One done - one to go

Sleeves that is, look! Toby has a sleeve, just one, but a sleeve all the same. Finished all the way to the wrist and bound off. This is pretty much my knitting total for the week .. one of those weeks really, yes again. Work got in the way, again. I 'winged' the end of the sleeve, making decisions as I had to with not much of a forward plan, and it seems to have worked. I worked a few rounds of garter in the round at the end ... and it looked good but where the cable ended it flared in a girlie way....

...so I frogged back the garter rounds to the last cable cross and closed the cable off. I'm sure there is a name for it but I don't know it. Let me know if you have a name for this technique. It is where instead of working a standard cable cross you work instead a variation of a 3 needle bind off. So I for my 4 stitch cable (2 stitches crossing 2 stitches) I knit stitch 1 together with stitch 3, and stitch 2 with stitch 4. End result was the four cable stitches were neatly reduced to 2, the cable appeared crossed .. and the flare was gone, the cable simply stops. Then I worked 4 rounds of garter stitch -- and perhaps that should have been on smaller needles, for there is a little flare but not a girlie flare .. as I work sleeve two and consider more sleeve one .. there may yet be frogging and smaller needles ... we will see.


And Bayerische ... yes, Bayerische nears one of those landmark points, I'm only one repeat away from where I narrow the leg under the calf. Just being that close is enough to spur me to spend more time working on this. In my mind that is half way down the leg and there are fewer stitches once I've decreased away the extra eight stitches .. so my progress speed with increase. Wishful thinking or positive thinking? In truth probably both :-)

ok ... slight progress but progress all the same
na Stella

Fitting it all in

isn't easy sometimes. Winter seems to make it even more tricky to fit it all in. I usually post Wednesdays .. but last week, well there wasn't much to show, and there wasn't much light or time to make photos in. Thursday I felt guilty for not managing to post but wanted to go to knit night ... Friday was busy (ok personal choice I went to two film festival movies, once with my students, and to a different one after school with the cubs). .. and then it seemed odd to post on Saturday when Sunday was Bog update day. So here we are, Sunday afternoon, a light, sunny calm winter day in Dunedin, the doors and windows are open and without a breeze its not so cold. Truly its the wind that makes it cold here .. the sun does its bit, and without the wind .. well its quite comfortable in shirtsleeves. Today, there is knitting, a new project of sorts, and spinning, two skeins done, and some practice - because practice makes perfect, or at least goes a long way towards seeing improvement.


First up I've been knitting on TJB's gansey this week, the sleeve, the first sleeve, and it grows. I've been storing the gansey in a little cute plastic basket - I think it was produced to hold peg. We have a family of 4, and we do laundry on the weekends, and a little basket like this - well it wouldn't hold enough pegs for two loads of laundry let alone a whole line full. This little basket is cute, and is portable. The Gansey grew to big for my project bags long ago .. and well with dpns for the sleeve it needed something more open that I could easily fold it into along side its cone of yarn.


The little basket may look neat and contained .. but it holds a lot of knitting - see?


At 30cm I started the decreases, my usual sleeve decreases. I decrease every 4th round, four decrease points positioned at quarters around the sleeve. I'm not a fan of the standard underarm decrease - and one of the benefits of knitting in the round is its easier to position decreases where they feel right. Another 9 decrease rounds and I will have to make some decision on the cuff .. Knit Night suggestions included repeating the garter rib on the body hem .. and that is what I probably will do. I used the yarn double at the body hem .. and wonder if I can do the same, or should do the same for the sleeves. Toby, like most kids, grow out of rather than wearing out of his clothes .. so its not durability for him, but perhaps for some future kids who is part of the pass-it-on chain.


My new knitting project is blanket squares, for Operation Cover Up. This is an excellent method of stash busting, especially all that early Mill yarn and early spinning fiber that I bought and spun 'because' it was cheap .. and now don't know what to do with. I had clear out of my yarn drawers .. and after this photo a clear out of my hand spun stash .. and have lots to knit up. So far I've worked a standard 40st by 40 rows garter square, I'm working on a 80 st mitered garter square, I want to do one of these starting with 3 stitches and increasing (just because I can), and I want to play with some log cabin variations. I'm having fun playing with stripes and even considering garter instarsia one ...which could be cute or drive me crazy or both.



