Sometimes it works ... And sometimes not

Today's post has a potential frog, I've not fully decied to frog ... but I'm almost certainly leaning that way. Maybe I have decided and I just don't realize it yet?. To provide balance there is a project that will not be frogged, and in fact may lead to a second pair of socks from the left overs. And there is bread, because I'm making bread every few days and learning lots, and loving that my bread looks like the kind that is photographed as an example of what bread should be. And being as it is December, work draws to and end, marked as always our graduate student show (spot the knitting, and the beading ....). Another link here to the finale images, but sorry to highly commercial site that wants to sell you images, we subsidize the show by selling rights - the downside is that it becomes commercial). Plus I'm spinning, adding to my lifetime heard of wheels (just a little), and enjoying spring.

So is is the potential frog, a circular washcloth, pattern by Sara Lamb, published in November/December 2013 Piecework. I love the pattern, and the construction, I even love the yarn, a linen I was gifted some years ago. What I don't like is the way it is knitting up on 2.25 mm needles, I want a firmer gauge and I don't want to go down a needle size ... So that means frogging and finding a slightly thicker cotton yarn. Best to do that now ... With only a littl section worked.

It is an entirely different story with these socks, I love these. The local knitter who I copied the idea from asked if I was going to work the Dutch Heel. That sounded like a challenge, a knitting challenge, but I was working toe up not top down and unfamiliar with the finer construction and maths of the dutch heel. Enter the amazing hive mind of ravelry and I had enough help to complete the heel. Not only that but I love the fact that this heel has a rather long heel flap, and that the lower edge of the flap curves under the ball of the foot providing the double stitch layer for where sock wear happens most.

Getting past th heel means that the leg was quickly knit and now I'm working the contrasting cuff. Bear chose the yarn and I think had a more textured sock in mind, but I'm knitting the sock and I love the drama of the colour block toe and cuff. He seems to accept that and has admired the sock several times.

In th background there is some spinning, blue toned spinning, my favorite kind. The little wheel is a Phillip Poore Wendy, designed to be portable. The urban legend goes that this is a wheel one can spin on whilst a passenger in the front of a vintage VW bug. I dont have the opportunity to test that., so I can't possibly comment. I can't read while a passenger so I doubt spinning would work with me and my chemistry anyhow. The wheel is on a two year loan from a local spinner/knitter/raveler who is headed stateside for two years. I love it, it's a sweet wee wheel, I've already done some minor maintenance, changed the drive band to something finer, adjusted the angle of the conrod relative to the wheel weights, and played with the tension. This weel has a rather unique (different, odd, weird, wonderful?) tension system, it is a double drive but the bands are tightened by turning a wooden globe that in turn raises or lowers a copper hoop that both supports and encircles the flier and whorls. The threads that the wooden globe turns on are fine, allowing minute adjustment, but I'm forgetful so never remember if I'm turning clockwise or anti ... I'm still firmly in the learning loop here. I have to confess that two weeks ago I bid on one for myself on TradeMe, and after some frantic last minute bidding and the auction auto extending won a fine example for myself. It's in Wellington, so Bear and eldest cub are heading out to collect it on the 13th. My Christmas present.

The bread is improving every session, I'm getting better at shaping the loaves, and realize that despite the book saying it will only need a final rise of an hour or so ... I get a better crumb if I leave it for longer. I'm still playing with the technique from artisan bread in five minutes a day ....
And finally it spring, or has been so for a wee while, but now it's properly spring and things are blooming. I couldn't resist these at the market this weekend ...,pink peony's which have opened up amazingly since we plopped them in a vase in the living room.
Take care, more next week, na Stella

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That nagging feeling

Last night I frogged my lace knitting, I pulled the work from the needles and carefully frogged the last 11 rows of lace. I didn't do this lightly, for nine of the eleven rows something had been bothering me. I had that nagging knitting feeling.
Last Wednesday I worked the last of the small leaf repeats that make up the body of the Deciduous Shawl, then I started to work the Large Leaf boarder. I worked from the first edge to the central stitch and was greatly pleased to find that my stitch  count was perfect. Then worked the second half of the shawl and discovered that when I worked the decreases they lined up perfectly on on of the small leaf repeats. How odd I thought that had not happened when I knit the first side. So I put down my yarn and counted my way across the shawl - making sure I had worked according to the chart on the first row of the Large Leaf pattern. I suspected that I was a stitch or two out, that can happen sometimes with lace weight yarn, the yarn is so fine that two stitches cling together and trick me into thinking that they are one. I counted, and looked, and things seemed fine, so I decided I must have been mistaken and so I kept on knitting the chart. As I knit the rest of the chart there was an increasing sense of wonder that each row worked out perfectly, the decreases and eyelets all lined up with the first row - I was beginning to think that  maybe I was improving at this lace work, that I could read a chart and count and knit all at the same time.

