Artistic Inspiration

I took the day off from work today and went to see two museum shows which are closing on Sunday.

Show One: French jewelry of the 20th century, at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. I have just one thing to say: the designers and artisans who made jewelry in the early 1900's were incredible. The later jewelry was less awe inspiring, although still beautiful. There's also a great companion exhibit of French grahic arts from the Museum's collection.

Show Two: Vivienne Westwood: 36 Years in Fashion, at the De Young museum, also in SF. Aside from the fact that several hand crocheted garments were labelled "Knitted" this show was, to me, not exciting. I liked her tailoring, chutzpah, shoes and use of historical imagery but not really her design aesthetic. There were a few examples of knitted, felted mohair jewelry that were interesting to me as a knitter. One dress was knitted sideways in a feather and fan patterm with felted leaves and flowers appliqued around the neck.

Last night I started a new sock with some Colinette Jitterbug yarn in Jay, a great turquoise mix. The Jitterbug yarn is very stretchy, somewhat like Socks that Rock. Haven't decided what pettern to use, hopefully the Jaywalkers. More tomorrow at WW Knit in Public Day.

Edited to add: The Jaywalker pattern is working out well. I'm using a 2.5 mm needle and 76 stitches. I started off with 68 stitches and knit 1.5" of 2 X 2 ribbing. The socks measure 10" around slightly stretched. Since I have thick ankles that's okay with me. I'm going to make the leg shorter than normal so I don't run out of the Jitterbug yarn.

Personal Knitting Herstory, Part I

I'm wearing these summery socks today as I write this. These are my lost socks.

Two posts in one day! That's unusual for me, especially this month. I found this on fluffy knitter Deb's blog. Consider yourself tagged if you want to perpetuate this meme.

bold for stuff you've done, italics for stuff you plan to do eventually and normal for stuff you don't intend to do ever unless you move to Alaska.

Afghan
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fiber yarn
Domino knitting (= modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with Bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/Doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Baby items
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffitti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Continental Knitting (just in a class so far)
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book (maybe)
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Knitting to make money
Buttonholes
Knitting with Alpaca
Fair Isle Knitting
Norwegian knitting ( I do live in California, and not in the mountains)
Dyeing with plant colors
Knitting items for a wedding ( I made my own wedding dress, but it wasn't knitted)
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies...)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone else's handspun yarn
Knitting with dpns
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male to knit
Bobbles I HATE bobbles!
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dyeing yarn
Steeks
Knitting art (I've crocheted art, though)
Knitting two socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars simultaneously
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured Knitting
Kitchener Bind Off
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and Purling Backwards (great for entrelac)
Machine knitting
Knitting with self patterning/self striping/variegated yarn
Stuffed Toys
Baby items - rarely, I'd rather buy a gift and knit for adults, just like Deb
Knitting with Cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with Linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO (just in a class so far)
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mits/armwarmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug (I crocheted a room sized rug once, though)
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/Bolero/Poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

June 9th is once again WORLD WIDE KNIT IN PUBLIC DAY!!!!

Knitting with Kids

I volunteer at a lunch time knitting group at the local middle school once a week. We have two boys and from 10-15 girls on a regular basis. This week was the first meeting after spring vacation, and we met in a new room, so there were only two students today. There were actually four, but two hadn't brought their projects. It was a good thing.

We had given most of them a little felted bag project to work on over the break. The group was started by a teacher at the school, and we have different helpers each week (mostly knitters who come to my weekly night time group.) The bag pattern we gave them has eyelets for a drawstring, so we showed them how they will be making the yarn overs. I showed them my Petticoat socks, which have lots of eyelets in a very defined pattern. I just looked at the pattern link and think I must have continued the pattern (a variation without the purls) down the instep of my own socks, because the pattern shows a stockinette instep and my feet show a patterned one.

