Sunday, October 05, 2008

100 rounds.


Of 206. Ish. (I'm deciding for or against a knitted-on edge, but I'm betting by the time I hit round 206 I'll be done. Whether I'm done or not.) This is a Niebling doily I've altered, by knitting it on larger needles with soft wool, for a shawl. It is one of the Christmas presents. The Goob took one look at the finished photo and said "Mumma, you making a spider web." There's about a thousand stitches on the needle there. I'm hoping that if I can't fit all 1700 stitches on that needle, at the least this thing will expand slowly enough I can wait until next payday to get another needle.

We suspect the Goob may be able to read. (Look at the names of the characters, and the color crayon she used on each one.) I learned to read at a very early age, just from being read to and watching educational TV. Which is the environment she's been raised in. So you never know.


I had some questions about test-knitting. Ideally I want to write my patterns for any yarn of a certain type: sport weight wool, or lace-weight cotton, or whatever. So yes, it's possible some of you have the yarn in your stashes to do test-knitting for me already. Most of my stuff will be for sport weight (one step up from sock yarn, for those of you unfamiliar with our yarn terminology here) that knits up at five to seven stitches to the inch, in two colors, stranded, with steeks. I suspect terms will be different with each test knitter; I'd prefer to barter for the service, which would mean by-request hand dyed yarns, wool, etc. We'll see. I'm still charting. I've had a semi-revolutionary idea for charting Newgrange that would make it easier to produce a zillion sizes without going insane (or driving the people trying to knit it insane). Again, we'll see. Still charting.

Several people have asked if I have 'Knitted Kimono' by Viki Square. I do. And it's a good book. I think she does as good a job as it's possible to do, knitting kimono. Problem is the style was really invented for very loose, floaty silk fabrics, so I don't think any knitting in the world is quite right for kimono knitting. Though I've got some ideas about Euroflax linen.

...and what kind of piece of shit spell checker doesn't have the word 'steek' in it??

13 comments:

Louiz said...

The picture looks like a jelly fish!

Did I volunteer to be a test knitter? I can't remember. If not, can I?:)

Bells said...

nice spider web Julie!

That's amazing, the Goober's colouring in matching the words. She's good. Whatever you're doing, keep doing it, it's obviously working.

Ashley said...

Goober amazes me every time you post something about her. What a smart cookie you've got there :)

Barbara said...

Of course the Goob can read. Even she may not realize it. I see world domination in her future. She's got you and the Husbeast doing her bidding, doesn't she? She can join our daughter who is 27 but came out of the womb ruling the world. Love you, Ann, but you have always been in charge.

Amy Lane said...

Dude, mine still doesn't recognize 'malabrigo' or 'merino'--*&^%^ spell check. And go Goob--that's awesome! Trust me--she can read!!! (I've been walking the Cave Troll through his worksheets for a month...nothing that good, trust me:-)

Donna Lee said...

My girls were raised in the same kind of atmosphere, insatiable curiosity and educational tv. They all read early and continue to read voluminously. They had amazing vocabularies. Em used the word facetious in kindergarten and the teacher was amused because she used it correctly. The Goober may just take over the world one day. And I agree with louiz, it looks like a large jellyfish!

Alwen said...

When she starts to write out the names of the crayons (like "carnation pink"), look out! That's how I started out.

Our son is one of the few people I even know who can read as fast as I can. And he might be faster. Now I know how my mom felt.

Nice jellyfish. Looks soft. Actually, it reminds me of the moon jellies.

Ginger_nut said...

I agree with the jellyfish - especially with the blue background :)

Anonymous said...

It's probable that she can read - i learned how to when i was 3 years old too (my sister taught me a good part of it). I also believe in the theory barbara presented

Acornbud said...

Wow. That's a lot of stitches! Amazing!

Anonymous said...

That's really cool that the Goober can read! I wonder if she saw "purple" written on her crayon wrapper and her coloring sheet. Matching spellings is the only thing I remember about learning how to read.

Anonymous said...

in your shoes, i'd start finding out now which school districts have best "gifted and talented" services -- at least if you expect to be in the same area when the adorable miss goob starts to school. either that or resolve to home-school.

perhaps by the time you and the husbeast hit school, there were adequate programs for you (since i'm sure your little apple falls beneath a talented family tree).

i am of an earlier generation, when gifted kids were a terrible nuisance. i came to kindergarten already reading chapter books in an era when being able to recite the alphabet and count to 100 was all it took to "graduate" from kindergarten. i'm sure my kindergarten teacher was grateful that i missed much of the year because of illness -- i know i was glad not to be there. i asked questions about abstractions, driving teachers to distraction. finally, to survive, i tuned out, turned off and lived inside my head. had drugs been as widely available then as they are now, i probably would have turned to them.

it was not until i was an adult and understood bell curves, etc., that i realized that i was as different from my classmates -- though in the opposite direction -- as a girl with an iq of 50 or so who was on a wait list for institutionalization.

by the time i was given schoolwork that actually challenged me, i had gotten the idea that i was "smart," and didn't need to try. if something didn't come easily, i avoided it. recently, i saw a study that found that kids who are told they do well in school because they are "smart" often hit the wall in exactly that fashion, while equally bright kids who are told they do well in school because they work hard will show much more persistence when schoolwork is difficult.

the trick is finding the appropriate level of challenge for your own child, not assuming, as schools still often do, that a child who is advanced in one area will be advanced in all (or should ignore the strong area and work extra-hard to "catch up" in the areas in which she is more "ordinary") or, worse yet, that a child with advanced abilities can thrive in an atmosphere as unsuited to her as to a child with a 50 iq.

for some good ideas, i suggest www.gifteddevelopment.com

Brewgal said...

I agree- it looks like a jellyfish.