A Review of Folk Shawls

I did get a lot of knitting done over the weekend, but didn't manage to finish the Litla Dimun shawl. Since it was cast on at its longest point and is getting shorter and shorter as I go on, it feels like I was moving really fast! It was especially nice when I hit the two rows that decreased 16 stitches each, rather than just 4. I get the impression I'll actually finish that project in my lifetime!

Since I didn't finish the shawl over the weekend and since the bookstore didn't have Wendy Johnson's new book, like I'd hoped, I thought I could at least talk about the book I got the pattern from. I have had the Folk Shawls book, by Cheryl Oberle, quite a long time (it was published in 2000), but hadn't made anything from it until this project. That doesn't mean the book hasn't been used. I have read through it many times, dreaming about making one or more of the patterns, or thinking of ways to use ideas from them. The patterns are so clearly written that you can easily envision yourself working on them.

One reason I read it so many times is that there are examples of shawls from such a variety of traditions. Not only are there the expected British Isles, Ireland, Scandinavia, etc., represented, but there are Japanese, Spanish and even the Americas. I like some better than others, but the explanations of the traditions and techniques involved are all fascinating. The book makes a great introduction to techniques from around the world, and give you an idea of what you might like a lot, so you can head out and find more patterns in your favorite tradition.

That is one reason I chose a pattern from the Faroe Islands (which happens to be the first tradition focused on in Folk Shawls). I had read the patterns here and went out and made some Faroe style shawls in the past. I kept coming back to the Litla Dimun and Stora Dimun patterns, because they seemed more authentic (others I made are the modern versions that start on the small end and build, while these patterns are bottom up and have shoulder shaping).

If you don't have this book already, it's one I'd recommend adding to your library while it's still in print. Some of the shawls are huge masterpieces, but there are also some (which I give Ravelry links to so you can check them out), such as the Simple Garter Stitch Prairie Shawl and the Wool Peddler's Shawl (which many people I know have made), that are good introductions to knitting shawls or knitting lace. 

By the way, the mittens blocked nicely and came out very soft. I look forward to wearing them.

I didn't get to go knit with friends this evening, due to my son having a band event (sometimes you have to do the ole family stuff), but I got my knitting need met by looking through this treasured book once again!

Wet Suna Mitts

Well, hooray. I did finally finish the ethnic mittens. I don't know why it seems like it took so long--I only took three weeks, in the end. I think the fact that the two-handed knitting goes more slowly than regular knitting in the round just got to me. I always had to drop the yarn to wrap whenever there was a 5-stitch gap, and then make sure I didn't get the yarn twisted, so it seemed to go slowly. But, here they are. They are wet, because the instructions said to block them, which should explain the intense color.

 Actually. Charlene Schurch says to block them inside out. I think that is to be sure the floats are well stretched out. So, here is what they actually look like right now:

They really don't look too bad on the inside. I find the ribbing is especially nice to look at inside out. I will give you a picture of the actual dried mittens on a hand once they are ready, but I had wanted to share their completed glory.

To summarize, these are sock pattern 21 from this book:


The yarn is Ella Rae laceweight, which I got at Yarnorama. They have (or had last time I was there) a really nice assortment of this yarn. I made the large size, since the yarn is so fine. I am glad, because you get more pattern in the large size!

I do think that I would have had a more successful finished product if I had chosen more contrast. I really need to pay attention to that--perhaps I need to go buy one of those red lenses to look at yarn through, to make sure I have enough contrast. I had the same problem when I used to make quilts, too. I guess we all have our areas for growth, don't we?

I think when I finish the current socks, I may make a pair of socks using one of these patterns--since they are 64 and 72 stitches around, the mittens should easily translate into socks, don't you think? That's another reason to buy the book, even if you don't like mittens--the patterns are really striking and fun. Of course, I can always try more mittens. I guess, even in Texas, I could use a couple of pairs of mittens!

