Experiments

I couldn't be more thrilled with how the Kool-Aid sock is turning out. It seems to be coming up with it's own, weird, psychedelic effect. A good amount of this was accomplished on Sunday while at the Yarn Harlot's reading and book signing. Many have sung the praises of the Harlot, and indeed, she is wonderful. But I have to give props to two unsung heros: my friend Stef's husband, who rolled up my car windows so I wouldn't have to drive home in a flooded car. And my darling Len. When I returned from my knitterly fun, I discovered that he had (in the heat and the humidity) weeded a bunch of my flower garden and made me a mix cd. This cd included a song by the John Spencer Blues Explosion (if you are at work, turn your computer's sound off) that doesn't make me want to put someone's eyes out, which took some serious thinking on Len's part.

By the way, the Ann Arbor District Public Library filmed the event and will be broadcasting it on Ann Arbor's Community TV. Keep an eye on the AADL-TV website for the air date. If you're in Ann Arbor. If not, go to Toronto.

On to other things, before I start digressing into my "going to Canda" stories. No one wants to read those.
And here we have another Faye sample* (you can see the first sample here, scroll down). This is really different from that first piece. The diamonds are much bigger in this one, which is really interesting to me because there are fewer purl stitches between the stockinette columns in this one; the major difference seems to be where the first crossing happens. In the first sample, it happens immediately (which involved some faking to get two stockinette stitches to cross). In this one, I started leaning the stockinette lines towards each other to get the architectural effect that I like so much in the original. I don't like, however, how big the diamonds are, so I will try decreasing the number of purls between the columns from 6 to 4 and see how that goes. I have a few more ideas to play with if that doesn't work.

I wouldn't mind trying to accomplish the gathered effect of the original. I think this may be a simple matter of increasing in the bottom half of each diamond and decreasing in the top half. Maybe?

*These aren't really swatches, in that I'm really only playing around with the smocking pattern. Unless I fall head over heels for the yarn and gauge. Then, I guess it is a swatch.