Work proceeds apace for the Maragheh pillow. I have finished round 30 of 40 for the first half. There were 2 serious errors in the pattern. On round 29 the instructions say you will have 14 stitches per segment; this is true. However, since every other odd-numbered row increases the stitch count by one and #27 had 14 and #31 has 16, there is a missing stitch. I went through and charted the pattern, realized that the “obvious” trend would place two YOs adjacent, I just added a knit 1. Later the error is a visibly obvious cut and paste error, repeating one line, but with the chart it was easy to see what should have been done. I will have to annotate the Rav link for the pattern to indicate the errata.
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I have a really difficult time understanding why anyone buys patterns. Whenever I use someone else’s pattern, even if it does not have fitting concerns, there are errors. It leaves me with the steadfast belief that other knitters are moronic since they rely on patterns which are inferior to thinking for oneself.
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I deleted the blog roll on the side. Since I have not updated it in two years and I assume most people read this via feed anyway, I doubt anyone looks at it. I might recreate it at some point, because when I started reading knitting blogs, that was how I found some of them.
I am in the process of migrating my knitting blogs feeds, so I can easily comment from a browser where I am already logged in. I like getting comments, I suspect that might be a shared feeling. Currently I read RSS feeds in a non-logged in browser, so commenting is laborious and error-prone.
I really liked the 8-square slippers. There are apparently several variants of these. Here are a few direct pattern links:
first one I found: http://www.kaspaikka.fi/neulonta-A&O/asusteita_vaatteita/sukat-tossut/palatossut.html
Drops, in English: http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/en/visoppskrift.php?d_nr=109&d_id=57〈=us
felted: http://hurpeknagg.blogspot.com/2008/01/felted-slippers.html
The basic idea I was looking for was something that could be made in all garter stitch, that required very little in terms of shaping, but which would make an actual garment. There are a number of children who go through the library knitting group and never learn to purl, let alone increase and decrease. No one needs 3 mini-size envelope purses, so there was a lack of intermediate project between the itty bitty thing and sending them off to buy their own yarn.
But not everyone who comes to this speaks English. Some of them do not read. It was a puzzle.
I wanted to create something to show how to make the slippers if you did not have a paper pattern or online resources available. This is what I made:
If one sews the white edge seam to the white edge seam, then the red to the red, and so forth, one ends up with the finished slipper.
This was a very interesting exercise, both the finding of a pattern that fit explicit criteria and the creation of a demonstration model that inherently displays the procedure required.
I finished my slippers in time to show them off at Thursday’s library knitting.
Overall I think this is an excellent first garment project. I think there are possibilities for customization either with yarn selection or by fancy knitting, and these could be done just on the one feature square.
I neglected to give a pointer to the original Finnish pattern: http://www.kaspaikka.fi/neulonta-A&O/asusteita_vaatteita/sukat-tossut/palatossut.html
I have finished, including the seaming (which was a bear), one slipper. I have finished the knitting on the second slipper. I have taken pictures. [As always, click on the picture to be taken to its home location where larger variants are visible. I apologize for the lack of borders, but they are really painful to add manually.]
Two pics of the same (finished) slipper:
The project status picture:
I have several hours of news to watch, so I should be able to finish the seaming.
I turned the heel on my first sock from handspun yarn.
I have returned to the basic sock project that was suspended. I am tentatively naming them “In the Pink Fat Tuesday” socks. I think the blue spruce overdye makes it look like Mardi Gras. The original fiber→yarn was shades of pink. Also taking advantage of the other usage of “in the pink” meaning “healthy” to knit myself good wishes.
I think the needles I am using for that are the needles I want for the lace beret project from the April fiber club fiber.
I have an entire rant about the pattern that came with the fiber club shipment which I will sum up: I think the pattern is obscenly tool intensive since it requires five SETS of knitting needles. Not a set of 5 DPNs. 4 different sizes in a variety of DPN and 16″ circ options. Then when I talked about having enough yarn for the project in the Rav group, I was told the pattern runs small. This was a pay-for pattern, I expect sizing options to be given if it does not fit “normal” heads as written.
So I spent a bunch of time looking for other projects. I found a bunch of lace beret patterns but most of them said they wanted 400+ yards of fingering yarn… I finally caught on to the skein size. Sock yarn comes in really large skeins of 400+ yards, but making a hat from it will require much less yarn. I think I have settled on Reverie from the Spring 2009 Knitty.
Sometimes I see patterns for sale and I think I might want to knit those. But every time I have dealt with patterns, they have all sucked in some major way. Printed books are riddled with errata. (Sometimes even the errata have errata.) I have not bought any stand-alone patterns aside from fiber club inclusions, and I have not knit any of them. Free patterns often have errors or sizing issues requiring me to do my own math, of that there is no doubt. Otherwise what am I paying for? If I buy a pattern, I want it to be ready to go and I want it to be carefully vetted. Without increased quality and decreased effort, I might as well do my own thing entirely and save the money. Not surprisingly, fewer people knit patterns one must purchase, so there are fewer eyes reviewing the pattern and leaving comments and caveats to those who come after. In a strange way, that means that popular free patterns are frequently better tested than any pay-for pattern is. I rarely buy knitting books. I own maybe 12 after 6 years. I have been disappointed in almost all of them.
I would love it if someone could explain why I should be paying for patterns instead of waiting and looking for a similar free variant.
Cowl finished
pattern: 7 repeats of feather and fan around (18 stitch f&f)
yarn: “Source of Gilgamesh” 2-ply leftovers from RedFish Dyeworks (bought at Stitches West 2008) 19g [1].
(Click on any thumbnail to be taken to the larger image page.)
