Teaser: Saffron, a shawl for leaving the Maiden House

The pattern I've been working on for over a year, a screen-accurate copy of the red shawl worn by Saffron in Our Mrs Reynolds, is nearly ready! Watch this blog for updates regarding the release.

Thanks go out to my volunteer tech editor and the brave test knitters in the BigDamnKnitters group at Ravelry.

This pattern will be a free PDF download, available through Ravelry and my document shelf at Scribd. I will make announcements here, at livejournal, and on Ravelry.

My creative process has peculiar priorities.

I've been working on making a Cunning Hat in my spare time. I found this very Costumer-OCD analysis of the Hat. And lots of other resources, including this knitting pattern and this more-like-a-recipe one both of which I probably should have also used as additional references.

I decided to use several balls of Knitpicks Palette I had in the yarn hoard and multi-strand it. So far so good. I elected to MAKE a set of size 10.5 circulars because I hate waiting, I know how to make circs, and I despise the cables on all but a couple kinds of circs. My favorite cables are on my homemade needles, anyway. And, see? They're even pretty!

The awful reality of this is that I can't, cannot, just CAN NOT, seem to do anything the easy way. I apparently must HACK EVERYTHING, especially if it has an existing, perfectly good counterpart or decent, easy instructions.

After all that, I worked up one version of the hat, all except the pompon, found it too bright, tea-dyed it, found it lacking, and frogged it. No photos.

I had to small-batch overdye my yarn because it Wasn't Quite Right. *rolls eyes at self*

Got all he yarn dyed to my satisfaction, prepped it into groups of three strands, balled up each color set prestranded (Orange-ish, yellow-ish, rusty red-ish), and finally knitted it up, AGAIN. I even made the ridiculous pompon.


It looks pretty good. But, wait for it:

I didn't fit the thing to Chris's head when I was knitting, and discovered that it's too small. By about, perhaps five stitches in every direction. DER. No photos. He looked even more ridiculous in it than he was supposed to.

I get to start over.

Good thing it knits up fast. Sigh. And good thing it's easy to frog.

What the CPSIA means to me

This entry is not "against" the CPSIA, however, I am worried about how that very necessary piece of legislation has been, and continues to be, mishandled by the vary people who should be making it work. As it stands, it's not doing any good, and won't be able to do any good, until the blame stops being passed back and forth between the CPSC and the Committee for Energy and Commerce.

Like many, many other parents, I was delighted that there were now steps being taken to test imported, lead-contaminated toys. I still am. I am delighted that the toys and clothes and feeding items available to me will be safer in the future. However, there is something gravely wrong with this necessary, well-intentioned law.

What is wrong? The CPSIA is both too narrow and too broadly defined, requiring items known to not contain lead to be tested, specifically disqualifying component testing or testing by materials suppliers, and thus effectively making it impossible for small and micro businesses to comply at all. Some will survive by making only two or three items in batches of sufficient size to send one for testing, but their prices will go up. Some small companies are being turned away by the certified testing labs, because their business isn't lucrative enough. It's even worse if you make one of a kind, unique items - things that might be possible to make from a selection of pre-tested and certified materials must now be made in batches of two, so that one can be destroyed by the testing lab in digestive lead testing.

This would not be a problem if the parts of the law that need defining, clarification, redefining, etc could be dealt with, but the CPSC and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce are dragging their feet, and passing the buck back and forth. Nothing is getting done, even though there seems to be a lot of talking and blamethrowing. That means that all these thousands of small companies, small stores, even libraries and schools, that want to comply with testing, or that already do by only using/buying domestically made materials, are left out in the cold, unable to do comply, because no questions are going to really be answered in time for the deadline(s).

I call it irresponsible, especially given the desperate economic climate our country is in. The fact is that the testing is often unnecessary, and where it might be necessary, it is mandated to be done in the most onerous, burdensome way. Furthermore, the lack of sufficient labs coupled with the short time frame for testing has made it impossible to even get the requisite tests performed, were the tests even easily affordable. Costs have been driven up to amazing levels by the sudden overwhelming demand.

What does this mean to me? I was working on a home business, getting all may ducks in a row, getting ready to sell a few items for kids on etsy. That's not going to happen now.

