Do Wiki's Work?

From Wikipedia:

A wiki is a website that allows visitors to add, remove, and edit content. A collaborative technology for organizing information on Web sites, the first wiki (WikiWikiWeb) was developed by Ward Cunningham in the mid-1990s. Wikis allow for linking among any number of pages. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for mass collaborative authoring. Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, is one of the best known wikis.

Open-source wikis (such as Wikipedia) have been criticized for their reliability: certain individuals may maliciously introduce false or misleading content. Proponents rely on their community of users who can catch malicious content and correct it. Wikis in general make a basic assumption of the goodness of people.

Like All Things On The Internet...
...reliability of content should always be questioned.

One of the things I love about Wikipedia, is that it contains a great first place to start when researching information. More and more, when I Google the definition for something, the Wikipedia definition is one of the first items in the search results. It has always been very reliable for the kinds of definitions for which I search.

I've sometimes considered adding to this great communal piece of knowledge.

For instance, look up "kitchener stitch" on wikipedia. You'll note that it brings you to a section on "Grafting (knitting)." While it includes the words "Kitchener Stitch", it provides no link to a place where it describes how to actually do Kitchener grafting. I can't imagine it would be very difficult to add a new section to the Wikipedia on directions for Kitchener stitch, and then changing the current grafting option to link to it.

Like all things that rely on the basic goodness of others, I often wonder how long before the assumption of goodness is disproven, and the resource becomes useless.

Current Knitting
I finished up the second sleeve of the bulky pullover, sewed up the seams, bought a perfect button, and finished up one of my favorite designs I've done for a while.



The button, I bought at Twist. Again, she had exactly what I wanted. Here's a closeup of the collar and the button.



The button is made of ceramic, and it has a lovely mother-of-pearl-like glaze. It's made by "Annabelle Lee Art Creations," in Hamilton, Georgia, and while the picture doesn't show it off very well, it is more like a piece of jewelery than it is a button. Exactly the effect I was going for.

I will now get back to work on the colorblock cardigan, and sew that garment up.

Readers' Comments/Questions
Regarding my spinning of Mel's alpaca roving, Marilyn writes, "I think spinning alpaca is my new favorite. Used to be silk but it's a tough choice. Have you done a wpi on yours?"

I need to confess something here. I'm not sure how to do a "wraps per inch" measurement on my yarn. I even have this clever little needle case, with an inch-long indentation that helpl me with this measurement.



If it's a very lofty yarn (like this alpaca is), do you squeeze it together, or do you just leave it lofty? The difference on this yarn is about 22 WPI versus about 9 WPI. Suffice it to say that I will need to swatch this yarn before I decide on how to use it.