On the left - my mistake, out by one stitch, on the right - well the right side of the shawl

Then as I finished working the eleventh row I realized that the leaves on the two halves of the shawl looked very different. The right of the image shows how the leaves looked on the right side of the shawl, when the large leaves were placed perfectly over the small leaves, and there was a perfectly positioned small leaf continuing up between each large leaf. The other side of the shawl was comparatively a mess, in that two strands of small leaves sort of mashed up into a hybrid leaf between the large leaves, and the large leaves were distorted. The distortion was a result of each large leaf not being centered over a trio of small leaves.I realized that not only was the lace not lined up but not being lined up was creating more mess than I imagined it would.
Each row that I knit confirmed in a small way that something was wrong with that one side of the shawl, and even more that the second side was perfect... and try as I might I could not continue to ignore it. I had visions of wearing the shawl and having to make sure that the 'perfect' side was always the one that that was wrapped on top so it would hide the imperfect side. I knew I could photographed and block the shawl and hide the mess from you all .. but I would know, and those who knit closer to home would know.

So I frogged, ripped it back, which is easy to say and type but much harder to do. Ripping took an entire evening, and had many moments where I wondered if I had stuffed up completely and would be frogging the entire thing. I carefully pulled out the knitting needles, carefully pulled back one row at at time until I was 9 rows back. Then I slid all the live stitches onto a needle, once safely parked I breathed a huge sigh of relief. At any point before that I was aware that had anything snagged the yarn, a loose movement of my hand, foot, cup-of-tea, or the cat, or the other end of the needle,  I would have had a sudden unravel of uncontrolled size and I didn't need that kind of drama. As worked from one end to the other making sure that all the stitches were oriented the right way, then I tinked the last 2 rounds one stitch at a time. At the end of the evening I was worn out, worn to a frazzle, but happy. I did one last transfer of stitches from right to left needle as I made sure that what I had matched the last row of the small lace chart perfectly.

The first time I knit the large leaf boarder it took two days, so the frogging and reknit will add 3 days work .. not much considering I cast on the day after Christmas and now we are in April.  Best think about all of this is that I had the Easter break to focus on fixing it, so I didn't have to abandon it and head out to work .... I had time to settle in and fix it.

Take care - hope your weekend knitting involves a lot less frogging and tinking than mine.
na Stella

Not just knitting

Hello, earlier today Bear asked me 'have you blogged recently?', I had to say not and explain that the things I had been doing and making were presents and I couldn't really blog them without giving the game away.Then I realised that while I have been busy making things that I really can't show here right now, I have been knitting - so I should blog -  just a little bit, and that there were other things that I could blog as well. There is a blanket nearly finished, a mindless washcloth sort of project in a lovely orange cotton linen garn (yes garn not yarn), and bookbinding as I prepare myself to teach bookbinding at Unwind. Bear has been tidying up, in preparation for painting the bathroom and as part of that I've been tidying up in a craft way, making things nice so they can be used. There was also a crafty day last Monday, where K and N generously shared their stamping and scrapbooking materials, and tools and expertise ... where they both introduced me to ink and paper and colour and shape and ... Ok yes I knew about stuff like that already I was just avoiding adding a new hobby. As a result of that crafty day I may have added stamps, artist grade pencils and stamp pads to my stash .... what can I say, but that I am easily lead astray and K and N did an excellent job leading a few of us further astray than we imagined we could be.

  Rosebuddie is nearly done, well as nearly done as having four of one hundred repeats of the edge lace done. I'm not sure if I'm like most knitters but once the end of a project is in sight I tend to focus on that project until it is done, something about being so close to done that it is quite exciting to see the work nearing completion. I had a wee moment when I misread the lace for the edging and repeated a [yo, k2] instead of just the [k2], which gave me an extra stitch, but once I'd sorted that out and amended my ways and knit the edge correctly there was no trouble at all with the stitch count. Funny how a single extra stitch can lead to all sorts of problems in a lace border.

