Knitters, Wool, and Hugh Howey

Knitters are diverse. There are girly-girl knitters, geek knitters, grandma knitters, hipster knitters, nerdy knitters, and conservative knitters. A quick run-through of knitters I know gives me pagan, pastor, teacher, seamstress, software engineer, social worker ... kind of fun. Knitting brings us all to the same table, where I've noticed at least one other commonality: we read. During a gathering, once we've checked out what everyone else is making/frogging, commiserated with this one and congratulated that one, and after acknowledging yet again that we really can't cable and talk at the same time, we talk about books.

I have yet to sit with a group of knitters without ipads, phones, and Moleskines being whipped out of knitting bags to jot down the book titles that start flying around the room. We're a literate bunch. We knit and we read, and while I'm not willing to go so far as to give the collective "we" to a genre, I've noticed that a lot of us read sci fi. 

So have you read Wool?

Wool is the first in a series of short stories - novellas? installments? - by Hugh Howey. They are not about knitting. I repeat, they are not about knitting, although there is a character who knits and there is a piece of wool. We spend a few lovely paragraphs with the knitter's thoughts as she admires her needles (wooden needles in a leather pouch, "like the delicate bones of the wrist wrapped in dried and ancient flesh.") and casts on for a sweater. The titles are the best use of knitting metaphor ever:

Wool

Proper Gauge

Casting Off

The Unraveling

The Stranded

I started to think that Howey either knits or is close to someone who does, and I was  right. I read the first book, Wool, and then immediately bought the Omnibus, with the first five stories. (God love a Kindle for instant gratification.) Go get it, paperback or Kindle.  Then you'll go to his website and discover, as I did, that there is an imminent sixth story, and that there is much more to discover about Howey, his fans, and his work.

You're welcome.

Fiber Arts Friday: Diaper Man

I've made friends with my super-cute 18 month old neighbor, who lives in his comfy cloth diapers and knitted wool soakers. The long pants version of soakers are known, appropriately, as "longies". Last week I offered to darn the knees of a pair after I noticed the thinning (one knee popped a hole the moment after I spoke!) and was intrigued by the gusset. Of course I am making a pair.

I based the measurement on an existing pair that fit him well and made a foldover waist that will have an inside drawstring. Next time (notice that, next time?) I'd like a ribbed waist with a threaded draw.

Half of the diamond-shaped gusset.

One skein of Cascade 220 was used from the waist to about two inches below the crotch, if that helps in your own planning. I have yet to adjust the join, so you might be able to pick it out on the leg. This is one of those perfect projects for movie-watching and knitting group, requiring nothing more from me than moving fingers!


Need more Fiber Arts Friday? Wisdom Begins in Wonder has got you covered.

A Bag, a Tag, and a Nickname

Bags like this are a labor of love, taking dozens of hours to knit, an hour or two to felt, and several more to design and sew a lining. They are the ultimate in relaxing knitting - no pattern, no rules, just create a palette and start knitting. Throw in some shaping, increase here, decrease there, change a color, and make an edging dictated by how much yarn you have left. (Don't save the i-cord handles for last. You might not have enough yarn to make the two long pieces needed. Ask me how I know that.)

I already loved this bag and wasn't aware that I could love it even more until I was asked if it could be monogrammed. Ok wait, back up. Not just any monogram, but the nickname Nanchantress. Nanchantress! How great is that for a term of endearment? Annachantress. Doesn't have the same lilt, but I could ask everyone to give it a shot.

While I have a nicely equipped sewing room, none of my machines embroider beyond the basics. My friend Eleanor, however, has a Bernina artista 640. It is a sewing machine with magical computer capabilities, allowing her to do crazy things like scan a picture/resize it/embroider it onto fabric. Hands-free, while she sips a coffee and watches it work. I'm pretty sure it vacuums up the room when she finishes. She was, as usual, willing to help. We brainstormed and came up with a plan for a luggage tag for Nanchantress.

It was fascinating to watch Eleanor and the Bernina work, so I started taking pictures with my phone to show my husband so I could start dropping hints document the process.

I will try to walk you through it with a minimum of pictures (phone-quality, sorry). Before the actual stitching she had used her software to find a luggage tag shape, decided on the font, and digitized the design. 

Eleanor sprayed some temporary adhesive to my white fabric and placed it on a hooped piece of stabilizer.  She used a grid to mark what would become the center of the design.

Bernina drew an outline box, which would later be satin-stitched, and Nanchantress emerged from the needle.

The hoop was removed from the machine and a piece of lining fabric was placed, face up, on top of the design. The original outlining box was stitched on this fabric as well as a larger outline of the tag itself. Eleanor cut along the original box, below, revealing the name.