And both spinning wheels in the living room were freed up this week, this gorgeous deep ruby coloured half breed wool and silk blend from The Little Wool Company was spun on the Grace. My first real play with scotch tension spinning .. I heard that scotch tension systems were fiddly and tended to need a lot of adjustment. One of the reasons I bought the Grace was because I had good recommendations from several spinners that Mike made a scotch tension wheel that didn't need constant adjustments. I also bought it because it was so so pretty and new not old- I'm terrified that my vintage wheels will one day wear out. I'm fairly pleased with this, the scotch tension worked just fine, hardly any adjustment needed, the yarn looks stringy - but its a two ply, with silk and they never look plump unless the wool is very very crimpy. I'm thinking a Koolhaas for Poppy, for next winter ... maybe. She has acquired my Odessa on a seemingly permanent basis, and its looking the worse for the wear a 7 year old has given it.


And the other wheel in the lounge was freed up when I finished this Blue Gotland. I spun it on the Wing, but plied it on the Pipy as the Pipy has much larger bobbins so I get longer skeins that way. This yarn is a lot more bouncy ...even more than in this image, after I washed the skein to set and fluff it up some. This is going to be a blanket for Pip's baby boy. I must be having a bit of a JF moment as I'm tempted to knit a Hemlock Ring blanket but I don't have enough yarn, I've got 419m of what is most likely an Aran/DK weight yarn, I need 548m. I do have a dark grey gotland hand spun in similar weight .. so I need to decide if Hemlock would look ok if with a darker outer section .. or if I should knit a square garter with a lace boarder or a pie shawl .... all the fun of deciding but not until the gansey is done.




Its not knitting but I've been practicing with my tambour hook, which seems to have paid off. Now I'm a lot more in control of the little sharp needle hook .. I can pretty much keep the thread from slipping out of the hook when I make a stitch .. and I can change direction without getting snagged or tangled.

and my stitches are more even .. look! The little group of knitters that went to the workshop are currently passing around a copy of A Common Thread. Bear and I watched that last night, Claire, the main character is an embroiderer, seeking employment that uses her talents, and when she finds work with an experienced tambourist (is that a word?) the camera pans lovingly over the work Claire and her employer work on. The sun dapples, the sequins sparkle, the needle work just looks beautiful - beautiful work. I'm not in that league .. but I can dream. The other movies I saw this week were The September Issue, and Coraline. Coraline was described in the film festival as a true horror film for kids .. and because I'm such a weird mum at times .. well I wanted to counteract the really really weak plots on tv that is provided for kids we went, 7 year old and all. It was good, both kids handled the scare factor ok ... and there was plenty there for me. The September Issue was a good counter to the Devil Wears Prada movie ... if you saw that you probably should balance the books by seeing this.

so .. my week in review,
and the sun is still shining .. but it is cooling down .. so I'm off to take the washing off the line before it gets damp again.
na Stella

Hard work ...

this learning new things. But good for me, you see when you teach .. its good to be reminded how hard it can be to learn new things, very good, that makes me a more patient teacher. This weekend I spent two hard days being a novice again, and not only that but a novice that found learning a new skill not as easy as expected. A frustrated novice. That meant that I had to spend some time knitting, doing something that gave me peace and control .. so there is a sock with some progress and the gansey grows its first sleeve (with a tiny bit of frogging) .

So - Tambour work, a kind of embroidery more akin to crochet than embroidery worked using a threaded needle. The fabric is stretched tight as a drum in an embroidery hoop and a special hooked needle used to loop up thread from the underside of the work. The workshop was specifically on Tambour Beading ... but first we had to learn to make the chain stitch successfully ... harder than it looks. Once had to tension the thread, draw forward a chain loop, insert the hook in such a way the little sharp barb slides thru the tight fabric rotate the hook, wrap the thread around the hook ... and smoothly draw the needle and new thread loop thru the fabric and the old thread loop without snagging anything ... or loosing the loops. The explanation is wordy ... the actions are even trickier. I swear that the way you sit, the position of your eyebrows .. and the frame of mind you are in all affect the success of that little operation. So by end of day one ... I could sort of consistently draw a loop from the underside ... sort of, well to be honest actually not consistently at all, there were loops and tangles and oftentimes a snag that resulted in half an hours work pulling undone. Chain stitch is like that - one snag and its unraveled before your eyes - yes you can frog your work as easily as knitting. But by day two much more consistent chain stitches were being formed by the whole class. Look I was even feeling enough control to manage a spiral! When it works its like a smooth coordinated dance of hand and thread and needle ... just like knitting!

