Rings and Rings

Right now at the Illinois State Museum, there is a display of Civil War era quilts and other textiles.  In one of the cases are several socks, mittens and doilies that have been knitted and crocheted.  My friend, Jane, brought it to my attention and she had the idea of seeing if they will let us try to reproduce the socks after the show is over. 

We had a discussion about one of the pairs of socks that has a mixture of patterns, one of which looks very much like tatting:

It had been a while since I'd seen them so I went last week to see if I could get some better photos like the one here.  See the little circles?  I knew I'd seen this pattern before and found it in the "Victorian Lace Today" book by Jane Sowerby.  It was from an 1860s shawl pattern from Mlle. de le Branchardiere's book, "The Abergeldie Winter Book."

I know that in all the patterns and books Jane and I have studied, this was the only time I'd seen this type of spider pattern.  The only thing we're going to have to figure out is how to intersperse the rings with the triangles (although I do have an idea about that).

It's a pretty tricky pattern and after 4-5 goes with black lace weight wool yarn, I decided I would try it with size 8 perle cotton.  Besides I have a new house that needs some curtains.  What better way to test it out!

I think this is going to do us very well with the sock pattern and I think it's going to be a very pretty curtain valance, don't you?  Although I think I've got the rhythm of it now, I did have to rip out about 3 times on the 2nd and 3rd rows.  But I still have to pay VERY close attention.  So if you hear someone walking around Springfield muttering, "ONE, two, three, FOUR, five, six...ONE, two, three, FOUR, five, six...One, two..." that'll be me.

Determination

This post is about determination.  Not mine but my yarn's.  This is Blue-faced Leicester wool, dyed by Frabjous Fibers, spun by me several years ago that I've attempted to make various things with. The last effort was going to be a Shetland shawl.  I got the middle done and 3/4 of the border before I realized I wasn't going to have enough yarn.

One thing about getting fiber that's been hand-dyed.  It's never going to come out the same any two times, even if you have a recipe.  But I hoped against hope that it would work and ordered more of the colorway.  But there was no joy.  I got the new rope and, although deeply beautiful (as all their fiber is), it was not close enough even for government work.

But I so wanted to knit with this yarn that I ripped out the border and started again on a wrap shawl with one of my favorite lace patterns, one that, once established, is really easy to work without having to reference the pattern.  I've just finished the yarn that made up the border and have a good 25 inches (unblocked but slightly stretched).  Now I'm going to join on the yarn from the middle section, which was knitted corner to corner.  I decided not to rip it out and ball it up first.  I'm just going to knit right off the previous knitting to cause the least wear and tear to the yarn.  It's a little wider than I intended but it will be fine.  The plan is to finish the main body and then I have some merino roving that exactly matches the turquoise in this variegated yarn that I am spinning to match and I will use that to add a wide border to each end of the shawl to finish it off.  I may even go crazy and add some beads to that!

If you want to do this easy lace pattern, which creates a lovely wavy, leafy sort of pattern, here's what you do.

Cast on in multiples of 8 with at least a couple of extra stitches on either side.
The first half of the pattern goes like this:

• Yarn over, SSK, knit 6, repeat to end and then do your extra stitches (I've got 10 garter stitches on either side)
• Purl wrong side rows
• Yarn over, knit 1, SSK, knit 5, repeat to end
• etc.  Keep knitting 1 more stitch before the SSK and 1 stitch less after it until you get to
• Yarn over, knit 6, SSK, repeat to end.

For the second half of the pattern you reverse this, so you have:

• Knit 6, K2tog, yarn over
• Knit 5, K2tog, knit 1, yarn over
• Knit 4, K2tog, knit 2, yarn over
• etc. until you get to K2tog, knit 6, yarn over

This way your traveling stitch (whether it's moving to the left with the slip, slip, knit 2 stitches together (SSK) or moving to the right with the knit 2 together (K2tog)) weaves back and forth.  Really nice and really easy.  If you lose count, just keep an eye on where the traveling stitch is and you can find your place again.

