All in a Day's Work

I know this will shock you but I always overestimate what I can do in any one given period of time. But I have managed to finish the bobbin lace doily I was working on:

When you work a square doily like this, you work it in 4 triangle sections. The only reason I don’t throw up my hands and walk away is that I got a little bit better in each subsequent section. Just a little bit but that’s okay. Now I’m going back to straight pieces, both because I they’re not as complicated as working around like this and because I need a little bit of a confidence boost.  You can see I haven't worked in all the ends.  That's for anotehr day.

At the most excellent of all used book stores located in Denton, Texas, I scored the unbelievable. I found 5 bobbin lace books, some as low as $3 and the highest at $13. One of these is regularly on e-bay and other sites for around $75 so I’m feeling very blessed right now and encouraged to move on with the lacemaking.

The other thing I’ve been working on is the handspun lace shawl. Not an exciting picture, I know, but there's only so much excitement you can give to a garter-stitch triangle.

I’ve spun this a pretty light lace weight from Frabjous Fibers Blue-faced Leicester. The 3 main colors that show up in the roving are green, brown and turquoise blue. I happily spun the first bobbin straight from the roving but when I started to spin the second bobbin (it was to be a 2-ply yarn), I realized that I was going to end up having brown in 2/3 of the finished yarn and that didn’t make me happy. It’s a pretty brown but I thought it was going to muddy the other colors. So for the second ply, I worked each of the colors and when I got to the brown, I pulled it out and put it aside.

That way, when I plied it, there was some brown but it kept the other colors more pure and that made me happy.
This is the very unexciting (so far) middle of the Thistle and Fern shawl from the new Margaret Stove book, Wrapped in Lace. In a Shetland-style shawl, the middle is worked (often point to point like I’m doing here and often in garter stitch as I’m doing here), then you work a border around this middle and finally you add an edging.

The center here is up to 180 stitches and I have to keep on until I have 254 stitches before I start back the other way. Seventy-four rows of lace weight garter on size 3 needles is a lot of knitting, in case you didn’t know it. I’m not progressing as quickly as I would like. A Jeannie-like blink and it’s done would suit me. I’m not a big fan of the garter at the best of times.

But one thing that has taken me away from progress on the shawl is a little baby blanket for a first grandchild of a friend of mine at work. I just found out about him last week so I’m trying to finish the blanket before his first birthday!

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?!

Lace study

With the class coming up at the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Fesitval, I've been trying to push my limits in spinning lace.  Let's be honest.  My default yarn tends to be on the fine size.

But I wanted to work some samples with different types of fibers and different direction plies and see what I could come up with for projects for the Spinning for Lace class.

First of all, I put together this group of samples.  One of these is a commercial merino lace yarn.  The others are all handspun.

(Okay, there are 2 commercially spun yarns.  The one on the left is a strand of worsted weight yarn as a example.)

I also wanted to spin enough of one sample to knit something that will show the progress so here is the merino lace.  I spun something like 275 yards from 3/4 oz of merino fiber.  I can't believe how springy and fun to knit this is.

I spun this on my Kromski Symphony (which is my new favorite wheel for lace weight) at 16:1 ratio.  I spun the singles z and plied s.  I washed it in really hot water which activated some of the original merino crimp and gave this wonderful bouncy light lace weight yarn. The pattern is feather and fan (with an extra garter ridge running through one of them - I didn't find it until I was way past).  I've had to rip out several times and, because I've got plenty of twist in the yarn, it's hasn't been harmed by the ripping and reknitting (and ripping and reknitting - several times).  This was less than an ounce and I've got about 10 ounces left so I'm going to be able to do plenty with.  And isn't it a pretty color?  So springtime!

One more sample I'm going to knit up.  This is bfl which puffs up a lot once it's washed so it's never as fine as it seems when you're spinning:

One more and then I promise I'll stop.  This is rambouillet from the fleece which I washed lock by lock and spun straight from the lock:

(This is the worsted, handspun bfl and handspun rambouillet fleece.)

P.S.  Did you pick the commercially spun yarn?  It's the white strand on the left.

Dog Days

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine gave me some samples of Longwool Leicester (I'm never sure of the order of the words for this breed) and some chiengora (dog hair + wool) to try out.  The LL was not at all enjoyable to spin.  It was a woolen preparation which, with such a long staple, made it extremely hard to spin.  If it had been in a combed top preparation, it would have been much, much easier to spin but you would still have the fact that it's a coarse wool that can't be used for anything that might be in touch with your skin.  It would be find for a rug or placemats if they were woven or even for a tapestry but it would not have been very nice to knit.  I'll bet it would take dye wonderfully, though.

But the chiengora (chien is French for dog and this is the name that many people use for yarn made from dog hair/fur) was a dream.  It's 25% Samoyed and 75% wool and it's the nicest, non-doggiest feeling chiengora I've ever spun.  Not sure what the wool is but the mixture is spinning into a nice, soft yarn. 

I'm not trying to get a superfine yarn, just a nice little fingering weight 2-ply.  My off-the-spindle sample is laying across the flyer there.  You can see the halo already starting and it should become much more pronounced once the yarn has been washed.  For those who care about these things, I'm spinning it on my Minstrel on 8.5 ratio whorl.  The singles are z so the plying will be s.

