Daily Practice

I've been hyper creative lately, quilting, dyeing, spinning, weaving, and knitting, of course.  It's a stress-management effort, to be sure.  Plus, I'm teaching a first year seminar on creativity and stress, so there has been lots of mental energy focused on understanding how the two interact.  A group of students in my class have taught the rest of us how to make friendship bracelets.  Add that to the list of creative pursuits!

We have focused a bit on mindfulness, and how regular creative practice might foster our ability to be in the moment. The challenge I face now is that most of my projects are not well-suited for being mindful.  They are new and therefore require lots of focused attention.  One aspect of my recent knitting projects that I have found especially appealing lately is plain garter stitch.  I find garter stitch boring typically, but when you add color changes, it gets interesting.  

I have long been intrigued by various "temperature" projects: scarfs or blankets that are worked over long periods of time, with a row or section added each day to represent that day's weather.  So, I got fixated on the idea of dyeing 12 skeins of yarn to represent the range of temperatures that we experience in coastal New England.  I was going to place a new wholesale-sized order of the bamboo/wool blend that Oogy and I dyed last spring from Wool 2 Dye 4.  However, that blend is not in stock.  Plus, I didn't really want to wait!  So, to the stash.  I was able to find yarn that I have already dyed in most of the colors I needed, and I dyed a few skeins of sock yarn to fill in the color range with 2 orange hues.

This is "brilliant orange".  Aptly-named, and too brilliant for my project.  

I opted instead for the lighter coral that was a result of mixing brilliant orange with wild orchid, shown at the top of the picture.  

My plan is to add a few rows or ten every day, maybe in the evening when I'm unwinding from a long day, or in the morning when I need something easy to knit.  Looking ahead to later this year, I know that I'll be away occasionally, to Chicago, Shetland (!), and a few other places where the weather is likely to differ from home.  I'll use the temperature wherever I am, and maybe be able to see in the finished product when I was away.  The main objective of this project is to foster mindfulness and center the present moment, so it seems appropriate to acknowledge whatever the weather is wherever I am.  

Speaking of varying temperatures, it was in the 70s here yesterday (day 2) and today we are struggling to stay at 50 degrees.  At least today's forecast (grey rainy skies and 50) is more in keeping with November!  I'm looking forward to adding some rows to the project today.

I modeled the project after the last few Casapinka "noncho" projects we've done.  This one has 104 stitches with a built-in I-cord on one edge, but the entire thing will be garter stitch.  It might become another asymmetrical poncho, or maybe a wrap.  We'll know its fate on November 10, 2023!

Intentional Fair Isle/Shetland Lace Poncho Progress

A long while ago I made some panels of plain stockinette with the knitting machine, with the idea of grafting them together to make an open cardigan that had some Shetland lace and Fair Isle edges.  It was a major design fail, and got bunched up and stuffed away where I couldn't see it.  A long while after that Oogy encouraged me to participate in a Casapinka KAL to make a long rectangle that gets folded into an asymmetrical poncho.  Once I realized how much I loved wearing that, I thought maybe I would dig out the failed open cardigan and see if I could use some portions of it to make a similarly asymmetrical poncho.  That worked very well: 

This gets worn a lot!

Then I decided to design a new poncho, skipping the knitting machine, making half Fair Isle, and the other half Shetland Lace.  

Once the knitting was done, it was time to cut the steek and decide how best to finish the edges.  The next few pictures show the steek as it appeared on the right side, then how it appeared on the wrong side with all the long ends, then with the ends trimmed, and finally as the steek was being cut.

Look closely and you can see back-stitched reinforced edges.

Once the project was flat, I gave it a few soaks.  I used J&S jumper weight yarn from a cone, so it still had the spinning oils.  This made for a rather opaque bath!

I was hoping that the lace would block out to match the size of the Fair Isle portion, but it ended up a bit short, so I'm deciding what to do next...

In the Air

The idea of getting on an airplane has been rather scary since the pandemic began.  But, the pretend trip on Sharon Air has been super fun!  I started Clue 2 yesterday.  Here is how things looked after Clue 1:

I enjoy working on my knitting on the patio, weather permitting.  It was not permitting this morning.  There was a thick steamy fog, everything was damp, and I found this massive, perfect spider web where I usually sit:

Those conditions convinced me to be indoors for this morning's knitting.  Brown Cat decided to join me.

  

Waiting to be airborne

I've got my yarn picked out for Sharon Air.  The skeins are sitting there, patiently in a row, wondering why I haven't made them into cakes yet.  

