YaY! now sleep.

50,000 words in about 15 wrigiting days. adn 6K today. I can't ype.My wrists hurt. i'm going ot bed now.

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Almost There

In for the last shove. I've got less than 6000 words to go and about 25.5 hours left until the cutoff.

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Knitters in my novel?

Why yes, there ARE knitters in my novel. But they're getting recruited for surveillance/intelligence work to infiltrate an organization with their clever chatting skills & use special devices hidden inside circular knitting needles.

I'm still working on what the motivation to take this huge risk of becoming spies would be for these knitters (a nice mix of 20-50 yr old women and one 29 yr old gay man). You want to help in a "choose your own adventure" sort of way?

So which of these cliche movie motivators do you think it is?

A) A member of their knitting circle is kidnapped by the bad guys and they must get involved to help save them (just about every kidnap or scary movie ever)
B) The knitters commit some crime for which they will be severely punished if they don't participate (Triple X)
C) Some bad guys are going to destroy the world, steal a nuke, etc., and no one is more qualified than their rag-tag team to stop them. (Armageddon)
or
D) They are (or are told) they are just the decoys, and have no real danger (but of course they do and save the day) (Spies like us)

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Recognized

It felt so good to have someone I've never met recognize my knitting! How cool is that?

Thanks Katy!

(oh, and our Grrr photo will be up soon on Flickr, I've been a-noveling too much lately to upload)

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Kiri Finished

Here she is! I wore it out last Wednesday when I finished blocking it.

Kiri Blocking

All pulled out tight!

Kiri Knitting finished

Binding off took ages, but I'm finally done, just 2.5 hours into the start of National Novel Writing Month.

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Kiri Progress

KiriProgress
Originally uploaded by iamsalad.

This photo is from a couple of days ago. I just started on the border pattern today.

So NaNoWriMo starts Wednesday. Plans are to finish the shawl before midnight Tuesday so that I can start NaNo without distraction.

Kiri Beginnings

Kiri Beginnings
Originally uploaded by iamsalad.

Yes, a new project was begun. But I have a feeling I may end before Nanowrimo begins and may not pick up the needles much for the next month.

noposting=noknitting=noposting

It's true. I haven't been posting OR knitting very much lately. This is partly because I've been busy with planning for the Chicago Lindy Exchange, partly because I have never caught the Startitis bug and am sorely lacking in Finishing Oomph for the few projects I've got on needles as well, and partly because I've had my mind geared towards newer things that aren't knitting.

In news outside the knitting world I've decided to try to join Big Brothers Big Sisters, I'm gearing up for this year's Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month --November) and I'm reluctantly accepting the onset of Fall. (Although this last one should have me knitting more)

I'm not dropping the needles, I'm just not picking them up as much. So if you want to see more frequent blog posts, check out my non knitting bloghere or check my profile as I'll likely start a blog for my new novel in November.

Knit on!

[edited to add...Wooohoo! this is my 99th post!]

Double-Knit Scarf

Crew Scarf 1
Originally uploaded by iamsalad.

Crew Scarf 2
Originally uploaded by iamsalad.

I know I haven't posted in a long while. That has had a lot to do with the fact that the project I have been working on the most is, although not a suprise, a present for my father that I didn't want him to see fully before receiving it.

It is a Double Knit scarf in Superwash wool. Double knitting (for those who don't know) is a way of knitting two sides of a piece at the same time, creating stockinette on both sides. If each side were a flat color this would create a long tube, but with any switches in color the two sides take advantage of working with two yarns at once by switching the yarns between the sides both binding the two sides together, and in most caseseconomically using yarn that would otherwise simply be stranded in intarsia work. The method is ideal for intarsia type projects where the second side is a perfect mirror of the front, and is only slightly harder (but still better than intarsia) on items like mine where the image on the other side is not a perfect mirror (although letters like "C" and "O" were mirrored and I was so thankful to start with them)

The finished scarf reads "Columbus Crew" celebrating my father's favorite soccer team. My brother informed me that a good "soccer scarf" should be able to act as a banner, so the words run lengthwise and it can be easily flipped back and forth to reverse the colors.

I've finished the scarf now, but I'll wait until he has received it to post the final photos.

Market Bag

I realized that I hadn't posted on this and then posted saying I had "left over" yarn from a project I hadn't shown...oops! So I did this market bag with a pattern from Mag Knits for the body and my own variation for the top and handle.

