Again so close .. and yet....

not there yet. As usual in the final throws of a project, I've become quite project monogamous, working solely on Bayerische. I think I'm on my last repeat of the pattern across the instep before decreasing away 12 or so stitches and working the toe. You might have noticed I've frogged the toe on the first sock, as that sock is too long ... for my foot. The foot of Bayerische is knit until a complete pattern repeat before decreasing out 12 stitches in pattern so the toe doesn't flare once the twisted traveling stitch pattern ceases. Problem is a complete pattern repeat is around 1.5 inches, and for me I needed to stop knitting well before the pattern repeat was done. I need to remove at least one inch of the foot, maybe more - when I tried these on with shoes ... it was clear the sock foot was too long. Having already knit a toe ... I understand what the decreases are doing and I'm sure I can work the 12 decreases into the pattern on whatever round I need to.

I've had a good few days at work so far this week, I don't know if anything is sorted but I know what I think and have accepted there are different practices and approaches (even if mine is the better for lots of reasons). Like many academics I tend to feel most problems can be solved by ordering a few good books, partly as evidence to back up an argument, but also to check in with current practices. So that is what I've been doing. Berg had a summer sale and I was able to pick up 5 titles for 5 GBP each (sorry can't find the pound symbol only the dollar sign) each, then I decided that there was a gap in my library around different approaches to draping for design so I went on a bit of a splurge. End result I've got Draping : Art and Craft in Fashion Design by Annette Duburg & Rixt van der Tol coming from Germany, it looks wonderful, and two others (Building Patterns by Suzy Furrer & the School of Subtraction Cutting by Julian Roberts) coming from the Center for Pattern Design(CPD). Ed, at the CPD has been great, even to the point of checking out the weather and time zone difference between where he is and where I am. Plus I have a second hand copy of Draping for Fashion Design by Hilde-Jaffe and Nurie Relis
coming from Amazon - gotta love the prices of those second hand books. I'm sure nothing fundamental has changed since I learned how to drape - but there are always fresh approaches and different methodologies to try.

so that is me, checking the mail box, although It will be next week before any arrive, 8-14 days international shipping, in the meanwhile I'll be knitting the same socks as I have been for the past 100+ days .. and taking it easy
na Stella

Turned!

Yup - Sunday night knitting was good, so good in fact that the
heel has been turned and the gusset is working its merry way away :-)


Well, no its not working itself, I'm working it .. but we are onto the sole of the sock now, the sole ....the sole, this sock has sole.

and you know what is after the sole?
the toe!

na Stella (smiling and knitting)

Spring?

Well, it feels like spring, its not late September .. but it is warm, sunny, we have lots of windows open, and we ate lunch outside, the kids are in tee shirt sleeves, unofficially to me its spring. I also know this because for the second weekend in a row we have aired the house and cleaned under and behind and in those places that usually get ignored. Spring cleaning. I know also because Bear has been working in the garden, cutting the grass, clearing weeds and wanting to buy new plants. Spring it is, it must be, and I'm still knitting, stitching as well but mostly knitting. Today I am so close to the heel of Bayerische, so close, Hemlock Ring grows as only center out blankets can ... increasingly slowly, and I got sidetracked by some lovely vintage wool fabric into making a pinafore dress for Poppy.

First Bayerische, these are starting to feel like the never ending socks, I know they grow longer, and that each night I work on them is a pattern repeat done ... but gosh - they seem to have been on the needles f-o-r-e-v-e-r. In reality I started knitting these on May the 12th ... making it only a little more than 3 months, 103 days to be precise ... which is a long time to be knitting the same pair of socks. For me that is .. socks are usually quick little numbers that take only a month and a half at best. Some one, any one please stop me if I cast on for a knee length fiddly chart driven sock after I'm done .. only joking ... the masochist in me is thinking of knee high colour work socks ... just kidding (I think). I do need a few more pairs of shorter socks - two pairs ran wore out earlier this year ... and when I go to my sock draw too many days after wash day .. sometimes it is bare of hand knit socks. Truth is I've cast on 10 other projects since starting Bayerische .. and finished 9 of them.