As I've said elsewhere, my embryonic business is being forced to change focus completely. At least I only had a few items made up to try out sales for the holidays when the impossibility of continuing due to the CPSIA caused me to stop and put everything aside until I could work out what I was going to do.

I even set aside all the standard startup paperwork (thank goodness I put a hold on my plans before I filed for my fictitious business name! I'd have to refile, because it was obviously child oriented!) as soon as the impact of this law became apparent, while I was researching use testing requirements last fall. I had hoped to have everything in place to start small in early December, but my etsy shop instead sat empty, and will remain so until I finish my non-kids designs, and figure out exactly what I'll be doing.

I've looked back at the time I've spent preparing and it turns out it is over 2 years of work down the drain. I am looking to refocus entirely on hand spun yarn, historical costumes, and collector art dolls (NOT for kids, small parts, display only). Time will tell if there is even anyone who wants those things. I'm sad. My kids loved the prototypes of my playthings, wore my cloth diapers and cloth training pants, I wanted to share what I'd made for them with other kids.

As bad as I feel about not being able to share my kid-oriented work with others, I feel worse that I won't be able to buy handcrafted items for my own children, or I'll have very few, and MUCH more expensive, options available to buy. According to this law, I can't even swap my craft work for someone else's craft work, unless both items have been third-party tested according to the law's requirements. Even if all parts are domestically sourced and confirmed lead free and nontoxic by the materials manufacturers, that person-to-person craft swap is illegal, an exchange of contraband for contraband.

I may - may - be able to get samples of the fabrics and notions I use XRF tested so I could list and sell the few items I have ready between now and August, when even that screening process will become insufficient. However, that depends on demand, and I have to work out if the profit I will make on a few all-textile toys, cloth diapers and dressup hats will cover the fees for that, even given how reasonably priced as a small-volume XRF scan consultation can be.

That's where I am. It's not a pleasant place to be. It's like looking at the burnt-out shell of a home you once loved. What's worse is that I'm not alone. It's like a huge city has been obliterated, and we all have to start over.

This has been long-winded, but people in despair want to talk about it. It usually helps to do so. So far, my letters, calls and emails have been ignored. So far, it looks bleak.

At least our inspiration can't be outlawed. I can only hope that next year, some of us can emerge from the wreckage, like cicadas, and begin again.

OH HAI YARN DIET and some actual knitting

I may not have been knitting much at all for months and months (it's been impossible around Mr GiantBaby), but I've continued to buy yarn, slowly, in little bits and bobs. This combination of factors is not good, and after the last infusion of stuff into my stash, I called Yarn Diet until I get some of my many wips and planned projects out of the way. To help with that, I picked up a set of nickel DPNs from Knitpicks during my last bout of frustration induced retail therapy. I thought, maybe, if I spoiled myself with some new tools, I might be more likely to use my ever-multiplying stash of materials.

In aid of this lofty goal, I picked some rescued yarn out of my stash and decided to make my mom's Christmas present, which would be a circular lace shawl. If it's on one needle, in a circle, it'll be harder for the little guy to rip it our of my hands. That's the theory anyway.

I decided to use the 1940's lace tablecloth pattern from knitting-and.com - so far I've gotten through row 57, in two or three after-the-kids-go-to-bed sessions. Including a night in which MrGB did no such thing, and I discovered that he is less interested in pretending to be a cat in relation to my yarn and more interested in trying to sit on my shoulder while turning my work lamp on and off. Different? yes. Better? Maybe.

I'll let you know if I develop any exciting injuries this time. In any case, I've come back to being able to knit and things are going well. I may even get to put up a FO post some time. Perhaps I'll knit a pig with wings or a flaming snowball to commemorate the occasion.

Mindless knitting: a 3x3 rib scarf recipe

I've noticed that my Not A Gryffindor Scarf on Ravelry is marked "pattern not yet published." There's a reason for that. It's not a very interesting pattern, more of a recipe, or a knitting meditation.

Use yarn appropriate to the needle size. Swatch if you are unsure.