The body is made with an interesting S1,K1,YO,PSSO pattern that not only looks great but has a great deal of stretch in the finished project (read I can fit all the Trader Joe's Frozen food I want in it!)

At the top I picked up fewer stitches than called for in the pattern and did a tunisian slip stitch pattern for a couple of rows to define a separation. The original pattern called for a garter stitch handle grafted in the middle. ICK!

Not only was I worried about how much the garter stitch would slip, but I really didn't want to have to have a graft line. I solved this in two ways: First I used a basic slip stitch pattern (slip every other stitch always with yarn held at the front) that looks a bit like a weave and then I used a circular silver ring I had stashed away in my tool box as both an excellent way to join two sides, and a place I can clip my keys onto while shopping (wouldn't want them falling through the holes.)

Tunisian Slip stitch around top of bag

Woven Slip stitch handle

Joining ring

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A few more pics

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Entrelac

Entrelac

After seeing someone else's project with a short repeat self-striping yarn, and realizing I had some extra, I decided to try out Entrelac, and thought it was interesting and fun...I'd never made something that ends up looking like a weave rather than a knit. I do feel much more confident at picking up edge stitches now and I got to experiment with all sorts of variations in K2tog.

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Ruby Red --an actual written post

So I wanted to post the pictures of Ruby Red, but I didn't have the time or energy to really say much about it. Plus I hate what Blogger does to my mental state when I try to make the pictures and text line up in ways that I like while Blogger tries to line them up in ways I never even would have thought possible, probable, or least of all...desirable. Like for instance when it lines up pictures next to the previous day's written post. I frankly was not only amazed and irritated, I was so bewildered that after trying to resize the screen, open it in a different web browser, and then finally insert 50 rows of hard returns I went into the code and tried re-writing it in various configurations and with a few new < things > inserted. Of course the preview button does no good when it comes to the past creeping up on you, or at least prior day's posts, so 5 or 6 republished pages later I thought of the few people that might have RSS feed or something to my sight and all the terrible atrocities of malaligned, repetitive posts they were receiving in their mail and resigned myself to malalignity (if this word has not existed in the past it should have and does now).

So on to the part where I actually discuss the knitting...

I loved this project. I loved the cable cast-on and how it looked in the smooth cotton. I loved how I just kind of measured my shoulders, measured my swatch, did some calculations and then threw all that info out and cast on stitches until it seemed there were enough. I loved working the entire piece on circs, I loved making up a lace pattern on the point that I got to it and thought I should start, and I loved that every step of the way in making this piece I used my problem solving skills to just "figure out" what would be best.

A few things I didn't/don't like from this project: Worsted weight cotton yarn on size 4 bamboo needles= a bit hard on the hands; my sweater "twists" which I think might be the result of the ply of the yarn, as I know of no other reason why something knit in the round would pull continuously to one side; cotton yarn is no fun when weaving in the ends; the sweater only has about a 10-12 hour half-life before it cinderella pumpkins-out and becomes a big bag that continuously slides off my shoulders.

On to the details of the knitting (probably only interesting for the hardcore):

Pre-1.Buy 3 skeins Cascade Sierra cotton on sale at 40% off at Loopy in GORGEOUS colors! Re-read the Tivoli/Picovoli Tee pattern. Measure, calculate, and ignore all conclusions.

