QUESTIONS – DRAGON AND PONCHO
As you probably figured out, I posted a couple of days of entries in advance. So to get back to feedback from Monday, thank you all for your kind words about Dragon. I hope (if nothing else) I’ve proven that projects like this that look overwhelming when done are worked in stages – everything is possible given time and determination. Pick up a favorite chart and try out filet crochet. There’s no law that says you have to do it in teeny string to start. Size #20 or #10 cotton will give nice results and will both go faster than my piece. On to questions:
Dragon Questions
What did you use to block?
The same hardware store brass tubing I used to block the Forest Path stole, and my daughter’s Waterspun poncho. The stole write-up describes them They’re described in more detail at the bottom of this post.
Why are the edges rippled?
As I wrote, I was a bit nervous about how much the piece had contracted in the wash, so when I blocked it I blocked it to the full north-south dimension. I shouldn’t have been so aggressive. I ended up with a piece that’s not under tension north-south in spite of being threaded on stretcher bars. The next time I wash it I will go for east-west stretch instead because I could stand to gain an inch in that dimension, and go for the on-door mounting bars to provide the requisite tension. That should elminate some of the looseness at the left and right edges.
How did you know how big to make the holes for the curtain rods?
After I’d done a couple of rows I tested them out with the bars from the curtain scrap left behind by the previous house owners. They fit. If they hadn’t I’d have figured out an another way to hang the curtain panel.
Are you afraid the curtain rods will discolor the panel?
Not very. It’s true they’re brass, but they’re quite old and the tarnish doesn’t rub off. I don’t intend on polishing them (I don’t want to get polish residue on the curtain). The curtains will get dusty over time. The thread I used is machine washable. In fact,I tossedmy Dragon in the light color/warm water wash just after completion, before blocking. After an entire summer and early fall of being dragged around accumulating hand-dirt, sunscreen, household dust, and the odd fleck of wine it seemed like a good idea.
Did you steal the dragon pattern from these towels?
http://hometown.aol.com/noramunro/Perugia/showsseveral beautiful set of woven towels by Alianora Munro (another member of the SCA). The last set shownhas a very familiar dragon on them. She used the same ultimate source as I did: Johann Siebmacher, Schon Neues Modelbuch, published in Nurnburg, 1597. My version is the one I graphed up for inclusion in my book The New Carolingian Modelbook: Counted Embroidery Patterns from Before 1600. There’s also a nifty drafting of the original in my friend Katheryn’s reissue of patterns from that work under the title Needlework Patterns from Renaissance Germany. (Both books are hard to come by these days, but occasionally surface used or on eBay.)I have also seen at least one commercial chart for a counted thread sampler that has a simplified version of the same motif, but I can’t find it on line right now.
Can you send me the pattern?
No. Why is at the bottom of this page.
Washing machine!! You put THAT in the washing machine?
Well, yes. The string is marked as being warm water machine washable (no dryer, no bleach). I had a load of white and light colored t-shirts with no buttons, zips or adornments to melt, snag, or run, so I put the curtain in along with them for a normal warm water/cool rinse wash. I took it out and blocked it wet. Was I nervous? Not particularly, but I had already made and test-washed a swatch, so I knew that the yarn would survive the process.
Poncho Questions
I’ve only seen the Paternayan yarn in cut lengths ready for needlework. Where did you find whole skeins?
I lucked into it at Wild & Woolly in Lexington, MA – my local yarn store. I don’t know if they had it left over from long, long ago when they might have stocked needlepoint yarn, or if they had it more recently, but by the time I found it at one of their legendary semi-annual sales all that was left was a heavily discountedmixed bag of blues – a refugee from at least two prior mid-winter sales events. I have however seen other retailers on line selling the stuff in large uncut hanks. A quick Google search on "Paternayan wool" will turn them up.
How big will you make the poncho’s rectangles?
I don’t know yet. Probably something like 13 inches wide and 39 inches long each. That’s a nice eye-pleasing 1:3 ratio. When I get up to that point I’ll cut out some paper and tape it together to make sure the target child approves of the size.
Why bother?
