Free Knitting Pattern: Square Hat

I had some lovely pinky handspun yarn hanging around for a long time. I purchased it at the Montpelier Farmer's market a way long time ago. Janice and I uncovered it when she helped me organize my stash this year. It was the late summer and we were working toward completing some projects for Afghans for Afghans.  So I came up with this, perhaps a girl's hat. The white is my churro handspun in 2 ply.

Here is the pattern, for free


https://www.scribd.com/doc/247056478/Square-Hat

I love that 2 x 2 thing.  It may have started with my love of the Amish square  patch quilt.  Here is one that I asked a friend to do,  a number of years ago. I knit her son a sweater (blue, raglan pullover) to swap.  I bought the Amish inspired fabric long long ago in New York...Kind of a circular thing as that friend grew up in Vermont....!

Shetland Tea Shawl

I have at long last completed my second handspun Shetland shawl.

I described the beginning of this project here.

As I mentioned, I searched for patterns that incorporated traditional Shetland lace motifs. I settled on the Shetland Tea Shawl by Dale Long, in A Gathering of Lace.

Now, to be frank, I'm not a huge fan of XRX Press and here's why  (I hope they are reading):  They produce some lovely books, but 1)I'm not a fan of oversized knitting books, hard to use  2) Too much "beauty" photography and not enough functional knitting photography.  I don't need to look at a huge lavish garden spread with a young model sporting a garment in a way that a young-ish person would never would.  And I couldn't see exactly what the center of this circular shawl looked like!

NEVERTHELESS I was really taken with the Shetland Tea Shawl.  I loved the circular construction which I had not done before.  EZ's classic circular shaping allowed me to use the different colors that I got from the yarn in concentric circles which made sense to me.  I did not do the border that is knitted on sideways as I knew that I was running out of yarn, went instead to the old standby Evelyn A. Clark border

O

O

7

O

∧

O

5

O

∧

O

3

O

∧

O

1

 It's upside down to the border shown below.

(Maybe one of these years I'll figure out how to use Excell to do this, or breakdown and buy the right stuff to develop and reproduce charts!)

It's really kind of a chunky throw but I really love it!

Shetland Pi

So...finding another use for more of the Shetland Supreme I purchased while in Shetland...

I dyed a whole lot of natural white plus the other natural colors with some acid dye, can't recall.  Of course, in one of my favorite colors, orange and its tones.  I put too much in the dyepot.  This was at least a year and a half ago.  It dyed unevenly and I was unhappy with the result. 

Then some months ago I realized that I could separate the shades

(the spun up stuff is on the left)

and spin them separately.  I produced a two ply in more or less 14 tpi.

Of course, being myself, I wanted to use this Shetland yarn for something Shetland-ish.  Now while a circular shawl isn't, I don't think, a traditional Shetland THING, it still incorporates traditional Shetland lace patterns. 

 Last week, I was trolling about and thinking about pi shawls.  Realized that I had A Gathering of Lace on the shelf I found this

 It's Dale Long's Shetland Tea Shawl.

Here we are, so far.  It's a heavier weight than the original but I love it.  I will knit till I run out, putting the darker colors at the border.  Another reason to love a pi.  I also love the way the natural color changes are in the circle...my yarn is lovely and springy...maybe I am a spinner, after all...

Now that I've started, I may be hooked on the  pi shawl thing.  I may have to resign from the triangle lover's club (that is, the shawl triangle lover's club).

Old Shale

I hope my readership isn't getting tired of reading about Scotland, because I'm not tired of writing about it... When in Orkney, I bought, as I have mentioned prior, hand dyed bumps, in both North Ronaldsay and Shetland wool, dyed by Pam Murray.  I spun up the North Ronaldsay in what I could create as a laceweight, with I hope not too short runs of color. 

Pooling of color in knitting variegated yarns is an interesting phenomenon that  I don't  understand it, and I don't really like it, so it's just a chance I take in case it does...

