitted up. Although there is a little spiraling when worked over 80 stitches, it isn’t unattractive. And the yarn is very soft and cushy. The important thing is that the DH loves it, so sock #2 is already OTN (On The Needles).

FOs, UFOs, And WIP

We knitters have our own alphabet soup, a collection of acronyms to describe the state and stages of our knitting projects. FOs, Finished Objects, elicit the happy dance. UFOs, UnFinished Objects, make us feel guilty. WIP, Work(s) In Progress, keep our hands busy.

You, dear reader, may ask, Pinko Knitter, what is the difference between a WIP and a UFO?

Good question. A WIP is a UFO that is being actively worked upon. A WIP becomes a UFO when it sits idle, untouched, maybe even forgotten, for a fairly long period of time. The length of time varies from knitter to knitter and is totally arbitrary. My standard is 30 days. If I haven’t worked a single stitch on a WIP in the past 30 days, it magically morphs into a UFO.

Most UFOs don’t bother me much. There are usually good reasons why WIP become UFOs. But UFOs can mess with my head, especially when they are sitting by my knitting chair looking at me plaintively, crying, Knit me! Knit me! Don’t you love me anymore?

I have to remind them that I had good reasons for putting them on hold, admonish them to be patient, tell them that their time will come, that nagging me or trying to lay a guilt trip on me not only won’t work, it will have the opposite affect. Nag me and you will just have to wait longer. Try to make me feel guilty and I will put you in the closet, out of sight, out of mind.  I am the boss of my knitting, as EZ would say, and I will take up each project again when I decide the time is right. A knitter has to be firm. Projects need to know that the knitter is in charge.

I have UFOs that are well over a year old. Come to think of it, I have one UFO, a lace tablecloth, that is at least 5 years old. I set it aside because the circular needle I was using had a join between the tip and the cable that made it difficult to slide the stitches along. I had to find a needle with a smoother join that was the proper size and had nice, pointy tips, and by the time I had procured the appropriate needle, I had lost interest in working on lace knitted in #60 cotton. This UFO currently resides in the depths of my yarn closet and may remain there for an eternity.

Another UFO, a pair of socks, has to be at least 3 years old. I’m not even certain of the whereabouts of this project. I think it is at the very bottom of my knitting basket, but I would have to dig through it to be sure. I don’t remember why I set this project aside. I like the yarn, I like the pattern. I’ll finish the socks someday. But not for a while. These socks are brown, and I am currently working on a pair of socks in brown. By the time I finish my current socks, I’ll be sick to death of brown yarn, so this project is destined to retain its UFO status for a little longer.