The Shiz-knit!

RedFish Yarn

2011-07-17T21:55:00.000+03:00

This is 4 ounces of 50/50 silk/merino from RedFish DyeWorks. I got this at Stitches West last fall, and I've been spinning it with my spindles ever since. I used what I call a cheating Navajo-ply method. I take about 6-8 inches of fiber and split it. Spin one half, then spin the other half so that the colors match back on each other when plied. I went through the entire 4 ounces like that and ended up with a lace weight 2-ply that looks like a Navajo 3-ply. I've never seen this else where, so I don't know if it has a proper name. I'll just call it Frances-ply.

Here is my expedient niddy-noddy. Oh, to live in a hotel.

Unemployment Blanket

2011-06-21T04:55:00.000+03:00

I got this yarn at Jo-Ann's in early March when I was unemployed. I wanted to make a blanket, but I was broke. This yarn (and the crochet hook) cost 22 bucks.

This is god's own acrylic yarn. I would normally never buy such a thing, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I used almost all of the yarn I bought.

Shawl

2011-05-25T04:59:00.000+03:00

I made a little shoulder cover because it's freezing where I work. They like to have the a/c on so freaking cold that it's colder inside during the summer than during the winter.

This is Knitpicks kid and silk (nice!) with a skein of their alpaca. I love Knitpicks.

Soul Blossoms II

2011-05-03T02:28:00.000+03:00

The epic hand quilting has finished! This is 2 of 3, I will also hand quilt the third one. I quilted square spirals on each square. I free-handed it.

I added ticker tapes here and there.

The back is as neat, or almost as neat (still can't decide) as the front. I made an effort to use every bit of the fabric, and so there are all kinds of little scraps worked in. I love how it looks.

ACU Bags

2011-03-30T23:34:00.001+02:00

I also made two urgently needed bags on my epic quilt-cation. I had some heavy cotton fabric from Ikea, and I have 4 ACUs. I got one of my ACU tops and I cut it up and made a computer bag and the purse below.

At first I was really hesitant to cut into my old uniform. I don't know why. But when I was in the Army, I really liked the shoulder pockets because they perfectly fit my iPhone and its bulky charger case. So I took the pocket with my unit patch (yeah, I said "unit"), and built a purse around it (see below), and cut out the back of the ACU to make the front of a perfectly-sized computer bag.

My mom got this amazing sewing machine and I embroidered the camo fabric and the Ikea fabric. How cool! All I had to do was change the threads when the machine told me to.

New purse with perfect phone pocket on the outside.

And a custom epi-pen holder on the inside, also from recycled ACUs. I also recycled the credit card holder from the Kipling bag I used for the last decade.

I like how the little bird peeks out at the front of the purse. So pleased!

Soul Blossoms 1

2011-03-30T01:15:00.000+02:00

This is quilt 1 from my epic quilt-making vacation last week. Perhaps ironically, this is actually the third one I made, but the first I finished since the other two will be hand quilted.

This quilt is machine pieced and machine quilted. I added two squares of 4 each ticker tape squares. Once I wash this quilt, they will be puckered and neat-o. They are cut on the bias so they don't unravel.

The overview:

Mobius Scarf

2011-02-11T03:04:00.000+02:00

Finished this dog. I began this in August, and it languished once I realized I might not have enough yarn to finish the edging. Then, yesterday I discovered a small left over skein of this very stuff, and finished it last night. The punch line is that I needed not of the other skein; I had plenty to finish the lace edging.

First Jelly Roll

2011-01-27T01:20:00.000+02:00

Dare I say it's the first? I'm not sure how much I like working with long strips of fabric instead of fat quarters. Nevertheless, I very much like this little quilt. Below you can see (I hope) how much I quilted this fabric. I did concentric rings radiating out from an off-center position. It's nearly invisible on the front, but it shows better on back:

I wanted some long term projects and machine pieced these in December while visiting San Diego, but here they are all done. I thought I'd make the latest quilt last a bit longer by quilting the hell out of it, but it was done in a week. (2 seasons of Lost, to be specific. The previous quilt took 3 seasons of Lost.)

Below, quilt goodness.

3rd Quilt

2011-01-19T05:20:00.001+02:00

I finished a quilt the other day. Since going into suspended animation in March, my craft world has been diminished. Between being locked up and disallowed creativity, or thinking for that matter, and having all most all of my crafty stuff locked away elsewhere, it has been difficult. I began a knitting project, the one shown below this entry, but I've got more edge to trim than yarn, and I just sort of set it aside. I didn't want my first project since returning to be a failure, but I think it might be.

But this quilt pleases me. It's my third, and much bigger than the first two I did. I got 10 fat quarters, and stitched cool rectangles of contrasting fabric to them using my mom's cool sewing machine that does fancy stitches.

Then I hand quilted the whole thing. At first I wanted to do some time-consuming, long-term deal, but once I completed one big rectangle I thought it looked like crap, so I cut it out, and opted for a diagonal with multiple colors and textures of thread.

While more or less parallel, the quilting stitches are at different distances from each other. I really like it. Keep it simple. I finally embroidered the date on a quilt.

Mobius Scarf

2010-09-30T18:39:00.000+02:00

Scarf
Originally uploaded by frances.goodman

Started another project without finishing the last. Shame on me. There's probably a DD form for me to fill out for this incident.

Some Knitting

2010-08-30T23:28:00.000+02:00

Not a finished object, but some knitting anyway. I'm happy to be home for about a month and have access to some real yarn, and not that sub-par Georgia stuff. This is Artfibers Alfabeto in color 7. It's a mohair and silk yarn. I'm making a basic feather and fan shawl, and I'll probably knit it until it's impossibly large. I have a big cone of yarn, probably much more than I need.

Last year I finished this with another cone of the same yarn. I even had a bit left over, and I think this cone I have now is bigger than the one I used to make this sweater.

Tatting

2010-08-01T04:36:00.000+03:00

I've been tatting a bit.

Socks

2010-07-25T15:23:00.003+03:00

2 skeins of Patons Kroy Socks FX and size 3 needles.

Yarn Diet

2010-06-24T23:05:00.002+03:00

There is no yarn in Columbus, GA. What the hell?!?

Out of Time

2010-03-29T00:36:00.000+03:00

Here's an unfinished project. This is the Silk/Camel from Stitches West I got last month. I've spun about a thrid of it. But, alas, it will go into a bag and wait until September when I'm back to the life of humans.

Wonderful fiber:

Just so I don't forget: I've been taking a bit at a time, splitting it down the middle, spinning one half, and reversing the colors, spinning the other half, and Peruvian plying, so the colors sort of go together. It's like a sloppy Navajo ply, but it's working.

See you after fat camp.

Stitches West 2010

2010-02-27T21:43:00.003+02:00

I finally went to Stitches West. I wanted to go last year, but we lived in SoCal, and I was still writing my term paper. It was amazing. I am not interested in the classes; I just went for one day to see the market. Above starting from the left, that is 3.5 ounces of 50% baby camel 50% silk from RedFish Dye Works. What wonderful people, and their yarn and fiber is great. Then, 2 skeins of Possum lace from Cherry Tree Hill. It's discontinued. Then, a skein of Hepburn from Abstract Fiber in the Hopworks color. We were told that a woman from Abstract Fibers went with her husband to a brewery in Portland and got a beer sampler. She liked the varied colors of brown from blonde to dark brown, and wanted to make a yarn of those beer colors. K picked the color before he even knew this. Serious face. The last two skeins on the right are also from RedFish. I went back to them after going through the entire place. I really think they had the best stuff there.

It was great to see so much yarn. I expected to see hundreds of sellers with the same Rowan yarn. To my delight, there were vendors like RedFish with their own unique stuff of outrageously good quality. My only complaint is that the Stitches people were clear that photography was disallowed. That's pretty dumb in the age of blogging. The nice ladies at Abstract Fiber told us that they were even admonished that they couldn't photograph their own booth. They kindly invited us to take lots of pictures at their booth.