I am looking forward to working on my shawl and other socks for a bit, but still have the Anna Zilboorg book, with all the top-down mittens (and socks). But, hey, isn't it true that there are so, so many more patterns out there that we'd like to make than there is time to knit. Even during 5 weeks of no work, I didn't get very much knitting done--life does get in the way.

Happy knitting, every one.

Fond Farewell, and Welcome!

Yesterday I had the bittersweet experience of attending a very nice farewell gathering for our friend Jen, who is moving to Michigan, as I have mentioned earlier. It was nice to see so many of her knitting friends at the very accommodating La Madeleine restaurant (the one near the outlet mall, locals--go there, they are nice!).

Everyone had fun catching up on projects and purchases, plus the restaurant was nice enough to let us serve a cake from outside the premises, so we got to have a farewell treat.

Dawn supervises the cake cutting. Jennifer did a good job.

Poor Jennifer hurt her knee in an accident too embarrassing to chronicle here, which will make moving a bit of a challenge. We can only hope that the fun collection of farewell presents and cards will make things a little easier for her.

Gifties, plus roses, a shawl in progress, and a foot.

So, perhaps not my best photographic effort. I'd put up more pictures, but Blogger's image uploader is not working right for me (they are working on it), so this will have to give you an idea.

It is so good that we have blogs, Facebook, email, etc., to keep in touch when people move away. It makes it feel less final. We can still share stories, finished object photos and questions about yarns. For all the ups and downs, it is great to have knitting friends, both near and far!

A lady in the restaurant came up and asked if people were knitting at the restaurant every week, and the attendees said yes, and invited her back. Isn't that the best, that there are always new people to see and get to know? I've learned something from everyone I have encountered in the knitting adventure world, that's for sure. So, welcome to the new lady--I hope she is there some week when I can come (sadly, it's too far for me to make it every week, due to having to rush off to choir practice many miles away). [I resisted an urge to make a joke for Pilar, so Pilar, imagine a joke here.]

I'd also like to welcome the 50th person to "follow" the blog on Blogger. I think it's a nice gesture of support to "follow" a blog you read, even if you don't read it on the Blogger interface. It lets the author know you're there (sometimes you fell all alone in the "blogosphere"). So hi there to JM, the newest follower! I admit that I read a lot of blogs, but I know there are so many others out there. Thanks to all of you who read and all of you who write--it's a good thing about the world that we can share our thoughts with others and get insight from what's going on with people we may never meet in person.

Well, my work starts back up tomorrow, so I had better finish that mitten. I just have to finish the top and do the thumb. Maybe tonight is its final night on the needles.

Yes! Suna Mitts!

No, I didn't finish them, but I just thought the post title was funny. I did get a lot of mitten done yesterday. If I wasn't so fond of throwing balls to cute dogs I'd have gotten more done yesterday over at Dawn's, but I enjoy her cute doggies. It's always good to relax with friends and knit, and it's always fun to watch the spinners spinning. I am grateful for the space and time to knit.

But, anyway, to prove I am working along, here's the second mitten's progress:

Progress on Second Ethnic Mitten

I'm to the point where I really am ready to do something else, so I'm going to hunker down and try to get this project done in the next couple of days. I am sure you'd like to read about another project!

Tomorrow is the farewell gathering for our long-time knitting friend Jen. I will miss having her around, but am glad she has her blog, so I can keep up with her! I have what I hope is a good farewell gift for her. I wish I was as great at making cards as she is, but I can at least write something nice, right?

I'm looking forward to doing some knitting fun over the weekend--I'll finally hand over the Linus Blankie and maybe help some of the other ladies get started on knitting their own projects. I'd like to show them the pattern for the Nana's afghan that I fixed up for someone in 2008. It's easy and can be either solids or stripes. They seem sort of excited about it. I'd actually hoped to go on a retreat this weekend, but it got canceled. At least I have good backup plans!It's always good to have a Plan B. I am learning that a lot, lately.

