So, What Happened to February? Part 1

Talk about a month slipping by without noticing it! I can’t believe I haven’t posted anything in my blog in over a month! Is that being too complacent, too busy or does that fit under my title of Procrastinator Magnificent?

My granddaughter Paige has turned one and has 8 teeth. She isn’t walking yet but may surprise us one of these days as she is standing unassisted occasionally when she doesn’t think about it.

Carlee, Tom, Jack, Katie Jane and Buddy drove down from Salt Lake City over Presidents’ Holiday to celebrate Paige’s birthday. We had Erin’s two Schnauzers as they were on a cruise and would have the party the day after they got back from the cruise. It was a bit of a zoo with four dog when anyone came to the door.

I bought a Schacht Cricket loom to work on with Jack while he was here and he did quite well with weaving on it. Katie had to have a go at it and didn’t do too badly either. She just doesn’t have the attention spand for it. Everything big brother tries she has to try. Grandma is going to keep the loom so that they have something to weave on when they visit, and I’ll bring it along when I visit SLC. The loom will last longer that way.


I’m still knitting on the horizontal herringbone scarves, all 4 of them, mostly as experiments to see how the gauge and yarns work out. But they are being replaced as the knitting project of the moment. I’ve moved on to “Durango Blue”.

“Durango Blue” is a sort of freeform knitting project that I want to finish before July, hopefully so that I can put it in the unjuried IWC (Intermountain Weavers Conference) show. It’s knit using #13 needles in a garter stitch, following a sketch that I’ve enlarged with a software program called Rapid Resizer. The enlargement is used as my cartoon or pattern. It’s a “shawl” that is really a wall hanging. More a figment of my imagination. I’ve started a group at Wooly Wonders on Tuesday mornings working on knitting and crochet freeform so that I will start working on my freeform project. And it worked! I’ve started working on my project again and a couple of people showed up for the group. So we may get something going.



I’ve been taking the mastery embroidery lessons for both the machine and the software for the Bernina which overlapped. I would like to retake the lessons in a month or so. Hopefully then more of the information will make more sense and become more second nature. Now I have to look everything up before I do it, as I am so unsure of what I am doing. But it is fascinating.

How the Stitches Work

While the individual stitches for My So Called Scarf (horizontal herringbone stitch) are not difficult, their sequence might be confusing, at least they were for me. So I’ve tried to break the sequence down into mini steps with the help of Hermi taking the pictures as I knit and purled the two rows of the pattern.

To repeat the pattern again in a longer form:
*Cast on an even number of stitches.
* Row 1(Right Side) Knit the first stitch, *(Start the pattern sequence)
Sl 1 (slip the next stitch as if to purl it),
K1 (Knit the next stitch),
psso (pass the slipped stitch back over the knitted stitch),
But before dropping the slipped stitch off of the left needle Knit into the
back of the slipped stitch.* (End of pattern sequence)
Continue this sequence until there is only one stitch left. End the row with
Knit 1.

[You have decreased a stitch by the psso, but then you have increased a stitch by knitting into the back of the slipped stitch before transferring it to the right knitting needle. Therefore the number of total stitches remains the same at the end of the row as when you cast on!]

*Row 2 (Wrong Side) *(Start the pattern sequence) P2tog (Purl 2 stitches
together),
Do not slip the combined stitches off the left needle, Purl the first stitch
again, then slip both stitches off the needle.* (End of the pattern
sequence)
Continue this pattern to the end of the row.

[Again you’re decreasing a stitch by purling 2 stitches together, then you’re increasing a stitch by purling into the first purl stitch for a second time. So the stitch count for the row remains the same.]

*Repeat these 2 rows until you run out of yarn, or you obtain the desired length.
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Starting the directions again with the photos, not every concept will have a photo.
*Cast on an even number of stitches.
*Row 1. K 1, *[Fig. 1 Slip first stitch as if to purl]


[Fig. 2 Knit second stitch]


[Fig. 3 psso=pass slipped stitch over knitted stitch],


But before slipping stitch off the left needle...
[Fig. 4 Knitting into back of slipped stitch]


[Fig. 5 Completing stitch in back of Knit stitch]


[Fig. 6 Slipping 2 stitches off the left needle]*
continue pattern until there is only one stitch left in the row. K1. Turn.




*Row 2 *P2tog=Purl 2 stitches together [Fig. 7 Inserting needle into 2 purl stitches]

[Fig. 8 Throwing yarn for purling 2 stitches together]


[Fig. 9 Completing purling 2 stitches together]


Do not slip the stitches off the needle, Purl the first stitch again
[Fig. 10 Going back into the loop of the first purl stitch on the left needle again]


[Fig. 11 Throwing the yarn for purling the first stitch again]


[Fig. 12 Completed stitch, taking 2 stitches off the needle]


[Fig. 13 Stitches are off the needle]* Complete the row with this pattern.