I am not big on combining a variegated color yarn with a complex lace pattern.  I chose to do Evelyn A. Clark's Old Shale Lace Shawl.  It's a garter shawl with old shale lace at the bottom, probably with origins as a working woman's shawl.  It's not a shawl that I would  buy yarn to knit, rather, it speaks to me as what this yarn that I've created needs. It also seems appropriate to the Scottish origin of my fiber. (Plus, I'm trying to graph a shawl that I designed, which incorporates old shale, and this project is helping me on my learning curve to understand how to manipulate and chart the old shale lace.)

Old shale is an interesting lace pattern.  It involves the right leaning knit 2 together (K2) with the left leaning slip slip knit (SSK).  Here's a graph snippet

o

o

o

o

o

o

\

\

\

/

/

/

 

E.g., from right to left K 2 tog 3 times, SSK 3 times, yo, k1 yo 3 times.  One could do more k2 tog/ssk/yo's to make wider border repeats.

For most of my life, I've been a slob, and anytime I needed to knit two stitches together, I knit 2 together thru the back loops (K2 tog TBL), just because it's easy and fast.  I am trying to rehabilitate myself from this sloppy habit, pay attention, and take a little more time.  With old shale, this is important to get the stitches leaning the correct way in to the yarn overs.

I often lose or gain stitches with this lace and I don't often frog back to fix it (yeah sloppy here too, but I can get lost in the frogging), but if I get lost, I look for the center stitch in the yarn over section, shown here with the top yellow headed pin, to reorient myself:

This center stitch goes straight up which makes it easy to find.

Evelyn says that this is a good beginner lace pattern;  I'm not so sure.  A novice knitter friend of mine tried it and gave up.  I find it can be difficult.

FYI, Liz Lovick does a very nice job of explicating old shale versus fan and feather at her blog, here.  Liz says that "old shale" is really "old shell" but acquired the name "shale" as that's how Shetlander's pronounce it.  So now you can pronounce "shell" like a Shetlander.  And you can add "peerie" with a rolled "r" and say "little shell"  "peerie shale"!  (OK, OK it's an in-joke).

My Peruvian Hand Spindle

I am trying to learn more about drop spindles.

When in Peru in summer 2010 I bought this little drop spindle

 I just discovered Abby Franquemont's blog.  In this post she discusses these Peruvian low whorl spindles.  Apparently the dark marks on mine may have been created by woodburning.  And apparently they are hard to find in the US, easier to go to Peru to purchase one. 

I could learn alot more about spinning if I actually took the time to read more of Abby's blog.  But the post I mention is fascinating, and Abby talks about how to easily make a similar spindle of your own with a trip to Home Depot or similar.

I bought my spindle above at the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco in Chinchero

 Here are some of the ladies spinning on the same sort of spindle:

And a poorly labelled but interesting video, courtesy of Youtube

 At another branch of the Center in Cusco, on a main boulevard

Could I look any happier?  I am wearing a bit of backstrap weaving, which was done by a schoolchild!

 I might recommend this

it's available here.

It has alot of basic spinning information for the novice not very good spinner like me.  Also some direct projects for knitting with handspun.  Abby has a couple of articles in it too, including one on high vs. low whorl spindles. 

Spinning churro

I am not a very good spinner, and am lousy at maintaining my wheel.  When it comes down to it, I often enjoy knitting more with commercial yarns.  Consistent tension and drawing are not my aptitudes.  However, I love the process of holding the fiber and drawing it out. 

I don't often use my drop spindles, but I have a few of them.  I really am fond of my Turkish spindle.  I LOVE that is makes a center pull ball as I wind on.  Mine was crafted by Ed Jenkins.  Beautiful wood and well balanced.

Matching a project to handspun or more precisely spinning enough for a particular project is also not my forte.  I can't see myself ever spinning enough for a sweater.  I'd rather just spin, and then do a top down shawl or somesuch, and hope I have enough for a lace edge.  I got lucky with my spring shawl.

