Last night I was working on the lace socks. They are coming along really nicely, by the way, but I was overcome with a feeling of confidence. After supper I decided to look at books and patterns. It is time to get to work on my special project after all, in a much more serious way.
I dug out a really old book, The Complete Encyclopedia of Stitchery, by Mildred Graves Ryan. I have owned a 1979 version of the book for about 5 or 6 years and if you want a good all around needlework resource and you are just a beginner, this is the one you want. It has a lot of knitting patterns which I never looked at before. And there it was. The special project stitch.
They call it a purse stitch. Simple, idiot proof. I must just be able to pull it off. (There is that confidence thing again but it does me well to keep in mind, my recipe for learning. The fail, fail part of the cycle takes up a lot more time than the succeeding part.) Knit 1, *yarn over, purl 2*. It makes a lovely open pattern, which ought to suit the receiver just right. I have accepted that when its time to work the part in the round, that I am going to have to purl continental style, but you do what you have to. I will suffer for the sake of my art, so to speak and toss wool all over the place to get what I want. Well not really, but to a scoop up the yarn combined knitter like me, it feels like tossing.
I also solved the whole how do I make it fit perfectly when I have no idea what size it needs to be problem while I was talking to almost healed broken leg man, otherwise known as son1. He said to lace it. A very very bright idea. It will allow a perfect fit at every point no matter who tries it on. He also claims that the laces will finish it off just right. I have brilliant sons, in case I have not mentioned that before.
I tried a few inches for gauge, on my spiffy new needles, but alas found they are not nearly pointy enough. Points, people, points dammit So I used the 1.75mm size, which produced a lovely delicate wondrous web. Its teeny, but oh my. I was so excited I forgot to measure before I ripped it to start the work. I am going to have to swatch again at lunch. I really should block it. I need a fairly close idea of size even with the solution of lacing the project.
Enough blathering. I'm excited, and just had to shout it.
I'm still astounded by how much you do, and all at once! That is a good idea about the lacing - glad you are making it, not me. I'm making good progress on my crocheted washcloths - simple, done in an evening, gauge hardly matters - although the bath mitt came out a tad too long, so I'm going to rip some out and redo it...
ReplyDeletemostlylurking
Gauge? What guage? hahaha
ReplyDeleteSo far I haven't done anything that requires a lot of attention to gauge. Thankfully. I have to wonder if I'm avoiding it. I was thinking about it this morning, and this pattern is going to allow fairly painless additions of stitches. 2 stitches over 3 rows, and I have another pattern set. Without a pattern, with only a shadowy idea of where I am going, (pointy on the back of the hand, like the pattern you directed me to), easy additions feels comfortable to me.
I feel like I am blindly stitching forward here, in a good way!