why, why, why???

I'm pretty sure I'm cured - I have both sleeves done as well as the back now. The side of my baby finger is almost raw because it sort of ends up resting/grabbing onto the top of the sinker posts as I flip that darn 7-prong tool up and over to drop off the stitches! and yes, some of the joy has gone out of the project...but I have to say, this stitch pattern is brilliant! There is just no going wrong with it and it seems like you'd have to be pretty distracted to make a mistake. That 7-prong tool measures everything out perfectly and so long as you remember there are never more than 3 needles out of work at a time, you're golden! And there are actually 6 rows where you do nothing but bring needles back to work - it's like a mini-vacay!
I will be so proud and relieved when I'm finished - but I'm warning you - if you ever see me wearing this thing you'd better be so overwhelmed at my talent, beauty and tenacity! and so complimentary of this sweater! (notice I'm calling it a sweater - I could turn it into a pullover - no hood, no front bands, no zipper...)

12 step...

Last month, I admitted that I had an addiction to that Battenburg stitch pattern (http://knitwords.blogspot.ca/2016/05/obsessive-compulsive-addictive.html ). Well, now I'm not so sure what I was addicted to. Was it the stitch pattern? Was it the yarn? Or was it my GFH? I have been wearing that natural-coloured one non-stop and although I am loving it, I feel that it didn't go far enough and I've been dreaming of making another one. I was contemplating my stash of Bonita - the pale blue (nah, it's never been my favourite shade - it actually has a dull, almost dirty cast to it and the other sweaters that I've made with it are mostly left on the shelf) or red (although I am totally partial to red, I do have a couple of good, serviceable red cardigans/hoodies at the moment) and then! I recalled that I've been hoarding 2 cones of black Bonita - I know, I never told you, sorry, but we all have our secrets!
Anyway, I thought, what better way to get this out of my system? Knit an entire GFH out of black Bonita using the Battenburg stitch pattern!! That should cure me!
I'll admit, it has taken me 4 days to complete the back and, yes, for me, that's like almost a year! But I have really tried to limit myself to no more than one full repeat (40 rows) at each sitting and I have been working on other things!
I'm really trying to break the GFH design - I'm going to use different bands! It will be more 'dressy' with all the open lace work so I thought the stockinette bands won't do it justice - I'm waffling between the shortrowed lace edging from 'Nougat', KW#49 and/or one of the 'XOXO' trims from 'Band Practice'. And I am trying to talk myself out of the hood, I promise! But I do think it would look really cool to have the casing fold line in the centre of the stitch pattern...

One-R-T...

I'm feeling the pressure! The 15th of the month is coming and I know I gotta do that red scarf thing and I hate to disappoint - I know you're anxious with anticipation and, I'd like to get it out of the way because I have other things to put on this machine. Rhiana, my granddaughter, was over the other day and asking for her panda sweater! I was hoping to put it off until the fall - thought it might be a back-to-school thing for her but she wants it now and was giving me a gentle reminder. I also figured she wouldn't like the yarn I chose - I thought it was going to be too green, not turquoise-y enough but she loved it! It's the same colour as her soccer uniform! What was I thinking? And, I have a couple of ideas for a new dress that I want to get to for going to DFW in October - don't worry, I am working on the Church Cardi so this is just in-betweens!
One-Row-Tuck - this is such a great technique, one of my favourties! It has a nice texture, looks good from either side and with the plain longstitch bands on each side to finish the edges automatically, I think it makes a nice scarf and a great learning project if you haven't tried either of these techniques. I think I've talked about both here (one row tuck and longstitch facings) before so do a search to find more if you're intrigued.
I have included my chosen stitch pattern here - if you want the DAK file, email me at knitwords@shaw.ca - I won't hold my breath though!
So here's the Red Scarf for Aids Awareness for June! I'm calling it

 'One-R-T Scarf for June'.

