Purl oriented centered double decrease- tutorial

Recently, while designing a shawl, I realized that I needed a way to do a knit side oriented double decrease but from the purl side (the stitch is worked on the purl side, but the double decrease shows up on the knit side).  Happily, I found a blog with a fairly simple explanation (plus a great photo tutorial) of how to do this.  Yay!

For many knitters, this might be the end of it, but it got me to wondering.  How would a knitter do a double decrease that was purl side oriented?

While fleegle's trick is super cool, on the purl side it look like an elaborate right leaning decrease.  I (and possibly you) want to be able to make a double decrease that is centered on the purl side.  But, alas, google was not helpful.  A search yielded no useful results (if I missed a tutorial for this, please let me know.) 

The knitting nerd in me (and that's a large part of me) insisted that I figure it out.

It turns out to be fairly simple to do.  All you need to do is: p2tog, s1, psso. 

I found slipping the stitch over on the right needle to be a bit tricky, so I moved the the stitches onto the left needle for slipping.  The less tricky (for me at least) way is what I've included in the photo tutorial below.

PSO-CDD (in 4 easy-ish steps):

1) Purl two together.

2) Move stitch from right needle to left needle.

 3) Pass slipped stitch over.

4) Move stitch back onto right needle.

Purl side view:

Knit side view:

So simple, yet so complex looking (as is much of knitting).  I hope this has helped you in your search to become a more nerdy knitter.

Just me, huh?
Joyce

P.S. I was pretty excited about my status as a nerdy knitter when I figured this out (even though I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one who has).  So I texted TK and told her that I'd figured out how to do a purl side oriented centered double decrease.  A short time later I got a text in return that said, "Is it p2tog, s1, psso?"  Yep, ego deflated.  Tell me again why I hang out with such smart knitters?

The old becomes new again

I've recently been introduced to the time sink exciting possibilities of Pinterest.  If you're not on Pinterest, I'm sorry I did that to you.  If you are, how did you manage to pull yourself away long enough to come here? 

I've found a lot of recipes for making lotions and lip balms through Pinterest, but my time on the website has had an unexpected side effect.

I've fallen in love with shawls all over again.  Anyone who's met me in a knitting store (on the street, in class, at national entomology meetings) knows that I've had an obsession with shawls for several years now.  However, I realized this past week that while I love wearing them and designing them, I'd kind of stopped looking at them as the objects of beauty that they really are.  Instead, I see them as individual stitches on a large canvas.

But then I saw this picture.

And this one.

And this one.

All I can say is Wow! Oh, and you should totally google 'vintage lace shawls'.  I'll wait.

You probably noticed that they are not knitted shawls, but rather actual lace which is much more time consuming than knitting. (Or so I've heard.  I don't know anyone that makes non-knitted lace.  I consider this to be a serious gap in my crafting social calendar.)  But when I went back to Ravelry, I discovered that I had started seeing the lace again instead of just the stitches.  And fell in love all over again. 

I lost my heart to lace shawls (sorry, Hubbie),
Joyce

P.S. If you decide to join Pinterest, there's a two to three day waiting period similar to what Ravelry had when they first started.  But don't say I didn't warn you.

Jenolan Shawl

GiGi recently pointed out to me that I had not yet blogged about the pattern that I released in December, the Jenolan Shawl.

I have to admit that it surprised me that I hadn't even mentioned it, but, as I explained to Gigi, there's been a lot of stuff going on around here.  What with visiting my sister-in-law, rollerblading, making lotion, and working on my dissertation, poor Jenolan fell to the way side.

She's a lovely winged shawl and (brace yourself!) it's not a triangle.  Except for the points made by the edging, Jenolan has a flat bottom in back. 

The winged shape keeps it draped nicely around the neck so that it doesn't slip off of the shoulders. 

The main body of the shawl is in stockinette leading down to a lacy bottom.  The pattern has two versions of the bottom lace edging.  Version A is simple enough for beginning knitters to challenge themselves.

And version B, with double yarnovers throughout, is complex enough to keep an experienced knitter interested. 

Jenolan is named after the Jenolan Caves in the Blue mountains of Australia.  The lace is meant to resemble the limestone formations that help make these caves so beautiful.  Hopefully, it does them justice.

Not that I'm much of a spelunker,
Joyce

P.S. Version A is knit in Knit Picks Swish DK in Indigo Heather.  Version B is knit in Knit Picks Capra in Regal.

Sitting on dogs

Okay, so there is no actual sitting on dogs involved with dog sitting; however, the dog Hubbie and I are watching this weekend is the size of a pony, so I think a jockey could comfortably sit on her.