This is more of the bamboo/wool blend yarn that Oogy and I enjoyed dyeing earlier this summer.  The colors of these skeins are inspired by the wildflowers that grow along the highway in Vermont in mid-July.  Cornflowers, Queen Anne's Lace, the dried out grass, and various bright yellow flowers, including Goldenrod and Black Eyed Susans.  I used a dilute solution of "lavender" to make the cornflower blue, speckled-dyed with "sangria" to approximate the tiny reddish-purple center of Queen Anne's lace, "straw" for the dried-out grass, and a dilute solution of "golden yellow" for the yellow flowers.  

I purposefully left out green, but I am feeling a bit uncertain about that now.  

In the meantime, I am working on a center-out project, and I'm on the outer bands of it now.  Each row is over 400 stitches and takes forever!  The finished object will be nice, but I won't say much about it in case the recipient is looking...I'll just give a little peak of the center. I'm not a huge fan of using stitch markers, but they are essential for this project, and there are 23 of them.

 
  

Ends

I've been working on multiple projects these days.  All portable and varying in levels of difficulty.  Long wait times?  Work on I'm Not Who You Think I Am.  Unpredictable wait times? Work on Switching Modes-inspired mitts.  Can't possibly keep track of a pattern?  Work on basic socks.  This strategy produced a growing pile of finished objects, all needing their ends tucked in.

 I felt as though I had accomplished something once there was a pile of yarn scraps.  

All of these projects are made with yarn that has been dyed recently, either with Oogy, or later with inspiration from our earlier efforts.  

The Ideal Combination of Pattern, Yarn, and Tools

It makes such a huge difference in how well I can sustain my interest in a project.  

In fact, the right combination, in addition to a more unstructured schedule than usual, can lead to what one might consider obsession.  I started a shawl last week and now the center portion is done. It is a half hexagon and the pattern is very straightforward: perfect for patio knitting. 

Now I am applying the lace edging, which includes some beads.  It's slowing me down a bit, but I'm still enjoying it immensely.  

For this project it is the yarn that is the most important element.  I dyed it in the process of matching the color of my SIL's new car, yielding a variegated yarn with very short spans of individual colors.  The colors did not pool at all, and having the hues shift every few stitches kept me totally engaged.  The shawl pattern is from Jane Sowerby's Victorian Lace Today and is the fichu version of the Spider Shawl.  I'm not quite done with the lace yet, but it seems as though this will be a 1-skein project.

This is the cashmere/wool/silk blend shown in the previous post.

I dyed two skeins, so now I'm working on a less-than-full-skein cowl with the other one.  Once again, Oogy found a wonderful project to challenge us!

"I'm Not Who You Think I Am"

The designer, Kristina Vilimaite, provided clear instructions for the i-cord edge, and I marveled at how she came up with this technique.  Sometimes you have to just let the instructions take you along, despite your strong suspicion that it will end up a tangled mess. The edge is so cool! 

Now I have two projects to fill a long weekend of knitting!    

  

Car Envy

My sister in law got a new car recently, and its color inspired a new colorway that I'm calling Car Envy.  I've had my eye on a Subaru CrossTrek in color "Cool Grey Khaki" for a long while.

SIL just got hers in "Plasma Yellow Pearl"

It's SOOOO pretty.  I fired up the dye studio and combined Flavine Yellow with Golden Pear, and came pretty close to Plasma Yellow Pearl.

I combined it with Lavender, so some of the yarn actually looks like Cool Grey Khaki!

There's a shawl in progress...

Yarn Was Flung

It's been a challenging year in my academic life, so it is with much relief that summer is here.  What better way to get it started than to get together with Oogy for a few days of dyeing, eating, meeting the World's Most Cute and Sweet Pooch, and knitting? It was bliss, and we each have a large pile of yarn to show for it.  

Here is my pile:

 Some of it has already jumped onto the nearest needles!

Wool/bamboo sock yarn

becoming a sock with an afterthought heal

I've been experimenting with using a single color as a highlight at one end of a skein, or with dyeing only one end of the skein with a few colors, which limits the appearance of those colors to a short segment in the knitted item.  Of course, it all depends on the size and gauge of the item.  There really is no end to the fun of dyeing.

wool/silk/cashmere blend fingering weight yarn

on its way to becoming a drop-stitch scarf.  

You can see how the blue dyed portion of the skein has made short runs of blue in the scarf. I was going to make a big shawl with this yarn, but it is so intensely bright that I know I won't wear it.  So, it is going to be a smaller piece, more like a scarf.  Pop of color, for sure!

