lace

Ideas Generate More Ideas

First the hand report–looks like it might just be tendonitis.  I know how to treat that.  I usually leave out the Rest part though.  Thanks for your good wishes and inquiries.

Rereading the last post about activities for kids this summer, I realized that there were some things in there for us knitters and crafters.  Let me draw your attention to two things.

First the color wheel activity.  Years ago at the Colorado Knitting Camp, Judy Ditmore of Interlacements came to help teach us colorwork skills.  Judy was a well-known weaver who had begun a yarn dyeing business so she had really worked the idea of seeing color.  She brought suitcases full of balls and cones of yarn.  Much of it appeared to be leftovers from her own projects.  The first thing we did was get in the floor and arrange all that yarn into a giant colorwheel.

When I came back to Charlotte that year, I pulled out my own stash and repeated the activity.  I was stunned to see that I, who owned a ton of yarn, had significant holes in my color wheel.  Not one single skein of yellow or gold or anything near it.  And I knew that yellow was one of those colors that make others pop and look great.  A row of yellow in a fair isle pattern is almost invisible, but makes your purples vibrant.   And do I ever have a load of purples!!

Take the time to try this for yourself.  I know you THINK you know what colors you have, but when you get them all out and together, you notice that you don’t just have red, but orange-red and a blue red, and does this fuschia go with the reds or the purples??  You’ll have fun, learn something, and probably rediscover a neat yarn you had forgotten.

Second was this picture from Microsoft Office files.

We knitters associate spider webs with lace.  The thinnest lace yarns are even called Spider Web.  Look at this picture again and at how uneven the “lace” is.  Yet it is still delicate and beautiful.  I wonder if Myra Wood who wrote Crazy Lace saw something like this and was inspired.

In Australia, in my creative tsunami, I crocheted some laceweight yarn into what I called a Walkabout scarf.  I just did whatever without counting or thinking and occasionally looked at it and somehow made it a bit straighter.  I still love that scarf, but most of all, I loved that I carried the project all over Brisbane with me and did public lace knitting.  Without a chart or a pattern.  Just made it up.

After Debbie Carlsen told me about Myra Wood’s book, I got a copy through interlibrary loan and then played with knitting random lace patterning.  This was really fun.  It was easier to keep the edges straight by just trying to wind up with the same number of stitches on every row.  In other words, any time I did a yarnover to put in a hole, I made certain that I did a k2tog somewhere on the row, but not necessarily beside the YO.

Not blocked, just pinned out

Again it was fun, easy to carry around for KIP time, and once blocked, looked like it had been planned all along.  I really encourage you to give this a try.  It makes great summer knitting because it is so light weight.  And since artists are always saying they take their inspiration from nature, well, if irregular patterns are okay with spiders, why not with me?

Oh, put that lace weight on a size 6 or so needle.  If you want lace, then stay away from tiny needles.  At least for this activity.

More later–

Categories: color, freeform, lace, Personal thoughts | 3 Comments

Hooked on Linen

Yes, more crochet.  And in the chunky yarn I used to not like.  And not quite finished.  But I’m not sure where to go.

This began with Debbie Stoller’s book, The Happy Hooker. “Short ‘n Sweet” is a little jacket just like I like, and it is even done top down.  However, the worsted weight yarn it calls for is much smaller than the yarn I used, so lots of estimating and crossing of fingers followed.

I really like the stitch pattern and it was fun to do.  The pattern called for me to begin with 94 sts, but 37 was what worked to fit my shoulders.  So I improvised and worked on just using the chart of the pattern as a guide.  Frankly I just pretended I was knitting a top down sweater, tried it on a lot, and shaped away.

What I have is a cropped vest.  But I have lots more yarn.  Should I try to add a short sleeve so I can wear it over a cami?  Should I make it a long vest to below the hips?  I don’t have a long summer vest, but I am worried this will make my hips look big (as if they aren’t already) and that the lace would look funny if my top and pants were different colors.

Maybe I’ll make a purse out of the extra yarn.  I don’t know how to create a sleeve in crochet—and in a lace yet!  May be too much thinking.

