Did you finish your Christmas
knitting? I managed to finish mine, including The Rug, and the
only commission I’ve taken all year: two pairs of fingerless
mittens for Alex, the postman, to give to his grown daughters,
who’d been here over Thanksgiving and liked his so much that
they were ready to pinch them. One pair in grape, one pair in
black, both Cascade 220.
Because I was a little short
of black, I did the first part of the cuff with some spare
natural merino, changing to black three rows before the turning
row. And a good thing, too. If I were going to do this again,
I’d make the cast-on and first two rows of the inner cuff in the
main color, as well as the three rows before the turning row, to
avoid show-through when the two cuff faces are worked together.
 As to the rug: Once it was
bound off, and before it was felted, Chewbacca fell in love with
it, and thought it belonged to him, and would be his Christmas
present, as you can see at right.
As I thought about that—and
how could I refuse my companion in all things?--I wove in the
ends, picked up and knit the binding on the ends (six rows, with
an increase on each side on the right-side rows working toward
mitering the binding; a purled turning row, seven more rows with
decreases on the right-side rows, and then sewing one stitch at
a time from the needles to the back of the work.
 I then chain-stitched the steek, and cut it very carefully between the chain-stitching. The picture at left shows the cutting line between the contrast
yarns. On the sides, I picked up and knit just as I had for the
ends. Once I’d sewed the edgings down, I sewed the corner
miters and wove in all remaining ends.
 Then to felting: I held my
breath, and put it in the washing machine, which has a
double-sized tub. It felted perfectly on one try. To help the
machine get over its chores, I wiped out the tub, though this is
not an especially linty yarn, and gave it a cycle with nothing
in it to clear the filter and the outflow lines, as I pinned the
rug with every pin in the house, on a clean old bedspread laid
over carpet in the basement.
The edgings were a little
ripply; I think I should have decreased the stitches about 10%
on the turning row. But when it was dry, it was smooth, firm,
and perfect for an early Christmas gift for Chewbacca, so I put
in on the daybed in the office that is his favorite perch, and
where he had rearranged an old quilt that I’d been refolding
about six times a day. He can’t disarrange this, but he does
like it best if an assortment of scarves, one ancient sweater,
and some mittens allow him to make a sort of den.
 The final felted bed rug is
easy to keep clean, hard to disarrange, thick, and warm. Not a
complete success, but it does work. If I’m ever nuts enough to
try this again, I think I’ll felt it when it’s bound off, edge
just the ends, then cut the steek completely and carefully off
the work. I think anything this firmly felted is not going to
ravel or fray.
What’s next for me? I’m
starting a new sweater design in delicious
Cascade
Cloud 9 in a rosy red (#104)
This is a 50/50 mix of angora
and wool. It retails, as far as I can figure out, from
$7.50-$8.75 the 50 gm ball. The new design will replace and be
adapted from an acrylic sweater that I bought years ago, on a
cold day, for $5 on sale, in the maternity department at
Kohl’s.
Please note that the ballband
on this yarn says that Cloud 9 gets 22 stitches/4 inches or 10
cm on # 6 needles, which would make it DK weight, and that
Cascade says it gets 16 stitches on #8s, which makes it a
worsted weight. I’m working on #6s, and getting 18 stitches to
4 inches, and a firm but flexible fabric that I’m hoping won’t
stretch, as angora is prone to do. It’s nice to be working on a
simple, and portable, project!
Other people’s knitting: I
have only one new picture in, from
Gail.
 She was a little
hesitant about her orange cowboy hat, but got it exactly right.
It is shown here drying, with its ribbon and clothespins (which
made dents, which had to be steamed out), but it looks great,
with that perfect potato-chip roll to the brim, and great
proportions for Gail.
Now I’m thinking ahead to the
New Year. I’m making the usual knitterly promises to myself:
1) work my way
through my entire stash
2) don’t make
another enormous rug
3) knit more for
charitable causes such as Red Scarf Project, Afghans for
Afghans, Dulaan, for military personnel serving abroad, and
especially for my local homeless shelter
4) encourage more
non-knitters to give it a try, because basically it’s a simple,
but infinitely varied, craft that can combine utility and beauty
as few things can.
Like anything worthwhile, it
takes some patience to learn, but once you’ve mastered the
basics, it has an infinite number of possibilities. If I
teach two people, and you teach two people, and each of
those four teaches two, and each of those eight teaches
two—well, you can see where that goes!
If you haven’t finished your
Christmas shopping, there’s still time to buy, for the two
people you’ll teach in the coming year, copies of Knitting for
Dummies, two balls of inexpensive worsted, a pair of #8s, a
crochet hook, and a gift bag that will serve as a first-ever
knitting bag. And you’ll have two more people to knit with!
With best wishes,
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