Lace Galore

Just a quick post to show you the galore of lace that's been going on here lately. I've missed crochet. These are the crocheted 1918 doily at the left, a lady's hankie with crocheted edging at the top, the finally completed knitted 1918 doily at the right and my little handspun knitted doily in ecru. Sometimes I think I should have been a Victorian!

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.

Dyed in the wool

I just got word that all 3 classes I proposed to Lincoln Land have been taken up so I will be teaching the following classes this fall:

September 19 & 26 - Knitting mittens and gloves
October 10, 17 & 24 - Learning to knit socks by knitting a Christmas stocking
November 14 - Knitting Jewelry Wire & Beads

The catalogue is supposed to be out in early September but if you're interested in one of the classes or know somone who is, you can click here to see the LLCC contact information. To get ready for the mitten/glove class I've been dying yarn. It's a bit of work but it's lots of fun to see how they all come out. Here are some samples of what I've been doing:

I've used a variety of dying methods and dyes including Kool-aid (the red skein in the middle of the 3rd picture), Jacquard dye (blue skein and rose skein in the second picture)from KnitPicks, and Wilton icing dye (for the rest). I love the Wilton dyes because they will often break up and you get really interesting effects. For instance, the skein of aqua and purples in the last picture was done using the Wilton black icing dye. The purple/green/aqua mix in the first skein of the second picture was done by mixing the Wilton black and Wilton teal. I'm never sure exactly what I'm going to get but because the colors have been mixed for a certain effect, you can be sure the colors will blend in the skein. These skeins are all worsted weight yarn but I also need to do a few skeins of fingering weight. The mixtures from today have certainly given me some ideas for other mixtures!

I'm in love

Finished. I know I say it every time but I love this more than anything I've made in a long time. I don't know if it's the crochet, which I have neglected so much over the past couple of years, or if it's the connection to my Grannie, whom I loved and was my best friend, or if it's just the pattern that worked so elegantly from start to finish. Or maybe it was just the whole thing combined together.

From the outside in

I've never made anything like this before from the outside in. The construction has been so fascinating and I've really enjoyed making this. I suspect I'll do another one for me. The pattern writer made the comment that you could use a linen middle or you could crochet it like I'm doing. I think it might be interesting on another one to work it this far or maybe a little further and then use the linen for the middle. At this stage it looks like a flower. My Grannie would have loved this pattern and I love that.

One (almost) down, one to go

I got the knitted part of my knitted 1918 doily finished but now I have to figure out the linen middle. I started on it but can't get it unpuckered so I'll need to start again. Picture's not great but you get the idea.

With that one down, I started on one of the crocheted doilies. This one has 5 medalions that are worked separately and joined then the middle is worked to the very middle. Never seen that before. Each of the medalions has a rose in the middle - my Grannie's favorite pattern. She loved roses. I have to say I'm really enjoying crocheting this doily. I haven't crocheted anything for a long time and I'd been having a hankering to start a project. Here's progress so far:

Almost there

The question in everyone's mind with the 1918 knitted doily is how you make a straight edging go around. I couldn't see it. This morning at knit group, we sort of tried to see how it could work but it didn't look promising.

I've now completed 21 out of 24 repeats and this is how it looks. Wha-la! It's going to work! I have some nice linen I'll use for the middle section but I'll need to figure out the best way to attach it.

It's pretty, isn't it?