Wrist Warmers

My mom recently made a poncho for my sister, using a pattern she'd first used in the 70's. She had a few skeins of Peace Fleece left over, and gave them to me. There wasn't enough for a kitty bed (those take a surprising amount of yarn), but I thought that maybe some wrist warmers to match the poncho might be nice. I've just started the second, but here's the first of the pair.



This was loosely adapted from the cable pattern on the poncho. I used two patterns -- Jo Ellyn Wheeler's "Cabled Wristers" from the Fall 2004 (4:3) Twists and Turns and Bonne Marie Burns's "Voodoo Wrist Warmers" from Winter 2002 Knitty -- for inspiration.

Cast 40 stitches onto two size 7 circular needles, joining into round. First round: *k1, p2, k9, p2, k1, p5; repeat once from *.

Beginning with round 2 of the four round pattern below, knit until piece measures about 7 inches. The pattern repeats once each round.

1. K1, p2, k9, p2, k1, p1, k3tog, p1, k3tog, p1
2. K1, p2, k9, p2, k1, p5
3. K1, p2, cross 4 right (instructions below), k1, cross 4 left, p2, k1, p1, increase 3 (k1, p1, k1 in same stitch), p1, increase 3, p1
4. K1, p2, k9, p2, k1, p9

To make thumb hole:

• K1, p2, k1, bind off 7 stitches, continue in pattern to end (round 4)
• K1, p2, k1, cast on 7 stitches, continue in pattern to end (round 1)

Continue knitting until the piece is 9 inches or desired length. Bind off.

I'm generally pleased with the result. I actually think a thumb gusset would be desirable, but I don't really have the gumption to figure that out.

Crossing instructions are from http://www.knitting-crochet.com/terms.html

Cross 4 Left: Slip next st onto cable needle and leave at front of work, knit next 3 sts from left-hand needle then knit st from cable needle.

Cross 4 Right: Slip next 3 sts onto cable needle and leave at back of work, knit next st from left-hand needle then knit sts from cable needle.

Here is my attempt to chart the pattern. Click on the picture to see a larger version.

Sudoku obsession could ruin my life

I'd been hearing about the wild popularity of Sudoku, the number placement puzzle. I finally tried it this week, and suddenly I'm obsessed. Web Sudoku is a good place to try it, because the "How am I doing?" button lets you know when you've made a mistake.

It reminds me a bit of Minesweeper; the logic involved in figuring out where a number must go because of where it can't go appeals to me. As my eyes scan over the grid hunting for certain numbers, I'm reminded of those Mah Jongg tile solitaire games like Shanghai.

The trouble? Sudoku takes attention. Unlike knitting, I can't do Sudoku and watch TV, carry on a conversation, or read. I obviously can't do Sudoku and knit. And if I keep trying to do Sudoku puzzles while Mike wants to play along with Lingo or What's My Line, then my relationship will be on the rocks.

My only hope is to get him hooked too.

A happy ending

You know, I really don't want this blog to be filled with stupid pictures of the cat, but Mike snapped this photo today, and I couldn't resist.



At last, Dodger seems to have abandoned the plastic bag and taken to the felted cat bed.

Larger bottle cozy

So here's a cozy I whipped up for a liter-size bottle.



And as promised, a pattern (of sorts)

I used Sugar 'n' Cream cotton, knitting in the round on two 24 inch size US5 (3.75 mm) needles. But the pattern is adaptable to your preferred yarn and needles.

• Cast on 8 stitches. Join and knit one round.
• (YO, K1) around
• Knit
  
• (YO, K2) around
• Knit
• (YO, K3) around
• Knit

Keep increasing (8 yarnovers every other row) until your disk is the size of the bottom of your preferred bottle. In the picture above, I increased until I reached 48 stitches around.

Knit plain for 8 rounds or so (about an inch, or as long as looks good to you).

The "body" of the bottle cozy can be any stitch pattern you want. I've been experimenting with lacy stitches. Above, I used:

1. (YO, K2tog) around
2. Knit
3. (K2tog, YO) around
4. Knit

Nice effect, but not snug enough for my bottle. Next time, I'll decrease by 8 stitches or so before beginning the lace. Because the lace was too big, I went back to knitting plain rounds and added some ribbing. The moral? Experiment.

End with an inch or so of ribbing and bind off loosely.

Bottle cozies

A few years before I learned to knit, I went through a "waxed linen jewelry" phase, making little charm pouches and pen basket necklaces out of waxed linen. Around that time, my mom began freezing bottles of water to take to work. I used the same looping technique for the charm pouch to make a cotton pouch for the water bottle. I made a couple of these, stopped doing it because it was tedious, learned to knit for real, and forgot about it all.

