Warm Noggins

Have you ever heard of a noggin?  I think my dad used to use that word, as in "use your noggin" meaning to use my brain.   I had to look it up in the online etymology dictionary.  Here's what I found: 

1620s, "small cup, mug," later of the contents of such a vessel, "small drink" (1690s), a word of unknown origin, possibly related to Norfolk dialectal nog "strong ale." OED considers that the similar Celtic words are "no doubt" from English. Informal meaning "head" is attested by 1866 in American English.

I could use a small drink today, while protesters are storming the People's House.  

I've been working on a scarf since the beginning of December. It is off the machine now and I am contemplating the finishing I may want to do.  Possibly a row of bind-off stitches (chain stitch) on reverse side to add stability and stop rolling, or possibly a hand-crocheted edging, or possibly a machine trim like a pie crust edge. 

The materials for the scarf were "A box of Goats" from the Fuzzy Goat local yarn store in Thomasville, Georgia. It was an Advent box, with a gift for each day of December. 15 of the days were mini-skeins of Emma's yarn "Teenie-Tinies" in some luscious colors.  I decided to add in a standard-sized skein of 100 % superwash merino in the same weight from Carodan Farms.  You can find the yarn info under my projects on Ravelry - username is brightmeadow.  I absolutely love both of these yarns, they are so soft they feel like a pima cotton T-shirt, and they have a sheen that makes the scarf gleam as if it was gilded. 

The LYS provided a pattern for a bias, linen-stitch scarf.  I wanted to knit on the machine, and linen-stitch is one of the few stitches which can't easily be duplicated on the machine.  After some thought, I decided to knit a tuck stitch scarf using one of the built-in stitches on my KH-930.  

I did not realize when I started how hard it would be to keep track of which row I was on in the event of a yarn snag or fault to record a row properly.  I had to rip out rows several times to get back to a known point. I was not using a color changer, and every two rows I had to change the yarn in the feeder to the main color or contrast color.  By the time I had knitted about 10 of the mini-skeins, the scarf was getting very long and I was getting very tire.  The last few colors were more intense, so I knitted fewer rows.  

I will be using the remaining yarn to knit fingerless mitts when I get some other projects done.  

The reverse of the scarf has no floats, because it is tuck, not fairisle.  It actually looks pretty on its own. 

Depending on how I tie the scarf, the front or back may show. 

Now that this project is off the machine, I have some additional projects in mind.  First is to knit a hat for my grandaughter.  I was told her coat was dark red, like Anna's in the movie Frozen.  I asked her if she wanted snowflakes or an animal knitted in as a design, and she said snowflakes.  

I knitted a swatch. 

 

It turns out, though that her coat is really more purple and pink.  So the swatches above will be for a different garment, and I will have to find some pink and purple yarn and make new swatches. 

 

I also have orders for hats with bicycles on them. Some need to be "Celeste" or Bianchi blue.  Some should be pink. Some should be green and white.  And some are up to me.  

  

I've washed and dried the swatches, and have been renewing my acquaintance with DesignaKnit 9 to integrate stitch patterns with garment layouts.  I want a border of bicycles, not a repeating, tiled, design.   

I was somewhat surprised to find that although all the yarns are 2/24 acrylic, the gauge is slightly different for each swatch.  The blue is actually 80% acrylic and 20% angora.  The white is 80% acrylic and 20 % nylon.  The red and white in earlier swatch was 2/24 acrylic, and the gauge is different than the yellow/gray hats I made a few weeks ago, which were also 2/24 acrylic.

Cozy knitting

 The dried-up leaves are skittering in the November across the lanai outside the door to my studio.  The wind picks them up and tosses them in a whirlwind around the lawn.  It rained earlier, and the outdoor floor is still shiny and wet with the rain.  The Pampas grass down the hill is bent almost double in the wind, and the pin oak tree is holding on to its rustling brown leaves with all its might. 

I decided that today would be a good day to spend in my cozy studio.  It is cozy today, because my husband discovered that we have batteries that had gone dead in the upstairs thermostat of our new home.  I don't understand how that affected the temperature in the downstairs, but I am glad that he did. Anyway, new batteries installed, now the radiant pipes running under the flooring are making my slippered feet warm. 

The new version of DesignaKnit9 arrived on Friday.  We had company this weekend from out of state, so today is the first day when I have time to spend on installing it.  I also want to work on completing some hats.  

Every time I try to use DAK, as it is called, it seems I am having to re-learn it.  Either I'm on a new version, or it has been so long that I have to refresh my memory. I must become more disciplined about devoting time to knitting on a weekly basis. 

The last time I used this software,  I referred to Trish Shafer's books on DAK to re-learn how to download my design into the computer's memory.  Trish is Charlene Shafer's daughter, and her married name is not Shafer.  Her books are a series of five that can be purchased separately, each covering a function of DAK. Stitch Designer, Original Pattern Drafting, Knitting interactively, etc. 

I have also taken seminars on DAK from Charlene, who owns the Knit Knack Shop in Peru, Indiana.  She previously hosted an annual seminar, with other instructors, on the subject of machine knitting, at the fairgrounds near her shop.  I had the good fortune to attend the last one.  I guess it was also the bad fortune, because it turned out to be the very last one, even though it was the first time I had attended.   2020 has not been a good year for knitting seminars, generally, because of cancellations due to COVID-19.  But I did attend a virtual seminar hosted by Vogue Knitting earlier this year.  I think I am not a fan of virtual seminars, although they are better than nothing, because I am too easily distracted at home.  I missed one session completely and had a hard time paying attention in the other. 

On my other blogs, I am currently writing around a theme of "the Grand Tour".  In the 17th and 18th centuries, young men from well-to-do families were expected to complete "a Grand Tour" of European cities to finish their education.  This might be London, Paris, Vienna, Rome, and other European capitals.  Because we are not travelling this year due to Covid, and because I am not that well-off, I am completing a "Grand Tour" by bicycle of cities in Ohio that are named after European capitols.  Most recently, I visited Strasburg, Ohio.  It is probably named after Strasburg, Germany, although it could possibly have been named after Strasbourg, France, a city that is on the border with Germany.  So I am also revisiting books in my library "Twisted-Stitch Knitting: Traditional patterns and Garments from the Styrian Enns Valley" by Maria Erlbacher, and "Traditional Knitting Patterns"  by James Norbury to find examples of German knitting.   

The lights are blinking on and off as the wind increases.  I must set this blog post aside and proceed with my software update, or I may not have an opportunity! 

Well, that is my plan.  I will post an update at the end of the day. 

Update: I installed the software and finished iteration 2 of the bicycle hat.  This one is self lined, instead of being lined with fleece.  The ribbing was knitted first, using a ribber, then the fairisle section.  The lining is just plain knitting.  The first row above the ribbing was hung back on the needles, and before knitting, the cast-on row was also hung on the needles. There were three stitches on each needle.  Tension increased three full numbers, one row knitted, then bound off.  Seamed the side seams and gathered the top.