Chat Back for November 7

Answering questions from comments and email.

Cindy W. asked . . .

Of the four books from Barbara Walker Stitch Treasury,which do you recommend?

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.

Notice I didn't mention Book 4. In my option it is full of ugly, mostly useless stuff. If you think you might want it, try to look inside first to make sure you want to spend the money on it.

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Kathy B wrote . . .

We call them wild teenagers, those Jays. They are loud and steal things and hang out in groups!

All true. But they also do community service.

The jays are the first and loudest to give warning when danger like a hawk or cat enters the area.

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Dani (from the other side of Michigan) asked . . .

Hey, would you say the leaves are pretty much all fallen out on your side of MI?

In my neighborhood all the tree leaves are down except the dry brown oak leaves that hang on most of the winter.

In Kalamazoo yesterday, I saw some trees that still had a few leaves, but not many.

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Dorothy asked . . .

I do like your rule of 3 (maximum number of knitting projects in process). I think I will start that myself. Now is a good time as I don't think I have that many active projects anyway. Do hibernating projects count??

If I intend to finish a project "someday", it counts. If I don't intent to finish it someday, it gets frogged.

I have an uncounted exception packed away, but we won't talk about that today.

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Susan asked . . .

So, I have to know, how long does it take you to figure out which sock is the right and which one is the left when you're putting them on in the morning?

Zero seconds. The patterns on the Kristi cuffs are mirror images of each other, but there's no foot shaping so it doesn't matter which goes on which foot.

It only matters that I keep track of which is which while I'm knitting them. The left Kristi sock has a double marker hooked into the ribbing so I can keep them straight.

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Jean wrote . . .

I really like the way Kristi looks, you'll have to share if it fits well, if so, then I will move it up my list of must knits.

Kristi is one of those patterns without much elasticity to the fabric. I'm trying it on often while I knit to make sure I can still get it on my leg.

Without some kind of ribbing in the stitch pattern, I doubt they're ever going to fit the way I like my socks to fit, but they sure are fun to knit and I love the way they look. They may just hang on my closet door as pieces of art instead of getting worn.

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Did anyone notice I blogged everyday in October? It was an enjoyable experience and I was surprised to find that even on days when I didn't have anything to say, something appeared once I sat down and started keying.

Now I'm back to the goal of blogging five days a week.

Thanks for the questions. They help me so much in having something to blog about when I don't have anything to blog about.