Category Archives: knitting

>More Thrills

Posted on September 13, 2009 | 4 comments

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This one is a bit embarrassing to tell.  I was zipping along knitting one day near the end of our sailing trip, and I accidentally stabbed myself with my Signature stilletto-pointed needle.  You’d think I’d never held a needle before!  It was a fluke!  As I finished a row, the empty left hand needle slipped out of my grip.  For some irrational reason, I did not want to drop the needle…. it would only hit the cockpit sole, but I think subconsciously I must have thought I would lose it overboard!  I grabbed for it as quickly as I could. The needle managed to hit the cockpit bench on end with its tip standing straight up. My hand came straight down, and that stilletto tip went into my palm, dead center.  It actually hung there for a second or so before falling out, so I was impaled on my knitting needle!  It hurt,  but my laughter definitely took the edge off! I thought about taking a photo of my bleeding palm, but then thought better of it!

After 45 years of knitting I’ve had my first knitting accident.  Beware….

4 Comments

Posted in knitting, sailing

>Some thrills

Posted on September 12, 2009 | 8 comments

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There are many people who find knitters and knitting so boring they cannot possibly imagine what thrills we have. I spent a lot of time knitting my kimono cardigan on our recent sailing trip, and it seemed a good time to analyze my technique and see what I might do if I wanted to knit faster!

I am a picker (meaning I knit by holding the working yarn in my left hand and making the right hand needle do the work of catching it to create the new loop).  I am left handed but knit in the right handed direction since I’m pretty fast at it.  I knit about 60 stitches per minute, which would be a poor showing for knitting speed competitions, but seems faster than most knitters I have spent time with..

To be fair, I should say that I have tried many ways of knitting and still use them all on occasion.  I was taught to knit ‘throwing’ (the traditional English way which involves having the working yarn in your right hand and using your right hand to ‘throw’ the yarn around the left needle), and over the years I’ve tired both ‘picking’ and ‘throwing’ in the opposite direction (with the knitted work on the right needle moving to the left needle) just because I’m left handed and felt I should give it a whirl!  It comes in handy when I don’t want to keep turning my work around, but I am still faster at right handed picking than other methods. Other methods will get mentioned later…maybe!

So, faster…  knowing that efficiency of motion is a vital key to speed I have also made efforts to keep my knitting right at the tips of my needles, and now, for years now actually, I’ve managed no movement at all in my left hand…my right needle does a little flick to get that needle to pick up a loop from the yarn in my left hand.  When I switch from knit to purl, involving moving that working yarn from the back of the needle to the front, I barely move my finger, making ribbing quite fast to work. 

What else could I do to get faster?? I realized that while my knitting stays right at the tips of the needles, my right needle which gets inserted into the loop on the left needle was going into the loop a bit further than just the tip before catching the working yarn.  Could this be minimized??  A little practice showed me it could! Since I was knitting my kimono cardi on brand new Signature needles (another thrill!) I could keep track of how much I was inserting that right needle by keeping the movement completely on the silver tips.  Those silver tips sure come in handy for checking movement!  Although I love my Addi Turbos and my wooden Knit Picks, and in general prefer circular needles to straight, these Signature needles gave me a visual marker to how little movement I needed to make with the right needle.  Almost immediately I noticed that the tiniest change with the inserting needle made a noticeable difference in speed!  In a couple of hours I was knitting faster than ever before!

What is fast now?  I think I’m knitting in the range of 75 stitches per minute now, and it happened with only about an hour of practice.  Pretty exciting for me!  Here’s my plan for checking my accuracy.  I tried knitting to my metronome, but I got so uptight I became completely clumsy!  Since I have a natural memory for 60 beats per minute (try it, many people do!) I will listen to my metronome at other speeds until I feel that rhythm is well established in my head, then I will try knitting at that speed!

