Gailia Chive Chicken Viking

A longtime friend has a character called Gailia Chive who performs cooking skits. I am knitting up a couple Chicken Viking hats for her and another friend. I'm definitely making one in yellow and another in amber. It's a nice break to do a small, portable project.

Virgin Tiger Moth Shawl Update

Here are photos of the shawl so far. I just finished knitting the base shawl two days ago. It took seven skeinc of Patons Chunky Shetland Tweed in Charcoal Grey. I started with seven stitches and increased every other row until I had 228 stitches and ran out of yarn. The borders are in seed stitch. The photo on the left shows the shawl laid out with a temporary gridwork to help me place the graphic. The vertical lines are placed every 10 columns. I also have markers placed vertically every 25 rows. The phot0 on the left shows my "pixellated" photo of a Virgin Tiger Moth. The actual chart is about 220 stitches by 70 rows, which does not fit the shawl exactly. I have done a sketch, in pencil of a moth on a graph that is closer to the dimensions of the knit piece. Between the two diagrams, I am duplicate stitching the insect graphic. I have just started on the head and will next outline the abdomen. From there, I will work the wings on either side.



The triangular shape reminded be of Art Nouveau and Art Deco jewelry, which I just love. The only problem I have with this project is that I can't make it scientifically accurate. I've been wrestling with the charts the entire time I spent knitting the shawl and simply couldn't work that part out practically.

Integrated Circuit to be Knit

I've been playing with this idea for a long time. The photo shows a circuit board (prob. computer motherboard) and a "pixellation" of a small portion of a circuit board. When I originally started swatching this idea, I intended to knit a diagram for a functional circuit or PCB. The diagram for that got unwieldy- fast. Besides, that, my knowledge of electronics is long unused. Some of it is coming back. Still, I don't know enough to guarantee knitting a circuit board without major mistakes. Instead, I am knitting something that evokes a circuit board. It'll be fun. I can figure out what works in terms of knitting and my patience. Along the way, I have friends (EE's) who design and work with circuit boards. They will offer me major criticism and advice. Once the bugs are worked out, the next project might resemble a working circuit. A major problem is that of scale. Integrated circuits are SMALL. A lot fits into a small area. Knitting expands this like looking through a magnifier. So far, I have a number of graphs to work with after they have been cleaned up. From those first graphs, I hope to develop some kind of repeat pattern that could be extended over a large area of knitting. Integrated circuits don't work like that at all. They are much more specific. I'll deal with that later.......

Virgin Tiger Shawl

The shawl is in progress. It's a simple triangular shawl knit on a 40" circular needle, size 10. The yarn is Paton's Shetland Chunky Tweed is in Charcoal, otherwise known as "light black". I've got 6 or 7 skeins of the stuff and it's drafty in my living room. Shawls have been on my mind in the current cold snap. The shawl is approximately half done. At least I've used up about half the yarn. The current size is about 40+ inches wide at the top and 20 inches deep at the point. I saw a photo of a virgin tiger moth and decided to incorporate it into the shawl. I can't remember which came first. I bought the yarn months ago. The shape of the shawl said "Lepidopteran" (butterflies and moths). I started searching images and the Virgin Tiger Moth attracted me. The base color of the outer wings matches the yarn color. The abdomen and lower wings are a lovely red/orange color. All I have to do is figure out a layout. My original idea was to stitch in one large moth over the shawl body. Another possibility is to place several smaller moths over the shawl, perhaps in different positions. The final design will be determine by the final stitch and row count of the project, compared with my pixellated photos.

Virgin Tiger Moth

At left is a photo of two Virgin Tiger Moths. I think they are beautiful and hope to feature them on my current project. I'm knitting a triangular shawl in charcoal gray tweed yarn (Paton's Chunky Shetland Tweed), otherwise known as "light black". Whilst knitting, I searched out the moth photo and hope to stitch this critter onto the shawl. I have not yet figured out exactly how I will lay this out. I have graphs that will fit on the shawl. I have also figured out a great design that would work if I knit the shawl as a square. My needles are committed to a triangular shawl at this time. I am not frogging at this point. That could mean that I knit a second moth shawl.

Procrastination got me

I forgot to blog the last two things I knit. They are on the way to college to be stuffed into Andrew's closet...never to see the light of day.... At left is a photo of one project in progress. The other scarf was in mixed brown/gray shades knit lengthwise in linen stitch. I wanted to get photos on the recipient, but he was never awake during daylight/photo hours.

Snowblock

We got a lot of snow this past weekend- 20 inches. I got bored. Have no idea what possessed me. Part of the problem might have been that we we moving things around for the holidays. We also had a full house. My eldest son was home for winter break. That meant we suddenly had two teenaged boys lumbering around the house. Normally they'd be off in their respective corners, lairs, what-have-you, minding their own business. Add a day of enforced togetherness and snow to shovel and the system breaks down. Meanwhile, I've got this huge (20" X 72") red wrap that I knit which desperately needed blocking. The last thing I wanted to do was to get this thing dripping wet and then have to find a place to block it. We don't have the space available right now. What to do?
After about 24 hours of enforced togetherness, husband and older son just HAVE to go out to shop or do something. In the interval, the younger son begins to fret about needing photos for a class project. The subject was "texture". I suggest that we put my knitting out in the snow. My hope was that the fresh snow would dampen the knitting just enough to get it evenly wet without getting it completely sodden. I tossed the shawl out the front door and younger son spread it out for the first photo. After that, he took astick and churned it in the fresh powder until it was evenly coated. We popped the shawl into a gigantic plastic bag and let the snow melt inside for a few hours. When I took the knitting out, it was damp, but could probably have used a litttle more snow. At the moment, it's hanging in the bathroom to dry. It's stretched out a bit, but nothing dramatic has happened. It's a large enough project that i won't block it again until it needs a wash.