[Nfb-krafters-korner] My paratransit afghan (long)

[Deborah Armstrong]

Someone asked me off-list about the paratransit afghan. I will explain 
it here, since there's nothing about this that needs to bee off-list!

First, a bit of scene setting. The transportation happens in cargo vans, 
modified Ford 350s that are designed for holding stuff, not people. they 
don't have good shocks, so even minor bumpy rides feel like mild roller 
coasters. Most passengers are in heavy power chairs or scooters, 
strapped to the floor with things that resemble seatbelts. This is 
Silicon valley where everyone drives, so it's not a mecca for the 
visually impaired!

My job is on a main route to V.A. hospital so I'm mostly riding with 
older folks with respirators or on kidney dialysis, or who have suffered 
strokes. These are a chatty lot, and though especially after a long day 
at work, I often want to read a good mystery, or just think quiet 
thoughts, that luxury seldom occurs. Instead I learn all about 
everyone's dog, grandson, aches, doctors and opinions. I mean no 
disrespect for the elderly; I'm just cooped up with them for long 
periods and don't like being rude. A typical one-way ride with multiple 
stops is about 90 minutes.

So I decided I needed an activity that would keep me awake, willing to 
listen and would handle the frequent stops and the roughness of the 
ride.  My guide dog sleeps through it but I cannot.

I taught myself to knit on circulars, which was liberating because when 
the driver wanted me to hop out quick to squeeze another wheelchair in, 
I could jam the whole thing in to my purse, and be off the van in 15 
seconds. Also if my phone rings, I can set it aside.

I carry my yarn in a ball in a heavy ziplock with a tiny hole punched in 
the bottom to feed the tip of the yarn out. If I'm doing colors, it's 
two ziplocks of different textures. I keep a rubber band around my wrist 
to wrap around the tips of the needles at a moment's notice and I have a 
small drawstring bag to stuff everything in to rapidly. I also 
occasionally carry a cup holder, one of those that fits between the 
window gap, and use it if I have a large ball of yarn. These are for the 
20-ounce size of soft drink and cost a dollar on Amazon. I find them too 
flimsy for a real drink but they are perfect for feeding and containing 
yarn while traveling.

I knit circular things like hats and water bottle holders, but I also 
knit as if I were using straight needles; the circulars are just more 
convenient. Before I learned to use circulars I was always dropping 
straight needles. I find metal is really slippery if you knit on a ride, 
but plastic and bamboo have more friction. You can get cheap Clover 
Takoomi bamboo needles on Amazon but I've come to really love the 
plastic interchangeable set from Knit Denise, around $45 on Amazon. The 
Knit Denise youtube channel is here:


     https://www.youtube.com/user/KnitDenise


and she does a great job of describing how to use them, almost as if she 
knows some viewers are visually impaired.


One delightful advantage I found riding with all those seniors was they 
would, if I asked freely offer opinions about the yarn and its color.  I 
didn't have to go seeking sighted people to comment on the work or 
materials and it was a lot more fun than hearing about how someone's son 
is in jail!  Knitting helped me stop resenting and start appreciating 
the people I rode with!


For the afghan, I wanted something pretty, but I couldn't count stitches 
with Mrs. Smith yacking about politics or back pain in my ear. So I 
decided to make it this way:
Cast on three stitches.
On each row, knit 1, do a yarn over, and knit the rest of the row.
You get a lacy triangle with tiny holes around the edges. Measure it 
until it's the size you want, then start each row by knitting the first 
two stitches together. Follow with a yarn over, then knit two more 
stitches together to keep the decrease going. Eventually you get down to 
three stitches and you bind off.

For beginners, a yarn over or YO is simply the tiny hole you get when 
you wrap the yarn around the needle without knitting a stitch. Beginners 
make them by mistake all the time. I was simply making the mistake in 
the correct place!

You now have a square with lacy edges.

Collect all these squares, making them the same size, and sew them 
together. I used Lion Brand's Amazing, which at that time came in 25 
colors. I knitted one square in each color.


Amazing is described well by Lion Brand here:

http://www.lionbrand.com/amazing-yarn.html


Because this yarn is so variagated, the actual stitch pattern gets 
visually lost. This is why it would be a bit of a waste to use a fancy 
pattern on this kind of yarn.
People think the results look very advanced, but they aren't. A few 
squares I messed up and had to do again -- no big deal.

I can purl too, but this is the easiest thing to make while others are 
trying to converse with you. It feels even prettier if you purl a solid 
row before starting to decrease by knitting two together at the start of 
each row. Sighted people seem to not notice the purling with the 
colorful yarns. But I think it adds to the tactile aesthetic of the piece!

When I sewed, I tried to keep the slightly thicker edge where I had knit 
two together on the outside.

I finished it off with the chain stitch, using my fingers because I 
don't know how to crochet. I just took black yarn of the same weight 
category and created a chain all around in the loops of the stitches 
along the edges of the afghan.


--Debee