Dumb as a WIP

  I will never finish these lace projects:

Repairing Fair Isle with a Felting Needle

A horrible thing has happened in my joke of a closet.  What I have to assume was a gang of moths, infiltrated my walk-in and declared a wooly corner, next to my duct tape judy, their territory.  Somehow, some sort of sticky thing (likely a slow melting hard candy or cough drop) challenged the moth's turf, and when the dust settled, neither the jets nor the sharks were the victims...my fair-isle sleeves were.  

This is a hibernating project, but still one close to my heart.  The sleeves were worked circularly, as one unit, and then steeked twice, to separate the two flat sleeves.  They were also decreased into pleats, but that's another story.  

The sleeve that had sat on top had two problems;  stains of hard but powdery stuff, and many tiny bites.  If you find yourself in this shameful position, consider my method:

First, I tried to soften the brittle stains by dabbing with a moist cloth.  Where the stain ran into raw ends, exposed by bites, I frayed them and roughed them up until the powdery substance was gone.  This also got rid of any fibre that was going to dislodge later, anyways.

I then began to needle felt from the back.  I looked for stash fibre that roughly matched the main colour in the area.

From the front, I carefully needle felted without adding new fibre, to lock the work in place.

I then took cuttings from the steek of those colours most in trouble.  I needle felted these in place, working from the front and then securing in the back, turning to the front once more to clean things up with the felting needle.

I was able to cover some areas almost as if I were swiss darning.  In areas of a recessing colour or of a larger colour block I didn't worry about following the path of each stitch quite so much.

While the felting needle and block were out, I experimented by felting the pleats into place.

I had never tried this before, but the results were fairly convincing.  It is also another good reason to steek when possible!  As you can see, I use a crochet steek.  The critters had been there as well, so the troubled sleeve was coming away from the crochet in places.  I squished the perpendicular crochet and knit stitches together and needle felted along the join.

That's probably a good idea too, even outside of wartime.  I sometimes worry about a crochet steek holding, depending on the yarn employed.  While I usually reinforce with hand sewing; backstitches with a doubled thread, from now on I may turn to needle felting if reinforcing is necessary.  I think it is a good solution for stranded projects worked in Cascade 220 in particular.  The larger gauge doesn't always support traditional steeking methods and of course the wool lacks a Shetland wool's stickiness.  It is, however, a prodigious felter!

I do a lot of stranded projects in Cascade 220, but this has more to do with availability.  The Loop's shipment just arrived and the heathered colours are beautiful.  As always, I will have to buy one skein of each new colour.  I think of 220 as Pokemon a little bit.

Wip Smart #2

Some projects on the go...

Wip Smart

Some projects on the go...

Mrs. Crawford, Post-Edwardian Bossy Boots?

In Needlecraft Magazine March 1916, Mrs. P. L. Crawford wrote
Probably, in the wide range of crocheted designs, there is no more popular motif than the grape-and-leaf, of which there are many variations.
While this may have been true in 1916, it is not true one hundred years later and I for one think that's a shame.
Shall we bring back the grape-and-leaf for 2016? Oh lets.

Mrs. Crawford offered 2 collars, I am making collar 1. She suggests that by altering the recommended 40 thread to a finer or coarser silk or cotton, the collar may be used as garnitures or trimming all over the place including the waist. She says that using a colour that harmonizes with your gown is "extremely pretty", but that "ecru thread may be substituted with pleasing results."


I'm using white DMC #12 thread and a steel 0.75mm hook. The pattern is using many interesting and amusing techniques.

The medallions are started as a row of half flowers, much like an edging. In fact, I think they would make a lovely edging, ending the pattern at row one.

I've never encountered a motif constructed like these medallions are. They really highlight my doily top tip which is very hard to word.

When double or treble crochets are needed in isolation, or if a cluster is to be worked from a chain alone it is doubly important, when working the first stitch to raise the hook perpendicular to the work to ensure that each yarn over and loop is as high as the previous stitch or loop. It's akin to Lucy Neatby's Happy Stitches in knitting. If a stitch does not have a neighbour standing next to it, it is want to lean over or even flop. In crocheted motifs and doilies, this may make the excess thread pop out the bottom. Very unattractive.

You may need to estimate the height of the first step or stitch, but as long as you yank up your hook with each of the next loops or steps of the stitch, you will have a consistent and convincing look.

The hook perpendicular to the work brings the current stitch (in this case one leg in a cluster) level with both the previous stitches and the chain. The chain is pulled to it's full length to help determine the height of this stitch.

What I enjoyed the most about this pattern was Mrs. Crawford's bossy but charming finishing instructions:

"All joinings were done with needle and fine thread, the writer believing this to be the better method for many reasons."

Delish! Absolutely no justification! She also gives a collar top tip;

'Have a collar-pattern and, after placing the motifs as arranged, or in any preferred way, sew with fine stitches."

Aren't patterns from this era nice in their flexibility (the joinings bit notwithstanding). I like the room these instructions give for personal taste and creativity. I also admire this period's approach to garnitures; instructions seldom assume what you're going to use the pattern, or even the item for. Indeed:

Why Not?

All The Knitting Nations

And so the Latvian Hockey Delegation descended on our fair city just as I hit, or at least approached a wall with my traditional mitten cardigan.
While the visiting fans don't 'strik'e me as knitters, uh, there is a further coincidence.

As my colour chart hit the blue and white section (with the blues represented by dots, and the white by blank squares), I was faced with a familiar situation. Once I'm established in a two colour pattern my eyes have trouble and the dots invert themselves. Soon I'm doubting myself and wondering which colour is which and truly if I've ever understood charts in my life.


