folk shawls

The Yahoo Folk Shawls Group has chosen the Wool Peddler Shawl for its 2008 knit along. I made mine (pictured above) last Fall. I went on the Knitter's Review Forum shawls and scarves section to get recommendations for yarn to use since the yarn specified in the Folk Shawls book has been discontinued. I got confused because knitters suggested a variety of yarns ranging from dk to aran weight. I wanted to reproduce the shawl pictured (below) as closely as possible.

One of the Knitters Review correspondents suggested that I e mail the author, Cheryl Oberle, directly. I was very excited to get a reply recommending Berroco's Ultra Alpaca as a substitute. Following the pattern directions, I produced a deep red shawl that was a little smaller than the dimensions given in the pattern.

The Ultra Alpaca is very soft and cozy. It was a good suggestion; I would recommend using it. However, I wish my shawl had a little more body. The original yarn has a high mohair content, but the Knitters Review people recommended against a mohair blend. As I am partial to mohair and mohair blends, I am sorry that I listened to them, even though they meant totally well. I think there is a bit of prejudice against mohair out there in the knitting world. I am slightly tempted to knit this again, but that might fall into the category of 'will do if I live forever'. I have so many other projects in mind. And I prefer rectangular shawls to triangles, so do I really want another?

Another issue with this shawl is the blocking. Actually there are two issues. One is that the alpaca blend does not hold its shape firmly enough. The other is blocking wires. I don't have any. Thus the edges of the shawl are a little wavy. Before I wash it or block another shawl, I will get blocking wires or else use threads to hold the edges. Pins stuck directly onto the edge give poor results.

Last night I cast on for the Kimono Shawl:

Online, I bought what I thought was the specified yarn for this project: Henry's Attic Cascade Petite, a stocky lace weight of pure, shiny silk. It turns out that the yarn called for was Cascade, not Cascade Petite. I think Cascade must be closer to fingering weight or a little heavier. So in my recent stash enhancement excursion to Mosaic yarn studios I bought some Jagger Spun Zephyr, a lace weight silk and wool blend that is matte, not shiny. Putting the two together causes the yarn to be glinty, neither shiny nor matte. I guess that is ok.

As this is a shawl, I didn't worry too much about gauge, but just wanted to get in the neighborhood. So I am in the neighborhood with a #6 US needle rather than the #5 Cheryl used. For obvious reasons I like that this is not a teeny needle project. I am still working on the Bird Doo Klaralund which goes on #4 needles. Actually that is one #4 and one #3, #3 for the purl rows, a trick I recently picked up from the Interweave Knitting Daily newsletter for working on stockinette stitch. So I have enough slow paced work in hand without making the lace knit even slower.

This is a long introduction to what I really wanted to say today. That is, I love the Folk Shawls book. The projects that Cheryl presents are more or less practical. She doesn't direct you to use lace weight yarn to make a spider webby piece that you can't even feel that you are wearing. Her shawls seem like they would actually keep you warm, and most of them are in the repetitive geometric designs I like best rather than the Victorian style of going out from the center in an overall flowery design. That style is gorgeous to look at, but lost in the wearing. And, since I'm all about the product, many of her shawls are the rectangular shape that looks best on me.

Apart from the patterns, Folk Shawls includes a concise and valuable introduction that teaches lace knitting techniques such as how to cast on (all important in lace making) and gives tips like the one I am using to write each row on a separate index card and flip the cards to keep place in the pattern. I prefer words to charts.

There is also something subtly and indefinably beautiful about the book itself, especially the photos of the shawls as worn by the author. The picture of the Kimono Shawl (above) is especially toothsome to me. It has a physical and spiritual beauty at once. Pictured below is the shawl I want to make next after the Kimono. I also love the Bird's Nest Shawl. The one below is the Icelandic Feather and Fan Shawl, an earthy interpretation of a Victorian pattern knit in unspun wool.

stash enhancement

Well I had sex last week at a local yarn store (that is, stash enhancement excursion). The visit (and the sex) is unusual, because I so shop online for yarn. I know, I know. I do feel guilty because I really want local yarn stores (lys) to continue, and I do try to buy in person once in a while. But come on. How can you beat the price and selection of online shopping?