An Old Project Revealed

Finally, the Spring/Summer 2010 Knitty is out, so I can talk more about the socks I made last September. I talk about my friend Jodie, who designs lots of patterns and knitted a giant shawl last week, often, and I showed you some close-ups of this pattern when I was working on it, but because we had to wait until it was published, I could not show you my versions of the Twisted socks Jodie designed. Here are some pictures of the pair I test knitted:

My GOOD Twisted Sock.

As you may recall, I used the Knitivity sock yarn in the Koi colorway that I asked Ray to design for me.

The sock I messed up on, but from its good side

I love these socks, even though I messed up reading the instructions on the first pair. I kept that sock, because, hey, it shows that I helped with my suggestions to Jodie and the instructions are way better now (actually, she did a LOT of changing after I knitted my trial pair. Any good author revises a lot!

The colors are great, and the slipped stitches really work well on a brightly colored yarn like this. The pattern construction is a LOT of fun, so I highly recommend you sock knitters give this one a try. It's worth the effort to get the feed perfect!

Congratulations to Jodie for being persistent and continuing to submit patterns until she got one in! And many hopes for more publications. Don't you agree that supporting our friends is important? If you have a friend who has done something newsworthy, tell someone. It feels good.

I have to go concentrate on the other kinds of work I do for a bit, but I'll be back later! I got up past putting the thumb stitches on a holder on the second mitten yesterday, so who knows, I might actually get to finish my shawl soon.

More Grannies and a Fresh Look

I know a lot of people read my blog posts on Facebook, so they don't see the actual blog. But I look at it fairly often. I'd realized that my personal blog's template had not changed since 2005, so I looked around the new Blogger template customization tool and found something very cheery for it. That made me feel like this blog had grown stale. I like the logo my husband made for me (those are my knitting hands!), but I wanted to make it less wide and have a bit of my personality in it.

So, I found a picture with pansies in it, which made me happy, because they are my favorite flower and I collect things with pansies on them--that was just ME (admittedly, I wish I could use one of my own pansy photos for the background, but I'll live). I messed around with templates until I found something with my colors that was actually legible (a couple possibilities got the Lee vote of disapproval for readability). I also added a feature, which is a list of my favorite blogs. It shows the ten most recently updated faves, though I may cut it down to 5 if I decide that makes the sidebar too long.

Enough with Blogger Talk...

I did want to share with you a photo of the granny squares I am working on now, since I realize I only showed you the 43-year-old afghan yesterday. Anyway, here are some of the ones I am doing in my spare time, in the colors of the mitered square afghan. I will edge each in some as-yet-undetermined solid color before putting them together.

Yesterday I enjoyed a break from knitting by reading the spring 2010 Internet Crochet. There were a couple of cardigans I'd actually consider knitting, but this one project, Forest Petals Shawl, really impressed me. I don't know if I would wear it, but I sure think it looks cool!

The photos in the magazine really show you how the Lorna's Laces yarn enhances the holey pattern, or click the link to see more. I like this magazine a lot--there were also a couple of nice afghan patterns that look fun. I don't feel like I'm being unfaithful to my knitting because I also like crochet (see Jen's post on that topic--look at all those grannies!). I know where my big loyalty lies. Speaking of which, it's back to the mittens!

Hidden Project

Just a quick note: I was working on mitten #2 (the cuff is done!), I realized that I hadn't put one of my projects on Ravelry, and barely talked about it here.

Why should I be ashamed that I am working on a granny square afghan? It's a charity project, after all, and it's using up the leftovers from the mitered square afghan. Some needy child will love its cheerful colors! I work on it when I don't have anything mindless and portable to take with me, so mainly it's been worked on in choir. I am just making squares until I run out of each color. Who knows how many little afghans I will actually end up with!

Sure, lots of people make fun of the humble granny square. After all, it's the first thing many people learn to crochet. Wait, first thing, did you say? Take a gander at this! Yes, it's true. I still own the first thing I ever crocheted (it's wool, which may explain why it hasn't disintegrated much). I was just a little kid, and my grandmother taught me how to make it. (This is one of two, count 'em, two really nice things I remember her doing for me--she was an interesting woman, but when she didn't like you, you could tell.)