Perseverance

I'm proud to present the Sea Shell:

I love the way the sleeves came out (finally) and with the seashell button I found to finish off the collar.  Usually I say it's great when something comes out the way you envision it but with this one, I didn't even envision anything.  I started out somewhere and then tried this but didn't like so I tried that and I liked it.  Then I tried this other thing and didn't like it so I took it out and tried another thing, didn't like it, tore it out, tried yet another thing and liked it.  It wasn't so much creativity as perseverance.

If I were to make it again (and, you know, I'm pretty darn sure I will) I have things I would change because I learned something about the construction.  But I don't believe there's anything I would change about this version.  At all.

One of my trial and error efforts came from a technique I found this weekend in a 1933 issue of Needlework Magazine.  I had been thinking about tatting the sleeves so this seemed like it might work.

First you tat the frame.  The pattern is actually for an edging where the motifs are attached for the length of the piece you're edging.

 Then you thread the thread through each of the inside picots of the frame.  You tie down the center by weaving the thread through all the spokes a couple of times.

 Then you start working up each section to create the petals.

How fun is that?!  Isn't that great?

It didn't work as the sleeves (too small) but I think it's super cool so I'm going to make a scarf with the size 8 mercerized cotton I used to make these and then attach these as the scarf ends.  I started experimenting with the little circle of tatting at the top of this photo and I'm now makeing a VanDyke edging the same way (it was the other pattern in the mag).  I'm planning to make 3 tatted triangles (which will be attached) that then have a wide 3-petaled centerpiece in each.  I'm going to frame them because I think that will be a wonderful way to display the work.

One of the other 1933 issues that I found had some cover art that showed this technique used in a cutout of an embroidery piece that I am totally going to do with the knitting as the frame and the needleweaving as the interest piece.

What I did (and didn't do) this weekend

I haven't had that many free weekends this year so I've had all kinds of plans for my weekends this month.  For instance, the Tour de France started last weekend.  In the spinning world, there is a contest known as the Tour de Fleece.  I've never joined a team or anything but this year I thought I would and to that end, I obtained a Polypay fleece in Kentucky earlier this year.  Here's what it looked like when I pulled it out of its bag the other day.

As you can see, it's really pretty dirty and needs to be tended to before spinning.  The plan for the weekend was to get it washed so I could start spinning.  So here's what it looks like now.

Yeah, there's nothing different about it.  I never got round to it.

What I did, however, was work on a variety of lace patterns from vintage patterns to see if they would work for my lace knitting class coming up in August.  Here's the apple leaf lace pattern:

That funny little jog in it is where I decided to start the pattern over again.  It's not blocked but you can see the pattern pretty well.  This was one of those difficult patterns because the written version is so wordy.  Every time it came to the stitch described, "Slip one stitch, knit one stitch, pass the slipped stitch over the knitted stitch," that's what it said.  Once you got that stitch in a row 4 or 5 times, it made it fairly hard to follow.  I tried to chart it out but that didn't work so well either since you change the number of stitches in a row several times over the pattern.  Anyway, it's pretty.  I think it would be a gorgeous pattern for a bedspread.

The other pattern from the same book that I tried was called the rose leaf pattern. (ahem...edited to say "rose" instead of "rise" because I don't think there's any such a thing as a rise leaf)

It's a little harder to see the pattern here when it's not blocked but I think you can see most of it.  This is 2 repeats of the pattern, which I think would make a lovely, lacy top.

And finally, in the "I liked it in the roving but didn't like it in the yarn but I like it again when it's knitted" category, this is the frabjous fibers silk/merino/cashmere yarn that I spun on the drop spindle being knitted into a lacy scarf.

I would have never in hundred million thousand years have thought this yarn would have knitted up like this.  How gorgeous are those colors and the flow of the colors?  I didn't like the yarn and thought I'd just knit this up for someone but wowser.  I'm still planning on giving it away but I've got more of it that I'm spinning and I'm suddenly looking much more forward to finishing that yarn now.

Doing too much

You know you're doing too much when you get up in the wee hours of the morning to go to an event 3 hours away and get halfway there before you realize the event is NEXT weekend.  So I've been doing a wee bit too much and I was hoping to slow down a bit this summer but somehow that doesn't seem to be happening.  It wouldn't be so bad if my day job weren't getting in my way. 