Here is an illegal picture of me looking at the Lorna's Laces somewhere deep in the land of banned photography.

Jordan

2010-02-07T11:37:00.000+02:00

There is a lovely little yarn shop in the Balid, across the street from Hasham's restaurant. I finally made a purchase.

I picked up some of this fuzzy stuff, and spent just over 1JD, or about 1.50 USD total. When I got the yarn back to my room, I realized that it smells like the Balid: diesel and cigarettes, the scent of downtown Amman. The yarn is beautiful.

Silk and Cashmere Sampler Stole

2010-01-07T19:54:00.000+02:00

I actually finished this in December, but because we were out of town, I could not block it until last night. It was difficult to wait, but completely worth it. This is probably the neatest thing I have ever knitted.

It's the Sampler Stole from A Gathering of Lace. I picked a different edging. As usual, I used something from Sharon Miller's Heirloom Knitting book.

I like the pattern, but I don't understand why those stitches are floating there between the big diamonds. It looks sloppy to me.

Above is the middle section, and my favorite. I only knitted 3 repeats of it. I've seen on Ravelry that these turn out really long, so I cut that section short.

JoJoland Woven Scarf

2009-11-09T18:49:00.000+02:00

I finally used the second ball of JoJoland I had on hand. De-stashing continues, and now I have a really long scarf. K said he might just take this one for himself. Last summer I made this, and while I like the shawl very much, I was disapointed with the yarn because of a knot and an abrupt color change. This project went much better, and I used an entire ball to weave this project.

The warp is a cashmere boucle from Colourmart. I just used a fraction of the cone. I made a warp of almost 3 yards, and warped it through a 12 dent reed, 2 ends per dent. Obviuosly that was still too wide as the twill is not balanced, but I'm happy with the width of the scarf, and the feel of the fabric is perfect. This is the most complicated thing I've woven yet, and it took a couple of weeks. I like how the tiny boucle loops peek out and frame the wool.

New favorite scarf.

Additional Hand-Dyed Socks

2009-11-02T20:14:00.000+02:00

It's not that I'm into knitting socks. Generally, I'm not. It's that a few years ago I attempted shibori dyeing techniques and had a lot of acid dyes on hand. I picked up a bunch of Knit Picks Bare to try and dye some yarn, and figured that I'd eventually knit socks. I haven't purchased yarn in months, maybe even a year. So, I'm going through my stash and I found this yarn I dyed a few years ago. I wanted to try to dye a self-striping yarn. I got out my warping board and made a really, really long skein, and made two pots of dye. I put one half in a blue pot and one in a brown pot, and voila. There are tiny little transitions between the blue and brown, but it looks pretty legit.

I took this outside. The browns are not as mis-matching as they look in the first picture. I used Euroflax linen for the heel and toes.

You can see little white dots in the brown and blue from where I tied the skein to keep it in order while I dyed it.

Hand Dyed Socks

2009-10-16T20:43:00.000+02:00

I dyed the yarn for these more than a year ago, but I just now got to it. I wasn't all that thrilled with it when it came out of the dye pot, but now I just love it. I grabbed some Rowan Cotton Glace for the cuffs, toes, and a stripe around the heel, and a skein of Knitpicks Shine (green apple) for the heel.

I just picked yarns to use up and makes some socks, but somehow they came out really nice, like I meant to make them match that well. This will never happen again. For the first time I knitted the toes to fit my right and left feet specifically. So, instead of having an even parabola shape for the toes, they arc off down to the right or left to fit better. See for yourself:

I will do this from now on. They fit so nicely without bunching at the toes.

I Will Never Wear This

2009-10-15T19:50:00.000+02:00

I finished knitting 5 skeins of Classic Elite's Lush (Angora/Merino blend), and I hated every moment of it. The yarn is really nice right off the skein, but it took very little knitting before the emerging garment began to spew angora fluff all over the place. I was unable to knit more than 30 minutes before I felt angora up my nose and in my lungs. I put the garment in a plastic bag so that the working stitches peaked out, but still, it was awful to work with!

I knitted from the neck down. I used a smocking stitch from a stitch dictionary, though the yarn felted a bit and the cables are not as defined as I'd like them to be. I knitted rib stitch through the middle, and finished the bottom with a lace stitch. I am happy with the design, and I enjoyed inventing a garment as I knitted, but I just can't imagine wearing this. It sheds like a mo-fo.

Here are the cables. I liked the fit of this before I washed it. It's about 900 times larger now. I'm thinking about felting it more. As it is, it's too big, and too fluffy. Perhaps felting will solve both problems.

Something I will wear:

Bad picture, but nice scarf.

This is an angora/wool blend from Lorna's Laces. I made this a few years ago, and just never got around to blogging it. It's a mobius scarf. Here's a better picture:

Blanket for Sachi

2009-09-27T19:53:00.000+02:00

This is an epic de-stashing blanket. I'm not buying any yarn for a while. Haven't for months now. (Amazing!) I made this for a friend's baby using a zillion skeins of left-overs and other extras. 3 balls of Rowan Denim in medium blue, 1 in dark. 1 of every color of Knit Picks Shine Sport, lots of little left overs, and 1 ball of Melody in the middle. This blanket weighs several pounds. It's pretty warm!

The Fan

2009-08-23T20:49:00.001+03:00

Here is my fan sweater from marianne Isager's Japanese Inspired Knits. I began this last month, and put it on hold for the move. Once we arrived in Berkeley I found myself uninterested in the sweater. But, once again (as with the Hex Coat) the Artfibers yarn proved me wrong.

I really like the construction of this garment. It's quite different from everything else I've made. I used my favorite Shetland shell edging instead of Isager's. I also used very different yarn, and as a result I spent quite a bit of time calculating so that I could end up with something that fit. It actually worked out!

The fabric is really beautiful. I used two Artfibers yarns. The Tsuki mohair/silk for the lace edging and the Golden Chai (color 23) 100% silk for the body. It drapes perfectly. Size 6 and 8 needles, respectively.

KSH scarf

2009-07-14T06:06:00.002+03:00

Almost 2 skeins of KSH and one skein of tilli tomas yarn.

Hex Coat

2009-06-15T06:36:00.000+03:00

Here is my Hex Coat from Norah Gaughan's Knitting Nature book. I used Artfibers Alfabeto silk and mohair yarn. This yarn is thinner than the one she used, so I guessed and casted on more stitches. Some how it all worked out. That never happens! I knitted it in the round up to the arms, knitted the back and two fronts separately. I three-needle binded off to join the shoulders. Then I picked up 70 stitches for each arm, and knitted those in the round too. I short-row shaped sleeve caps. No sewing at all for the whole thing. Perfect.

The sweater is light and wispey. I really like it. Had I known how much I would like the finished product I would have finished it in January instead of putting in the closet. Well, I did have a bit to do earlier this year...

Here's the lake:

My Own Quilt

2009-05-29T06:15:00.006+03:00

I finished this yesterday, the day I finished my diss.

This is my second quilt, and it's the first one I hand-quilted. My stitching is pretty bad, but I think it improved toward the end of the project.

I used Amy Butler fabric and a tad of other scrap fabric.

I had a tad of dark Amy Butler fabric left over from the first quilt, and I put in 1/4 inch strips throughout. Here you can see the stitching toward the edges, or end, of the project. The stitches are too wide, but they are approaching regularity. The hand-stitching went pretty quickly, to my surprise.

Merino Hand Spun

2009-04-19T01:22:00.004+03:00

I picked up 8 ounces at Village Spin and Weave last month. I've spun about 6 ounces, and I think I'll stash the rest and move onto the next color.