My 'mindless' project right now is a washcloth, in Garn, a Danish yarn that is half cotton and half linen. I like this stuff and wish I could easily get more of it, the linen adds a little something to the cotton, so its not like knitting string and I know the linen will give this softenss and durability as it is used. The dusky orange isn't bad either.

My lino-cut frog stamp was used today, and appart from a little contamination or
dust somewhere it shouldn't be giving my frog a few warts (which frogs sometimes have) worked well. I may have to fine tune the shape of his hands  and head, and body and tummy and ... well the whole of him but that is part of the process just like knitting. He (or she) is a frog in progress and will eventually have the words knit -knit - frog and maybe even a yarn type border to edge them. I suspect my imagination runs ahead of my ability but without such goals then I'd never do anything. The pages sitting behind the frog are printed with a knit graph, in proportion to the width and height of a knit stitch - so ideal for recording knit projects.

The frog stamp may or may not be in this ... a knit journal that is covered in blank brown paper all ready to be customized. And yes - it really is covered in brown paper, the old fashioned parcel wrapping  kind. Part of me wants to add string and a tag ... but I've leave that to whomever ends up with the journal to do if they want.

One of the traditional gifts around here at Christmas is a tin of biscuits, in my childhood there was only one kind, a Sampler. A sampler tin had a wee stack of about 20 different biscuits, some chocolate coated, some with creme fillings and my personal favorite those candy pink creme filled wafers. About 20 years ago the tins seemed to change and were filled with an assortment of Danish biscuts, no cream fillings but lots of little buttery short biscuits in nice shapes sprinkled with sugar. Now-a-days (gosh I'm feeling old with words like now-a-days) the tins seemed to be themed, with the advertising critter of choice, in this case Cookie Bear. Now I like tins, and boxes, there is something nice about having tins and boxes to tidy things away into and keep things safe in and that fit little collections of tools and materials that are useful. This tin was a good size, slightly smaller than A4 and about 6 cm deep ... but Cookie bear had to go, I'm sorry he is cute but isn't really the style of tin I wanted to use.

So I found some frog wrapping paper, white pva glue, craft knife, and spent a few hours transforming the tin into one I could live with. A few layers of water based sealant and look, a tin I'm happy to use. I even covered the 'nutritional information' printed on the base of the tin with brown paper. I learned a few things, like trimming paper whilst it is still wet with glue is not a good idea, and not to panic if bubbles form as they disappear as the glue dries. And that like decoupage - with a few applications of a clear sealant all sort of little rough bits are smoothed away.

Don't worry, I'm still a Knitter, and not likely to stop any time soon, the things here are things that enhanced the knitting, not replace it.

take care ... back soon, with knitting,  promise.

na Stella

Hello 2012

A new year, new post, and new projects. Its 2012, and has been for some 12 hours - and in the spirit of things new we spent yesterday tidying up ready for the new year. Of course I know that the whole date thing is an arbitrary notion which helps humans to structure their lives and one 'day' is no more significant than another day, but there is something about a new year. I'm not one for New Years resolutions, that was a tradition that wasn't practiced in my family, New Years resolutions were some sort of a comedy that was enacted every year on tv, and in print as people told stories of how they tried to reform and change and how doing so was not as easy as it should be. So for us, New Year continues with catching up with family and friends, people that are important to us for a variety of reasons. In doing so we have opportunity to acknowledge the truly important things in our lives, each other, good friends, our good fortune in terms of health and  economics that we live in a place where living is good. Good is of course relative, for us that means we have reasonable health, access to good reliable care should something go wrong, enough to eat, educational opportunities, freedom of association, access to communication, and time to partake in the things that we find relaxing and enjoyable.

For me that includes knitting, this year there were 28 knitted projects (filed under 2011 in my Ravelry projects tab), eight pairs of socks, two and a bit hats, four blankets, three  washcloths, five hot water covers, 3 or so pairs of wristers, a linen basket liner, mittens, and I learned to make books and felt room-shoes. I contributed 3 articles to Entangled, a review or two to Context, and taught at KAN and Handmade . And as fits a knitter with time away from work - I cast on for new projects so the year would end with things on the needles.