Anyway, I visited Mosaic Yarn Studio (in Des Plaines, IL, a Chicago suburb) to find some lace weight yarn for the Kimono Shawl by Cheryl Oberle in Folk Shawls (more about that later). I had some Cascade Petite, a shiny, silk, heavy lace weight, but I wanted a fingering weight. From the limited selection of lace weights that I saw at Mosaic, I was able to find this (Jagger Spun Zephyr, a silk/wool blend pictured with the Cascade Petite). I can use one strand of each: Then, I learned that the store owner is purging all Louisa Harding yarns from her shop, and I saw this - Louisa Harding Kimono Angora, an angora/wool/nylon DK for $2 a ball, normally $11.
Bring unable to resist a bargain like that, I piggishly bought all 13 balls. What will I do with it? I have no idea. It would be nice for a shawl, scarves, gloves or mittens, socks, hat, and I could make a lot of them with this haul. I don't see it as a sweater, even though there is enough. Please send me some ideas.

I felt lucky, so I bought some sock yarn for swatching a sweater idea:

The multi colored yarn is Tofutsies (wool/soysilk/cotton/chitin). I have always wanted to have a sweater made of shrimp.

The thing is that I have already have stash galore. This has accumulated over the last several months. I used to have a few balls of this and that, leftovers or vintage picked up at a thrift shop. I still do, some of it quite ancient, but somehow I have started to buy yarn in larger quantities either because it was a great buy or with project ideas in mind. I think this is because I have stopped buying so many books since I started working part time at a library. I have to spend money on something.

Here is what I currently have, not counting several where I have 5 or 6 balls. These are ones I have a lot of.

This is Colour Mart crunchy silk in a tweedy lilac shade. I have 3 small cones or about 1,900 (?) yards. It is called DK, but it seems light for DK. I was thinking shawl, but instead I might make a cable and lace type cardi, maybe Katherine Hepburn from Lace Style. Or else the Bird's Nest Shawl from Folk Shawls. The tangle is from the cat named Boo.

This next is 10 balls of Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Chunky in the color (or rather colour) Damp, a medium grey tweed with blue and green flecks. As you probably know, an E Bay store, Jannette's Rare Yarns, has been having a huge sale on this discontinued yet splendid yarn. I have already made a sweater from a different colorway of this. I think I want to make a Sarah Dallas moss stitch jacket from Rowan's Scottish tweed book.

I have 15 balls of Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere for a sweater. I have used this for a sweater before, and it is wonderful - soft as can be and machine washable and dryable. Its only drawback is its splittiness. It must have a hundred plies. This was also an online bargain at someting like $4 a ball. And finally, I have 14 balls of Knit Picks Merino DK. The color is Vanilla and the yarn is so plain vanilla that I feel uninspired by it. But this color looks good on me, and I know I will like it for a slightly dressy jacket-type cardigan with contrast trim: Will I ever get all this knitting done? Stay tuned to this blog.

klaralund rationalized through space dyeing

Why oh why did I decide to knit the Klaralund, a design that will probably look horrible on me? And uses variegated yarn, which I generally don't like much? And uses variegated yarn in a color that looks like bird doo? (See previous post for more details.)

• I thought the Klaralund would be a more interesting use of lace weight yarn than the Clapotis for which it was originally intended.
• The Klaralund is a clever design and shape, reminiscent of the Einstein Coat. The vee neck, back and front, might be flattering.
• I would rather have another Clap in shades of brown than the Grape Hyacynth colorway of the Knit Picks Shimmer. Even though purple and green is my favorite color combo, the shades of this grouping look like, I repeat, bird doo. So who cares what I do with it?
• The yarn is wonderful to the touch. I want to have it wrapped around my body.

