Lace and Linen

After I made an entire lace sweater in linen, I learned to appreciate the fine attributes of linen. I had been warned over and over that linen is hard on the hands. It has no "give" and is rough on your fingers.

What I found was that my personal style of knitting loosely is right for linen.

Usually, when I swatch for a big lace project (and yes, I always swatch), I find that I have to drop down at least one needle size to get the right gauge.

With linen, knitting loosely has its benefits and drawbacks.

The looseness of the loops on the needles makes them slide easily, and I can maneuver my stitches without much difficulty. However, linen's stiffness carries a sinister warning: pay attention or your needles will slide right out of the stitches!

I invariably use some type of metal needles (Addi lace, Addi turbo or Inox grey) for lace. I love the speed, and I feel quite like a knitting "athlete" when I use them. But like all athletes, I must exert care to avoid a slip-up and downtime.

Linen is super-stiff when you knit it, but you can wash it beforehand if you like. Euroflax is advertised as machine washable and dryable. You can even beat it, wring and squish it into submission. When it dries you will have a much softer, drapier yarn. I actually like knitting with new unwashed linen, so I don't wash it until the blocking stage.

I finally started the Paisley Long Shawl from Fiddlesticks. The photo of the finished shawl is from Fiddlesticks. I hope mine will look as lovely!

YARN: After months of saying, "This is my next big lace project," I leapt into the project using size 3 Addi lace needles and a cone of navy blue Euroflax linen that I've had on hand for months. Louet formerly called this yarn "Paris" and now calls it simply "laceweight" or 14/2 -- 6 stitches per inch and 1300 yards on my half pound cone.

PATTERN: Fiddlesticks' owner Dorothy Siemens writes impeccably and her patterns are a joy to use. The charts are large and easy to read. The instructions are clear and make sense. She is also accessible via email, phone or her Yahoo group.

From the pattern, "Paisley Long Shawl":

The Paisley Long Shawl was inspired by the designs of the beautiful woven paisley shawls of the 19th century. It is an interpretation in lace of a long shawl dating from about 1820, and features original lace motifs of botehs (the small motifs filling the middle ground of the shawl) and larger paisley patterns.

Another Fiddlesticks pattern I knit a few years ago was the Peacock Feathers Shawl. This is probably one of Dorothy's most popular patterns. I love the way the feathers grow from the small ones at the neck to the largest size at the edge.

Spring Blossoms: Border with Double and Triple Joins

This is the border I decided to add to the Spring Blossoms Shawl. The pattern is from Fiber Trends, and Eugen Beugler is the designer. The yarn was dyed specially for me by Margaret at Inspirations Yarn, and it's her Espresso laceweight merino. I'm using a size 4 needle.

The pattern recommends a simple crochet edging. I decided to try a knitted border I particularly like from Victorian Lace Today. It's the diamonds and triangles edging on page 150. The border is particularly wide, so it's going to take some time to complete.

So far, I'm completely happy with it. The diamond shapes echo the diamonds in the flower bouquets of the main panel. The lacy zigzag edge is light and gives the shawl a nice drape.

I have to be careful when I get to the corners. In order to get a wide lace border to turn a corner, you have to plan the number of double and triple joins before and after the corner. For this extra wide border (32 sts wide), Jane Sowerby recommends 8 double and 4 to 8 triple joins.

Jane describes Single, Double and Triple joins in her book Victorian Lace Today. To summarize:

Single Join -- Knit one border stitch (WS) to one stitch of center panel by slipping the last border stitch through the back loop together with one main panel stitch and knitting them together.

Double Join -- Two single joins to one center panel stitch. A total of four border rows are attached to one center panel stitch, since you only "join" on the WS rows.

Triple Join -- Three single joins to one center panel stitch. A total of six border rows are attached to one center panel stitch, since you only "join" on the WS rows.

