Archive for September, 2007
September 29th, 2007
Rarely do I take a long time agonizing over what to do for a particular project. Either I’m following a pattern, or I’m going off some inspiration from a picture I’ve seen or yarn I have. However, when the handknit is to be made for someone else and the yarn comes from my very own handspun in a limited quantity, I’m faced with a few difficulties. The first difficulty is one that I come up against quite often with handspun yarn. There just isn’t enough. I’ve come to the conclusion that 8oz is the absolute minimum I should spin of a particular yarn to at least have enough for a scarf. In this instance I have 4oz.
The problems of yarn shortage can very easily be solved by hopefully searching through the stash, and if you’re lucky you may just have something with exactly the right thickness, and exactly the right color. I was so lucky, and was excited to find that my gauge in both the handspun and commercial yarn were exact to a T. I could stripe the ends of the scarf with the commercial and handspun to stretch the handspun as much as possible.
The second difficulty was the one that took me the longest to work out. What exactly to **do** with the yarn; what stitch pattern should I use? I wanted to do something that would do justice to the sheen and stitch definition of this yarn. I also wanted something reversible that didn’t take up too much yarn per inch (so no tubes) due to the yarn limitations. The problem was that most of my ideas that would show this yarn off to its best involved some amount of stockinette stitch, which is certainly **not** reversible. I waffled between stockinette with garter borders, a basketweave knit/purl pattern, some lace (also generally not reversible), and a chevron pattern. This took at least an hour if not more, and my final decision (after long deliberation and picturing in my mind) once I’d finished swatching and trying to imagine what each idea would look like, and flipping through the stitch dictionary, going back to my original ideas again after returning to the later ideas again was…the chevron. It would do justice to the striping of the two colors, as well as my handspun yarn (again, not reversible).
So I didn’t like it, ripped it out, and knit up what you see here. After all that freakin’ time agonizing over exactly what kind of scarf I wanted to knit, I end up with garter stitch, garter stitch, garter stitch. I love it! Both yarns are incredibly soft, the colors will suit my mom wonderfully (remember, she chose the purple), and you can see they are a gauge perfect match. Even the reverse side looks kind of cool and different in its own way.
Once that madness of yarn ends is woven in, non-knitters won’t even be able to tell which is supposed to be the front and which the back. I’m considering knitting both ends at the same time, so that I can make sure that I use half of the brown alpaca for each end. I didn’t have a single skein so I couldn’t easily split it in half. I’m so pleased with how this is coming, and it’s nice to have a super-simple project on the needles again. I am definitely not one to shy away from some good ole garter stitch.
I’m finding more and more, as I try to find things to knit with my handspun, a difficulty in trying to fit my project to the yarn rather than vice versa. I have recently finished the two very small skeins of lace weight yarn (remember the white mohair and angora?) and have not a clue what to make out of them. Perhaps some wristlets? How the heck do other spinners deal with the limitations of knitting one-of-a-kind handspun yarn, only buy their fiber in large quantities?
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September 27th, 2007
I had a few extra beads from when I went to the bead store so…
I made another one. This time I did it a little differently. I used a metal DPN, glued some paper wrapped around the spot where I wanted the beads, and glued three beads over the paper. These things are so freakin’ addictive. I’m having a hard time not going back to the bead store to get more beads.
That fiber on the spindle is some mohair sent to me by [Betsie](http://forget-me-nots-and-fireweed.blogspot.com/), a knitter, soon-to-be-spinner-again, and LibriVoxer that I’ve been talking to a lot more lately as a result of [Ravelry](http://ravelry.com). She kindly offered up some fiber, which is greatly timed because I’ve been in need of something to put on that spindle! Thanks Betsie!
I don’t have a photo – the light’s not good enough to really do it justice – but I started the swatch for my mom’s purple merino/tencel handspun scarf. It’s a bit frustrating that this yarn is handspun, because there is only so much to be had. I have 4 ounces of roughly DK weight yarn, and I’m worried that I’ll have enough to make a good sized scarf. I swatched at size 5, and size 8 needles. The size 8 will make a bigger scarf, but the size 5s look amazingly better. The stitch definition on the 5s is beautiful, and really does justice to this yarn. I think I’ve decided to use the size 5 needles at the expense of size. Isn’t this kind of guessing with handspun frustrating?
1 Comment | Categories: Knitting |
September 25th, 2007
So here are my experiences spinning Angora fur. As in most things that I’m excited about, I dove right in without much thought. I didn’t do any research online about fiber preparation, or if any was needed. I’d read some about angora, seen some videos of women plucking the rabbit in their lap and spinning it straight off before. I was pretty confident I could just take it out of the bag and mostly spin as is. I also had never tried spinning with a support spindle, and have only read minimal things about it.