Why not? I have to admit that right now I’m on a bit of a yarn diet, constrained by new house expenses to using up yarn from my stash before buying new. The target child saw the bag of mixed blues and fell in love with the color. I knew thatat the fullthree plysI wouldn’t have enough yardage, and that she wanted something lacy anyway. So I began unplying…
Why do you do everything the hard way, figuring out your own patterns or just starting stuff without a good idea of how it will be accomplished?
Again, why not? People knit for different reasons. I enjoy confronting problems, figuring out solutions, and making my own way. Yes, it’s not the most productive method of working as there is more two-steps-forward-one-step-back motion than most people prefer. To me though learning something on the journey is more important than the end product, however nice. So I make a mad plunge forward on almost every project. Sometimes I shelve them for greater or shorter lengths of time. Sometimes everything falls into place and I finish. Usually I do learn something along the way, even if the thing at hand ends upvacationing inThe Chest of Knitting HorrorsTM.
Other Questions
What about the Crazy Raglan and the entrelac piece? Are you going to finish them?
Both were in the same bag and went AWOL during our move. I finally found them over the weekend and will (eventually) finish them. In the mean time, I’ve got other obligations lined up. After the poncho I’m on the hook for a triangular knitted shawl for the sister who didn’t end up with the Forest Path lace stole. I’m thinking of the Heirloom Knitting Bird’s Eye Lace free pattern, done in Lorna’s Laces Helen’s Lace in purples and blues. Possiblyadding a border strip to the long top edge of the triangle. But if I think too much about that project I’ll get derailed from the poncho, and those sad puppy eyes brook no delay.
And the Cursed Socks?
Those I AM working on right now, in between winding yarn for the poncho. After all, I can’t schlep the swift and ball winder with me to appointments. I’m about half-way through the heel of Sock #2, and hope to be done in the next couple of days soI can write up the pattern for wiseNeedle and post it along with the pattern for the Summer Lightning lacy scarf in time for people looking to knit holiday gifts.
What do you call those nifty lookingcross-hatchedwindows next to the door in your house?
My friend Kathryn (who knows lots of neat stuff) tells me that the proper name for a window divided into small panes is "mullioned." Mullioned windows appear to come in many types, including ones with lead as well as wooden dividers. Lozenge is the name for a diamond shaped pane, so I guess I’ve got a circa 1912 Arts and Crafts style two story bungalow (bungaloid?) with casements featuring mullioned lozenge transoms in the living room and dining room. Which is a long winded way of saying "old house with nifty windows that are a pain to dust."
QUESTIONS AGAIN
Still not enough progress on Dragon to make an interesting photo, so I’ll answer questions from my inbox instead:
What yarn did you use for the Spring Lightning scarf?
I usedGreenwood Hill Farm 2-Ply Lace Weight Merino. Greenwood Hill is a small sheep to skein outfit based in western Massachusetts. The yarn is a light, airy handspun that’s much loftier than Skacel’s Merino Lace or the Suri Alpaca laceweight I used for the Forest Path stole. It’s more like an etherial and soft fingering, with some thick and thin bits. I got this stuff at Greenwood Hill’s booth attheannual Sheepshearing Festival at Gore Place, andhand-selected the most uniform of the skeins available for this project. They also maintain a website.
Come on. The disappearing sock thing. Did it really happen?
Yes. I’ve got several suspects in mind for who is responsible for the anonymous return, but I’d rather leave the thing a mystery. It’s a better story that way. And in a corrolary – even though socks and a Massachusetts house built in the teens are involved, I think it’s stretching it to say that my mystery has any talismanic significance fora Red Sox victory.
Does the Flame Tamer work?
To a limited extent, yes. It does allow for a slowerboil than does cooking over an unbated burner. Can I get to a true barely bubbling simmer? Not quite. Thick beans and stews need careful watching,and are better offcooking in a covered iron pot placed in a very slowoven. Reheating though is less of an iffy proposition using my new gizmo.
Would I like to trade photocopies of the IK magazines for photocopies of some other pattern/mag?
Not on your life. My offer isto trade theoriginal magazines, not some pirated duplicates.
