Harvest Time

Finally, the sweet smell of pineapple in the greenhouse lets me know the fruit is ready. That and the fact that the stem has drooped under the weight of the fruit! Fun fact: apparently Victorian greenhouses were specifically introduced to allow folks to grow pineapples! Who knew? 150 years later, I'm growing some, too.

Meanwhile, as I cannot grow tulips outside anymore because of the voracious deer, I've designed a sweater with tulips in mind.I wanted this to be more of a knit/purl design rather than openwork lace, so I closed all of the yarnovers by knitting into the back loop. I really like how this came out.

Math is Everywhere

Lately I've been thinking a lot about math. The amazing spiral produced by my pineapple plant ( with purple flowers!) follows the Fibonacci number sequence ( http://www.world-mysteries.com/sci_17.htm ) and is just lovely. I finished the top of the Tessellation Sampler, which is a quilting exploration of semi-regular tessellations for the next mathematics and needlework book from the group that brought us "Mathematics in Needlework". See my post from 2008 for details about that wonderful book ( http://jeririggs.blogspot.com/2008/01/making-mathematics-with-needlework.html ).

And of course, there is knitting! I finished my second Ingrid Cardigan, this time in blue : yarn:Trendsetter Merino VIII, needle size 8. A very wearable and lovely sweater in my favorite shade of blue!

Pattern available in my Ravelry Store ( http://www.ravelry.com/ , Jeri Rigged Designs).

Gauge Lies

It always amazes me how gauge lies. Therein lies the difficulty in getting knitted items to fit; yarn stretches and behaves unpredictably when knitted up! My measurements and calculations don't always knit up the way I predict. For example, this sleeve:

Became too long, despite my calculations about length. Thank goodness for top-down knitting! I will rip back and reknit the cuff, and it will fit my exact length! And after blocking, if it stretches some more, I can also adjust it. Using a superwash yarn here can mean it might lengthen in the blocking, as the scales are closed, so the yarn won't stick to itself so much. Or so I believe.

I often will knit the sleeves after I get the body divided and a few inches knitted on that, because if I am going to have just enough yarn, I'd rather the sleeves fit and the body be a few rows short than vice versa.

Meanwhile, to answer Tanja's question, here is a nifty free charting application that I have been using:

http://jacquie.typepad.com/Charts/knitChart.htm .

Meanwhile, my pineapple is growing!

And of course we had more snow the other day, so here is that obligatory shot:

I am having a lot of fun with Ingrid, both my own knitting and that of my test-knitters. Here is one beautiful example, using yarn hand dyed by the knitter:

You can also see how Ingrid herself is coming along with her sweater here: : http://strickpraxis.wordpress.com/

Pineapples

About 6 years ago,we cut off the tops of some pineapples, placed the tops in a pot with soil, and some time later, the plants rooted, and started growing. I have a small greenhouse room, and put these plants ( I now have 5 of them) in the sunny window....3 years later, two of the plants sent up some buds, and produced fruit! The pineapples were only 4 inches tall, but they were delicious. A few weeks ago, one of the plants decided to fruit again, so here is the developing pineapple! It is so cute! There are little purple flowers around the bottom, and the typical shape. It is such fun to watch this grow...