I was sitting across the table from one girl, whom I had never helped before, so I could only see her knitting from the back. I had already helped her with the issue of yarn strands going down to the bottom of the rectangle and then going back up into the knitting. Since the bag will be felted, I said that it wouldn't be problem this time, but I showed her what she was doing wrong. We'll just cut off those loose strands! I also noticed that her knitting was really tight on the needles. She said she had tried to loosen up but it wasn't working. I was watching her knit from the back of her work, and I noticed that she was (trying to) knit into the back loop. The lightbulb went off. She was twisting every stitch and making it very hard for herself. I showed her how to knit into the front of the stitch (leading edge, as Merike Saarniit says). She left after knitting "just one more row" feeling much better and happy with her knitting.

The group has many low income students, so they have limited access to yarn and needles. When the group started the teacher had them all make their own needles from wooden dowels, and many knitters donated yarn (mostly acrylic). We were also given a very generous donation of yarn and needles by the US distributor for Garnstudio (her warehouse is right down the highway). I found a flat knitted bag pattern that uses worsted weight wool and size 10 US needles, and we had the right size needles from her donation for 10 knitters to make bags. The teacher bought some wool yarn at Michael's, and I wound each skein into two balls to make it go further. The variegated yarns were more popular than the solid colors (surprise surprise).

Tune in next week for the further adventures of Cunha School's lunchtime knitting group.

Favorite Yarns for Felting Projects

I personally prefer a heavier bag, so I almost always double strand, except for the self striping yarn. If you can find a bulky yarn that's not too expensive you don't have to double strand. Lamb's Pride Bulky is great. It has 125 yards a skein, so it's actually cheaper than using two strands of the worsted weight Lamb's Pride at 190 yards a skein. It's harder to find in as many colors, though.

One way to use Kureyon without double stranding it, to keep the great stripes, is to use it in a slip stitch or stranded design with one of the solid yarns. I've knitted it with Paton's Classic Wool and Elann Peruvian wool and they felt together wonderfully. I haven't tried felting the Karaoke yarn from SWTC. It feels so good knitted that I'd rather keep it as it is. I'm going to try some entrelac with it, though. The Paton's SWS is a Karaoke knockoff, with more wool and less soysilk. It felts wonderfully, but it comes in limited colors.

Personal Faves:
a. Elann Peruvian Aran alpaca/wool (good sub for Jamieson's heathered Arans, but not as many colors)
b. Elann Peruvian wool
c. Knit Picks wool of the Andes
d. Paton's Classic Wool (limited color range, easy to find, often on sale, new striping colors)
e. Plymouth Galway (good price, harder to find, but has self striping and heathers, more selection)
f. Lamb's Pride Worsted
g. Noro Kureyon (just for the wonderful striping colors)
h. Cascade 220 comes in so many colors that it is a great choice for the exotic colored bags, or the bag where you need 5 shades of one color. It's more expensive than the others for standard colors, though.
i. Jamieson's heathered Arans, many colors, but expensive

Caron's Felt It is a lighter bulky yarn, and it's multicolored. I used it doubled and the hat came out great, with very mushed together colors. I tried to keep the stripes together when I double stranded but they would not stay together. It also comes in limited colors, not all of which are great.

I personally have never used Lopi, because the Icelandic wool bothers me. It felts great stranded with multicolored mohair, though. Other worsted weight yarns also felt wonderfully stranded with a multicolored mohair. I have a knitting friend who can tolerate knitting with Lopi and mohair, and she has made wonderful felted bags using them together.

I just finished two entrelac bags which I felted. My very first entrelac! One was in Kureyon, and it is lighter weight than the bag I made from two strands of the Elann Peruvian Aran. I believe that Aran weight is slightly heavier than the US version worsted weight. Bulky weight yarn is heavier than Aran. Last year I used Berroco Hip Hop with double stranded Cascade 220 for a bubble bag (Pursenalities) and was disappointed with the result. The Cascade was fine, it was the expensive Hip Hop that lost color and felted strangely. It's a thick/thin yarn.

