Oh Technology!

I have a computer since 1982—Yes, that long ago!

I once knew some assembly language, (but I have forgot most of it)

For sure, I am more comfortable with the hardware side of computers than with the software.
Largely because I haven't lived (or worked) in High Tech environment for some years now, I have fallen below the curve in some of my computer knowledge. (but I still rank higher than average on computer and component knowledge than most, and for my age group, I am a virtural genius!)

Technology changes so fast, blink and you get left behind.
(and having a 7 year old PC, with an old (Windows XP) OS, and an old Monitor, and old everything, means when you upgrade its a few hours of learning the new easier ways of doing things...)

I haven't fully switched to my new computer... I need to swap out some components from my old and add them to the new... Like the CD read write.. (the new computer has a CD/DVD read right.. so a second CD isn't really needed, but why not? And i'll move the fire wire too, even though I now have a docking station for my digital camera—and can use that to transfer files.--and I still need to install the photo editing software for my camera.. (and a ton of other adjustments!)

(If i am luck, and i don't think i will be, i'll be able to move memory!--but my new computer is faster, and has more memory that i could imagine! (Years ago, I balked at buying my off to college son a 40 M hard drive.. (yes, M)--I had a hard drive measured in K—and it was $400--
Now I own 2 G SD photocards, and 2 G flash drives.. (that I've purchased for under $40!)

Oh the way things change!

It will be another week or two till I have all my new hardware set up and working smoothly...so bear with with me.. (at least, I have been knitting.. and will when I get it all together, have something to show you!)

How is digital TV working for you?

For all the hoopla, and expense, and what not—Plus the mismanagement of the coupons for the converter boxes --and the wholesale planned obsolescences, to me, the whole thing is a reduction of service, at an increased cost.

I've lived in Queens for over 30 years. I've never had an out door antenna, and always had great reception. (OK, for the first 20 years I lived at close to the highest part of Queens, (on top of hill) and now live on the 14th floor of a building situated on a slight rise.(I have a clear view west to Manhattan—and can see uninterupted skyline from 14th street to 125th (Tri-borough/RFK bridge)

Back in June, (rainy, rainy June) about a week after the switch over, Channel 7 (ABC) went off the air (in effect) –No Signal detected was the TV message—during one of the storms.

In the past 30 years I can count the number of times that a major broadcaster has gone off the air on the fingers of one hand, (and have fingers left over)
Ok so it was a big storm—but every other channel worked.

But this weekend, (Oh glorious sunshine!, and starry nights) Channel 4 (NBC) went blank (along with a dozen of the low power UHF stations), too.

I still could get channel 50(or now days, 50-1), WNJN, a PBS station from Montclair NJ (a good 30 miles away) –a station I've always been able to receive with a simple pair of rabbit ears. (I do plan to buy a smaller, more modern antennae one of these days)

I notice all of this because, well computer problems (some what resolved!) have left me with time—and TV has filled some of the time--(cleaning is filling up a lot of the rest!)

Tomorrow, as things get better on the computer front, there will be photo's.
2 completed double knit potholders have turned into 4 completed ones, (and a fifth on the needles.) Blue socks finished, (and blocked) and off to Ms Lacey (the wonderful, almost former knitter who was the generous donor of the knitting material that netted me the BGW Mosaic knitting book, and the 2 volumes of Mary Thomas's book.) Socks are a pretty inadequate response, but it is the thought that counts, isn't it?

And nearing completions--I am at the cuff--a toe up sock. The afterthought heels still need to be done, but they are quick work. They are plain socks, worked in Kroy Jacquards stripes—I had thought to work a pattern—but I liked the self stripe pattern enough, that I did nothing.

Languishing, are the Black pearl scarf and the light red toe up socks—I think about them, but...

Calling out to me, Cotton—I want to do some more potholders, some face clothes, and even an other bathmat.. (or two!)

And on the wind, some lovely hand painted silk (7ounces!) whispers sweet nothings—it is alluring, and it's destiny elusive -but it will make its true purpose known.

Breaking out of the rut

For years, I have know that jacquard double knitting doesn’t have to be identical (reverse or mirror image)—I’ve even done some double knitting that isn’t (like my tic-tac-toe potholder--Side A had X winning, side B had O winning) (see May 08 archives )

One of the more well known

jacquard patterns for double knitting is a stripe pattern--Vertical stripes on side A, horizontal stripes on side B.