My Denyse Schmidt Quilt

2009-03-16T03:38:00.005+02:00

From her great quilt book, this is the Hop, Skip & A Jump quilt:

This is my first quilt, perhaps of many. I intended to hand-quilt this after I machine pieced it, but upon completing the quilt top I couldn't wait to see it finished, so it's 100% machine done. This is a perfect size for my first effort, and it took one long day plus one hour the next. I'm happy to add that the batting and muslin are both organic. Jo Ann actually had organic bamboo batting! Good for them. The fashion fabric is Amy Butler.

One Dissertation

2009-03-13T07:29:00.000+02:00

Alpaca, Silk, Merino

2009-01-29T22:08:00.003+02:00

Frost Flowers and Leaves

2008-12-15T06:26:00.005+02:00

Road Trip to Artfibers

2008-11-26T22:34:00.005+02:00

Home stretch:

Haul from Artfibers:

Alpaca, Merino, Silk, Bamboo, and other stuff

2008-11-14T02:27:00.002+02:00

My 4 ounces of fluffy stuff is finished. I spun it with my spindle. Now what?

Macarons

2008-10-31T07:29:00.004+02:00

Not much knitting. Much writing, much cooking. We've been living on Macarons. Our favorite? Rose macrons with pistachio buttercream filling.

We will need to walk this many stairs 1000 times to work this off.

Hand-spun

2008-09-30T21:32:00.001+02:00

Angora

2008-08-26T07:15:00.007+03:00

And some handspun:

And another shawl:

Dye Day

2008-07-24T19:36:00.008+03:00

Before: bottom right is 4 ounces of handspun cashmere, to the left is a skein of wool from Knitpicks, above is silk chenille, above that is cobweb-weight angora and silk (50/50), above that is a merino roving
After: at the top is the Knitpicks wool, below that is the cashmere (I'm not thrilled with that one), below that is the silk chenille (very happy), and below that is my new favorite the angora/silk

Angora/Silk:
Where is the merino roving you ask? We're just going to pretend that never happened. For reasons I don't understand the roving did not absorb much of the dye and it just looks like wilted lint now.

A Knitted Veil in Pyrenees* Wool

2008-07-12T06:00:00.004+03:00

*Jojoland Harmony yarn, actually.
This pattern is from Victorian Knitting Today. I did not follow the directions and knitted the border as I went because I didn't want to disrupt the yarn color changes with a mismatching border.

The yarn is beautiful, but about halfway through the pattern there was a terrible graft of two different colors. I cut out quite a bit of yarn, and could spare no more. The join is better than it was, but still obvious. Look to the left in the picture and you will see.

I also knitted almost twice as many center repeats as the pattern called for, and still this shawl seems a tad short.

Discovery

2008-06-29T08:54:00.002+03:00

Two days ago I went looking through the second bedroom for the Communist Manifesto for K and discovered an entire bag of Lush that I don't remember buying. Couldn't find the Manifesto, though.

Handspun

2008-05-14T23:41:00.006+03:00

Here is a half pre-drafted 4 ounce merino and tencel roving:

I spun irregular singles and plied it around a cotton core to get this:It's the Dragonfly colorway from Traci Bunker's shop.

I am not a novelty yarn kind of person, but I really like spinning this stuff. Don't know what I'll do with it, but it's fun to make.

Scribble Lace Shawl

2008-05-06T22:13:00.009+03:00

I spun and coiled 4 ounces of this wonderful tencel/merino last week, and knitted this up on Saturday/Sunday on size 15 (!!) needles. It was a nice diversion from the long-term shawl I've been working on.

Long term shawl (US size 2 needles):

Cashmere

2008-04-10T07:25:00.002+03:00

I spun these here 4 ounces with my spindle over the last 2 months. It's DK weight. Hada 7ellowa!

Copy-Cat

2008-03-13T22:29:00.002+02:00

I've been looking at this great scarf/shawl pattern on Ravelry, and I thought I'd make one too. I don't actually have the pattern, though, I just studied finished scarves and faked it.

This is made from a cone of cashmere and silk from ColourMart. They pretty much just sell spun crack there as far as I can tell.

I dyed the yarn. Not too happy with the dye job, but I am overall very pleased with the scarf. That's some seriously nice yarn.

Ribbon Scarf Pattern

2008-03-10T05:17:00.006+02:00

I have knitted several sideways scarves and the problem I run into is that one edge is more stretchy than the other and without violent blocking the scarf will take a cork screw shape.

Beginning and Ending:
To begin this scarf single crochet 200 stitches and knit into those, picking up two of the three loops of the crochet stitch. To finish the scarf bind off with a smaller sized crochet hook (about 2 sizes smaller).

Middle:
After you have the 200 crochet stitches established begin the body using US size 7 needles. You will need circular needles that are at least 32 inches long to accommodate the amount of stitches. Knit 3 rows. On the 4th row K1, YO3 to the end. On the 5th row drop all the YOs and knit each stitch. Repeat as many times as you want to. On my scarf I repeated 4 more times (a total of 5 repeats).

Finishing:
Wash, and pin. At this point weave in the ribbon. It's a bit of a pain to weave the ribbon in when the scarf is pinned, but this way you ensure that the tension of the ribbon works with the scarf. I made a knot at both ends of the scarf with the ribbon to help keep it in place. Occasionally the scarf will snag on something. Just hold the section taught and tug horizontally and vertically until the yarn has worked its way back into place.

Check here for the yarns I used. The brown yarn is an alpaca/wool blend called Valparaiso. The beautiful ribbon is Zingaro (color 1, I think). Both are from ArtFibers in SF.

Note to Self: Yarn Weights

2008-03-09T03:29:00.004+02:00

Tex numbers:
Tex numbers indicating yarn weight are fractions. The first number indicates grams per 1 kilometer (or 1000 meters). The second number indicates the number of plies that make up the yarn. Thus, a Tex number of 50/2 tells us that the yarn is made of 2 strands that separately weigh 50 grams per 1000 meters.
I notice on my current favorite site, Colour Mart, they tend to just give the first Tex number. Seems reasonable. So, as they sell yarn (I'm making an educated guess here), 50 Tex is lace, 100 Tex is sport, 400 Tex is bulky. It seems that Tex numbers are not contingent upon fiber type.

NM numbers:
As with most things in the world, this is metric. 1 NM yields 1000 meters of yarn per kilogram (what ever those things mean). The first number in the fraction tells us the number of plies. A 1/4 NM yarn yields a yarn that has been spun 4 times longer (than a 1 NM yarn) using 1 kilogram of yarn. Same weight, different thickness; a 1/4 NM yarn will be much thinner than a 1 NM yarn at 4000 meters per kilogram. Unlike other yarn weights, the type of fiber is irrelevant.

Imperial System:
In this case the type of fiber must be known. What ever the fiber, "1" yields yards per pound. Of course different fibers will obviously give us different yardage amounts per pound. As with the Tex numbers the first number in the Imperial fraction tells us plies. The second number indicates how many times more the length is beyond the standard. (Remember, Standard in this case is fiber-specific). Finally, cotton seems to be reverse: count precedes plies.
In general (for wool) 2/10 is DK and 3/10 is Aran.

Whoa dang.

Frozen Hand-Spun

2008-02-04T22:55:00.000+02:00

This is 4 onces of superwash Merino and Tencel from Susan's Spinning Bunny. The colorway is Blueberry Patch. When I ordered this I thought I would spin it on my wheel and make a two-ply. But, after it arrived I decided I should just give in and try to Navajo ply with my spindle. Voila! I spun this on the spindle in batches, wound it into a ball, Navajo-ed it, and attempted to felt the batches together. It actually felted more than I thought it would, though there are weak spots here and there. I was excited about spinning a tencel, and the superwash part didn't click. Still, a great yarn.

Now what?

Erin

2008-01-25T00:51:00.000+02:00

This albatross is finally finished. Well, I have not blocked this, nor am I happy with the collar. I was originally planning on lining this, but since I won't wear it I'm not sure I should bother. This thing is fricken' huge! It is by far the most beautiful tent I have ever knitted.