Have a look here for more information about chiengora.  You can also have your dog hair processed into yarn from these folks.  I have no experience with them and don't endorse them.  I'm simply providing the link for informational purposes.  Here's another link with some info.  And here.

Fantasy Yarn Shop

Several years ago my friends and I had a whole fantasy yarn shop developed.  We even found the building we would put it in.  So here's how it went.  There's a building in downtown Springfield with a candy store in the bottom floor and 3 completely empty floors above. 

So the first floor would be all things yarn for knitters and crocheters.  There are tons of windows so there would be displays all around with lovely daylight to see exactly what the color of the yarn is.  There would be samples hanging everywhere and the samples would be changed out fairly regularly to keep our customers entralled and inspired.

The next floor would be all things fiber and spinning with spinning wheel stations set up where you could try out a dime bag of fiber and, now that I'm thinking of it, a carder so you could blend your own fibers.  Again, there would be samples of the fibers everywhere and all the tools one needs to create beautiful, one-of-a-kind yarn.  We might even have our own line of handspun yarns that we would sell on the first floor.

The top floor would be classroom areas so we could have classes in all the fiber arts and room to hang out without being in the way of shoppers.

Of course, all of these things came from our favorite things about yarn stores we've been to and some of the things we've experienced that weren't so pleasant that we would change if we were in charge of this world of fiber.  We used to talk about this a lot but we haven't really visited it in a long time.

Along this line, I found another building not too far away where I would have a fiber-based art gallery with the beautiful things made by Illinois fiber artists and more in-depth classes.

All of this came flooding back the other day when I was reading the Yarn Harlot's blog post about the rookie mistake of not feeling like she'd taken enough yarn with her on her long trip.  Everyone knows you can't buy yarn at the airport.  What I want to know is, why not?  What better shop could there be for travellers?  Needles and other paraphenalia for knitters/crocheters who've broken or lost a needle; stitch markers to replace the ones that rolled down the isle of the plane and you were too afraid to go after them (it's hard enough to explain to people what we do without crawling around on the floor of a plane looking for a little black ring used to help you keep count of your stitches); yarn for those who run out or who need a new project to work on.

So, here's what I would do.

I would open a yarn store in DFW airport.  It's the 7th busiest airport in the world with the largest airport train system, it's own zip code, it's own post office and millions of travelers through from every part of the world.  Plus my parents live not too far away, I'd be back in Texas and it's my fantasy yarn shop so I can pick anywhere I want.

It would have display windows along the outside with handknits available for sale.  Only high class stuff.  Colorwork mittens, shawls, lace of various kinds, etc.  Much of the store would be stocked with kits I would make up myself and mostly of things that would be perfect for travelers to pick up and work on like socks and pretty scarves with handspun yarn.  The kits would include needles, pattern, yarn and any other things needed to complete the pattern (maybe a few beads, a cable needle, hey, maybe even a feather or two).  There would also be some kits for larger projects such as a cardigan or a shawl.  And then there would be yarn.  Loverly soft scrumptious pet yarn.  You know what I mean.  The yarn that's not meant to become anything, it's perfect just the way it is.  The kind of yarn you're just happy to pet and snuggle up to.  (I'm not getting too personal, am I?)  I'll move on.

There one might also find a spindle or two and some inviting fiber, a book or two and some patterns.  There would be room for my little Hitchhiker Spinning Wheel (which is a fabulous conversation piece) and I could spin and knit to my heart's content and meet and talk to people from all over the world.

And I would have classes.  Come in and learn on your way to your connection.  Make the trip all worth it.  Jump in the water's fine.  Need help with a pattern?  No probs.  Didn't buy the yarn from me, I'm not surprised because I'm in an airport.  No worries.

And finally, I would have a monitor inside my little airport yarn shop that would play non-stop old movies.  Pre-1950's movies, black and white, film noir, slapstick comedies, silent shorts. 

That, my good friends, would be heaven. 

Rabbit Trails

I was so looking forward to this weekend since it's the first one in a long time when I had nothing planned.  No meetings.  No trips.  Just a chance to work on the things I want to.

I had a list of things that I wanted to work on.  A lace project, finish my weaving project, spinning project, start a new bobbin lace project, etc.

What I actually did, however, was spangle 48 bobbins:

Stain 48 bobbins:

And varnish 48 bobbins.

What that started was something I hadn't planned on.  While I searched out the supplies to spangle my bobbins, I found a number of jewelry beading projects that had been sitting there for who knows how long.  Sooooo...

and

Plus another necklace and bracelet I don't have a photo of.  A whole new jewelry wardrobe, if spring ever does come.

The 2 necklaces at the botton of the last photo are special.  I know they look like plain beads but they were my Grannie's beads that I've restrung.  I used some of them for my bobbins and the rest I restrung.  The strings were falling apart and I was afraid to wear it for fear of losing the beads.  Now they're back into shape to be worn.

