Making Bread

I have a new toy. This is Zoey.

She is my Zojirushi bread machine. I had been considering acquiring one of these rather expensive devices for some while, mainly due to the frequent absence of bread from the shelves of our one and only grocery store, especially in the wintertime. There is never any lack of alcoholic beverages, but bread has been known to go missing for several days in a row.

Those little paddles at the bottom of the baking pan take care of the kneading, and the control panel provides a dazzling array of sequences for timing the kneading, rising, and baking of different types of bread. Although I have baked numerous cakes, pies, and cookies over the years, I'd never attempted bread. The whole yeast=rising thing was a total mystery. No longer.

This is actually my second loaf. I was so excited by the success of the first that I forgot to take a picture. It's raisin bread with tons of cinnamon and nutmeg swirled in. Yum!

After researching yeast and flour types and other doughy matters, I have plans for ever greater adventures into bread making. Whole wheat is on the horizon. And it's possible to use the machine just to make the dough, which one then shapes and bakes in the oven. Who knew something as simple as bread could be so fun?

Blocking Lace

The Arctic Diamond Stole is finished! Bound off, blocked, ends trimmed -- the whole thing. Here are the glamour shots.

Tastefully draped over the shoulders --

Showing off the lovely pattern –

Now let's talk about blocking. I learned a lot in the process of blocking this shawl. Just a few things:

• Remember "wax-on, wax-off" from "The Karate Kid"? Apparently an hour on hands and knees blocking out a stole works certain muscles that do not customarily get worked. Ow! I bet if I did the blocking-the-shawl exercise every day, I'd have the tightest butt in town.

• When blocking a long narrow rectangle, it's best to start from the middle and then block outward to each end.

• Lace responds well to gentle and repeated coaxing. A short rest, and it's willing to stretch some more.

• Geometric patterns (like diamonds) need to be lined up both horizontally and vertically. (Heh. Took a while to figure this one out.)

I didn't think blocking wires would be needed for a simple rectangle, but I was wrong. The painful alternative is the thousand-pin strategy (okay, not really 1,000; more like 300-400; but still . . .). The edge came out reasonably straight only because I wandered over and repositioned the edge pins every half-hour or so. I have since ordered a set of blocking wires (very reasonably priced at joann.com).

Knowing from both the designer's comments and the behavior of my swatch that this yarn is not so cooperative when it comes to holding the blocked length, I knit an extra half-repeat (one diamond) and then pinned it out to 68". After unpinning, the stole relaxed to 65", exactly the length I wanted.

Binding Off Lace

I have finished all the knitting on the Arctic Diamonds Stole. See, here's the end of the last diamond and the final edging.

It's still on the needles, because I haven't yet figured out how to bind it off. The bind-off isn't a huge deal for this stole; the edge needs only to be about as sideways stretchy as the body. But, since I intend to knit more -- and increasingly difficult -- lace projects, it seemed reasonable to investigate a few different methods of getting a super-loose finish. I settled on three to swatch, and the results were most interesting.

The first is called Modified Standard by Eunny Jang (Interweave Knits, Fall 2006), and it's the least stretchy of the three. Also the least appealing visually (to me), since it produces the same loops lying across the fabric as does a standard bindoff. The only difference is that you add a yarnover between the knits. Howso? Well, first you knit one stitch. Then the ongoing process is: yarnover, knit one, pass both the first stitch and the yarnover over the second stitch. This bind-off helps to keep things loose and generates a prettier edge than one gets by going up a few needle sizes, but it does not stretch quite as much as the knit fabric.

The next bindoff I tried has several different names. Some call it Lace Bind-Off and some call it Knit Bind-Off. Or even Knit Lace Bind-Off. Opinions also vary as to its stretchiness. It's pretty simple. You begin by knitting two stitches. Then pass those two back to the left needle and knit them together. Now there is one stitch on the right needle. So knit one, pass the two stitches back to the left needle and knit them together, and keep repeating. This bind-off produces a firm and pretty edge that has more stretch than the Modified Standard -- definitely enough for my purposes. A variation of this method that I did not take the time to swatch involves knitting the two stitches together through the back loops. Supposedly the back-loop approach looks more like a standard bind-off.

