Delicate wee thing

Finished!  I can't tell you how pleased I am with this delicate wee thing. I will definitely be working this design again. The previous exercise prepared me for this one and I could tell that my spidering skills have improved. Never thought I'd say that and be happy…

Spring

Spring is about all things becoming new again. In the spirit of spring, last night I found this.

It's a metal box I got one Christmas that I found was generally perfect for tatting projects - long enough for crochet hook and deep enough to hold most balls of cotton and sturdy enough to protect the shuttle. 

Inside I found a tatted doily project is forgotten about. 

That's the pattern and this is how far is gotten.

Fourth round. The second round was the hardest and I don't have far to go so now it's a new project that's on my list for this weekend. Now that I've got the split rings thing down, it will go soooo much faster.

That gives me simply 3 projects for the weekend. 

1.  Tatted doily 

2.  Bobbin lace miniature flower for necklace

(Magnified view - I'm now in the second half of the 3rd flower). Working with yellow Gutermann's silk thread. So yummy, I can't even tell you.

3.  First installment of Rohn Strong's mystery knitalong shawl where I'll have to make my mind up between a 2-ply merino/angora handspun in white (I have 300+ yds but will need to spin more) or a single-ply Blue Faced Leicestet spun from a gorgeous Frabjous Fibers roving in reds/oranges

Hard choice to make. I may just have to do 2 of them!

Closing In

There has been a lot going on this past week including late nights at work, a little bit of time off work spent in the yard cleaning things up and getting some stuff planted.  Going back into the yard to critter-proof the new platings and working more in the yard, etc. you get the picture. 

But in the midst of all that I've been working on my doily. 

Just 2 1/2 repeats to go to finish the outside. I've had a lot of people ask and those are pins, not beads. Once I'm done, all of those will be removed. They're used to help shape the lace and keep it in place until it's done. 

This has been a fun project for a number of reasons. First because it's not too hard but I've gotten a ton of practice on making leaf tallies and plaits. 

Second, because it think the construction is interesting. The pattern had a little bit of instruction but not everything was spelled out. I like that. It makes me have to think about what I'm doing and why. That challenges my bobbin lace skills. 

Third,I'm going to get more than enough practice making picots when I do the center. 

Finally, I think it will be a nice piece when it's finished and I know just where I'm going to put it. 

Close Encounter of the Weird Kind

A couple of weeks ago we got a message that someone was putting on a "FolkFest" and a "ScareFest" at the Prairie Capital Convention Center.  Weird combination, right?  As things winkled out, a "major cable network" with a "reputable reputation" was filming a reality series pilot to be centered around convention centers.  They threw these 2 events together in a short amount of time and invited folk art vendors to come and sell during the event.  It was free for vendors and free for the public and everyone got what they paid for.  But we had fun trying to speculate what the "reality" portion of the show was.

I said that I would come on Saturday for the 2:30-6:30 time slot to demonstrate bobbin lace and spinning cotton from seed.  I wasn't sure how many kids would be there and that's a real crowd pleaser for kids.  Come to find out, there weren't that many kids and there weren't that many adults other than the ones dressed in weird costumes or covered with fake blood and guts.  It was a nice crowd but it was a little odd to see these folks learning to square dance with square dancers dressed in their square dance finest.

But as weird as it was, getting to meet the other vendors was a nice little perk and I got to demonstrate bobbin lace to people who'd never seen it or heard of it.  In fact, of everyone (except my friends who hear about it all the time), there was only 1 lady who knew what it was.  She had just come from a trip to the Netherlands where she'd seen bobbin lace and bought a starter kit.  Unfortunately she lives quite a way from Springfield but I told her I'd help her get started.

In order to have something on the pillow that I thought I could work and still talk to people, I started a doily.

I know I'm probably supposed to work the center at the same time as the edging but the book seemed to indicate doing them separately and I wanted people to be able to see what I was doing.  The leaves are a little bit here and there because I was talking through most of them but I'm having a lot of fun with this one.  I'm certainly getting a lot of practice doing the leaves and plaits. 

I started it last Thursday night and have been able to get about a third of the way around.  That's what happens when you get to sit for 4 hours and work away, right?!

Oh, and if you can get hold of the next issue of PieceWork Magazine, there will be a short article from yours truly on bobbin lace.  I had a much larger article and project accepted but they decided they'd run out of space and so they cut down the article and cut out the project.  Once I get everything back, however, I'll put the project together and get it online.

Adventures in Crochet

I've got started on my next round of doilies and I've found a really interesting one.  This is from a vintage pattern book.  Part of the first page is torn off so I can't find a date but I suspect from the typeface and pictures that it's from the 30s or 40s.

