Glee!

So Franklin stopped by and commented, which just thrilled me all to pieces, since I am a big fan of him and his blog. :) At least, I'm assuming that it was this Franklin. I mean, how many Franklins can there be in the knitblog universe, especially considering that the comment appeared within 5 hours of my commenting on his blog? (I was imploring him to write a book. He really, really should. Heck, if he co-wrote it with his sister it could be titled 'Two Habits of Highly Effective Knitting'...okay, bad pun, sorry, I'll shut up...back to the topic at hand...)

Ahem.

So Franklin stopped by and commented. He loves my tabard, and he thinks it's cool that I'm knitting a tabard. I know this is going to sound wildly egotistical, but I agree with him. I also love the tabard, and it is cool, dammit. Even more cool is the fact that knitting a tabard means I dont' have to sew one.

And how is the tabard coming along, you may ask? Oh, let me tell you...

Heraldic tabard for moi

I have finished the first sleeve and have picked up all the stitches for the second. This means that for the moment, I am not doing any intarsia motifs, which means that I am much, much more relaxed. (I find that my knitting stress is directly proportional to the number of strands I am intarsia-ing with at any given moment.) Also relaxing is the thought that I only have one more of these motifs to do.


(the shot is fuzzy because the only way I could get the whole thing in the shot was by lifting the camcorder high over my head - whilst, I might add, already adding to my height by standing on my sofa, what can I say, the tabard is big and I'm short - and so the focus kind of blows)

However, I'm thinking ahead, and I'm concerned. Obviously, since this is one big stocking stitch monster, it is curling at all the edges like nobody's business. I think this might go away during the fulling and blocking process, but since my fulled swatch had garter stitch borders, I have no actual proof in my hands that this is so.

I have tried to find some before and after photos of fulled projects via Google, but I haven't been entirely reassured. In many projects, it isn't clear whether the edges curl before felting and uncurl bee-yew-tifully during the felting process, OR whether the pre-felted edges are not curling at all but are actually done up in garter stitch.

Does anyone know? Do I need to run a few rows of garter stitch around all my edges before I felt this thing? I have two obvious options, of course. The first is to knit and full an all-stocking stitch swatch and see what happens with the edges. And the second is to do a garter stitch edging all around the tabard just in case. But if I don't hafta do either of these things (especially since I might have to do both), I really don't wanna. Someone take mercy on me and give me a definitive answer? Please?

Striped socks for moi

Got a few rounds done on this last night while waiting for an appointment.

(Oh...and more glee...I just checked Indigo's website, and the Yarn Harlot's new book has changed status from 'temporarily unavailable to order' to 'usually ships in 24 hours'. A triumph. This probably means I will be buying and devouring it this weekend. Happy dance.)