Yarn:  elann’s Linen Beach, 85% cotton, 15% linen; 50g=68 yds, 15 sts/4″ on a US 10.

More later–

Categories: crochet, designing, FOs, lace | Tags: | 2 Comments

Japonica

I made something from someone else’s pattern and didn’t change it.  Of course, I’ve never made adult crochet garments before, so that made it easier to be led by someone else.

This vest came from a book of Japanese patterns brought to me from Japan by two awesome knitting students.  I’d tell you who designed it, but there is not a word of English on this book.

As with many Japanese patterns, this was a chart.  Totally a chart and nothing else.  Even a chart in pieces.  But it was amazingly easy to follow.  The symbols for the stitches are the universal crochet symbols.  As for size, I just used my swatch to determine the number of repeats I needed.

The yarn is a perle cotton what I bought years ago to use for weaving.  It is mercerized so I has a lovely sheen.  I think it is a Pearl 5 size.  It’s like the perle cotton you can use for embroidery and crewel that you buy in 8 yard skeins.   I have cones of it in three colors.  It was soft and easy to work with, so I think you will see something in blue and turquoise in my future.  If you are interested in some similar, try Silk City Yarns or Cotton Clouds.

Here’s a detail of the lace and the front edge.  The bow marks the Right or Public side of the front.  I took it off when I finished.  I use a lot of markers.

If you haven’t learned to crochet yet, take a class or go to youtube.  It is easy and being able to crochet just a little can really help your knitting.  It’s also fast and a great way to work with lace weight yarns easily.

More later–

Categories: crochet, FOs, lace | Tags: | 1 Comment

Shawls and Crazy Lace

Mountain Spring Shawl

Remember the Mountain Spring Shawl some of you volunteered to test knit.  Well, I have knit another to check my numbers–it’s very different because the yarn is so different.  Just need to type the directions and I will send them onto you soon.

This new one is knit from Maggi’s Cotton, a cotton/rayon boucle from Maggi Jackson that was residing in the stash. 

It is crushingly simple because the yarn is the star.

Another thing I’ve been knitting is Crazy Lace.  Myra Wood of freeform fame wrote this book and self-published it.  It is out of print and will cost you at least $70 IF you can find one.

Debbie Carlson told me to get it through Interlibrary Loan which the lovely folks at the public library arranged for me.  Thank you, Churchill County, Nevada.

It is a great read, because it encourages you to  break the rules whenever it suits you.  If you are a knitting anarchist as I am, you love that.  If you are new to breaking the rules and a bit skittish, Myra helps you out.  She reviews some things about lace and shapes and then eases you into this.  Either way, you win.

Myra’s Random Crazy Lace pic

How easy is this?  I stood on the sidelines at 5 year old soccer practice yesterday, talking to a woman about my purse that I had knitted, WHILE I was knitting random lace.

Not blocked, just pinned out

It’s like the art yarn I just spun recently.  There are no mistakes.

In this piece that I have pinned out so you can see it better, I have sort of one rule.  Keep the number of stitches the same.  So for every yarnover I throw in, I do a decrease somewhere, somehow.

Garter st lace

I’ve tried garter st as a foundation, knitting the wrong side rows.

Stockinette st lace

I’ve tried stockinette, purling the wrong side rows.  I like this better with this variegated yarn.  (Knitpicks Shimmer, silk/wool, leftover from a shawl)

Everyone can yo, k2together

What am I making?  Depends on how big it turns out to be;  right now I’m just making, and I am happy with that.  Who would have thought that lace could be a public group knit project?

Pooled section–I like solid colored lace.

Google Myra, check Ravelry, go to your local library.  This is another MUST DO!

YO twice, sl 1, k2 tog, psso for bigger holes.

More later–lots of new stuff.

Categories: book review, lace, techniques | 2 Comments

Walkabout Lace

Don’t you love the name?

Even though Prudence’s scrumbling class did not do anything like this, I still have to credit her with the “push” that led me to this idea.  I’m sure it isn’t new; nothing in fiber art is.  However it is new to me and I had a blast making this scarf.

