Not long ago, I received a complaint from a shop owner about the way I'd presented the photograph of a cowl design (it was "upside down" from the way one knits it). That inspired me to update the pattern a bit -- including making it very clear that the pattern was knit from the top down.
Anyway, I showed my classmate the testing cowl that I knit to see if the design could be worked in Fingering Weight and not just DK. She loved the things the yarn did. (I didn't love it for that design, but do like it). I had frogged the cowl, not loving the yarn/pattern combo. But then I brooded over the way the yarn had worked.
And I pondered her delight in it.
And suddenly I found the need to design a cowl pattern specifically to work with this yarn. Like I've not got enough to do what with trying to finish Golf Pro's socks in record time (I was deluding myself that I can finish them for our Anniversary), studying for the NCTMBE and MBLEx, and knitting those OTHER things......
ahem.
So, I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out if anyone else had done something that involved knitting on the bias in the round without seaming things. I've determined that no matter how you do it, there will be kluging* involved. Either you just up and knit it flat and seam, or Kitchener, or you do some bizarre short rowing thing (i.e. knitting flat in the middle of a round thing), or you start with a provisionally cast on, knit in the round, end with a short rowing thing, and go back to the beginning to "end" that with more short rows.
I'm kluging away here, but thing I've come up with something nice. We'll see how it plays out.
Of course, though the idea is blooming in my head, there are several things that I must do before I focus too much attention on this cowl -
1. Finish the new socks for Golf Pro. Our Anniversary was a week ago, and I've only just turned the heels. They are a tad late ... but he's forgiven me.
2. STUDY! There's this test coming up. October 5, 2012. Between now and then, I have to be sure all the stuff I learned during that lovely year of Massage School is solidly in my brain and readily accessible. I also have to brush up on some things that will be on the test but weren't ever covered in school. (Like levers... and cranio-sacral massage ... and energy work of all stripes ... and nutrition (nutrition??? yes, nutrition).
3. Figure out what kind of shoulder the Lionesse Shrug will have.
4..... I think that's enough for now. Mostly, its studying and sock knitting (well, sock designing, knitting, and pattern writing, but whose counting?)
* I particularly like this definition of Kluge, taken from the Computing Dictionary:
"kludge definition jargon
/kluhj/ (From the old Scots "kludgie" meaning an outside toilet) A Scottish engineering term for anything added in an ad hoc (and possibly unhygenic!) manner. At some point during the Second World War, Scottish engineers met Americans and the meaning, spelling and pronunciation of kludge became confused with that of " kluge".
The spelling "kludge" was apparently popularised by the "Datamation" cited below which defined it as "An ill-assorted collection of poorly matching parts, forming a distressing whole."
The result of this tangled history is a mess; in 1993, many (perhaps even most) hackers pronounce the word /klooj/ but spell it "kludge" (compare the pronunciation drift of mung). Some observers consider this appropriate in view of its meaning.
["How to Design a Kludge", Jackson Granholme, Datamation, February 1962, pp. 30-31].
[ Jargon File] (1998-12-09)"
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