Vintage Update

I was over at the Lincoln Presidential Library today to thank the ladies who set up the knitting display and let them know that PieceWork was thrilled to be a part of it. Gwyn told me that there had been a lady in from Memphis who fell in love with the pieces and the idea of working up these old patterns. I think she said the lady was a teacher and wanted her students to know about how these types of items were constructed, etc. They have had quite a few people through, evidently, that have enjoyed it.

Another of the librarians, Jane (a different Jane), was giving me all the low-down on a wide variety of projects that are in the works that we might be able to be involved with in some way. How very exciting! She was one of the folks responsible for the period clothing that was used in the re-staging of the play Lincoln was watching the night he was shot, Our American Cousin. What a thrill that must have been to be involved with that project.

These ladies (and gentleman) that work in the Presidential Library are so nice and so friendly and so committed to fiber arts. They're definitely making sure that knitting and other fiber arts are represented in the collection there and I would really recommend a trip in to have a look at some of their 19th century needlework/craft treasures. I can't wait to take some more time now that other commitments are slowing down to spend a lot more time researching. When I'm not spinning cotton or knitting baby things, that is!

I'm knitting for 2 babies at the moment - 1 here and 1 in Glasgow. I love how quick these things can be finished - quick payoff, I'm for that! I'll get some pictures tomorrow in the daylight but I've completed a little coat, an EZ surprise jacket and the back of a little argyle sweather that I'm totally in love with (this being my first ever argyle knitting adventure). The coat was from (mostly) a 1937 baby knitting book and is adorable, although it's really small. The yarn I used was originally purchased for an afghan, so there's plenty of it, so I will probably do it again in a larger format. it didn't take any time at all to finish.

Anyway, more of that another time.

Last night at the spin-in I got 2 more of the samples spun up - the acala, which is one of the shorter cotton fibers, and the Egyptian, which I think is sort of in the middle of the staple length spectrum. Here's what I learned.

1. When they say cotton wants a lot of twist, they're not just whistlin' dixie. I've had the problem of thinking I had enough twist in my single, only to have the plies break while in the process of plying because the twist relaxes while plying. On the acala last night I spun until my long draw had what I thought was enough twist and then I put more twist in before I let it feed onto the bobbin. I only had 1 breakage on that sample whilst plying so I think I'm getting more of a hang on that now.
2. Patience is a virture. When I was drawing out the long draw, the intial draw was done quickly but the thinning out process needs to be done a little more slowly. Where you have thicker spots along the yarn, it does better and doesn't break as much if you get a little twist in those areas. So I was drawing out, letting the twist come up the strand, then drawing out a little more, a little more, letting more twist come in, etc., treadling all the while. Depending on the setting of the wheel, you may not have to treadle like speed racer, either. It's more about paying attention to the yarn.

2.b. It's amazing how little you need for the initial draw. Less is better because as you draw out to thin the yarn, you'll find you're reaching behind yourself if you're not careful!

1. I began to be able to feel when the yarn was pulling too fast or too hard and I began to use my forward hand to pull it back towards me if needed to make sure nothing it made it past my front hand without the twist needed.
2. There's so much to pay attention to - all of your limbs are doing something different so it becomes like patting your head and rubbing your tummy - that it's much better to practice in a quiet place with as few distractions as possible until you gain some proficiency. So far I've been doing it in groups but I haven't been able to pay too much attention to what's going on in the groups or participate in conversations. As soon as I did, whang, it would break.
3. Speaking of breaking, when you have a break, you lose the twist much more quickly than you do with wool or other fibers so you have to go back pretty far and make sure you've got hold of a bit that still has enough twist to hold together. Then you want to add more twist to that bit before you attach back the pieces that broke off. It's easy to add back those bits by just laying the ends down on the part that's twisting just in front of your fingers. They'll be grabbed up in the twist and you're off again. That's how you add on a new strand of sliver or top or whatever you're using, too.

I think that's all I know - keep in mind it's from a newbie but I think they are all valid points. Several people recommended a book by Paula Simmons called "Spinning for Softness and Speed" for a great explanation of the long draw. I haven't seen it but they thought it was a great book. Don't know about the availability, though, as it seems to be an older book.

I have the Pima sample still to do before I work on the Sea Island, which is supposed to be the ultimate in cotton fiber. She gave us a fairly large sample of the Sea Island so I think I'm going to try to get a good thread out of that and use it for my knitted doily.

