5S: nostalgia knitting in the future

I've been beavering away on Christmas knitting lately,  none of which I can show you.

I can show you this though:

The late-for-spring shawl on the blocking boards. The short sides are now about the width of a queen-size bed (which is what the blocking boards are laying on, that's how I know). Yep, huge. I have 900 yards of yarn in a dark green colorway, so there will be another huge shawl project in my future.

Here's a closer view of one side:

I can also show you the yarn for a future sock-knitting project:

Look familiar?

No?

How about when it's knit up into a swatch?

Still no?

Final clue:

The colorway is called Time Traveler, from Knit Picks' Felici line, and I could not resist it.

Tom Baker was my first Doctor. I started watching the show with my dad back in the early 80s - a fun kind of father-daughter bonding time. I even remember our collective gasp when Tom Baker regenerated into Peter Davison (whom I also thought made a darn good Doctor).

I'd knit this up into socks for Dad, but he's not one for brightly colored footwear. However, there is a TARDIS pattern, in a more guy-friendly dark blue, so I might make those for him.

I'm itching to start knitting this yarn into socks, but I'm waiting until I've finished my Christmas knitting. I just got Clara Parkes' new book, The Knitter's Book of Socks, and there are several patterns in there that I might use for these socks. One pattern is called "Firefly," which amuses me, because really, would there have been a Firefly series without Doctor Who? Particularly when it comes to the humor in the latter series? There's also a pattern called "Salted Caramels," which is probably as close as we'll get to a Jelly Babies pattern, I think.

As for a nickname for this sock project, I'm leaning toward Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey socks, just as a nod to the newer incarnations of the series, which I've also enjoyed. I'm open to suggestions, though. Maybe Allons-y socks? Or Still-Not-Ginger socks? What do you think?

And here's a bit 'o trivia: Clara Parkes and I have the same birthday. We also share a birthday with fictional detective Albert Campion (and his creator), ably portrayed by the above-mentioned Peter Davison. Heh heh, these socks are going to be heavy with connections.

music mapping

Warning: This post contains Cello Geekery. If that's not your thing, I won't be offended if you choose to look for something else to read.

I haven't written a cello post in awhile. No particular reason, other than I'm carrying on in the roll-up-your-sleeves-for-the-long-slog bit of transitioning from a beginner to an intermediate cello student. I'm starting to work on what my teacher calls "real music" (ie, not just little exercises and etudes that are meant for technique practice and don't necessarily sound nice or like real music...or something).

My current piece is La Cinquantaine. I've read Michael's blog posts on this piece, and he kindly put together a master list of stuff to wrassle with when learning it. I think #6 is my favorite. And also #4. I printed the list and taped it to the wall next to my music stand.

In addition to my cello lessons, Ben has been coaching me in music theory. I won't pretend that I thoroughly understand it all, but I get the gist (usually), and now we're starting to apply it to "real music," so the concepts are starting to make sense.

We're at that part of theory that gets into the nuances of structure and form, and I got a real-time demonstration when Ben mapped out Cinquantaine for me:

(I suggest clicking for big if you want to read it.)

Basically, the piece has two main sections (A and B) with sub-sections (a,a1, b, b1, c, etc.). The numbers represent measures, and there are key changes as well.

This map helps with practicing since I can practice in chunks and apply the practice techniques elsewhere in the piece where similar patterns show up. I can also add the bowing pattern as another layer on the map for hyper-analytical kicks.

I'm fascinated with this music mapping concept because it reminds me so much of novel outlining (at least the way I do it). If you wander through a novel without any sort of scrutiny, you miss so much. A novel is made up of chapters. Chapters are made up of scenes. Scenes are made up of layers of description, action, and dialogue. You can structure the pace of a novel by the patterns you put into each scene in a chapter - action that builds to a climax, dialogue that starts out innocently and rises to an argument or a revealing of secrets, narration/description/explanation that slows things down and orients you to the setting and the situation.

Musical structure can show you the same thing - how the composer is carrying the listener, as well as the musician, along to keep both interested, settle you into patterns, change the patterns for interest, and bring you home with a satisfying ending (Ben was explaining circle progressions to me - vi-ii-V-I).

I'm looking forward to more music mapping. The Breval Sonata is in my near future (hint hint, could do with another list for that one, Michael).

5S: finished objects!

No idea how I managed to miss posting last week. To make up for it, you get a two-fer this week.

First, the late-for-spring shawl is off the needles!

Here it is unblocked:

It has a wingspan of 55 inches, and a length of 26 inches from top middle to bottom tip. That means when it's blocked, it will be far larger than that (read: HUGE!). That's the idea though - it's meant to be shawl to wrap up in in the winter.

This took about one and three-quarters skeins of yarn. I still have another skein and the leftover quarter, so I can probably get another smaller shawl out of what's left.

I also finished the fallberry scarf:

Blocking really makes the pattern pop out. The Cascade 220 Sport Superwash has a nice drape to it. I've got more of it in a beige color, so that will be another scarf at some point.

Loved the pattern - easy but interesting, and it knit up quickly.

