Masters Monday - 2.31

The argyle section of the Level II sock is done and all those fiddly ends are sewn in (except the beginning and ending tails which I may end up needing).



With this section pinned to exact size and blocking, I'll next be duplicate stitching the contrasting lines and then joining those two small sections still on stitch holders to start knitting the heel.

Masters Monday - 2.30

Two steps forward, one step back.

I had hoped to finish the argyle part of this sock some time tonight but I've had a set back. I could probably still reach that goal but I think I've had my fill of this thing for a while.

See the purple cord in the photos? That's the cord of my circular needle. I've run the needle through the stitches of a single row (at least I hope it's all in the same row), below the mistake I found.

I'm hoping that when I rip back the cable will catch the stitches and also help each section end on the same row. Trouble with ripping without a safety line in place cost me the entire argyle section the last time.

Anyway, this is the instep section. Even losing the portion I have to rip, I am nearing the end of the argyle knitting. Next step will be to sew in all the numerous ends and to duplicate stitch the lines. Then there is still the knitting of the sole and the toe.....but thankfully that will only be with the one colour.

Masters Monday - 2.29

All I ask of myself, in regard to the TKGA Master Knitter program, is that each week I do at least some small thing. Progress, even if it is small, is still better than allowing stagnation.

The only progress I can report this week is reaching the half way point in the second row of diamonds. This is the dividing point where I put the side/heel stitches on holders and continue on, in pattern, down the arch of the foot. (Please ignore the messy bits at the joining points of the two tiers of diamonds. That will be cleaned up as I darn in the ends. No, really......I already checked that it works.)

This bit of argyle knitting was all completed today because we spent last week out of town.....out of the province completely, actually. We were a 12 hour drive away in Lethbridge, Alberta visiting my mom and her husband. I took knitting with me, of course, but I wasn't sure I would have the needed focus to work on the argyle sock in the car so I took along something else. Completed the whole project too! More on that in the coming week.

Masters Monday - 2.27

The beginning of the dreaded argyle sock, 2 inches of 2x2 ribbing.

So far it's going pretty well. Hopefully success will stick with me through the colour work section.

Masters Monday - 2.26

Argyle Practice

I worked up a bit of an argyle swatch this week in preparation for knitting the argyle sock for Level II. I think it turned out very well, although I see some areas I will need to work on.

I have a 1954, Grace Ennis, argyle sock pattern. The gauge requirement is 10 stitches per inch. I lucked out and got gauge on the very first try using size 2.25 mm needles and Lang Jawoll sock yarn purchased locally.

To do the motif I've been picking up the new yarn from under the old at the colour change, and the technique hasn't been leaving any holes, but there is some irregularity where the two colours change, particularly on the right leaning slants. In that area I end up with the old colour looking a bit loose and sloppy and the new colour being a bit tight and distorted.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to alleviate this problem?

Masters Monday - 2.24

It's been a very busy week! I had hoped that I would have the finished vest to show this week, but I just didn't have the time. I did get most of the collar done though.

That is a whole lot of ribbing! 14 inches of it with short row turns at the ends of each row.

I'm finished the actual collar section so the short rows are behind me. Six more full length rows remain, each of these going from the bottom of one front edge all the way around the collar and back down to the bottom of the other side. Long, long rows with five buttonholes that need to be evenly spaced. I'm still working out what the exact spacing needs to be.

In preparation for that spacing I knit Swatch 20 last week, which focuses on spacing buttonholes evenly. I still have to sew in the ends and tag this swatch.

The remainder of this week was caught up in a whirlwind of activity. Besides babysitting our granddaughter, shopping for a new fridge, and doing some sewing for a gift that needed to be mailed, I spent the better part of weekend with the Chilliwack Spinners and Weavers Guild at Minter Gardens. The first day I spent combing wool. Although I would have liked to continue with that on the second day, it's tiring work and my shoulder had had enough. I switched to spinning for the second day.


Our location was shady and comfortable on an otherwise hot day. We were part way up a beautiful meandering path through a serene section of the gardens. The small brook behind us provided peaceful background music (in between the more rowdy jazz numbers performed closer to the gates).