My first completed project, circa 1965.

I talk about this project often when I get the chance to teach someone to knit or crochet. You can literally see my progress in the squares. The first few are rather large and floppy, but they get smaller and more even as I get the hang of what I am doing. Only a 9-year-old would have the confidence to go ahead and sew them all together, even though the squares aren't the same size! But Child Suna was right--there's no need to be ashamed of your "learning projects." It's good to save evidence of where you were, so you can be gauge where you ARE later. I am really glad I saved this.

Notice that the center square is much larger than the ones to its left and right!

I wish I'd saved my first piece of knitting. My mom had taught me the year before I learned to crochet. I made a sky blue blanket for a fashion doll. I distinctly remember that it had a hole in it, and that it got either bigger or smaller. But, the doll didn't care. For a few years, all I knew how to do was knit garter stitch, but I got one of those green "learn to knit" books and figured out purling, decreasing, etc., and was off and running in my teens.

But back to my crochet project. Really, what's wrong with some "comfort crochet" every so often? My friend Jen has been going crazy with granny squares lately, and it's been fun to see her joy in the combinations of colors she gets, and how quickly the projects work up. I remember that feeling so well from when I was young, making dozens of tote bags, pillows and blankets for everyone I knew.

I have to say that I, too, am looking forward to completing all the squares and seeing how I can arrange them in interesting ways. If I end up with enough for multiple child-sized blankets, I can even edge them in different colors and get a really different feel! So, whee! It will take a while, but eventually, I'll have something fun to play with, with no shame at all!

One Very Nice Mitten

First, thank you for all the nice comments on Jodie's immense shawl! MMario is indeed, as John-Francis pointed out, a dude who knits, and we should support them whenever possible. And I do, believe me--I read plenty o' men's blogs from the "famous" ones like Brooklyn Tweed and Franklin Habit (who I even met once) to people I consider personal friends like Colin Andersson and Ray Whiting. I guess I should write a post about my favorite knitting dudes and their products and projects some time!

But wait, I was gonna blog about this:

The first of my Orange Ethnic Mittens is done. It took longer than I expected, because I keep doing other things, like tarot bags and cooking for the family (I am sure you will be jealous of the delicious organic liver and onions, baked sweet potatoes and steamed cauliflower we had last night--weird combo but good). But I digress, again...

The pattern is lots of fun to make, and I have a feeling these mittens will be like Cookie A socks for me--once you make one, you want to make the rest of the patterns in the book! I keep thinking of different color combinations and trying to decide which of the patterns I like the best. Then I thought of making matching socks. I should have enough yarn left over to make socks. But, before that, perhaps I should finish the other mitten, huh? Stop with the incessant blogging and go knit!

But wait, I did want to give a hint for anyone who wants to knit patterns from Mostly Mittens, by Charlene Schurch. On her charts, decreases are shown by the pattern rows getting smaller. I had a bit of trouble remembering where to decrease, so I drew symbols for SSK and K2tog on the edge stitches, where the decreases go, to remind me what to do. The other hint I have is to not forget to go back to the general guidelines for each section of the mitten when you start doing something different--there are useful guidelines in there! But don't worry, other than mis-counting every so often, I didn't find this pattern difficult at all. I encourage you to give these a try--they make great gifts if you live in Texas (I plan to wear mine at high school football games--I have needed some for the last 5 years--my gloves get chilly).

If you are so inclined, please think of me today, as I have a first interview for a REAL job, and those are very, very rare for technical writers/instructional designers in Austin. Having work to do will cut me back to my more normal blogging schedule again, but I promise to not do a big drought like I went through early in the year.

PS: I added the tarot bag to Ravelry, so if you make one, please link to this!

Could You Knit 2.7 Miles of Laceweight?

Since I am waiting until my mitten is finished to share a photo of it (it's almost done!), I've decided to highlight someone else's masterpiece today.