It takes some thought to decide when to start the double and triple joins. For this border, I'm starting the doubles about 24 rows from the corner, putting in the triples at the point of the corner, and finishing up 24 rows after the point on the next contiguous side.

The border is knit onto the center panel perpendicularly, with the live stitches of the center panel still on the circular needle. I put a rubber point protector on one circular needle tip and knit the panel stitches off of the other end of the needle.

I prefer to use a DPN to knit the border. For me, it's faster to flip the work. I don't ever leave a border row on the DPN when I put the work down. I make sure that I end on a RS row so that all the stitches are being held on the circular when I put the knitting back into my bag.

I included a lifeline on the last row of the main center panel before I started the border. I think this is important if you are not sure you are going to like the border you picked. Then, if you have to rip out the border and start again, you can just pick up the stitches held by the lifeline.

Siena Hat: Fair Isle is Fun, I promise

The Siena Hat from Knitwhits did not take me a month to do. In fact I finished it in a few hours of knitting time, only to realize that I had missed one line in the instructions and flubbed one of the hat stripes. Duh!

See where the missing stripe should be? Another magenta-green stripe should be in between the two blue-green stripes.

So I took apart the top of the hat, just below the first bluish stripe near the center, picked up all the stone beige stitches beneath it, and added the correct stripe as the pattern so clearly described.

Remember, Fair Isle is Fun, right? I got a another chance to use my two-handed Fair Isle technique -- definitely fun -- which I learned from a Philosopher's Wool video.

I had never learned to knit Fair Isle as a child from my wonderful grandmother who could knit anything without a pattern. No, instead, I learned to change colors by watching her, and I figured out how to knit Fair Isle patterns by reading a book.

I learned to use more than one color, first by trying intarsia patterns (like the Jester hat I posted about last time). Learning Fair Isle became a mission when I turned 18, went to London, and found some amazing hot pink mohair wool that I had never seen in the States.

With passion in my heart, I designed a pullover with a Fair Isle band around the chest, and fuzzy pink mohair trim. I remember finishing the front and thinking, wow, I can really do Fair Isle!

Actually, what I had learned from a book was how NOT to make holes when changing colors. This was accomplished by flipping one yarn over the next, like in intarsia. For Fair Isle, I basically did the same thing, and at the end of every row, I had to detangle the yarns. Inefficient! Time consuming! In fact, the memory of picking up my sweater by the yarn and dangling it out in front of me to spin around, stayed with me for years, dissuading me from ever doing another Fair Isle sweater.

Oh, I did add color to my work and even did the occasional Fair Isle sweater for a baby cousin or two. But I didn't enjoy it. They looked pretty. They didn't pucker. But they weren't fun.

Later in life, I discovered "The Original Philosopher's Two-Handed Fair Isle" video. I have to say that learning how to do Fair Isle with a yarn in each hand felt awkward to me at first. I had always knit American style, with the yarn in my right hand. (I believe my English grandmother called this English style.) I had to become comfortable with a yarn in my LEFT hand, as well as my right, using both with equal dexterity.

With the gentle guidance of Ann Bourgeois in the video, I was able to master the technique. I felt like I had just learned to swim laps after dogpaddling all my knitting life! It made such a difference in my attitude toward knitting Fair Isle, that when I was at Stitches West a few years ago, I made a point of finding Ann at her booth and telling her about my elation when I learned her technique.

I learned something else: if you hate it, you're probably doing it the hard way. Learn to do it the easy way, and you'll be changed for life.

Jester Hat: Fruit of the Bobbins

Jester is the intarsia hat that I knit as a sample for KnitWhits. The hat will be felted into its final form before it is displayed.

This is a fun hat to make and a good way to practice your intarsia technique.

I used bobbins to keep an ample length of each color dangling as I knit.

It looks confusing at first, but it's actually much easier to detangle than if I had sixteen balls of yarn attached to my work.