This is an issue about which I feel most strongly. Pattern and magazine sharing have killed publishing and innovation in several popular needlecrafts. So far on-line knitters as a group have taken the high road and have established a culture that discourages piracy. Crocheters and especially cross stitchers, needlepointers and people who do plastic canvas work have not been spared the effects of unauthorized copying. Witness the comparative dearth of new stuff published in each of those crafts. One would think that with knitting in the ascendency, crochet wouldn’t be that far behind, but I believe the lag time is in part a response to the vast amount of stolen material available on the web. Publishers just don’t believe they can make money in that market, so they’ve been slow to return to it.
Upshot of it all. I don’t steal and I have absolutely no respect for those who do.
I created this logo for a group of concerned people headed by Linn Skinner. She (and the committee) went to extraordinary lengths to bring this issue to the attention of the needlework publishing industry early on. Unfortunately lack of resourcesindustry-wide coupled with with burdgeoning technologies and the immense size of the problem have hampered prosecutions. But that’s "hampered" not "eliminated." I for one report any serial/habitual infringers I find to the copyright owners. And I don’t always travel under my familiar on-line identities. Beware.
CHEAPER THAN JAL
Today bodes to be a chaotic day, with Real Life intruding on the time I usually squander on blogging, eMailand wiseNeedle maintenance. There’s a Family Event in the works for this weekend, so there are obligations that need to be met that require setting disorder aright, the creation of foods, and dressing/attending the actual group activity. Therefore do no be surprised if little gets posted here over the next 48 hours.
In the mean time, I can report on last night’s midnight ramblings. Some of it is knitting-related, some not.
First, I went off web-walking through Japan again. No I don’t read Japanese, but I do read Picture. Even if the text is beyond me, I always find tons of inspiration (and not an inconsiderable bit of whimsey) in what turns up. Of course I visited my standardsources of Japanese knitting fun- The Hand Knit Lab and the ABCs of Knitting – neither one of which has been updated in a long time. But I did find new stuff, too.
On the inspiration end is the Motif-Motif website. As far as I can tell, it’s a retail site offering finished knitted garments. Quite a few sport interesting features, including asymmetrical closures and a freshuse of textures – including crochetand crochet used in combo with knitting. Some of the crochet might be a little over the top for my tastes, but even done at the scale of these pieces, it has a better drape and flow than the clunky wool stuff I blogged about before. Click on the thumbnails to go to that offering’s page, then click on the gray bar with the little magnifying glass in it for multiple views, close-up. I especially like the button-use idea in this piece.
On the whimsey end, there’s this illustrated story of learning to spin, weave and knit. Again, I haven’t a clue as to what’s actually going on here, but I can (sort of) follow along with the story from the adorable illustrations. Click on the little hand illustration to page through the whole thing, or on the text link below it for a quick dose.
Finally, this has nothing to do withyarn. I was visiting Boing-Boing,always a source of the unexpected. There I found a link to ZoomQuilt. Be VERY VERY patient.ZoomQuilt takes a long time to load, and you may time-out. If you get the plain-text white intro page, click on the link at the bottom, then use your up and down arrows to follow along.
Enjoy!
WORKING REPORT: PATTERN WRITING – SPRING LIGHTNING SCARF
Face it, incremental progress on the Dragon is as boring to see day in and day out as it is to report. The thing is chugging along, but I’m past the part of the process that’s interesting. There are no new challenges or problems to overcome – just plain old slow and steady progress. On my other projects, I’m stll looking for the bag with the raglan and entrelac pieces. It’s here somewhere. Emphasis on the somewhere.
So I turn to another intellectual exercise with a challenge factor increased by prior laziness and poor timing: writing up a pattern for an object that I finished a while back, and on which I took very few working notes.
To be truthful, my Spring Lightning scarf is better documented than most of my efforts. Blogging does serve a purpose after all. I did find the scarf itself – a happy byproduct of my continuing quest for the striped raglan sweater.I’ve got the graphs I printed out to start with, although Providence alone knows where the copy I annotated as I worked has gotten to. And that city’s not talking.
I begin with a photo or two. I’ve posted these before. Unless people here think that these are adequate, I’ll have to take another that shows the piece relaxed and ready to wear. No I won’t take a shot modeling my scarf. I prefer to labor sight unseen.