1.Cable Cast on (my favorite) until it looks about right (similar to # from Tivoli)
2a.A few rows of stockinette, establishing the 4 corners of the Raglan increases and accounting for my narrower shoulders and desire for lower neckline (longer sleeve depth)
2b.--note: later I dropped back to add 3x1 ribbing to the sides destined to become the front and back to prevent rolling, these ribs lasting for about 5 rounds while the sleeve portion only had about 3 rounds of stockinette and the rolling is slight and unnoticible on the sleeve portion so no ribbing was added.
3. Lace stitch is a YO,K2tog lattice stitch (staggered rather than stacked to create a diagonal pattern--basic rule being either always keep YO left or always right when K2togethering) but I alternated doing a round with knits and one with purl stitches to give a look a little bit more like a diagonal Purse Stitch--bumpy. If I were to do the shirt over again I would probably reverse the pattern on the other sleeve so the diagonals didn't go in the same direction on both...but I didn't on this one.
4. After the lace panels were long enough I did about 5 more rounds of stockinette on the sleeves and body then slipped the sleeve stitches onto holder yarn (note-I always make long loops of yarn for these holders so that I can slip my arms through them when test-trying on the shirt).
5. I did about 5 rows of short row shaping on the front side with increases on each row to create a curved arm hole opening in front and increase both the length of the front and the number of stiches without having a huge arm hole opening (this makes the back of the shirt's neckline a little lower than the front and seems to work well with the sleeves as well, as it seems as if the back of the shoulder is a little longer than the front anyhow)
6. I created a few cable cast on stiches under each arm and knit an inch or so before trying it on and making sure everything fit alright.
7. With the shirt on I placed markers aligning with the center of each breast and then matched those markers on the back of the piece (located center of back and counted stitches to each side to match distance in front)
8. A round or so after reaching the fullest part of chest did right and left sloping decreases at each marker decreasing center panel and leaving side stitches alone.
9. Decreased every third round until shirt fit snug
10. Few inches of straight stockinette and then began increases at same stitch markers, increasing to center every fourth round.
11. At hip size did another inch or so straight stockinette
12. *YO, K2tog* one round.
13. *K,P* three rounds creating 1x1 rib with purls under the K2tog stiches.
14. Split yarn in half (2plys)and BO in 1x1 rib pattern.
15. On the sleeves I came back and using a halved piece of yarn I did a *K1, BO, K2tog, BO* to bind off the edge and pull the cap sleeve around the shoulder without adding a visible edge. I then stiched the edge of the sleeve down about three stiches on front and back with the body of the sweater which further curved the sleevecap and made a smoother line with the armhole opening. The raglan increases made it easy to hide these stiches.

What fun! (I'm such a nerd)

There you have it!

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Ruby Red

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Oops, long time no post...

The reason for the gap is that I've been delaying the finishing up of several items. I nearly finished the Ruby Red top in about 3 days and then took a week and a half to finish binding off all of the stitches.

Today I finished binding off and gave it a good cold water bath and it is laying out to dry now. I also went ahead and finally washed my peach colored raglan lace top for its blocking as well.

Pictures of Ruby Red to come, I just need it to hurry up and finish drying.

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Ruby Red a take on the Green Gable

There are some really cool things about Raglan tops...

A while back I realized that I had somehow lost my Tivoli shirt--the first real shirt/sweater that I had ever knit. I really liked the pattern and have been considering knitting it again.

Of course there would be changes, as I learned a bit from knitting the first one and a second one that I made with variations.

I've been loving the pictures of the "Green Gable" and thought I might do a Tivoli with a lace panel on the top like the GG has.

So when I came across a great deal on some Cotton/Merino Cascade Sierra at 40% off I bought 3 skeins and set to work the next day.

After getting to the portion where one would split the sleeve from the body I faltered. I'm not so sure I like the lace panel where it sits and think it might look better if I rotate the whole thing 90 degrees and use the lace as the cap sleeve.

Biding for time before making a decision I drop down every 4th stitch of the flat sections' panels to create a few rows of 3 by 1 ribbing to keep the edge from curling as much.

Then ran yarn lines through half of the stitches so I could "try on" my creation. What do you think the outcome will be?

Knitting Tips/tricks

I went to a Knitting Meet-up group yesterday and found myself as the source of many a knitting tip. Now most of the things I know I've picked up from other knitters both in person and online, but as I came up with one today I thought perhaps I should share a few of these, or at least write them out for future reference.

So today's knitting tip/trick:

If you are like me, and are knitting in stockinette with cotton, or some other unforgiving yarn it is common to have some stitches tighter or looser than others. If it is a single stitch you can use your needle or a crochet hook to destribute the variance over several other stiches in the row. But if it is an entire row of stitches you will not be able to do this.

If you are like me (a lazy perfectionist) you will want it to look good, but without the extra effort of ripping back multiple rows to acheive this. I have my ways :)

A) The row is too loose
-->tighten each stitch to the right height gathering the yarn into an increasingly long loop as you go along. When you have completed the row and are at a good point to stop take the loop and either
1- if it is long enough to weave in the ends cut the loop and tie a loose knot and come back and treat it as if it is any other yarn join
2- if it is too short to weave the ends in separately, using a crochet hook, slip the loop through the back of several purl stitches then use a thread or split one ply off your working yarn to tie it in place to the back of a purl bump.