I did find the time to walk around and take a few pictures. The big attraction at the gardens on Sunday was the Car Show. Hundreds of unique cars nestled into a scenic background.


It was a lovely weekend. I was very glad to hear that the guild has been invited back to demo again next year.

Masters Monday 2.22

This week my progress toward Level II of TKGA Master Knitter certification consisted of finishing the knitting of the right front and then blocking the back and both fronts of the vest.


Although I'm sure I'll have no problem doing the front bands and buttonholes, I'll be a good girl and halt the vest project for a bit while I dutifully do the buttonhole swatches that I haven't yet tackled. Several of the swatches in this level have to do with finding the best buttonhole for various situations.

I don't like overly large buttons on anything so I have always preferred the YO, K2tog buttonhole. I find it comes out a nice size no matter the thickness of your chosen yarn. However, as I'm finding out with each step of the program, you never know what you could do better until you give everything a fair try and do some experimenting. So experimenting with buttonhole options and doing the related swatches will be my self-inflicted assignment for the week.

Masters Monday - 2.21

No pictures. Brief post.

Working on right front of the vest. Looks the same as the left front did only "reverse shaping".

Being distracted by spinning and weaving.

Masters Monday - 2.20

Level II vest, left front complete.

Last week I stopped short of the neckline/underarm decreases because I was having second thoughts about my chosen method for decreases. I was particularly concerned about the way the diagonal line of the V-neck would be crossing various areas of the stitch repeat. I figured I'd have to vary my decrease method depending on whether it would land on a purl or a knit in each row.

Yesterday it suddenly dawned on me that I really didn't need to obsess over the front neckline as much as I at first thought. The whole neckline will be covered by a shawl collar! Duh! The decreases still have to be neat and correctly formed so that they pass the committee's inspection, but they don't have to follow the stitch pattern as closely as I was thinking. Next up: right front.

Masters Monday - 2.16

Well, whaddaya know? A wee bit of progress to report! (What's that saying? If it wasn't for the last minute a lot of things wouldn't get done.)

This is Swatch 21 - picking up stitches.

For this swatch the knitter has to figure out how many stitches to pick up and how to place them most effectively along selvedge and bind off edges. The swatch also tests your ability to select and position appropriate decreases for the neckline.

Masters Monday - 2.13

One more swatch checked off the list. This is #16, another swatch where the knitter picks a cable that will fit into the required dimensions with a minimum of 2 multiples and three repeats and then figures out the gauge (by swatching), makes allowances for the differences in density between the cable portion and the seed stitch border, plans an effective way of dealing with the difference, writes a complete pattern and....

.....yes, still must knit the final swatch. This is cable 16.5 in the "Harmony Guide to Aran Knitting".

Masters Monday 2.12

Okay, so this Masters Monday is happening late on a Tuesday night, but it is still happening.

This is Swatch 15 - cable of choice.

The basic stitch pattern is #4.9 from "The Harmony Guide to Aran Knitting".

The actual knitting and pattern writing was all completed on schedule, as planned, I only fell behind in the photography and blogging department. I'm blaming the demands of the long, Easter weekend. I mean if you could spend time with this little muffin rather than sit at the computer blogging about knitting a swatch, wouldn't you?

That's what I thought.

Kaylen has a little slide show of her first Easter egg painting experience up on her blog if you are interested.

Masters Monday 2.11

Did you arrive early, find nothing but old posts, and think I was skipping Masters Monday again? Sorry about that. I was fiddling with a video/slide show of birthday pictures for my granddaughter Kaylen's blog instead of getting my own blogging done. If you're up for a round of "Happy Birthday" and watching a wee one discover birthday cake for the first time, pop on over to Kaylen's blog and wish her a happy 1st birthday.

And yes, I did work on my Masters Knitting this week. I worked and worked actually, but this one swatch (and its pattern) is all I have to show for it right now.

This is Level II, Swatch 14, Cable of Your Choice, but with a twist to the assignment that wasn't there for Level I. In this level the knitter has to choose three stitch patterns, do the math, and write out the patterns for each of the swatches themselves. This results in the absurd situation of swatching for the swatches. An initial swatch must be made to determine gauge so that you can not only make the final swatches within the size limits, but also correct for "cable flare" - where the edging bulges and gathers because the seed stitch and the cables are of different gauges.