Looks like a normal doily, doesn't it?  Here's what makes it interesting:

Normally with a crochet doily, you start off either with a few chain stitches that are joined to make the beginning circle or by wrapping the thread a few times around the pinkie then single crochet stitches around to make the first round.  You can tell by looking that this one doesn't start that way.  Isn't it pretty?  Here's how it starts:

1st Round: Chain 5, slip stitch in 5th st from hook for picot, ch 7, sl st in 7th st from hook for picot, ch 5, sl st in 5th st from hook for picot, sl st in base of 1st picot for picot cluster, ch 4, dc in 4th st from hook, repeat from beginning 3 times, join.

In all the years I've been crocheting, this is the first time I've ever seen this start to a doily and I dig it.

The other outstanding aspect of this pattern was a completely screwed up pattern for round 7.  I know people think that vintage patterns are full of errors but, from my experience, this is much more often true of knitting patterns than crochet for some reason.  In fact I tried this round about 6 times before I finally came to the conclusion that is wasn't just that I was tired or that I wasn't reading the pattern correctly.  Fortunately there was a really good picture of the finished doily so I was able to figure it out from that. 

I also wanted to show a sample of the difference the size of the thread makes in the finished product.  Remember the Ducks and Drake doily I did with the size 100 thread and size 14 needle?  It's in the same book so I decided to do it again in the size 10 thread.  It takes on a completely different face.

Can you believe it's the same pattern?  It's pretty both ways, I think, but nothing can compare with the daintiness of the smaller thread.

Days Like This

Mother told me there'd be days like this.  Or weeks like this.  About all I've had energy for is staring at the wall and crocheting.  I did get 8 doilies out of it and the friend who'd asked for them seemed very pleased.  Although I said I'd try to get a picture of all of them, I forgot and they're away now.

But all is not lost.  Tonight at knit night a very generous person gave me:

Crochet and vintage.  How could life be better?  I feel a whole new round coming on!

There was a new addition to the household this week. 

It's my new Fricke spinning wheel.  I've been researching travel wheels, trying them out in different places for a wheel that I could easily carry with me for events and meetings.  I was always scared that I was going to do damage to my Kromski.  Of all the wheels I tried, this one had the features that I wanted - multiple whorls, easy bobbin changing, smooth treadling, scotch tension and a adjustable hook for advancing the yarn.  It's absolutely gorgeous to spin on and I've got a project started on it already.  This is Blue Faced Leicester that I'm spinning to very, very light lace weight.  I've done part of it on a drop spindle and now I"m finishing it on the wheel.  I wanted to see how the 2 different processes would compare.  I've got this on the middle whorl and on the lightest possible tension on the Scotch tension and it's probably the lightest weight I've ever managed.  I even got to break it in last week meeting with some other spinners in the local park for a very windy session.  Spun like a dream.

Doily Land

I had someone ask me to make some crocheted doilies and, you know, it was exactly what I was wanting to do.  You know I love to knit. And I love to spin. But every once in a while I just have to crochet.

And one tatted doily for good measure!

Dainty Star

I’ve never made a doily like this before. It went quickly with just 62 rounds but it is the most ethereal thing. At just 2 grams, it feels almost weightless, almost like it’s not there. To block it, I soaked it in soapy water, rinsed it and then pinned it out. I don’t know if it’s because of how the thread was processed or just its size but blocking it like this made it quite stiff. Not starched, you understand, but it’s certainly holding its shape beautifully. I definitely want to use this again for something larger, now that I have the feel for it.

I watched the most interesting silent movie I’ve ever seen this afternoon. It’s a Helmut Lang movie from 1928 called “Spies.” The acting was really remarkable and the flow of the story engaging and held my attention from start to finish. I won’t go into the whole plot but I would highly recommend it, even if you don’t normally like silent movies.

One of the things that hit me at the beginning was the naturalness of the lead actor. A relaxed, smooth style isn’t often found in movies of this period. The actor looked so much like Ewen McGregor – it really could have been his double (only 80 years ago!). The lead actress was a little more histrionic but she held up her side well for all that. The villain (because there’s always a villain) was very well done, too. All very generic comments but just so much better qualities than you would normally see. But, above all this, was the ability of the director to tell the story. Especially at the beginning there were hardly any dialogue shots, although there is some translation of written items, but there was absolutely no trouble knowing what was going on nor was there a need for them to carry the story forward. I’ve heard critics talk about the rhythm of a movie and here you see it. I was never once tempted to fast forward or switch to something else and I call that a good movie. I’d just finished watching a 2-dvd set on the history of the Nazi movement and how deeply rooted it was in World War I and the way the story unfolded, I had to check the date to see that it predated Hitler’s rise in 1933. There was, for me, a quite strong suggestion of what was to come in Germany in just a few short years.

Retro or Vintage?

So much going on. So much, in fact, that I felt the need to start another project. That’s how it's done, right?