B) The row is too tight
--Knit to the center of the section that is too tight and drop a single stitch down (tink) to the offending row (it might help to mark the center stitch of the too tight row with a stitch marker or safety pin). Skipping that stitch as one rung of the ladder, and leaving the yarn stranded at the back side of your work, use a needle or crochet hook to knit up the remaining rows/rungs. Pull the fabric taught, and distribute the excess you have created over the stitches to the left and right of the skipped stitch (use needle or hook if necessary). If this does not create enough excess, repeat the procedure with stitches on spaced equally on either side of center, keeping in mind that the excess will distribute both left and right.

I'll try to post pictures of this as well when my camera battery is charged again.

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Tubey Problem

So The Tubey has a problem...at least on me. I actually DON'T have a huge belly, but it makes me look as if I do. I was so close to finishing that I actually did, and I'll probably frog back to the last row of Burgandy around my chest and then add some lavender for an inch or so and then black the rest of the way down...but that's gonna have to wait until this fall, because I don't have the patience for it right now.

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Tubey

Tubey
Originally uploaded by iamsalad.

I may not have mentioned it, but I've been working on Tubey for a while now. It is a quick knit, but after finishing the shrug portion of the pattern it took me quite a while to get the oomph necessary to cast on for the body.

The body itself I started on Tuesday and I'm almost finished with it already (Saturday)...you've got to love a job that has you work an 11 hour day but only do a little over an hour's worth of work.


If you're going to do this pattern I have a couple of notes:
1--A lot of people have complained about having a loose, puckering back on the shrug portion...I know that my sholders are rather narrow and just "knit to fit" across the back, which was far less than the 19" called for. I actually ended up measuring from armpit to armpit across my back to figure out the length and then knit a few rows in each direction (as per the directions for a couple of inches and then using the provisional cast on and going in the other direction for a few rows) to check fit before proceeding.
2--Do a gauge swatch or use the section across the back as one to determine not only size, but how tight you want the fabric. The pattern called for a size 8 needle. I HATED how loose that made the fabric. I ended up knitting a little on the loose side with a pair of size 4 needles. When I started the body I tried again switching to the size 8s for the beginning (over my "lady lumps") and then graduated down to size 4 again over the next 5"-6".
3--If the top is too low or wide at the top don't tear back, just sew along the upper edge connecting the "sleeve" portion to the front portion for a few more stitches on each side
4--If you alter the size of stripes just try not to make any stripes appear the same width to get the same "look" as this sweater has--and remember that brighter and lighter colors expand (look bigger) and darker colors contract (look smaller) especially when placed next to each other. This is part of the reasoning behind why the pattern has smaller strips of the brightest colors.

Stash enhancement

Stash enhancement
Originally uploaded by iamsalad.

Between my friends' recent presents & my own acquisitions I have had a lovely reds through purples stash enhancement in the last month

Top & Bottom left: Elann Sonata-Mercerized cotton
Center: Hemp for Knitting--100% Long fiber Hemp (from Rachael & Shannon for my birthday)
Right Top: Baba by Adriafil--Italian Virgin Merino Wool (from Katherine & Alex's trip to Italy)
Right Bottom: Peruvian Baby Silk-80%Baby Alpaca, 20% Silk

Lace Raglan Top Detail

Lace Raglan Top Detail
Originally uploaded by iamsalad.

Lace Raglan Top back detail

Lace Raglan Top back detail
Originally uploaded by iamsalad.

You can see the increasing/decreasing detail in this one, and possibly the short rows if you look real close

Lace Raglan Top

Lace Raglan Top
Originally uploaded by iamsalad.

Finished front

Picture updates

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So far behind

I've been knitting a lot, but hardly posting any of it, so I thought it was about time I shared a few pictures of what I've been working on. The current obsession is a raglan shirt from Elann.com's free patterns:


I've been wanting to do this one for a while, and once started, I've become so obsessed I've cranked out half of it in under a week.

I usually don't do patterns as written, or in the yarn it calls for, so although I've added paired decreases for waist shaping and am going to do my own lace patterning at the bottom, this project will probably look more like the original than most of my work.

The color is way off on these pictures, as it is much more an orangy/peach color. So this is how far I am:

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Knitting Blogs are everywhere

Even popular enough to have been mentioned on Ze Frank's The Show apparently.