I am well into Christmas knitting, so knitting posts may be skimpy for awhile because the recipients of my Christmas knitting read this blog, so I won't be able to post progress pictures until after the holidays. Posting will also be skimpy in November because I'm participating in NaNoWriMo, and will be attempting to write 3000 words a day, which is double my usual daily word count. My hands are going to be very tired by the end of this year.

October is for outlining

Fall never fails to put me in the mood to nest. All I want to do is make a lot of soup, knit, and write. And now that I'm ensconced in the Treehouse, I see a lot of squirrels burying food (and also unburying it) and birds landing on the windowsills to show off to the cats the latest twig or piece of straw they've found. The cats "ack ack ack" at them, in what sounds like some sort of conversation or approval.

I've worked on writing all summer, although I've blogged more about knitting than anything else lately, now that I think about it, and I've got several things close to publishing. It's the formatting and front cover stuff that is a real slog and slows things down, and I have a bad habit of doing major edits as I clean up formatting problems. Probably why I've not blogged about it - how many interesting ways are there to say "wrote x number of words this week, revised x number of scenes this week?"

A couple of weeks ago, I had several story ideas brewing, so I started outlining. If it does nothing else, outlining tells me if the ideas would be novel length or short story length. This is helpful because if I start writing a story assuming it will be a novel and then things run dry, it's frustrating trying to find more story to tell, when in fact the idea may have been better suited to a short story all along. If I can figure out ahead of time which story type it is, then the writing process is a lot less stressful.

Anyway, after some outlining, it looks like I have another novel and several short stories. Seeing as November will be here in a minute, I think I will write the rough draft of the novel as part of National Novel Writing Month. And I think I'm going to increase my word count goal.

NaNoWriMo considers a draft of a novel to be 50,000 words. This is based on the program founder's oh-so-scientific analysis of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (the thinnest book on his bookshelf), which is about that length. However, the average amount of words for most novels is more like 90,000, but 50,000 probably sounded more do-able when he first got the idea for this project. I admit that when I participated in NaNoWriMo for the first time in 2005, 50,000 words in a month seemed impossible, and yet I did it with a day to spare while working full-time and going to a week-long medical conference.

I've participated several times since then and have yet to miss the 50,000-word mark, but I always feel like I only have half a novel written, so I usually spend December writing the other half. To write 50,000 words in 30 days, you need to write a minimum of 1667 words a day. Now that I've done it several times, I don't find this to be a difficult daily task. So I thought I'd try to write 90,000 words in November, which is 3000 words a day (if I did the math right). It's more of a challenge since it's nearly double the usual word count, but I think it's still possible. And I can get an entire novel drafted in one month instead of two.

This year's NaNoWriMo project will be a doozy. A Southern gothic tale, into which I can still include some of my beloved magical realism, along with tragedy, family secrets, an abandoned abbey, and other juicy stuff. I may go for all-out decadent with this one, just for kicks.

I'm not sure where the story idea came from. I've read Southern gothic novels in the past, so I'm familiar with the genre, but it's not been my recent reading. I read The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood in one sitting two Saturday mornings ago. I'm also reading the second Claude Izner novel. I'm listening to a radio adaptation of Brideshead Revisited. And I'm working my way through Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South. I saw the BBC adaptation several years ago (my introduction to Richard Armitage, who was unbearably good as a dark, smouldering, and tempermental John Thornton), and I'd wanted to read the book ever since. I like it so far. It reminds me of Pride and Prejudice in its plot points, but with a layer of Dickens-like illustration of and commentary on the suffering of the working poor as the age of industrialization gets more of a grip on the nation, not to mention the string of deaths that occur. P&P was published 40 years before N&S, so possibly Gaskell read it and/or used it as a model - although she's more closely associated with the Brontes than with Austen - and apparently Dickens edited the magazine in which N&S was serialized, so he may have had some influence on its writing.) Fascinating reading, whatever its origins and influencers.

So, 3000 words a day, every day, in November. I'll post daily word counts on Twitter, which you should be able to see in the right-hand side bar here on the blog (if you scroll down a bit). I might do quick weekly posts to tell you about my agony, er, progress. We'll see...

5S: purple project

Scarf/Shawl/Sock/Sweater Saturday (or Sunday)

I finished the Fallberry scarf yesterday afternoon. I even soaked it and pinned it out. Twenty-four hours later, it's still slightly damp, so I don't want to unpin it yet.

I'm still slogging through the middle section of the late-for-spring shawl, but I'm nearing the end of that.

Instead, I've got another of my startitis projects to show you.

This is the beginning of the Stacy Shawl by Wendy Johnson, from her new book.

The pattern calls for DK weight yarn, but I'm using worsted weight, which is slightly thicker. I've got just over 500 yards of it. The yarn was recycled from a sweater, and is 100% wool. I love the color. Since this shawl won't be worn next to the skin, I'm not worried about the scratchiness of the yarn. In other words, it's a layering piece that would go over other clothes.

The picture above represents the first of four charts. I got through it in an evening. It's an interesting pattern in that it starts at the top middle and is worked outward toward the bottom edge.