I have some piano works that I’ve played at certain speeds for so many years that they come naturally to me now (like Bach inventions that I had to practice ad nauseam to work up to speed).  I will hum those pieces at speed and see if I can knit to them!   75 stitches per inch is pretty satisfying, but if I can get closer to 100 I’m going to go for it!  I’ll let you know how I get on! Wish me luck!

8 Comments

Posted in knitting

>Homecoming

Posted on September 10, 2009 | 1 comment

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It’s always wonderful to return home, but returning home after some hard sailing makes the pleasure even sweeter.  I may be a seasoned sailor after 35 years (well, maybe not) but I will never be a a hardened sailor. Late summer often offers some big challenges.  My husband doesn’t feel this way at all! You can check out a particularly hard day for me here by clicking on the video.

While sailing, I finished knitting (and partially sewing!) my kimono cardigan from Dovetail designs.  I just tried it on and I love it!  (I don’t say that often.)  I might not add the shawl collar since I like it so much as is!Sept. 09 009

(After wearing this sweater on two chilly days last week I have decided to knit the shawl collar, which you can see in progress)

 

 

 

While knitting I listened to my audible copy of The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett, read by John Lee.  I’ve wanted to read this book for years and never got around to it.  To listen while knitting was a delightfully guilty pleasure!  It’s hard to imagine wanting to actually read anything ever again when I can listen to someone who was chosen to read for their lyrical voice while I continue to knit!Pillars of the Earth

Although I listened to four books on audible this summer,  I did manage to actually read two books:  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and her niece Annie Barrows, and The Elegance of Hedgehogs by Muriel Barbery (translated from French by Alison Anderson).  Both were delightful for the same reason! …a quirky look at a particular time period in a particular niche of society.  Both were so well done that  I regret finishing them! I particularly regret that Ms. Shaffer’s voice is gone from us now after such a lovely book. 

Blog The elegance of the Hedgehog blog the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society

I’ve just bought my ticket for the “Wild Fibers” annual dinner at the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival, which means I will definitely go the festival!…in spite of never needing another ounce of spinnable fiber!  The weekend is October 17 and 18, and the dinner is Saturday evening.  If you will be there please let me know!  I want to meet you!

Goethe said, "One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words."  I’m off to do a little of that right now….

1 Comment

Posted in books, knitting, sailing

>Vacation Interrupted

Posted on August 28, 2009 | 2 comments

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All packed and nowhere to go!  It’s raining buckets here, and we thought we’d be ahead of it in Maine, but even so, arriving before the rain hits Maine doesn’t really sound appealing when we are traveling with our dog.  When we are on Pandora in rain we snuggle up down below and turn on the heat, bake some bread, or biscuits, or pie, and spend the day reading and knitting or spinning.  Having a wet dog down below, who needs to go ashore three times a day,  is much less appealing….

So today I’m using my newly found time to dye a second small skein (only 1 oz., 70 yds) in the Brazilwood pot. Yesterday’s 2 oz. skein is a wonderful color that I cannot describe well.  It’s a medium/dark shade of something between rose and terracotta.  Yes, it’s both a cool and warm shade of a complex reddish color! That’s what I love about natural dyes!  The colors are so complex I can’t find the words to properly describe them!  And monitors being what they are, I can’t even show you an accurate photo! Today’s skein will be lighter.  I could keep going with this dye bath, but I think I will discard it after this second batch. Pack rat that I am, I have saved the sawdust…

Aug. 09 029Aug. 09 034

I’m scouring my two large hanks of grey corriedale which seem to have a lot of lanolin in them.  I washed that fleece before sending it off to be processed into bumps, but oh my!  There is a lot of lanolin still in it!  I may take a skein with me to Maine to sample some lace patterns…. I’m now imagining this yarn as a lace cardigan.Aug. 09 033

This little swatch of the corrie is 6 st/in…just what I wanted! (I love using my Signature needles! I now have size 1 through 6!)

 

And since it’s a dark, dreary day, I will take some time today to spin the Shetland which is now my first choice for the stranded, round yoke sweater I want to make with the handpainted yarn I spun earlier this summer (the Gale Evans “grapevine”).