The Fascinating Mysterious World of Bobbin Lace

As you may know, I've been learning a little about bobbin lace.  It fascinates me to no end.  Not sure why.  It's not something I've always dreamed of doing or something that I really knew anything at all about.  It kind of snuck up on me and bonked me over the head with the "kit from hell." (Not my term for it.  It's how it's known in the lace making world.)

At a fiber festival last October, I saw a beginner bobbin lace kit from a company whose name starts with L.  Like I said, I didn't know the first thing about bobbin lace but it promised that it had everything one needed to begin and I believed them.

Unlike many other kits and whatnot, I actually opened the kit, got all the stuff out, read the directions, and boom!  Everything ground to a halt.  Worst Directions Ever for a Beginners Kit.  And the award goes to......

You guessed it.  This kit.  The supplies were fine but the instructions were horrid.  I did remember, though, that one of my volumes of Weldon's Practical Needlework (Vol 11) (published between about 1890 and 1910) had something on Torchon Lace so I dug it out and amazingly, it had better directions than the kit.  So I used the materials from the kit and the instructions from the Weldon's, I started out.  I later found a very good book at my local library (which they've now lost).

Now that I've been practicing a little, I've found some other books that give even better instruction and, best of all, I've found a group of lacemakers from whom I've learned more in 2 meetings with than I could have learned on my own in 5 years.  Because it's such an obscure craft, finding information without having those people around is really hard.  The L.A.C.E. group has been wonderful.

But, also because this is a bit obscure, I wanted to share what I've learned about the craft.

1. Lacemakers use pillows.  But the pillows tend to be made out of straw or a particularly forgiving type of styrofoam called Ethafoam.  And they're all different shapes.  Depending on the type of lace you're doing, you might use a cookie pillow or a bolster pillow or a roller pillow.  Click here to see a variety of pillows used.  As in other of the the tools, the type of pillow is closely tied to the type of lace being made and the region where that lace was perfected.
2. Lace is made with bobbins.  More correctly, lace is made with pairs of bobbins.  No matter which type of lace you're making, patterns will always use pairs of bobbins.  You only work with 2 pairs of bobbins at any one time, although the real lacemakers work so quickly, you might not realize that's what they're doing.  Here's an interesting video that shows the basic moves of the bobbins (you can work it "hands up" or "hands down" - who knew?).
3. But there's more to the bobbins than you might guess at first.  The look of the bobbin will indicate where the bobbin shape originated.  The 2 main categories (although there are tons of sub-categories) are English and Continental.  (Does that sound familiar to any of you knitters out there?)  Have a look at this website for the wide variety of bobbins.  Click here to see the Continental bobbins and here for the "Midlands" and "Honiton" bobbins.  And then click here for more of the English style bobbins.  These tend to be decorated with "spangles" on the end like this:
4. 
5. The different types of laces you might hear about are Torchon (what I'm learning and what seems to be an entry type of lace), Honiton, Brussels, Guipure (such as Saxony, Cluny, Maltese and Bohemian), Bucks Point, Tønder, and more.  They all have things that distinguish them but I'm not sure what all that is at this point.
6. The thread.  Some laces tend to be made out of ultra-fine thread such as 180/2, which is probably a bit finer than sewing thread, I would imagine.  But you usually wouldn't use anything much heavier that size 30 thread for traditional lace.  Maybe that was the hook.  You know I'm a sucker for anything with a fine thread, right?  (Those of you who just said I'm a sucker for anything with thread should just hush or I'm coming to see YOUR stash.)
7. Bobbin lace making was a staple money maker for lacemakers in England, France, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, Italy and in the early history of the US.  It is still practiced in all those countries as well as in Australia.

It really is an abosorbing craft, not practiced by many.  But I would recommend looking out for lace makers in your area and see if you don't accept a serving your own self.

From an earlier post that never got posted:

I've crocheted doilies and I've knitted them and tatted them now I'm bobbin lacing them. This is my first attempt at something other than a straight line and, as usual, I've met with mixed sucess. But I'm enjoying it and that matters the most of everything.

What I'm doing here is Torchon lace on a round, flat cookie pillow (which is basically a type of styrofoam covered with cloth), and I'm using the beginning bobbins that came with my beginner kit.

The pricking (pattern) is copied from the Torchon Lace Workbook onto colored cardstock and then covered with clear plastic to keep the ink from rubbing off onto the thread. (By the way, this is one of the books that's highly recommended for starting and which helped me a lot but it's out of print.  If you keep your eye out, however, you can snag one for about $20.)  I'm using 10/2 cotton, aka bedspread weight cotton. It's not the usual thread used for lace making but I have plenty of it, it's a light color and it's a light enough weight to make the largest version of this pattern. So 10/2 it is.

As each stitch is made, a pin is inserted in the place marked on the pattern to keep it in place and to help make clear turnings when you're changing directions. This pattern uses a half stitch, a full stitch, a Torchon ground and a cloth stitch. The half stitch and the full stitch are used in the making of the ground and the cloth stitch.

The thread was really too heavy for this pattern but, once again, I learned so much that it was worth doing it first with this thread so I could figure out how to turn the corners and work my way around.  This one isn't really fit for anything other than learning but the next one will be better and I'll actually let you see the finished product!