And in case I get bored this summer, the Lace Knitting class at Three Sisters Folk Art School  has been rescheduled for August 19-21.  We're going to be able to spend a whole weekend exploring the knitting of lace.  Whether you're ready to stick your toe into the pond or if you've been knitting lace and just want to take it a bit further, come join me for the class.

I have, however, been able to get a few things done. 

One thing I've done is found a new yarn shop in the Quad Cities area.  They've just had their grand opening and it's definitely worth popping in for a visit.  It's called 365 Days on a Farm.  They've got some really nice yarns and are also going to carry fiber and spinning equipment. I had a really nice visit with them and may, if we can get it scheduled, do a couple of classes with them later this year.  Their focus is going to be on American-made yarn and fibers.  They hope to be able to highlight fiber and yarn made from fiber from local farms as they build their inventory.  Really nice folks. (They're at 116 W Davenport St in Eldridge, IA.  Go.  You'll thank me later.)

While there, I saw the funniest thing I've ever seen.  A young local knitter decided she wanted to make her featherly-challenged chicken a sweater so Tammy decided to help.  She had pictures that she'd printed out from some blogs.  Have a look here...and here.  I laughed and laughed and laughed.  A chicken wearing a sweater.  You can't hear but even now I'm laughing.  A chicken wearing a sweater.  Sounds like the punchline of a joke, right!

Speaking of lace, I'm getting along with my lace doily.  The main section was 106 rounds of lace knitting.  With 576 stitches on the final section, that's a load of knitting.  I've been debating whether to continue on with the edging the pattern calls for...

As you can see, the edging is a ruffle.  But, honestly, can you ever see me getting it to ruffle properly?  In case you don't know, I'll tell you.  No, I wouldn't.  I was contemplating doing it.  Really I was.  But then I realized that to start the ruffle, you have to double the number of stitches and the thought of knitting 40 rounds of 1152 stitches made me realize that if you're never going to get it to ruffle properly, you probably shouldn't attempt it.  Plus I'd like to finish it before the end of the decade.

So I had a look through my other books and here's what I came up with...

I'm quite happy with how this edging goes with the pointy-ness of the doily pattern.  In fact, after it gets blocked, I think it will suit even better than the original pattern.  Even if it's not 1152 stitches around.

What I did on vacation

Life has been so busy this spring that I've hardly knit a stitch but I got some vintage magazines given to me the other day and came across a knitted doily that I just couldn't pass up.  I started this on Saturday:

It's been a lot of fun and I love the fact that there's some variety in the textures in each of the petals.  It's worked in size 30 thread on US size 0 needles.  I'm debating about doing the ruffle.  It's pretty in the picture but in what universe am I really going to be able to get it to ruffle right?  We'll see.

The other main thing I've been working on is a great big ole square of garter stitch.  Okay, it's not a square yet but it's going to be a square.  Normally I hate knitting garter stitch but in this hand spun yarn with the movement of colors, it works, I think.  The problem is that I've run out of yarn (twice).

Actually, I knew that would happen but, whereas I'd kept up with the spinning and knitting, I have now run out completely.

I don't want to go too far with the spinning, though, because I think I'm going to do something a little different with the border and the edging.  I'm almost ready to start plying for my third round of knitting but I think I need to add a little more of the brown back into the second bobbin of singles.  I have to say, though, that I'm really loving the whole process of spinning and knitting this shawl.

I did find some turquoise merino roving at the KY Sheep and Fiber Festival that I've started spinning.  I'm wondering about using that for the border and then spinning the browns that I've taken out of the second bobbin of the singles for the original yarn for the edging.  I think I'll have to have a think about that.  I'm just thinking the solid turquoise would show up the lace knitting so much better and then the brown will ground it all in the edging.  We'll have to see.

