Seeds of May

Afghan Sunday was early this month to avoid Memorial Day (a.k.a. "Race Day" in Indiana). Most of the local knitters are behind (except for one who is well ahead of me), so I didn't feature any new blocks this month, but I'll go ahead and share a couple here anyway.

Isn't the seed stitch pretty on the Ann Strong square?

This is supposed to be one of the five easiest squares. I kept forgetting to purl through the back loop on the wrong side for the two columns of twisted stitches. I also made a lot of knit vs. purl mistakes on the wrong side rows because of the seed stitch, but they were easy to see and fix on the following row.

Fidgety business:To feed the consistency hobgoblin, I worked the upper and lower borders on 54 stitches like my other squares worked on #7 needles; I ended the border on a RS row and worked a WS foundation row (last row of each chart). The large side cables ended up due for a twist on the first row of the top border, so I worked some of the decreases as cable decreases. But if I were knitting this square a second time, I would center the side cables vertically instead by working the twists on rows 7 and 17 instead of 5 and 15. It doesn't keep me awake at night the way it is, so I left it. (You think I'm joking? Sadly, I have in fact had knitting-induced sleepless nights.)

By the way, wrapping up the Sea of Despair socks (literally and figuratively; I gave them to my Mom for Mother's Day) sent me off on a sock-finishing bender. I knit a complete pair of DK-weight Opal stockinette men's socks in four days, finished a toe-up variation of CookieA's Mingus for myself (more on those later), and pulled a pair of diamond-brocaded socks based on a Nancy Bush pattern out of hibernation to finish for my husband:

I promise there are two of them, but he was leaving for a business trip just as they finished drying after blocking, so I let him take them before I could get a photo of the pair. He finished teaching his spring semester classes and immediately skipped the country. Maybe he'll model the new socks when he gets back.

A different type of stranded knitting

Here's the second square from April Afghan Sunday. It's the Hanna Burns square, a.k.a. "the DNA square."



In the magazine photo of this square, the garter stitch borders clearly flare; and no wonder, since they are worked on 62 stitches with size 8 needles! I worked 48-stitch upper and lower borders, and the square is quite true. The central braid really draws in a lot, so I worked border increases/decreases about every other stitch in that section. Fidgety business: As usual for me, I ended the lower border with a RS increase row, then worked a WS foundation row; I also began the upper border with a RS decrease row, working decreases into cable crossings.

Some knitters find it confusing that the righthand "DNA strand" (Chart B) begins with Row 1 but the lefthand strand begins with Row 17. The tricky bit, for the spatially challenged, is to realize that when you are working on the wrong side, those positions are reversed. So for the second row of the patterned section, you have to work Row 18 of the chart for the first strand you come to, then work Row 2 for the second strand. Fidgety business: The only time this threw me was when I was working the WS foundation row; I should have worked Row 16 first and then Row 32, but I got them backwards on the first try and had to tink.

The square was a little narrow before blocking (11 1/4"), so I stopped a bit short in length also (11 1/2") to keep the proportions square, and it wet-blocked to 12" x 12" very nicely.

The consistency hobgoblin demands that I riff for a while on working all the 1/1 twists in such a manner that no individual stitches end up twisted. Here are my methods:

1/1 RT: This one is okay as written, but it's hard on my right wrist. I prefer to sl 2 tog kwise, then transfer both sts back to LH needle (this exchanges the positions of the 2 stitches and also changes their mount direction). K1 tbl twice.
1/1 LT: Sl 1 pwise, Sl 1 kwise, then transfer both sts back to LH needle (this changes the mount direction of the second stitch; otherwise it would get twisted by being worked through the back loop). Now with RH needle behind work, k 2nd st tbl, then k 1st st in front loop.
1/1 RPT: Also okay as written, but I like to sl 2 tog kwise, transfer both sts back to LH needle (as for the RT), K1 tbl, P1 tbl.
1/1 LPT: Reverse the mount of the second stitch as for a 1/1 LT. Now with RH needle behind work, p 2nd st tbl, then k 1st st in front loop. (BTW, it's much easier to dig out that purl stitch once it's been turned around, too.)

One last remark: Those strands aren't actually helixes. They don't spiral, they merely rotate one direction and then the other, because the twists in Row 13 and 29 go opposite directions. If you want them to truly spiral, replace the left twist in Row 29 with a right twist.

Mad as a March square

I'm surprised that the Barbara McIntire square didn't make the "Five Easiest" list. I've found it to be the easiest square of the lot. Yeah, there are a lot of cable crossings, but there are no other techniques required: no moss or seed stitch, no bobbles, and certainly no calisthenics with multiple double pointed needles. All the wrong side rows are "rest rows": knit the knits, purl the purls. And the two major charts even have the same number of rows.

I did have to go down a size from the suggested #8 needles in order to keep the square from turning out too wide. And I added four rows to the beginning of the central Saxon braid so that it would turn out vertically centered, but you already knew I was funny that way.


