Excuses

Okay, okay. So this photo of an old, old finished project (the wall quilt is almost 20 years old!) Is just an excuse to get my cute little granddaughter's photo on my blog.


And speaking of excuses, a quick comment about the recent lack of Masters Monday posts.

• I've been very busy organizing a knitter's group in my area.
• I HAVE done a bit of work on the requirements each week but it hasn't been knitting or worthy of a photo.....(answering questions, researching techniques).
• I've had a migraine headache on both of the missed Masters Mondays (no, really!)
• I've been sidetracked trying to finish a sweater I shouldn't have started in the first place.

Good news though. I bought yarn for the Master Knitter's Level II vest today.

Masters Monday - 2.7

I have completed three more swatches this week. The description and labeling for them is done, and I have answered all the questions that relate to them.

Swatch 8 - Twisted Decreases (Blended)

Swatches 8 and 9 feature twisted decreases which are meant to be a little more visible and decorative than the usual decreases. I honestly don't think I would use them anywhere. I prefer decreases to be as inconspicuous as possible.

Swatch 9 - Twisted Decreases (Full Fashioned)

Swatch 10 - Central Double Decrease

The central double decrease is most commonly used at the centre of a V-neckline, or in lace patterns.

Masters Monday 2.3

Did you think I'd miss Masters Monday just because it was Christmas Eve? Nope. Actually I had all the work for this done last Monday but "saved" it for today's report because I knew it would be a busy week.

So.....I've found another UNsuccessful way to seam ribbing. *sigh* I suppose that could still be considered progress though.

I did this one by setting it up so I could seam down the centre of the selvedge stitches. One thing about this method, it can be used for tubular cast on which always ends in an uneven number of stitches. BUT....unfortunately I can't get it to look right. The seamed row of "stitches" has a sunken look that is way too obvious.

Back to the needles. I'll get this one yet!

I'm not likely to have time to post tomorrow, so to everyone who celebrates this holiday.....Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Masters Monday 2.2

Only one completed swatch this week. Much of my spare time has been swallowed up by Christmas preparations.

Edited to add: It has been pointed out that the seam is about half a stitch off, with the tops not matching. Yup. Back to the needles.

This is Swatch 4 - Single Rib (K1P1), a seaming exercise. I'm not all that pleased with it. I seamed it in the manner described in the Seaming article in "Cast On" magazine, and it is not my usual method. The article suggests using an even number of stitches and starting each piece of ribbing with a knit stitch so that you end up seaming a knit stitch and a purl stitch together (leaving the ribbing pattern intact), supposedly hiding the seam "in the ditch" of the two stitches. Because the magazine article so strongly recommended this method I went with it, but I'm having second thoughts.

I normally seam ribbing by starting with an uneven number of stitches, starting and ending both pieces with a knit stitch and seaming up the centre of these edge stitches (leaving the ribbing pattern unbroken). I find it makes a finer seam (less seam bulk, especially at cuff edges) and it still turns out neat and tidy. The "Cast On" magazine article says that the seam turns out messier, but I'm not sure that it does. I think this might be worth a bit of additional experimentation.

For readers' further consideration (are you still with me?), Maggie Righetti suggests a third method in her book "Sweater Design in Plain English". She says to add an additional knit stitch so that your single rib ends in K2 at one end. This lets you seam with a full stitch, but gives you that knit/purl "ditch" seam.

Masters Monday - To Be Continued

Friday was a Very Good Day. It was so good in fact that all the good news could not be contained in one blog post. As you may recall, I reached my running goal on Friday. The update on my "running ticker" at the top of my post was the most immediately visible good news, so I chose to focus on that and leave the rest for today.

So today I continue with a "Masters Monday" post according to the tradition I established earlier of reporting my progress on the program in each Monday's post.

Today's progress report:

I PASSED!

My Level 1 submission was returned Friday. ALL of my swatches were accepted, and according to the letter "It is highly unusual for all swatches to be accepted on the first try!". There were a few, very minor comments which I will point out by editing my earlier Masters Monday posts. If you are interested in viewing the suggestions for improvement you should be able to bring up a list of all related posts by typing "Masters Monday" or "swatches" into the blogs search bar.

The written work that I stressed over so much was accepted as well and was deemed "very thorough" and " well researched". In the questions section I had to resubmit PART of ONE of my answers due to a very dumb mistake. I can't believe I overlooked something as simple as a change in stitch count due to some increases. Kicking myself I tell ya, KICKING myself! But for that one small error I would have passed on the first try. Bah.

Anyway, because my only required resubmit was minor and involved a small portion of one answer, I was allowed to send my resubmit via email. I had my correction accepted by the following day.

Woo, hoo! On to Level II.

I won't be ordering that just yet. I have a few projects around here that need attention and I have to buy new glasses. (Have you seen the price of progressive lenses lately!!)