The other project is growing both fast and slowly, Hemlock Ring, fast because there is pattern work every 5th round, slow because the stitch count is getting higher and higher with every 5th round. I'm at line 41 of the Feather and Fan section, so that means I'm on my 88th round, There are 122 rounds in total, but because of the every increasing numbers of stitches ... I'm not even half way there. I have 312 stitchs right now,, which takes a lot longer to knit around than the 8 I started with, the cast off round has 568 - longer still. There was a little frogging earlier on, I had tried to knit without section markers .. which was not a good idea, so I frogged and reknit with markers in place and now all is fine, my stitch counts and the pattern match up. The huge eyelets that from the base of each of the petals are cute .. and look - as I knit it seems like a little Octopus within is watching me, or Owl .. I can't decide. My handspun gotland is turning out to be much fuzzier than the yarn JF used in his version, I'm not sure how much detail will remain visable after the washing and blocking .. instead of clear crisp detail my yarn has a halo of fuzz and a silky heavy hand so should be nice and weighty and warm even if the detail is hard to see.

A few weeks ago there was a fabric sale at work, one of the ones where a member of the public brings in fabric to 'sell to the student's. Staff count as students at those sales. The content of those sorts of sales are usually hit and miss, often as not complete overpriced misses. The last sale was about average on fabric but great on price - I scored amongst other things a great length of vintage wool Challis in a very retro paisley print. I thought it would make a stunning little pinny for Poppy, so set about drafting a pattern and testing it. The way the process goes, is one makes the pattern and then cuts a toile out of inexpensive fabric to test it before making the final garment. I was going to use calico (the traditional toile fabric), but decided to use up some left over denim. Some times I take short cuts, I had the pattern made but had not traced it off and added seam allowances .. so I just chalked them in place before I cut. I love doing this, just knowing how and practicing my craft gives me confidence :-D

And this is the finished dress, hanging in the wardrobe ready for school tomorrow ... not perfect, but good enough. Poppy requested the velvet band ... and who am I to say no. My idea is she could wear it with a dark or orange merino skivvy and black tights and either black or pink shoes (she has both), but in truth Poppy will probably try to wear it with a teal merino, and stripped hose .... she has a style all of her own making. And excepting the days she wears her dusky pink and white heavy weight angora hand knit jacket with her yellow flip-flops, with an old opp-shop tee shirt, and her green teal bike pants ... she usually looks ok.

And the practice dress, the toile? Well it fitted so well I dug around in my notions stash and found a pretty velvet ribbon trim, and some snap tape. I plan to finish this ... so after over-locking the raw seams and stitching on the trim ... Poppy will have two new dresses. I am planning a sort of easy finish, old fashioned pinking and edge stitching to stabilize the edges .. the denim is very heavy ... so I want to keep the edges a single layer.

The weekend is nearly done, I'm looking forward to reaching the heel on Bayerische tonight .. and turning it Tuesday (Spinning monday night so no knitting). Work tomorrow, Monday, where I'll decide if I'm pushing a point with some colleagues or letting it go ... some things just become to much trouble to protest much over, and other things are worth a fight. I've mellowed on this one since Friday ... but only in I can see a way to leave it be and address the taught content gap in the classes I teach rather than across all the courses we teach.

Take care
na Stella

In today's politically correct child rearing climate is it considered ok to ....

give a baby Hemlock?
Jarad Floods (aka Brooklyn Tweeds) Hemlock Ring Blanket that is, which is what I'm doing. Occasionally I wonder if I'll tell the expectant mother the name of the design ... I'm not sure. By now you will have realized this is the introduciton to my next new project, yet another baby blanket, round this time and not square, and today I've also got a new toy to share.