I may have helped to alleviate this challenge with some Navaho churro roving, because I have so much of it.  My friend Cassie and her husband Kurt have a farm called Little Creek Plantation in Brunson SC, and keep  churros.  Son R and I visited a couple of years ago.  Here's a photo in her barn

and here's a photo of Cassie that I love; she's giving some poor sheep a dose of antibiotic

Here is information on churros from Cassie and Kurt's website, and here is some from wikipedia.

About two years ago I bought a whole sheep's worth of fleece, it's lovely creamy yellowy white.  Somewhere I have the name of the ewes whose fleece this is.  I have alot, and I do mean alot of it.  So, if I persist, I should have enough to do something and finish it, including lace edge.  The photo below is one of maybe 5 large balls of roving that I have.

I have spun some on the wheel, but this month I started some using my Turkish spindle. It's not the softest type of fleece, but maybe it's lack of slippery quality makes it a little easier to control.

Here's a little ball on the spindle

And here it is with the spindle taken apart and the ball slipped off.  It's so clever.

Hap Shawl Magnum Opus

In Brenda's Cast-On Episode 77, she discusses one's magnum knitting opus.  I didn't think that this shawl was until I heard her postcast, and now I know that it is. I did a prior post on this here, way back in June 2010 right after I started blogging. I finished this yesterday.

To recap a bit, when in Shetland I bought Shetland Supreme top at Shetland Wool Brokers, aka Jamieson and Smith.  I purchased 500 g of natural, and 25 g bumps of  mid gray, moorit, dark chocolate and light brown.  The colors are sheep colors.   I spun it up in to double ply, at about 11 wpi. I believe I started the spinning for this almost after getting home, perhaps August of 2009. I am not good at keeping track of how I'm spinning but it turned out fairly consistent.

The basic directions for this are in Sharon Miller's lovely book, Shetland Hap Shawls Now and Then.  I graphed up a  cat's paw lace pattern for the center square, which is knit as a diamond.  The pattern for this is available under "free patterns" in the sidebar.  Gauge is about 4 stitches per inch blocked.

The center diamond was a "car project," meaning that the knitting is not so hard that I can't carry it around in case I have a few minutes free during my work day, much of which is spent in the car, between seeing home care patients.  Cat's paws on the cat's paws lace:

Once the center was done, this was no longer a car project, as it involved serious lace.  It was November.  I picked up the stitches at the sides for the fan and feather border at a ratio of one stitch per row.  This was a mistake.  My impulsive streak had taken over.  I knit the whole border than did a light block with the iron and it sagged terribly in the middle.  So, I frogged the whole thing and checked the book, and discovered that my ratio on the diagonal should have been 5 stitches to 4 rows.  It's taken another 2 months to finish it. I used the four row fan and feather from Shetland Hap Shawls Then and Now.

Yes, it's missing the lace border.  Perhaps I'll do one someday.

I love the idea of knitting something that has been done long ago.  Of course, this shawl uses a different technique from the traditional, as I used a circular needle.  Per Sharon Miller, these were only available starting in the 1920's to 40's.

Other things I really like about it:  it's a single sheep breed project, uses the actual sheep breed that would be traditionally used, and it's a sheep to shawl, as it were.

Hap shawl update and where I'd like to be this weekend

My hap shawl that I am knitting from my Shetland handspun is not finished;  I was hoping that it would be done last weekend. Here's the tale:

Being the impulsive that I am, I just launched in and did not correctly calculate the ratio of stitches to pick up on the edges, and did a 1 stitch to 2 row ratio.  HELLO??  I  completed the WHOLE blasted thing including binding off, and the middle sagged like crazy. 

So, I want back and consulted Sharon Miller's book, then frogged the 6 inch wide fan and feather lace border that I had so enthusiastically completed over the last 2 weeks.  Turns out I needed to pickup 5 stitches for every 8 rows;  one in each facing stitch plus an extra after every 4th.  I proceeded to do this, then happily knit two rows, and discovered a mistake in my fan and feather.  SO, frogged a second time; not completely but a good ways back.

I am really hoping that this will be a lovely family heirloom, so I want to get it right!  More to follow...