Our ETD is now Sunday, very early.  That means I can go to the local farmers’ market tomorrow morning.  And perhaps this evening we’ll go to a movie….

2 Comments

Posted in dyeing, knitting, sailing, spinning, vacation

>Finishing Projects

Posted on August 27, 2009 | 4 comments

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I have been home for a little over a week, in which I’ve spent a few days with my younger son (attending the all-John Adams concert at Alice Tully Hall, seeing the Julia movie and basically relaxing!), a little time catching up with friends, and perhaps even less time attempting to finish some projects before we head back up to Maine for another couple of weeks of sailing.

BRAZILWOOD DYE EXPERIMENT
Today I’m finally dyeing with the Brazilwood sawdust that I began soaking in February.  I was advised to let the sawdust soak for 6 months so this is the right time to revisit my dyepot.  I had the dye liquor covered with plastic film to prevent molding, and it seems to have worked!

My instructions (from Deb Bamford) called for heating the sawdust and soaking water together for about 30 minutes at 80C.  Alas, I inadvertently let the mixture boil, which means the color will shift to into the brown range of reds.  Frankly, the dye liquor already looked quite brown before I began heating it!  After that initial boil, I turned the heat down to a simmer and let the dye continue simmering for about 30 minutes, after which I turned off the heat.  When the dye liquor had cooled a bit I strained off the liquid into another dye pot and have saved the solids for a possible future dye.Aug. 09 024 I then put in 2 oz. of my pre-mordanted yarn (Henry’s Attic ‘’Texas,’ wool/mohair blend previously mordanted with alum and cot) which had already been wetted.  It immediately turned a medium value of dull orange.  I have been reheating the mixture more carefully now, trying not to exceed 80C, and it is now simmering at about 75C for 1/2 hour. The color on the yarn has become a deep red/brown…more red than brown! I like it very much!Aug. 09 028

The flash washed out the color quite a bit….it’s a much deeper red.  Who knows, it might be this color when rinsed, but I’m hoping for darker!

KNITTING
While dyeing I have also been finishing up a simple vest project that I’d like to wear in Maine on cool evenings.  It’s a vest knit entirely in stockinette from yarn that I got from DBNY (Discontinued Brand Name Yarns).  I have sewn on the zipper now and am now sewing a decorative ribbon (from LFN designs) over the zipper to add some visual interest when the vest is open.Aug. 09 020

Aug. 09 021

SPINNING
My dark brown/grey corriedale which I washed and sent out to be processed into bumps, and which I was spinning during out last sailing trip, is not the right color for the stranded knit sweater I have in mind for the multi-colored roving, in a colorway called “Grapevine” which I got at MDS&W from Gale Evans. Gale Evans Grapevine roving BFL  Earlier this morning I sat down to spin a little of the dark charcoal Shetland roving that I recently got from Hatchtown Farm, and it appears to be just right for the Grapevine.  I am considering doing this sweater from the Twist Collective.Aug. 09 027

 

 

 

I think I will use the grey/brown Corrie to make a lace cardigan sometime in the future.  It’s a dream to spin, but I will put that project aside in order to spin the Shetland for the the stranded sweater. Well, now! Aren’t I being mature?

And there was a very happy occurance in my inbox! Linda Lee has written to tell me that she will soon be dyeing my cotton sliver in her colorway “Phoenix Garden.”  I can’t wait to get back to that project!  Maybe the package will be waiting for me when I return home!Cotton spinning (1)

WEAVING

I’ve been thinking a lot about weaving, but not actually doing any since I returned from the Mid-Atlantic Fiber Conference in Gettysburgh, where I took a 3-day class with Jason Collingwood on 3-end block weave and shaft switching.  While I am thinking about what sampling I’d like to do on the rest of the warp from that class, I have also been thinking about future tapestries.  I have some ideas brewing….