I enjoyed no part of this project. I guess what I learned was that I really can finish any project I begin.

Bani Hamida Weaving Project

2008-01-04T05:00:00.000+02:00

Before I left Jordan I ran out of time to post pictures from my brief visit to the Bani Hamida Weaving center in the middle of no where. Two very kind people took me down there for one of my last days in Jordan. We went on a Friday which is the day that the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is closed. Nevertheless, we called the nice lady who runs the place and she drove over and opened up just for us!

Bani Hamida weaving provides women a way to earn money through their craft. The center is spacious and beautiful. All the pictures I took are from just one room in which we eye-humped rovings and hand-spun all dyed with veggie dyes.

Here is me, C, and the said nice-lady

(Imagine this oriented correctly)

The yarn, rovings, or finished rugs are all for sale. Amazing. Should you ever be in desolate, rural Jordan, do drop by.

Days like that hot July day make the times I count as great from 2007.

Melon Scarf; Yarn

2007-12-08T20:26:00.000+02:00

I frogged the Melon Shawl I began a few months ago. I just didn't think it was a good use of the yarn I spun. Still, I wanted to knit that pattern, so I used some silk and mohair yarn from Artfibers. It's called Tsuki. It's beautiful.

I adapted the pattern because knitting a border on after the body is knitted is insane to me, and it looks bad. I knit the border, knitted the a corner, picked up body stitches, knitted the opposite corner, knitted, and then finished off by knitting the top border to the end of the body.

Anyways. I've been spinning a bit more, and now I've got a multi-colored lace-weight yarn that I'm really pleased with. I want to try and knit a pull over from cuff to cuff so that the color changes show vertically through the garment.

Emmeline

2007-11-13T00:07:00.000+02:00

I knitted this about 600 years ago. The pattern is from Rowan 28 (?). I made it in 2003.

I'm almost done with the body of Erin. This project will not end.

Shetland Tea Shawl

2007-10-30T21:26:00.000+02:00

I knitted most of this last week while we were waiting to hear if our house was burned down or not. As with the possum scarf, this shawl will always remind me of this last stressful week.

I used the first and second lace motif and then made up my own for the third lace round. I wanted to knit this such that the lace motifs became smaller as the rounds became bigger. I thought it would look neat. I also did this for a short term project (because I'm avoiding Erin) and I didn't want to wade through probable errors for the third motif. I used the edging given in the errata sheet, and it is beautiful.

I reckon I spent about a third of the total knitting time knitting on the edging. I began by following the direction (k the lace edge and a body stitch together), but it produced a "lump" on the front of the work. I progressed by slipping the body stitch over the first lace stitch before I began knitting the row of edging, and it turned out just fine.

The yarn is Lorna's Laces Helen's Lace in the Cedar colorway. I think it's 50% silk and 50% merino. I liked working with this yarn very much. It looks like silver in the sunlight, and a beautiful sea foam green indoors. My only complaint is that the yarn has very little color difference throughout, and in places the shawl simply looks like I got a dab of bleach on it. But, the weight and flow of the shawl is perfect.

Overall I really enjoyed knitting this, but I'm not sure I'll wear it. There is just no way a round shawl looks like anything BUT a table cloth to me.

Check the Errata Sheet before you begin knitting this.

Wilted Melon

2007-10-19T00:06:00.000+02:00

So I decided to use the Melon Pattern from Victorian Lace Today and make a triangular shawl with my hand spun:

I like the pattern very much, however knitting it on the bias has been more difficult than I'd realized. Down the center of the pattern the lace must jut out on the bias, and I've done it irregularly here and there, and it's all I can see when I stretch it out. I just realized last night that the first big repeat of the pattern is much different looking than all the subsequent initial motif beginnings.

The pattern is made up of 2 adjacent motifs, one of 4 stitches and one of 6. So, as I have 4 or 6 stitches show up at the center of the shawl, and the two edges I can begin part of the motif. But on the first big pattern repeat I waited until I had 10 stitches before I began knitting in pattern. Subsequently, though, I began when I had 6 or 4, making the piece over all much more lacy. But now I have a big triangle of stocking stitch at the top center of the piece where I waited to have 10 stitches. Argh.

Other than that...

Diversion

2007-09-23T19:05:00.000+02:00

I've spent less than a month (?) spinning this with the same spindle I used to make my Shetland Shawl. I imagine that this went much more quickly since there is probably less yarn overall (though not too much) and because while spinning is simple to learn, it will take me a life time to master. I can finally spin a consistent lace weight yarn that I'm really pleased with, but I think this is only because I had a year of solid practice.

The next issue is what to do with this? I am trying to decide between something really lacy that will produce a lot of fabric but perhaps conceal the color changes, and something dense that will show the color changes better, but use yarn more quickly. Hummm. Looking at the skein this morning I think I will spin a bit more of the dark red anyway. This should provide ample stalling time for me to decide.

Errata

2007-09-21T18:02:00.000+02:00

I decided to knit the Shetland Tea Shawl from A Gathering of Lace, which is in my top 3 all time favorite knitting books EVAR. However, as with many of the projects in the 1st edition of the book, there are problems with the charts. Then, I went to Ravelry last night to see what others came up with while they knitted their versions. One person pointed out that even in the PDFed Errata sheet there are errors! Oye.

I am stalling on Erin since I loathe fair isle knitting, and I have not knitted lace since June! I just wanted an easy project. I have knitted enough lace now that I can deal with it, and "read" the pattern to see if I'm effin it up as I go or not. But, this brings me to my morning praise for the [expensive] book "Heirloom Knitting." I picked up this book years ago for about 50 bucks! My friends, it is worth every piaster! I have knitted zillions of scarves from her motif library now, and never had a single problem with any of her charts. As I look over my Ravelry project page, I see that what I've put up there is a lot of original designs. I didn't realize that. By original, I mean took motifs from that wonderful book and put them together into garments that I truly treasure.

Perhaps I should have gone back to that book for a quick project. It pains me to admit that AG of L pisses me off as much as it inspires me...

Linen Shawl

2007-09-16T22:20:00.000+02:00

I made this in 2003. It was the first lace I made properly. Until then I was making yarn-overs wrong, and my lace knitting wasn't very lacy at all. I remember the day I figured it out. We were at the Gamble House in Pasadena, and it was there in the car that I realized lace knitting really was supposed to be lacy.

I finished this shawl as I listened to NPR. George Bush was on the radio to announce that we were beginning the invasion of Iraq.

Ribbon Scarf, Shibori

2007-08-29T03:06:00.000+03:00

I made this scarf right after we returned from The City. I just now cut the rest of the brown alpaca/merino for the fringe. Lazy!!

Anyways, I made this from 100 grams of Valparaiso from Artfibers. It is 50% alpaca and 50% merino. The ribbon, also from Artfibers, is called Zingaro. A big mass of it comes in 100 yard "bunches" and I used probably less than 20% of it.

Meanwhile...
On the Shibori front, I've now made 4 scarves. I have been trying to make them such that the silk between the resists is not crushed and wrinkled. Looking at Karren Brito's work, I can't help but notice that the folds are consistent.

I actually like the texture of the wrinkled silk, but I want to know that I can really make one of these as it should be made. Getting there.

Shibori: My New Hobby

2007-08-19T19:34:00.000+03:00

I made this yesterday.

When I was in Jordan I discovered “Entwinements,”Karren Brito’s amazing blog, and for about a month I looked at her directions for making shibori scarves. I love the texture, and besides I can’t see turning down a silk scarf.

So I ordered 12 silk scarves from Dharma Trading. Their prices are great, and I had the scarves in 3 days.Here is the scarf on the first run through. I did not dye, discharge color and over dye. I dyed the whole scarf this awful florescent green, and then I over dyed with brown and 4 other variations of green. I wasn’t ready on my first try to give discharging a try. Perhaps next time. I have 11 scarves left over, and Miss Carousel’s birthday is soon…

The most time consuming part of this process was wrapping the pole. This is how the resists are created. I won’t restate badly what Karren Brito explains so well on her blog. Needless to say, this is the thankless part of the process.