After day one ... I had to work something soothing .. something that I was totally in control off. So Bayerische came out of the WIP basket and I worked another complete chart repeat. Progress at last ... and a feeling that I could do this (even if Tambour had me in a muddle).


Day two and back to Tambour, the 'right' side of the work depends on what you want ...if you want chain stitches .. you work on the right side ... if you want beads .. well that is trickier. Beads and sequins are applied and stitched into place on the underside of the fabric .. that is right .. no looking at what you are doing. This I failed at miserably on day one, completely .. I thought I could .. I thought I was ready, but when I swung my hoop around I'd find 3 beads ... 7 bead less stitches and then a bead ... or 2. Not good for my moral - at all. Day two I resorted to practicing and mastering the fundamental stitch .. the elusive chain stitch. I vowed not to try to bead until my chains were consistent.

And after lunch .. well I felt more in control and was able to successfully attach beads. OK bugle beads ... apparently the easiest to work with .. but I could do it. Those lines of longer chains - thats the working side, the one I was looking at .. down here in the next image is the underside ... what I couldn't see as I was applying the beads and sequins.

On The right side of the fabric .. well I still have a bit to master, like straight lines and spacing .. and evenness .. but its a start, and after 9 hours of tutition I'm happy with this small progress. I know how hard it was .. so I'm very happy.


During the week and the evenings Toby's gansey plodded along in the background ... I finished both saddle shoulders and started working a sleeve. I love the way the yoke knit and purl work pulls in the yoke, and creates and armscye curve.

And how the saddle shoulder lengthens the shoulder and forms a shoulder shaped curve ... just where its needed. For a garment knit as a square, with no increase or decrease shaping ... its pretty cool how a body shape can be created by knit and purl stitches pulling and working in tension together to distort the fabric.

So I've repeated some of the elements from the yoke at the top of the sleeve .. and continued the cable down the sleeve. I didn't initially do that but 3 cm of plain sleeve ... well it seemed lacking some thing .. and my sketch had the cable continuing. So I backed up (frogged) and reknit ... and am much happier.

so I'm... tired and with not a lot to show for 10 hours of learning,
and happy I can already knit .. imagine if I was learning that all over again?
It would probably be as slow :-)
na Stella

2nd time around

Today, the gansey grows again - and yes it is easier the second time around knitting the same thing. This time I've been able to plan a bit more and the strap is working out even better. Thanks for all the comments, and 'been there' thoughts after last weeks post, I know I'm not alone. Plus I've got a new sock kit ... and distracted by a comment and a loose plan, then there is the weekends distractions to think about.

So the gansey shoulder strap is under way (again), this time I measured it twice, once by row and once again using a tape measure... that is what I should have done the first time around but neglected to do. I suspect that there is no mystery to row gauge ... it is a matter of checking not only the calculations but the actual fabric as it is knit. Problem is, once I've done the working out, I tend to power ahead and knit, assuming that the workings are correct .. despite an early career in an engineering office working with 'as-built' plans and all the issues that are created when the as-builts differ markedly from the plan. In the intervening 60 or so yoke rows I did come up with a more attractive shoulder strap stitch pattern .. this time I'm working the cable from the side of the gansey, and adding a little mini-repeat of one of the front sections. .


Late last week the latest VP sock club kit arrived, knee high colour work socks. I love them .. but I'm not sure when I will knit them. Recently I had a clear out of my Ravelry queue ... and that seemed a good place to order and rank what I want to make next. The result is I do have some things I want to make, and some things I want to wear, and even some things I want to give away .... but - well - I'm honestly not sure what the next thing will be that I cast on. I'm thinking the queue is a great idea ... but I'd like the next thing to be a little spontaneous ... random ... something that is 'now', and me, and just what I need after Bayerische and the gansey and all the charts that they encompass.