Blinking away in frustration one afternoon at The Loop, Mimi proclaimed "Rods and Cones!". As I listened to the plight of hockey players whose jerseys sport inverted colours for home and away -resulting in players checking their teammates by mistake-I felt very sportif and patriotic, not to mention better about my brain function.
So my eyes were simply having trouble assimilating the two colours, especially at such a strong contrast. It's okay.


There are several ways to make such a chart easier to read. Adding a colour with highlighter or printing on coloured paper works well. A line magnifier is a great tool. I suggest LoRan brand.
Here is my new technique:

With a different coloured pen for each colour yarn (and on a light coloured paper) I write the number of stitches to be worked in each colour until the next is used. For instance,
xxxxoooxoxoxoooxxxx
would read
4,3,1,1,1,1,1,3,4
I also mark the middle stitch with an 'M'.

Let me know if this works for you too.

I'm Used to Being a Bit Short

I only offer this half finished sweater b/c of Ginny the cat. It's "Cinched Waist Top" from an old VK Magazine. It would have been a quick 3-4 day knit, but I ran one ball short-I used the All Seasons Cotton I received as my Rowan International gift. Will repost when complete, if it looks really good on.

If I could, Id have Ginny model all of my knits; she always has great hair.

A Latvian for All Seasons

When I was a littler girl I thought it was a real jip that frilly pants and bathing suits have ruffles, bustles, and bows, but only on the back, where you can't see them yourself. To that end I wore mine back to front and also in layers. Such bold and feminine things, I had decided, should not be confined to one area or application.

I think this is also my attitude towards Latvian Mittens. I love everything about the tradition, but I want to see what happens to the patterning across a larger canvas (namely, me). I also want to be able to enjoy the patterns outside of mitten season. It is not really that much work to turn a mitten into a cardigan or pullover. Although Meg Swanson has a Mitten Sweater, I'm using plan 1 from Knitting in the Old Way and treating it like a Nattrøje (a cropped boxy -if unfelted, close look). The scalloped edge of the mitten will serve as the Nattrøje band. I realize that these are Danish sweaters, but I think it will be a good match. If the knit stays light enough, the shrunken style will also let me get more spring-fall wear out of it.

Heirloom Nattroje, Danish Museums Online


Visit Schoolhouse Press to see more of Meg Swanson's pattern "Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan" (Wool Gathering #67)

Coral Corrolation

Are you more on-the-ball than I? If so, then you already know that The Ecology Action Centre has teamed up with The Loop Craft Cafe to create a 3d display for World Ocean Day. This knit and crochet model of Nova Scotia's Ocean Floor will follow many of the principles outlined at the Coral Reef Project at the Institute for Figuring (the people who brought you the crocheted universe).
I am really getting into this.
If you can drop by The Loop Thursday night I will be interrupting regular knitting time to talk about hyperbolic crochet and to give a brief amigurumi tutorial.
The spacial concepts are a bit difficult at first, but applying them to fishies does help, and the actual crochet techniques are very basic. Most of the ideas can also be applied to knitting.
Check out The Loop's blog and the EAC's blog 'Stitchin Fish' for a list of 'must have' creatures. Submissions may be dropped off via either group. There is also quite a group of like minded folk on Facebook (so I'm told) and Ravelry is also abuzz.
ps now is the time to use up your eyelash yarn and phentex.

Motifs for Camiknickers

Motifs have a way of multiplying when you're not looking. It's akin to the pot never boiling and several other thermodynamic adages of love which are too clever for me.

Even toasting their bottoms on the shop's rad however, could not spurn these 3" dc circles to propagate at the rate promised by Stitchcraft Magazine in 1933:

"....in fact two people working at it together, one crocheting and one stitching, could finish the whole thing in an afternoon."

Beans. I am pretty darn swift at double crochets but I feel like Ina Claire in "The Royal Family of Broadway"

If only my little circles could pick up on the spring in the air...like those pigeons on the sill...oh my.

...go visit The Loop Craft Cafe's new blog.

Happy Season

I am very fond of Easter -I'm an Easter baby (Good Friday, no less) and this year I am trying my hand at Ukrainian Eggs; something I haven't tried since afternoons at Glanmore House I also learned Paper Quilling there, and picked up some handy tips on exorcisms.

On the needles this Easter;

Paton's SWS in solids and self stripings. There are Fair Isle motifs, corrugated ribbing and mosaic shadow and band patterns.

Is it because of my fixation on Russian head gear/getting back into my Latvian Mittens project or is it just because this sort of 'stream of conciseness' sweater is being knit bottom up, that I want the top of the sweater to explode into something -maybe cables ala pig tails.

2 colour corrugated ribbing is good fun. Soundtrack: "Good Friday", The Black Crowes

...Please; no comments asking me what I think about the latest Fleetwood Mac debacle. I am crushed.

Jersey Jumper

Fair Isle update: The Elephants are now Yellow.

2008

2007

And you thought yellow was last year.

Soundtrack: "Baby Elephant Walk", Henry Mancini

Fae Sweater Nouveau

Mushroom Cap Sleeved Sweater on the go.

Lice Pattern and Shetland Border Pattern in Fair Isle. Mushrooms from Bibliothèque DMC's 1905 Point de Croix Nouveaux Dessins, II^me Série worked in Kitchener Stitch. (This is the best way to deal with these Cross Stitch patterns which often have three colours in each row. The organic lines of Art Nouveau rarely hit the diagonals needed to provide a sturdy fair isle fabric.)


Collar? What think you? (I'm also thinking of Juliet style dropped puff sleeves)