Cotton Galore

What a weekend! We did just about everything you can do with cotton in every possible way with every possible variety of cotton fiber. Pat Maley from Cincinnati did the workshop and you really couldn't have had a more patient teacher or a more wide-ranging workshop. Starting out with raw cotton straight from the plant, we learned how to 'gin' the cotton with a stone and iron rod. With the cotton laying on the stone, you simply use the rod like a rolling pin and gently roll it over the cotton until the seed pops out the other side. Easy, peasy. Then to opening up the fibers, we used a bow where you simply ping the string over the top of the handful of cotton until it opens right up or you can use willow branches to open it or you can steam it and watch the fibers relax and open up.

We spun our freshly 'ginned' cotton then we spun the fiber straight off the seed. I think that was my favorite way of spinning and I plan on trying more of it.

We spun Acala, Sea Island, Upland, Egyptian, Pima, Fox Fibre (naturally colored cotton) and even cotton from pill tubes. Name it...done.

We spun on our wheels, tahkli spindles (a small support spindle), charkas (just about every kind) and electric wheels.

It's undeniably a challenge to spin but I was very pleased to have something to show at the end of it. It's not pretty but this is the skein...

It was fascinating to spin the naturally colored cotton and then watch it change colors as soon as it hit the steaming water. (To finish cotton yarn, you have to boil all the stuff off it after it's been spun.) I knitted it up just to have something from cotton I spun with my own little fingers.

How does your garden grow?

I’m so into spinning these days. Here’s what’s been going on…

Black Watch singles - Coopworth/Lincoln Black Watch singles. I’ve now got about 500 yards of 3-ply Black Watch done so I’m ready to wash the 3 skeins I’ve got, thwack them and start knitting. The first 2 skeins were spun on my Louet but the 3rd skein was spun with my Kromski and, do you know, I really like this roving much better on the Louet. There’s no gentleness needed for this roving and I think I’m going to do the rest of it on the Louet. In fact, the Louet has much larger bobbins and can handle a larger yarn like this is when it’s 3-plied. I was able to spin and ply enough for a 172 yard hank of yarn on the Louet but 104 yards of the same maxed out the Kromski. Poor little Louet has been sitting off on its own since the new baby came into the house. Time to show it that it’s still needed. Awwww….

But here’s a new (to the wheel) top that fits our dream that spring may actually come someday. I’m spinning this in celebration of the fact that it was more than 60 degrees today and no rain. It’s called English Garden and is a Blue Faced Leicester top whose label says is a dream to spin and I have to agree. I’m trying to do it with a long draw which, although I’m not very good at it yet, is suited very well to this fiber. It’s very crimpy and springy and I’m going to try to spin finely enough to make a 3 or 4 ply sock yarn. It think it would do very well for socks – pretty long staple yet soft enough. I’ve divided the top into 4 (relatively) even strips and will spin each and then ply back. I may even try doing a cabled ply, something I’ve heard tell of but never experienced for myself. A cabled ply is basically making 2 2-ply yarns and then plying the 2-plies together, if that makes sense. The Yarn Harlot had a whole thing on this a while back – here.

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.

Lincoln Presidential Library

I’ve mentioned the research Jane and I did at the Lincoln Presidential Library and finding the pattern for the Spanish Opera Hood. I took the finished hood over to the Library to show the librarians who helped us. While there, they asked if we could bring some items they could put in the display. Here’s what it looks like (click to see a larger image):



They did a little write up about the display:

Jane and I want to do a vintage knitting camp and the research we are doing is to prepare for it. The idea is to have a long weekend of knitting and exploring the knitting in the time of Lincoln, seeing how things were done in the time and learning some of the techniques and patterns of our 19th century counterparts. Jane has a true gift for organizing and we both share a love of vintage knitting - stay tuned for more information.

If you want to try your own Spanish Opera Hood, just click on the link for the pattern.

And just as a bonus (because I like how the photo came out), here’s a shot of the Old State Capital where Lincoln served in the State Legislature. On the opposite side of this square is where Lincoln’s law office was.

By the way...
I would really like to know who hit the button on the time machine. The last thing I knew, it was April (which the last time I checked, belonged to the season Spring) but when I walked out the door this morning, it was to clean snow off my car, wear my wool coat, wool sweater and walk around through arctic winds. I don't remember getting into the Tardis (it's bigger on the inside, you know) and being flung back into December.