Cast on a number of stitches evenly divisible by three. Ideally, the number is also divisible by two, because that means you just reverse the knitting and go. Unless you choose to do something exotic, like stripes, it's a pretty mindless knit.

Knit 3, purl 3, to end of row.
Turn.
Knit all knit stitches and purl all purl stitches, to end of row.
Turn.
Continue to desired length or end of yarn, whichever comes first.
Bind off.

Garnish however you like.

Serves 1.

The Not a Gryffindor Scarf notes are as follows:
*Knitpicks Pallette in Yellow and Red (discontinued colors - use Semolina and Pimento for close match)
*Size 4 needles

As above, except change color with russian join every seven rows.

An observation

...or five. I got another slow row done on Bobby while waiting for the patient orientation, and tried (more fool me!) to keep going this evening. However, it didn't go as planned.

It's difficult to keep even tension when a toddler is fighting you for your needles. We won't even talk about when he grabbed the yarn.

Again, it is possible, but difficult and error-prone, to knit with your arms over your head. However, it's useless when knitting with circular needles that have a long cable. Ask me how I know.

It also makes your hands tingle if you do it too long.

Finally, I'm very happy I can pick up and re-work dropped stitches as I go. I had a bunch during the wrestling match(es).

Time for bed.

Really, it's knitting related!

Today, I go in to the Naval Hospital to go through the monthly patient orientation for tubal ligation patients. As you can imagine, I'm thrilled I'm on the list. I've been wanting a tubal since the birth of my second child, most recently mentioned here as Giant Baby of yarn destroying (and knitting unraveling) fame. I love my kids, but I know when I'm outnumbered, and I swear that it's only a matter of time before you read about them duct taping me to the wall and running off in my car.

But - my need-to-fidget, ADD body is looking toward an hour or two of boring presentations and Q&A with, well, dread. How will I hold still? Will the medical staff get angry that I'm so fidgety? How many other women will be there (well, you know, men just don't have this procedure)?

So I'll be bringing my knitting/small fidgety projects bag, which is this old shoulder-tote bookbag I got at Bookpeople in Austin when I lived there. I actually have two, but one is beige instead of lavendar, and it's missing. I'll probably have Bobby and the Scarf (which is now over 2 feet long! I know I've mentioned somewhere that I'm positively the slowest knitter ever) stuffed in there, with those charts and some graph paper , and a pencil, and maybe some spare yarn and needles. That's a lot of stuff, and my small projects are all in these little repurposed vinyl bags (ugly, but practical).

Also, I finally squeezed the money out of my budget to buy a Monkey Bag, which I await with barely contained greed. Too bad I have to wait, but I can take consolation from the fact that it'll go with me on procedure day.

Yarn and the Psychology of Avoidance

I need a swift. My avoidance has reached epic, ridiculous levels. Let us start at the beginning, shall we?

I found this neat resource last night, which is theoretically not knitting related, but has charted patterns of medieval and renaissance decorative motifs. (no, keep reading, we'll get to the bit about the swift) In any case, the simpler 2 and 3 color patterns would be great for simple texture patterning, how complicated the method depending on your degree of commitment or boredom. I'm inspired by this page especially.

I want to put that twining leaf pattern around the hem of a tunic sweater or put the others in a sampler-like series of stripes on a nice long winter scarf. Or maybe even work one or more as a lace motif in some lovely long stockings...

Anyway, I found the perfect yarn in my stash for starting a nice scarf (not enough to make a sweater, and I want to spend some time charting for the lace stockings, really), but there's this catch. It's attractively skeined. I don't have a swift. I do have a very athletic and curious 14 month old. He's also tall, as in he's in the 98th percentile for height for his age.

He is irresistibly attracted to me when I am apparently tied up in yarn, and now he's so big, I can't hide from him on the couch anymore. It makes knitting hard, even when I'm dealing with neatly wound center-pull balls hidden inside a bag, set on the inaccessible table behind the couch. I've figured out how to knit with my arms over my head, but it seems to be leading to some kind of tendinitis ... and a lot of errors.

Okay, back to why I need a swift.

Before now, I've faked it using chairs or my knees or my husband. A swift seemed like a luxury item, an unnecessary but highly desirable convenience. Now - I find myself actively avoiding using perfectly lovely yarn simply because it's in a skein and I'd have to fight Giant Baby every step of the way to get it wound.