Three of us, M, J and I are the team organizing the local Creative Fiber Open day. Its in September, so pop the 19th in your diary , and if you are in or near Dunedin ... call in and visit. As part of that we wondered what we could offer that would be new and different .. and settled on a few taster snippet classes. 10-15 minute sessions that would be repeated and just introduce people to ways of working with fiber they might not already know. M .. all casual suggested a Hackle, for hackle blending .. but said we would need to make one. Well ... after looking up hackles on line, plastic afro combs?... and a nights sleeping and thinking how I didn't want to buy 10 or more packets of afro combs ... I ended up at the hardware shop, and then with two little wood working elves spent the morning making myself a hackle. It works , surprisingly well .. Bear looked it over and suggested some improvements, if my helpers had not been both under 11 .. well I would have used power tools and it might be more robust. Bear is keen to make another, a 'nicer one', ... and it would be nice if it was more sturdy, as I've no idea how long this one will last.

And this weekends distractions? Well Saturday and Sunday, I'm off to a two day Tambour beading workshop, I've sourced my beads and my tambour hook, dusted off my embroidery frames and hoops, and stand, collected up my little sharp scissors and other required bits and pieces ... and I'm ready to go. I've even collected up a little group of like minded souls from work and from knitting and spinning .. so it looks like it should be fun. Next week is back to work week, and all that entails (tidying up after the last semester .. students marks and those that need attention) ... so the workshop is a nice way to finish my last weekend off before it all starts again.

take care, knit something fun,
na Stella

Bother ...

and other such words ..
bother
Bother
BOTHER!!

I knit it wrong .. and an optimist would say - well I'll worked out how to knit it for the next time :-)
A pessimist would say - lots of really rude words
I'm not sure which I am but I know I'm a knitter, so I'll frog and say bother and mutter under my breath about row gauge.
You see I don't do row gauge ... I have some fundamental stumbling block with it... Oh I know row gauge is just stitch gauge turned around and I've well and truly mastered stitch gauge. I'm forever re gauging patterns to work with the yarns and needles I like to use not those the designer specified. But row gauge ... now that one trips me up repeatedly.
so today there is a frog forecast ... imminent frogging will commence right after this post.


Bear and I went away for the weekend, sans cubs. That wasn't the plan .. we planned to all stay in a cute as a button cottage in Clyde with the cubs, a whole house for us for the weekend .. some family time away. But my dad, their Granddad whisked the cubs off for a week of farm sales and visiting my brother (Uncle Andy) - so Bear and I were on our own. We went, I took knitting Bayerische and TJB's Gansey .. and some sock yarn just in case. We stayed here Dunstan Cottage a cute as a button restored old Bungalow in the New Zealand tradition. Old furniture, soft comfy beds, warm log burner and a cute well outfitted vintage kitchen ... all we could wish for. Just before we went the gansey looked like this, I had frogged back the gusset, re-charted the gusset with increases every 3rd round .. and begun to knit the gusset again.


While we were away I knitted in the 'sunroom' bedroom, a cute little warm snug light room kitted out with a polished floor, a sofa and a single bed, french doors onto a slightly snow coated deck. It was delightful, lovely, we had steaming hot mulled wine in the local, and went for brisk frosty walks all warm in our knitted scarves, hats, mitts and socks. We heard the roar of motor bikes and watched a score or more of leather clad bikers arrive in town, and heard them roar away out of town the next morning (Ngaire were you one of them? I looked for beautiful long blonde hair under one of those dark helmets but didn't see you). Plus I knit a lot, I knit to the top of the gusset, I brought along my BBR book, and my calculator, and did all the maths to work out the yoke shaping. I checked the maths, twice, I saw that row gauge was required so one could accurately plan where to knit the back and front to and keep the pattern repeats intact and attractive. I did the measuring and the maths. I worked out that after the gusset I needed to knit to the 58th row on the front and the 68th row on the back to make it longer, before dividing the front and back into shoulder and neck line stitches and adding the shaped gussetted shoulder strap. The gusset shaping ended on row 41 ... I even worked out so that my set up gansey change pattern rows would all be on the right side where I could see what I was doing ... I was feeling pride .. a sense of planning and accomplishment ... you all know pride goeth before a fall don't you?