You won’t be surprised to know that my yarn is quite uneven, broken in places, even knotted in some of the broken spots. This time it was mostly about the experience, what I’ve learned, and I love the yarn all the more for it. I know those little tufts were from uneven and uncombed fibers. I’ve since read that my understanding was correct about not needing to prepare angora fiber in any way before spinning it. However, my fiber didn’t come straight off the bunny so it was a bit tangly. I know some of my breaks were from spinning it too much, but that plying it has lent significant strength to the weak spots. I also know that this yarn is incredibly soft, fluffy, and I can’t wait to decide what to knit it into. I’m thinking wrist warmers akin to Brenda Dayne’s [Mrs. Beeton's](http://www.knitty.com/issuewinter05/PATTmrsbeeton.html). Definitely not something I’d choose to knit without having a handspun fiber I really want to show to good effect. I swear this fiber addiction is dictating my fashion sense (if I ever had any). I can’t say I mind that so much.
Next time…
1. Better spinning technique with the support spindle.
2. More fiber preparation for ease of drafting.
3. Spin it **thinner**!
1 Comment | Categories: Knitting |
September 23rd, 2007
A whole post devoted to nothing other than the recent acquisitions of stuff. More materials and tools to practice my craft. However, I promise it’ll be something more interesting than “I bought this yarn, and this yarn, and these needles, and these needles…” Everything I have to write about today is unique and exciting (for me at least).
I went back to the bead store in town today, and along with some more beads that could be used for stitch markers, I bought some larger heavier beads to make a spindle. I brought my spare size 6 Clover needle with me, tested the holes of a few beads, and decided on two glass ones. The process for making the spindle was as easy as I thought it would be, and the result works like a dream.
All I did was take a small strip of muslin, wrap it around the shaft, slide the bead onto the muslin, and slide the bead and the muslin down the shaft. To prepare your knitting needle, take a small bit of rough sandpaper and sand the cylindrical knob into a round point so it will spin better. Grab a small bowl from your kitchen, or wherever, and start spinning!
Another thing I bought while I was out in town is that little fluff in the bottom right of the picture above. I was happily surprised to find out that a local crafts shop is now selling 1 ounce bags of angora fiber from a rabbit named Chloe. It’s soft, it spins beautifully, and it’s the perfect thing to try out my new support spindle. I’m doing it as fine as I can, and it is turning out pretty nicely considering my inexperience with support spindles. Now I just need a better dedicated bowl.
Now this is something that I’ve had for a few weeks, and just haven’t had a chance to write about yet. That picture is of a plastic zippered bag over half full of old yarn from my grandmother. I’m pretty sure some of it is even from her mother. There was so much yarn in the bag that she gave me, but a lot of it was acrylic. I picked out as much natural fiber (wool) as I could, plus a few mystery yarns. The wool consisted of many many skeins of wool or wool-nylon sock yarn. I now have enough sock yarn to last me a loong loong time.
I have no clue how old these brands are either, nor do I know if they are still selling yarn today. At some point if I get the motivation, I’ll do a little research online about these companies. I will definitely be saving the ball bands on these. It’s such a fascinating connection to the past. For example, what is “scotch wool”? Just wool from Scotland? Or what makes something “virgin wool”?
Even more fascinating was a bag that contained these. That glove (with the needles still in!) is my great-grandmother’s UFO. I even found what I think is the pattern when I pulled everything out of the bag. It looks like she bought a lot of extra yarn, just-in-cast. I’m not sure whether or not I want to finish these, or keep them in their unfinished state.
1 Comment | Categories: Knitting |
September 21st, 2007
Today I spent some time with math trying to figure out how to do a toe-up heel flap. I had some idea of how I was going to do it, I just needed to determine the exact numbers. While fiddling on my break at work (bad idea…you have to go back too soon and get stopped in the middle of some really exciting knit-math) somehow figured out how many stitches to increase on the gusset, how many to increase for the small heel turn, how many to do the heel flap on, and all that fun stuff.
You’ve gotta believe me when I say this was fun and exciting. I’ve never been so great at math, but my grasp of basic Algebra is pretty solid. I’ve never really enjoyed math until knitting was envolved; now I’m a bit fascinated.
Anyway, while I was thinking about my figurings after going back to work, I had this idea that it would be really cool to make a spreadsheet that does exactly what I just did. Someone could put the information they have, and it would tell them how many stitches/rows to do what to. Somehow, so far my night has turned into hours of fiddling to create this spreadsheet. I haven’t done a single craft related thing I was looking forward to. I had kind of forgotten the time really. I haven’t touched my spinning or knitting, and I’ve been trying to get a lot done lately. Yeesh, talk about absorbed.