End needles on RB. Use number strip on RB to select needles, and count needle spaces on RB only. MB sts are included as they occur within outside RB needles. Either side can be right side. Pattern is tucking on MB to left and knitting all sts to right.
Program as below. Set cam lever to tuck.
Punchcard 24 sts X 48 rows, make as shown, making holes for grey squares and leaving white blank, adding double row of holes top and bottom to join card.
Circular Hem. Swing H5. Arrange for full needle rib, end ns on RB. Cast on WY. Knit several rows. Set to circular. T4/6, ravel cord, K2R. Move carriages to left without knitting. Bring ns all out. This will cancel the circular setting and make a zigzag row (without having to change the settings back and forth). MC, T2/2, K1R. Hang comb and one weight. RC000. Knit circular, grading tension by increasing one full number for each row to T8/10, RC014. Swing P. Transfer sts to MB, leaving outside end sts on RB for longstitch facings as directed. Swing H. Program pattern and use next row to read/select. T9/7, K1R. RC000. Set to tuck.

Plain Longstitch. The stitch is single bed tuck on the main bed, but longstitch self-facings require a few (6-7 at each side) sts on the rib bed. Knit with RB engaged. The longstitch is created by needles on RB knitting in one direction only, when carriage is passing to left in this case. MB, set as for pattern (tuck).
RB Settings for Longstitch:
Silver, left set lever 1,  right set lever 0.
Brother, left cam lever to N, right cam lever to PR.
Yarn: Yeomans Panama - I would stockinette this at T7 but with adding tuck, wanting the scarf to be soft and making the yarn to go further, I'm knitting the main bed at T9. The longstitch facing is variable depending on your yarn - I used 7 on the rib bed because they are knitting only every other row - try it out first of course ;-) - if the facing is too tight it will be shorter at the sides than the main fabric. If too loose it will curl inward.
SCARF: Bring 25-0-25 ns to work on main bed. Set to H5 and bring ns on ribber to work so outside ns are on ribber - one more than knit bed. Cast waste yarn in zigzag, hang comb and 1 large weight. Knit several rows, ending CAR. Switch to circular for the ravel cord, K2R. Move carriages to left and make hem as above to RC014. Transfer sts as above. Download pattern (read punchcard or set up for pattern knitting as above). Knit 600 rows or desired length (150 cm/5 ft), ending CAL after the plain row. Now, this is the only hard part - we need to get everything back in work to make the circular hem. Bring the rib bed needles to work to fill in between the facings. Not really hard, I should have said just a little bit of work. Set the ribber back to Swing P so the needles are directly opposite and using the single prong tool, hang the heel stitch from the main bed stitches on the opposite rib bed needle - you could just do a zigzag row at low tension over the whole thing and hope for the best - it will work, but won't look so great - your choice! After you have all the rib needles filled in, set to circular. T8/10, K2R. Grade tension down by one number to match beginning hem. RC014. Cancel circular. Zigzag, T7/7, K1R.
With WY, T5/5, K20R circular knitting. FNR, K2R. Remove from machine. Steam WY to set stitches. Remove last two rows to open the end. Fold waste yarn out. Using latch tool, start at side opposite to yarn end and chain cast off by picking up end stitch, put behind latch. Pick up next stitch from other side of WY and pull through. Continue going back and forth across row. At end, pull yarn end through to anchor. Remove waste yarn. Darn in ends.
Analysis: This was a very quick knit! I did find that yarn spray helped eliminate/reduce the clunking at the left side on every other row when the rib bed needles were needed. No close knit bar was required. I have used these techniques on multiple garments/patterns both in KNITWORDS and in my Serial Stuff series. I hope you love it as much as I do!
Red Scarf for Aids Awareness count: 7

what NOT to do...

Change your mind after you've made tons of swatches and not swatch again! What was I thinking? Why did I do that? Is this becoming my mantra?  Will I ever learn? Arrr-g-g-h-h-h!
Here I am, perking along on the Church Cardi, using this fabulous yarn (Cascade Ultra Pima) and loving it! I'm making the front band - it's 145 stitches wide, all hand-transferred, not really a big deal, but it's not exactly stockinette and for some reason I get adventurous and decide randomly to offset the second pattern...get it done, take  it off on waste yarn and it looks awful! a hodge-podge of stitches, fighting each other! or is it?
Glad I bought extra yarn! you know how I hate to unravel...I also believe in saving mistakes so you don't do them again!

duh...

