March 2008 Archives

Ever since Mugabe took over Zimbabwe and kicked out people who had successfully provided for its riches and the ability to export its products (and who just so happen to be descendants of colonists from Great Britain), the country has gone downhill. So far that inflation is at 100,000% and rising. Life expectancy has dropped to 37, malnutrition is widespread, and child mortality is rising. There was an election over the weekend.

From the deserted streets of Bulawayo to the fetid slums of Mbare, Zimbabwe was waiting on tenterhooks last night to discover the fate of President Mugabe as he appeared to be heading towards election defeat.

With official counts trickling out of Harare, the clamour grew for the authorities to tell the people what they already knew from their own polling stations: that for the old tyrant, the writing was on the wall.

[From Zimbabwe on a knife edge as fears deepen that result is being rigged - Times Online ]

From what I've read, unofficial results seem to have Mugabe losing very badly. But the longer we're having to wait for the results, the more likely it seems to me that they're trying to rig the elections in his favor. If that happens, look for things to get very ugly there.

While I'm at it, why aren't Obama, Sharpton, and Jackson speaking out about this? And why isn't the Congressional Black Caucus weighing in on this? And NAACP? Hello?

This is what happens when you let a project go for years and years without looking at it.

I've got the steeks cut open now, and next up is attaching the sleeves to the body. I've trying to figure out how to accomplish this. The sleeve stitches are live on the needle, and I checked my reference books for inspiration. Finally, I hit on this solution - do a 3-stitch bindoff, where I pick up a stitch off a whole body stitch, every two stitches, and bind off the previous stitch with the picked up stitch.

What do you think of the ridge? Does it stand out too much? Or just right? The yarn is on the dense side, so I'm thinking it's not going to matter much. If you click on the larger image, you'll see that the neck decrease stitches also stand out a bit. I've also asked folks in the Ravelry Zimmermaniacs group for their opinions, as well as on my Flickr account. I'm going to let this mull for a couple days before deciding whether to continue or start over again. I'd love to get this pullover finished before the end of this month, so please weigh in!

Boy . . . it's been a strange week and I'm left to wondering if it is a full moon or what. First, I hear that a woman was stuck on a toilet seat for two years (gee, this leaves wayyy too much to imagination). I find out that a girl with two faces (yes, I kid you not - if you go to the "odd news" section at your favorite news watering hole, you'll eventually find that link that leads a picture of the girl).

And if you're on Ravelry, y'all have been riveted by the soap opera that is approaching 112 pages now. What's really amazing is apparently this company has been getting people pissed off over bad products and poor customer support for almost two years, if I read that correctly. I guess I should be grateful that I didn't have a disposable income, thus saving me from getting taken in like others were.

And now this morning I hear that there was a law passed in Florida where restaurants can't run out of toilet paper or they'll be closed down on the spot by health inspectors. ::faceinpalm:: What next? A law that restaurants can't run out of soap and wipes, either?

Meanwhile, in other news, I'm still working on the Purple Polo sweater. I've got the first sleeve knit up, and working on the 2nd sleeve now. I'm fixing to get this finished this weekend. I think I'll start working again on the Rosemarkie Vest. There's not much left to be done on this, and I would like to have something new to wear for Pascha.

Oh . . . and what was the secret message? Боже, Царя храни! That's Russian for "God save the tsar!". I guess, considering the rigamarole every 4 years, we'd be better off with a Tsar.

Now that I've finished the B & L sweater, it's back to the Polo Pullover. Veronik Avery had a very timely post on how to calculate the increases (or decreases if working the other way) for sleeves. Here's my scribblings where I figured out the rate of increases. Now, math is one of my worst subjects, so it took me a while to figure it out with help of my calculator. So, see the last two lines on the first sheet of paper? That's ultimately what I came to use to start doing the increases right after the end of the wrist ribbings - increase every 6th row 4 times, and then every 4th rows 29 times. I then proceeded to finish the 6th row increases, and then got started n the 4th row increases. After doing this 2 or 3 times, I took a look at what I had so far and then realized that something was not quite right. Take a look at the photo:

See that green line? This is how it should be, a gradual slope as I increase at each "end". But instead, what is happening is outlined by the yellow line. This will simply not do. So I'll have to rip back, and reverse the increase rate so I start with the 4th row increases and ending with the 6th row increases. And I'll have to do a bit more math to figure out how many stitches I should have after I finish the 4th row increases (no, I'm not going to mark up all the increase spots). Sigh . . . at least I caught this early on.

Now - a bit of a digression . . . ever hear of GIMP? It's an open source graphic program that provides much of the functions that you expect to find in Photoshop. For Mac users, there's a version that have been put together by folks at "Wilbur Loves Apple" - so far I've found it to be the easiest Mac version to use. I'm not an artist by any means, but it's great to use for manipulating pictures. There's quite a learning curve, though, especially when the one GIMP book that you can find at the bookstore is a bit expensive and you don't want to spend time looking for information on the web. However, I remember enough from Photoshop to sort of make it work. I finally figured out how to get a more straight line, as you can see in the photo. And there are brushes you can download where you can make arrows, snowflakes, and so forth. Eventually I'll shell out some $$ to get a copy of that book; meanwhile, I'm going to see if I can find this at my library, if not in my county system then through interlibrary loan.

