Monday, January 12, 2009

Beginnings

Eclectic and procrastinating as I am, it has begun.



What has begun? The swatches are started for the Basics course I'm taking.

When I was studying journalism even in Junior High, I memorized the UP and AP stylebooks as well as my grammar in school;so, there were three different constructions running around my brain for whichever application I needed. When I taught secondary English, I knew five different grammars that were then being taught in elementary schools so that I could help the students who were coming into the merged district and who were totally confused as to what was happening in their courses because yet another grammar was being taught to them.




Knitting is much the same. There are no standard chart symbols. There are no standard names for the same stitch. Each person has one's own knitting styles and construction methods. That is both confusing and liberating.

Here are two versions of Swatch#1. I using Lion Brand Fishermen's Aran yarn. (The top picture is closer to the real color.) The ball band suggests a #9 needle. Knowing that I knit loosely, I first tried a #7 (really a 6.5) 16" circular. That is the finished but ends not woven in nor dressed swatch. Next I have 'resurrected' a pair of Susan Bates short 8's. This beginning swatch is the third try because it has been so long since I used straights! I am really curious how differently the swatch appears on the different needles. The ribbing already has morphed as it is on the flat swatch as opposed to how it develops in circular knitting.

1 comment:

yarn elf said...

New beginnings for a new year. Yes needles wheter style or what they are made of have an impact on anything made. Needles are not standard and if you knit a lot you wear them down a bit so they are not the same size as when you firist began 20 years ago. Yarn is not all the same in any skein, though you might not see any difference, but several of those blind customers tell me it is so as they can feel a difference when they knit.

Glad you have begun a new journey this year. It is always good to learn.