See the outline of the luggage tag shape, before trimming?

Bernina satin stitched the small box.

At this point Eleanor trimmed along the perfect satin stitching then turned the whole thing over and affixed a piece of lining fabric on the back of the hoop, creating a sandwich of my lining fabric on both sides, and Nanchantress in the middle. Again the machine stitched the larger outlining box, and Eleanor cut away the excess in order for the machine to satin stitch the edges.

The machine stitched perfectly along the edges, then went back and created an eyelet along the edge, which I later cut to insert a swivel hook.

Front and back, the finished tag. Notice the eyelet in the picture below, on the right, with a tail still attached.

A beautiful finish to the bag; a lovely gift. I have ordered a few luggage tags for myself now, after seeing this one!

Nanchantress, enjoy!

Oh Boy!

You might think I'd be frantically creating posts to catch the blog up on the holiday preparations and celebrations but no! Not going to do it! I am going to share this picture of something I made for a newborn, born into a family near and dear to my heart, and going into the mail asap. Daigen, I hope you like these for the brief time they'll fit!

I could not resist stacking those books for the picture.

I loved using "big boy" sock yarn instead of a traditional baby boy color scheme. I have made socks for my (quite grown up) sons from this yarn; in fact I have one in progress.

How cute is that?

The yarn is Froehlich, a high quality European yarn known for durability. It comes, in fact, with a fine matching reinforcement yarn that can be knitted into the heel, or held for darning. When I heard production was going to stop on this line I scooped up several skeins and stashed them. Durability is not an issue here for Baby Daigen, of course. Further details on the knitting are on Ravelry. 

Happy New Year!

Valentine Wrap

Valentine because that's the color name of the Cascade Eco+ Wool I'm using.

Wrap because it's the awesome Snug Hooded Wrap from Knitting and Tea that I have been wanting to make. Four things to know:

1. It has pockets.
2. It has a hood.
3. The hood has a tassel.
4. That's right, a tassel.

My phone is tucked into the beginning of a pocket. Stitches, which will be picked up later and ribbed, are being held in front of the phone. A separate lining was knit into the space behind the phone, which neatly accounts for the stitches held, creates the pocket, and prevents any missteps in the cable pattern. I've blogged this picture to help anyone who might be confused about the lining insertion.

More as it grows!

Baby Surprise Jacket

Non-knitters, just scroll through the pictures and see the evolution of a weird rectangle into a sweater. Knitters, the details are for you! 

I've wondered for years about all the hoopla surrounding Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket. A quick check over at Ravelry shows it as a project 14,612 times, and it is waiting in 5,451 queues. I bought the reproduced - and expanded - pattern from Schoolhouse Press some time ago and waited for opportunity and inclination to coincide. They did, in a tiny bundle of lovely girliness named Misaki, born just a few weeks ago.

Ok, the knitty gritty - sorry: In a nutshell, EZ was a brilliant woman in general, and applied a lot of her logical thinking skills to her knitting projects. She designed this baby sweater to as one piece, to be worked flat, with no seams except the shoulders, when finished. As it is knitted it resembles nothing more than a stretched-out rectangle with a few lumps here and there. Like this:

There are decreases and increases along the way, and that's the annoying part. Not the actual changes in stitch count, but the fact that they are done on either side of a moving stitch. You cannot use a stitch marker but must instead hang a marker on the stitch, and move it up as the rows proceed. I tend to fumble the marker, forget to move it up, pass up my increase/decrease point, and generally hate that method. In the end, I counted a lot. Not such big deal with a small project, and perhaps I would be able to read the knitting easier if wasn't self-patterning yarn, but this type of project should be nearly automatic knitting until my fingers reach a marker.

Here is it just after binding off.

Compare it to the picture above and it shows the same cast-on edge at the bottom, while the top edge has a row of buttonholes even spaced on either side of the center.

Now this is the thing, you see, the thing that will force me to cast on another one immediately. Because I picked up the piece you see there, with its increases, decreases, a few bound off rows, and a tiny flap, and turned it around a few times and then suddenly, delightedly, found that I had a little tiny jacket!

The bottom, cast-on row, became the sleeves and back neckline while the bound-off edge became the jacket opening and the back hemline. Does that make any sense without holding it in your hand?

 Yes of course I knew what it was going to look like. Of course I knew I was knitting something that had a neckline, two sleeves, and a front opening. I was still amazed at how it folded up, how the rows lined up and turned corners, and how anyone ever came up with it in the first place.

There are two rows of buttonholes to allow for a boy or girl button placement, which also makes it easy when sewing on the buttons, since they can just cover and close each hole.