To avoid holes when changing colors, I flipped one color over the next, twisting the two strands one time. (Since this hat will eventually be felted, small holes are not a big deal.) The yarn is not carried across the work.

This is different than two-handed fair isle, where each hand is controlling a separate color and both yarns are carried all the way across the work. I'll post another sample hat soon that uses the fair isle technique.

Old World and New World Gifts

Last week I was visited by several birthday faeries who treated me to some lovely gifts. Not only that, Stitches West, the largest knitting convention of them all, was held this past weekend, and so I was able to use some birthday cash to acquire some fun things.

My husband took the hint and went to Biordi Art Imports in North Beach. And look what he found! I was so impressed that he picked out the perfect olive oil cruet for me, along with a dipping dish. These are handpainted and imported from Italy. I love the colors, and the top of the cruet has an ingenious spout. It is a cork with a hole through the middle. The steel spout is centered through the cork. This way, I can remove the cork to fill it, and use the spout for pouring a fine stream. Very nice!

Some Italian food smells must have been wafting through the air when my friend Marjory thought to give me another piece of Italian art pottery. This cup and saucer are from the same region as the olive oil cruet and dish. I'm a lucky gal! Marjory owns the Tranquilitea Tea Room in Pacifica.

In the cup and next to it are two skeins of delicious 10/2 hand-dyed tencel that I found at Stitches West.

The tencel is from Just Our Yarn, an effort of two women who have built a reputation for the most glorious hand-dyed yarns. Even though the camel and wool and yak and other fibers tempted me, I couldn't put down this silky tencel. It's similar to the white tencel I purchased from Halcyon Yarn, but with fantastic subtly blended colors. I think these two colorways are similar enough to be part of the same garment. I haven't decided what to make of them yet, but don't you think they'll make a lovely lacy something?


Stitches West is held annually at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, California. My pal Tina of KnitWhits had a booth this year, and I worked all day on Friday. What a wild time!

The Stitches crowds were relentless, partly due to a convention gimmick that brought tons of people into the booth. Attendees had Ravelry "passports" -- little booklets that looked like passports. We were one of the booths that offered passport stamps, so not only were we selling hat, purse, scarf, sock, and Easter Egg kits like crazy, but we were also stamping passports.

Speaking of yak, I bought this terrific yak pin from Gita Maria at her booth. She designs "eclectic and whimsical" jewelry and charms. This one she said she brought to a cattle or yak (?) convention, and all of the cowboys wanted one, but in a smaller size to wear on their hats! I was pleased to have the full-sized version to wear on this lovely alpaca scarf, given to me by my friend Suzy.

Last year, Suzy visited Winters Gone Farm, an alpaca farm in Wiscasset, Maine, and thought this alpaca scarf was perfect for me. I love it! It wraps around and has a few buttons to snuggle it up and keep me warm.

In addition to the yarn and yak pin, I picked up a few more things at Stitches West, including this small African basket and a bunch of really cute glass beads. I may ask my sister to make me some new stitch markers with these.





I also picked up the Hydrangea Scarf pattern, the newest lace pattern from Eugen Buegler. He was there, sitting at the Lacy Knitters booth, with his pal Lew and several others. I asked him if he would honor me by signing his latest work, and he couldn't have been more delightful.

Bobbins of the Past

I started working on an intarsia hat pattern. Why? Someone would like me to knit it for her. And I like the pattern.

It brings back memories of knitting strange intarsia punk patterns in the early 80's. I remember knitting leg warmers in orange and black; a grey and burgundy hound's-tooth vest; a black stockinette sweater, knit entirely of Bernat Bucilla, with a stark white "A" in the middle of a white circle; and a baby blue, pink and white Fair Isle sweater in acrylic, with bristly hot pink mohair accents. I had gotten the acrylic at the Emporium on Market Street in San Francisco and the hot pink mohair from Marks and Spencer's in London.

Anarchy, man. It was anarchy.