25 things about my knitting life

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like? My favorites are soft yarns and natural fibers. I have trouble with mohair and scratchy wools like Shetland and Lopi. I like cotton and wool blends for socks, merino wool, silk, angora, cashmere, baby alpaca.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in? I have a nice ceramic vase on my desk for the long 14" straights that I don't use very much. I didn't buy any of these long needles, except for one pair of Brittany's in black walnut with carved ends. I inherited some from my mom and others somehow arrived at my door.
I use toothbrush holders for my double points, which I store in a plastic school supplies box. I have a fabric roll for my 10" straights and a pouch with plastic bags for my circs, which have size labels on the cables. I have all of my 16" circs in a zippered pencil case to go in a 3 ring binder. I store my crochet hooks in a wooden pencil case that slides open, which was my mom's when she started school in 1930. I've been using this case since I learned to crochet in 1971 and inherited my great grandmother's steel crochet hooks.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? I've been knitting for about 8 years this go round. I learned the first time (if you don't count the time my mom tried to teach me when I was 8) in college when I knit a top down sweater on circs for my mom from Bernat Berella. I stopped knitting for about ten years, and started again when Kaffe Fasset's first book came out. I paused for quiltmaking after a few years until 1999 when a quilting friend dragged me to Stitches West. This time it seems to have stuck, and I now have a SABLE (stash acquired beyond life expectancy) just of sock yarn, not to mention the other stuff.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list? Not really, just a save for later cart at Knit picks and Amazon.

5. What's your favorite scent? I'm allergic to most perfume, and I can't smell because of the allergies. I wish I could smell chocolate!

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Chocolate, chocolate chocolate. Home made cookies.Favorite candy? See's almond truffles

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Mostly knitting and quilting. I can crochet, used to do cross stitch and macrame.

8. What kind of music do you like? Eclectic, a wide range. Jimmy Buffett, the Beatles, Carly Simon, George Winston, Celtic harp, Dixie Chicks, vintage rock, Elvis, Broadway shows, Billie Holiday, Joan Baez

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Blues, teals, some purples, rose Any colors you just can't stand? Orange, beige, tan, puce, blah.

10. What is your family situation? Married 1 kid who's grown up but still at home Do you have any pets? a dwarf bunny named Handsome Benjamin

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos? hats, scarves, mitts, sometimes ponchos

12. What are your favorite item/s to knit? Hard to say. Socks, felted bags and slippers seem to be most popular, with hats, scarves and now fingerless mitts bringing up the rear.

13. What are you knitting right now? socks, felted bags, stranded vest

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts? Doesn't everybody?

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? I usually knit on circulars or dpns. I don't like long straights at all. Bamboo, aluminum, or plastic? wonderful Wood, steel Addi's, good bamboo, vintage nylon circs, vintage Balenes.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift? The swift is broken (too much use?) but I have two ball winders

17. How old is your oldest UFO? 1973, a turqouise cotton crocheted pineapple tablecloth which I may make into a shawl.

18. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas

19. Is there anything that you collect? yarn, fabric, books, stamps

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to
get your hands on? Of course. Sea silk and wool sock yarn is the latest obsession. Ebony and rosewood double points & circulars, ebony anything! I want the Koigu book and more Koigu yarn to go with it.

21. What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? Knitter's, Creative Knitting, INKnitters, Interweave Knits, Knit Simple

22. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
I just learned entrelac, and need more practice with cables. Intarsia is intriguing, too. I love Kaffe Fassett's work.

23. Are you a sock knitter? Yes
What are your foot measurements? 9.75" length 10" around ball 11" ankle

24. When is your birthday? May 3

25. What is your preferred sock knitting method? I like to use one 12" long ADDI turbo for the body of the sock, and I use douible points to knit the heel and the toe decreases. I also use the three needle bind off to finish the toe.

Felted Tote Bag

Inspired by the Lunch Bag in Knit One, Felt Two, I am writing up a pattern for the tote bag made from bulky weight yarn using a brickwork slip stitch design. A friend gifted me with three skeins of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky in complementary colors. I didn't have enough of any one color, so I used all three and stopped knitting when I ran out of yarn. I finished the top of the tote with an I-cord bindoff and sewed on rope handles. Check back here soon for the pattern and picture.

Fulling / Felting Instructions:
Set washing machine to small load size – determine size based on number of items to be fulled. If there are several pieces, you may need to increase your load size. Set temperature to HOT. Fill the machine and set it for the longest wash cycle available. Use a little detergent if desired.
Place the knitted tote in a pillow case and close with safety pins if your washer does not have a lint filter. Also, front loading washing machines may require more time and a larger wash level to ensure complete fulling.

