An entry dedicated to knitting ONLY

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Left: Rowan Tapestry for the Japanese Cape Sweater. Ordered from yarn.com. I'm back into neutrals again. The color is "Country" with bands of the softest greens and browns. Beautiful.

Middle: Brown Sheep's Wildfoote sock yarn. Purchased from a yarn store in Taos this past weekend. It had teeny tiny selection, but this is the first time I've heard or seen this sock yarn. Two different colored yarn plied together. Cheap too! 200+ yards of superwash wool and nylon for just over $6. I couldn't resist. Like the name too. So old English. I'm going to name my next cat or child Wildfoote. Whichever comes first.

Right: Trekking XXL also from yarn.com. I ordered this before I came upon the Wildefoot. They look kind of similar, but there are more colors in Trekking, and it's softer. I've never worked with it before so I'm curious. It's destined to become a pair of man socks.

The pottery mug: It's Duck's handsome new coffee mug, handmade and handpainted at Rainbow Gate. We found this beautiful store over the weekend and my mom went beserk. She looooves pottery. Turns out, I do too. We were there for over an hour and she bought a very nice dinner set for six in all the colors of the rainbow. Duck picked out the goose mug, I picked out a few things as gifts, but nothing for myself because I couldn't make up my mind, mesmerized into indecision by all the different combinations of colors and paintings. There were a few mugs with cats on them, you'd think that would be a no-brainer, but I am more into REAL cats than I am into painted cats or cat whatever knick-knacks. Just so you know.

ANYway...

Ripple Weave Socks and Correction
Tell me the truth. Can you discern the ripple pattern in this sock?

I've used the Wildefoot for the Ripple Weave sock from Fall 06 Vogue Knitting. It might be a bad choice. :(

By the way, there's an error in the chart, which I haven't seen a correction for on the website yet. The 3rd row should look like this:

 

Capelet Sweater, or A Lot of Number Crunching That May Not Interest You
Thanks to Japanese reader Izumi for helping me to further make heads or tails of the Cape Sweater pattern. It is the total antithesis of Debbie Bliss patterns which are all words and no charts. This is all charts and even though I can pick out the basic words, the numbers still don't add up...

The top image are instructions for decreases the cape portion, worked bottom-up. According to Izumi, 31~1 for example means, "On row 31, decreases 1 stitch once."

But there are 4 numbers total. Bear with me here as I think while I type:

31 ~ 1 ~ 10 ~ 1

First number (31) indicates row, second number (1) indicates stitch, fourth number (1) indicates how many times. What I don't know is what the third number (10) is for. Is it stitch position? If so...

The chart below is the charted version (I believe) of the decrease instructions. Green portion is for my particular pattern. If 10 means 10th position, on the chart it looks like you do a decrease after knitting 16 stitches. And then there is a little note that I think says you repeat the *k16, dec* pattern 9 times.

The numbers aren't adding up.

OH WAIT!!!!!!!! Epiphany as I'm typing this! The numbers do add up! That 3rd number tell you how many times to repeat the decrease. You are really repeating that decrease on Row 31 10 times in all! The chart illustrates the first K16, dec. Then another K16, dec and that is where it says to repeat that 9 times. So 10 in all. OK so that is what the 10 means.

YES? Hmm I'm still not 100% sure....Like if the 2nd number tells you how many stitches to decrease, and 3rd number tells you how many times to do it, what's the point of the 4th number now?

And, why does the second dec. instruction say

24 ~ 1 ~ 11 ~ 1

while on the chart the second repeat row begins on Row 55?

But 79 rows in all MINUS 55 = 24.  So 24 on the chart means 24th from the top? But 31 doesn't mean 31st from the top...Whut.  

And what's with the multiple dec instructions for Row 8? (Or is that 8th row from the top?) (ERGH)

Heh, are you even following me at this point?

OH WAIT ANOTHER EPIPHANY! The math also works out this way: 31 + 24 = 55. The first number is the number of rows to work AFTER THE LAST ROW YOU DECREASED. So after row 31, work 23 more rows straight, then decrease on the next (24th) row. Or in other words, decrease on row 55 as illustrated in the chart.

YES!

Dang. I'm spent. Too many ways to write the same thing. Might have been easier for me to ignore the words and just follow the chart.

Just like it's better for you to ignore the words here and just stick to the photos. That's what I would've done anyway.

I LOVE NEW MEXICO
OK I lied about keeping this entry to knitting. Just look at these bizarre rock formations.