I need to leave some time today for packing since we are leaving tomorrow morning!  I hope this weekend’s storm is the only difficult weather we experience during this sailing trip!

4 Comments

Posted in dyeing, knitting, sailing, spinning

>Bit by Bit

Posted on April 16, 2009 | 5 comments

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 April 2009 dyeing.hr tapestry 001 April 2009 dyeing.hr tapestry 002April 2009 dyeing.hr tapestry 003

Cochineal Dyeing… I think if you click on the first photo you can just barely see the color of the dye with the little bugs in the pan.  I used distilled water to simmer the bugs for releasing the dye, and according to Michelle Wipplinger’s recipe (which I got through Deb Bramford), after extracting the dye with distilled water I could use tap/well water for topping off the liquid.  This did not work for me as I believe my well water is the source of what turned my bright red dye into plum/purple yarn.  It’s a lovely color, but I wanted red!

April 2009 dyeing.hr tapestry 002

Three dyebaths…not much change between #2 and #3.

 

 

 

Hudson River Tapestry 002 April 2009 dyeing.hr tapestry 004 My progress on Hudson River from last week to this week.  I’m done with the boat (yea!) and can now focus on the trees/cliffs/water/sky.  The trees are a bit fiddly but once I work out a system I hope I will at least be able to make steady progress. 

Now I’m  finally going to take a photo of the ‘Arwen Cardigan.’  I don’t know when I’ll get to frogging and fixing.

April 2009 dyeing.hr tapestry 001

Some big collar, right?  Anyway, the rest of the sweater fits well (better on me than my svelte dress form on which it hangs badly!), and I like the zipper!  Of course, I have to take out the zipper and completely frog the collar since it was knitted sideways onto the neck opening.  I picked up a stitch from the neck edge every other row, but when I re-do I will either:

A.  Pick up a stitch from the neck edge every 4th row

OR

B.  Knit the collar separately to a length I like and sew it to the neck edge, easing it in to make it fit.

I’m leaning toward “B.”

5 Comments

Posted in dyeing, knitting, tapestry, weaving

>‘Arwen Cardi’ gone awry, run amok….

Posted on March 23, 2009 | 7 comments

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I’m not going to talk about the ‘Arwen Cardi’ just yet…. First I want to talk about positive things!

My husband (Bob) and I just spent four days in Portland, Maine, which was a first for both of us. What a pretty city! We both thoroughly loved the Art Museum, and Bob enjoyed the Maine Boat Builders’ Show while I happily visited three yarn shops and a weaving shop! What a wonderful surprise for me to find that Tess’ Yarn has moved into a retail space in Portland. I was actually alone with owner and mother of Tess, Melinda, in the shop on Saturday afternoon after years of not being able to get anywhere near her wares in her booth at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival! And what did I do with that whole shop to myself??? I freaked….I completely shut down and could not choose a color. There was no way I was leaving that shop empty handed though, so I finally chose three skeins of neutral colored yarn as well as a pattern.portland shopping 3.09 007 In spite of my resolution not to buy any yarn or fiber this year, I felt I was contributing in the smallest way to keeping these wonderful local yarn shops in business by purchasing just a bit of yarn and some patterns and needles. Am I not a master of justification?

At Knitting Central I bought sock yarn, needles and a pattern for a moebius (“Omega Wrap” by Christina Bylsma). I actually left on this trip without a knitting project! I had just finished the most recent Swallowtail and the Arwen Cardi (more on that shortly) so I actually didn’t have anything quite handy, although I do have more UFOs than I can count in one lifetime…portland shopping 3.09 005

I am already beginning the toe decreases on this sock, and it feels like this sock materialized out of thin air because I did all the knitting during times when I don’t normally knit! I started it while walking around the Boat Builders’ Show. I continued while having coffee in a coffee shop, and I continued through the whole ride home on Sunday. I wasn’t as fast as when I’m not walking around, but I still accomplished most of a sock during times when I normally do nothing at all!