But all of the directions I have seen for this pattern have been done the old fashioned, slow way (work some stitches/slip some stitches, work the row again, working the slipped stitches with yarn 2, then turn the work and repeat(that is, USE 2 passes to complete each row!)

In the old fashioned process, to work all the stitches on the needle, you ‘process’ them twice—First working with yarn A, (working some stitches, and slipping others) then you REPEAT with Yarn B, working the stitches that were previously slipped, and slipping the stitches that were previously worked!(the worked stitches might be Knit or Purl).

I tried that for 1 repeat, and then started to work the improved method—
2 yarns per row, all stitches worked in a row.

At the end of a row; turn and work next row(Knit or purl all the stitches in a row, with either yarn A or Yarn B method.)

This is an unvention, as EZ would say…I doubt I am the first person to have figured this out—I am just the first person (I think!) to write the directions. )
Like other jacquard double knitting, in hand it feels like ribbing (K1, P1) and both yarn are carried together, and moved (front to back) together, but only 1 yarn is used to make a stitch.

Vertical and Horizontal Striped Double knitting:

Cast on multiple of 4 +3 (my pot holder has 37 (32+3) stitches per side.
(Total cast on of 74 stitches.)This will have the Vertical Stripe side starting and ending with the same color(in my case the tan)

R1: *Color A: K1, P1, K1, Color B: P1 (row will end with K1, P1 in color A)

R2: *Color A: K1 Color B: P1, K1, P1, (row ends with K1 color B, Purl 1 color A)

Or if you prefer:
R1: *Work 3 in color A, Work 1 in color B

R2: *Work 1 in color B, Work 3 in color A

While the pattern isn’t immediately evident (not unusual for double knitting) you do have a 3/1 pattern on your needle (and can visually check the stitches on the needle to confirm you’ve done the row correctly)

Another interesting Double knitting stitch pattern is one that uses simple double knitting (K1, Slip 1) combined with REAL slip stitches (ie, a stitch that spans 2 rows!)

The result is a Side A is has a pattern, and Side B is a solid color.(You can see the white stitches from side a on the needle, but not in the knitting)

It’s a bit slower, and it must be worked on circ or double ended needle (a long DPN or a Swing needle)

The pattern on the 2 yarn rows (the white and pink worked together) is almost identical to the Row 1 and Row 2 of the Vertical and Horizontal stripe pattern.
If you make the Vertical and Horizontal stripe pattern first, this pattern will be easy to learn.

R1: *Color A: K1, P1, K1, Color B: P1 (row will end with K1, P1 in color A)
R2 A: using only Dark (pink) K1, S1 across row.
R2 B: using only Dark (pink yarn)*K1, Slip 1… (8 times, then slip 1, slip 1) repeat.

R3: *Color A: K1 Color B: P1, K1, P1, (row ends with K1 color B, Purl 1 color A)

R4A and R4B are the same as R2A and R2B.

I’ve finish Pink Potholder 1 (well finished the knitting, I still have to weave in the tails!)

I am 4 or so rows from finishing Pink potholder 2 (the Vertical and Horizontal Stripes)

Pink 3 (one side patterned, one side solid) is started (with about 3 or so inches knit).

These potholders measure (now) about 10 inches x 11.5 inches-(or 25 c by 29c.) They are oversized! I use mine as both potholders and hot mats--especially for plates hot from the oven (microwave oven that is!)

After the first washing, they will shrink in length, and expand in width.. and will be about 10.5 X 10.5 (or about (rough in the head math!) 27c x 27c--and will still be oversized. Washing and shrinking cotton tends to cause it shrink in one direction, and expand in the other!

The Blue socks are just a few rows away from toe shaping. I might finish them tonight... (or I might not!)

I’m back…

But experiencing technical problems…

Both my computers are objecting to doing work—each in its own way!

I don’t know if it is a hardware problem (disk failure) or a software one (some virus that snuck past MacAfee)

For now, I have the use of a computer at work—but just till the end of the week—fortunately, I have my files (text, charts (excel) and images) on a separate hard drive, (and have 95% of my files backed up!—so while I might have lost a file or two--most everything is saved on a CD or server)

But files on a perfect disk drive (that is, an operation one) connected to a dead computer are not accessible! I have to physically remove the drive and install it in a new CPU!

(First, of course, I have to buy a new CPU!)

Today, I caught up on mail and other reading (blogs and Ravelry, and Facebook, and so on)--tomorrow, an update on the blue socks, and on the double knit face cloth, and on another face cloth (and some other double knitting patterns techniques!)