Have you ever had one of those days where you catch yourself and say, 'why did I do that?' or 'why didn't I do that?'. I feel so silly and I apologize! I have had a few people ask me, how do I subscribe to your blog? and I say, well, there is a subscribe button at the bottom of the page and leave it at that. For some reason, last week, after another email, asking how, I took two minutes to do a bit of research and discovered this nice little 'add-a-gadget' feature that promises to take your email address and whenever I post something, it will automatically send you message to let you know there is something new! Go figure! Use it if you like! They promise not to bug you in any way and you won't miss out on the good stuff or get backlogged when I've been extra chatty!
While we are on the subject of 'duh?', I have to admit something else...for the past two weeks, I've been ripping my house apart, searching high and low for the KnitStyle magazine with my 'Bold Shoulder' design in it, which would have been #194...duh! I finally properly re-read my blogpost ( http://knitwords.blogspot.ca/2014/07/bad-news.html ) from that fatal day and it dawned on me! It was never published! The reason for my search - I had a great article about options for finishing techniques when using the knit side or the purl side as right side and I wanted to check what they finally said...nothing, obviously!
Did I say 'one of those days?' how about weeks? ;-)

obsessive, compulsive, addictive...

Can you be addicted to a stitch pattern? I mentioned the other day about making myself another Girlfriend Hoodie and how I had been meaning to do a knitted version of that purchased hoodie...well, another part of that was, upon finishing up my prototype of the Church Cardi, I was still totally in love with that Battenburg stitch pattern and it dawned on me that there was no need for a lot of useless experimenting, just use that pattern vertically up the sleeve of my new hoodie!

 The purchased hoodie has a vertical column of stitching and cut-outs on each sleeve and up the front, half on either side of the zipper. This will be so easy, I thought.
I banged out the sleeves in no time, just filling in bits of time here and there, you know, without really planning to spend the whole day at the machine.  I sat back and admired the sleeves, ignoring the little voice in the back of my mind that the 'floats', which are over 3 empty needle spaces, were going to be too long and would catch on things - I just didn't care, I was committed!
The next day, as I began knitting the pockets and fronts, I kept thinking, this will be done in no time, because the back will be totally plain and so will the hood. Well, when I cast on for the back, all of a sudden on row 2, without really thinking, virtually unconsciously, I began transferring for a single column of Battenburg to run up the back...what the?? oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound as they say and next thing I know I have this growing motif happening on the back like it has a life of its own! After I got 3 repeats wide, I tried to get it under control and cut back but I still couldn't stop until I got to the top, reasoning that no one would really be able to tell because the hood would hide some of it anyway.
As I started the hood, still planning on making it plain, I again found myself addictively hanging onto that 7-prong tool and not just making half of a repeat to run beside the drawstring casing, but doing a full one!
I love it! After machine washing and drying which I did to the first one (http://knitwords.blogspot.ca/2015/06/manfriend-hoodie-pattern.html ) and all the others I've made since (this is number 7) the strings/floats tightened up very nicely and it's all good!
I'm thinking, I could use one in pale blue (ha, ha! you caught me! I did add a pale blue and a red zipper when I ordered the ivory one - zipperstop.com)...but my yarn has come in for the Church Cardi!

archaeology...