I’ll post the file so you can see my progress. I think it’s done, aside from a few tweaks here and there and maybe a few rewordings so things make more sense. If you do check it out, please tell me what you think. I’d like to know if it makes sense to you, and if it seems to work as it should. You should be able to open this file in Microsoft Office, and you will be able to open it using any software that accepts the open document format (OpenOffice.org for one).
[Toe-up heel flap formula spreadsheet](http://crafty.greenkri.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/toe-up-heel-flap.ods)
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September 20th, 2007
It didn’t take me very long to start and finish this one ounce of tencel/merino fiber. I think I started it a week or so ago when I completed this stuff…
I haven’t been able to comfortably get more than one ounce on each of my spindles, so I’ve taken to splitting my four ounce lengths of roving into even fours. I like for things to be even, so I’ll end up with 4 smallish skeins of this purple fiber. That skein at the top was finished a few nights ago, and I was very excited to see it complete and plied. It is relatively even, it is thin, and it is beautiful. I’m sure it’s slightly overtwisted, but I’m really OK with that.
Each time I produce something one step better with my spinning skills, I find myself really amazed. Knitting and spinning are the first two creative skills I’ve spent a lot of time trying to improve in a long time. As a matter of fact, the only creative skill that I’ve really spent any time on is drawing, and I haven’t done much of that since I was a teenager. I’m not used to seeing marked progress, and I feel almost surprised when I get something I was hoping/expecting for. I mean look up at that first picture. That doesn’t look like a newbie spinner’s work to you, does it?
For some reason I have a hard time believing my improvements in spinning, more than knitting. I’ll knit lace and be thoroughly impressed that it came from **my** fingers. However, the thing about knitting is that it is very suited to my mechanical visual mind. I can work the stitches around in my head, and figure things out visually without having to see it. Spinning sort of eludes that, because it’s mostly training your hands and eyes. It’s not a matter of trying to understand how it works to be able to do a technique, it’s a matter of doing it over and over again until finally you have something that *resembles* yarn. It fascinates me.
***Edit***: I totally forgot to add… Based on responses to my [previous post](http://www.crafty.greenkri.com/preferring-the-traditional), the consensus seems to be more towards the more traditional knitting techniques. I’m not surprised at all (forgetting for a moment that this is only 5 knitters out of the how many millions?), as it has worked for so many years, why shouldn’t it continue to work well now?
1 Comment | Categories: Knitting |
September 16th, 2007
There are a lot of choices a knitter has to make these days. You can choose to knit a particular technique in the more traditional style, or take on whatever new ideas have been cooked up in the last several decades. It seems that now with an increase in the accessibility of information (the internet, cheaper publishing, cheaper transportation) new techniques are finding their way into the craft of knitting more quickly. All it takes is one person to come up with a radically new way of doing things (and to some easier), and it will spread through the knitting media.
One good example of this is the Magic Loop method of knitting socks or small circular items. Not only has this spread so quickly in popularity due to how damn easy it is to get the word out, but improvements in the manufacture and design of circular needles in the 20th century has made it preferrable in many cases to use circulars over straights or DPNs. Another technique that has been “unvented”, to quote Elizabeth Zimmerman, was doing cables without a cable needle. Some people find both of these techniques to be much easier.
The more and more I learn about knitting, and as I try different techniques to get the same results, the more I find that my knitting leans towards the more traditional methods. I prefer DPNs to the Magic Loop method. All that tugging, and rearranging, and pulling drives me crazy and feels like a waste of time. I’ve recently decided that I also prefer cable
needles to doing them without. It feels more right; it feels less stressful; I drop fewer stitches. I certainly won’t pull out the cable needle at every hint of a cable, but if it’s more than just a few 1 over 1 stitch cables here and there I’ll certainly want to use it.
So as I knit a pair of socks for my grandmother in anticipation of Christmas, I will be using cable needles, DPNs, and enjoy the occasional feeling of connection to the long tradition of knitting behind me. That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with not using traditional methods. I will always choose the method that feels right to me, new or old. However, I will always appreciate the history of knitting and where it has come from.
I shouldn’t neglect to say that I ***am*** using one less traditional method on this pair of socks, as I’ve chosen to knit them toe up. I want to use as much of this luscious yarn (Shibui) as possible, and I’ve decided to get over my crappy-toe-up-heel hump. I’m going to attempt a reverse heel flap to mimick my favorite top down method.