I have been wanting for so long to start another knitted doily and had been trying to figure out what I wanted to start when I came across a knitted doily pattern in a McCall’s Knitting Magazine. It was their 50th anniversary issue, published in Fall 1969. The magazine has some really wonderful patterns from over their 50 years, although quite a few had had the groovy 60’s incorporated! The doily isn’t too large (just 62 rounds) so it seemed like the perfect project.

Quite a few months ago I’d found a spool of Coates and Clark Machine Quilting and Crafts thread – size #50 of Egyptian Cotton – that came in some wonderful natural cotton colors. I thought it might be possible to use to knit a doily. Tatting thread is #70 so it’s even smaller than this.

So, like chocolate and peanut butter, like Cagney and Lacey, I decided to pair this thread with this doily and…..drum roll, please….

a pretty good combination, if I may say so.

I started it before using a US size 1 needle, thinking that would be small enough but the needles were just too heavy for this thread and, after I’d made a fatal error about halfway through my progress, I decided to scrap the 1’s and try it again with US size 00 needles. Worked like a charm. It’s actually been 10 times easier to knit with the smaller, lighter needles and I’m getting pretty close to finishing – I only started it last night so it’s gone very quickly indeed.

I realized last night at Knit Night that I wouldn’t be able to go to the next Guild meeting (which will be at the Chatham Fire House at 2pm on Sunday, April 18th) because next weekend is already the Cotton Spinning class. As I posted a couple of weeks ago, I’ve finally got going pretty well on the tahkli spindle and have been able to spin up some fairly good (for a beginner) thread. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get enough out of this class that I can get enough thread spun to knit or crochet a small doily. I think that would be so fun – to have a knitted or crochet doily out of handspun cotton. Don’t hold your breath but stay tuned!!

I’ve now got almost a pound of the Wisconsin Black Watch fiber spun. It’s going to be about 600 yards, I think, although I’ve lost the yardage tag off of one of the skeins. But it’s certainly enough to think about getting started on the sweater. Now I just need to decide what to do with it. I’m almost leaning towards a cardigan since I only have 1 and it’s cotton and not at all suited for colder weather. I’m still pondering but at least I’ve made progress. I think if I can get the sweater started, that will be enough inspiration to get the rest of it spun. The first ball of the fiber that I spun was really nice with hardly any noils in it. The second ball, however, was really difficult to spin. I’ve got 3 more balls so guess it’ll be a toss up on which way they’ll lean.

State Fair

The Illinois State Fair kicked off this week and my work to get some things entered paid off.

I entered a few things in the Illinois State Fair this year and was very excited to win several categories. There were 2 things which won big. One was the Skrå-Trøyer (Danish) Sweater which won first place in both the Scandanavian section and the Sewing with Wool. It also won the purple champion rosette for the best garment and for best wool construction.

The other was the Miser’s Purse which won the blue ribbon for best crocheted purse and it won the purple rosette for best purse and the silver platter for best in the division. I liked it but I really didn’t expect this. I’m guessing part of the reason it won was because it was so unusual.

There were a couple of other things that placed. It was really difficult to get good photos in the cases so I've used my file photos.

A knitted doily - 3rd place (the other one didn’t get a look in):

A knitted purse (second place):

Another crocheted (reticule) purse - second place:

A baby outfit - second place:

They did a much better job this year of displaying all of the entries and there were some wonderful things entered in all of the categories. I was amazed at some of the stuff. But I have to say, the cutest thing in the whole show, for my money was a wall hanging that didn't even place in it's category. It was a quilted wall hanging of an underwater scene and it was so cute that I had to go back and look at it 3 times!

The shame was that, the way it was hung, you can barely see one of the cutest aspects (see the little frog's leg?):

Balmoral

I’ve made quite a lot of progress on the Balmoral ‘coffee cloth.” I’m all the way to round 111 which, considering I started the weekend on round 71, is pretty good. There have been no more pattern mistakes and the more challenging part is past but you still have to pay attention and there is still a lot of counting needed to be sure I don’t miss something. At the moment I’m up to 624 stitches! There are 137 rounds in all before I crochet off the edging and the last will have 840 stitches. I’m definitely going to need to cast on a simple project to work on after this!

Hummmm....

OK, so I’m working on my new lace ‘dinner cloth' (see previous post). The pattern calls for size 60 thread, which if you’re not up on crochet cotton sizes, is just slightly larger than sewing thread. I chose not to use size 60 thread for a number of reasons including the fact that I have no idea how many of those little dodahs I would need to finish a dinner cloth.

There’s no problem with substituting cotton sizes on doilies or dinner cloths, which is a good thing, but you need to substitute an appropriate size needle as well. Since that’s the sensible way to do it, I substituted size 10 cotton. I didn’t, however, change the needles. To be totally honest there were several reasons for this. 1) I had size 0s out for the Dalek; 2) It’s a size that I have both double points (for the beginning of the dinner cloth) and several lengths of circular needles (for when it gets larger); and 3) I didn’t really think it through.