The yarn is what was left over from my Daybreak Gold Adaptation shawl.  I used a size B crochet hook.  I chained a length that seemed good for a scarf and began.  Actually I just began because I had no finished project in mind when I started.  I just wanted to see how the yarn reacted crocheted on a size B hook.  I was simply scrumbling.

It grew.  There is no repetition or pattern in here.  I just crocheted side to side and tried to keep each row different while keeping the width about the same.  Sometimes I failed.  I discovered how easy it is to just rejoin the yarn and do some filet or double crochet shell like things along the side to correct the width.

Partway through I thought about front post double crochet (treble for the rest of the world).  I did a few motifs with that which were actually planned.  Then I began to plan a little for where I would create solid bits.  You only have to plan that one row ahead and you can change your mind (or forget to do it).

If you make one of the holes too big, you can go back later and fix it.  This is no pressure.  Just make stitches and later you can adjust if you need to.  Heck, you don’t even need to keep the selvedges straight.  Looks more “artistic” if you don’t.

Win-win project.  If you have leftover lace weight, give it a go.  Works up fast and you look like an expert.  Never, ever tell how easy this is.

Walkabout is exemplary of the best of my trip to Australia.  It represents how creative and free I have felt here.  I have pages of items to make or explore.  None of them are designed for a class or a pattern to sell or a project to submit.  They are just things I’d like to try to make and there will be no penalty if they don’t work out.  I wish this joy for all of you.

Categories: Australia, designing, FOs, lace, original pattern, techniques | 1 Comment

Back From Camp

Nupps unblocked! Purl 7 together.

Look! I can knit nupps (rhymes with soup). That was my main goal as I headed to camp and I did it—thanks to the great Nancy Bush.

Besides nupps, we learned Estonian braids and knitted the following sampler

Jay's sampler labeled

Shelagh's sampler

What can you do with a small sampler?

Betty and Aileen embellish commercial mittens.

We learned two kinds of nupps–lace ones as above and non-lace ones as on my Estonian Button Stitch socks. Then we really looked closely at Estonian lace patterns.
This is my sample.  Note the cast on which is much easier than the eloop I had been using for lace.   I used Hempathy for my class sample because I love it and it has “bite” to hold the eyelets open; this is such a great yarn for warmer climates.  Unfortunately I used size 3 needles, and they were too small.  This is only three lace patterns and I plan to knit some others–at least finish the ball, and I’ll try a larger needle when I do.  I do think the nupps are too large in this yarn.  Maybe they should stay in a lace weight yarn–or fingering.  This is sport/dk.

Nancy was amazing.  She is so well prepared; she’s spent a lifetime studying Estonian knitting and culture.  Her stories were entertaining and interesting;  if she leads a group over there, I’m definitely going.  She didn’t want her picture posted–after a certain  age, who does? But this one captures her joy as she approaches class and it is quite handsome, so I’m sharing it.  She is a magnificent teacher and you guys know I don’t say that about many people.  I learned so much this year and I can’t wait to share it.

This is the Crown Prince shawl from Lace Knitting in Estonia, her latest book.

Hundreds of nupps

I didn’t want to interrupt what Nancy was saying to ask for the bottle to be moved.  It does give a scale reference, and the whole table references the focus we put on food and drink.  Mary Ellen always brings great chocolates and Nancy rewarded us for good behavior by sharing a giant Estonian chocolate of dark chocolate and hazelnut.  Ymmmmm.

This is the Leaf and Nupp shawl from the same book.  (Blurriness due to moving camera;  you can’t look at these shawls without trembling with envy.)  I’ve started it and it’s fun to knit, but isn’t really public knitting.  The women of Haapsalu would not be happy with my shawl because it is Zephry yarn from Charlotte Yarn in Malibu Blue.  Not really traditional.  But it is going to be beautiful.

The last class was about Vintage Socks.  I don’t have any pictures, so I’ll save comments until I receive some from fellow campers.  Learned some excellent cast ons and will probably put them together with some of the braids for a sock cuff.

More later–

Categories: Camp, lace | 4 Comments

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