The other featured square for March was the Ada Fenick square. Can you believe I actually knit something according to the directions for a change? It was a little challenging to keep my place when working the ground and sky sections, but none of the techniques were difficult. And I really like those monster-bobbles.

I read a great hint on Ravelry about knitting from charts: use colored highlighters or pencils to shade each cable, then shade the corresponding instructions in the written directions with the same color. I'm too lazy to actually do this (I'm frequently too lazy to place a stitch marker when I should, and usually pay for it), but it's a terrific idea.

And there might be brownies

Here's a little advanced warning: at the March afghan squares meeting, I'm featuring the Barbara McIntire square (easy) and the Ada Fenick square (this one required careful attention, but the stitches themselves aren't too hard). I'll post photos and reviews later, but if anyone wants to get started on the McIntire square, let me warn you that I had to go down a needle size.

Meanwhile, I've been salivating over a borrowed copy of The Principles of Knitting. I saw an article about this tome in a recent issue of Vogue Knitting and knew it was the knitting book I had wanted all my life. However, since I can't really afford to spend $200 for it, I had my spouse request it as an ILL (interlibrary loan). So now at least I can study it for six weeks. Then I'll wait impatiently for the new edition that's supposed to be released in 2009.

I confess I'm inordinately proud that I know a bar increase method which isn't in the book.

Off with their heads

Here is the Jay Campbell square, also from February. It is knit from the outside edge to the center. I followed the instructions as written. It's not quite square even after blocking, but it will be fine sewn into the finished afghan. The center puffed up like a volcano before blocking, so I would recommend decreasing on round 41, especially for anyone using synthetic yarn.

I didn't like the particular bobble in the instructions; one could easily substitute another bobble (perhaps the one from the Vicki Sever square). And the three consecutive bobbles on round 35 didn't lie very well, and had to be poked severely into place during blocking. Moving the center bobble down to round 35 might work better.

Fidgety business: There is no compensation for cable splay anywhere in the design. See how the edges ruffle a bit? That's because there are no increases at the bottom of the cables. I don't like the way the three-strand braids fan out at their tops, either. I will probably re-knit this square later and do a major re-engineering job. It will be tricky because any new increases and decreases have to balance out; otherwise the number of rounds in the square will be affected, and I don't want to cut off the top of the the stylized figure's head!

The unholy trinity

The Ginette Belanger square was featured at the February meeting of the River Wools blocks-of-the month group. I like the look of trinity stitch (the bumpy side panels), but I don't enjoy working it. The double increases are hard on my wrist, and if you make a mistake, there's usually no way to fix it except by ripping out.

As with the Levy square, I cast on 54 stitches instead of 48.

Fidgety business: I ended the bottom border on the RS instead of the WS, then worked a foundation row using the last row of each chart in its proper location. In other words: K3, work Row 4 of Chart A over 22 sts, work Row 24 of Chart B, work Row 4 of Chart A over 22 sts, K3.

I also stopped a few rows early; I didn't work the last set of Chart B rows 1-4. However, as with the Levy square, I worked the cable twists for Row 1 into the first row of the top border.

Square one

The Julie Levy square was the first Great American Afghan square featured at the January River Wools blocks-of-the-month meeting (the one I missed due to flu). I actually knit it twice, since my yarn order for the afghan hadn't come in yet. This is the second version, out of Cascade 220 Superwash. My first version came out rather oversized, so I went down a needle size for the second version.

I'm adjusting the number of stitches in the bottom and top garter borders for several of the squares. The directions for this square called for casting on 48 stitches; however, other squares (with the same suggested needle size) called for casting on as many as 60 stitches! Since my garter stitch gauge is about 18 sts/4", I cast on 54 stitches instead. That meant I only needed to increase 22 stitches in the last row of the bottom border. Likewise, I decreased 22 stitches in the first row of the top border.

Fidgety business (for the truly obsessive only): I ended the center section two rows early (on row 13 of Chart A). However, as I knit the first row of the top border (a RS row), I worked the cable crossings from the next row of the Charts, except all in knit stitches. Why? Two reasons: First, the square was getting a little bit tall, and this let me shave 2 rows off. Second, I think this matched the transition out of the bottom border better. As a bonus, since this was the decrease row, I hid some of the decreases in the cable crossings.

The start of something big

I recently started the Great American Aran Afghan and am leading a two-blocks-a-month support group at River Wools. Unfortunately, I had the flu (yes, the real thing, with ten days of fevered misery and a cough I still haven't quite gotten rid of) during the first meeting at the end of January. I had completed the Julie Levy square just before I got sick, using Universal Yarns Classic Worsted. I'm actually knitting the afghan out of Cascade 220 Superwash, but it hadn't arrived yet when I needed to start the January samples.

February's blocks will be the Ginette Belanger square and the Jay Campbell square. I've finished the knitting and I'll post photos and comments on those soon.