You may remember Bella from the last visit to my sister in law's house.Going to my SIL's house is great for many reasons. When they're here, we get to relax and spend time with family. When they're not here, we get to go wild… and sleep all day and watch tv. Oh, and we occasionally rollerblade in her huge-mongous basement.

In addition to all of the sitting around (and rolling around) this weekend,  I learned a new craft.  I may not have mentioned this in the past, but before I discovered knitting I was a flighty hobbyist. I would stick with a hobby for a few months, and then move on to something else. They were all perfectly good hobbies, but none of them were "the one".  Then I met knitting. And we've been in a happy committed and mostly monogamous relationship for several years now. I'll admit it, I am sometimes led astray by the allure of beading. After all, a girl needs sparkly stitch markers. 

The new  craft I learned this weekend was how to make lotion and lip balm. (Don't worry, Knitting, you know I'll always come back.)  It's surprisingly easy, quick and fun.

As is evidenced by the 28 tubs of lip balm, and three tubs of body lotion that I made (some are already in use, so they didn't make it into the picture.). The hardest part was waiting for them to solidify so I could use them.

Oh, and the sore lips from trying on six varieties of lip balm in an hour,
Joyce

Liana Shawlette

This past Friday Knit Picks highlighted one of my designs as their Friday Freebie.  The Liana Shawlette is named after woody vines found in the tropics.  The lace in the edging mimics these vines as the grow throughout the forest.

It combines a self striping yarn for the body (Knit Picks Chroma in Prism) with a solid (and in this case sparkly) yarn for the edging (Knit Picks Glimmer in Potion). 

It would look great with any variegated main color for the stockinette body and a solid contrast color for the lacy edge. 

It is a winged shawlette which means that it will stay on the shoulders and wraps nicely around the neck for warmth.  The pattern can be downloaded for free online here.

And those of us that don't live in the tropics need all of the warmth we can get,
Joyce

Wear a Shawl day

Tomorrow is the first ever official Wear A Shawl day.  There's a Ravelry group that's trying to make the 11th of every month a day when shawl wearers can throw off the concern of the " only old ladies wear shawls" stereotype and wear their shawls proudly, be they 8 years old or 80.

I was born for this day!  In honor of such an auspicious occasion, I present to you examples of different ways you can wear a shawl.

The Across The Shoulder (Traditional) Way: This way lets all of the people behind you see how pretty your shawl is, plus it keep your back and shoulders nice and toasty.

The Keep One Shoulder Warm While You Stare At The River Way: Similar to wearing a silk scarf, this way let's you enjoy your shawl, but keeps you from getting too warm.  (I recommend a lovely shawl pin to hold the two sides together and keep it from becoming the If This Thing Falls Off One More Time... Way of wearing a shawl.)

The As A Scarf With The Point In Front Way: This is my favorite way to wear my shawls.  It keeps my chest nice and toasty and can be worn under a coat.  (Plus it doubles nicely as a bib in a pinch.  Not that I would ever do that.  ::whistles innocently::)

The As A Scarf Way: This way works best with rectangular wraps, but will also work with long thin triangles. 

And if you love your shawls, but don't want to wear them on your body (sometimes it's just to hot.  Crazy, I know!) you can have your furniture wear them.  I haven't met a chair yet that would object to being draped in lovely yarny goodness.

You can also drape your pets in shawls, but keep in mind not all pets will wear shawls. They may not be as open minded as Winnie.

So wear your shawls tomorrow (and every day) and know that there are lots of other people out there wearing shawls too.  And none of us are "old ladies" no matter how old we may be.

Happy Wear A Shawl Day,
Joyce

A few of my favorite things

As I'm sure you know by now, I love knitting.  However, you may not be familiar with my love of skating.  As with knitting, I had to try it multiple times before I was able to get the hang of it. 

However, I got the hang of skating (I was in my 20s) much earlier than knitting (my 30s, I'm nothing if not a late bloomer). 

It doesn't hurt that I met Hubbie while skating around the campus of the university we were both attending.  He was skating too (he was a roller hockey player).

This weekend I got the oppurtunity to go skating with Hubbie in Flushing Meadows Park (we are having seriously unseasonably warm weather).  There he is, the tall guy in the hoodie in front of the globe.

It was sunny and the park has lots of fresh new sidewalk, a boon for skaters.

I came home happy with the world (gotta love those endorphins).  Oh, and Pogona kept me nice and toasty all throughout. 

The shape is really interesting and it stays on your shoulders. 

Plus the color is fantastic.  Mad Tosh sure does amazing colors.

Now if only I could knit while I skate,
Joyce