And last we have the Russian Bind-Off, also sometimes called Lace Bind-Off (just so we can all be thoroughly confused). It's actually just like its cousin, the "Lace Bind-Off" above, except with this one you purl instead of knitting. Purl two stitches, then slip them back to the left and purl them together, and so on. It's easier and faster than the knitted version (for an English-style knitter), because the maneuver that lines up the two stitches to slip from right to left is the same position needed to purl them together. Two steps become one. The resulting edge is open and really attractive, and this bind-off has the most stretch of the three. It stretches even more than the knitted fabric.

After a bit of dithering, I decided to use the Knit Lace Bind-Off (the middle one). I like the way it looks, and it has just enough stretch. The Russian Bind-Off is lovely, but I think it might be TOO stretchy. I could wind up with a ruffly edge at one end. So I will save this bind-off for another occasion. Now I simply need to gather up my courage, remind myself that I can always unbind it and reknit if I don't like the result, and do the deed.

Next comes the thrill of blocking.

The Stealth Sock

I can't believe I knit the whole thing. I never meant to. You see, I had been gifted with some sock yarn in one of my favorite brands – Brown Sheep Wildfoote. This yarn is not such a treat to knit with – splitty and rather rough -- but it undergoes an amazing transformation when washed, becoming deliciously soft and squooshy. So, since my major focus was on the two shawl projects (the Arctic Diamond Stole, which has been behaving extremely well of late, and the Swallowtail Shawl), I thought I would just dink around with some stitch patterns, find a good one for the Wildfoote, and get it onto the needles. For occasional TV knitting, you know.

And now we have . . .

I guess it was all the trying-on of patterns that did it. I started with the Artichoke pattern. But 64 stitches were too many, and this pattern has a 32-stitch repeat – not so flexible. Then I tried a variation by the same designer called Eagles Flight. Same general look, but only a 16-stitch repeat. And some opportunities to make adjustments. Unfortunately it didn't look good. Possibly Wildfoote, which doesn't have much twist, isn't springy enough for such a flowy sort of pattern.

Browsing through my collection of downloaded patterns I found Ann Budd's Broken Cable Rib Socks (available from Knitting Daily). The yarn loved it, and we were off. But there were issues with the cable twists, which pull in very, very tight. In the end I did seven of the 10 pattern rows on U.S. #1 needles, and the other three (the cable row and the rows before and after) on U.S. #2's. Lots of needle swapping goin' on.

With all that strategizing, the leg was done before I knew what had happened. And then I thought I'd knit on something simple while I watched the debates (you know what debates I mean, right?). By the time our two candidates had finished solving the world's problems, I had finished my sock. Hey, can you picture Obama and McCain knitting while they discuss the issues? Might lower the hostility level a trifle.

Notice Anything Different?

Why, yes, I am wearing new threads. Orange accents liven up the old gray tones, don'tcha think? It's only temporary, though. Those are my safety lines. You see, as my rows have become longer (I'm a triangular shawl, you know), my knitter has become more and more paranoid about mistakes. She puts in a safety line every ten rows. And when we get to the next section (the one with the n--ps), I bet she'll be doing it every other row. Novice lace knitters are such nervous types.

She has finally finished those Staggered Lace Socks, so now she can devote all her attention to me. The socks are okay; they were pleasant companions in the work basket. But, really -- can mere socks ever compare in beauty and elegance to a SHAWL?

I think the knitter is planning to buy me some new needles too. She's been mumbling about moving up to #8's for the edging. And I think I heard "full set" and "circs" and "Harmony" -- something like that.