What stands out the most about this knitting venture however, are the words Space Dyed. I love retro looks, and I remember that in the 1970s space dyed sweaters were in fashion. This photo is of a current design (from a company called Stacia), but it has the look of the 70s style of sweater surface design. Using 2 strands of the lace weight Shimmer together breaks up the stripes into a similarly speckly space dyed look. As shown in the photo at the top of this post, it looks even more that way on the reverse stockinette (or wrong) side.

So this is essentially a design venture to see if the fabric recreates the space dyed look of sweaters from the seventies. It might lead to another sweater design, more retro in shape, using this type of yarn again. By the way, space dyed is still an operative term. Here is one definition; and here is another. It seems to mean yarn dyed in specified lengths of one color and then another and another, etc., repeating along the length of the skein.

There is another reason, unrelated to clothing or design, why I wanted to use this particular yarn at this particular time. Because I wanted to use this:

And this, my Christmas presents:
to make this:

process or product?

Like many knitters, I usually say that for me knitting is about the process rather than the product. But is that true? Lately I have come to think that this statement about the process being more important than the product is not entirely true for me, but really a way of apologizing in advance if the product of all those hours spent knitting should turn out badly. And many times it has turned out that way in spite of my effort to pick out the right yarn and pattern and knit it correctly.

Process does enter into it. Knitting is thought to be a meditative act because it centers you on the work in front of you enabling you to clear your mind of everything else. I have experienced that at times, but for me gardening works better as meditation. Although I do like to knit, I like to read more, so I combine reading with knitting by listening to audiobooks as I knit. That is why I knit so much - because I read so much. It is still a relaxing process though, knitting and reading away.

Almost as much as I like reading, I like clothes and fashion. And there lies the true excitement and glamour of knitting: hoping to make something wonderful that will look great and be an asset to the wardrobe. All of this is a way of apologizing in advance, because I have reason to fear that the project I cast on over the weekend will turn out badly.

It all started when I was browsing Ravelry to see how other knitters had used Knit Picks Shimmer, a variegated lace weight alpaca/silk blend. I had ordered some, and my idea was to use it for a lighter weight Clapotis that would not be so chunky as the worsted weight versions I had made and would lay better on the neck as a scarf. As I mentioned in my Clapotis post (linked above), I am not crazy about variegated yarn, mainly because of the chunky stripes it produces. The Clap is perfect for variegation because it breaks up the stripes diagonally. Somehow that looks more graceful to me.

I was looking at Shimmer products in Ravelry hoping to glean information about how knitters had used lace weight yarns for Clapotis. I came across an interesting project by a knitter using the name Flyingneedle who made Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton's Klaralund in Shimmer.

Here is Klaralund as she appears in Hamilton's Noro book Number Two using the yarn she specified: Noro Silk Garden, a worsted weight. See the chunky stripes. Flying needle's version, (linked above) which I can't seem to grab for this post, has daintier speckly stripes. In fact, the variegated pattern of Shimmer, as used for Klaralund reminds me of sweaters from my youth - more about that in the next post.

For now, suffice it to say that it is doubtful that Klarlund will look good on me. Notice how the model in the photo here seems to lack breasts. I have humonguous ones. As for Flying Needle, she seems to have breasts, but she is thin and elegant in shape to the extent that she should be a model. I am short and chunky, and while some clothes look passable on me because I am well-proportioned, I will never be anyone's clothes horse.

You might ask, if I am dubious about the material and nearly sure that the shape will not suit me, why am I making this sweater. I am not entirely sure, but I have some ideas, which I will explore in the next post.

blue shoes and happiness scarf pattern

Happy New Year. As I promised in the last post, I have the Blue Shoes and Happiness scarf pattern ready. I re-knit the scarf ( I first designed and made it in the Spring of 2006) so I could remember how it went. This second version is slightly different from the first.

