As I look down from the poop deck upon my little sea down below everything looks so small when it's growing at an amazing rate. So long it is that now I can't stretch the whole thing out without risking the stitches falling off me needles.

You can see from me markings where I plan to take the design with smooth currents carrying on in a 'v' shape that takes one arm of the vee along the front and the other arm along the back of the not-a-poncho. Both will be following along with the shape of the edge.

Got another island coming up, too. See that? On the outside edge keep up the rough waters in either seed stitch or garter to give yerselves a nice, firm edge.

Tomorrow I'll be posting about making ripples. Until then, over and onward.

VIEW FROM THE CROWS NEST

The atol surrounds the island

Captain here. Just want to tell you how mightily impressed I am with your bravery. No wavering wills for this lot, no siree, and it isn't easy sailing blind.

Been lookin' at all your pictures, I have, and just as predicted, each one's different and each one's pretty spectacular. Meanwhile, I've been fielding a lot of questions about where we're heading so  thought it time to talk a little longitude and latitude.

When you squint at me wee sketch up yonder, you'll note that at some point we circular knitters will be joining our circles. But not for long. We have a little finangling to do to make the armhole for one side. Don't be worrying about the specifics just yet just know that the captain will be telling all the information ye need.

In the meantime, get out those trusty tape measures and measure yourself around the hips with an eye to deciding how much room you want for your not-a-poncho. I'm aiming for 53 inches because I want mine super-roomy. My piece is now 22 inches long from the bottom tip to my needles so I know it's time for me to up the increases or I'll be caught short.

From here on in, I'll be increasing two stitches at the begining and end of every row right up until I hit the 50-inch circumference zone. (I'll tell you what to do when we reach Sleevesville when we're inches away from landfall).

Now, design-wise, carry on as you've been going adding bubbles and moving your currents along. I have another feat of daring coming up but we have a bit more knitting to do first. (Psst! You can just see a touch of what I'll be putting you up to in the lower right-hand side of the purple current: open work!)

Here's a close-up of my bubbles. See how I've added colored ones

So, to recap, things for you to now:

• measure your hips and decide on your preferred circumference.
• If you want roomy, up the increases. If you want slim or ARE slim, keep on at the current rate of alternate increases.

Lynne's Molten Lava

Bubble, bubble...

Are you asking yourself 'What has the captain up her sleeve today?' Bubbles, of course. When the captain promises bubbles, she delivers, and we ARE all at sea, after all. Right, so let's get on with it.

Once you have selected the smooth current upon which to begin your bubbles, proceed as follows:

1. On right side, knit up to the place where you'd like your bubble to appear. Transfer three stitches onto another needle several sizes below your current ones (I'm using 5mm) while keeping the rest of your yarn on your main needles.

Transfer stitches to smaller needles. Increase stitches as you work your short rows back and forth

      2. Attatch a length of yarn either the same as your current or a contrasting shade and knit three stitches across on your second, smaller, set of needles.

       3. Turn your work while still on the smaller needles and add one stitch. Knit back on the reverse side and when reaching the last stitch, increase one more stitch. You now have added two stitches to that row and now have 5 stitches on your smaller needles.

       4. Turn again. You are now on the right side. Add one more stitch to the begining of this row, knit across and add another stitch to the end of the row. You now have seven stitches on your needle. Isn't this fun? Don't you feel like a renegade, a virtual pirate performing high seas shenaginans? Of course you do! This is called short-rowing (with attitude).

   5. Right, so don't get all carried away. Next, we're going to start reducing our bubble, much as we did our moon awhile back. Turn again to the wrong side and knit back without any decreases or increases.

Decrease your short-rowed bubble back to three stitches

6. Turn to right side and decrease 1 stitch at the begining before knitting to the end of the row and decreasing 1 stitch at the end.

7. Turn again. Knit while decreasing 1 stitch at the begining and end of the row.

8. Repeat until you're back to 3 stitches on the right hand side.

9. Take your needle with its three stitches and either transfer those stitches onto a stitch holder or secure your smaller needle so the stitches don't run off and join the navy on you. You'll be leaving those three in the hold while you carry on working on your seas duties. Have faith here: it'll all work out.

Your bubble rejoins the crew

10. Now, carry on, me mateys. Knit three full rows of your not-a-poncho seascape according to your chosen path, joining the gap left by the renegade stitches in the process. There will be a hole but we'll be covering that later.

11. On your third row, right-hand side, work on up to your renegade stitches and bring them up from the hold. Holding the needle with the three stitches in your left hand as you would normally do, knit the three along with the rest of your stitches on your right hand needle. Now those stitches are back onto your right hand needle, back in custody, so to speak. Continue knitting normally.

12. See what happens? By adding this little circle like 'tag' you've short-rowed into existence and later joining it to your main body of knitting, you've created a puffy little bubble of texture right onto your surface. Now imagine what you could do with this techinique in terms of surface action?

Note:

• There will be an extra strand of yarn from your bubble work hanging around once you transfer the three stitches back to the main needles. Treat these as you wouls any yarn tail and knit them in on the reverse side.
• The hole formed by excluding these three stitches while you sailed back and forth on your main needles should be covered over by the bubble. If not, youhave the option of tacking the bubble down close to the main knitting. But I wouldn't.
• You can now knit as many bubbles as you'd like , in various colors and sizes, to create a multi dimensional textured surface. This first bubble is gartered but try one in seed or leave it in stockinet for deffering effects.

PS: Many crew members have emailed me to say they couldn't leave messages in my bottle this time. I'm not sure what's up. Some people have been able to do it, others not. I'm considering upgrading my blog program soon to a program that embeds seamlessly the spam-proofing features but that will have to wait until my financial coffers fill up again.

In the mean time, please don't hesitate to email me privately!