Now to give it a soak, dry it, and gift it!

My stats, for knitters who need to know, are:
A size 4 needle, bound of with a size 6
Gauge: 6.5 stitches/inch
One skein of Italian-made Supersocke Cotton, a blend of cotton and wool, in the "Beach" color.
When buttoned, it will have a chest circumference of about 14.5 inches, a hem-to-shoulder length of 9 inches, and a sleeve length from neck-to-cuff of about 5.75 inches.
I followed the directions for 160 stitches.

Afghans for Afghans, Finished!

Finally, buttons are attached, tails are woven, everything is blocked.

I don't love the necklines of the vests, which might be why I hid them away  set them aside in the first place. The pattern is from Knitting for Peace, which is a lovely book with good patterns, but my suggestion when knitting these side-to-side vests is to be aware that you are decreasing a neckline, and do it loosely.

I'm happy to get these off in the mail for their deadline of May 13. I started another vest (different pattern!) but know better than to hold these up waiting for it to be finished!

Afghans for Afghans

This morning's work: Finishing work on two vests, one "little" boy and one teen, for Afghans for Afghans. The current campaign requested some specific items and sizes, and I had already started these vests and forgot about them when they were put away during a renovation. The finding of projects begun is a blessing and a curse, no? You wonder how you could have left them unfinished, forgotten, while acknowledging a head start on something!

Knitters who use the Elizabeth Zimmerman method in Fee's Sweater Workshop will recognize my notebook of calculations for a child's sweater.

Two vests and the beginning of a sweater. The vests need to be stitched at the shoulders and then picked up around the edges, forming a finish at the waist and buttonholes for the front.

I decided to add a sweater to my package, a child's size 10 pullover, crew neck. Done in the round from the bottom up with no seaming it's a fast knit and results in a lovely sweater. I finally found a good chart of measurements needed for raglan sweaters since I don't have an actual size 10 child here to measure. The chart is here in the Incredible, Custom-fit Raglan Sweater pattern at Woolworks. I haven't used the instructions, relying instead on the no-pattern method from the Sweater Workshop, but it is handy and includes a chart of yardage estimates.

Please refrain from pointing out that during the time it has taken to create this blog post, I could have stitched a few seams. Procrastination of seam finishing is probably what put the vests out of sight in the first place.

Prayin' and Knittin'

While emptying all the bags and baskets I found many items, which I tossed into a basket until the yarn was put away. Here's a picture of most of them. Look closely and you'll see stitch markers, mini emery boards, a Pinocchio measuring tape, a change purse, a nostepinne, and...wait...is that a rosary?

Yes.

Apparently it was a really hard pattern.

UFOs, Bins, and Plans

After collecting, untangling, (and let's not downplay the "untangling" part of the job) and sorting the yarn with its mates, my kitchen table looked like a sale display in a shop. A shop that has a really cute table in the middle of the floor.

(By the way, take a look at the pretty bag hanging from the chair. I just made that for a sale next month and love the way it turned out.)

I had to add this picture of the opposite view. I'm hoping it will serve as a visual reminder when I'm planning projects!

I found several UFOs (UnFinished Objects) in various stages of completion that had been abandoned for whatever reason. I ripped out a few of them that were just tragic ideas right from the start and salvaged the yarn, but packed these into a box for another day:

Crazy. Some of these are just minutes away from completion. Not that yoga bag, though. It's been around for years; it needs to be HUGE in order to felt to the size needed.

In a move that clearly proves I had no idea how much yarn I was facing, I had a stack of six plastic bins ready to be filled. Six. Not giant ones, but boot-sized ones. My son, realizing he'd never have a meal on that table if he didn't take action, went out and bought six more.

The filling part was fun, grouping things like wools, alpacas, cottons, sock yarns, and felting wools together. I like how this box looks, because I love what's in it:

Clockwise from the top, I plan to make a vest with the two big skeins of merino, a hat for DS2 with the multicolored Noro, a scarf that is trying to design itself in my mind with the three wool lace colors, and then! See that color changing cotton? A present from my fantastic future daughter-in-law (who also knits) and son, it will be a shawl of some sort. (Check out the coloring changing cotton at Wolle's on Etsy. I've seen several items made with it and it's gorgeous.)

See. I have a plan.

Yarn, Yarn, Yarn

It's been such a long time since I posted, and I LOVE my blog, so that's bad. I think I should focus more on this and less on FB sharing!

At any rate, yesterday I started a project that has had vast, domino-like consequences. I decided to go around the house and gather up all my yarn into one big pile, sort it, organize it, and put it away in the bedroom we use for such things. Since my oldest son is in grad school in Virginia along with his fiancée, his room is in use a few months of the year and has become the place to put coats, yarn, files, projects, spare bedding, and other things that are tough to relocate when the poor kid does come home and wants his room for a few weeks!