Rosebuddie - Chart D starts

Deciduous Lace Shawl

Christmas Day I cast on a new baby blanket, Rosebuddie by Anne Hanson. I'm living dangerously with this one, as the pattern calls for 1000 - 1650 yards (914 - 1509 m) and I have 160g of 2 ply hand spun Perendale that is some where around 850m. I've compensated a little by knitting the smaller size, so fewer repeats of some of the lace charts, and by using slightly smaller needles. 3.25mm rather than 3.5mm. My plan is to put in a life line once I am about to start the edge lace and then find a compatible yarn to use for the border if I don't have enough of this to finish.

There was another project cast on shortly after Christmas, Deciduous Lace shawl by Evelyn Clark. I'm a 'newish' lace knitter, and so I tossed up between knitting E Clarks Deciduous and her Icelandic Poppy Lace. Deciduous won as it is the simpler of the two lace patterns, repeating over only four rows and with the even numbered rows knit plain. The yarn is a local one, Touch yarns 2 ply Lace weight with Mohair, dyed a deep brown green. So far so good but I have to pay attention to this one as I knit it .... the yarn is so fine and the lace so small.

Frogging ....

Then because I wasn't working and we had some time at home, I played. I've been admiring the decorative devices that some bookbinders use to identify their books, and I've been admiring the rustic wood-cut inspired stamps that are used by some craftspeople. After a while of admiring - there comes a time when I get tempted to try for myself. So I  tried to carve a frog ..... in lino. My modest goal is to come up with something I'd be happy to print as a 'signature' as a frontispiece in the books I bind. The other family members are also playing, Bear is working in the garage, Elder cub is modeling planes, and younger cub is knitting a doll.

Take care - I hope that the new year is rewarding, and fun and has as little stress as it can, and that there is time and energy for hand knitting and what ever interests appeal.

all the best for 2012
na Stella

Procrasti-knit-ion

I got 'knitting buddies'!, I meet a fellow knit blogger, Tanya, her friend Kelly and one other last wednesday. And we knit and caught up on life - it was great. Tanya posted a querry about dunedin, nz knitters on KR forums, and it all just followed.


I realised that i suffer from procrasti-knit-ion, when its all to much, when there is a problem or a deadline i just want to slink away and knit. Yet when it is the knitting that is the problem, i dont want to work with it, I just ignore it.

Tuesday I stopped procrastin-knitting and knit, or rather I frogged, big time. The least flattering powder blue cabled cardigan in the world became shorter and neater. I snipped a yarn just at the waist, then tinked back one stitch at a time. Blue cable had been washed so the yarn loops were stable, some I picked up with a fine needle before I unlaced the yarn, some I picked up after they were free of yarn - both worked equally well. Then I had this, a surreal image of a cardie divided, split into two. I must admit to being very calm about this, I guess the sweater is so un-flattering I have little invested in its sucess so its destruction does not bother me.




The yarn, a pure wool, has set into tight crinkles, so once I frogged the lower section I tied it into a hank and soaked it over night in warm water, then rinsed and have blotted dry and hung up to dry in a sunny warm room.


So what does cable cardie look like waist length, - well like this on a dress form and further down like this on me.I tried to do the image of me with a head and in the mirror, but .... I didn't like any of them. This shows the cardie in its true colour, pale powder blue, and I admit to liking this waist proportion - a little like a vintage leather jacket. This one was knit to an EZ formulae, for saddle soulders, the sleeve cable runs right up these, and worked great.


First the mirror I used was in 4 year old Poppys room and covered in finger marks. Its an oval mirror set into the door of a 1900's oak wardrobe. We have the joy of living in a house with no built in wardrobes, but lots of hall closets. I do clean house, I do sweep, vacume, dust and polish - but I obviously have not done her mirror in a long long long time. So I cleaned the mirror, and from photo shoot number 2 these two are the 'best', a great one of the cardi, and one of the few where my face was not behind the camera, I actually had my eyes open :-). Sorry about the darkness.





...and today, Michael from work, the man who understands computer networks, came and visited me at home, on Saturday, and a long weekend, but he took time to make my work windows laptop speak to my home mac wireless network. This was great, Michael is not a mac man. So what you ask, now I can knit, surf, drink g&t, and watch ER, all from or on the couch at the same time, and then I can send what i find to print with no cables. How cool is that? It might even make blogging more frequent, as I won't have to share the mac with the man who now has longer finished socks (sock pictures soon). I do wish work used macs, but if that is my only moan then life is sweet.