Toss a pair or two of jeans into the washer along with the pillow case containing the knitted tote. Please do not use towels! Towels give off quite a bit of lint which will stick in the fulled piece and will require tweezers to remove from the fulled surface of the tote (not fun!).

Close the lid and let the washer agitate the piece. After a few minutes, check on the tote’s fulling progress. Pull it out and see if it’s shrunk as much as desired. If the piece has not shrunk as much as desired, stop the washer before it enters the rinse cycle and begin it on another wash cycle.

Once the piece is the desired size, remove it from the washer and place in a bucket. Stop the machine and let the water cool down. Put items back in the machine and run through the rinse cycle to remove any detergent. Allow the washer to spin to remove the excess water, or remove the tote from the washer and roll it in a towel to remove the excess moisture. It may prevent folds and torqing if you avoid the spin cycle of the washer. The tote will not dry as fast if you do this, since this process does not remove as much water.

Note that if the piece is fulled excessively, the fabric will lose its desirable, flexible texture. Excessive fulling will result in a very stiff, board-like fabric.

Shape the piece and set it aside to dry completely. Trim any ends that may have worked their way out during the fulling process. The tote may be “shaved” if it’s too hairy for your tastes. Just be sure to toss the “whiskers” in the trash rather than running it down the drain.

Felting with SWS Soy Silk and Wool

I would be careful double stranding the SWS soy/wool. I tried double stranding a short striping yarn (caron's Felt It) and one strand of yarn kept stretching more than the other one, throwing the matching color stripes I started with out of whack. This may not happen as much with the SWS yarn, because the color stripes are longer.

I also "felt" the swatches at Michaels and decided against felting any of my SWS yarn projects. I have found that using slip stitch patterns works well to double up too light yarn without obscuring the pattern. They felt beautifully, and are much easier to make than a fairisle type stranded bag.

Here's a link to one: http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall06/PATTlittleslip.html
and another http://elann.com/ShowFreePattern.asp?Id=41024

Neither of these would work (IMHO) with the SWS, but this one should: http://notanartist.blogspot.com/2006/04/andrea-bag-pattern.html

Knit and felt a swatch first.

Slip Stitch Patterns in Felting

Slip stitch patterns make wonderful designs in felted items, and tend to strengthen the fabric, especially if you use one strand of worsted weight wool instead of a bulky weight. I made a small felted bag last week from my leftover Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride. I used the Ball Band Recipe from Monica's blog, with different yarn, of course. I also knitted the bag without a base, then picked up stitches from the inside of the base and knitted a mitered square to close up the bottom. I used an I-cord bind off to finish the bag, and put in holes for a drawstring just in case that's how I decide to finish it. I haven't felted it yet, but it looks great. As soon as I figure out how to get pictures off my phone or my DD's camera I will post some. I used a chocolate brown main color and, since I had lots of golfball size balls of many colors of the Lamb's Pride, every alternate stripe is a different color. The following is a slight variation on Monica's pattern stitch.

Multiple of 4 stitches:
Round 1 and 2 with MC Knit
Round 3 and 4 with CC *Knit 3, slip 1*
Round 5 and 6 repeat round 1 and 2
Round 7 and 8 with CC Knit 1, *slip 1, Knit 3*, repeat around between *'s
Repeat rounds 1-8 for pattern

Fairisle Felted Bag

I joined a knit along for the Nicky Epstein bag in the Vogue Knitting Holiday issue.
I am using Bartlett's Maine Wool which I had on hand in most of the same colors. I started out knitting it double stranded on size 13 needles to make a larger bag, but I'm not sure I'll continue with the larger size.

I've also been distracted by learning entrelac, and made a bag from leftover Kureyon and a larger bag from Elann's Peruvian Aran, wool and alpaca in nice heathered colors. I'm not using the same colors as the pattern, but close. I like blues, greens and purples myself, but I also included a nice dark heathered red.

This yarn would also work well in the Vogue fairisle bag. I have a swatch card, so I am going to look and see if there are enough of the right colors to make the bag.