Blue Shoes and Happiness

Named after the book by Alexander McCall Smith. See December 31 post for details.

finished size: (before blocking) 8.5 x 54 inches with approximately 2 inch fringe.

materials: 400 yards Noro Cash Iroha in dark blue (color #7) (mc) ; a few yards in green (color #105) (cc); more for a longer scarf.

note 1: Each of my skeins yielded 123 yards (a European packaging). I used three and ran short on the fringe. The scarf also could have been longer.

note 2: Cash Iroha is a worsted weight blend of 40% silk, 30% lamb's wool, 20% cashmere, and 10% nylon. It is a luxurious yarn (see previous post), but the scarf would be equally fine, if not better, in a plain worsted weight wool such as Cascade 220, Patons Classic Merino, or Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted. I would try the latter if I knit this again for a thicker scarf.

needles: I used US #9/5.5 mm straight needles. Needles can be short length.

#9 circular needle for picking up stitches along the edge of the scarf.

pattern stitch:

Basket Stitch

Multiple of 6

Rows 1 and 7: knit (k) across. Rows 2 and 8: purl (p) across. Rows 3 and 5: *k1, p4, k1; repeat from asterisk. Rows 4 and 6: *p1, k4, p1; repeat. Rows 9 and 11: *p2, k2, p2; repeat. Rows 10 and 12: *k2, p2, k2; repeat.

Garter Stitch

Knit every row.

gauge: I got close to 5 stitches and 5 rows to the inch (actually 4.8 of each) in the basket pattern stitch. Of course gauge is not crucial here.

Pattern:

Body of scarf

With mc, loosely cast on 32 stitches.

On every row - slip 1st stitch purlwise; knit last stitch (this will be important in picking up stitches later for edging).

Work 6 rows of garter stitch; attach cc and work 2 rows of garter stitch; re-attach mc and work 2 rows garter stitch.

Continuing to slip 1st stitch and knit last stitch, work the 30 stitches in between in Basket Stitch. Continue for approximately 50 inches or for desired length of scarf. (Garter stitch borders take about 1.5 inches each.)

After final repeat of basket stitch work 2 rows garter stitch, attach cc and work 2 rows garter stitch, re-attach mc and work 6 rows garter stitch.

Bind off all stitches loosely.

Edging

1) The slipped stitch edge forms a chain along the entire length of the scarf. Using cc and circular needle, insert the needle through both strands of the chain stitch and pick up one stitch for each chain along one side of the scarf. You will be picking up one stitch for each 2 knitted rows. Knit back along this row of picked up stitches to create one garter ridge. Bind off loosely.

2) As above, pick up and knit stitches along the other side, using cc. Knit back the picked up row to form one garter ridge of cc. Attach MC and knit 4 rows in garter stitch. Re-attach cc and knit 2 rows in garter stitch. Bind off all stitches loosely.

3) (optional) pick up stitches along short edges (one stitch for each stitch in pattern and edgings) and create one garter ridge in cc. (I did this and am not sure I like it.)

4) Fringe: cut 4 17 cm strands of yarn for each fringe. Attach along the long side of the scarf that has the wider garter stitch edging (see photo). Trim fringe to 2 inches.

That's it! Let me know if anything is unclear. And please let me know if you knit this. I would love to see pictures. I think it would look good in red with white trim for Valentine's Day.

blue shoes for the new year

Happy New Year! As a gift for the new year I have a free scarf pattern to give you. It is not ready yet, but here is a preview of the finished item in a poor photo that doesn't show the true attractiveness of this scarf, mainly due to the crummy background of a faded, bleached towel.

I have briefly blogged about this scarf in previous posts about the Christmas scarves I knit for friends in 2006. This was my absolute favorite out of 15 scarves. I named it Blue Shoes and Happiness (Blue Shoes for short) after the book I listened to as I knit it. Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith is the 7th of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency Series featuring South African sleuth and font of wisdom, Precious Ramotswe. I like to think that the charm of this gentle mystery (barely a mystery novel) and its narration by Lisette Lecat was communicated to the scarf.