Hemlock ring, I've admired this blanket for ages ... JF posted his way back in August 2007, and I was a confirmed internet-knitter at that stage, well and truly. I had been blogging for 18 months prior to that, and on KR for at least a year or more before I blogged. Which means that Hemlock Ring has been in my queue for around 2 years .. it is a beautiful blanket - shawl - doily, whatever it is in the gauge it is knit. I suspect that part of the charm lies in the contradiction of the lace pattern traditionally used for fine yarn being subverted by heavy thick tweedy yarn, and the name. Oh that name ... gotta admit the name has a certain appeal. There is a new baby on its way at work .. Pip is having a boy to join her little girl (named Stella, the girl not the boy), and Pip is amazing, so worth knitting a lace blanket for. I'm using my handspun gotland. I had spun a heavier blue gotland fiber for Pip's blanket ... and so as you do Saturday 30 minutes before going out to the guild meeting set about turning the skeins into tidy cakes of yarn. I checked the pattern ... and didn't have enough, stash-diving I found a beautiful dark grey gotland handspun that would compliment the blue beautifully. With 15 minutes to go - I wound 3 skeins of grey into cakes and threw that into my knitting tote to take.

Center out things are quick starts ... a few rounds and the pattern makes nice shapes. This blanket is no exception ... 2 sessions and I've completed the center, the flower petals and almost all the the transition section to the feather and fan lace. The gotland is fuzzy ... so you can't see much detail ... but the grey is dark and warm and soft and seems to me perfect for a little boy baby. My plan is grey center and blue edges.

Do you remember that I made myself a hackle with a little help from the cubs? On line resources for DIY hackles commonly show people making use of long tined plastic combs ... but a fellow local knitter and spinner A had tried that and reported that plastic combs don't stand much wear and tear. Hearing that I decided to make mine from the longest smooth nails I could find. It worked, but it was wobbly. My home made hackle is still functional, and intact ... but some of the nails are wobbly, they have not fallen out but the feel like they might. Bear and I planned to make a second, an improved model but needed to find tines longer than the nails we had access to locally. I approached Majacraft about selling me tines, and as an afterthought asked them also to price making a hackle. Several emails back and forth discussing sizes, and types of wood and tine prices and clamp systems ... I realised that Majacraft's wood-meister Baz would make it quicker and neater than I could even with Bears help. So I ordered a custom made Hackle ... which arrived very quickly, and once I sourced clamps to fit has now been tested ....

and approved of. This is hackled and diz'd Tally-Ho Romney fiber. Now Tally Ho are a local, Otago fiber supplier, and their product is priced well. Very well - the catch is that the processing they use retains a lot of vegetable matter, and well there are noils and neps, many many noils and neps. Noils and neps are what little tangled bits of fiber are called and they are ok if you want to spin a rustic yarn, not so much fun to pick out if you want a smoother more even yarn ... but as I said the fiber is very very well priced. The hackle was perfect ... I followed the proceedure shown in many online videos ... here, and here. My Hackle is 85 cm long with a single row of tines, and while this is a large hackle it allows me to load up and diz off a reasonable amount of fiber in one go. My theory was a longer hackle would allow more consistant blending of fibers, I've tried to blend on the drum carder ... but that isn't as straightforward to do and even a result as you would think, this will allow me to blend nylon into merino or perendale so I can spin durable sock yarn.
Hackling and diz'ing seems almost to easy, and while I admit this will add extra time to my fiber prep, and so slow down my spinning, for now its seems totally worth it to spin even smooth yarns. Besides its not a hard thing to do, and there is a peace about drawing fiber off a hackle through a diz. It is a calming activity despite how dangerous the hackle looks. One thing I've come to accept with age is that preparation really is a key ingredient in getting good results, with painting, with pattern cutting, with photography, with wallpapering and painting, with knitting ... and so I accept it is the same with spinning.

Take care
na Stella