My sister called this weekend to say her water bottle cozies have now fallen apart. She wants new ones. So I thought I might see what I could do with knitting needles. These are the fruits of my experiments over the past couple days.



Both of these are from worsted weight Sugar 'N' Cream cotton. I made the one on the right first, following this Water Bottle Tote pattern. The one on the left is my attempt at pattern refinements: a flatter bottom and less annoying stitch pattern (using Turkish Stitch instead of Purse Stitch). Both of them are a bit too small; they won't fit around a liter-sized bottle, but they'll work for smaller bottles.



I want to try again, then I'll post my own pattern here.

Let there be natural selection

I remember in 4th grade, learning about how stars and planets form out of nebulae; I was the kid who said, "But I thought God made the earth." My teacher muttered about this happening every year, and said, "Sure, but scientists are just trying to figure out how He did it." OK, so at the age of 10 I was taught science with an intelligent design slant. I still wound up an atheist.

The New York Times today reports on the survey results from the Pew Research Center, highlighting that 64% of respondents say that Creationism should be taught in schools.

I guess I could get behind this if it made the whole thing go away. "Class, the 'theory' of Intelligent Design is that God or the aliens made life happen on earth by magic. This will not be on the test. What will be on the test is how adaptation and competition for resources within ecological niches have helped shape the evolution of species over millions and millions of years. You'll also be called upon to properly define a 'theory.'"

Where is the intellectually rigorous religious thought? Aren't there Deists anymore? I could respect someone who said, "A creator set up the forces of physics that define and shape the observable universe." On the first day, God created math.

Leftovers Again

I still had some leftover Lamb's Pride and thought it might work with a fuzzy pink accent yarn. I'm not overjoyed with the result, but it's OK.

Hallowig

A fun little project for the weekend.



Mom asked me to knit one of these hallowigs for someone she works with (something about a "Lollipop Guild" routine). Frankly, I think this looks more like Oompa Loompa hair, or like something out of anime. I wonder if one of the Elvis wigs might be more appropriate?

Leftover Pi

Despite Dodger's indifference, I started another cat bed, this one out of leftover Lamb's Pride. (I have lots of this stuff, due to past obsessions with felted clogs and jester's hats). The color scheme isn't great, but heck...it's a cat bed. Whoever gets it can put it in the basement or something.



As a benefit, knitting this thing destroyed my size 13 circular needle.



Seriously, it's a benefit. I love Addi's, but the connecting tubes on the larger sizes are horrid: the yarn sticks to them rather than sliding smoothly (the cause of the breakage, I'm sure). Still, they're so expensive that I couldn't really justify replacing it with something better until it broke. I was thrilled to see that now the size 13's have the normal thin Addi connector.

Imaginary playmate named principal

My mom called yesterday with this news item: my imaginary playmate has been named principal of Danville High School. "Roxie" was, in real life, a friend of my aunt.

I wonder if the students at Danville know that once upon a time their principal was invisible and lived inside a red vinyl Beatles change purse?

Yes, my imaginary playmate was named "Roxie." Further evidence that sexual orientation (or at least fabulousness) is something you're born with.

Three reading recommendations

In the past week, I've finished three books I can recommend. Arthur Phillips' The Egyptologist is a great summer read. Told in journals, letters and cables, it is the story of a man, Ralph Trilipush, who is trying to excavate a tomb at the same time Howard Carter is uncovering the tomb of Tutankhamen. Interposed are the letters, written decades later, from a private detective who is on a case that leads him on a collision with Trilipush. I thought the story got a little bogged down in the middle, but the unreliable narrators give this novel unexpected energy and humor.

One of my favorite books this year is Kenneth Oppel's Airborn. Engaging (if uncomplicated) characters, swash-buckling situations (with pirates even), glorious settings beautifully described. The plot hinges maybe a bit too much on coincidence, but this story of an airship cabin boy and the granddaughter of an explorer who find a new species (sort of a flying panther) cries out to be made into a movie. I could see something that uses the same film-making techniques as Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. (Hint to anyone writing a book report on this: discuss the multiple meanings of "airborn/airborne" in the novel).

And finally, check out Jeff Parker's The Interman, a graphic novel with echoes of The Bourne Identity and The Pretender. Van Meach is the product of a Cold War experiment that makes him almost endlessly adaptable, able to grow gills underwater, to shrug off poisons, and survive temperature extremes. OK, so I'm easily charmed by stories of men who can breath under water.

I told you he'd ignore it

Despite my suspicion that he wouldn't care, I went ahead and knitted Dodger a Kitty Pi this weekend. How could I not? This is where he was sleeping while it was in the washer being felted.