Now I can figure out my original cast-on number from my chart. I remember that I worked slipped stitch selvedge edges, because I used them when I was knitting the edging on to the finished strip. I didn’t document the little welted eyelet bits between the main pattern sections, but that’s easy to retro-engineer. My original charting didn’t include the long (but simple) zig-zag motif used the scarf’s center. I did that one up off the top of my head as I was working. I think I can re-create it though with minimal trouble. With luck my fingers will remember the pattern.
The edging I do remember playing with, so it’s not quite straightforward. I started with something that was much wider than the final version- arelatively deep lacy edging adapted from one in Heirloom Knitting, but I tinkered with it a bit. Plus I used the pull a loop through and knit with the slack method of knitting the edging onto the body that I learned doing the Forest Path Stole. I’ll have to figure out a way to write that up that’s both original and non-confusing. I think that will be the most tricky part.
So it’s off to boot up the house server, pull up the pattern template in DreamWeaver and Homesite, and code the thing up for wiseNeedle. One thing I won’t be doing this time is rewriting the entire pattern in prose format. I doubt that anyone who would want to knit a lace piece of this complexity is going to want to wade through prose directions. Plus there’s only so many hours in my day, even if I do stretch the definition of a day by being among the "sleep optional" part of the population.
PROJECT: WORMING HARLEKIN CARDIGAN
Here’s yet another cautionary tale. This one is about worming.
I’ve seen lots of questions about worming – what is it, why does it happen, how to avoid it. The what question is easy to answer. Here’s a quick little cotton/chenille cardigan I whipped up for The Smallest One this past spring:
It’s knit from Stahl Wolle’s Harlekin Color, a rather plain generic raglan in stockinette, with a rolled collar and cropped waist. I did up the pattern (such as it is) using Sweater Wizard. That part and the knittingwent well, although the yarn split like crazy and was a *($# to knit. The thing is bright and cheerful.The Smallest One had fun picking out the pansy and bee buttons. I even went back and got more of this yarn with a navy base color and knit a raglanpullover for the larger daughter.
Things however began to go wrong shortly after completion of both projects. Both sweaters began to worm. The little chenille strands separated themselves from the cotton yarn and began poking up here and there. Hand washing however caused all restraint on worming to break. In spite of the lousy photo, the result can be seen here:
No I didn’t tease these loopies up, nor did I pick a particularly bad part of the piece. The entire surface is like this now – a ratty, trashy looking mess. The kidlet still likes her bee sweater because it’s soft, but it catches on everything it comes near and I shudder each time I look at it.
Moral of the story. Chenille isn’t worth the effort. That’s four for four projects I’ve attempted using chenille or chenille mix yarns that have ended up looking like hell within a fortnight of completion. It’s pretty andthe colors are great, plus Iknow some people love the stuff and swear that they can control the worming. I’ve tried knitting it more tightly than label gauge. I’ve tried knitting it in combo with something else. I’ve tried chenilles of different fiber compositions, but I’ve never had decent results. Buyer beware. This buyer will never purchase nor work with chenille in any of its forms ever again.
More Mags to Trade
Courtesy of a very generouspal, I find myself with duplicates of two Interweave Knits back issues: Fall, 2003 and Winter 2002/2003. I’ve got both in my library, and useful info shouldn’ sit idle.
If you’re looking for these and would like to engineer a trade, please let me know. Preference will be given to folks outside the USA. I know that people In Other Countries often don’t get a chance to get these mags, and we here in the US often don’t get the treat of seeing needlework publications from other countries. I’d love to trade one or both of these for one or more knitting, embroidery, crochet, or other specialty needlework magazines published elsewhere in the world – language doesn’t matter. If you’re interested, please let me know.
RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SOCK
A long, long time ago, I sent in an entry to the Socknitters Museum of Odd Socks. In it I detailed the tragedy of losingone of the firstfingering weight yarn socks I ever knit – an eye-popping mustard yellow thing, with toe, heel, and ankle stripe in a tweedy red left-over. That must have been back in the summer of ’96, just after I moved to my last house, and (coincidentally) just after the sock bug bit me.
