Unspun

After working frantically on my silk-merino roving, I finally completed spinning it. I ended up with 560 yards and 6.7 ounces of 2-ply fingering weight yarn.

I purchased the roving from Nezinscot Farm Yarns & Wool in Turner, Maine. The ownders of this farm taught me to spin before I even purchased my spinning wheel. The farm had a day where you could show up and learn any skill. At that time, I told them I wanted to try spinning. They brought a wheel onto their large front porch and set about teaching me to spin. I was interested in spinning yarn but every class required that you already own a wheel to sign up. A $500 investment to see if I liked spinning seemed to be a bit of a risk. Luckily I picked up spinning fairly quickly and bought a wheel soon after.

After I finished plying the merino-silk yarn, I let it sit on the bobbin for awhile to allow it to rest. Then I wound my yarn into two skeins with my DIY niddy noddy.

I think us yarn people generally like making things ourselves. Since it seemed easy enough I made my own niddy noddy a few yearns back. Essentially it is 3 lengths of dowel with 2 lengths screwed to the ends of the other. Certainly not as beautiful as some niddy noddies I have seen but functional

Finally I washed and whacked my yarn to set the twist. Any day you can beat something for a legitimate purpose is a good day. I am sure my neighbors wondered why I was hitting my deck rails with yarn.

I am pleased with the finished yarn. I like the way the colors meld together in the yarn. The finished yarn feels rather stiff, somewhat like linen. I am assuming it is the silk. The twist is somewhat tight, however.

Since I have not had much formal instruction in spinning, I had asked a more experienced friend to take a look at a skein of yarn I had spun. She noticed that it was a bit undertwisted. True to form, I overspun this yarn in places. There are some spots where the yarn twists around itself and does not lie flat. I think that I will wind it into a ball and see if that straightens it out the rest of the way.

Now that I have this project off the wheel, I need to decide whether to start on my newly acquired Shetland fleece, alpaca, or angora. Choices, choices.

Donegal: My First Stranded Sweater

When I lived in Massachusetts I came across Alice Starmore’s book, The Celtic Collection, in a yarn store. This was during pre-Internet days so I had never heard of Alice Starmore. My knowledge of knitting was limited to what my mom had taught me and what I had picked up from written patterns and magazines. When I saw this book I was absolutely stunned by the beauty of the sweaters in its pages. Never mind that the book was out of my budget and that I had no clue how to buy the yarn to knit any of these sweaters. Of course, I bought the book.

Ms. Starmore’s color choices are always stunning and she continues to be my favorite designer. The book is filled with sweaters made using intarsia and stranded knitting techniques. For many years I plotted about how I could knit one of these sweaters. Eventually Knitpicks was born and they came out with their Palette line which would be suitable for stranded knitting. The yarn was affordable but was not available in nearly as many colors as today. In hindsight I should have spent a bit more money on myself. I guess this was a learning experience.

I picked the Donegal sweater for my first attempt at stranded knitting. Since the available colors were not at all similar to the book I bought a selection of colors and swatched. This is what I ended up coming up with.

 

The spirals do pop and it is not as awful as it could have been. However, when I wore it it was a bit overwhelming for a garment. So what did I learn?

1. Sometimes it is okay to spend some money on myself. If I am going to spend this much time knitting a sweater  it should be with great yarn and stunning pattern.
2. I learned how to make a stranded sweater. I learned to throw so that I could knit with two colors in two hands, I steeked, and I knitted a corrugated ribbing for the first time.
3. I do love bold geometric designs. Sometimes in practice, increased subtlety might be more flattering.

If you check out the selection of Donegal sweaters on Ravelry you will notice both the warm brown version from this book and another version in blues. I think that this sweater would be beautiful in a number of different color combinations but more muted colors would be more pleasing. A darker version is also available in a kit from the Virtual Yarns website. No more worrying about where to get the yarn!

As for Alice Starmore’s The Celtic Collection, I would recommend checking out the patterns. My favorite stranded patterns are Alba and Erin. Erin would be particularly challenging since the patterns are not symmetrical.

The intarsia patterns that I was struck by include Ardagh and Kells. Sadly only one person has completed Ardagh on Ravelry. Not only are the colors beautiful but the textures compliment each other as well. The yarns include silk, chenille, and tweed.

And my favorite cabled pattern is Cromarty. Cromarty has such a fascinating celtic knot pattern. Also notice the cable pattern surrounding the neck.

 

It’s My Lucky Day!

