Dragon's Eye News

OCD Cable Knitting

nospam@example.com (Susan Harrison) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 12:56:05 -0700

So I'm not exactly a dedicated blogger. My commentaries tend to be told to the air or to my patient hubby, occasionally broadcast on Facebook, and for knitting-specific thoughts, I post on Ravelry. Ought one to share every synapse firing with the planet? Surely not, but perhaps one ought to share a tiny bit more, especially useful bits. Being a geeky sort -- only a small serving of Asperger's Aspic, thanks -- I believe thoughts that might benefit someone else need sharing with the world directly, not merely transmitted to the air via ESP. One other thing. I've decided to write this post however it comes to me, using the written language formed by reading too many British authors at a young age, plus old Pogo cartoons and Ogden Nash. Enough exposition, on to the knitting.

I was looking forward to the Humanity Mitts project as comfort knitting. Cabling and 2-at-a-time mittens may not sound comforting, but after fiddley projects involving I-cording, sewing in a purse lining, my first lace weight scarf (in progress), and of course the dreaded Mantis, it was time for something familiar. Love the yarn, Sublime Cashmerino Silk Aran, and having completed three of Jared Flood's Habitat hats, this derivative pattern was one to look forward to. I swatched, cast on, happily knit to round 5, and came to a full stop. Continue in p1, k2 ribbing. Purl, knit knit, purl...wait. You want me to knit a stitch that was previously a purl? What have I done wrong? ...searching for errata...none... People say what a wonderfully written pattern. Yes, fine, but what about knitting a purl? 'T'aint fittin'. Is it? Finally I found a Raveler who posted a reaffirming comment along the same lines, so at least I wasn't crazy. After closer examination at maximum zoom on others' project photos, I determined that this k-over-p technique produces angular cables that at least don't look broken. Maybe a tad jaggy. Still, I couldn't bear it, so I decided to add a simple cable switch on round 5, spent entirely too much time in Excel charting it, and have the result to share. (Finally, we get to the "something worth saying" portion of this post.) Here's the chart.

I hope the cable symbols make sense to you, dear reader, as I could find nothing on the 'net representing a 5-stitch cable with a purl. My text notation was made up too, and I don't care for the number of characters, but it does tell me exactly what to do. 2b:p1-k4 means, cabling without a cable needle as I now prefer, take 5 stitches to the right needle, grab the rightmost 2 in back, swap with the other 3, and put back on the left needle. Then purl 1, knit 4, and done. The color coding derives from my usual highlighter-on-paper markups, so I figured I'd save myself that step. The pic of red cables shows how it works in yarn.

Finally, I do realize others who have knitted these mitts have made this change too, so what exactly did I bring to the party? Specificity. (Mrs. "Be Spe-cific" Nelson from McLean Middle School would be proud.) Should one find oneself knitting under the influence of a crisp white zin while watching reruns of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, by wild happenstance, one can rely on this chart rather than on lightly pickled gray matter.

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Interesting things - Wandering Bee Colony

nospam@example.com (Michael Harrison) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 21:27:36 -0700

On the way to the Denton Arts and Jazz Festival I noticed a cloud of bees above the car as we pulled out of the alley.

We stopped for a bit and watched the bees fly about for a moment. It wasn't clear if they were forming a hive anywhere near but we figured they must be.

On returning home we saw the colony in a neighbors tree.

The neighbors weren't home but I expect the bees will move on tomorrow. If not we'll be calling a beekeeper to find them a new place to live.

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Interesting things - Trinity Hall ceili 4/17/11

nospam@example.com (Michael Harrison) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 22:40:36 -0700

We had slightly more than enough people for a set and a few ceili dances and great music by John Burleson, Michelle Feldman and ??? (we didn't get his name!)

We did the North Kerry set, Haymakers Jig, Siege of Carrick, Rakes of Mallow, 4-hand and 6-hand. Great music, great fun!

Click on either image for the full gallery and join us next month!