My good friend Jodie in Ohio, for whom I have done some test knitting (you will spot her socks in the Knitty issue that comes out any day now), just finished some test knitting of her own, and whoa, that's some test knitting--2.7 miles of yarn (she counted: 4725 yards, 2.7 miles, and 4.3 km). Here's Arctic Tundra (blocking)!

Here are some words straight from her:

"Feel free to share on your blog. The designer is MMario on Ravelry. Amazingly talented designer and it was an absolute pleasure doing this test knit for him. The design is called Arctic Tundra and can be found at his yahoo groups "patterns in progress" page. I first heard about Mmario through your friend John-Francis."

Pretty amazing when your friends from different parts of your life interact after having encountered each other on the blog. Thanks to John-Francis for making this connection! It's for reasons like this that I continue to write about my experiences and the people I encounter. You never know when a creative or personal connection will be made.

Back to Arctic Tundra (shown above before blocking), I am boggled (or I boggle, not sure how to use that word other than as the name of a game) at how much knitting this project involved. Jodie is incredibly prolific, true, but this amazed me. She said it took her four months to do, but I happen to know she worked on a couple of other projects at the same time, because her designer brain never stops churning away. Of course, the project had some challenges, especially when it came to blocking. More from Jodie:

It annoys me that I couldn't get the angle of the star equal in the center when I was blocking--but it was just too big. I didn't have an extra inch of floor--and that was after I overran the blocking mats and started slipping blocking pins between the boards of my oak floor. An incredibly memorable project.

 After seeing the pre-blocking and the blocking photos, I was interested in finding out what she was going to use this project for. Certainly you'd need to be a "person of height" to wear it as a shawl! But, she has a perfect use, the grand piano cozy! How elegant and Victorian!

I find it interesting how MMario named the patterns. Each has to do with something you would find in the tundra. The photo below shows the patterns Polestar and Snow,Nelson Island, Musk Ox, Lemmings on the Tundra, and Bear Claw Edge, for example.

I hope this inspires some of you to tackle this project when it's officially published, and if not, to dream big with your knitting! You never know what you can do until you try!

As for me, I think I'll finish up that first mitten today, if the mundane world of job searching, grocery shopping and rain watching doesn't take up too much time! I got a lot done last night at a knitting and spinning pajama party, so I'll have one potentially warm hand soon.

Silken Tarot Bag

Today I finished Lee's tarot bag. I'd have been finished yesterday, but I decided to add a ruffly edge, so that was done today. Want to make one? Here's how!

Yarn: fine silk yarn, your choice. This is Tillie Thomas Voile de la Mer.
Needles: The smallest you have--you want a sturdy fabric. I used 000s. Yep, I did. You can use double pointeds or circulars, whichever you prefer.

First, measure your bag and do a gauge swatch so you can figure out how many stitches it will take to make the bag fit snugly (optional if you do not care for a snug fit.

Knit a rectangle in stockinette (K 1 row, P 1 row) the size of the bottom of the box your cards came in, or the deck itself. For mine, I knit a rectangle 28 stitches wide by 12 rows of stockinette.

Next, pick up and knit around the edges. I picked up 12 stitches along each narrow end, and 27 stitches along the cast-on edge, for 79 stitches. You will see why I wanted an odd number in a bit.

Knit two rounds. Then start a linen stitch section: *K1, sl 1 with yarn in front*

Because you have an odd number of stitches, the linen stitch pattern will naturally form (on alternate rows, the slipped stitch moves one stitch over, so it makes a pattern that appears woven:

I hope you can see it from the picture. For this bag, I did 12 rows of linen stitch, then 14 rows of plain knitting in the round. and repeated that three times, ending with another linen stitch section. That ended up being just a little longer than my cards, which is what I wanted. Yours might take more or less, or you might do more or less of each stitch pattern. It's up to you! I chose linen stitch because it is so sturdy and counter-acted the delicacy of the silk yarn.

When you think it's long enough, start the ribbing, which is K2, P2. I did about 1.5 inches of this.
Next do an eyelet round: *YO, K2tog, P2*
You will thread a crocheted chain, i-cord or ribbon length through these later.