Once the scarf was pleated up on the bias like this I added the brown and green dyes. Then I put a plastic bag over it and put it outside for a few hours to steam in the hideous SoCal heat. After that I washed it and then I steamed it again, and wrapped a towel around it and rolled it so the pleats would be squished in.The most difficult part was waiting a day for the scarf to dry. I was finished at about 3 yesterday, and I unwrapped it this morning.

And here we are.

I am thrilled with this. The resists mostly resisted the second layer of dye, giving the scarf just touches of the bright green under the more toned down greens and brown. I love it.

Myrna

2007-08-12T04:46:00.000+03:00

Here is Myrna from WLD:

I thought, until I began knitting WLD patterns, that my torso was a tad long, but now I feel like a giant. The 3 things I have knitted from WLD are all too short in the torso. I did not use the fancy rib stitch in the pattern. The stripes are not indicated in the pattern. I knitted 4 rows dark, 2 rows light. I casted on with the light color. I made the sleeves an inch (or 2?) shorter. I think those are all of the modifications I made to the pattern.

I knitted this with Shine from Knit Picks. I used 6 skeins of the dark and 1 skein of the light. I threw this in the washer after I knitted it, and stretched it a bit on the floor to dry. I would love to knit this again in a much finer yarn.

Warpless Scarf?

2007-08-11T00:29:00.000+03:00

Yesterday I wove a scarf using 4 of the Artfibers yarns I got last week for the warp. I made a 3 yard warp chain, and had the loom ready to go in just a few hours. I started weaving with a charcoal tencel I had left over from another weaving project, but both K and I agreed that the charcoal obscured the warp too much. We left and went to San Diego for a few days and while there K picked out a lovely cotton/linen textured yarn. I think both of us thought is was about lace weight. But when I got home I saw that the yarn was actually three strands together, like La Bohemme, and it ended up being a semi-bulky yarn.

I hope you can see in this picture how dark the warp actually is. I used a cotton tape yarn, a silk rail road ribbon yarn, a cotton yarn with a band of silver through it, and that nubbley yarn that is silver thread with cotton beads through out. I think they got swallowed up by the weft.

Where did my pretty silk ribbon yarn go?!?

So, I wove the scarf in about 3 hours, and I like it, but the weft does obscure the warp much more than I'd prefer. I wove a few inches with many other stash yarns, and none seemed to go with the warp without hiding it.
I love the texture of the scarf, but it will have to stand more on texture than the wonderful color combinations K and I selected for the piece. I'm not sure where we went wrong, but I like it a lot anyway.

Currently, Erin is the only knitting I'm working on that is coming along. I began the arm steeks before I left Jordan last month. I'm beginning the third and final pattern repeat for the body, and I'm actually learning to like working on this.

I finished knitting Myrna from WLD a few days ago. She is blocking, which will take another month in this heat and humidity.

Road Trip!

2007-08-05T20:48:00.000+03:00

K and I just returned from a near-week road trip up north. North. Where it was no more than 71 degrees (American) during the day. Ahhhhh.

So, after weaving that scarf from the last post I wanted to go directly to Artfibers. I ended up making two trips there. As always, the store offers great yarns found no where else at what I think are darn reasonable prices. Here is a blurry picture of what I brought home:

The two skeins in the back of the picture are things I’ve spun since I returned, they just ended up in the picture. Artyarns was so overwhelming that when we stopped in at the Village Spin and Weave in Solvang yesterday, I purchased nothing. Amazing. The same lady was at Artyarns both times we visited. She was knowledgeable and helpful, though a tad anal-retentive. I wanted 100 grams of the silk/mohair from a cone that had 127 grams on it. I wound 27 grams off the ball and told her I’d take the cone. She said to me, “That’s ok, but just so you know in the future, you wind for yourself, not the store.” In other words, I should have wound 100 grams off the cone and left a cone of 27 grams for The Store. That’s just stoopid. Other than that, she was helpful and friendly, as the folks there have always been.

I want to weave another scarf with the Tesla yarn in it. K consulted and I think it will turn out as neat as the first. The only problem is that he has to drag my loom upstairs again.

More later. I’m almost done knitting Myrna from White Lies Designs. I’ve yet to find this blouse as a completed project anywhere, so I hope to contribute a picture of mine knitted in Shine from Knit Picks.

Weaving!

2007-07-23T23:16:00.000+03:00

I'm back in California. In March I went to Art Fibers in San Francisco and purchased a few skeins of their neat yarn. I must admit I looked forward to coming home to attempt to weave an Art Fiber scarf. I purchased two skeins of a novelty yarn, something I never do. I thought the nubblie yarns would create an interesting texture when woven since they would at times be squished together and at other times leave holes in the fabric. Somehow, the scarf turned out exactly as I hoped it would. I love it! I spent three days making it starting with making the warp chains and ending with blocking.

Last Jordan Post

2007-07-08T14:55:00.000+03:00

I'm up to the steeks (sp?). Since I took this picture I knitted another several inches. Getting there.

Time to go.

Making a Shetland Shawl from Scratch!

2007-06-20T12:14:00.000+03:00

When I was preparing to move away for a year I took time to carefully think about what knitting project I could bring that would keep me busy for a year and not take up too much room in my suitcases.

I am a fast knitter. I knit Hanne Falkenberg’s Ballerina Jacket in 10 weeks while I was doing my dissertation research, taking language classes and dealing with general and overwhelming homesickness. I love A Gathering of Lace, it is a book filled with projects that require 2 or 3 charts and are knitted on size 1 or 2 needles. But even those were not taking the time they used to. So, before I left California I purchased 8 ounces of a wonderful merino and threw it into my suitcase with my drop spindle. 22 hours later I sat in Amman and wondered what I had done.

I pulled off a handful of roving at a time and sat and spun it up while I watched TV or bad movies. At first it did seem to take and eternity, and I was not pleased with the results. I put too much twist into the yarn, and it was inconsistent. I wanted a lace-weight yarn.

Once I’d spun a handful or two I would wind the singles onto a ballwinder to make a center-pull ball. I tied the “inside” and the “outside” end together and plied.

This resulted in batches of yarn. Here is some of the first I spun back in September 2006. It sucks. You can see little corkscrews of yarn I put too much twist into. It is quite inconsistent. The Jordanian half Dinar is slightly bigger than a U.S. quarter.

This is more like it. I spun from early September until early January before I got a yarn I really liked. I had quite a lot of inconsistent fingering-weight yarn from my first attempts and I used that to swatch, something I never do. I took each batch of yarn and washed it with my 2-in-1 shampoo conditioner and hung it on the dresser with some weight to set the twist. Then I took the batches and felted the ends together to create one big skein.

By the middle of January 2007 I had a pretty good ball of lace-weight yarn. I continued to spin the roving and by May I had quite a lot. I originally promised myself I’d spin the whole roving for the practice, but I was too eager to cast on and start knitting. I have about 2 ounces left over. I casted on in March, knit most of this in Iran, and finished it this week. I had this strange sense of, well, nothing, when I finished. I finished the shawl but felt no sense of accomplishment. It was weird. This project has been with me for so long, I guess, that it may never feel finished. Since I took the following pictures I did a single crochet edging with similar colored beads every 10 stitches along both edges.

It won’t be until I return to the States that I have access to my blocking wires and can properly block the shawl. Perhaps that’s why it doesn’t feel finished.

I decided that I like that the two ends do not match.

What an amazing project this has been for me. I hated spindle spinning, but I (mostly) learned to overcome this. I have become a much better spinner. When I visited California in March I sat and spun on my wheel, and I made the best yarn I’ve ever produced with it. There is something about isolating myself from the wheel and working with a device so simple that all I can do is concentrate on drafting, and then doing that for 7 months, that taught me more about spinning than I’ve learned in the last 6 years. Taking on a project like this taught me that momentum comes from the mere passage of time. The more time I invested in this, the more I really came to understand that beautiful work will always wait for me. I nickel-and-dimed this project, and now I have this amazing shawl that I made from scratch!