But, I started to think, did I ever use bobbins? Did I? Didn't I just let it all hang out (the ends, mean?) I remembered some bobbins, stowed away with the oldest of the old knitting needles I'd inherited from various relatives and from friends' mothers.

I poked around in the old Castile Soap box from I. Magnin that my great aunt had given me to hold my knitting needles as a child. The corners are taped together now, and I have newer and shinier places to store my knitting supplies, but I can't bear to throw away the old Castile Soap box.

The bobbins were right where I had left them years ago, tucked under old needles and pins and things. I gathered them together and lined them up. They were all of the same genre, mezzo-opaque or mezzo-transparent. How had I acquired them?

Funny how these things never get thrown away. They are passed along from person to person until someone finds a use for them, or like me, someone can't bear to toss them out. And what of the white wool yarn wrapped around a couple of these ancient bobbins? It certainly wasn't a remnant of anything I had knitted. Had my great aunt given me the bobbins with this tightly wound white wool yarn clinging to them? I feel like I should leave the wool on them and keep them like good talismans, warding away evil mojo.

Okay, I had found these ten bobbins, made of tiddlywink material, sort of like bakelite. But I needed 16 bobbins. I probably could have jimmied a few, but I knew I had more somewhere.

And after some rummaging, I found these Jiffy Bobbins stored in the stationery cabinet in the den. Don't ask me why I put them there. I thought I had consolidated all my knitting paraphernalia, but these were strays.

The lid of the box says they are "automatic." This makes them sound somewhat mechanized, but I'll forgive the manufacturer for that. In fact, they are quite usable and ingenious little things.

All is well in Bobbinlandia. I shall persevere at maximum bobbin capacity.

Published!

I came home from work one day last week to find a corrugated cardboard package had arrived for me. The return address read MBI Publishing, or something like that. I put it aside and made dinner. I had gotten home later than usual and was in a hurry to put something edible on the table. We sat down to eat, and I stopped in mid-chew ...

The book. The book had arrived. What was I thinking! I ripped open the cardboard and found three lovely advance copies of Knitting Through It: Inspiring Stories for Times of Trouble.

Long ago (October 2006), I had submitted a draft of my story "Sofia's Hands" to Lela Nargi who had announced her plans for a new book on Knitter's Review. Lela, a successful editor and writer, had produced Knitting Memories: Reflections on the Knitter's Life and Knitting Lessons: Tales from the Knitting Path, both well-received by the knitting community, and much beloved for their warmth and ingenuity.

The new book was in its formative stages, and she wanted some fresh stories to add to the collection. I was indeed "fresh" and somewhat timid about the entire publishing process, having no real professional writing experience. I had written a few essays published in local mags when I was in my twenties, but since then, my writing had been sequestered to business reports and an occasional blog entry. When Lela asked me to expand my original submission, I was excited and more than thrilled. She offered great suggestions for improving my idea, while still keeping my prose intact. Published friends had told me horror stories of their words slashed to ribbons, but this was not my experience at all. I was relieved and elated.

Upon opening the package, after carefully wiping my hands, I found that the cover was different than the advance cover I had seen on Amazon a couple of months ago. The new design is sweet and tantalizing, and the heart shape formed by a strand of yarn hints of the tender stories inside. (Barnes & Noble has it, too, and you can read the table of contents there.)



The stories come from various sources, including new authors, veteran writers, and the WPA Federal Writers' Project. A number of black-and-white photographs from the Library of Congress and a few patterns are great complements to this volume.

One interesting note: I had included a reference to the Oomingmak cooperative in the first draft of my story. This knitting cooperative I visited in Alaska produces knitted items from the underwool of the musk ox to supplement the income of their subsistence communities. Lela had been looking for stories about native American knitters, and this spurred her to contact Donna Drachunas, who had just published the book Arctic Lace, and had done extensive research on the Oomingmak. Donna contributed a story to this book, and I was pleased that Lela added a reference to Donna's story in "Sofia's Hands."