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Interesting things - Comhaltas 2011 Sunday

nospam@example.com (Michael Harrison) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 19:52:59 -0700

We were able to start a bit later this morning it being Sunday and all. This was good since bed didn't rise up and smite us until quite early in the morning.

Padraig started off with the Valentia Right and Left, a fairly simple but fun set.

Unfortunately the workshop was cut short as Padraig and Roisin had to make an earlier than expected flight back to Ireland.

Next up though was the farewell ceili. Nearly four hours of solid dancing.

Even though most people had departed by the last set there was still something around 6-8 sets on the floor!

It was a wonderful weekend full of great music and dance and I look forward to the next convention organized by Tom and Company!

There are more pictures in the Comhaltas 2011 gallery, some videos on my YouTube channel and if you like you can see my twitter posts done live from the convention. I'll be doing more tagging and linking of things very soon.

Here are links for the doings on Saturday and Friday

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Interesting things - Comhaltas 2011 Saturday

nospam@example.com (Michael Harrison) — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 21:30:08 -0700

I have no idea what time we got to bed Friday night but I have notes showing we started the plain set about 12:30am.

We got up early for breakfast and started the day with Susan teaching a ceili workshop including Harvest Time Jig, Fairy Reel, Rakes of Mallow, Haste to the Wedding and Siege of Carrick. There was a good sized crowd and smiles all around.

Next up was a Sean Nos workshop by Emma O'Sullivan. She did a wonderful job. Her dancing was clean, instructions were clear and easy to follow and we ended up with a number of easy but good looking steps to add to our dance toolbox.

Here's Emma after the workshop, demonstrating the step one-on-one.

The rest of the day was reserved for set dancing.

Continue reading "Interesting things - Comhaltas 2011 Saturday"

Interesting things - Comhaltas 2011 Friday

nospam@example.com (Michael Harrison) — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 13:04:36 -0700

It was our first day of the 2011 North American Comhaltas convention and it was grand.

For everyone else it was the second day and for many of the orginizers I think it was something like the 3045th day. I'm sure they'll be wistfully sad/happy when the convention is over.

We arrived safely (thank you Southwest), was given a short tour by Tom Macken and sent up to the Control Room to get Susan's official "I work here" shirts. They didn't have shirts for the roadies.

After wandering about for a bit and checking out a few vendors and the lobby schedule

We went up to the room to unpack.

Continue reading "Interesting things - Comhaltas 2011 Friday"

Interesting things - Denton, home of happiness

nospam@example.com (Michael Harrison) — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 20:40:52 -0700

Today Susan and I went up to UNT to do a short Irish dance class.

Afterwards we went wandering around downtown Denton and stopped in to the Abbey Inn restaurant (and pub) for lunch and a few beers.

Susan had soup and salad and I had a wonderful seafood stew stew and grilled-cheese sandwich.

Yum. Highly recommended. Click the picture for more pics of good food.

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Interesting things - Trinity Hall ceili 3/20/11

nospam@example.com (Michael Harrison) — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 20:57:25 -0700

It was a light group this time with some new people who dropped by so we did more ceili.

The music was grand, wish you'd been there!

Click on the image for the full gallery.

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Interesting things - Trinity Hall ceili 9/19/10

nospam@example.com (Michael Harrison) — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 19:42:10 -0700

It was time for another session at Trinity Hall with music played by the Lone Star Ceili Band.

Some new people came out to play and we ran through a couple of sets, some ceili and some stepping about!

Click on the image for the full gallery.

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Interesting things - SCMA ceili 9/4/10

nospam@example.com (Michael Harrison) — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 11:23:23 -0700

The first SCMA ceili for the 2010/2011 season!

It was practically an all-regular evening with two sets joining in during the workshop portion and staying around for two hours of dancing!

Thanks to everyone for coming out, to Michelle and Paul for the music and Lybo for representing the SCMA.

Click on the image for the full gallery.

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