The goals of this project, and I am still in the middle of it, are:

• Get a grip on what I have for yarn and organize it.
• Give my daughter half of the closet in her brother's room.
• Box up the papers and items DS1 left in the desk and shelves and put them away so we can use the desk.
• Reorganize our files and records.
• Bonus job: Find every last cd in this house, toss any remaining jewel cases, and find some way to store them in the cabinet that was previously occupied by the files and records that are being moved upstairs.

Crap.

Okay, here's what you came for, pictures of yarn. Because first one has to find all the yarn in its hiding places...and I missed a few until today.

I gathered all the obvious tote bags and baskets from DS1's room.

I pulled all the baskets from this little invisible spot next to a cabinet.

I remembered that inside the cabinet there were a few more items like the one above, and the skein below that was tucked in all by itself.

Today I found two other bits. There was some beautiful fingering-weight in a magazine basket, and some odd sock yarn in a small zippered bag. In my defense, before the next blog post reveals the full extent of the yarn consumption in this house, I must point out that I don't stash yarn I really only buy yarn for specific projects I have no idea how I have so much yarn.

Until tomorrow, here is a preview what my kitchen table looked like:

I'm very happy that my husband doesn't read my blog.

Stitches East, 2010

First, some yarn highlights:

Are those colors fantastic? It is a silk/wool yarn, hand dyed, with a matching silk scarf to incorporate into the knitted one. Absolutely gorgeous. 

These olives will become a new version of my "Wrap Me Up" shawl - which, come to think of it, needs a picture here.

I know, this merino looks blue/silver but it's not. It's a grey going to black, and will make a nice (and fast) vest.

This lace weight alpaca is so  lovely, and the colors are a bit softer than what is here - in particular the red and the blue are really more of a watermelon and dusty blue. Last night DS2 patiently helped me divvy each skein into three, and then to wind the three skeins into one for an idea I have. I want to do a color-blocked scarf with three strands held together. Yep, I could have bought a heavier yarn of the same colors. Nope, didn't want to.

Stitches was great fun, as always - - traveled with two of my friends, met lots of new friends, my favorite felted bag made lots of new friends of its own, joked around with the (unknown to us at the time) mayor of Hartford about Bill Clinton and the fact that knit happens, took a super class from Leslye Solomon of Woolstock, and already can't wait until next year. 

I hate that my poor blog has sat idle for so long. Facebook is a blog killer, I think, and I have been much busier than usual. That's not over, but it will be soon!

Craft Swap

Here are some photos of my handmade items for a recent swap with some friends. I actually still have two out to finish in some form or another and send off, but let's focus on celebrating this part, shall we?

These were for my friend Norma, and she loved them. I loved them! Love love love the yarn.

For  Martha Ann, this handbag. It is from a pattern with a few modifications. I wish I'd taken a picture of the bag feet - she was surprised to discover them well after she received the bag. Love love love the fabric.

The inside, with my little label.

Ann's knitted and felted bag. This bag is GIGANTIC. It's a tote, with a commercial base that happened to fit perfectly inside the bottom of the bag, and a beautiful silk dupioni lining. Although this bag borrows a technique I learned from a commercial pattern (applied icord around the rim) I didn't use a pattern for this one. I've made so many knitted bags by now I just kind of start knitting! The colors are perfect for Ann, and I love love love the lining fabric.

The lining, with one pleated pocket.

I have a set of spherical, heavy, fabulous bag feet that I would have loved to use here, but they didn't match. I got creative and used some well-shaped buttons instead, which I think works fine.

Baby Gifts

Making things for babies is so much fun - they are small, and can have fancy elements and finishing that might be too much work on a larger item. Plus there's the smile factor of thinking about the baby who will eventually wear the clothes you are creating.

This sweater was fun to make, and admittedly, required a bit of attention while shaping and maintaining the pattern.

But let's take a closer look at those shoes!

 How cute are these? Based on a tutorial I found online, I made a few modifications in the way the shoe is laced, and I also bound the inside seam. The fabric is one of my favorites, a vintage tablecloth I found at an antique shop. It is a beautiful, quality cotton and my photographs do not do it justice. I hoard the pieces that are left and use them when inspiration demands. As it did, actually, with this hat...

 I should actually have photographed the inside - all the seams are nicely covered with a cream single-fold bias and it looks very nice. The tape was not prewashed, however, and I hope it won't pull too much once the hat is washed. 

Back to grownup knitting and sewing!