That's what I caught myself doing last night. I picked out a completely inappropriate yarn for my swatch because it was already wound into a ball. I even cast on for it, knit a few rows and started the pattern before I realized that I had made this avoidance so habitual that I didn't see my error before I wasted lots of precious knitting time.

Time to at least attempt to make a swift. I'm crafty, I have power tools, and I can certainly cut up a few sicks and dowels to make a decent homebuilt swift. I even have the DIY yardstick swift how-to from the Fall 2000 Spin-Off.

Of course, now I just have to find someone to watch Mr Giant Baby while I work on it.

I Can Has Ravelry!!!!

I got my invite ... yesterday? Perhaps it was Monday. It's all a blur.

OMGWTFBBQ. It's great, even with the bugs and incompleteness. I'm trying to figure out how to best help with the live beta development. It was so worth waiting 3 months for (I signed up in early May or late April, I'm not sure which.), and I love it. I have only entered a few stash yarns, a few of the most interesting WIPS and FO's, and spent most of my time just browsing around and using the features. Also, it complements my other fiber-focused online stuff, instead of replacing it.

I have to say that I love having what amounts to a customized newsfeed of my favorite bloggers and online fiber-freinds, the forums are fantastic (only what you actually scroll past gets marked read, wow!), and the patterns, and the yarn, and the...

(cut for interlude of unintelligible enthusiastic blithering)

Okay, if you have not yet signed up, go ahead and do it. It's great, and I can't wait to see it in a non-beta version.

Did I mention it's GREAT? Yeah, like the cereal. I could eat it up.

Looking to etsy

I'm working on setting up an etsy shop, making my inventory, figuring out how I want to arrange cc payments (not a fan of paypal), etc. In an effort to understand how etsy works, I've spent a lot of time skimming around the shops of other people from the knittyboard, and there are all kinds of cool things I'd like to have the spare money to get.

I love these bags by Momma-Monkey. I want one, and I think I'm in love with the skull ones. Wow - I just looked again and they are already gone. Thank you, whoever you are, for saving me from myself!

I'm probably going to have her make me one so, it didn't work...

Arrived.

Here we are on the Left Coast. It's actually lovely and cool here, and I am inexpressibly grateful for that, as it is reportedly like unto Hades where we came from. I'm getting used to the faint booming of explosives.

Actually, we arrived about 2.5 weeks ago, but our phone didn't get hooked up for over 9 days, and then we discovered the dialup access was less than half the speed of sloooow service we had where we were before, so we arranged for high-speed access. We got that today, so here I am.

In knitting/crafting news, I did in fact get some work done on Bobby, but misplaced him as we unloaded boxes, than discovered that I need a comfy char for knitting. I've become spoiled - when we get the new living room furniture, there will be a knitting chair and a gooseneck lamp. In a few weeks...

In the meantime, I will console myself with sewing. Or try.

Roadtrip!

I'll be even less reliable about posting for a few weeks, as we are moving. If I do post, it'll be about Bobby as I'm dragging him along with me.

More Bobby

No picture today, but the curvature created by the shortrow shaping on Bobby is coming out perfectly. I'm aiming to match the curvature of the original garment, and I'm spot on.

If anyone has 3 or 4 balls of Knitpicks Essential in 2 colors just lying around, and wants to do a sporadic knit-along with my developing pattern, here's the part that I've worked out (not in clear modern knitting language - I took this straight from my notes):

Gauge swatch: 44 sts x 48 rows over 4x4 inches, knit in 1x1 rib on size 1 KnitPicks circulars (straights are ok, too, i just don't have any plain straights in 1). 11 sts by 12 rows over average square inch.

Using a long-tailed cast on, cast on 136 sts.
Work 10 rows 2x2 rib over all 136 sts.
Work 1 row 1x1 rib without shaping.
Work 80 sts 1x1 rib, turn (use your favorite shortrow method).
Work 34 sts 1x1 rib (continue in 1x1 rib) turn.
Work 38 sts, turn.
Work 40 sts, turn.
Work 44 sts, turn.
Work 48 sts, turn.
Work 50, turn.
Work 52, turn.
Work 56, turn.
work 60, turn.
work 64, turn,
work 68, turn.
Keep going, working 4 sts past your last turning point on the row on the needle each time, until you are back to the edge of the work. Work 15 rows (continue in 1x1 rib) and begin side shaping.