We took my parents to the Kasha Katuwe Tent Rocks. It was an AWESOME surprise, and is now my favorite U.S. park. Better than Bandelier (which is just next to it), better than Zion, and possibly better even than the Grand Canyon!? Maybe it's apples and oranges. I say that only because Tent Rocks is accessible, small, but still incredible. And not overrun with other tourists. 

I've never seen such rock formations. It is ODD. We were able to hike into it, at some points the foot trail was no wider than your foot, rock walls soared and closed in all around you, it was intimate and breathtaking. It takes a lot of effort to actually go into and especially to hike the Grand Canyon. With the Tent Rocks, you drive a few miles from the city and BAM you're right into the thick of it. We're going to make this regular, after-work hike.

Man. I can tell it's going to be hard to leave when the time comes. I'm working on convincing Duck we need to stay an extra week than he thinks we do.

Comments [14]
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Wednesday, September 27, 2006 3:04:24 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
The Tent Rocks are cool! I haven't been there yet. Hmm.

I'm not a big Wildfoote fan. Maybe it's different now, but 4 years ago when I knit with it, it had an amazing amount of thick'n'thin variation, which drove me nuts in a sock yarn.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006 3:07:37 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
There's a couple of things we have in common here - we are both knittint the same socks and I am thinking to knit the Capelet sweater. So, I am glad that you have gotten help from your Jap reader cos I will have a hard time working out the pattern myself.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006 3:57:32 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
I love love love trekking. It's glorious stuff - it knits up so beautifully, the color changes are so fun. In fact, I need more of it.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006 4:04:13 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
I used Wildfoote for my first pair of socks. Sure it's cheap, but I found it very splitty and did not like the resultant fabric. Several Eucalan baths did not help. I hope you have better luck with it.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006 5:01:52 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
What yarn store did you go to in Taos? Was it LaLana Wools? We were in Santa Fe over the weekend, with a quick stop to Taos on the way. Unfortunately LaLana was closed once we got there, but I didn't know if there were any other yarn shops in town. I definitely will be back to Santa Fe as soon as life allows me!!
Wednesday, September 27, 2006 6:33:05 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
It's like being on another planet at Tent Rocks, isn't it?

SO!! Are you going to come knit with me & Scout or what? Do we have to drive up to Santa Fe? ;)
Wednesday, September 27, 2006 7:04:01 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
The Japanese way...I'm taking a course in knitting in the Japanese way and I have to write those types of instructions! I think it is more confusing to come from your angle. Although we don't do it quite that way. Three numbers only. Good luck with your capelet. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing it. And your photos of the desert are like dessert.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006 8:16:37 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
I got lost with the number part but Tent Rocks! My family LOVES that place.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006 9:16:15 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Hi!
I'm a Japanese knitter and I have that book too.
I am a Japanese, but I am sometimes confused with the numbers. And you are right. You have to decrease on 31st row ~ 1 stitch ~ 10 times ~ only once. The 4th number indicates how many times to repeat the set. If the 4th number is 2, you have to do the same decreases on 62nd row again.
Well...I hope my poor explanation doesn't confuse you....
Thursday, September 28, 2006 6:56:50 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
I may be in the minority here, but I'm wearing my Wildfoote socks today and I love them. I think they get softer with every washing (I just throw them in the washer with our regular clothes and detergent, and line dry).

Nice blog! I've been enjoying your New Mexico photos.
Thursday, September 28, 2006 10:33:01 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Wow, the sky is soooo blue there! absolutely gorgeous. I'm glad y'all are having a good time in Santa Fe!
I think the Ripple Weave pattern does get a little lost in that particular yarn. That Tapestry yarn is going to be great for your Cape Sweater! Can't wait to see it!
Thursday, October 26, 2006 4:03:33 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Oh, I'm *so* glad I searched for the Ripple Weave chart online and found you. I *knew* the chart in the magazine looked funny, but I probably would have tried it anyway and wasted hours of knitting time convincing myself it looked right.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006 2:54:10 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
I hope it notifies you of this comment so you can stay apprised. Someone a while back wrote a blog post about how to read Japanese knitting charts. I'm trying to find it, for like, the third time. If I do, I will post it here. The way they explained it made PERFECT sense.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006 2:58:54 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
This is the best I can come up with, but it should offer quite a bit of help:

http://www.clearwaterknits.com/charting/jpchart2.html

and even better:

http://www.tata-tatao.to/knit/graphchart/e-index.html

These may even be what I was thinking of, but I could swear some blogger wrote a huge technical post about reading Japanese pattern charts.
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