I'm always learning a new skill from Oogy, and this visit was no exception.  Here is my inaugural sock tube: 

I dyed the wool/silk/cashmere blend awhile ago and thought it would be a good candidate for the sock machine.  Now I can't wait to make a pair of mitts, some short socks, and use what's left as an accent color for a cowl.  

It's so great to have a new pile of bright yarn to play with, especially because I now have more time to knit, and I'll be reminded of the wonderful fun it was to dye it all. 

Consequences of not swatching

I've been happily making great progress on my Fair Isle project.  It was especially exciting to finish the last large border pattern.  I was happy with how the color changes came together, and was getting ready to begin the lace section.  Then I viewed the work from afar and discovered the appearance of...well, you can generate your own perceptions.  

I put it aside for a few days, until I was psychologically prepared to unravel back to the beginning of the pattern. I changed it to fill in the open area between the Xs and Os and tried to blend the background better.

Now I'm back to being nearly finished with the Fair Isle section!

Maakin Progress

Maakin = knitting in Shetland dialect

Having fully embraced the power of folding a rectangle of knitted fabric into a poncho, I have recently started to make another Fair Isle project.  The first Fair Isle poncho that I made was a product of many false starts, so it is rather satisfying to be making one that is intentional.  I have a framework for the entire project, although I didn't go as far as to actually write a pattern.  I do have a drawing that shows the sequence of Fair Isle motifs.

The numbers refer to motifs from Mary Jane Mucklestone's book.

The design is intentional and reflects traditional Fair Isle knitting in the combination of motifs. These techniques are clearly described in Mucklestone's book 200 Fair Isle Motifs, A Knitter's Directory. The same few Peerie (small) motifs alternate with larger border patterns.  Also, the backgrounds alternate from light to dark.  I wanted to arrange each large motif so that the Os of one motif appeared above the Xs of the previous motif. I made this task possible by choosing motifs with repeats of 7, 14, or 28 stitches. This isn't a traditional Fair Isle design element, but the border patterns get increasingly larger, ranging from 9-19 rows.  One last design element: the background for the current motif is one of the colors from the center row of the previous motif.

The color choices were also intentional.  I chose colors that I had on hand, and then purchased more yarn from J&S Wool Brokers.  

The deep orange is the main color of the poncho.  Once I finish the Fair Isle section, I'll use that color to work some basic Shetland lace. I'm about 1/3 the way finished with the Fair Isle section.

Each row has 206 stitches; long enough to get into a rhythm, short enough to stay engaged.

This shot shows the steek. 
Also, the Xs of one large motif are arranged above the Os of the previous large motif.

Finally Finished

I started a Fair Isle project about 2 (?) years ago, using a knitting machine and a cone of J&S Shetland wool to make panels that would fit together and form the back and sides of a cardigan with asymmetrical front openings. One opening would be lace, and the other would be Fair Isle designs.  I did finish that "sweater" but the concept in my head did not in any way translate as a functioning garment.  It got put away until enough time went by for me to face its deconstruction.  

A few months ago Oogy and I embarked on a knit-a-long to make Pinions, which was enormously fun to knit and yielded wearable garments. We were inspired to make up our own version, which we are calling Rogue Pinions.  We're maintaining a good pace, each of us contributing 2 "clues", one week after the other.  Here is my RP so far:

A close-up of #5 and 6, clues from Oogy that were especially fun to knit.

The success of Pinions had another impact: I found the abandoned failed Fair Isle/Shetland lace "sweater" and began is deconstruction, removing the sleeves, shoulders, and neck until all that was left was a long rectangle with two openings of live stitches where the sleeves had been.  Those got kitchenered, and one side of the rectangle got partially seamed to create a poncho.

The fair isle motifs are from M.J. Mucklestone's book 200 Fair Isle Motifs, and the lace portions are from Lovick's book The Magic of Shetland Lace Knitting.  The yarn is J&S 2-ply jumper weight.

FC58 is one of my favorite colors of J&S 2-ply

Most certainly going to wear this a lot!!!

A Second Pinion

Casapinka's Pinion was so much fun to knit that Oogy and I have decided to do another one.  And this time, we plan to choose our own patterns for each section.  Going rogue!  We'll alternate the job of choosing the patterns, and there is the option to add some narrative, i.e. a pinion.  Oogy's getting us started, and I already have my first patterns planned out!

Here is the yarn I'm using:

A few hand-dyed skeins, some that were purchased for other projects that never materialized, and a few leftovers.

Here is my first Pinion:

There's probably enough fingering-weight yarn to do a few more, but I'm beginning to wonder if this might be a good fate for the large collection of DK/sport-wt yarn...