I haven't written the side shaping. Tune in next time, probably Wednesday.

The sample is a 12-18 month size, roughly 1T. I'll be working out patterns for all standard CYC infant sizes once Bobby's all written up. 1x1 rib = knit 1 purl 1, so you know I'm not using some bizarre shorthand.

You can also use any other fingering weight sock yarn, I have worked up swatches in Wildfoote and Dancing, and the gauge is similar. If you want to try this in other yarns, let me know how it works out.

Making stuff and making myself do stuff

Well, I was carping about low traffic on one of my blogs (the art blog) over on Knittyboard, and I got some positive feedback and advice that had not occurred to me before, and I realized that I post things about crft elsewhere without updating here. SO I'm updating here. I'll try to keep to an "every Wednesday or more often" schedule.

Now to the making stuff part - actually unmaking stuff. I have these two sweaters that I got from the "unsellable to due to defects" box at our church rummage, and I've been frogging them. I have several balls of lovely laceweight soft tan yarn (hmm, a lace shawl for me?) and several balls of a rich, warm coffee brown almost sock weight.

Last night I skeined up two balls of the tan laceweight, and washed it in HOTHOT water (the damage was moth holes), and it's relaxed into a lovely smooth yarn with a little bit of spring in it. Once it dries, I'm balling it up to get started on that shawl for me.

No idea what I'll make with the coffee-color yarn, but the wee bit I test washed already has a nice soft hand.

What got me started on finally frogging and recycling the sweaters (I've had them for over a year now) was sucking it up and rescuing the formerly lovely skein of cobweb weight chocolate brown romney handspun singles (mine, too, which makes what follows so much worse) that my dog ate. I untangled it, wound it into three small balls (she CHEWED the skein, how could she? Well, she's a DOG, and I should have locked my stash in a safe), and took another small skein of cobweb weight singles (this was a lovely purple, which I'd dyed myself ages ago), balled it up, and plied them up together into a nice sock weight 3-ply.

Not enough for a sock, of course, because they were sample skeins I'd done, but enough for an earband or something like that. Maybe I can pair it with the coffee-colored recycled yarn for something bigger...

Many Things

First of all, you can tell my husband is from Texas. He deep fries ... fried things. As in things already fried. The mind boggles. And yet, he's not fat. I am. How is that fair?

Now that I've got that off my chest, on to subjects more appropriate:

UFO found!

The Red and Yellow Gryffindor Scarf has been found and is being slowly continued. I'm lazy about this one, because it's such a boring knit, so I only work on it when I don't feel up to making other things. I need to get it done before winter is over. Really.


It's actually less mindless than I make it out to be, since it's been an exercise in joining new yarns. I've done a doubled yarn join (1, and it's ugly, but sturdy), spit splices (1, yick, decided to use other ways), tied in joins (3), split plied joins (1, maybe 2..), the Russian Join (3), plied joins (2). I think that's all of them. I never intended to write about this, so I didn't take any notes. The last three are all similar, in that they are looped together and secured. Structurally, the split plied and Russian joins are closest, but the plied join is quickest (and fairly secure if you are knitting a wool yarn on smallish needles). I'll do a separate post later comparing the three, since doing so requires my Lovely Texan Assistant, who is out doing our recycling.

Ooo! Shiny!

Now, everyone knows about Knitty, and nearly everyone knows about MagKnits, and there's also the Garter Belt, but I just saw Yarnival for the first time and I'm in love.

I'm already writing patterns (see any references to Super Sekrit anything in earlier entries), but I really need to get off - or is that on - my butt and write something worthwhile. Inspiring and humbling.

Of Bugs and Stash Bondage.