Maybe when it gets a little cooler, he'll care. But for the time being he seems to prefer the comfort of a plastic bag.

Dodger inspects

Dodger walked into the frame just as I was snapping this picture. I made these one at a time, "magic loop" style on a single circular needle (rather than both at the same time on two circs, my usual preference). I also tried out a tighter gauge; these are made on size 1 (2.25 mm) instead of 2 (2.5 mm).

Thankfully, Dodger doesn't often show an interest in my knitting. The only work-in-progress he's ever taken out of the basket and played with was a cashmere scarf I was knitting in the Matthew Shepard pattern. I think he likes yarn with goat hair. I've contemplated making him one of the felted kitty beds, but I suspect he'd just ignore it.

When do I get to vote for this man?

Senator Obama was the "Not My Job" guest this week on Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me. Smart, funny, charismatic. I can't wait to vote for him someday.

I never listen to the radio outside my car, but it has become a weekend ritual for me to listen to shows from the "Wait Wait" archive and knit.

Obey the Intarsia Giant

I couldn't resist this scarf from Knitty, even though I hate intarsia. And when my work looked like this...



...I was doubting how much I really wanted to go on. Nevertheless, I had 19 hours of Sweet Valley Hogwarts to listen to, so I went ahead and made two intarsia face panels.



I wasn't happy with them -- they were sloppy, even after blocking. Then I remembered a discussion on GLB-Knit about doing the Peace Blanket in double knitting: one side would be a negative, mirror image of the other. Something new to learn! After a few false starts, I got that going, and I'm much happier with the results. Here's the reverse:



Now it's just plain, boring circular knitting for 4 feet or so, then the "OBEY" panel.

Koigu, part two.

I finished those "Vine Lace Socks" in Koigu.



It was a nice change of pace, but I don't think I need to go out of my way to get this yarn. And I'll probably never make a habit of lacy socks, top-down construction, or this type of heel.

What do software patents have to do with knitting?

Not much activity here. My blogging energy has been spent
elsewhere.

I'm sure Randall Stross's article in today's New York Times will get plenty of play in tech blogs, but the knitters probably don't care. But knitters have an understanding of copyright that supports Stross's point. He argues in Why Bill Gates Wants 3,000 New Patents (registration required) that software patents should be abolished, and software makers should be protected by copyright alone. Microsoft should only be able to copyright Word and Excel; they should never be given patents on word processing or spreadsheets. (Simplistic example, obviously, but analogous to some of the concepts Microsoft has filed patents for this summer).

As knitters, we enjoy a great deal of design freedom because an individual cannot copyright a technique or method: only the words describing the method. Imagine if someone filed for and was given a patent for a technique: no one else would be able to use that concept in their own patterns. Obviously, no patent is ever going to be granted for knitting concepts (cabling, ribbing, intarsia) or techniques (picking, throwing) -- even for innovations like "magic loop."

Knitting: the Open Source Craft.

Koigu

I've heard a lot about this yarn, so I got a couple skeins off eBay. Seems to work well with the "Magic Loop" technique.



Unusual for me: I'm knitting from the top down. I thought this yarn might be good for Kathleen Hubbard's Aran-Braid Socks, but the subtle color pattern was obscuring the braid. So I ripped it out and am trying the "Vine Lace Socks" from Socks Socks Socks. I've been getting a lot of mileage out of that book recently.

Scarf Update

I am in a severely boring knitting phase. I realized this when I dropped in on the Stonewall Union Stitch 'N Bitch this week. I probably post pictures of only half the socks I knit. Nevertheless, I have exciting news: I've finished the gorgeous baby camel hair scarf!



For a better detail of the pattern, check out my very first blog posting.

The scarf momentum carries over into the "Here and There Cables" scarf made from leftover Bearfoot.



I'm concerned that the scarf will be "unbalanced," starting with two really vivid colors that are no longer available. I'm giving some thought to unraveling some of that big red section and reknitting it later in the scarf.

I wonder if my aunt likes lace?

I've been getting a little bored with K2P2, so I thought I'd try branching out a bit, try something a little different. Here is an experiment with Vivienne Shen's "Gull Wings" pattern from Socks Socks Socks (XRX, 1999).



In "Thunderhead" from Bearfoot, the overall color is nice but the yarn is too dark for the wing pattern to show. But that's not my biggest concern: I don't know if anyone I knit socks for would want lacy patterns on their feet.

Unexpected bonus of knitting lacy socks: that hole that sometimes appears where the heel meets the instep? Not a problem. Blends in with the other holes.