AHOY! CAPTAIN'S IN PORT

Port Douglas, Australia...

Mardi tenaciously kept at this, relaunching away until she created this beauty unfolding here. Anyone recall her first venture? Big change!

Dear knitalongers, please bear with me a bit. The captain's had to haul the ship into port for a day or so to scrape the barnacles off me hull and repair the sails.

Translation: I'm in the middle of changing my blog, which means that every new posting must be brought over to the new program. In between learning the new, working on my book, and a myriad of other things, I'm falling behind a wee bit. STay the course or pull in with me until I'm back in the water. I'm thinking that maybe by the weekend you'll have a fresh new posting with (gasp) ripples!

PS: I've added a new comment to the previous post.

'ROUNDING THE CAPE

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