Well I fell, the front yoke looked short, so I checked my maths, work to row 58 .. yup its short but there is the extra length of the strap. I worked the back, yes it still looked short, so I checked my maths, work until row 68 .. and the strap will add some length. So take out the BBR book and follow the gusseted neckline strap instructions .. adding a few stitches because my gauge is finer than her sample ... work all the rows to shape the gusset, converting Beths instructions to allow for my extra stitches, then work the left shoulder strap. Gosh that looks tiny, a teeny tiny armhole .. check the maths again .. light dawned ...slowely it for it was not a sudden light bulb moment, it was more of a dawning awareness of my error.
I needed to work 58 rows after the gusset ... not 58 rows including the 41 gusset shaping rows!
Yes ... I could have trusted my tape measure .. it should have measured 14 or so cm ... and I didn't even think to check by measuring the yoke ... I just kept checking the maths.

And that is crystalline snow .. some did get on the gansey ... but its made of wool and it will survive .. so will my pride. And now I know how to work the shoulder strap with the neckline gussets to shape the unshaped neckline ... I've got the maths all done (but I'll be checking it)

So on the way home I bought me some fiber ... hand dyed merino by Lindy Chinnery who weaves beautiful things at the Textile Emporium and Weaving studio in Lawrence. I think I needed it :-)

na Stella

only a few rows ...

Today there are only a few more rounds on TJB's gansey, but significant rounds, I've been on leave and childless so far this week, and I would have expected more progress ... but I've been a sloth and distracted. I'm still distracted and things are taking longer than expected ... my parents used to say things would take three times longer than you expect they will ... and you know... they were right. So today there is only a little to show and tell and share.


So the gansey grows and shrinks, yes there was frogging. I had my chart all worked out, and I was ready to start the gusset ... but some how I had not thought thru all the details. Last night I stopped knitting at round 19. This morning I decided that the chart really needed to show the pattern repeats beyond row 19 so I sat down to add a few more chart repeats to the excel file. Well .. some hours latter I finally had it done, all the symbols in place using a free knitting font, all the repeats sorted, and printed of at a size that I could read but also that fitted on a single page. So far so good ... I've even planned the gusset increases so that I will finish with the patterning all worked on a row that is easy to work flat (I think - I've got my fingers crossed as I may have over thought it and got it wrong). But in doing all that I worked out how the gusset increase could be neater as it grows from the 3 stitch seed stitch side seam .. so I've frogged back to round 14, and worked back up again. It is true what they say ... the second time is easier.

One reason I didn't knit as much as I planned I would was that I was busy making more project bags ... lots of them in pretty pretty fabrics. With the cubs off at my dads for the week, and me on leave it seemed a good time to take over the dining room and make a fabric mess. And I enjoyed spreading my stuff out and not having to tidy up for others.

It all takes time, of course there is the cutting and measuring and marking, and sewing and pressing, and attaching the labels, but all the other little things like threading thru the ribbon, well even choosing and matching and cutting the ribbons. It all takes time.

And somehow this skein followed me home ... its an un-named VP sock skein ... perfect for boy-cubs and Bears. Although with little progress on Bayerische ... well it might be a while before other socks happen. We are away for the weekend, to a cottage in Clyde, again sans cubs ... so I'm expecting a lot of winter walks, a few cafe wines and a whole lot of knitting by the fire. I have not broached the subject of taking a wheel with Bear .. but he is easy going -- after all he will take tripods and cameras and things to read and listen to.
Another thing that has been distracting me is Tambour or Zari embroidery. I've signed up for a two day workshop to learn Tambour Beading, and I've been doing a little searching around. I've not found much ... but I did find a series of Indian videos showing Zari embroidery with an English explanation. I've not found much out there on how to Tambour (or Zari), so if you have any suggestions as to where to look - do tell.
I've been putting together my workshop kit, sourced a Tambour needle and holder, chosen and ordered thread and beads, I've bought some gold silk organza, and dug out my embroidery hoops and located the embroidery stand that holds a hoop leaving both hands free to work. Looking at the video I wonder if I should use a square frame instead of a hoop, I've got one of those as well, but I'm not sure where its stand is.

so I'm still on leave and knitting and smiling... and making progress :-)
na Stella

and wait ... there is more ...

Today, Toby's gansey grows a little more, I've been knitting more wristers from homespun, so two finished objects, my Dad visted for the weekend so another wheel joins my flock.