While my yarns is sorted by weight, fiber, and purpose, my notions are not as organized.

My favorite part of my notions is my notions bag. I bought it at a garage sale years ago. I believe it was intended for toiletries but I repurposed it for knitting notions. As a matter of full disclosure, I did not reorganize my bag before taking these pictures. After photographing the bag, I realize that I have no idea what the purpose of this bag is supposed to be.

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The inside of the bag contains a clear zippered pocket where I keep my stitch markers. There is also a mesh zippered pouch that is attached in a 3-ring system. The other side of the bag has pockets where I put stitch holders, crochet hooks, and double pointed needles. I also have a tape measure and scissors attached to the rings. The scissor holder is perhaps my best idea. The scissors are clipped to a retractable string so that I can cut my yarn but no one runs off with my scissors. No more looking for scissors in the middle of a project.

I used to sell stitch markers on eBay back in the early 2000’s. They are a lot of fun to make and it is so luxurious to be able to have beautiful knitting notions. Now the market is flooded with stitch markers and the price is too low to bother selling them. I still like to make them for myself or as gifts for my knitting friends though.

In the middle, bottom of the last picture are two safety-type pins. When I purchased some clothing the tags were attached with these. I decided they were perfect for stitch markers or stitch holders for a small number of stitches so they have joined my collection.

I also have a number of stitch markers with letters on. These are useful for knitting some sock patterns such as the Vector Socks.

In the center pocket I have a needle gauge, another measuring tape, numerous row counters, and a cable needle. The barrel-shaped row counter attaches to the needle. I have probably used this one for 30 years. Since I no longer use straight needles a lot, it does not get much use anymore. The purple electronic stitch counter is fairly new but I am not sure that I like knitting with it on my finger. I will keep trying. The rectangular ka-ching counter is probably my favorite. When my children were small, though, this counter was difficult to use because they would click away on it whenever I turned my back.

The final pocket makes me wonder about the real purpose of this bag. This separate folding section sits in the outside pocket. It has slots that could presumably be used for credit cards. The other half has a clear zippered pocket where I store end caps for interchangeable needles, safety pins, and yarn needles.

While looking through this section, I realized I had not taken everything out of here in awhile. I have a notepad from Charleston, West Virginia and a receipt from 2008. And most luckily there was $27 in cash! Today is my lucky day.

Book Review: Shetland Textiles: 800 BC to the Present

Recently in a Fair Isle facebook group a knitter mentioned that she bought a copy of Shetland Textiles: 800 BC to the Present edited by Sarah Laurenson. Since I have always been interested in knitting history and in Shetland knitting, I immediately decided that I wanted to look at this book. Sadly a quick search of Amazon led me to finding the cheapest used book being sold for $522. My other go to search was, of course, my public library. Sadly they did not have a copy but I could borrow it from Michigan State University through interlibrary loan!

Shetland Textiles was published in 2013 by the Shetland Amentry Trust. The book includes articles from over two dozen contributers many of whom live on the Shetland Islands. While I have read many books on Shetland lace and Fair Isle knitting, this book is more academic in nature. The contributors intend for the book to not focus on one type of textile but rather to include a history of all dimensions of Shetland textiles.

The book includes the development and types of Shetland sheep (of which I have a recently acquired fleece!), the development of Shetland textiles, spinning and dying wool, Fair Isle knitting, Shetland lace, woven Shetland tweed, and Shetland textiles today.

The book contains many large, color photographs throughout the book. The pages include some stunning photos of the Shetland landscape. Using the colors from these photos would undoubtedly produce spectacular Fair Isle garments. The book also incorporates many photographs of textiles from the Shetland Textile Museum and historic photographs of people knitting or showing off their textiles. My favorite pictures in the book are of fine lace shawls, of Fair Isle sweaters, and of people knitting and weaving long ago. When I look at those pictures I often imagine what life must have been like for knitters trying to find a market for their textiles of for knitters spending evenings knitting with friends. In the days before the Internet and written patterns, I imagine so much of the craft was passed from person to person as they spent their winter days knitting and chatting.

When examining the photographs of Fair Isle sweaters most of the historic examples seem to be knit in primary colors. Of course, the book contains a print of King Edward VIII as a prince wearing the Fair Isle sweater that made Fair Isle “go viral” during the 1920’s. While I find the patterns stunning, I am glad that dying technology has advanced beyond the use of primary colors in our modern sweaters. Other sweaters from the time used a variety of natural colors which I find more pleasing.