I will return to California next month, and I am wearing this shawl home no matter how hot it is.

Preview

2007-06-15T16:58:00.000+03:00

9 Months

2007-06-08T11:30:00.000+03:00

I've been in Jordan for 9 months today. It has been one heck of a yarn diet, but no less crafty. Yesterday several folks in my building went on a field trip to a place east of Madaba where there is a knitting/spinning/weaving workshop. And I didn't go! I was actually getting work done. But... Dang. I missed that.

Here and there I pick up and work on Erin.
Every time I think I've got Fair Isle under control, and I've come to understand how much yarn to strand behind the knitting, I turn it and look at the wrong side of the work. Then, I wince. But that will all be on the wrong side, and I realized a while ago that this will need to be lined if it is to survive. No one will know but me, right?

Then there is the Shetland scarf:
On 9 September 2006 I began spinning this yarn, and now I have a Shetland Scarf that is taller than me. I tried to take a picture of me holding this up so you could see it's length, but it won't fit into a picture anymore because it's so tall!

Little by Little

2007-05-23T12:12:00.000+03:00

Erin is coming along slowly. I am considering making a long, vest-version of this.

Then there is the Shetland scarf. I'm not sure if I should put an edging on it or not. Crochet edge? No edge?

Knitting in Iran

2007-05-15T13:19:00.000+03:00

I just returned from two weeks in Iran. I decided to bring the lace scarf with me since it would not take up nearly as much room as Erin. We spent a lot of time on the bus going from beautiful city to beautiful city, and this provided me with plenty of knitting time. Here is my progress:

In Shiraz I purchased two meters of beautiful fabric for 16 USD!

I think I'll make a skirt.

Our last day in Tehran at the archaeological musuem:

Shetland Scarf Beginnings

2007-04-30T12:20:00.000+03:00

Though I told myself I'd finish spinning all of the denim colored wool I have before I began knitting, I didn't. I'm still spinning, but I'm well into the scarf. I decided to go with the pattern I swatched with the fingering-weight I spun months ago. This will be the third scarf I knit out of this pattern, but I just love it. I can't resist a pattern that calls for 15 yarn overs to be purled together.

A close up of one of the shell patterns:

Tomorrow I'm going to Iran for two weeks. Perhaps I'll finish this scarf in that time.

Some Projects

2007-04-25T16:40:00.000+03:00

I made another KSH scarf. I crochetted this and added beads as I went. It is fluffy and just a little scratchy, but I like it.

Erin udate:

I Forgot...

2007-04-18T21:41:00.000+03:00

I don't like knitting Fair Isle

Ballerina

2007-04-16T10:21:00.000+03:00

Here is the Ballerina. I actually finished this in early November, but I've been lazy about taking pictures. I thought I'd go to Petra and take pictures there, but I've not been to Petra once in the time I've lived in Jordan. Now, it's going to get hot here, so when I went to California last month I took the Ballerina and left her there. So, no fancy photos, but here she is anyway:

Here you can see the big panel of stripes that goes under the arm. What I particularly liked about this jacket is that the sleeves are knit as-you-go, which is good for me since I hate knitting sleeves.

Here is the detail of the sleeve and neck. I really like the way the different angles of the ridges come up to the arm and meet.

What I don't like about the jacket is how it just hangs off of me. It is pretty heavy, and it wants to pull back and make my shirt choke me while it just droops over the front of me. Still, I wore it a lot here this winter.

Here is the back. I love the shaping of this jacket. My husband picked the colors. I would have gone with one of the three color choices, but I'm really glad he liked these. For one, this jacket goes with most everything I wear, and the simple colors of this combination make me look more at the knitting than the palette, and I just love the shaping.

Here are my two Hanne projects. Less than a year ago I found her web site and declared I'd never pay that much for a kit, and, well, here we are. I enjoyed knitting both of these, and I wear them both often. I am an experienced knitter, but I'd never done such a large project with short-row shaping, and I enjoyed learning something new.

Lessons from the Ballerina:
1. Hanne’s patterns are not perfect. I used them as guidelines. It's important to have symmetry with her patterns, but it's not the end of the world if you have 200 stitches going into a sleeve and you're supposed to have 204. Just do the same thing throughout, and it will turn out.
2. Hanne thinks that women have arms that are no less than 2 meters long. I'm short-ish, and I shortened the sleeve lengths for both the Mermaid and the Ballerina. When I began the first Ballerina sleeve, I read in her pattern that there is the option to shorten or lengthen within her guidelines, and I shortened even more than her pattern "permitted." Still, they are quite long on me. Don't be fearful about shortening sleeves on her patterns!
3. There is no use for me in reading the whole pattern ahead of time; I have no short-term memory. But, I did find it helpful to read each section prior to knitting and asking myself if her directions made sense. The garments are beautiful, but the patterns are not user-friendly. Focus on symmetry rather than strict adherence to her pattern.

The Beginning

2007-04-06T15:44:00.000+03:00

Erin begins today.

JM's Scarf

2007-04-03T16:10:00.000+03:00

This scarf represents 2 skeins of Knit Picks Alpaca lace yarn (the color is smoke or cloud or something like that), and a few seasons of The Soprano's on DVD. I also knitted this on my trip to Beirut in February. It knitted up pretty quickly; it's Feather and Fan with a Shetland border. I love Feather and Fan since there are only lace stitches on every fourth row, and there is no purling. I got to give this scarf to JM in person when I visited California last month.

Green Scarf

2007-03-02T16:33:00.000+02:00

I made this from yarn I purchased in San Francisco on our road trip last August. I made the scarf as soon as I was home. It took a few days. Each yarn is a different type, but half of them are the same colorway giving the fabric texture while still keeping it more or less monochromatic. It's scratchy, but the drape is beautiful.

Lace Weight

2007-02-25T11:29:00.000+02:00

No, not me. The yarn. I don't have a US coin, but the half dinar is a tad bigger than the US quarter.

This is most of what I've spun since September. I did not include the non-lace weight early attempts in this ball.

Future Erin

2007-02-22T08:09:00.000+02:00

I'm going to co-knit something for the first time in my life. A very nice man who lives in my apartment building in Amman is an amazing knitter, and we talked about making something together. We decided on the Erin sweater from The Celtic Collection. Since all of the yarn is discontinued I ordered a ton of Shetland wool over the internet (as in, without being able to see the colors in person). What could possibly go wrong? Here it is:

The yarn is in California, where I will be visiting next month. It is about the same cost to ship something to Jordan as it is to just fly home for a visit, so I'll pick it up in person. So, momkin, by this fall I will have an Erin:

Ups and Downs; Strikes and Gutters

2007-02-21T16:22:00.000+02:00

Well, I reckon I've spun about three quarters of the merino wool I brought with me and started in September. In that time, my spinning has improved so much that I know I won't use the first big batch of yarn I made; it's too thick. It's about fingering weight, and I want (and now have) lace weight for a grand Shetland scarf I've imagined. So, I thought I'd use the thick stuff to swatch, something I never do. So, here is an edging I made. I decided to turn it into a scarf. The brown is alpaca from Knit Picks that I've doubled up. When I'm out of alpaca, I'll knit another lace edging, and single crochet along the edges with the remaining blue merino.

Here is another sample. Again, this is in my hand spun that is fingering weight. I like this pattern so much. I've made two scarves of this pattern, and I think I will eventually make another when I'm through spinning the merino. I'm going to try and make myself finish spinning the merino before I begin knitting something out of it. I want a good idea about how much yarn I have before I decided on the width of a scarf.

