Fishy post

I have been at Picasa lately and found these images there. I don't know who made the original, whose idea it was, whose pattern, but I like the ideas :-) Very colorful and joyous. I think it's good to have some color in life for a while :-)

Someone has dropped something in my laptop's keyboard - it doesn't want to write "l"... I'm slightly p'd off :-( It's MY laptop, my NEW laptop, my BIRTHDAY PRESENT LAPTOP!!!

Yes, I'm a horrible snob!

I was surfing Ravelry, watching what other people have made, leaving groups I haven't been in for months, trying to get my Ravelry life a lot more organized. It's stupid to be a member of over 200 groups, you cannot possibly be active in all of them, and as I host some groups, I hate the lurkers and "number-members" - those who just make me happy of having over 200 members when in reality I have like a dozen. At least pop in every now and then and say "hi, still here, nothing to say"

Anyway - in a group with the intention to show off your work - I thought it would be something extravagant, something amazing, something awesome, jawdropping, to which people react with "WOW!" It is not. People post photos of their 20 stitches first ever fun-fur scarf, which looks more like a ferret skin which is so old it is more mold and holes than skin. Sure, they are proud of their first ever knitting, they are proud of having knitted something, and so they should, so they should... but WHERE IS MY WOW?
In another group about color, people post photos of things that are grey, white, black, marine, beige, brown...
But it's like that all around - knit things in crochet groups and the other way around, single color things in fair isle group, color knitting in single color groups, girls' things in "knitting for boys" group, thin girls in thick girls' group, knitted sweater in crocheted toys group...

Also, I think your baby, dog, cat and chinchilla are all really cute, and I love to read about them in threads, so please share, but they are not craft projects. In "shared projects" I want to see fiber projects, knitted, crocheted, naalbound, tatted, woven, or other such things you do with yarn. Make a hat for your guineapig or show off your delightful baby in the new coat you made for him, if you just must show off your offspring and pets, PLEASE!!!

Also, someone posted a photo of the magazine that published an article about her and her work as a "project". The article was not her project, the magazine was not her project, the photograph used in the cover was not her project, nor was the item in the cover photo... DON'T PUT OTHER PEOPLE'S PROJECTS ON YOUR PROJECT PAGE AS YOURS!
People were commenting and praising the cover item. It wouldn't have taken too much to flip a couple of pages and photograph the page where the article was.
Now, I think it would have been ok to use a photo of the magazine as one of the project photos. Some people put a photo from the magazine or book on their project page to replace the photo of their own project, and that's ok, I think, as long as you mention this very clearly in the description, and intend to replace it with a photo of your own project in the future. Otherwise it's better to leave the project pictureless.

So, yes, I'm a snob and I have an opinion on everything. ;-)
Whine, whine, whine, now I go and get some cheese :-D

Tiny needles :-)

My preciousssss..... Click on the picture to see it better - if you want to, that is.

All the needles in the picture are thinner than 2 mm. If you have been following my blog, you remember that the whole May went whining and venting about the lack of small needles in my life. This is the result of what was done to correct this lack ;-)

In right three packages of Addi steel needles, in sizes 1 3/4, 1 1/2 and 1 1/4 mm (2/0, 3/0 and 4/0) and on the left, under the Vaasa wristwarmers, two pairs of Addi steel circulars in 1 1/2 (000) mm in one package. Those I ordered from Helylle.

Vaasa is being knitted with the 1 1/2 mm steel needles of German label "Heureka" my hubby found for me in my LYS, Dominiques garn och handarbete. It seems like Heureka doesn't exist anymore... the folder is of paper, all printed in red, and it looks old, at least 30 years old... I wonder where she got them :-D
(You can also see my genious husband's invention to help me with fleeing tiny needles - a needlekeep made of two syringes and a rubber band :-D Works perfectly. It doesn't look especially nice, but I plan on knitting two fingerpuppets and glueing those over the syringes.)

In the middle the newest member of my tiny needle family - arrived already a week ago, but somehow the package card was lost and I received a reminder today... I have been waiting for those needles for a month now, so you can guess I a) wasn't very happy to find out that they have been waiting for me already a week and b) ran straight to the post office to fetch my preciousesssss. These beauties are steel needles from Purse Paradise and I bought them through ebay. They are of sizes 1 mm (00000 0r 5/0), 3/4mm (000000 or 6/0) and 1/2mm (00000000 or 8/0) - that is half a millimeter! I use that size lead in my mechanical pencil! I know I bought them to be able to reach the gauge in socks, but I will not knit socks with half a mm needles! My Dearest Husband was happy, "now you can knit bookmarks that aren't too thick!" he said :-D

More on rose inlay

Now I have tried this technique.