My story is personal. It relates the trials of dealing with my own mother's illness and caring for my mother-in-law in her last years. Knitting was my solace and a my distraction during that time, and with every fiber of my being, I am grateful to the knitting community for helping me through it.

In the back are "Notes on the Contributors" -- mine is a little frivolous, but I had to say something!

It's not a hat

For all those people who have seen me knitting lace in the round;

For all those who think knitting on a circular needle is weird;

For all those who have asked me, "Is it a hat?";

For all those who think my pile of lace is a baby blanket;

For all those who have asked, "How long does it take to make that?";

For all those who tell me, "That's beautiful, what is it?" ...

I say to you:

It's knitting, not crochet.
It's about as weird as brushing your teeth.
It's not a hat.
It's not a blanket; it's a shawl.
It takes as long as it takes.
Thank you. I like it, too. It's lace.

Spring Blossoms and Stash

I must be ready for warmer weather. The Spring Blossoms Shawl by Eugen Buegler has been on my project list since I picked up the pattern at Stitches West last year. That project list never seems to get any shorter.

I dug into my stash and found this gorgeous violet/purple/periwinkle laceweight merino from Inspirations Yarn. Margaret hand-dyed this especially for me in her "Espresso" laceweight. I think the subtly blended colors are just perfect, and they are not so disparate that they detract from the lacework. I hope Mr. Buegler would approve. The yarn is very soft, and the shawl will be amethystly cozy. My birthday is in February, and I've always had a fondness for all things purple. My birthstone is amethyst, and my favorite color is violet.

Since I've started organizing my stash on Ravelry, I've begun to make some real decisions about what yarns to use for projects. Thus far, I've used Ravelry mainly for organization and reading about other knitters and projects. The socializing part of Ravelry is great, but it just adds another "thing to do" to my list of groups and forums.

Digging into my stash was particularly therapeutic and delightful. In recent years, I've earned some yarns by knitting samples for designers, and other yarns I've found by chance while visiting a yarn shop or a knitting show or conference. I gave up the idea of just buying yarn for specific projects long ago.

Now, my stash is my yarn shop. It's not as big as some knitters' stashes, but certainly respectable as far as stashes go. I've already photographed about 40 different yarns for my Stash organization project on Ravelry. This may be about half of my stash, but I won't know until it's all categorized and labeled. Do not judge me, lest ye be judged.

Ravelry's Stash tool allows a member to post a photograph and all the details about the yarn, including quantity, color, content, weight, gauge, etc. You can make notes about a potential project or anything else pertinent. In many cases, the yarn is already listed in Ravelry's database, so entering a yarn description is simple -- just modify the sample information to fit your specifications. If the yarn is not in Ravelry's database, you are given the option to add yours as the first example.

The entire Stash is then downloadable to Excel for data manipulation and sorting by color, fiber content, manufacturer, etc. This is a great tool for planning projects. Sometimes, I remember a color or type of yarn in my stash, but then I don't know how much I have or even where it is located. My overtaxed brain can use all the help it can get.

Ravelry's Stash tool has opened my eyes to my own stash. I have new appreciation for the yarns I've collected, and now I can see them all in one place. (Okay, two places. I did have to upload all the photos to flickr, the prefered photo host for Ravelry.)

Springtime Jacket

Springtime, you ask? With all of the wild, woolly weather we've been having lately, a little springtime might be in order.

This is the Springtime Jacket by Melissa Leapman (modified with cables and applied I-cord trim). It was a freebie pattern that came in the mail with an advertisement to subscribe to Knit 'N Style magazine. It's also in their April 2007 issue.

I liked the simple lines and that it was all moss stitch. The texture makes it feel a little more substantial than plain stockinette. The longer length and the bell sleeves seemed right for me. I actually started this a few months ago, but other deadlines took precedence, and I just finished it during our most recent wet and stormy weekend when the power was out.

As usual, I decided to modify the design a bit. See that wavy cable? It wasn't in the pattern, and I added it after I made the two fronts and the back. I knit it separately in one long strip, using short rows to turn the corners at the neck, and then I sewed it on with a whip stitch making a slight ridge where it meets up with the body. The wave cable panel is a slightly wider version of Barbara Walker's. I added two sts on each side of the cable, making a nice ridge along the outer edges, for a total width of 12 sts. It goes like this (cn = cable needle):

Multiple of 12 sts
Row 1 (WS and all odd rows) -- p2, k2, p4, k2, p2

Row 2 -- k2, p2, (sl2 to cn, hold to back, k2, k2 from cn), p2, k2

Row 4, 6, 8 -- k2, p2, k4, p2, k2

Row 10 -- k2, p2, (sl2 to cn, hold to front, k2, k2 from cn), p2, k2

Row 12, 14, 16 -- k2, p2, k4, p2, k2

Shortening Sleeves

The yarn is Cascade Dolce, a luscious, soft wool, alpaca and silk blend. It knits up beautifully, with a pretty drape. BUT it doesn't have as much memory as 100% wool, so the sleeves hung a bit too long.

To remedy this, after I blocked the pieces and basted them together, I measured the length of sleeve I wanted and then pinned where I wanted to cut off the cuff. Yes, I said CUT off the cuff. I had done this before in stockinette, but not in moss stitch which is a little bit trickier. This seems like a drastic and scary thing to do, but it's a great way to shorten or lengthen sleeves on a finished garment. I suggest experimenting on a swatch before doing it on your beautiful sweater.

First, I opened the sleeve seam about four inches. Then I counted up 11 rows from the bottom of the cuff to where I was going to cut and marked the row with a safety pin on both the left and right sides of the piece. This has to be precise, or you'll end up cutting threads on two different rows.

Then I snipped the yarn on each end of the row. I gently pulled it apart a couple of stitches at a time, careful not to let the stitches start to ladder. Once I had a good five inches or so of the snipped yarn to hold onto, I wrapped it around my fingers a couple of times and slowly but firmly pulled the snipped yarn (one row) completely out.

This is where it gets tricky in moss stitch. After the row is pulled out and the bottom of the cuff is separated from the sleeve, the live stitches are ready to be picked up. In this case, with moss stitch, the stitches twist every which way making it harder to pick them up in a straight line. With stockinette, this is much easier, as the stitches all stay lined up like little soldiers.

Basically, I just put each live stitch onto a circular needle, making sure not to skip any. I wanted a somewhat firmer edge at the bottom of the sleeve as well as the bottom of the sweater itself. I chose to add an attached I-cord as a finishing touch.

The attached I-cord is easy to do, especially when you have live stitches on a circular needle. For the sleeve, that's just what I had. For the body, I had to pick up stitches all around the bottom.

The other thing to be aware of is the bias stretch. With moss stitch, the knitted fabric will naturally stretch "on the bias" or diagonally. The pieces will look completely misshapen and weird until you block them. The cable trim and the applied I-cord help to keep the jacket in shape.

This was an easy sweater to make. I'd recommend using wool. Alpaca is lovely and soft, but it will droop, especially with the extra weight of bell sleeves. Also, if you make this one, don't forget to check the errata. I sent in a correction to the shoulder shaping, and they posted it on the Knit 'N Style corrections page.

For convenience, here's the edit I sent them:

APRIL 2007, Project 1: KNITTED Springtime Jacket

BACK

Shape Shoulders

BO 4 sts each armhole edge 3 times, then BO 3 (4, 4, 5, 6) sts each neck edge once.

(By the way, does it bug anyone else that the only apostrophe used in "Knit 'N Style" is before the "N"? I mean, if an apostrophe is a substitute for missing letters, shouldn't there be one after the "N," too? I digress ... )