I am very happy that I'm a packrat, er, I mean, compulsive repurposing fanatic. That doesn't sound much better, but what it means is that I save plastic packages from "white goods" - clothing, blankets, sheets - to keep my stash and projects in. The zip closures are especially nice, but the snap closures are good too (and can be kept closed to keep yarn from escaping while you work).


My Old Pattern Redaction Project.


My Stash! And I can ogle it without opening the container. I love this.

Why? I just discovered that there were vermin of some kind eating away at a spindle of spun yarn (ouch - had to pull the shreds off the spindle and toss them) and an old felting project. Dismaying. I dunked Old Felting Project (a pair of winter insoles) into boiling water, and did likewise with anything it had been near - mostly a basket of tools and a roll of prepared roving that I wasn't terribly fond of. If it felts, it's no loss - I'd have to toss it if I didn't boil it. The basket's getting misted with essential oils after washing. And probably not used for fiber again (needs repair anyway, and I really only had room in it for the tools).

Everything in plastic? That's all fine. Best way to avoid bugs is to keep them out.


Even Knitpicks shipping bags help. Keep'en twist-tied, and watch for holes.

And finally, when it snows, our car is Eeeeevil:

See? Evil.

FO's

Not all knitting, though. I just finished a lovely arming coat and surcoat for my freind EMT J. That makes 3 items of his medieval fighting outfit done, out of 5 (I'm counting the boots as 1...). I finished the undertunic 2 weeks ago.

I'm making it in return for EMT J helping with our house.

Now the knitted FO: I finished a Hat For Alex. 1 down, 2 to go, but I'm trying to get done before the end of the month, so we'll see if I get more than 1 more finished before then...

1855 Warm Undersleeves Project, part 1: Swatcheriffic

First, as some of this is culled from my posts to the HistoricKnit mailing list, I ought to recommend that list to anyone else interested in converting old patterns, reconstructing old techniques, or making reproductions of historic clothing items. It's just chock full of other knitting history geeks, and plenty of good information.

Now that that's done with, on to the quotes and notes and train-of-thought-in-a-blender that is the process of working out this pattern:

Warm Undersleeve (November 1855 Godey's)

Materials: One ounce of white single Berlin Wool; quarter of an ounce of blue wool; pins, no. 14.

Cast on 60 stitches and knit in brioche stitch till the length required, about half a yard, is completed; cast off; join up the sides with a rug needle and wool and knit the frills as follows:
Cast on 90 stitches with white wool and knit three rows before commencing the pattern.
1st row - Slip 1, knit 1, a pearl 1; knit 2 together three times;
repeat from a finishing with knit 2.
2d - Slip 1, knit 1, a pearl 1; knit 12; repeat from a .
3d - like 2d row.
4th - Slip 1, pearl 1, a knit 1; knit 12; repeat from a .

These four rows form the pattern which must be repeated five times with white, then once with blue, and cast off loosely. Two frills are required for each sleeve: The upper is placed about an inch and a half above the under, which is sewed by the edge of the sleeve.

You're probably already thinking "wait, there's something wrong here!" and you'd be right. Keep reading!


First, I found it, at Hope Greenberg's Godey's Lady's book project. Then I went to Knitpicks and bought some Palette in cream, as it looked about right.

I'm planning to make up a readable pattern for this, in three sizes (s,m,l), with variations and a bonus neckpiece, with charts and stuff. Ambitious, no? YES. This is like baking with no measuring implements - you can do it if you already know how, but if you've never done it, it's all experiments until a light goes on. And you get a lot of rejects.

First quote:

I'm working up swatches for a modern translation of the lace-ruffled brioche-stitch woolen undersleeves from the Nov 1855 Godey's Lady's Book. They call for "single Berlin wool" which I believe should be about modern fingering weight, and "size 14 pins" which look to be, from the gauge shown on this page, roughly equivalent to size 2 modern needles.

I got loads of advice, and half of it said I was about right, or maybe they ought to be smaller (like 00), and the other half thought I got the yarn weight and the needle size wrong. My swatches said I was about right, and because I'm a tight knitter (I've tried everything, I just am unless I use a whole size up from what's called for on a given gauge), I opted for using size 2 or 3 needles.

