July 2012

Last month the ODDknit website celebrated two years online, so this month seemed like a good time to try something a bit different with the front page updates. Instead of 3 sentences a month I'll be attempting to update every few days (almost like a proper blog!), with some stream of consciousness ramblings on my current knitting projects.

30/07/2012

Fossil Freestyle

I've never been much good at the make-it-up-as-you-go style of design. Usually I'm all about the careful plan, with the exact number of stitches worked out, and the x rows before the increase of y. This week, in an effort to live dangerously, I've decided to make some free-style fossils.

To start with I've knitted covers for some rectangular (and rectangular-ish) blocks. Then I've knitted odd bits and i-cords and sewn them on to look like detailed fossils.

Here are a couple along with a some other fossils shapes I've been knitting.

The main drawback is that writing up a pattern for a free style fossil is hard. I'm not sure exactly what the knitting pattern equivalent of “knit stringy bits the right length and sew them on like they are in the picture” is. Something to think about.

21/07/2012

Proof

Just to prove I did knit my echinoid here's a photo. It's not a very good photo because I knitted a white fossil and then tried to photograph it on a white background. Lesson learned.

20/07/2012

"Ida, I think you should know that, besides the restraining order, I have a knitting needle...
All right, it's a crochet hook."

Sylvia – Malcolm in the Middle, Victor's Other Family.

A bit of an Anticlimax

Well, this is embarrassing. After the Grrraaarrghhhhd!!! and the again-again and the wish-me-luck my echinoid knitting turned out right first time. It's quite annoying actually because I planned on getting a few blog entries about my ongoing battle with the needles.

I blame the ancient law of sod.

Can I also point out that I was trying to knit a quite specific fossil, a worn Echinocorys, which is why (prior to Wednesday) it was taking so long to perfect. Trouble is that after my mild triumph I'm feeling the urge to knit a complete set of echinoids. Go to the natural history museum's echinoid directory to see what a ridiculous idea this is.

In all seriousness I think I will knit a few variations. I keep meaning to get more serious about my knitting photography and a good set of fossils could make an interesting still life.

18/07/2012

Grrraaarrghhhhd !!!

Grrraaarrghhhhd !!! – pained call of the frustrated knitter.

Now and again I come across a design that I just can't get right. I knit it again, and again, and again-again and it just won't come out like I think it should. In the world of fossils that pattern in the echinoid a.k.a. one of these...

It should be easy right? I mean it's just a bump with five stripes and a flat bottom with dimples. I can knit bumps, I can knit stripes, so what the *bleep* is the problem? Why won't the *bleeping* thing just come out like it's *bleeping* supposed to?!!

I've knitted loads of echinoids over the past few years and every time I try something a little different. I've tried knitted stripes, purled stripes, knitting from the bottom, knitting from the top, deceasing gradually, decreasing all in one, base knitted in the round, base knitted flat and sew on (ha ha ha)... I've even tried embroidery.

I've got echinoids coming out of my ears!

I'm not sure I've ever written that expression down before. It looks a bit peculiar doesn't it...

Today I felt like a challenge so I had another stab at it. First I examined my photos again and noticed that the stripes on the mound are made up from little dots. I've tried garter stitch rib this time to try and recreate the effect. I think it went OK, the problem has been making the flat base with a central ridge and a couple of dimples. This is going less well as you can probably tell from the Grrraaarrghhhhd !!!

Deep breath. I'm going to try again.

Wish me luck.

14/07/2012

And Relax

Ah the post pattern-writing lull. This is the part of the month where I rest on my laurels a bit, let the fingers relax and catch up on some reading. Hence no updates for a few days. Also I've been buying a house.

Today I'm going to ease back in by knitting up duplicates of some of my previous patterns. I'm sticking with the fossil theme.

08/07/2012

A day of validation

Today I have mostly been working on the website.

The trickiest bit of inventing knitting patterns is writing them up so that they make sense to other people (part of the reason I'm so grateful when people email and tell me about my stupid mistakes). Today I've typed up the crinoid patterns for the fossils section. The photos I took are very slightly out of focus which is frustrating, but its dark now so redoing them will have to wait for another day (if I remember).

After my pattern was uploaded I caught up on validating my markup. Validator.w3.org is a site that lets you check each of your webpages for mistakes in the code. About one in five of my pages did have errors, which led to many happy hours hunting rogue semi colons.

Well, I say happy...