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Ribbit Ribbit

What do you get when you combine a day off of work, a new ball winder, a trip to the Salvation Army, and a knitter? ....a whole lot of nice wool sweaters to frog (unravel)!

So I bought about 12 sweaters ranging in price between 90cents and 2dollars, and after giving my SnB friends the opportunity to take any of the ones that I didn't like and didn't fit me and save them from a cruel death, I set about frogging the remainder.

Check out the remains of a lovely, very fuzzy, loosly plied DKNY red & black sweater that will now be felting fodder:



The Red and Black sleeves are asking to be made into a bag, I'm probably just going to stitch in two side panels and a strap.

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Next winter should be fun

As I continue to knit things for myself I realize how much cool stuff I'll have this next winter.

Who says that I should stop knitting winter wear now that it's spring? Why it just hailed the other day.... and just in time for the hail I finished one all-wool fingerless mitten.

I was pleased and suprised with how well it came out, especially since I just cast-on and started knitting and added increases as I felt appropriate and started the intarsia pattern where I thought it should be, and just kind of did the whole thing on the fly.

I'm sure the pattern could be better, but still, I'm pretty happy with it:

FOs & UFOs*...Look out Big Kids

Perhaps I can give the big kids a run for their money...or at least their yarn.

So my green lace scarf was completed and blocked in just over 3 weeks (!!!) and I'm starting to consider considering myself a fairly good-paced knitter. I know that part of my speed is due to projects becoming all-consuming and my loyal work on that single project taking up as much of my time as possible when I'm inspired by it, but nonetheless I have been finishing a good number of projects this year--4 fairly complicated scarves, one felted bag and a couple of hats (six-plus projects finished in the first five and a half months ain't bad.)And I'm happy with my work.

Pictures will be up of the green lace scarf soon (I finally sent the camera in for repairs this week), but I'm still trying to decide if I want to leave the pattern as it is, or try to figure out something different for the end border. (It looks quite different from the beginning border right now, and I'm not sure I'm okay with that.) I'll be meeting with my knitting posse tonight and will be getting my feedback and making a decision about whether I 'cut the cord' and weave in the ends, or rip back and try something new with the border.

I've started work on the Tubey sweater and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my color combination! I keep holding it up and smiling and making my co-worker agree with me about its beauty (poor thing, she's so knittundated). I'm also overly anxious, so rather than finishing one sleeve and then picking up the provisional cast on edge and starting the second I'm 3/4 of the way through one sleeve and a little less than halfway through the second. It's quite possible I'll start the body before either sleeve has been finished. I'll share pics soon!

*FO= Finished Object
UFO= Unfinished Object

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Goodness Gracious....Great Balls of Yarn!

Did I mention that my ball winder and swift came in the mail yesterday? No? Blame it on the tiredness....I was up until about 1:30 in the morning winding balls of yarn and then couldn't leave for work today until I'd wound about 3 more. I'm in love with the magic of a beautifully wound ball. I can't wait to go thrift store shopping and pick up some sweaters for unravelling!

In other news...Do you have yarn that you hate? I myself have a stash of inherited craft yarn that is not only hideously bright, and made of nasty acrylic, but it's also heineously scratchy. What is the point of using acrylic if it's going to be scratchy? So I've been wondering if I'd have to resort to massive God's Eye creationism, or to taking up making macrame hanging plant holders in order to rid myself of this yarn when I realized its perfect use...here it is the only thing that wouldn't complain about scratchy acrylics in way too bright colors...inanimate objects

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Keeping up with the big kids

Every now and then I look at my stash, my finished objects, my blog and I feel....insufficient. I feel like I need to keep up with the rest of the pack. Although I try to tell myself that the majority of the pack has been at this whole knitting thing for 5-50 years and I haven't even been at it for a year and a half, it does little to appease my hunger for more. I think I want part of every outfit I wear to be something I made, and everytime I go out there should be something that someone, somewhere might ask "Oh, did you make that?"

Is it pride? jealousy? vanity? materialism? or just a strong competitive drive?

The more I think about it, the more I realize that it's none of the things I think it is. I think the truth of it is that I have a degree in Fine Arts for a reason, and knit and knit and knit and buy supplies as much as I like, even if I catch up with the Masons and the Dixons and the Rabbits and the Harlots, I still cannot fully fill my needs for creativity with knitting. I need more! I need non-functional objects, I need big things, and intricate things, and hard things and pointy things and rusty things, and FAR more texture than all the soft and beautiful knitting I do can ever provide.