I actually have more done than shows here as I did my initial "swatching for the swatches" with all three cables on the one practice swatch. I have also begun the rough drafts of the patterns for the other two swatches. I learned with the first one that it works best to write the pattern and then knit from it, rather than the source the stitch pattern was found in. I found and corrected several omissions and mistakes as I attempted to knit from my own pattern. Hopefully now I won't have my patterns thrust back at me with "errata" to be corrected.

Masters Monday - 2.10

As promised, for this week's Masters Monday I did the boring bit. I got caught up on the paperwork for the last three swatches I had done.

It doesn't make for very exciting blog pictures, but let me tell you, it's a huge relief! And hours of work. A full, working pattern had to be written up for each of these, complete with references, gauge, materials, abbreviations....not to mention the labeling of the swatches, answering of related questions, and cross referencing in the bibliography.

Now I can check off Swatches 11, 12 and 13 (of 22).

Masters Monday - 2.9

Ooops! Getting a little ahead of myself. Once again I've done the swatch knitting but not the labeling and pattern write ups. Maybe getting caught up on the paperwork should be my goal for the coming week?

Swatch 12 - (lace of choice) Spider Stitch

Swatch 13 - (lace of choice) Pierced Diamond

Both of these swatches are from stitch patterns I found in the Barbara Walker Treasuries. I knit them in a coned, superwash wool, fingering weight yarn usually used for machine knitting. I had thought about using another shockingly bright yarn, like last week, but the orange I was thinking of may have been too dark and possibly even a bit too fuzzy to meet the acceptable standards.

So next week's Master Monday report had better be that I have done the write ups for these last three swatches. I will be knitting this week though. I have two non-Masters knitting projects I'm actively working on.

And I'll be weaving. The loom is warped for the next project.

Masters Monday 2.8

My offering this week. Doesn't look like much, but believe me it was a lot of work! In Level II you don't just knit your swatches from a provided pattern. You have to do all the research yourself and come up with a swatch that fits the requirements.

Swatch 11 - (lace of choice) Floral Mesh

For this swatch, and two more lace ones, the requirement is to knit a lace swatch, bordered by seed stitch, and containing at least two multiples and three repeats. And the big challenge....it has to be no bigger than 7 inches! After much experimenting I found that for me that means no more than 8 stitches in each multiple, and no more than 12 rows in each repeat....otherwise it ends up being over sized and would be rejected.

After getting the knitting done then you have to write up a pattern for it including the seed stitch border. All information like needle size, gauge, materials, references/sources, abbreviations, must be included. I've gotten bogged down there a bit. I have a rough draft of the necessary information, but I have to fine tune it. So just the knitting of Swatch 11 this week. I can't say it's finished until all the paperwork is done.

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 - 2.6

I put more effort into the Master Knitter program this week and it feels good to report more progress than usual.

This is Swatch 6, a vertical to horizontal seam like you would do when inserting a sleeve.

And Swatch 7, a horizontal to horizontal seam where "stair step" shaping is involved, like sometimes requested for a shoulder seam. Personally I like short row shaping and a 3 needle bind off better.

And the biggest accomplishment for the week......the forever single mitten. This little mitten was way too much trouble to ever deserve a mate.

Masters Monday 2.4

Swatch 4 - K1P1 ribbing (with a seam)....again. This time I'm much happier with the result. Although it might look like it's half a stitch off in places, the seam is done bar-for-bar correctly with no fudging to make the ends match.



I found I got the best results by having a knit stitch at each selvedge to be seamed. I knit the strip on the right ending with a k2 to accomplish this and still keep the k1p1 pattern intact across the seam. I'm going to hand this one in, but before I use the seam in an actual garment I would like to do some further experimenting to see if it would work with a tubular cast on and bind off.

Who am I kidding? In actual "real life" knitting (unless there was a really good reason for a seam) I would most likely convert the pattern to knitting the garment in one piece to avoid the seam altogether!

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!