Chat Back for October 24

Answering questions from comments and email.

Suellyn asked . . .

Did you adjust the pattern to be able to cover your mouth?

The Helmet hat pattern was knit exactly as published.

The part that covers the chin pulls up and down to cover or uncover the mouth and/or chin as needed.

Now if I could just come up with a way to keep my glasses from fogging over when I come in from the cold.

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Jan asked . . .

When you say that the yarn hurts your hands, do you mean that it is difficult to manipulate with the needles and therefore causes pain? Or do you mean that actually feeling the yarn on your fingers is painful?

I have a moderate amount of arthritic stiffness in all my joints.

When I knit more than a few hours at a time on Painful Pearl my finger joints and wrists got sore. Not totally painful, but sore enough to notice. The yarn has no give to it, so when I knit it at a firm gauge there was continuous tension on my fingers.

I was able to knit an inch a day on the body in the round without getting sore.

On larger needles, the soreness happens quicker and is more noticeable.

Twenty minutes with #7 needles and Sugar'n Cream (a worsted weight cotton used for dishcloths), creates more soreness than I care to tolerate for a knitting project.

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Debi asked . . .

I have a question, which of the Barbara Walker books do you find to be the most useful?

1, 2, and 3.

If I didn't own these books, they would be at the very top of my list of knitting books to acquire and I would get them in numerical order for lack of any other way to decide.

1 and 2 contain a wealth of stitch patterns in written form. In order to use them in the round, I chart them out.

3 has less patterns (still a lot), but they're charted. It also has a reference section for converting right side stitches to wrong side stitches and wrong side stitches to right side stitches. So valuable when changing flat patterns to be knit in the round, or round patterns to be knit flat.

For example, the pattern calls for a purl right twist on the wrong side, but you're knitting in the round so you need to make the equivalent stitch on the right side. Looking it up in Walker's chart, you see the right side equivalent is a right twist. She also gives detailed instructions in how to execute the purl right twist and the right twist.

Book 3 also has a thorough lesson in twist stitches. This spider, both charted and written out line by line, is used as an example.

I've always wanted to knit it, and this is the year. It's going to be a Seamen's scarf with a spider going up one side and a spider coming down the other side.

Perfect for Halloween and not much else except my knitting enjoyment.