Now for the bad news. These socks, that I just made in December, are khlass. I always prefer socks made of real wool, as opposed to superwash, but I think I may change my mind about that. I took good care of these, and I wore them only with shoes that are well broken in, or with my shoes that have no heel to rub on socks, and still! I love the color, and they are felted a bit and comfortable, but they are history after only about 2 months.

Hardanger Bookmark

2007-02-06T12:38:00.000+02:00

I made this in 2002, but I'm just getting around to posting it. It's made from hand dyed floss that I picked up from one of our trips to Lacis.
In the details you can see that I did a bad job cutting off all of the fabric from the edges.

Socks

2007-01-19T11:59:00.000+02:00

K went to a favorite yarn store of mine back in November and picked out two balls of sock yarn. They were dispatched to Amman via my kind parents who send me junk food and yarn every month.

I took the yarn to Syria on Thanksgiving and began knitting a sock while I waited with my friends for a visa.

Over the next week in Syria I made all of one, and most of the other sock. The heels turned out well.

Conservative Socks

2007-01-04T09:33:00.000+02:00

I like the texture added by the green.

Three variegated yarns, how I love these socks.

I made more socks en route to Damascus. This was my third trip, and my third pair. I still need to photograph the second pair, but they are currently in the laundry. Come to think of it, I still need to post the Hanne jacket I finished months ago...

K brought me two skeins of Koigu KPPPM from the States. The colors are P803196 and P6B5X165. I swear that's what is written on the label. I had some left over green wool from my first Syria socks, and I used most of that up too. I knitted them from the toe up, and above the heel I added a purl row of the green in between the tan-ish yarn. K thinks these socks are loud! The nerve!

Moving Right Along

2006-12-09T11:06:00.000+02:00

I have learned a lot about spinning in the past 3 months. Here is all the yarn I have spun on my spindle so far since 8 September. This may seem silly, but I've come to realize (as tacit knowledge rather than a "fact" that someone told me) that drafting the fiber is more important than the twist. The first lot of yarn I spun was twisted really tightly, but I don't like it as much as the more recent batches of yarn. Spun less tight, the yarn is softer, and I like it much better. It seems more "springy" than my first attempts.

I've been spinning little bits at a time and plying them. Then I felt the ends together to make a bigger skein.

I spin my singles, then I wind from the spindle onto a skein winder. I take that off the skein winder and Peruvian (or Andean) ply from the ball of singles back onto the spindle. At first I took the singles and put it on my finger to keep the ends from tangling, but my finger quickly fell asleep, and it proved to be unnecessary. Just pop the ball of the winder and ply.

Socks

2006-12-02T17:46:00.000+02:00

Much knitting has occurred since 13 November, but much knit-blogging has not. I actually finished the Falkenberg jacket on 14 November, but I've been struggling with blocking it. It's been blocked three times now, but to no great effect. Once it's dry, I'll see if this version is worth photographs.

In the mean time, I finished a project I began in 2003. I bought this yarn at SOAR and knitted one sock in Michigan. The other sock was almost entirely knitted while I waited for my visa at the Syrian border in mid November. I love them. They are pure wool, but worth hand-washing. Each time I wear them they felt a bit more to the shape of my feet. They are comfortable, and they are the first socks I've knitted that didn't have holes at the corner of the heel! As you can see, I didn't alternate skeins. Fire me.

Yarn Shopping in Syria

2006-11-13T12:07:00.000+02:00

This is looking back ath the fiber/notions section of the large market in Damascus.

One of the shops:

This cost me about 3 USD!

This past weekend was a three-day weekend in Jordan (King Hussein's birthday). So, three classmates and I decided to go to Damascus. We had only one full day there, and one afternoon, so we decided to concentrate our time on the Old City and the adjacent market. It was amazing! There is an entire yarn souk. In Damascus people handpaint skeins, which are sold by weight. You will find cotton, linen, wool, and synthetics. If you ever have the chance, go through the main entrance to the market. Walk all the way to the end (where you are let out to a courtyard adjacent to the Umayyad Mosque, and take the last right turn before you enter the courtyard. You'll find yarn, beads, ribbons, and buttons at amazing prices.

Syrians are also amazingly kind and hospitable folks, making a visit to their country a pleasure. Damascus was beautiful, and we all enjoied the fusion of French with Arabic food. Even paying tourist prices, Damascus was a steal!

Knitting in Egypt

2006-11-04T13:26:00.001+02:00

I returned from Egypt last night. I took my jacket with me, and I'm almost finished. When I left 10 days ago I was up to the stripes following the third gusset on the back. Now, I'm knitting the first ridge of the collar. Not bad! The only thing I did not enjoy about taking this along was that it's really hot in Egypt, and having a big wool jacket on my lap was a drag. Now that I'm back in Amman, I need this jacket. Tomorrow the high will be 54 (Fahrenheit). I think winter is nearly here.

All in all I've enjoyed this project. It's easy to work on. It doesn't go quickly or anything, but I appreciate that if I'm going to knit for 2 months solid that I have a project I can work on that doesn't require me watching each stitch I knit.

Ballerina Middle

2006-10-04T06:39:00.000+02:00

Well, school and other adult responsibilities have really hindered my effort to complete this in under one month. I think by Friday I will be to the half way point in any event. After the initial SNAFU with the beginning section, it has been smooth sailing. I think I particularly like this project since the sleeves are knit as I go, so I don't have to suffer through making those at the end. I like this pattern a lot, though I can see that it will want to slip back since it's already so heavy in the back.

mo on mo action

2006-09-23T07:03:00.000+02:00

Evil meets evil:

This makes me happy.

tea set

2006-09-17T20:14:00.000+03:00

This is so cool. A tea set which incorporates toxic plants!

spinning

2006-09-12T16:46:00.000+03:00

In an effort to draw my projects out into longer and nastier things, I purchased 8 ounces of roving last month. The color is called "Denim". I brought my drop spindle, and I've begun spinning. I'm taking the singles and winding them on my skein winder. Then, I take both ends, and put the ball on my finger, and I Peruvian (or Andean) ply the singles. I could use some practice. A shetland scarf pattern awaits this yarn.

Ballerina Jacket (the beginning, anyway)

2006-09-09T22:37:00.000+03:00

Greetings from Amman. Here is the beginning of my Ballerina jacket. I received this at the end of May for my birthday, but I wanted to take it to Jordan with me. It was very difficult to resist knitting this after I finished the Mermaid a few months ago. I started this jacket in California. I wanted the first few ridges to be done there. I made great progress waiting at the airport, and was several ridges into it before I realized Hanne was being funny, and put in an extra comment that lead me to knit most of this wrong. On one ridge the instructions are to do short rows, and to turn and YO 2 stitches before the previous YO. The next ridge, which we are supposed to do for a long time, instructs us to repeat the previous row, but "...on each ridge turn 2 sts earlier than on the previous." Thus, I turned 4 stitches before, not two. Turns out she was kidding! Ha! I frogged most of this early this morning, save the first two ridges, and re-knit all day. Not bad progress for a day of frogging/knitting. I know it's been said before, but I'll say it again: for this much money these patterns could be written MUCH better.

Lace Scarf

2006-09-05T19:41:00.000+03:00

Well, here she is:

Thank You Amy!

2006-09-05T07:44:00.000+03:00

Look at this beautiful scarf I was given yesterday! I think this yarn is alpaca and silk, and it was knitted into a beautiful lace scarf for me to take to Jordan.

Here she is having the blocking wires woven through the slip-stitch edge. I washed the scarf, and carefully wrung it out. It was still pretty damp at this point.

I try to have two strands of yarn around the blocking wires. Just one strand, and it pulls out and looks stupid; more than two strands, and the work can become weirdly shaped.

All pined out. I get all the wires set, and pin the whole thing, then I go back around and stretch the scarf even more. I can eek out a few more inches of width and length by doing this. Now the scarf is stretched to it's limit.

I catch a few stitches in the corner with a pin so the scarf has a nice squared corner.