In all that time my missing sock never turned up. Although I was sure it would reappearbehind a bureau or underthe washing machine,I didn’tfind it when we moved out, although we left the old house broom clean and bare to the walls. I came within a hairs’ breadth of tossing the mate to my missing sock when I divested myself of others during The Great Sock Exorcism. At last minute though, I took my mustardy friend out of the toss-me pile and tucked it back into my sock drawer as a reminder of life’s eternal mysteries.
Yesterday I got an envelope in the mail. Itcontained the missing sock.
No note. No return address. The postmark was local, but not in town. My guess is that the new owners of my old house found it – where I haven’t a clue – and knowing I probably missed it, mailed it to me. Either that or the colorblind poltergeist finally had enough of the thing and decided to send it home.
REVIEW: INKNITTERS FALL ’04
I’m a sucker for an interesting knitting article. Sadly all too few magazines are providing them.Vogue used to have them. Knitters,too. Of late both have skewed to intro-level stuff, or mindlessrah-rah pieces. Interweave Knits started out hosting articles, but has changed to more of a pattern focus of late. Threads used tohave fabulous articles, but they abandoned handwork in all its forms, including knitting. Piecework has an occasional interesting bit, but not at the depth or breadth of what Threads used to do.Family Circle/Easy Knitting is deady dull and aimed at someone else. Who I’m not quite sure because it’s too dowdy foryounger beginning knitters, yet too simplein style and execution for other age groups. Even the patterns in most knitting pubs of late have left me yawning. So it was with extreme skepticism that I picked up the Fall ’04 edition of Inknitters. Oh boy. Another mag to leaf through and not buy.
What a surprise! I will say that I didn’t much care for the adult sweaterpatterns in the issue. There are lots of them and most are o.k. but none grabbed me with that gotta-knit urge.But that’sfinebecause what sucked me in and kept me flipping pages were the articles. Articles for thinking knitters! Lots of articles!
To start off, there’s Lucy Neatby on her special magic buttonhole for double thick button bands. This stellartechniqueis pretzel clever and makes me want to design up a cardigan just so I can try it out. Lucy’s Tradewind Knitwear even published this trick as a separate broadside pattern sheet. And here it is in this issue, elaborated upon at length and described in depth far beyond even what the pattern sheet offers. This one technique alone is worth the price of the entire magazine.
Then there’s an in-depth article by Joan Schrouder (aka the KnitList’s St. Joan) on steeking, especially for curved and angled areas. Again, just one article that justifies the entire purchase cost of this issue. Going on, there’s an excellent article on finishing tecniques by Jaya Srikrishnan, detailing various no-sew techniques that can be used in various forms of finishing (i.e., picking up stitches, three-needle bind off).
More! There’s an article on cross-pollination among needle arts – using knitted fabrics as a basis for further sewing and embellishment. I may not like all the things that are presented as examples, but the thought of combining skills/crafts is a headyconcept ignored by every other single-focus publication. There’s an article on adapting standard computer spreadsheet programs to track pattern progress, calculate rates of increase/decrease, and to produce knitting pattern charts.
Wait! More!! There are articles on short rows, and their use in directional knitting; ontroubleshooting common mistakes and how to fix them; on designing collars of various types; on inserted seam pockets; and something about knitting machines which I admit I didn’t read through.
I don’t gush, and I don’t do endorsements. But I’m filled with enthusiasm by this rag. I’ll be subscribing and (probably) picking up all the back issues as well. What a happy find.
EXCUSE? “IT WAS THE ’70S”
I found a box of stuff I’ve?been carting around forever. (At least it seems like forever). In it were mouldering reminders of decades past. Including this little doodle sampler I did to hang on my dorm wall:
From the stitching standpoint, I can say it’s unremarkable – cross stitch and crewel type stitches, done on muslin ground in standard-issue DMC floss. There’s a bit of couched silk ribbon, too. The turquoise ribbon has faded, leaving only the little turquoise fastening stitches, and the bits of matching color cotton down below. It’s signed "KEB ’74."
As to the sentiment. Like the title says. It was the ’70s.