At KnitWits I bought two skeins of sock yarn: Regia’s Design Line Kaffe Fassett in color 4454 and Louet’s ‘Gems’ in eggplant. I will use these yarns to make the cover socks from The Eclectic Sole by Jane Laidman.Eclectic Sole portland shopping 3.09 006

I also bought two skeins of Louet sport weight linen in a lovely green that will someday become a shawl, probably the Icarus shawl by Miriam Felton.

Well, now I’ve shared all that good news, and I should begin to talk about my Arwen Cardi debacle. But I’m out of time! Until next time, suffice it to say that I wanted to wear it in Portland so I stayed up well after midnight into the wee hours of the day of departure to finish the collar I had designed and sew on the zipper. A quick trip to the large bathroom mirror at 2 am gave me a horrible shock! I need to photograph the Arwen nightmare in order for anyone to fully comprehend the problem, so I’ll do that shortly and report back!

7 Comments

Posted in knitting, yarn

>Almost Spring

Posted on March 12, 2009 | 5 comments

>Even though I don’t have any crocuses yet, I do have these houseplants that reward me every spring! This is a paphiopedilum, but I cannot read the name of the cross on the label.


And here is the first of about a dozen amaryllis coming into bloom. (I should have straightened up the kitchen table before taking this shot! Oh well….)

Today I will work on my Arwen Cardi and go to my tapestry class at Soyoo’s, so I expect to make some progress on the Hudson River tapestry, and maybe Rob as well!

Just on the heels of finishing the Swallowtail comes the new issue of Knitty! I’ve printed the directions for the Aeolian Shawl. Lovely!

5 Comments

Posted in gardening, knitting, spring

>Nuppdom

Posted on February 23, 2009 | 5 comments

>I spent the weekend deep in nupps on my current Swallowtail shawl. This is my third Swallowtail, and I was certain I had mastered nupps. On every right side row I diligently slowed down just enough to ensure that my ‘K1, YO, K1, YO, K1 in the next stitch’ was decidedly loose, so that on the next row I could more easily insert my needle for a P5 tog. Well, it’s still not a walk in the park for me to do that P5 tog… There are only 10 rows of it, but they are slow going, and I must be nearing 300 stitches on the needle where every 10th stitch is a nasty nupp!

Actually, I’ve finally graduated beyond ‘nasty nupps.’ They are just annoying nupps now! Oh, but I do love the little drooping lily of the valley blossoms they create! I hope to be blocking this shawl by tomorrow or Wed!

Look what came in the mail! Oh my! I’ve promised myself that I will divest myself of a great deal of Paternayan in order to add this treasure to my stash….

I am completely flumoxed about creating a design for some aspect of the Hudson River (to celebrate the quadricentennial). Although I do not like to be tied down to a subject, there is so much leeway here I can hardly say I’m being ‘forced’ into a particular design. I’m so frustrated I’m seriously considering just warping up and weaving with no cartoon. ….just to see what might happen. Obviously I want water and sky. This is not about not liking or caring about the Hudson River…I actually think it might be just the opposite. I’ve lived near the Hudson for most of my life now. I love the view of the Palisades that I see almost every week in my local travels.

Well, I can’t weave if I’m not warped, so I will at least get that done…..

5 Comments

Posted in knitting, tapestry, weaving

>By dribs and drabs

Posted on January 30, 2009 | 4 comments

>Slow progress on numerous things. I can never decide what to work on first….

You probably cannot imagine my excitement over weaving the first lens of Rob’s sunglasses! I doubt you can even tell in this photo! Even looking at the real tapestry, my husband could not quite tell what it is, but I know turned out well.

And this little project is probably my favorite right now. Quite addicting….


Something doled out in miserly amounts is provided in “dribs and drabs.” A drib is a smaller relative of a dribble. Nobody seems to be sure what a drab is in this sense, except that it’s a tiny bit larger than a drib.

4 Comments

Posted in knitting, weaving