Tomorrow morning, it will be airy and beautiful.

chenille scarves

2006-08-30T08:15:00.000+03:00

A year ago I got a warping board. I was so excited I made a warp chain that I now realize was about 5 yards long (!). After cutting off the alpaca/mohair disaster, I threw this on the loom and had it warped in about 90 minutes. 24 hours after that I had about 4 and a half yards of scarf. I cut it in half and now have two lovely, fluffy scarves.

Pre-scarf: I ordered a zillion ounces of chenille a few years ago. This is what is left over after weaving, actually. I could weave a yurt with this much yarn!

Under tension on the loom:

8 harnesses, but I like plain weave, thank you very much.

Out of the washer and dryer, it's a totally different fabric:

This is the scarf back when it was one big honkin' thing:

evil cats are ok

2006-08-26T01:49:00.001+03:00

Though it's strictly against this blog's mandate, here is a cat post. I present "Evil Mo". Admittedly stolen from the Ugly Dolls, I made a cat template, and felted some white roving I had to make a Mo-sheet. I added a dash of black alpaca top to make the Mo stripe. It dried over night, and today I cut and assembled Evil Mo in time for Miss Carousel's impending birthday.

"Come here, I want to rip your face off."

Pedomorphic to suit current tastes.

The real Evil Mo, and the Mo Sheet.

failed scarflet

2006-08-26T01:02:00.000+03:00

I am leaving in less than two weeks, and I feel the urgent need to finish my non-knitting projects before I go. I have a Hanne Falkernberg kit waiting for me, and I'm going to make myself wait until I'm in Jordan to start it. Thus...

It seemed like a good idea at the time. A few years ago, Handwoven had a wonderful issue in which they explored weaving patterns such as music, or numerical patterns in weave structures. Being a big fan of Pi, I decided to make a Pi scarf. If you look at the scarf and have the patients to count, you will see that from left to right there are first 3, then 1, then 4, and on and on, ends each of the blue mohair. I made a warp of KSH in that weird blue color they have, and of the brown/rust alpaca lace yarn from Knit Picks. First bad idea. I had such a time warping the loom. If I wanted a seersucker fabric, I would have loved the scarf, but I didn't! I had to repair broken ends several times. The weaving tension was only good for the first inch of the fabric. I tried to make a good attempt of this. I actually had the idea over a year ago, and set about right that moment to make the warp chains, and begin weaving. My loom has sat in our spare room for a year untouched. I decided to drag it upstairs this week (not a small feat), and finish this thing. It seems like blue and brown or tan are in right now, and this scarf would had been perfect! But, I couldn't take it anymore. I cut it off the loom two days ago. I had a big ole' warp chain of this nice rose/tan/black chenille. So, I put that on the loom in an hour, and with in 24 hours had two nice scarves. Those will be posted later. With a week and a half free from teaching and school, I've been so crafty that I have a backlog of projects to post.
It's too bad, the fabric I did get out of the mohair/alpaca fiasco was soft, thin and yet dense. Arghhh.

Socks

2006-08-24T23:15:00.000+03:00

I haven't knitted socks in years. They bore me. I currently have three single socks that I never made mates for. I have thought about wearing them anyway. I started these on our road trip two weeks ago, and by the time we returned I had 1.5 socks. I finished up sock number two a few days ago. These have been run through the wash once already. They feel a bit more soft.

These are made from two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepard's Sock in the colorway Vera. I have liked this colorway for a while, but I never resorted to getting two skeins from eBay. I saw these skeins at a great yarn shop a few weeks ago, and I decided to get them for our road trip. I knitted them toe up so I could use ever bit of the yarn, but in the end I had a bit left of both. Most of the socks that I have knit were with a slip-stitch heel. I can do that no problem. I really prefer the look of the short-row heel, or what ever this style is called, but I've never once been able to knit it without ending up with little holes at the corner. What is the trick? I think I like cuff-down socks, less to bind off, no worries about an elastic edge on the cuff. In both pictures you can see the differences in the colors. They are the same lot, but I guess hand painted yarn can't be too consistent. Does anyone actually switch back and forth between two balls for each sock?

felt purse

2006-08-21T21:24:00.000+03:00

I made my first big sheet of felt. This morning I decided to cut into it and make a little bag. I need to buy a snap to sew onto the purse so it will stay shut. I made the felt a bit thick so that bag would last for a few years, but as a consequence the flap won't stay shut. I have not ironed this bag. Once I do that, I'm sure it will keep a shape better. I mostly used merino rovings I had, and I added a little bit of silk from a sliver of silk I picked up from Treenway a few years ago.

I cut the strap on the bias (such as this exists in a felted fabric). I like the way the contrasting colors cut through here and there.

If you look closely on the flap and the strap you can see that I stitched around the edges. I used a beautiful hand painted wool and silk floss I purchased years ago.

Here is the back. I like the splash of silk across the top there.

felt

2006-08-17T00:57:00.000+03:00

I made another felt scarf. I think this one is much better than the first. I followed the directions in my new felt book, and I'm pleased. Using bubble wrap is really effective.

In the fluorescent kitchen light:

In the California sun:

Close up:

back from vacation

2006-08-15T20:59:00.000+03:00

K and I intended to drive the coast up to Portland, but we only made it as far as Sonoma. What a wonderful trip. Our first stop was at Village Spin and Weave in Solvang. I got 8 ounces of a wonderful blue roving to take with me for my move. I also got Poetry in Stitches and a great book about felting called Felt Making and Wool Magic. Really great pictures. I don't care for most of the projects, but the instructions alone make it worth while. Then we made our way to Berkeley where we went to Lacis. This shop alone is worth an 8 hour drive. They have everything a fiber enthusiast could want and they have reprinted all the best old how-to books from the last 150 years. I also finally got a copy of Art to Wear! Yikes, what a book.
The haul from Solvang and Berkeley:

Then we went to a shop about 2 miles east on Adeline from Lacis called Tale of the Yak. They have expensive ribbons and soaps, but we go for the amazing case of jewelry. It's really fantastic. Every time we go they always have wonderful (if expensive) eye miniatures. Amazing.
Then we went back to San Francisco where we stopped in at Britex Fabrics. 4 floors of fabric to pet. They have crapy craft fabric, and they have yarn-dyed herringbone cashmere, and everything in between. The fourth floor is all notions. I went for buttons for the Hanne Falkenberg jackets I have. It's disgustingly fun. Right down the street from Britex is a great place called Artfibers. They have a little shop up some narrow stairs, and they yarn is wonderful. They have great natural fibers that they dye. They folks who work there are friendly, and they will design a pattern there for you and put together a custom kit. I love the colors, and I love the lure of a custom cardigan, or shawl, or even a skirt. This little shop is worth the chore of finding parking in downtown on a weekday.

Yarn from Artfibers:

It all started with this ribbon on the left:

And, I made 1.5 socks from the Lorna's Laces I picked up last week.

i have a new hobby!

2006-08-05T19:57:00.000+03:00

K got me that wonderful Simply Felt book a few days ago. Man, try googling "Simply Felt" and prepare to find some weird porno, and very few finished objects. I felted two sample squares that I didn't photograph. One looks like tissue paper, and the other is almost that good. I really like the Zig Zag Muffler pattern, so I thought I'd give it a try. The first one I made is a hard tube of lint. I put lots of silk wisps in that one, shame about that! The second one is not as felted as I'd like it to be, but I worked on this thing for over an hour and one end and parts in the middle are felted. I actually like that it's light and tissue-ie. K thinks it sucks. It's my second attempt at a scarf. I can only improve! I liked this project, though. I've never felted before, and it's not like I don't have several pounds of roving to use.

Most of the scarf in awful fluorescent light:

Still awful light, but you can see some of the silk pieces. I just set them on top of the wool roving strips, and it is now stuck.

The other end. You can see that the first two strips felted, while the rest is not quite there:

Silk parts stuck to wool parts: