Pinions KAL Update

It's been fun to use up some yarn that I dyed over 10 years ago.  I just finished Pinion 6.

A late knitted Christmas gift idea has emerged and will keep me occupied, probably until people are opening presents and wondering where I am on Saturday.  Pinion 7 will have to wait a few days!

Another KAL

December is not the ideal time to start a 20-section fingering-weight knit along shawl ("Pinions"; thank you Sharon from Security and Casapinka). I was convinced to do it when I learned it was going to be folded into a poncho shape. I have accumulated a massive quantity of fingering-weight yarn and am short on ideas for what to do with the small quantities of so many different colors.  

I wish I could say this was all of it...

But once I organized the pile into general color groups, I was able to envision how some of the yarn could get put together.  

Brownie is not impressed, but is rather annoyed that so much of his bed space is occupied.  I won't tell him that I'm knitting a project that was designed by another cat.

I opted for the greens.  If I have enough fun with those, I might make two shawls.  Or, I could wait a short time until Casapinka generates yet another awesome use of colorful fingering-weight yarn.

What's Hap?

As part of my longstanding appreciation for Shetland knitting, I have attempted to make a hap with DK weight yarn that I purchased from Bee Croft, the online shop of a crofter on Fair Isle. Having followed barkland_croft on Instagram for the last few years, and meeting the crofter, Rachel, at a knitting group in Lerwick in 2019,  I was delighted to learn that she is producing yarn from her Shetland sheep flock and did not hesitate to order a skein of each solid color (Barnacle, Butterscotch, and Busby) as soon as it was available.  After about a month of wool huffing, fretting about my inability to keep Old Shale on track (please don't look closely), and wondering if I would have enough yarn to finish the lace edging, a hap emerged. 

The challenge in designing the hap was to make sure I would be able to use as much of the yarn as possible on each layer.  I initially mapped the pattern out on graph paper and aimed to have equal amounts of area for each color, but lace has a mind of its own, and I had to use my best judgement as the hap grew. 

All that's left of my skeins of Busby, Butterscotch, and Barnacle.

It is only appropriate that this hap will get used regularly.  That's what I find so appealing about this Shetland lace tradition: it's EVERYDAY lace.

 

Color blending update

I got busy with swatching after the Shetland Wool Week workshop with Tracey Doxey.  A follow-up workshop is scheduled this weekend, and these are some images of the swatches and projects I completed since the first workshop to show at this next meeting.  

I finished the first hat, and it has now reached its recipient.  Just in time for our daytime temperatures to get back to 70 degrees!

I made a second swatch using another combination of neutral and botanically-inspired colors.

This did not get translated into a hat, yet.  I was not happy with the swatch, but when I showed it to the Camel Knitters they were all impressed.  Which of the three combos do you like best?

I opted instead to go back to my Lerwick Flower Park design and used some of the same neutrals and greens for that.  Both the swatch and the hat are made with Uradale wool from Shetland. 

There's a third swatch:

Which I used as inspiration for this hat:

Since I finished these items, I've been focused on using my Bee Croft acquisition of three skeins of DK weight in natural colors which are named after some of the sheep: Barnacle, Butterscotch, and Busby.

From top to bottom: Broken Acre in Barnacle, Old Shale in Butterscotch, and Vandyke Lace in Busby.  

It's a massive project that I hope will serve as a hap when it's done.  It's so big now that I can't conceal it under the computer camera and it won't fit into my school bag, so I've had to use other knitting for all those Zoom meetings!  Making lace in DK weight yarn is a bit unconventional, but I expect that it will look much better when it's blocked.  I only swatched the center pattern, and it looks great, so let's hope blocking does its magic on the other sections, too.

I hope that your knitting projects are going well and keeping you happy!

Color Combos

Shetland Wool Week (Sept 25-Oct 3) is over, but it is having a lasting impact for me.  I participated in two workshops, one for weaving and the other on color blending in Fair Isle knitting.  Here is why I needed to participate in the color blending workshop:

I choose colors I like together, but I'm not good at organizing them so that you can actually see the pattern.  The challenge is to have enough contrast, but also be able to blend the color changes so that they are not too drastic.  This hat is a real mess! 

In the workshop led by Tracey Doxey, we were encouraged to swatch.  I'm not a fan of swatching, but I will admit that it is better than getting half-way through a hat that totally sucks.

So here's the swatch.  I applied what I learned in the workshop to the same colors that I used in the failed hat, and the pattern is clear.  I decided that I liked the different combination at the top of the swatch, which included the colors next to it.  The key is to have ample contrast between the light and dark colors.  Sometimes the actual color is deceiving, so that makes it tricky.  We learned some strategies in the workshop for dealing with that.  

So I got another hat started and decided to ditch the rose color.  I didn't do another swatch, but it's looking rather good. 

The workshop has given me a renewed enthusiasm for designing Fair Isle projects, and luckily I have accumulated a large collection of colors to play with.  Plus, J&S Wool Brokers online shop is just a few clicks away!

I'm not the only fan of J&S.  My assistant seems to be a big fan of shade FC46mix.

Escaping the Oppressive Heat

Once again, the library is a sanctuary.  When we were kids living in Scottsdale, AZ, my little brother and I would go to the public library after school, and anytime during the summer, because it was cool inside and there was a chess set that took up a whole large table, with pieces that required two hands to move.  A shelf nearby contained the complete collection of Nancy Drew mysteries.  It did not take long for my 13-year-old self to devour those.  I tried a few Hardy Boys, but found them lacking.  Onto Shelley’s Frankenstein and Dumas’s d’Artagnan romances.  I especially loved The Man in the Iron Mask. 

Fast forward a few decades and my little brother and I are helping take care of a house in the northern reaches of Vermont.  It is generally cool here, but this week I am staying here under a heat dome that is also a humidity dome.  Usually, this place is so windy that you need to make sure your hat has a chin strap.  Not so much this week.  The original owner (in our family at least) of this house was my great aunt, and I never understood why on some summer days she would close the house up in the morning.  I understand that now.  It’s better to have fans blowing 78 degrees around instead of the intermittent breeze blowing 90 degrees around.  

That strategy failed today: it was 80+ in the house by 3 pm, and I was worried I would ruin my computer with sweat dripping onto the keyboard.  

There is a local library that opened a few years ago that I’ve been meaning to “check out”.  I made my way there today in hopes of some air-conditioned air.  Oh, did I score! I found a table, after asking the lone librarian if there was one where I could work.  Another patron brought a desk chair over to the table, and there I sat for about 2 hours, under the world’s strongest air-conditioning vent. No one has appreciated the flow of air more than I.  And then, while I was toiling away, there was a strong thunderstorm, which not only washed my very filthy north-country dirt-road-soot-coated vehicle, but it reduced the temperature by about 10 degrees.  I was able to return to the house and open windows to the newly cooled air. And, I have library books to inspire more crafting!

 

Bright Adventure

Oogy started organizing an annual Dyeing Extravaganza when she moved to the country.  The idea was to get a few of us together for a weekend of spinning, dyeing, knitting, eating, drinking, etc.  The first year was awesome in person, and then we went remote because of COVID last year, and this year, too.  For this year's event we opted for a palette of neon bright colors.  This idea may have started as a way to celebrate Pride month, but it took hold because we all need some brightness after 18 months of dealing with this pandemic.  

It was very exciting to try dyeing a new fiber: Zebra

We chose PRO WashFast Acid dyes in colors: flavine yellow, hot pink, brilliant blue, brilliant violet, key lime, and bright orange.

We also had long tubes of sock yarn that Oogy made with her sock machine, and a few mini skeins to use for toes and heels.

We each set up our dye studios and for 2 hours had a blast on Zoom trying new ways to apply dye to the wool.  Here are my results:

The sock tubes were a new challenge!

I'm looking forward to working with these bright colors!

Long-languishing Fair Isle Sweater

 Look what I uncovered in the process of organizing my closet!

At the bottom of a basket was this Fair Isle sweater that I started at least 10 years ago.  The felted bag of yarn has been on my book shelf for many years, and once in a while I would think about finding the sweater I was making with its contents.  I'm not sure why I stopped working on the sweater.  I might have been unhappy with the way the colors were working, although now that I view the picture, it looks rather good to me.  There is certainly ample quantity of yarn to finish it, with sleeves. Apparently I designed a pullover.  I had already made the armhole steeks and was probably deciding on the neck shape when I stopped working on it.  This morning I decided it would have a rounded boatneck. 

It's mostly Jamieson's of Shetland "Spindrift", but it also includes some Harrisville Designs "Shetland" wool and the bright green is a Rowan yarn.  The greenish-grey in the forefront of this picture has long ago lost its label; it feels like Shetland wool, but I don't remember any Shetland wool that was in that type of skein. So, not being a purist on this project.  I am following the other guidelines for Fair Isle work: these are traditional Fair Isle motifs from Starmore's pattern book, and I'm only using 2 colors/row.  

 This combination of greens and purples is always appealing to me.  It was fun to get back to this project!

Expressing Appreciation

A good friend's mom died recently.  Her mom was in some ways my mom, too.  I spent lots of time at their house growing up, even going with their family on vacation once.  I'm not sure that I knew this as a 14-year old, but I now understand that their house was a sanctuary of "normal" for me then. This Mom was a remarkable person who survived severe hardships in Eastern Europe before WWII, then built a successful business and raised a family in the US.  This Mom persevered after a drunk driver claimed one of her daughters when she was a teenager. This was not an easy life lived, but my recollection of her is as one of the strongest women I've ever known.

It seems natural to knitters to acknowledge a loved one's loss by making something that commemorates some aspect of the person's life.  My friend had described one of her last experiences with her Mom, which was a trip to a sheep farm.  I soon learned that the sheep farm specialized in raising Merinos and that they had an online shop. I was thrilled to order some roving, which I planned to spin and use the yarn to make a hat for my friend.

Roving from Apple Creek Merinos

One thing that I remember from my friend's house was the beautiful greenish-grey color of the living room.  It just seemed so peaceful, and I used that recollection as a guide for dyeing some of the roving.

Kettle dyeing with multiple colors, based on a lesson in Yarnitecture, by Jillian Moreno

yarn made from dyed brown roving

All that's left of the dyed white roving. We call the color Vida Verde.

My friend requested a slouchy hat, which was a new style for me to design. I opted to include a color work section, but also to highlight the beautiful appearance of the un-dyed wool.

This experience gave the me a chance to express my gratitude for the influence this family had on me when it mattered the most.  

Evolving Yoke

 Still over 400 stitches, but the yoke is at the point when some serious decreasing will happen.  

Fair Isle Focus

 I go through phases of different knitting genres.  I always return to fair isle knitting eventually, and that is where I find myself now.  It's a lovely place, where the stitches are small and numerous, and the color changes are gradual and, well, numerous.  

Waves and Rocks

The beginning of the yoke of Strom Cardigan.
Yes, that is a flower on my thumb!

Waves and Rocks was a relatively quick knit, although it required some fulling to reach an appropriate size.  Fulling or felting is always a risky endeavor, but this time it worked out perfectly.  It's a very warm hat now.  Just in time for spring!

Strom Cardigan is a long-term commitment.  It currently has over 400 stitches, with arms, front, and back on the needles.  In another few rows I will be decreasing some stitches, and then the main star/tree pattern begins, with regular decreases every other row.  I look forward to moving the work around the needles with a little more ease.  I really look forward to finishing the sweater, as it is one of the primary reasons that I purchased the 2020 Shetand Wool Week Annual.  

My teaching assistant has been proofreading my lecture notes...

Therapeutic Knitting Takes on Many Forms

I’ve long been a fan of Betsan Corkhill’s website Stitchlinks, which is focused on using the process of knitting to enhance wellness.  Corkhill has worked in a pain management setting as a therapist, and over the years she has developed the idea of Therapeutic Knitting.  Her ideas and how she got them is covered in her book Knit For Health and Wellness: how to knit a flexible mind and more, first published in 2014. 

In Chapter 8 of her book she identifies eight types of knitting projects and explains how each one can contribute to well-being.  She encourages knitters to have multiple projects going at once, allowing someone to turn to the project that suits one’s needs at any given time. I was able to relate my own multiple projects to the list:

Radiant Star Cowl from Shetland Wool Week 2020 Annual

1. Intricate: A Fair Isle cowl that has 6 colors, and 3 repeats of a 29-row pattern.  It most certainly requires focus and close attention to the color chart.  This intense focus has been a great tool for taking a break from all the worries and uncertainties of the pandemic world we’re in. After reading Corkhill’s chapter, I realize why I always have either a Fair Isle or Shetland lace project at hand.

2. Novelty: The Christmas ball for one of my SILs for Xmas and stocking that I made for a charity.  The tree ornament had a distinct shape and it was necessary to follow a pattern that I haven’t worked on in a few years.  The stocking was a new design on a standard template that I developed a few years ago.  The stocking is a commission in which I have asked the recipient to donate funds to our local family shelter. 

Arne & Carlos Ball #22

3. Automatic: I’m making myself a yoke cardigan from the Wool Week 2020 Annual.  The pattern begins with a sleeve, which has 7 color-change rows before there are many, many rows of knitting one color in the round.  Doesn’t get much more automatic than that!  This project has been great for those Zoom meetings when I don’t need to take many or any notes. Just angle that camera up a bit and knit away!

Also great for webcam watching...

Strom Cardigan from Shetand Wool Week 2020 Annual

4. Group: The Camel Knitters, still meeting most every week since December, 2006.  Corkhill rightly suggests doing your Automatic knitting at this time. She also describes the benefits of doing a group project, which we have done in various forms over the years.

5. Big: I participated in the Sharon From Security knit-a-long a few months ago.  My shawl took on blanket proportions, so it was certainly big. This type of project is one that is expected to take a while and can be finished whenever the knitter decides enough is enough. For me that was several rows short of the pattern’s end.  The Big project going at the moment is a redo of a large sweater that I made last year that I can’t wear.  It was in Vogue Knitting and was designed by Deborah Newton. I’m generally a big fan of her designs, but this sweater looked very bad on me.  Sometimes it takes a year to accept that reality. I ripped it out and am using the yarn for a different sweater (see # 8 below).

Making it up as I go along...hopefully a bulky raglan sweater that I can actually wear.

6. Quick-fix: The Xmas ornament (see #2) might qualify as a quick-fix. It was done in a day, although that was a day when I had set aside lots of time to knit. I have discovered a new “quick-fix”: wrist warmer/fingerless mitts based on the Switching Modes patterns.  I’m going to write a pattern for them, and call them Mode Mitts.

7.  Bag: Until it gets too big, that would be #3 above, and Mode Mitts would also work. Corkhill suggests that we have a portable project that can alleviate the pain of waiting in line, waiting for an appointment, waiting for the bus/plane/train to reach its destination. 

8.  Free Knitting: I started to make a poncho that has been designed on the go.  It’s one of my favorite types of knitting.  You really have to accept that the final product might be a total fail.  It’s all about the process.  This is probably how I will approach Big Sweater Redux. I have converted what began as a poncho into a “bed-poncho” for the recipient to wear while sitting in bed watching TV.  She seemed rather pleased with it!

So, of these eight categories which one best describes your current favorite project?