I was digging up bones and my knitting room is littered with scraps of false starts! The red lace weight alpaca I was planning to use was either breaking randomly - not sure whether certain balls of that yarn were just like that - not very strong or what,  but my first attempt got me to about row 40 and then everything dropped. The next one, I got to about row 150 and it all fell because the yarn broke again. I then tried adding in a very thin spandex/lycra thread as a binder. The first one was ivory and it worked but the colour showed too much. I had a grey lycra that worked nicely and blended well, so I started again with that and got to about row 200 when the red alpaca broke halfway across, but I couldn't rehang from just the lycra. I abandoned that idea and yarn and switched to the red cotton from my last scarf (Quilted Northern). I was zipping along and about row 500 I messed up and instead of just switching the ribber tension dial, I flipped up the set lever (like for circular knitting -what was I thinking???) and on the second pass, it began dropping off the ribber stitches! Fudge, honey and sugar! I quit for the day!
I began again this morning with a fresh perspective and knocked the whole scarf off in an hour. It's pretty easy once you learn to count to 25 and you're fresh! There are built-in signals between times to change it up. There are always 5 rows of the pintuck, beginning on the right. Then, with the carriage at left, switch the rib dial back to main tension and set to tuck. The first row of each tuck section is a plain row and even if you forget to switch back to tuck it knits both beds anyway because of the plain row in the stitch pattern. The sound of the carriage should alert you to change. At the end of the 23 rows of  tuck patterning, there is another plain row, to eliminate any tucks and make the pintuck clean and you should notice a change in the sound the carriage makes between the tuck rows - the tick, tick tick of the tucks - and then solid, (no ticks) for the plain. So I'm calling the May ribber scarf:
Archaeology Scarf  (Red Scarf  for Aids Awareness)
Machine: 4.5mm standard gauge with ribber. Knit on Silver Reed 580/SRP60N
Yarn: red 2 ply (3/14) cotton,  2900m/350g (would be T2-3 stockinette) or any light weight yarn that knits a full needle rib comfortably.
Gauge: Not really critical but 50 sts and 60 rows of tuck and pintuck as above, T4/4 = 15 cm X 13 cm.
Insert close knit bar. See previous post for stitch chart.
Punchcard: punch in reverse to shown: make holes for all the white squares and leave black squares unpunched. Add double row of holes top and bottom to join card. SilverReed punchcard: Lock card on row 1. Read card. CAR. Unlock card. *Set cam lever to slip, side levers to triangle. T4/8, knit 5 rows ( rib bed only - makes pintuck); set cam to tuck, T4/4, K25R*. SilverReed electronic: make mylar as shown, lite #1 right is on, N1 cam at 0, point cams at edge of ns in work. *set to S/J (slip). T4/8, knit 5 rows ( rib bed only - makes pintuck); set cam to tuck, T4/4, K25R*. Brother electronic: enter as shown and use KHC light on, to select opposite needles for patterning. *Both slip buttons in. T4/8, knit 5 rows ( rib bed only - makes pintuck); set both tuck buttons in to tuck, T4/4, K25R*.
Repeat this *-* 30 row sequence throughout for all machines.

Bring 25-0-25 ns to work on main bed. Set to H5 and bring ns on ribber to work so outside ns are on ribber - one more than knit bed. Cast waste yarn in zigzag, hang comb and 1 large weight. Knit several rows, ending CAR. Switch to circular for the ravel cord, K2R. Cancel circular. RC000. Main yarn, T1/1, K1R. Rack to H4, T2/2, K1R. Rack back to H5. T3/3, K1R. T4/4, knit in FNR to RC010. CAR. Download pattern (read punchcard or set up for pattern knitting as above). Knit 840 rows or desired length (150 cm/5 ft) and end with last pintuck. FNR, T3/3, K7R. T2/2, K1R. T1/1, K1R, ending CAL. Transfer all to main bed. Measure out 3X width of ns in work, cut yarn and backstitch cast off (or do the one you like best from the previous scarves). Darn in ends.
If you have any questions or problems, please email me at knitwords@shaw.ca

Analysis: This is a very cool fabric, quite stretchy width-wise, compared to last one! I love the mixed textures and I'll be using it again for something, maybe a slouchy pullover in a lightweight cotton or alpaca - it has a good width to it and the resulting fabric is relatively thin and lightweight with good body...or I could break out the WCD again...
Red scarf for Aids Awareness count: 6