Job Search marches on. A company wants to have a face-to-face interview with me; I said I could do this Friday (today), and he said he would have to check with the other person, and send me information on the interview details. Well . . . it's COB and obviously the interview hasn't happened as that's the last I heard from him. I'm not sure whether to call him up or not, but I'll just let them make the move. Besides, I've got other calls to return, and I'm not sure I'd want to work for a company that lets important details like this fall through the cracks.

Now, I'm thinking about just taking a bit of a break and seeing if I can find temp jobs at Borders or B&N, or at a gardening center near home. Just so that I have something on my resume that I'm actually doing something productive instead of sitting around at home. Oh, to be sure I'll still be answering ads for that full-time jo, hence, the need for part-time temp jobs so I can go off on interviews when called upon.

Pattern: Shirt Yoke Sweater (under Hybrid Sweater entry)

Source: "Knitting Without Tears: Basic Techniques and Easy-to-Follow Directions for Garments to Fit All Sizes" by Elizabeth Zimmermann

Size: I measured myself around my bust, taking into account of my waist measurement and the fact that I wanted about 2 or 3 inches of positive ease, since I plan to wear it with my turtleneck shirts

Materials: Briggs & Little (I think), light blue/green with tiny specks of white throughout

Needles: US7/4.5mm Addi Turbo Circulars

Started: September 2008

Finished: March 2008

This was a fun sweater to knit - once I finally had an epiphany as to how the yoke area was supposed to be worked. My progress got delayed for a couple months or so as I had a mental hiccup trying to decipher the instructions. Finally, I figured out that first you decrease the sleeve stitches with the body stitches, then you attach the shoulder stitches to the body. Confusing, I know. But it really does make sense once you just grit your teeth and shoulder on with this.

Another issue I had with the sleeves were that I knit it too narrow. So, I had to rip out and make these wider. Then, after uniting with the body, I discovered that the sleeves were way too short. So - I had to knit on 2 more inches. What I also wish I'd done? I should have done a provisional cast-on - this would have made the hemming part go so much easier. My wrist hurt a bit from gripping the dpn holding the hem stitches for me to unite with the body.

Still, I'm very happy with the sweater, especially since it looks to be cold for at least a while longer. Here's a secret message for you, from the bottom of the sweater. Can you figure this out? I'll give you one clue - it's Russian.

As you can see, I've made a lot of progress, especially after I finally "got" it as to what was going on. Here's how I accomplished this: I worked the left saddle shoulder, and when I was satisfied with the length, I bound off the front half of the stitches. Then, I knit over to the right side, working the sleeve and body stitch together at each end. THEN, I bound off the front half, and continued the process, only working the back stitches together. And after that was done, I then grafted the stitches together, as you can see:

Yes, there's that pucker thing going on, but I suspect that should go away after I've watched and blocked the sweater. Right now I'm knitting in the hem lining. For the bottom, I have a secret message all charted out.

Ruth asked:

Where did the Hybrid pattern come from? Is it in KWoT ? What 2 patterns does it combine to cause it to be hybrid? Just curious.

Yes, it's in KWoT, as well as KA. What makes it a hybrid is that it starts out as a raglan sweater, and end as a saddle shoulder sweater. See - if I had continued the decreases started at the armpits up to where my neck meets the shoulders, I would have ended up with a raglan sweater, with that diagonal line running up to the neck. And, the saddles are very wide. Now, I must admit that I got myself a bit confused - I am actually making a shirt-yoke sweater. The difference between a hybrid and shirt-yoke sweater is that the saddles in a shirt-yoke sweater are very deep, continuing across the shoulder, whereas in a hybrid sweater, the saddles aren't deep, and you have a short of a flap-like piece running up in line with your neck. Confusing, eh? Yes, especially when people refer to both types as a hybrid sweater. I guess that's because in KWoT she refers to "Seamless Hybrid Sweater" on page 78, and then goes "oh, by the way, here's a cool way to do this by making a shirt yoke".

For a good example of a shirt-yoke sweater, see Jared's take on Flickr. As for an hybrid sweater example, look here. Of course, if you're on Ravelry, as I write this, there are 195 projects, many with photos. Clearly this is a very popular pattern, a true testament to EZ's genius (even if her directions drives us crazy sometime).

Here's two really nice interpretations - Henrietta cardigan and Oregon cardigan. I really like the shaping. I would like to have a cardigan that zips up like the Henrietta, and a deep-v shape like the Oregon. Hmm . . . how about combining both - a zippered, deep-v neck cardigan? and while I'm at it - set-in sleeves. Got to do some thinking about this.

Oh, the Job Search? The good news - I'm still getting interviews. The bad news? No job offer yet. At least I've got people interested in me.