Toby's gansey, I held of the next stage of working this, knowing I had to finish the chart, and flip it so I had a left and right version. I was in the weird knitting place that we all back ourselves into sometimes, you know that corner, with wet paint on the floor, or the knitters equivalent where every single project has chart and magnetic chart keepers marking the row to be knit, and you have no simple take to knit night knitting. Saturday night I decided I had to make some progress ... so I copied and pasted and transposed the chart, and printed it off and began the patterned yoke of the gansey. Turns out it was one of those things that seemed more exacting than it was ... after a little back wards and forwards juggling of the set up round to make sure the central section was exactly in the center, not 2 stitches off, and judicious or overly zealous use of stitch markers ... I'm knitting away and its going well.



Wristers, little knit tubes that span the gap from sleeve cuff to mitten, described by Robin Hansan in Favorite Mittens as being important in cold cold places like Maine. Well they also do duty as a simple form of Mitt. I had 34 g of this Alpaca Silk Merino hand-spun to make use of, it was so pretty I didn't want it to be left overs in the stash. These are little ribbed mitts with a lace pattern by Norah Gaughan, one used in the Lace Ribbed Pullover in A Gathering of Lace. The top of the mitt has 3 sets of yarn over lace panels, and so spreads a little, just the right shaping for the knuckles, and the tangled cable twists pull the mitt in at the wrist.


These were a quick knit, only a few hours, so last night I found some hand spun and whipped up a longer thicker pair for Bear.I'm not sure which pair I like best the finer fingering ones or the thicker longer petrol blue Aran weight ones.


My dad came to visit, he is a pretty good dad, Oh as kids there was the perpetual embarrassment that our car was the oldest pale blue station wagon ever, when every one else had a newer and flasher car. But he was and remains a pretty good dad. He always had his interests, there was always a motor in pieces being restored, always a swap meet or a rumor of a sale where parts for an engine of interest might be found. And now he is retired he has his collection of full sized farm tractors, and rotary hoes, and Bedford trucks and the odd 4WD (all vintage of course). I do recall my hesitation on bringing boys home, especially the ones from families with no hobbies, the ones who's dads were accountants or gift shop owners, how would they react to a back yard full of cars up on blocks, and engines under tarpaulins, or engines in mid dissemblance or re-assembly in cardboard boxes in the living room? Bear survived the test ...he would sit for hours chatting with Dad about which engine configuration a particular model of car or bike or truck had. As dad rightly pointed out, the lounge was warm, it was where the fire was, there was nothing on tv, and if he ground the valves in the lounge at night .. well it was nicer than being in the cold garage at night and he could keep an eye out on the kids once they were in bed. Dad was a solo parent to a 14, 13 and 7 year old, and worked full time, and he probably needed his hobbies.

Why am I telling you this? Because my dad understands hobbies, how invasive and important they are ... and bless his heart he listens and notices and keeps an eye out. So Dad came to visit this weekend, and with him he brought a spinning wheel. A Nagy by Woodspin .. bought for $15 at a garage (yard?) sale a few weeks ago. Its beautiful, and works and while I don't need another wheel, I love that he found it for me, and that it is complete and it runs beautifully. Its an early birthday prezzie.
So Sunday I spent working on two wheels, the Pipy I had offered to get working and the newly arrived Nagy.

I scraped and pulled and tore the old carpet which had been glued onto the treadle. Rubbed both wheels over with nylon scrubbing 'steel' wool, and linseed oil to restore the varnish, soaked all the metal moving parts in turps, and scrubbed them with an old tooth brush to remove the build up of lanolin and wheel oil, and cut off all the singles wound onto the bobbins, and the old dusty leaders, and all dug out all the fiber caught around the axles and spindles and other moving parts. Now that is a big part of sprucing up a wheel - digging out all the old oil and fiber caught in the moving parts.

I've waxed all the wood parts that need to slide and move. I've oiled the moving parts, and tied on new drive bands. I tried to set the Nagy up as a double drive .. but couldn't get it to draw in so its a scotch tension. And now it looks and runs beautifully, smooth and sure.

The Woodspin Nagys were not made by the original Mr Nagy, it was probably made my Mr Cottier ... but this one seems beautifully made .. look at the brass nut and the little curved metal peice connecting to the wooden conrod. All five bobbins are there, the scotch tension knob and the orifice hook ... its a lovely wheel.

Now if I could only work out where it can sit in my increasingly small house ... amongst my other three wheels ... and the knitting, and the stash and the books .....

take care
Stella