Appropriately, as McCall Smith is a Scotsman, the design, to me, has a Scottish feel. I think it is partly in the stitch pattern, which suggests plaid, and partly in the short sideways fringe, which suggests a kilt. I gave the scarf away without writing down the pattern. But the pattern is simple enough, and the item is small enough for me to reproduce it by knitting it again (for myself of course).

Part of the reason for the Christmas scarf project was to give myself the chance to experiment with yarns that might be too expensive to risk on a whole project. A silk/wool/cashmere Japanese import, Noro Cash Iroha, is in this category. It currently retails for about $12. per 100 yd., 50 gram skein at local yarn stores, making a basic sweater cost $120, never mind cables. That is a lot for me to spend.

This yarn seduced me though. The yarn is part of the reason why this is my favorite scarf. It has a beautiful soft shine and is smooth and soft to the touch and looks luxuriously heavy, like thick silk fabric. But it is light because of its wool and nylon content. Its only drawback for this project is its thick and thinness. This feature would add a lot of interest to a plain stockinette pattern, but is not perfect for this plaid-like basket weave. Never mind. Although if you want to knit the scarf, plain Cascade 220 or Lamb's Pride worsted, or Paton's Classic Merino would work well. I hope to have the pattern ready next time. Meanwhile, here is a new photo of the work in progress.

squatty

I have been wanting to blog about Amanda's Squatty Sidekick for the past month or so because I had some adventures in knitting it. But it was a Christmas gift for someone who might see the blog, so I had to keep it a secret. The pattern for this little felted cutie is on the Interweave Press "Knitting Daily" website and can be accessed through the link in the first sentence.

The pattern calls for about 200 yards of a feltable (wool) worsted weight yarn, so it's great for using project leftovers. It is knit on large needles, so it takes no time at all to make.

I used a few different shades of dark red in Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted, a good felting yarn, although it takes longer to felt than some. My finished bag showed subtle striping, obscured by the felting for a subtly variegated effect. The problem? The bag was way too floppy and kind of small even though it measures 11 1/2" wide and 6" high after felting, larger than the finished measurements given in the pattern.

My little squatty was so cute that I kept it, but I had to do better. I doubled the yarn (I still had enough reds left over), used larger needles (size 13 US rather than 10 1/2) and decided to widen and lengthen the bag's proportions to make it more usable. This should be a piece of cake. After all, I blog about knitting so I must be very good at it, right?

Wrong. My next attempt was so misshapen that I had to frog it immediately or die of embarrassment. I had added stitches in what I thought was a simple continuation of the increase/ decrease sequence of the pattern, but no. It didn't work.

My last and most successful attempt at Squatty is pictured on top. Here is a comparison of the first (single strand) and last (double strand) squatties:

Yes, the size of the final version makes it more usable, but it is the firmness of the thicker fabric that really does the trick. Here are the final Squatty stats:

Prefelted measurements: 19" wide; 13 1/2" tall; 21" long strap

Measured after 2 long washer cycles to felt: 12 1/2" wide; 6 1/2" tall; 15" strap

The construction of the Squatty is so clever. The bottom of the bag is made first as a back and forth-knitted rectangle on a circular needle. The live stitches along one side of the rectangle are kept on the needle and stitches are picked up along the other three sides to start the body. The body (with its careful sequence of increases and decreases) is knit in the round in one piece. At the top of the body, some stitches are bound off and some are kept on a holder for the flap. Others are kept on another holder for the base of the handle. A group of stitches on one side is worked on for the handle. When the handle is long enough, the handle stitches are grafted to the reserved stitches on the other side of the bag. In other words, the bag is made in all one piece. Much more elegant to knit than to describe.