Do another 1.5 inches or so of ribbing, to match the first part. You can bind off here OR add a ruffle by increasing one in every stitch around, and doing another inch or so of K4,P4 ribbing, then bind off. I liked the way it made the top of the bag blossom. I have also heard that it looks a big like a hot water bottle cover. You can decide for yourself!

Crochet a chain (I used a US size 8 crochet hook too old to have metric measurements on it) long enough to make a nice tie, or do 3-stitch i-cord for a similar length. I think I am actually going to go buy some velvet ribbon to use on this bag instead of the chain.

This was a fun project, and is a perfect little bag for your tarot cards. Or if you are geeky in another way, it would also hold a collection of multi-faceted dice. Or crystals, or beads, or whatever.

For a discussion on the best material to make tarot card bags out of, see the comments on the previous blog entry. Thanks to all who have made that discussion interesting! As you will see, there are lots of viewpoints on the topic! (I tend to put the ones I read with in cotton or silk bags, though some I don't use are wrapped in more sparkly stuff. I think I will also make some bags using 100% wool sock yarn, though.)

For now, back to the mittens.

PS: I added this to Ravelry, so you can list it among your projects if you wish!

Silky Smooth

I thought I'd take a little break from moderating comments to show you a little project I started yesterday. I'd hoped to get it done quickly as a birthday gift for my husband, but it didn't work out that way. Still, I think he will like it!

I am making a little bag to store tarot cards in. The yarn is Tillie Thomas Voile de la Mer, which I had started a scarf with, but got bored with the pattern. Lee had asked for a silk bag, and this is as close as I could get with yarn I already had, silk and seaweed.

I started by knitting a stockinette rectangle the size of the bottom of the box his cards came in, then I picked up around the edges and started knitting in the round.I want the bag to be sturdy, so I am knitting on teeny 000 needles to get the stitches as small as Suna's loose knitting can get. I did a section in linen stitch, which looks very, very tight (reminds me of the time I knitted the instep of one of my tiger stripe socks under deep stress and I ended up making a tourniquet), then I did some stockinette and am back to linen stitch again, which is not quite so teeny. By making the number of stitches odd, I never have to switch the linen stitch around, so I just keep repeating K1, slip 1 with yarn in front, over and over.

My friend Tina came over yesterday afternoon before a tarot gathering at our house, and we sat on the porch and knitted and chatted. That probably loosened up the stitching. Thanks, Tina!

Lee likes the bag and the color. I think I will do a bit of ribbing with a section of yarn-overs to run an i-cord strand through at the top, followed by more ribbing. I'd put on a ruffle or beads, but am not sure if that would be manly enough. I'll ask him! He's such a calm, sweet and understanding spouse that he deserves maybe more than one storage bag!

It will be back to the mittens this weekend. I really appreciated all the feedback on them--lots of pros and cons to consider, but I'll finish them anyway.

PS: Please see the comments if you are interested in a discussion of tarot traditions.

What Do You Think about This?

I wanted to show you the progress on the mitten I am knitting. It's the beautifully named (ha ha) Pattern 21 from Mostly Mittens, as I mentioned earlier in the week. Here is what it looks like now:

Mitten in Progress

My concern is that the colors are too close together, so they obscure the pattern. When I look at the photo, I think it looks fine. It is more subtle than it would have been in red and blue or something, but you can certainly see the design. Do you think it's good enough to keep going, or should I unravel the yarn and make socks?

I do think the next pair will be out of more contrasting yarns.

I am glad I switched to the "large" size of the mittens, since this Ella Rae Laceweight is really fine yarn. Right now, it fits great. I am enjoying working on the mittens, though wrapping every three stitches in the 5-stitch stretches sure slows me down, even when knitting with both hands. I guess there's no way to do fast stranded knitting! Or did I miss a hint somewhere?

I hope you are enjoying my daily posts while my work is still on hiatus. Lots of time to type now! Off I go to take my daily walk, have a tiny lunch, and knit!