Here's a quote on my reasoning, in which I don't even notice the weight of the yarn called for:

...The confusion may come from the nebulousness of the term I used - hence the annoying, still nebulous, new yarn weight standards - notice there isn't a category of actual lace-weight yarns? So did I. This is the yarn I chose. It's very light and thin, I'd say half as heavy as 4-ply baby yarn, which I've also seen described as fingering weight, but about 2x as heavy as a fluffier laceweight. It looks very similar to the wool my mother uses for her Berlin work, as well, just not quite so tightly spun (and one ply short...).


...I'm using a carrying yarn, 2-ply, fingering weight, and it seems to produce a workable gauge at either size of needles (I've only swatched on 0 and 2 so far). I tend to knit tight, so I may end up going with the larger needles just to make it work for my mother (these undersleeves will be her Christmas gift).

So I figured out that knitting it on smaller needles just gave me a smaller size, as is appropriate, and is not really helpful (Telegram for Captain Obvious!). I think this is the point where I actually settled on size 2 needles as being best for the sleeve itself.

There was some arguing back and forth about yarn and needle sizes until someone pointed out that an ounce of worsted would be unlikely to make anybody a pair of sleeves, let alone with ruffles. Enter my "duh!" moment:

I hadn't even made that connection, as it seemed perfectly natural to choose a lightweight yarn based on all the other factors. Of course the weight gives it away!

[and]

...I cannot imagine knitting a sportweight yarn on 0 or 00 (or even size 2 if one is a tight knitter) needles in brioche stitch and producing a lightweight undersleeve. It would end up being more like a potholder.

Then another lady who'd tried to adapt this pattern pointed out a writing flaw. There are decreases and no increases in the ruffles. This produces an interestingly shaped triangular swatch, but no openwork. I charted my little heart out, and swatched some and frogged some, trying to figure out what was really going on. I figured there were some open increases, somewhere, and went crazy trying stuff. And didn't write down a danged thing once I started swatching. So I had to frog a somewhat successful looking swatch and start over, this time taking notes as I went.

Here's a rundown of that experiment:

Okay, what I've got so far (October 6th):

* As has been mentioned, this pattern must be calling for a light,fingering weight yarn, just from the amount of yarn described in the pattern text. Even for a small person, 1 oz of yarn wouldn't make much of an undersleeve (my mother, the model, is a small person - she now has plump arms, but in her "skinny" youth was able to model actual period clothing without modification).

* The 90 sts cast on [for the ruffles] is WRONG. It doesn't fit the stitch pattern at all when charted, on any of the rows. After fooling around with charts for several hours, I think it's actually 96 sts cast on, as that allows for full repeats.

* The ending sts (the ones required for a clean selvedge and for the smooth repeat of the pattern from row to row) are left off the rows following the first row.

*The rows also seem to need that final knit or purl (before the two ending sts) to close the pattern repeat, though it's not mentioned anywhere. This works well if 96 sts are assumed to be the correct cast on #.

* There are definitely make-ones, yarn-overs, or some other open increase left out of line 1. I suspect copyediting issues, as [...] the ruffle would quickly dwindle to nothing and not have any openwork if worked as printed. That would make a great method for working a shaped frill, though ... with a lot of charting and swatching!

* I am not sure that the rows are actually supposed to go 1,2,3,4 - I think there are more than a few copyediting mistakes here, and its should be 1,2,4,3. The #3 row comes out backwards and disrupts the eyelet pattern if knitted as instructed, but if #3 and #4 are swapped, you get a smooth stockinette ground, with a delicate purl "rib" between rows of eyelets.

* I am swatching to determine whether the open increases should be worked between the k2tog decreases or after, and I've determined that the repeat should be the same size as the other lines pattern repeats (purl, 12 total pattern sts, purl, etc), as this continues the purl line. The two versions I'm trying out (each with a couple of different open increases) are (k2tog = /, purl = - and yarn over = O, and I show 4 repeats for the purposes of diagramming this in text): -/O/O/O/O/O/O-/O/O/O/O/O/O-/O/O/O/O/O/O-/O/O/O/O/O/O- or -///OOO///OOO-///OOO///OOO-///OOO///OOO-///OOO///OOO-

The first looks very like an eyelet stripe motif that my great grandmother worked into my baby sweaters (we still have some for comparison), and I have not yet worked the second, though I've worked lace patterns with large open areas like this before.