How We Roll

I was packing to go see my Mom. Usually I sort of throw things in a bag the couple of weeks before a trip as I think about what I need to take. This time, however, I found myself a couple of days before the trip with nothing packed. So one evening I packed. I packed my Hitchhiker (so easy to take and maybe I’ll want to spin). I packed drop spindles – 2 sizes – because I might come across some fiber that will need to be spun and I might want to use a spindle. I packed my new tapestry loom and some yarn because I might want to work on that. Actually I’m pretty sure I’ll want to work on that. I packed my bobbin lace pillow. Well, I packed 3 of them – my cookie pillow that I’m working on a doily with, the travel pillow that I’ve just gotten started with and another one because I might want to start on my yardage club lace (or something else). I packed my lace knitting that I’m doing with handspun. And, of course, I packed my knitting bag and other peripherals. Oh, yeah, I packed my tatting stuff because I’ve got a project I’m working on and I’ve got a class coming up right after I get back so I wanted to work on some stuff there. And a few books for each of the above. Might want to catch up on my reading.

I surveyed the scene.

There were also 4 boxes of books I was bringing for my Mom.

Projects. Check. Books. Check. Clothes. Ummmmmm…. Oops. Looks like I forgot something. No luggage.

I finally got everything ready and packed the night before. Good choice since it was rainy and messy the morning I left (the morning of the day the tornado hit St Louis which I missed because I left at 6am). And I was ready to go.

On the way, I was able to finish the scarf that I was knitting out of handspun merino laceweight yarn. Just need to work in the ends.

And the other item there is the start of a Shetland-style shawl with some laceweight Blue-faced Leicester that I spun. I need to do another post about this shawl because it’s being an interesting journey. This is just a crappy hotel room picture. More on that later. (No, I didn’t knit while I drove – that would be crazy talk – but I had time at the hotel the first night.)

For those who were laughing about me covering all my bases, I did, indeed, find some fiber that had to be spun and was started on a drop spindle:

This is Frabjous Fiber merino, silk and cashmere that is the most amazing fiber I’ve found in a long time. It’s actually white, purple, blue, green – I’ll get a better picture. You know I love Frabjous Fiber but I normally get the BFL. And the lady who owns the shop told me she’d just gotten in this shipment only days before. Good thing she was prepared for me!

On the way, I stopped at a wonderful antique shop in Purcell, OK, and found these:

Knitted lace edging which must have been knit on about a 0 or 00 needle, I think using the Brucilla thread shown here. The other is a strip of handmade torchon lace. Beautiful, no?!

Springtime is Coming

In case you don't know it, springtime will be here before we know it. 

If you want something to do when the snow melts and the flowers start to bloom, why not plan to join us at the Three Sisters Folk Art School for a whole weekend of classes.  (Click here for more information about classes.)

April 15-17 is the date to mark.  I'll be teaching a class on Lace Knitting during the weekend, something I'm really looking forward to.  If you've followed the blog much, you know how much I love knitting lace and I've got some new inspiration both from spinning and input from the video by Margaret Stove (Spinning for Lace) but also from a couple of new books like Knitting Lace, a Workshop with Patterns and Projects by Susanna E. Lewis and Wrapped in Lace by Margaret Stove.

In the class we'll be starting from the beginning, looking at what makes up lace knitting, the difference between knitting lace and lace knitting (besides the symantics of it all), learning the basic stitch combinations, trying out a variety of different stitch patterns with a variety of yarns and threads.  Lace is like any other sort of knitting,  It can be very simple and basic or it can be extremely complicated.  The great thing is that even simple lace knitting looks fancy!  And anyone who can knit can knit lace.

There are lots of different classes including pinhole photography, wood carving and fine metal clay jewelry making.  Get some friends together and make a weekend of it!

Mini Knitting

I really got into this mini-knitting thing.  Here's the tablecloth just after blocking. 

I'm actually a little surprised that it came out because there were a few challenges.  First of all, I was working on size 0000 needles and size 80 tatting thread.  Next, there was a mistake in the pattern - not huge but it did throw me.  Fortunately, the errata was posted on the Interweave website so it was easily fixed but it's not so easy to un-knit once, never mind un-knitting several times until it got through my thick skull that I should count stitches.

Next was the needle incident.  This involved one of the needles, which are quite small and light, getting caught in my sweater and pulling completely out.  Round 28 or so and I've got a whole bunch of stitches hanging out.  Not a pretty sight.  Fortunately cotton doesn't unravel as badly as some other fibers and I was able to pick the stitches up again.  I did have to unknit a row to fix it but, after some hyperventilation and naughty words, the mission was accomplished.