I used the size 10 thread because in the last 2 doilies I made, I wasn’t so crazy about the smaller thread in the knitted doily. I do prefer it for crocheting doilies but not so much for the knitting.

Now the combination of those 2 things and the fact that this pattern is quite advanced and uses a lot of knit 3 togethers has made for a rough start. So now I’m re-evaluating. I’m 27 rounds in so not too far – sounds worse than it is because of course you start so small - it’s only a couple of evenings’ work. If I’m going to change now is the time to do it. I only have 1 skein of the 30 but I can still get more of the same lot so I may just go that way.

In the meantime, I’ll get back to my shawl and looking for gold wool in my stash to make another Dalek.

Doily Done

Just a quick post to show off my new doily. I love this pattern with its Art Nouveau feel. It's not blocked properly, I just ironed it out, and I need to work in the ends of the thread but I'm very pleased with it. When it's blocked properly, the tops of the flowers will be more rounded which will be more to my liking.

This one was much more challenging than the other - DMC Cebelia white thread - size 30. Yes, size 30 and US size 0 needles. Yes, quite challenging indeed but also very addictive. I worked on this exclusively for the past 2 weeks and I never do that. Pattern is from the Danish Lace Treasures book, featuring the work of Anna marie Jensen, by Gloria Penning.

Can you believe I'm already getting the itch to do another sweater in the ilk of the aforementioned Danish sweater? I've been wondering about doing a blue and white cardigan - complete with steeks... hummm....I really must be in love!

Photos, photos, photos

OK, Jennifer, here are the photos!

Here are some photos of my finished Skrå-Trøyer sweater. Yeah! I’m finished!


Also, the knitted doily called Azalea which I love as much as I hoped I would is finished. As I mentioned, I had some 2.25mm needle challenges and ended up using a total of 12 needles! Again, not the recommended path but I’ve found that most double pointed needles are 2.25mm and most circs are 2.5mm (both US size 1, of course). I did find a Crystal Palace circular at 2.25 but it was the most horrible needle I’ve ever used. Maybe it’s just this particular one but where the cable is joined to the needle, the metal part is bigger than the cable and I couldn’t get the stitches off the cable onto the needle. I thought I was going to have to cut the needle to get my doily off of it. I’m definitely going to return it and try to get a refund.



Regardless, however, I got them off and got it finished. This was one of the easiest knitted lace projects I’ve ever done.

The Doily

Just a quick post to show how the doily is working up. I’m loving this pattern out of the “First Book of Modern

Lace Knitting” by Marianne Kinzel. It just keeps branching out to more leaves and more leaves. I have 20 rows to go but it has knitted up so quickly. Can't believe it's actually pulled me away from my sleeve but I was always a sucker for a pretty doily. Got about 8 more rows done on the sleeve so I only have 3 more pattern repeats to go! (That sounds better than 48 rounds!!)

In case you're interested, I'm knitting the doily with DMC Baroque crochet cotton which I love and have used extensively.

Life after sweater

I wasn’t feeling too well this weekend so the whole long list of things I needed to get done, needless to say, didn’t get done – except cleaning the kitchen. I did do that. And I cooked a chicken/rice/mushroom casserole. That was pretty good and I happened to get mushrooms at the store before I decided I was going to do the dish. Those made it all the more yummy.

But I did finish the neck of my sweater and started the second sleeve which is almost halfway done. Now I’m just obsessed, no other word for it. I’m so ready to have it done and move on to the next thing(s).

Speaking of next things, as we were, I have been getting such a yin for doily work and was planning to get some crochet time in. But I got some books from Schoolhouse Press the other day with old lacy knitting including said doilies and I got hooked on one. It has whipped up really fast. It’s one of those that you can make as a centerpiece, a place setting, a plate setting or a glass setting. I think it’s going to be very pretty but I’m going to have to add some needles to the process. There are 6 sections around and since it called for a UK size 13 needle, my handy-dandy needle size converter tells me this is a US size 1. Sound familiar? Yes, well, in this case, it was supposed to be a 2.25mm US size 1, not a 2.5mm US size 1. Now, I could transfer it to a circular needle except that they’re working on a sleeve at the moment and can’t be interrupted and they are 2.5mm, not 2.25 as called for. Sigh… At the moment, I have 76 stitches on each of 3 needles. But I know that I have 2 sets of 2.25mm double points so I’m just going to draft in 3 more needles (making 6 – 1 for each section) and keep going, being very careful not to let stitches jump off the end of the needle (as they tried to do yesterday). If I need more needles, I’ll just use more needles. I don’t remember anyone saying the knitting police will do me for having too many needles.

If you see me by the side of the road begging, don’t throw money. Just throw US size 1 needles.