Perhaps the thing that intrigues me most about history books, like the photographs in the book, is imagining the day to day logistics of designing, knitting, and marketing Shetland textiles. The book contains numerous accounts of the lives of people related to the textile industry. These stories include that of Ralph Patterson who wore a Fair Isle sweater knitted for him by his wife for decades including his time as a prisoner of war. Betty Mouat is also highlighted because she ended up alone on a boat in Norway. The rest of the crew had washed overboard on her trip to Lerwick to sell the knit shawls from her town and she was the only survivor drifting the sea until the boat landed in Norway.

Finally the book contains pictures and stories from the current designers and knitters on the Shetland Islands. Undoubtedly this will be a valuable resource for historians in the future.

Shetland Textiles is large book with high quality photographs and thus would make a lovely coffee table book. I, of course, would prefer to have even more historic photographs included. Most knitters would likely be content to read this book one time, however, so the exorbitant price tag is not worth the price for most people. If you can locate a copy through interlibrary loan though, I do think it would be well worth your time to read the stories and look through the pictures.

What’s In Your Stash? -Sock Yarn

One of the advantages of having a stash is that every once in awhile you can sort through your stash and enjoy it. I admit to loving to touch and smell my yarn. The other advantage to having a stash is that you can look at it while envisioning a new project.

I have my stash sorted in a variety of bags and bins based on yarn weight, fiber type, and use. Today I decided to pull out my sock yarn stash to show you what I have stashed. My sock yarn stash is stored in a clear plastic bag with a zip off top. My mother-in-law gave me these bags a number of years ago for no particular reason but they have proved useful. Usually I prefer sock yarn that is 75% superwash wool and 25% nylon for durability. Occasionally I will use some cotton-blend yarn instead. I admit that I can not be trusted to handwash yarn so superwash wool is important.

I sorted my sock stash out to see what was what. The hanks will probably be used first. It seems I only have three of them left because they get used up fairly quickly. I find that I can generally do more with the semi-solid colors.

I was surprised to notice that I had quite a few skeins of solid commercially made yarn. I am guessing this is because I don’t really use it very much so it has been hanging out in my stash for years. I can not remember why I bought the Pace yarn but it seems very thin to use for socks.

I also have some yarn that used to be in hanks that I have apparently frogged because the project did not work out. A couple of these balls of yarn I got from a friend that did not like them. They do seem to be a bit itchy so I am not sure that I will use them for socks.

As many of us have, I also went through a period of dying my own yarn. I mostly used Wilton food coloring, kool-aid, or easter egg dyes. Dying yarn is fun but since I do not want to use more toxic coloring, buy seperate pots, or set up a cooking area outside of my house, I never tried to dye some of the most beautiful colors. These balls of yarn are a few results of my dying experiments. Hopefully some day I will be inspired to use them.

Finally I have a few skeins of commercial yarn sitting around. I particularly like the skeins with the fall colors. I have tried a few different ideas with them but nothing has seemed quite right yet.

Finally in a different container, I have the leftovers from all of the socks that I have knit. Many years ago I started using these leftovers for a mitered blanket. While I think this blanket is beautiful, it is also time consuming and I have not gotten very far with it. At one point when my daughter was little, she cut off several of the ends that were not woven in yet to keep for herself. When I asked her about this she said that she thought I did not need these scraps of yarn anymore. After that I let the blanket languish for years until I accepted the fact that I would just need to unravel these squares and start over.

What is in your stash? I would love to see some pictures!

 

 

 

 

 

Knitting Life Lessons

My son is building his own computer for the first time. While pondering some of his problems I thought to myself -if this cosmetic mistake is going to bug him for the next 5 years, he should just take it apart and redo it now. Then it occurred to me that this is a life lesson knitting has taught me. From there I considered what I learned from being a knitter. Here are my top 10:

10. If looking at a mistake is going to bother you, it is best just to rip it out and start over.

Before plowing on consider how you will view this mistake in 5 years. Will it make you not like the object? Will you even remember it is there?

9. Relax. Staying tense will just make you sore and will spoil your end product.

I often hear new knitters say, “This was supposed to be a relaxing hobby?!?” When you are frustrated with your knitting or scared of attempting a new skill you become tense. The result is sore shoulders and hands and a sweater that is two sizes too small. Knitting has taught me to take a deep breath when I am struggling before getting back to work.