It looks pretty good on my made up table but I got a little tied up with the fact that it's not the thread and needles called for in the pattern.  So I hopped on the internet the other night and ordered some size 100 mercerized cotton and size 000000 needles.  I actually ordered size 00000 and size 000000 needles, but that's beside the point.  Once I get those, I'm going to do a picture putting the sizes into perspective.

Ask me what I did this weekend

Remember I was working on spinning some mohair and was wondering if it would work to ply it with the turquoise merino? Well, here are the results:

I love the way the solid colored merino toned down and grounded the colors of the mohair. I've got a couple more ounces of the mohair to spin and I'm waiting for more merino to come so I can finish. This skein turned out what I would call heavy lace weight, makeing about 320 yards (72 grams) so doing the rest of it should give me about 600 yards. Now it's just a matter of figuring out what the pretty yarn wants to be!

I had to do some traveling last week for my job. Actually, I should say I got to travel because it was the perfect opportunity to do some exploring. Of course, any trip requires the project search. I couldn't figure out what I wanted to take with me because I didn't really have a good project going to take. So I quickly grabbed this black wool that my friend Cindy gave me and the leftover yarn from some recent socks and started to experiment with it. I've been wanting to do some other projects using the Brioche stitch in preparation for our Heritage Knitting Retreat next June. I thought it would be cool to have the electric colors of the sock yarn against the black. The gauntlet is reminiscent of what you might have seen in the latter half of the 19th century.

The second thing I grabbed was some Fortissima Socka in white and the pattern for "Evening Stockings for a Young Lady to Knit." It's a sock pattern in the Nov/Dec 2009 Piecework Magazine, adapted by Nancy Bush from a Weldon's pattern. As you can see, it's a long sock and the lacy pattern is so lacy and so easy, you wouldn't believe. The shaping for the leg is done along the back of the leg so you have a seam running up the back and the pretty lace everywhere else. I know this looks like a sock to fit a child but that's only because it's not blocked yet and I have pretty small feet anyway.

I thought I would make this with the white yarn because it's the only sock yarn I had 3 skeins of (bought it for something else that I ended up not making) and I wanted to be sure I had enough. The thought was to make them with the white and then dye them but I like them so much that I've decided to keep them as is. I would definitely recommend these for sock lovers. Easy with a huge payoff!

Handspun Ella

I will be making a visit home to Texas soon and while there my Mom and I are hoping to make a side trip to her home town, Rotan. Rotan is in Fisher County, the heart of cotton country and I want straight from the field cotton. I've been looking forward to this trip ever since the Spring when we had the cotton spinning workshop. I had a call with a very nice lady at the cotton gin who told me that the crop was going to be late this year but that we would be welcome to come and tour the gin and see how everything gets processed.

In preparation, I thought it would be a good idea to go back to some cotton and see if I remembered how to spin it. It's not necessarily pretty but I managed to spin about 65 yards of 2-ply Upland cotton yarn. I wasn't sure how much yardage would be needed for a doily and I didn't want to run out in the middle so I found the smallest knitted doily I could find! Here's what it looks like worked into the Ella pattern from Gloria Penning's "Danish Lace Treasures."

One thing I learned while spinning this, and I think I got better as it went along, is the rhythm of the long draw with cotton. When you draw your hand back, there can be slubs. You don't want to be in too big a hurry to draw these slubs out. That's where you get the thick and thin that doesn't ever want to thin out. You have to draw your hand back and let some twist go into the fiber, then you can draw it back a little further, let more twist in, draw a little further. It seems counter-intuitive but the more twist you add, the more it stabilizes those thicker slubs so when you draft it out further, there's something there to hold it together.

The thing I struggle with most in long draw is making sure that I have enough twist in the yarn before it feeds onto the bobbin. So this time I made my initial draw back shorter so there was less to work with on each draw then before I let it wind onto the bobbin, I pinched the yarn with my forward hand just a few inches away from the orifice and with my back hand just before the unspun fiber and gently pulled. When there wasn't enough twist I could fee the unstability because it would let me pull my hands apart. When there was enough twist, I could easily feel that it was solid and was ready to go. It really is about teaching your sense of touch to know when the yarn is stable. I still need a lot of practice but I'm feeling better about it.

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.