I?stitched it up?over a weekend and had it on the wall by Monday. I think I did it mostly to annoy my first roommate: a gal who managed to arrive at college with calcified attitudes, white kid gloves, and a life-long desire to take two years of college at the most to?find a husband and then drop out. She did manage to do just that and start a family, although not necessarily in the order she would have preferred. I guess she never quite took the sampler seriously…
More on Sontags
My friend Kathryn the costume doyenne, tells me that?the original?sontag isn’t really exactly like a poncho. Sort of, but not quite. It’s more like a scarf or fichu meant to cover the front of the upper torso that fastened behind the neck. They were usually buttoned or tied in the back. The idea was to avoid shawl points or dangling ends that could pose a danger in the era of open fires. Think of "Gone with the Wind" costumes, with the long shawl-like thing criss-crossed over the front of the body, with the ends tied behind the waist.
That makes sense. Looking at the item in the page from the NYPL it may be pictured from the back. The wearer would be facing away from the viewer, and the spot where the two sides meet would be at the lower back. It still looks like?a capelet/shawl hybrid to me, but worn backwards from the way that seems logical today.
FORWARD INTO THE PAST
When I was starting on Dragon you may remember me moaning about how difficult it was to find teeny-size steel crochet hooks. Yes, I know they’re available on line from specialty dealers, but I don’t like to place small orders for things I need yesterday.
Today I found some. I stumbled into a local store and into another era: Balich’s 5 & 10, 1314 Massachusetts Avenue, Arlington, MA 02476. If you were a kid in an Eastern US city during the ’50s or ’60s you’ll remember stores like this – frowzy, little, local everything-stores that aspired to be a Woolworth’s but were too tired to dust or take inventory. I remember them on Avenue U in Brooklyn, NY; in the Bronx, NY and in Teaneck and Hackensack, NJ. Friends have described them to me in Philadelphia, PA, Providence, RI, too. Think of a narrow avenue storefront, with merchandise on wooden raised-rim tables, with overflowing shelves above and bins below. Think of retail chaos, wood floors, dusty stained tin ceilings, insufficient lighting, window glass mostly obscured by advertising posters.
This shop fits the description spot on. Central casting couldn’t have dredged up a place so perfectly frozen in time. It’s dim, the three aisles are just barely squeeze through size, and oddments hang from every available surface.Balichs stocks everything from bra size expanders and pink plastic curlers, to cast iron skillets, Red Heart yarn, squirt guns (remember ray-gun shaped squirt guns?), screwdrivers and pencil sharpeners. O.K., so there were Sponge Bob toys there among the pick-up sticks and checkers sets, but the spirit of the place hadn’t budged a bit since ’62.
While the yarn offerings were surprising (that they existed at all) and disappointing, I was bowled over that they carried three lines of crochet threads down to size 20, plus a full range of Boye knitting/crochet accessories and aluminum knitting needles. They also had a dusty display of steel crochet hooks down to size #14. I bought the last one of every size below #11 (1.0mm down to .75mm).
I also found a thing I knew from childhood, now need desperately, but couldn’t find anywhere else. We’ve got a rather aggressive gas stove in the new house. While it flames up nicely to boil water and saute with speed, it’s impossible to turn it low enough to do a gentle heat. As a kid I’d heard these called “simmer guards” or “flame tamers.” Now for the princely investment of $2.45, I’ve got one, too. I’ll be trying it out tonight and will report back on how well it works.
Here’s a picture of?Balich’s on the rather irreverant blog of some local teen who appears to be terminally bored with life in this burg. As a fellow high school humor magazine refugee, I wipe away tears of laughter, and say “Buck up, kid. It’s not as bad as Teaneck, NJ. 30 years from now you’ll be nostalgic for a decent crummy 5 & 10, too!”
So if you’ve got a need for a whatzis that big box stores just won’t meet, look around under local rocks to see if you’ve still got a store like this hanging on somewhere. Then subsidize history by buying something there.
UPDATE – EBOOKS
Without? knowing it, apparently my post of yesterday that mentioned on-line access to eBooks through the Boston Public Library exposed a security hole in their system. It’s plugged now, so that only library card holders registered with the BPL can access the eBooks system.
I can imagine it right now – "Oh my goodness, Quincy!? We’re being overrun by a mob of book-crazed knitters!"? "Batten down the hatches, Sam!? We’re leaking access bytes right and left!"
Oh well. At least our stampede helped them solve an oversight?that might have developed into a more serious problem.
String-Or-Nothing 