December 29, 2020

I need to dig out a dozen or so sheets of graph paper and coloured markers and make myself diagrams broken up thusly:
Section one: introduction, days 1 and 2.

Section two: days 3 and 4.

Section three: days 5, 6, and 7.

Section four: days 8 and 9.

Section five: days 10 and 11.

Section six: days 12 and 13.

Section seven: days 14, 15, 16, and squares 105 - 108 from day 17.

Section eight: the rest of day 17, and day 18.

Section nine: days 19, 20, 21, and 22.

Section ten: days 23 and 24.

Unequal sections, but each an independent unit that can be placed elsewhere in the sequence.

I just had a wonderful thought!!! No need to fool around with graph paper! Use my smartphone’s camera, and take photos of each section!!!
Sadly though, I can’t write little notes on them, unless I print them …
I’ll sleep on it.

Colours used by section for square number:
Section one:
1st - dirty white - bought at the closing of the Woolworth’s on rue Sainte-Catherine. ‘Dirty’ because it really is - from being among the last jumbled balls of yarn in the store.
9th and 14th - two reds
10th and 13th - a blue, three softly spun plies which make a fluffy yarn closer to sport weight than worsted weight

December 30, 2020

2nd and 3rd - Dark Plum and sage green - not cutting yarns between them.
N.B. do NOT cut main colour at end of square 3!! Put a stitch holder to hold the last stitch. Use other end of yarn to work squares 4, 11, and half of 13. Then, return to the held stitch and work squares 5, 12,and half of 16.

January 1, 2021

Work day 5 in different order: 31, 32, 30, and 33 - just to break the long vertical line from the start.

January 3, 2021

How do you know it’s bedtime?
When you notice you’ve cut the yarn at the end of a wrong side row, it’s already well ipast/i your bedtime.
I’ll decide in the morning how to fix.

January 4, 2021

Knitting along.
Day 8 will be the beginning of the end of a collection of short lengths of two greens I’d bought awhile back from Goodwill. Two to four long bits which had been made into two-tone, wire-wrapped ‘butterflies’. I presume they’d been made to decorate a foam wreath, but were leftover. Undoing the wires, separating the two colours, and making my own ‘butterflies’ was a good toilet-sitting pastime for a few months. Now, they’ve found a destination in this strip, and maybe the next as well.

January 6, 2021

A ‘cheat’ I often use in mitred squares.
When there just are too few places to pick up the desired number, I skip a decrease on the first decrease row.
When a hole would result from picking up only the required number of stitches, I pick up an extra one, and make a decrease on the first wrong side row.
I dare anyone to find those skipped or extra decreases on any of my mitred squares projects!

January 6, 2021

In section 5 (days 10 and 11), working squares 67, 68, and 69 before squares 63, 64, 65, and 66 and using the same colour as the ‘frames’ of numbers 59, 60, 61, and 62 - very neatly completes the ‘frames’.

January 7, 2021

N.B. No reduction of stitches!!
Instead of a tiny rectangle 6 x 12 stitches (which reduces stitch numbers across by two), I made two teensy squares 4x4 and another square 8x8.

January 7, 2021

Working section 7 out of order.
Using only the thicker worsted weight yarns, in an effort to reduce the narrowing effect seen in first strip.
N.B. Reduction of ends: work square 88 immediately after # 81, without cutting the tarn and by purling it. 2 fewer ends!!

Many ends ineach section can be eliminated by leaving yarn attached to use on an adjacent bit.
Garter stitch can be either all knit stitch or all purl.

January 10, 2021

En Point Squares
The red yarn along the right hand side is uncut for six triangles.
Along the left hand edge, for five, though some had to be purled.
The small diamonds on the upper right are also uncut between the two.
Fewer ends!!

Despite using the thicker yarns used, it still pulls in somewhat.
Were I to knit this independently of the whole strip, I would add a ridge top and bottom, and another on each side.
Since I want it to ‘fit’ in the strip, I won’t do that.

January 11, 2021

Bear Paw yarn ends:
Left column of three squares: 2 green; 2 beige
Centre column: 2 green; 2 beige
Right column: 4 green; 2 beige
By working each vertical column as a unit, I was able to reduce the number of ends to weave in.

January 11, 2021

I guess I’ll never learn to not trust my memory. It was only after the second row of the second colour - working in two-row stripes - that I thought to look at the pattern for day 13.
Oops! Yes, I’d remembered it was multiple colours, but it wasn’t two-row stripes. Well, too bad! So, squares 79 and 80 are different from the pattern. On the plus side, two squares, two colours, but only two ends for each colour.

January 11, 2021

Order of working section 10:
If using a single uncut strand: 154, 155, 160, 165, 166, 171. Otherwise, as written.

January 13, 2021

NEXT time I do the star/sun, try making the centre first, and building the rays and background afterwards. I like it done in the round, but it would be easier without a lot of fabric already attached.

January 14, 2021

A mitred square can also be worked by increasing from one or two stitches. Likewise, a mitred square, with four mitres, can be worked in the round beginning with four stitches at the centre. Next time, the star/sun should begin at the centre.

Stalled too many days on the star/sun! I’m not happy with it, but it’s done! Now, to move on with the (less interesting) sections I’d skipped.

January 16, 2021

Ends reduction:
Section 9/days 19 through 22:
Squares 133 & 134 worked as a single rectangle = only two ends instead of four.
Squares 140, 139, and 138 - worked in reverse order, facing opposite = two ends, instead of six!
Squares 145 and 144 - rotated and worked consecutively = two ends instead of four.

N.B. The number of ends is doubled when working two-row stripes. I’m using variegated yarns on this strip.

January 18, 2021

ALL DONE!!!
Days 19 through 22/ Section 9

No, not all the ends have been woven in … yet.

May 15, 2021

Whoopee!!! All ends on this strip woven in!!!
Four down; one to go!!