Tomorrow, I'll share about the wonderful weekend I had—well, wonderful except for the driving—heavy traffic and minor accidents (and the resulting rubber necking delays) turned a what should have been a 4 to 5 hour trip –NY City to DC--(well northern Virginia really) into a 7 and half hour trip.. and a seven and half hour trip became an 8 and half hour trip with the added delays of ‘tourist information’ (our euphemism for nature calls) –and at each tourist information stop, we had coffee, or other beverages, that, with the repeated delays, created another need to stop!

I took almost no photo’s (I never think to take photos!) and my only souvenir is a skinned elbow and scraped toe from a fall—But it was a wonderful weekend—in spite of the fall, and endless travel delays.

Habits

I am close to the end of my first (of 6) Pink double knit potholders.

It’s a simple pattern (easy enough to do on the subway!)
Some stripes, some birds eye (mini checkerboard) and some diagonal stripes.

Stripes and birds eye pattern are horizontal—I always do horizontal stripes with the birds eye.

Why? Habit!

But I recently saw a lovely swatch of double knitting... dark pink/birds eye/ light pink/ birds eye-- In Vertical stripes—and it looks so pretty!

Why with dozens and dozens of potholders that I have knit, in so many different patterns have I never thought to vertical stripes?

I try to be creative… but I recognize I fall into habits—I use the same colors or the same designs. Or the same stitches, I quickly fall into a habit.

Don’t we all?

I’ll be finishing this up tonight and away for a few days—and the next few potholders are going to be exercises in new double knit patterns... I am breaking my habit!

Generous! or Greedy?

A few weeks ago, Melanie commented to me about how generous I was.
I was taken aback! I am so conscious of how greedy I am, I sometimes forget, that I am, at times, as generous as I am greedy.

Yesterday, I was greedy--or perhaps just conscious of my greed.

A neighbor to the LICKknits group (a yahoo group/a Ravelry group/ a real life group), Ms Lacey, who is slowly giving up knitting and other crafts—had bags and bags of material to share. (Ms Lacey, looks in her face to be quite young (well of a certain age, but not OLD) but her arthritic hands tell a different story. Each year, she finds it harder and harder to do the handcrafts she so loves.)

Since I have a car, I am the designated ‘picker upper’ and came to the LICKnits group meeting with bags of stuff—lots of needle point stuff, some yarns, and a collection of books and magazines, that she has generously given us. (She did the same some 18 months ago, and what a joy that was, too!)

I confess--I was greedy, and when I saw Barbara G Walker’s book Mosaic Knitting, I grabbed it, and tucked it away for myself—before anyone had a chance to see it.

But I wasn’t so greedy—I didn’t pre screen all the books, and Teresa (on Ravelry) ended up with another BGW book.

After the piles had been gone through and every one claimed the books and magazines that interested them, I went back, and picked up some old issues of Knitters and Vogue knitting magazines from the mid 1990’s—a time when I was doing very little knitting, and buying almost no books or magazines.

(I also ended up being responsible for taking home (and bringing back next week) some stuffthat wasn’t claimed—Some stuff will be shared with members of the West Babylon Panera group… (since what it wants is a good home!)

I also claimed (not first and greedily--before anyone else had a

chance, but not last either) 2 Mary Thomas knitting books.

It was fun seeing how one person loved one book (Exquisite Knits) and another’s eyes lit up with glee at a book of Disney themed patterns, (two books I had no interest in at all!)

Someone else was thrilled with skeins of plain white cotton (for market bags) and someone else was happy to find 2 skeins of Red Heart yarn and cone of eyelash yarn, and someone else, thrilled with the beautiful (if orange)wools.

I recognize I am greedy--(but at the same time, I am busy at home putting together some give away prizes for next month—stay tuned for details!)

Oh, yeah, and I actually did some knitting—I’ve finished the heel flaps, and turned the heels on the Calzetteria socks… SEE! The gussets have been started.. (something is getting knit!)

I am not always a fan of mixed colorways, but so far, I like the tweedy pooling this yarn has.

(NO) Progress report…

(I am --unusually--using images from photobucket.. and I am finding them hard to edit (for size)so the images are very large!)

Nothing is finished…
Nothing has progressed.

The Pink potholder (number 1) is past the half way point, but it’s not done.

The pastel red socks are still sitting, with 1 more increase row to do before the heel.