The only problem I'm having with it is that I'm always two stitches short on the right-side rows. I poked around on ravelry, and found a post from someone else who had the same problem. However, there's no explanation as to how to fix it. So I'm winging it by adding a stitch where needed. So far, it seems to be a good solution.

I've also altered the middle section. Rather than a yarnover spine (yarnover, knit 2, yarnover) as shown in the original, I'm just knitting the four stitches, which you can see in the picture above. I'm not going to do the bottom border from the pattern either. I might just do plain garter stitch instead.

There are two other shawls in the book that I want to make, and I already have the yarn for them in my stash. It's definitely going to be a stash-busting winter.

5S: sushi sweater starter

Scarf/Shawl/Sock/Sweater Saturday (or Sunday)

October 1, and the weather is appropriately chilly and brisk. Fall knitting season has begun!

I, um, anticipated it (ie, gave in to startitis) by making a swatch for a cardigan early last month (a cardigan is a type of sweater, so I'm counting it as an S - my blog, my rules).

I had some Knit Picks Merino Style DK weight yarn in the Edamame colorway in my stash. It's a cleverly named colorway, I think. It looks like the color of steamed soybeans. It also reminds me of the horseradish you get with sushi (hence the Sushi Sweater nickname).

I hunted for a pattern on ravelry, found one I liked, and cast on for the swatch.* If I have to adjust needle size to get gauge, I usually only have to go up or down one size. This time, it was more like four needle sizes, which seemed odd to me and resulted in a swatch of overly loose-looking stitches. I didn't like the way it looked at all.

I did more research on ravelry and started reading posts by other knitters who had made this project. Apparently, the yarn the test knitter used for the prototype was a worsted weight yarn, even though it was labeled DK weight (DK is thinner than worsted). Lots of knitters were using true DK weight yarn and were having the same gauge-getting problems I was.

I had a choice: I could change out the yarn for a worsted weight yarn so I could still use the pattern, or I could change the pattern so I could still use the DK weight yarn. I chose the latter option.

Back to pattern searching on ravelry. Found another pattern I liked, double-checked that DK weight yarn would work, and swatched again. (I just added to the previous swatch, but with a different needle size.)

I'm still working on a 4 x 4 swatch of garter stitch just to be sure, but so far, the gauge is correct.

This is the Greenfield Cardigan by Melissa LaBarre from the book New England Knits. Top-down (meaning start at the neck), garter stitch, with a nice leaf motif along the bottom for some visual interest and to break up all that garter stitch. And the prototype is green, so I have a fair idea of what mine will look like in a similar colorway.

I'm going to make the neck slightly more narrow, and I'm going to make full-length sleeves. I don't look good in three-quarter sleeves - they make my arms look stubby. I may do buttons all the way down.

I'm hoping this knits up as fast as I think it will.

I'm also nearly done with the Fallberry scarf and the Late-for-Spring shawl. Hope to show one or both of those off the needles and blocked next week.

*For non-knitters, a swatch is 4-inch by 4-inch (or preferably larger) sample knitted piece using the yarn and needles you intend to use for a larger project. Patterns list a suggested yarn weight and needle size. You knit a sample with those to see what you get and adjust from there.

A swatch serves three purposes. First, it lets you see how the yarn you've chosen knits up, so you can decide sooner rather than later if you like how it looks and if the yarn or needles annoys you in any way. Nothing worse than bitching your way through an entire project because you don't like the materials you' re using. All that frustration ends up knitted into the garment and gives it bad energy, so you don't want to see it or wear it, even after all the work you put into it.

Second, you can try out any stitch patterns used in the garment to get a sense of how easy or hard they are, and if you like doing them. You'll be committed to doing them on a larger area if you decide to go ahead with the pattern, so best to find out early what you're in for.

Third, a swatch helps you determine gauge - how many stitches per inch you get with a certain yarn weight and needle size combination. This is important when you choose the size of garment you're going to make. Most knitted garment patterns will list what the gauge should be for the sizes of that project. However, gauge is individual to the knitter - some knit more tightly or loosely than others. So whoever knit the prototype for the pattern then used their gauge for all the measurements and stitch counts listed in the pattern.

Bottom line: you must get the gauge listed in the pattern to have any hope in Hades of a properly sized garment. If you have too many stitches per inch compared to the listed gauge in the pattern, your garment will end up bigger. Fewer stitches per inch compared to listed gauge will make the garment smaller. To get it just right, you often have to go up or down a needle size or two (or more) depending on how tightly or loosely you knit compared to the test knitter.

Lots of things affect gauge. If you're tense or tired when you knit your swatch, you may end up knitting more tightly or loosely than you normally do. If the pattern's test knitter used wood needles, and you're using plastic or metal needles, the drag of the yarn on the different needle types may cause slightly more or less yarn to get into each stitch. If the prototype was made with wool yarn, and you're using acrylic or cotton or some sort of fiber blend, the stretchiness, or lack thereof, of the yarn can change the gauge.

A swatch tells you volumes before you even start in on the project proper. Always worth doing, as it helps you avoid a lot of frustration and gives you a sense of what the project will be like.