I need to do more ART!

please note: this will probably not slow down my knitting much, but if you see the occassional strand of barbed wire thrown in with cashmere, now you'll know why.

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Meetup.com

I met up with the Meetup.com Chicago Knitting Crew last night, and I must say I think that knitters must just be awesome people. This group was everybit as friendly as the Stitch n'Bitch crew I meet up with every Tuesday, and they had wine & cheese-its to boot!

So I met a bunch of people: Michelle (who offered useful job advice), Lynn (and later her husband Dan?), Dee Dee, Susan (the organizer), Roland (former Jaime student and token male knitter;) ), Sarah, Nikki (and her sparkling tank top), Shawn, Abby, Sam (the helpful and way cool Nina salesperson) and a whole host of other people whose names currently escape me.

Unfortunately their next event is an afternoon picnic that I won't be able to attend, but I look forward to "meeting up" with them again!

Nina was nice enough to offer the group a 15% discount during the event, so I scored some black Cascade 220 ($7/skein + 15% off) to start the Tubey Sweater from the Winter Knitty. I'm normally not too into stripes, or multiple colors, but I'm fairly excited about this one, and the colors I've picked out look great together.

It's funny that I picked colors fairly similar to the one's in the pattern, but I really was just looking at some scraps of the yarn I have and thought how nice a few of them looked together and then decided to use them for this pattern. It was much later that I saw the color picture again (my directions were printed b&w) and realized their similarities.

The colors:
Black--Cascade 220 (worsted)
Burgandy--Ebay Purchase/worsted merino wool
Dark Blue/Green--Cascade 220(worsted)
Light Lavender--Cascade 220(worsted)
Grass Green--Knit Picks Elegance (DK weight Alpaca/Silk blend)

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I thought it would never happen to me!

I have been fairly resolute in my belief that I would never be sucked into two things in knitting...First, knitting socks--my reason for this is that I don't like my socks to be colorful, so it would simply be wasteful of me to spend time on something I would never enjoy. Second is the toothpick and dental floss lace knitting that I am certain is the cause of many a crowsfoot and adoption of reading glasses, as well as pointy old lady fingers and hysterical crying fits.

Well...I'm gettin' old...and aparently brave. I'm now knitting a lace-weight scarf in Knit Pick's Alpaca Cloud. I bought the yarn a long time ago, thinking I would strand it with other yarns in making things. It has patiently waited in my stash for a project to participate in since last fall and since I never ran across that project I was pretty much chalking it up as another ball of stitch markers and lifelines.

Flash to a few weeks ago when the Spring Interweave Knits magazine came out. I flipped through it, admiring several of the projects, but not especially in love with any of them. I noticed a lace scarf that I commented to a friend on, saying that you couldn't really see the pattern very well in the pictures they had posted.



A week or two went by, and on Easter Sunday I found myself stranded in Evanston with no plans for a few more hours, so I went to hang out at Barnes & Noble. I picked up the magazine again and flipped through it. I stopped short on the page with the Trellis scarf, and remembered a post on Flickr with a picture of a Trellis scarf that I had admired...then I realized that the pattern called for one ball of Knit Pick's Alpaca Cloud. The same Alpaca Cloud that I had six balls of slumbering away in my stash. It called for size 5 needles, which I have, and wasn't nearly as intimidating as some of the size 0's I had seen before. Now I'm not one to often use the EXACT same yarn as the pattern calls for, but what was this? Fate? Coincidence? a seven dollar magazine to use up only one four dollar ball of yarn? ...yup, it was Perfect!

So I bought the magazine (and a collection of stories and poems by Poe) and headed off for the evening.

On Tuesday morning I cast on with my new project, and by 6:30PM I knew I was going to be late to Stich n'Bitch because I had been too caught up in my knitting!

I'm still too chart dependant to work in most places with distractions and talking, and am so focused that I notice myself short on breath by the end of a row (59 stitches is too long to hold your breath for). But I must admit I find the results fascinating and addictive. I love that it just looks like a jumble until you stretch it out. I love that I've been able to fix mistakes without crying. I love the little lifelines and the fact that I can fit my entire project in a sandwich baggie.

I'm a lace knitter.

Unstretched














...

And through the magic of stetching (and hopefully blocking)