The Calzetteria socks, that jump into my hands, are halfway through the heel flap—no pattern jumped out, so the top of the sock is 1 X 1 ribbing from cast on to…. (Midway through the instep I am imagining—I don’t like ribbing right down to the toes.)

The Teal shrug sits, untouched, the Black Pearl scarf is languishing too...

But a comment a few days ago sparked my interest.

I learned to knit socks a long time ago (the 1960’s!)
As with all things, I plowed ahead, not troubled to learn what to do, before I did it.

My first socks had short row heels—well almost—hourglass is more accurate.

I looked at some very poor directions for a flap/turned/gusseted heel, and didn’t understand what I was looking at.

So I looked at my socks (the store bought ones I was wearing) and decided I could make a ‘commercial heel’ –and did.
(in these socks, the left gussets is bit clearer.)

I divided the sock in half, and then decreased as I worked down—I didn’t short row, I decreased, working from 30 stitches to 29, to 28, to …..(About 10)
And then I increased till I once again had 30 stitches.
Knitting what was an hour glass shape.
As part of finishing, I sewed to small seams to make the hour glass into a shape like a short row heel.

My mother (a bone fide member of the knitting police) was aghast! This was no way to make a heel. A proper heel…(she didn’t knit socks, but she KNEW how to knit a proper heel.)

But, I was quite pleased with my socks. I HAD FIGURED out a heel of my own.
It was quite typical of how I knit!

Like many a knitter, I just do as I please. Sometimes the results are wonderful, sometimes so, so, and sometimes, awful.

But it’s only yarn, and a bit of time and I always willing to try things out.

After my ‘unvented’ heel, I learned how to do a proper flap/turned/gusseted heel.

And after learning how to do short rows for the turning, I went back to my hourglass heels, only now I did them with short rows.

There are times that I really like short row or afterthought or similar heels.

I like self striping yarns, but I don’t like how a flapped/turned/gusseted heel disrupts the striping pattern.

On the other hand, I don’t always like how a short row style heel fits—it can be tight over the instep, and the heel can be too short.

There are several solutions to these problems—and for me; the best one is the one I devised!

(Want some other solutions? Search on Ravelry’s Tech forum!)

I have 2 solutions, and I like them, and use them about equally.
I add small gussets to the sock

A gusset, incase you didn’t know, (or only know them from F/T/G socks) is a small triangle of ‘fabric’ used to create ease. Gussets are used in both knitting and sewing.

So my gussets are pair’s small triangular increases and decreases at the point of heel. (Together they make a larger triangle)

Sometimes the gussets are on the instep (and the heel is worked over ½ of the original count of stitches), some times, the gussets are worked on the heel side, and the heel is deeper and wider because of the extra stitches--

The images in this post show some examples of the gussets.

The process I use isn’t very refined—for me, it’s ‘about’ thing.

About ¾ to 1 inch before you start the heel, start increasing (on either the instep or heel side of the sock) Ideally you’ll want at least 1 inch of ease (2 ½ inch gussets) depending on your gauge, this can be 4 sets of increases (4 pairs) or 5 pairs—(10 stitches).

If you knit your socks at 8 stitches per inch, 8 increases will provide an inch of ease, 10 stitches, and 1.25 inches of ease.

If you stitch gauge is tighter, chances are your row gauge is tighter too, and starting 1 inch before the heel might be 10 rows/rounds of increase or maybe even 12 rows/rounds—and 12 stitches (at 10 stitches per inch) is just a bit over 1 inch of ease—The idea is to have about 1 inch of ease--not 8 (4 pairs) increases) or any other specific number.

MORE is better than less (1.25 inches or even 1.5 inches of ease is better than ¾ of inch!) –and if you have a very high instep, you might want even more!

The increases are worked every other row, so the gussets is 8 to 10 rows(rounds) deep—Your row gauge is the guide to when to start!

Then work the heel (with ½ stitches, or with the increased stitch count.)—you can work the heel right away (short rows) or knit a row of waste yarn in place and come back latter and work afterthought heels)

When the heel is complete, work decreases (and in the process create a second gusset) until the stitch count is back to original number (or don’t!)

IF you are working toe up, AND you have heavy legs or ankles, you can leave 2 extra stitches in the leg—for ease, (or to correct the count for a pattern!)

IF you are working cuff down AND have narrow feet, you can decrease an extra stitch or two, and make a snugger fitting foot!

(This gussets is on the Heel side, and is a bit deeper than average)
The gussets are hardly noticeable—but the fit is greatly improved!