This is what I'd be looking at if I could if could this weekend:

SWEA is the Swedish Women's Educational Association and every year on the first weekend in December they hold their annual holiday fair at the cyclorama in Boston.  Here is the info at the SWEA Boston website.

I took my boys there when they were small.  B recalls getting Will Farrell's autograph one year (his wife is Swedish).

It's an absolute blast, well...for me anyway, with

Lucia procession, Swedish crafts, food including those cute little heart shaped waffles made fresh with jam and whipped cream (boys were bribed with that), a number of folks sporting handknits in the Scandinavian tradition, and of course, the Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) table, to help you plan your next trip!

If you are in the Boston area, don't miss it!  Since, I'm not going, perhaps I'll complete my hap shawl instead...not to mention my holiday UFO's...

Estonian Lace Update and Five Year Anniversary Project

Here's my latest Estonian Lace WIP.  This is Nancy Bush's Peacock Tail and Leaf Scarf, from Knitted Lace of Estonia:

The yarn is my handspun cormo singles at about 18 wraps per inch.  I'm not great at this spinning thing, it's a little thick and thin, so it's not exactly turning in to fine lace, but I like it.  Maybe I can blame the glass of wine I was sipping while spinning.  The cormo is from Juniper Moon Farm, and is dreamy soft.  It will be warm and soft neckwear for the recipient, a cousin who shall go unnamed just in case she's reading this...

 I have also been putting holiday knitting aside to work on my hap shawl;  I am up to the fan and feather lace edge, done in natural Shetland wool colors.  I am lucky to have a bad (good?) case of finishitis for this project.  I've pulled the needle out to give an idea here;  I have several more shades to go.

Here is Samantha making herself at home on it:

The end of September marked my five year anniversary as a homeowner in my present home.  I celebrated this last weekend by moving my compost pile, which had been next to the house.  I am a neglectful composter:   vegetable kitchen waste and yard waste including some pruning trimmings go in to the wire fence frame that I've formed in to a circle.  I then do nothing except keep adding to it for FIVE YEARS.  The four foot high wire structure which is 3 feet in radius had 4 feet of stuff in it.   The lugustrum shrubs next to the compost had twined their roots around it.  (It is alot worse than my yarn stash, which ain't very organized...).

It took:  a shovel, a loper, pruning shears, and a rake to clear the debris and remove the wire frame from the ground.  If I'd had an axe I would have used it.  If a teenaged boy had offered to help, I would have accepted it.  Almost extricated:

Done (meaning pulled out of the ground with roots attached):

Naturally, as I had included pruning clippings, I had to sieve the compost before putting it on the garden and the remainder in the new compost pile, which is away from the house.  Yes, I put the old sticks in the new compost pile. Why?  Dunno.  I used 1/2 inch metal screening (on the smaller cart) to strain it.

I keep thinking of Maurice Sendak's Chicken Soup With Rice:

In September it will be my dwelling's anniversary... 

Lights Out

My Grandfather, who was a Stevens descendent, collected kerosene lamps.  I am lucky to own several that were his.  Here's one:

Tonight, our power went out.  My son R had a cake in the oven.  R is 14, and he is the baker.  He was not happy about the power situation.

When our power goes out, which happens once or twice a year, I find my flashlight, under the bed.  I use it to locate matches and the kerosene lamps from my Grandfather, "Pop." I light the lamps, which now contain "lamp oil" whatever that is.  I also holler at all sons NOT to open the fridge.

 I once lost alot of frozen blackberries during a power outage which was BAD, in part because the freezer had been opened;  I missed the blackberry brandy  which I had planned to make.

I LOVE blackberry brandy;  on a good year I am able to score some berries from my brother who has vines, and do this:

2 c blackberries, clean but not washed), 1 c sugar, a quart of vodka, let them all sit together in a glass container for a month or two.  Strain out the berries and save to put on top of vanilla ice cream.  OR toss them if you don't like the tiny seeds in your teeth.  But honestly, they are worth the dental floss efforts.  Bottle the brandy in an old wine bottle with a cute label, or put in a mason jar.  Enjoy, pour over ice cream or pie, drink over ice, or with  cream (OMG) WHATEVER.  Enjoy more.