8. Crocheting and knitting are not the same. You may not use the words interchangeably. Just don’t do it.

How many times have you heard someone refer to crocheting as knitting of vice-versa? Even worse our local museum has a crocheted doll labeled as knitted. Just like if someone is speaking German on the street you should have some idea that it is not Japanese, I feel like recognizing different crafts is basic life knowledge.

7. If you are tired it is best just to go to sleep or you will regret it in the morning.

We have all been there. Just one more row. And then you wake up the next morning and wonder what elf put mistakes in your knitting during the night. Don’t try to get anything complicated when you are tired. It is better just to get some sleep and pick it up in the morning.

6. There is no reason to dry clean a wool sweater. Save yourself the money. (And then use this money to buy more yarn.)

It seems like every wool sweater in a store is labeled “Dry Clean Only.” When I block sweaters I knit, I wet block them. I often just wash them in gentle shampoo (because wool is really just sheep hair). Yes, you need to be careful with heat and friction unless you want felt but I see no point to paying someone to dry clean my wool sweaters.

5. Any activity is more fun with friends.

Knitting is great! It is even more fun doing it at the local knitting shop or with your knitting group. If you don’t have a knitting group, sign up for a knitting class at your local yarn shop. You are guaranteed to meet some nice people who love knitting just like you do!

4. You will use that high school algebra as an adult if you want to resize a sweater pattern.

I have teenagers and I often hear people saying that you will never use algebra after high school. The two places I often use algebra are cooking and knitting. Every knit item that I design requires some algebra. If you want to make a sweater wider, adding 2 inches increases the cast on by how many stitches? How much wider does the sleeve need to be? If your sock is 66 stitches around how many stitches is the heel flap? It is all algebra! If I was a math teacher, I would have my students resize all of my sweaters.

3. Handmade presents contain more love than those bought from a store.

I am the textile merit badge counselor for my son’s Boy Scout troop. One month, I was working with a boy who mentioned that his grandma had knit him a scarf. I told him that she had knit all her love into that scarf for him so he should enjoy it. He was so touched by this and vowed to go right home to locate that scarf.

2. Sometimes it is okay to realize that it is not working, to tear it all out, and to move on to something else.

So many times in life we persist with bad ideas when our time would be better used cutting our loses and following a new idea. Ravelry is full of frogged projects. Knitting teaches you that it is okay to fail and to move on sometimes.

1. Patience and persistence will eventually be rewarded.

Learning to knit is a struggle, casting on 400 stitches is a struggle, reading lace charts is a struggle, dropped stitches are a struggle. But at the end of it all, you have something that you made with love and persistence. Maybe it was not exactly how you envisioned it but it is yours. You made it stitch by stitch and experienced it every step of the way.

Hidden Jewel Socks

I admit that I have numerous knit patterns just about ready for release but sometimes I can be such a perfectionist that I get stuck and can not release the pattern into the world. As a result I have not published a new pattern in quite a number of months.

I am happy to announce that I am releasing a new sock pattern today, however! Because of the diamonds within diamonds in the pattern, I have named them the Hidden Jewel Socks. In looking through my records, I started writing this pattern over a year ago. While I do keep correcting and revising patterns, this pattern is complex. The written directions span 8 pages with 3 charts. The lace chart extends around the entire leg. As such the stitch count varies slightly from round to round. The diamond pattern also travels down the heel and the instep so as to not abruptly end at the ankle.

While this pattern is challenging, I believe those knitters who are familiar with socks and who are comfortable reading charts will enjoy this sock. After starting, the chart is fairly intuitive and you will probably not need to refer to the chart often. If you are someone who has not knit from lace charts before or who gets easily confused by charts this pattern might cause you more frustration than joy. I would recommend trying the Victorian Lace Socks pattern first.

Because I am thrilled to be releasing my Hidden Jewel Sock pattern into the world, I am offering knitters any one of my patterns at 50% off this week on Ravelry. Just use the promo code HIDDENJEWEL at checkout! Let me know what you think.

In other news, I am enjoying my new sewing machine a lot. I have made a couple more project bags. Now to transfer my ongoing projects from plastic ziplock baggies to beautiful cloth bags!

I am also spinning away on my merino-silk fiber so that I can see what my new fleece looks like spun up into yarn. I have spun the merino-silk into a 2-ply yarn that I am estimating to be about fingering weight. I guess I should do the wrap test to see for sure. Although I still need to wrap it into a hank and wash it. I only have about an ounce and a half to spin so I might be ready to see my Shetland fleece soon. I am also contemplating what I will make with the fleece. Currently I am planning to make a sweater. I am deciding if I would prefer a colorwork or cable design.