Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Knitting Through the Year - October

It is ironic that this month, I finished the month's knitting project very early, yet am posting it very late. It was finished on the 7th, because the young gentleman it was knit for was turning two, but having finished and even having taken pictures of the project, I delayed and procrastinated and put off. Due to the magic of scheduled posting, the internet will record this post in October, but the faithful reader will know that it did not appear until almost a week later. Ah well. There are worse things than procrastination, and I would much rather procrastinate on the reporting of knitting than the knitting itself.

So, then, to the report. The October project is an "open collared pullover," more commonly known as a polo shirt. It is a classic design and deceptively simple in its appearance, for EZ warns on a few occasions that one must keep one's wits about one when knitting this sweater. And that even if one does not understand immediately, if one blindly follows the directions, all will become clear.


In describing the edging of the front, which combines a garter stitch edge with an i-cord edge, she writes:

"This is a mind-boggling operation, hard to describe, but, I hope, easy to follow blindly until you get the hang of it. You will be performing it right up to the the neckline, so get the hang of it you must, and fast, because the shoulder shaping is now going to start." - Elizabeth Zimmerman, Knitter's Almanac 

(One of my favorite things about Elizabeth Zimmerman is that she writes of knitting as if she is narrating a baseball game. The knitting experience is rife with urgency, curve balls, and opportunities for valor, and EZ makes you feel every moment of drama.)

Although this is one of the more complicated patterns in the almanac, the pattern is clear and easy to follow. The garter stitch/i-cord edging is an elegant solution. Garter stitch naturally lies flat and is typically viewed as rather informal. Stockinette, which is what i-cord is essentially made of, is smooth and looks polished, but the edge are terribly inclined to curl. This combination unites the best features of both. EZ gives instructions for both vertical border, which is knit along side the body stitches, knitting back and forth, and a horizontal border, which is knit perpendicularly to the sleeve stitches.



The young gentleman's birthday was lovely. It was a brunch (All birthday parties should be brunches, I think. Breakfast food is nearly universally popular, and particularly when it is a party of young children, everyone is fresher and in a better mood in the morning than the afternoon) with cake afterwards. The boy's mother's family has a tradition of decorating the cake with a present, and I think the result is charming.


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