Back to the lack-of-power thread:  I ponder:  what to do?  Take a shower while there is still hot water in the tank?  OR do some spinning?  (I find that spinning is easier to do by low light than knitting, or taking a shower for that matter).  So, here I am with one of Pop's lamps, thanks to R's help and the camera flash:

About 45 minutes later, we had power.  Reed went back to his creation (his friend has a birthday tomorrow and he was able to finish his  baking).  I wound off the cormo single I was spinning on my niddy noddy and put it up to soak to set it for a lace single:

I am using it for a new Estonian lace creation.

Fait Accompli: Triangular Summer Shawl

Thank you, Nancy Bush

Estonian Lace

I bought a book and fell in love, Knitted Lace of Estonia by Nancy Bush.

I'm not sure why this heritage of lace appeals to me more than other types of lace. I just love the way the stitches curve this way and that to form the wavy lily of the valley fronds. Perhaps because it's a more regular pattern rather than something that keeps changing patterns as in fancy Shetland lace shawls, but still provides some serious technical attention span requirements during its creation. (Great for someone highly distractible like me).

Lace shawls are like spinning wheels; I am caught between the attraction to something novel and new; and something old and traditional with time-tested appeal. I love Anne's genius and beautiful shawl designs, and yet I crave being near something with direct history. I love the look (but have never tried) the look of newer spinning wheels like the Bee, but I'm also fascinated with a great wheel. But then I guess, I can appreciate both the old and the new for what they offer. And yes, when it comes to lace shawls, most new designs are based on old patterns; but there's nothing like knowing you're coming fairly close to something that a hard working impoverished woman knit for some needlepointing rich lady a century ago. (Oops, no offense meant if you needlepoint; I used to and wish I had the time and the vision to continue with it).

So my first almost FO from Nancy's book is Triangular Summer Shawl. I'm not done with the lace edge (sewn on) yet. It's my handspun, incredibly enough. By accident I found a nice wool roving at Wild Fibre in Savannah that goes with my default spinning technique quite nicely. This is my second shawl from handspun, the first is a little well, uh, chunky...

This is a newer designed pattern according to Nancy, published in 1983 in Triinu magazine. Triinu was a women's magazine, founded to bridge Estonian culture for women who had managed to emigrate out of the country.

Why is it that I take 40 shots-in-bathroom-mirror-which-knitters-do with my dominant right hand, they all s___, then switch to my left and I get a decent one in the first 5?? Is it a right brain thing? A left brain thing? I ain't bothering to look that one up...

I am simultaneously reading Purge by Sofi Okansen, translated by the writer of this lovely blog. It's the story of two women, and reflects the extraordinarily difficult history of Estonia:

In the last 100 years, Estonia won it's independence from the Russian Empire in 1920, only to be reinvaded by the Soviet Union during World War II, then the Third Reich, then (was there any doubt??) back to the Soviet Union in 1944. Estonia regained it's independence in 1991, after a blood free revolution, very unusual for one small country trying to crawl out from under Soviet dominance, along with other Baltic and Slavic nations.

Purge's story shifts time frames, but the primary reference time is 1991, post independence, when there were still shufflings going about with Soviet influence and culture, including of course women's material culture, pervading in the story. For example, on page 96 ... "The women in the village held on to their Singers, and anyone who did get a new machine got a treadle model, because what if something happened and there was no electricity?"

Well, guess what old thing is in the corner of my bedroom?? (Missing some veneer on the front).

Yep, that's it... my Great Grandmother's treadle Singer. Ain't she a beauty?

If you want a very inspirational documentary film version of Estonia's latest fight for freedom, check out the film, The Singing Revolution. You'll be singing along with the Estonian National Anthem by the end. And they knit on through all of this. An English feminine pleural for they would be nice here. Wonder if they have it in Estonian?