Fitting a curve into a rectangle

Well, this Mariner's logo is giving me more of a problem than I thought. I think the main problem is that it's a very curvy logo - some sort of script/italicized font - and I'm trying to keep the curves and I just don't have enought "stitches/pixels" for the "resolution" I want. Here's what I mean:




I think I will abandon the idea of duplicate stitch on this. So, what will (hopefully) give me the curves? Well, plain old fashioned hand embroidery would do the trick, I'm sure, if I were any good at it. But I'm not. So I think I'm going to try surface or tambour crochet. I am more at home with a crochet hook, and I think that I'll be able to reproduce the curves I need as well as the thickness of the lines.

The other challenge - transferring this design to the knitted fabric. Here's my attempt:


I'm basically using a piece of thin white yarn and a large needle to "trace" the design onto the sweater. Then I'll rip the paper off (gently, of course), and using the white yarn line as a guide, reproduce the design with yellow yarn in the surface crochet.

Well, that's the idea anyway. Stay tuned to see if it works or not!

Another FO

From the teeny tiny little swatch photo in my first blog entry, to the completed Ruana (okay, not quite, I have some ends to weave in that are evident in the photo, but the knitting's done).

I hope to get the pattern written up and available over the next few weeks. Check Ciobair for updates.

And although there is a knitting machine in the background of this hastily staged photo, this was all 100% hand knit. Entrelac is just not worth it on the machine, in my opinion.

Okay, I think my blogging is getting caught up - I have a couple of new projects on the go (because something has to backfill the void left by the completed ones, of course!) that I'll be talking about soon.

#1 Hockey Hound Sweater Progress

To make up for lost time, I'm "multi-blogging" today. I met with Jed, #1 Hockey Hound, last night, for his "final fitting". We're ready to sew up the seams and duplicate stitch that bad boy Mariners logo to the derriere.

Here's the pre-finishing view:



That's a paper mock-up of the Mariners logo, by the way.

Big Cables is a Wrap....

Well, of course, it's actually a sweater, but it's done! And actually it's been done for a week or so, I just haven't had time to photograph and blog it.

I don't understand why I can't get my camera to pick up the cables - this photo makes it look like a plain blue sweater. It's probably more operator error than camera I suppose.

I found another error in the pattern as well - when decreasing for the sleeve cap, the pattern notes that you should be at RC156 before casting off the remaining few stitches. That's true if you're doing the smallest size, but in fact, if you are doing the largest size, you should be at RC162, and I didn't bother doing the math on the other sizes, but the RC for the second largest size is probably not right either.

I did e-mail the magazine about the first error, with regard to the neck decreasing, but they weren't really open to hearing about it, let's put it that way, so I'm not going to bother reporting the second error.

All in all a nice, simple, comfortable sweater that I would definitely make again.

End of 05-06 Minor Hockey season

• 1 tournament (SEDMHA)
• 2 kids
• 3 days
• 5 meals out
• 8 games
• 500 kilometres (give or take 100) (gas @ $1.13.9 per litre), and
• lots of friends, fun and laughter

= the end of another successful year of hockey!