I have also been googling myself, following the tennis (online) and photoshopping fossils. All in all I don't think I've moved 10 feet from the computer in the last 12 hours. My flat is pretty small but still, I am beginning to suspect that I need a greater range of hobbies.

07/07/2012

Almost A Poke in the Eye

It turns out that tiny knitting is strangely hazardous. Usually at the end of a row I slide the stitches back down the needles by touching the point against my leg and pulling down on the knitting. Trouble is that 1mm knitting needles pass straight through denim. So far today I've stabbed myself in the leg a couple of dozen times.

That's not all either. With stitches so small the temptation is to hold the knitting much closer to your face. The only thing that's kept me from stabbing myself in the eye is my glasses.

My first try at actual size columnals used cheap sewing cotton. They came out about the right size but a bit scruffy looking.

For attempt two I used a double thickness of embroidery thread. I think they turned out well, if a little chunkier than I hoped. I stuck to the smallest of my crinoid patterns to keep the size down.

06/07/2012

"And me, I’m late for a biplane lesson in 1911.
Or it could be knitting.
Knitting or biplanes, one or the other."

The Doctor – Dr Who, The Impossible Astronaut.

Always Read the Caption

I've been really enjoying knitting my crinoids in front of the TV (Dr Who Series 6 marathon this afternoon – thank you BBC iPlayer). I have a good selection of them finished now. Inventing is always more fun when it goes right and these flat little fossils are so simple that I'm not constantly undoing and redoing and starting again.

One slight wrinkle: when I made my sketch of the columnals I didn't actually read the caption on the photo I was working from. Here it is now...

again...

So my cute little fossils are about 3 times the size they should be. Oh well, that just gives me an excuse to whip these babies out...

4 x 1mm double pointed knitting needles. Aren't they pretty? I've been looking for an excuse to try some tiny knitting, so I'm going to make up my patterns on little needles to see how it goes.

Note to Self: I am a geek and I knit, yet I have not knitted a Dr Who scarf. I feel shame.

04/07/2012

Getting Started

Thanks to a generous benefactor I have oodles of grey machine wool lying around the house. Most of my fossils are knitted with it, and not just because of the oodles. I like the way that really skinny yarns let you work detailed patterns into small objects. Texture is particularly important in the knitted fossils as they don't have much colour variation.

I've started knitting some test crinoids on 2.5mm dpns.

The first side of each columnal was knitted in the round from the outside in. For the second side I picked up stitches around the edge of the shape and then worked exactly the same pattern. I could knit the same pattern twice and just sew them together, but I HATE SEWING UP, so I'm not going to do that.

02/07/2012

Knitting News

A couple of papers have covered the fact that someone was knitting during Murray's match at Wimbledon. I don't find it particularly strange that she was knitting, but I do find it peculiar that it made the news!

The Month of Crinoids

I think I have my fossils. Looking through Fossils of the World I found the most fantastic picture of crinoid stem sections on page 374. Now, as far as I knew, most crinoid stem sections look like this...

...little discs that stack end to end (also known as St Cuthbert's Beads – my fact of the day). They formed the stems of plant-like sea-creatures.

The picture in Fossils of the World, however, looked more like this...

...apparently the columnals can be round, square, star-shaped, pentagonal, spiky, all sorts really.

I haven't been able to find any pictures online that show near the same variety of shapes as I found in my book (this is why books are awesome), but I did find some good sketches.

Enough nattering, time to make some crinoid stem sections. To the knitting needles!

01/07/2012

Wanted: One Project

I'm looking for a project to get my teeth into this month, especially as I'm going to be talking about it a lot. Every project starts with an idea, so I just need one of those. Easy right?

People sometimes ask me “Where do you get your ideas?” (they're usually holding a knitted pencil and looking a bit confused at the time, so I'm not sure it's complementary). The honest answer is “I'm not sure, I don't pay much attention to what I'm thinking”, but that's not very helpful so I'll try to elaborate.

Sometimes it is easy; you see something and think “I want to knit that ”, then you knit that, and voilà, you have a knitted that. Sometimes you go back to a previous project and look for an extension or variation. Sometimes a friend will say “you should knit a thingumy”. Very occasionally you're knitting one thing when it turns into something else. Ideas come from all over the place and roost in a giant spider diagram in your head. When you need an idea for a project you consult your mental spider diagram and inspiration, in theory, strikes.

This month I am inspired to look for inspiration. I feel like knitting a fossil or two so now I'm flicking through some picture books to find a good one.