Blockhead

John and I have been kidding around about a name for the Entrelac book that I am currently preparing.  Obviously, the title should include the word "Entrelac," because that's what the book is about.  I don't particularly want to call it "Shaped Entrelac" or "Round Entrelac Yoke Sweaters" because that's not very whimsical.  I want a fun name.

 I got a fair amount of teasing from John and Steven this weekend for being so obsessed with the projects.  This is about as bad as I get.  Last time I knitted and re-knitted and re-re-knitted  projects, over and over, just to get each one a little better, was the Goldilocks Challenge book, when I was determined to get the absolute most out of a non-patterning USM. 

Here's the latest test - a purple sweater (it looks blue on my monitor, but it really is Very Purple, thank you.)  I keep thinking of some way or other that the round yokes would be just a little better.  Then I change the patterns and try again.  Obsessed, crazed, perseverating behavior.  Good thing I'm not a homicidal maniac, because I would be relentless.  We are talking about calling the book "Entrelac Obsession."   I think "Blockhead" is more like it, with these little block shapes haunting my dreams, but John has vetoed that idea.  Still, if the cube fits the head...

I did have a breakthrough this weekend.  Over the years, I have been disappointed in transitions in garment patterns between plain stockinette and Entrelac.  Entrelac makes an extremely wide gauge compared to stockinette.  Typically, you get such an ugly transition that you have to hide it inside a seam or cover it with a trim.

I wanted my transition from the stockinette body to the blocky Entrelac yoke to be smooth.  I wanted it almost invisible, so smooth that even if I didn't use a contrasting color at the beginning of the round yoke but kept right on going with the same color for a zigzag effect, the way I did on the purple sweater, the body stitches would run right up to the blocks without any obvious adjustment in the number of stitches.    Here's an unabashed closeup of the purple yoke detail, showing the new transition idea.  It really does make a nice difference.

And, with this transition, you could knit the yoke and then rehang it and knit the sweater pieces downward.  With this yoke, there is one stitch at the bottom of the circle for each stitch in the body of the sweater.