Sunday, May 13, 2007

Heart of Africa and Knitting News

I just couldn't resist this card. Any guess why?












Iris has chosen cheetahs for her year-end mammal report. This generated a trip to San Diego's Wild Animal Park to photograph them for her multimedia extravaganza project.

We have a very happy camper.

As we walked out of the park, we saw an encounter between a flock of geese and a flock of flamingos. Here is the start. The geese look very serious.

Here is a video of the encounter. (Sorry about the low-resolution. I am still learning how to balance video file size and resolution.)

Then it was onwards south to San Diego to her grandparents' for a dinner of stuffed cabbage and strawberries and cream. All this driving allowed me time to knit Iris her own Curlicue Ruffle Scarf. Notice she is also showing off the plastic cheetah figurine we bought for her cheetah habitat diorama. $4.95!?! for a plastic figurine made in China?

Then I started on Latoya, a knitted asymmetrical tank from the Berroco free patterns library. The pattern needs some serious copy editing. When I am done, I will post a full errata.

I am continuing to chip away at the stash. I found one full and 3 partial skeins of Cotton-Ease in Candy Blue under my bed. It might be as much as 200 grams in total. The 32" chest, XS Latoya called for 200 grams of Love-it. I hope to eke out a tank top, sans shoulder straps out of the yarn on hand. Hopefully, the slightly thicker yarn (17 sts/4" vs 18 sts/4") and the width of the seam stitches (I am knitting this in the round) will yield a 34 or 34.5" chest sweater.

We ate Mother's Day brunch at the D.Z. Akins deli. My MIL and a woman at the next table stared at each other before realizing they had previously met each other at New Life Club of Holocaust Survivors functions.
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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous19:21

    Did you ever figure out that pattern? I have been working on the same front side and am ready to give up....it doesn't look anything like the photo on Berocco's site! Help!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. badmomgoodmom23:07

    The pattern, as written, looks quite odd. The front is knit with reverse stockinette on either side of the center ribbed panel. This makes the ribbed panel (k3...k3) stand out in relief.

    The back is written for stockinette on either side of the ribbed panel. The k3 on each side of the center back would bet lost in the stockinette side panel. I opted to knit the sides in stockinette because I was knitting the entire tank in the round and knit is easier than purl.

    If I were knitting back and forth in two pieces, I would opt to knit the sides in reverse stockinette to preserve the bas-relief effect.

    Garter stitch tends to stretch out horribly, especially in nonelastic yarns like cottons. I switched the straps from garter to k3, p3, k3 and moved them closer together. The ribs flow from the center rib panel, and they also stay on my shoulders better.

    Look at how the ribbing is reduced. The knit stitch right after the marker "eats" the stitch to the right (when looking from the FS). From the FS, a k2tog puts that knit stitch on top of the reduced stitch. From the BS, a p2tog also puts that stitch in front of the reduced stitch. That knit stitch will draw toward the middle as you continue to reduce the stitches.

    When knitting in the round, I did a k2tog after the marker on each round instead of their RS k2tog and WS p2tog.

    Knit a small swatch of k3, p3, k3, p3, k3. Do 4-6 rows to establish the pattern. Then perform their decrease sequence to see the logic.

    Row 1, RS
    k3, p3, k3, p2, k2tog, k2
    (see how the k2tog performs the knit stitch while "eating" the purl stitch to its right?

    Row 2, WS
    p2, p2tog, k1, p3, k3, p3

    Row 3, RS
    k3, p3, k3, k2tog, k2

    Row 4, WS
    p2, p2tog, p2, k3, p3

    and so on.

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