Okay, now I have worked a swatch of the possible variations of the ruffle (I only swatched enough of the brioche stitc to figure out how big I need ot make the sleeve for mom and frogged it after taking notes). It's BIG and ruffly:

My swatch went from 24 sts wide to well over 100 (I haven't counted yet), and is twisting up my circulars (I don't have long straights in the size I'm swatching with, but I think they'd be much easier to use for this). I'm at four repeats, and it is certainly ripply. I've determined that the increases are implied in the row 2 instructions (where it tells you to knit 12 over 3 sts on the previous row between purls, I've tried making 3 yo's after each knitted stitch from the previous row), and it works better, giving cleaner, more open eyelets, than adding yo's between the k2tog's in row 1.

What the pattern does NOT allow for is that every other set of rows there will be one incomplete repeat. It's not avoidable, at least in the swatch. The full-length piece may not have this issue.

However, I think you will not acheive /exactly/ what the pattern illustration shows by using the pattern, even if it's redacted. You will acheive a nice ripply frill with an expanding pattern of trios of lace eyelets, not a continuous row of eyelets. To acheive that look, one would do better to work the eyelets without the purls between them. I do put this down to the illustrator and engraver refining the larger "bars" between the sets of eyelets (which the pattern produces) out of the image. There was likely no-one with the job of techincal editor for illustrations then :)

The swatch in question covers two possible variations of the pattern's intended eyelet increases, and I'm happier with the second one (cleaner lines), even if it still doesn't look like the illustration. FOr one, it's not nearly as open, and for another, it's entirely too ruffly. That thing that looks like it's the size of a scrunchie? Yes, that's the 24 stitch swatch!

I may end up trying a small swatch on 4's or 7's to see if that results in anything like the picture. Just for laughs. I may well surprise myself.

Next installment of this pattern will be working toward a modern version, changes being made for usability , and notes about the neckpiece. And, hey, maybe a scrunchie swatch how-to for fun.

Current Knitting Project Rundown

Things on my plate (or needles) right now:

Hats For Alex (if you aren't a member of Knittyboard, you'll have to sign up), and a pattern here for the hats.
I'm planning 3, making 2 for sure. It's important. This is my first knitting priority right now, and I'm doing them on my birch DPN's, for practice.

A Print O' the Wave stole from Eunny Jang's pattern for my mom, from this:
Which is about a zillion yards of very fine laceweight romney singles that I spun last winter.

I'm also making her a set of lace-trimmed undersleeves and a matching necker...thing, which I'm redacting from the 1855 pattern for "warm undersleeves" on this page. I'm using Knitpicks Pallette in Cream, with a handspun blue laceweight single I hand-dyed for the contrast color.

Watch this blog for notes on the progress of the project, and eventually for a posting of the redacted pattern with other sizes, plus the neckpiece and variations. Eventually, I'd like to try a sweater, but we'll see how the smaller pieces go.

I'm making a pair of toe-up socks for each of my kids - the blue ones in the picture started out as a big-brother gift for my older son, but they are now going to be for my younger one. Big brother gets a pair in red and yellow (favorite colors).


Oh, those are another set of my homemade birch circs. Version 1, as a matter of fact.


My Big Secret, which is planned as a Knitty pattern submission. All I'm going to say is that it's a hat, and it's felted. And that it's taking forever to work out what the heck I'm intending to do as I go. I've been throught six charts, five revisions of instructions and four swatches now. And I'm not even to the different sizes yet! If it ever gets done, and if it gets accepted for publication, I'll be posting how-I-got-there-from-here after the fact diary blog entries once it's published.

A new baptism bonnet for boy#2, as he has ALREADY outgrown the one I made while I was pregnant:
The new one is not on the needles yet, but I have to have it done in time for Thanksgiving, as he's being baptised (Anglican) during the service that week. It'll probably be done in something I have on hand, but I'm not starting it until I've finished my Hats for Alex contributions.

There's more, much more, in the planning/stash building stages, but this all the really active stuff.

Screaming baby, must go. More later.