Where does your knitting lean more towards, the more traditional or newer techniques?
4 Comments | Categories: Knitting |
September 16th, 2007
I’m in one of my upswings in spinning, as always seems to happen every month or two. Since I finished whatever I was spinning on both my spindles, I started them both up with some fiber. One with something old (a difficult to spin but colorful wool), and the other with something new (wool and tencel!). I have fallen in love with this wool tencel blend. It has such a great sheen, is so easy to spin, and feels really nice.
I’m spinning a fine to lace weight, and it will probably be plied when I’m done. I bought this fiber because my mom remarked on it while we were in a fiber shop together. Her favorite color is purple, so I got 4 oz of it with the rest of my fiber with the intention of some day spinning it to knit something for her. I have no clue what I’m going to knit, but I figure a nice fingering-ish weight will work for most things. Perhaps some lace?
This weekend has been incredibly productive. I finally got up the energy to take the Mon Petit Chou out of hibernation and get some work done on it. I was feverishly adding stitches last night until about midnight. I’ve completed most of the front, and started the back last night. I must say that since I’ve taken this break from it, I feel much more comfortable with the stretchiness of Cascade Fixation. It takes a bit of getting used to the tension, as it’s not like knitting with other yarns.
Oh, and some Christmas knitting soon…
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September 14th, 2007
Forget whatever else I have on the needles right now. I cast-on for a new project a few nights ago, and I have been enamored by it. I placed quite a large order from [WEBS](http://yarn.com) a while ago, and the Malabrigo Lace I ordered was backordered. It’s been months, so I finally e-mailed to request that they just send me a different colorway. I got the yarn on Monday, and instantly knew it should be a [Clapotis](http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall04/PATTclapotis.html). I’m not sure how it happened, but I reprinted the pattern, and started it during my game night.
This is s-s-soooft. You thought Malabrigo worsted was soft? Try Malabrigo’s new lace. My only problem is that it has a tendency to tangle, but if you wind it into a nice even ball with a wide hole in the center, you’ll be fine.
I just can’t wait until this is done, and I can block it, and I can wear it, and I can….ohhh so soft. It’s amazing how much smaller this is done in the lace weight, as I didn’t adjust the pattern at all. I considered doing more increase rows to make more like a wrap, but I think I’m going to go for the quicker knit on this one. What a perfect fall weight scarf.
__Edit__ : I forgot to mention one change I made to the pattern. I saw this tip on Ravelry to purl the stitches that will be eventually dropped, to avoid having to do stitch markers. Such a great tip, because my stitch markers are a bit large for size 1 needles. A couple on the needles is fine, but I didn’t want 13 of them.
2 Comments | Categories: Knitting |
September 8th, 2007
When knitting a point-up shawl, it is not recommended to use math in order to figure out just how much you’ve completed. If you measure your width and get approximately 1/3 of the finished width, do not labor under the illusion that you’ve gotten a lot done. You haven’t. Wanna know how I know this? Pythagorean theorum, areas of squares divided by 2, and some creative calculator work tell me that I’ve only completed roughly 11% of my shawl, or 1/9th of the total size.
I show you an old photograph because I’m going to be honest with you and say that it doesn’t look much different in its current state. As per normal, I’ve been distracted by other things. I know this is going to be a long term project, and all my math workings have been a reminder of that. However, I have not abandoned the pattern for this shawl. I’ve completed the kerchief swatch, admittedly a bit sooner than I should have. My crafty workings of the top garter stitch border aren’t exactly what I want it to be, but it’s a start. I learned a lot, and my second swatch (probably a bit less ambitious) will work out much better. I just need to figure out how to do those stupid mitered corners neatly.
Jaggerspun Zephyr wool/silk blocks up beaoootifully.
Hopefully my Mon Petit Chou will find its way back out of hibernation soon, as I finally ordered the second ball that I didn’t realize I needed. I haven’t been waiting for it to continue, but I’m hoping its arrival will give me some inspiration to pick the project back up again.
Since I don’t have much other easy travel knitting lately (no socks! 
) I’ve been getting a lot of work on my Malabrigo squares afghan. Hmm…perhaps I should stop calling them squares, since they turned out nothing like squares despite my swatch. I feel the itch to get this done soon, but I still need about 4-5 more skeins. This is another long term project due to the largeness and expensiveness of it. 12 skeins of Malabrigo = lots of $$. However, it also equals a very large, warm, and oh so soft blanket.
1 Comment | Categories: Knitting |
Entry: Quietly Knitting
Author: Hishandmaid
Time: February 27, 2010, 10:57 am
Comment: Very adorable!
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