I have some observations:
Firstly, it looks better if the knitting is tight. Mine isn't.
Secondly, one has to be really careful to organize the yarns - the background yarn has to go over or under the pattern yarn, the same way all the time - I made some mistakes in that, sometimes the pattern yarn was over the background yarn and sometimes under... and it looks a bit messy.
Also, I had one red yarn and two blue yarns, doubled. The blue is thinner than the red, and should have been tripled.

Basically, what you do is to "embroider" the yarn in the knitting while you knit. It's not difficult.
I made mine in flat, but when you do it in round, you lift the pattern yarn on front of the knitting on the second row, yank it longer, knit and then tighten the yarn. You can have it a bit tighter than in stranded knitting. It's not as elastic, but looks really nice.

David's Star Dishcloth pattern

I designed a couple of dishcloths for Purim last year, and I was asked if I could publish the patterns...

Mordechai or Star of David

cast on 47 stitches
1.- 4. *K1 P1* K1
5. K1 P1 K1 P7 K1 P8 K2 P5 K2 P8 K1 P7 K1 P1 K1
6. K1 P1 K1 P1 K6 P1 K7 P4 K3 P4 K7 P1 K6 P1 K1 P1 K1
7. K1 P1 K1 P6 K1 P1 K1 P6 K1 P2 K1 P3 K1 P2 K1 P6 K1 P1 K1 P6 K1 P1 K1
8. K1 P1 K1 P1 K5 P1 K1 P1 K5 K13 K5 P1 K1 P1 K5 P1 K1 P1 K1
9. K1 P1 K1 P1 K13 P5 K1 P1 K1 P5 K13 P1 K1 P1 K1
10. K1 P1 K1 P1 K1 P2 K1 P3 K1 P2 K1 P6 K1 P1 K1 P6 K1 P2 K1 P3 K1 P2 K1 P1 K1 P1 K1
11. K1 P1 K1 P2 K4 P3 K4 P7 K1 P7 K4 P3 K4 P2 K1 P1 K1
12. K1 P1 K1 P1 K2 P2 K5 P2 K8 P1 K8 P2 K5 P2 K2 P1 K1 P1 K1
13. K1 P1 K1 P4 K1 P5 K1 P19 K1 P5 K1 P4 K1 P1 K1
14. K1 P1 K1 P1 K2 P2 K5 P2 K8 P1 K8 P2 K5 P2 K2 P1 K1 P1 K1
15. K1 P1 K1 P2 K4 P3 K4 P7 K1 P7 K4 P3 K4 P2 K1 P1 K1
16. K1 P1 K1 P1 K1 P2 K1 P3 K1 P2 K1 P6 K1 P1 K1 P6 K1 P2 K1 P3 K1 P2 K1 P1 K1 P1 K1
17. K1 P1 K1 P1 K13 P5 K1 P1 K1 P5 K13 P1 K1 P1 K1
18. K1 P1 K1 P1 K5 P1 K1 P1 K5 K13 K5 P1 K1 P1 K5 P1 K1 P1 K1
19. K1 P1 K1 P6 K1 P1 K1 P6 K1 P2 K1 P3 K1 P2 K1 P6 K1 P1 K1 P6 K1 P1 K1
20. K1 P1 K1 P1 K6 P1 K7 P4 K3 P4 K7 P1 K6 P1 K1 P1 K1
21. - 52. repeat 5.-20. twice
53. K1 P1 K1 P7 K1 P8 K2 P5 K2 P8 K1 P7 K1 P1 K1
54. -57. *K1 P1* K1

Star of David pattern
over 26 stitches + 13 stitches, if you want it symmetric

1. *P6 K1 P8 K2 P5 K2 P2*
2. *K6 P1 K7 P4 K3 P4 K1*
3. *P5 K1 P1 K1 P6 K1 P2 K1 P3 K1 P2 K1 P1*
4. *K5 P1 K1 P1 K5 K13*
5. *K13 P5 K1 P1 K1 P5*
6. *K1 P2 K1 P3 K1 P2 K1 P6 K1 P1 K1 P6*
7. *P1 K4 P3 K4 P7 K1 P6*
8. *K2 P2 K5 P2 K8 P1 K6*
9. *P3 K1 P5 K1 P16*
10. *K2 P2 K5 P2 K8 P1 K6*
11. *P1 K4 P3 K4 P7 K1 P6*
12. *K1 P2 K1 P3 K1 P2 K1 P6 K1 P1 K1 P6*
13. *K13 P5 K1 P1 K1 P5*
14. *K5 P1 K1 P1 K5 K13*
15. *P5 K1 P1 K1 P6 K1 P2 K1 P3 K1 P2 K1 P1*
16. *K6 P1 K7 P4 K3 P4 K1*

After knitting this as many times as you want to, finish it with
17 *P6 K1 P8 K2 P5 K2 P2*


I HOPE this is correct, but if there are mistakes, just send me a note and I'll check it up :-)

Hugs,
Ket