A Small Diversion

Not a whole lot of knitting progress has happened here in the past week or so. Some, but not a lot. I finally made it to the LAST REPEAT on the Artic Diamonds Stole (why, yes, I am rather excited about that), got a little further along on the Swallowtail Shawl, turned the heel on the second Staggered Lace Sock. Not much.

So what have I been doing instead of knitting? Spinning, perhaps? Nope.

It all began when this catalog arrived the mail. These folks sell DVD's and CD's of university-level courses which they claim are taught by "the best of the best" professors. I was intrigued. And I found a course on a cool topic that was taught by a professor from my undergraduate college, of which I have always had a high opinion. Of course, I had to order it.

Einstein's Relativity. Wow! My last physics course was in high school, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. But I had no trouble understanding this stuff. I get the whole thing. We even dabbled in quantum physics and quarks. Howsomever, it was not possible to knit during the lectures. Took all my mental faculties to comprehend the material. No brainspace left for yarnovers and such.

Now, having focused on science, it was then only fair to give some time to . . .

Uh-huh. Religion. This course caught my fancy, because I couldn't believe one could have an entire course of 24 lectures on one single book of the Bible. An important book, granted – creation of the world and all that – but still, one book. Genesis is turning out to be fascinating. There are issues of translation it seems, since Hebrew is quite different from English. And there is historical/cultural context. And supporting evidence from archeological digs. Amazing. Still no knitting, though, since I am usually reading related texts as the lectures proceed.

And once I've finished Genesis (I'm about halfway through) next comes – writing skills. Perhaps this will improve the blog. We can hope. And perhaps I will be able to knit during this one. Something simple. Maybe the traveling sock would like to learn about sentence structure.

Naughty and Nice

The Arctic Diamonds Shawl has been behaving badly. I had to send it to the naughty shawl corner for a time out. Twice. No problems with the pattern (snore . . . ). It's when I'm doing the easy parts – a purl-back row or a short stretch of plain knitting – that it gets ideas. Bad ideas. First a yarnover popped off the needle, persuaded a K2tog to join it, and went rampaging downward. I caught the miscreants after five rows, but was unable to fix the section without a five-row tink and reknit. Then a knit stitch, alerted perhaps by the fate of the others, slipped sneakily off the needle. It wasn't until I reached the end of that 25-stitch segment and realized I had only 24 that I began to look for the missing stitch. And while I was carefully reviewing SSK's and YO's, that wayward stitch was creeping stealthily downward. Hah! Gotcha! I caught it four rows down. No trouble this time. A little zip, zip, zip with a crochet hook, and we were back in business. And back to the naughty shawl corner for another time out.

So, of course, I had to start another shawl. This is the bare beginning of the Swallowtail Shawl, my very first triangle. The cast-on directions seemed peculiar, but I followed them carefully, trusting that the designer (Evelyn Clark) knew her stuff, and it worked out fine. You do a provisional crochet cast-on of two stitches, garter them for six rows, then turn the piece sideways and pick up three stitches in the garter ridges, then unzip the crochet chain and pick up those two stitches (7 stitches total). It looks great and only takes five minutes. Perhaps all triangles are done this way. I'll find out after I've knit a few more.

In hopes of creating a shawl somewhat larger than the one in the pattern, I'm using Frog Tree Alpaca on U.S. #7 needles. The yarn label says "sportweight," but with 130 yards to 50 grams, I'd say it's something of a cross between sport and DK. It's quite hairy and fuzzy, not so bad as mohair, but it would definitely not be fun to tink.

So far the Swallowtail has been behaving nicely (unlike some other shawls I might mention). The Budding Lace pattern, which is the bulk of the shawl, is super easy and can even be (oh joy!) memorized. Progress was swift at first, but as the rows became longer, well . . . you know. I still give Arctic Diamonds some knitting time every day; it's coming along. Now that it has some competition, however, perhaps we will see an improvement in attitude.