Oolong knits

Recently I have been reading a bit about finance again. I actually really like the scientific/mathematical side of finance a lot, mainly because I have always been fascinated by random processes and complex systems and the stock market is a pretty neat realization of these mathematical theories. The thing that stroke me in my last reading is how similar finance and knitting are: both involve mostly elementary algebraic operations, including a lot of percentages. It is funny how differently they are perceived, however. The former is supposedly only to be understood by the most intelligent of male minds, the latter is supposedly a mindless activity pursued by mentally disadvantaged women. Financiers have been using dirty tricks to make their business seem very, very mentally challenging, when it is not. The main one being a completely ridiculous use of jargon. Jargon per se already has a bad reputation for reasons well known, but financiers have taken it to a whole new dimension by usi...

I seriously love the colours of these socks. That is the main reason I chose them for eye-candy this week, but the stitch pattern used helps create the effect. Hidden Change by Dieuwke Schack-Mulligen.

Because these socks have no heel—one simply goes on knitting, changing colours on a whim, until reaching the desired length—there is not much to add pattern wise. There is, however, a choice at the end: no cuff, just continue working in spiral ribbing to the end, or a k2p2 cuff, done by stopping the spiral and working in plain rib for one inch or so. After that, we need to bind-off and for best results we will work a tubular bind-off. I have been having trouble finding a good tutorial for this technique. The ones I have found do the following: First, in one round, redistribute the stitches in such a way as to obtain a k1p1 rib. You can use a cable needle to help avoiding dropped stitches. What you do is crossing the second knit stitch in front of the first purl one. Then work the normal tubular bind-off. However, there is a way to avoid redistributing the stitches and work the tubular bind-off directly. I found it in Montse Stanley's book and after going through a...

I just love the mosaic-like work on this shawl. I also love all the textures, which are more subtle and difficult to see in the photo, but will surely stand-out when you see the shawl live. Mare by Natasja Hornby.

Helical stripes is a very easy (and a very clever) method to obtain jogless stripes when knitting in the round. This method is not more often used because it has the great limitation that you can use as many colours as you would like but you can only knit one round of each colour at a time. So say, for example, if you would like to knit 3 rounds of blue, then 3 of red, then 3 of yellow, you can do it, but you would need to threat each round as a different colour and thus use 3 bobbins of each colour. If you take a look at the video below, you will better understand what I am trying to say here. You will also realize that very fast this becomes a bit dreadful to do. I am using 3 yarn ends for three-colour stripes in my socks and it is already a bit of a pain as it is. So this is a method that is really OK if you have a 2 or 3 round repeat but not much more. That said, helical stripes still deserve to be better known. I see a lot of patterns where people use one round stripes for socks...

This is a very good example of how a good colour choice can greatly improve on a pattern. The pattern is Rug by Junko Okamoto, but the photo is taken from Febr12 's project. She has good notes too.

Spiral ribbing is a very simple technique used mostly for its decorative effect, for example it looks great in hats. However, another traditional use of this technique is to knit socks without heels. The idea behind it is that if you twist the spiral in such a way as to straighten it, you will obtain a strange shape that naturally forms a heel. This is a neat trick and is particularly useful when knitting socks for someone else if you are not very sure of feet size. The rib is elastic, which covers for small differences in width, and as for length, you do not have to worry at all: these socks are just a long tube and will fit lengthwise as long as they do not reach calf height. The idea behind spiral ribbing is quite simple. You knit a few rows of normal ribbing and then move one stitch over (either starting the rib one stitch before or after) and keep on doing it periodically. There is a bit of freedom in which rib stitch and how often you move over. Citing Montse Stanley "Knit...

I absolutely love the collar of this sweater. And better yet, it has a great fit for people of all weights (just check its projects' page on Ravelry). Vesper by Heidi Kirrmaier is worked top-down, but the pleats are sewn in the end. If you do not like sewing, or do not know how to, Hiroko has devised a way of working the collar knitting only (note: it requires 4 needles, but only the right-hand needle needs to be the right size, the other 3 can be smaller ones). I used her photo too.

The mistake rib we used last week is really attractive, but I think I like cartridge-belt rib even more (strongly dislike the name though). These two look almost identical, but the latter is also a lot easier to work, as it involves no purl stitches (you slip them instead). In conclusion, a really cool rib stitch which is extremely easy to knit and very attractive two. Like any rib stitch, this stitch pattern is particularly great for men's scarves, since it does not curl and looks very manly indeed (for some reason I cannot grasp, my husbie is very worried that I intend to knit some pinky lacy thing for him, I swear I have never given him a reason for it). Yarn: 4 skeins (400g, 480m/520yd) of Malabrigo Mecha. Needles: 8mm/US11. Gauge: 20st = 10cm = 4in. Size: 180 x 25 sqcm. Notions: one tapestry needle (to weave in the ends). Abbreviations: sl1wyif: slip one purlwise with yarn in front. Pattern Using long-tail or another relatively stretchy cast-on, cast-on 51 stitche...

I expected very little from this book. I was not even expecting to finish it at all. You see, I got it from my local library, where it was labelled as romance. And, what you do not know, but I know all too well, is that, when it comes to fiction, my local library specialises mostly either in crime novels or in novels with nobility titles in the title (you know the kind...). It is awfully difficult to find anything worth reading in it. So I was really surprised to find out that Mr. Fox is a very nice read and Helen Oyeyemi a very good writer. It is not easy reading—it has a complex, very fragmented structure—but this actually makes it quite entertaining. It is formed of short stories that are connected by a single theme (at least most of them are, some seemed to me to be somewhat out of place). These stories span different times, places (continents) and genres, which, together with Oyeyemi's whimsical style, is what makes them so compelling. They are mostly fantastic, their...