1 March 10
24 February 10
Lost in Socks
Handspun. Trying to knit a pair of twined socks during the winter olympics. Today’s discovery: they are going to be VERY SNUG around the ankle and I don’t know if I can block twined knitting enough to make a difference… Project here on Ravelry. Nearly finished one sock, the second will need the entire foot done before Sunday night…
17 December 09
Knitting Away
I don’t blog much about the fact that I now spend a good deal of time, mostly in the early morning, with a cat on my lap under a pair of knitting needles. I took a break from knitting for about 20 years but am back with a vengeance, which means all kinds of other things don’t get done.
This time, though, I knit socially too. This means I know that I’m not alone in my obsession. My social knitting revolves around a weekly group that meets, improbably, in a video store owned by a Salvadorean couple, he a master baker who used to work at the Austrian pastry shop in town, Konditorei. (This is bad for the waistline along with all this time I’m sitting on my rear so I usually restrict myself to Mayan hot chocolate.) My online social knitting group is much more vast, knowledgeable, and distracting than this. Knitting problems are shared and answered instantly by people with varying levels of authority.
There are reportedly millions of knitters in the United States. Many of them are under 30, rewriting stereotypes and sharing their design skills for free with the knitting community.
And then there’s Knitty . When this goes live every three months, servers tremble. The new one came out earlier this week; there are at least three things I’d like to make on there, two of them with my own handspun. Which is now piling up….
14 August 09
Spinning Away
I’ve been renting a wheel from Meridian Jacobs and also spinning on my spindle, which is getting easier. The key is consistency. The last yarn I plied was acceptable weight for socks, but I think it wasn’t spun or plied tightly enough for sock yarn.
Numenius has also tried his hand at spindle spinning.
Researching wheels to buy. I’m narrowing down the criteria. Currently they include ease of use, price, beauty, silence, treadle action and how smooth it is. There will be compromises to be made here: you can’t have all of this in one package, it seems. It’s like buying binoculars.
In other news, and very good news, mum got an all-clear from the doctor this morning and has opted to go for the recommended 4-month chemo treatment. The doc provided some great stats on why this was a good idea. We all agreed, though would have supported her no matter what. Celebration, tonight!
18 July 09
Spinning
I spent the day at Meridian Jacobs farm near Dixon today, learning how to spin on a wheel. I had a blast and spun lots of yarn and even plied some. Hoping to do a lot more tomorrow. The instructor lent me a wheel to bring home but I haven’t done much tonight, I’m tired.
Charlie’s tired too.
We carded, learned to draw out the fibers from the roving or batt, learned how to spin them tightly and let the spin travel up the drawing-out. I tried two different wheels and hope to try a third tomorrow. The hardest part is to spin a consistent width, and especially to keep that small. I am doing better with this next round and will try and post a photo of the finished product tomorrow. At right is the first attempt. I know it looks like a giant squid. Hoping for better…
18 June 09
Arcane Knitting Gear
Saturday was Knit in Public Day, and knit in public I did, in Lafayette. There I met the extraordinary Agres who has taken it upon himself to learn as much as possible about pre-machine knitting in the British Isles (and pretty much anywhere else). The best way he can think of to learn how they did things is to try and replicate the tools and try them himself. He grinds his own steel-sprung needles, makes sheaths (the clothespin-like artefacts in the photo; they attach to a belt or apron string and a thin double-pointed needle is anchored in the tip). It was an amazing day; we were joined by Barbara and Elyse and a grand time was had. I have learned that Agres considers me to have learned “excellent pit knitting skills” growing up in Spain and for this I pause for a moment and say thank you, Francisca.
The leather pouch (knitting belt) I bought from Schoolhouse Press, imported from Scotland, used in Shetland for Fair Isle knitting, which I’ve been learning how to do as well. The vest, at right, is nearly finished (I ran out of the gray-purple yarn and don’t like the white sleeve facing I came up with as an alternative, so I am waiting for a final ball of yarn to polish it off with). This vest is for a very dear friend who lives in Sweden, and I imagine her wandering around the forest and mist in it, which is a nice thought. Because: It’s 96° here and I’m thinking and talking about knitting??
27 April 09
Trip on Transit
I went to Pleasanton yesterday — about 90 miles away — on my bike, bike on train, bike on BART. I haven’t put my bike on a train before and it was surprisingly easy. My bike trip at either end was only about three miles.
Jarrett Walker of Creature of the Shade has started a new blog, Human Transit. I feel lucky to be in a place where this kind of trip was not only possible but very easy. Of course we had to wait for the bridge to go down outside Martinez — they were letting a ship through — but I’d have had to have done that in the car anyway.
On the way to the station yesterday, I ran into a) a criterium, which made me alter my route through b) the antique Volvos show, on the way to get c) asparagus, which I threw into a tub of pre-prepared lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, and a little tarragon to throw on the grill at the Lazy, Stupid and Godless knitting/dyeing/spinning party. I learned to spin. I hung out with some awesome people. And then I turned around and did the whole thing backwards, running into the fixed gear event in Pleasanton — at first I thought it was part of the city code, that you couldn’t ride bikes with gears. But no. Just some tired guys at the end of the day, looking at the overpass with fear and loathing. I turned right to the subway station.
Oh, and on the way down on the train I conducted a birdathon in support of Yolo Audubon. 48 species, including Western gull, Clark’s grebe, and chestnut-backed chickadee, all of which are hard to find in Yolo County. You can’t do this kind of thing from a car…
15 April 09
Gansey Physics
One of my fellow Ravelers has spent a tremendous amount of time and effort investigating the history of knitting, in particular the knits used by fishermen in the past. In the days before microfiber, wearing something that would prevent hypothermia while at sea was literally a matter of life and death. A store-bought gansey that was not in the least bit wind-resistant launched Aaron Lewis into the quest for how they REALLY did it.
Aaron has a large number of excellent posts but the current one is a great place to start. I am wearied in advance by his stitch-count-per-inch but recognize its wisdom. Added, then, to the blogroll, and at some point in my life I will learn exactly how to use a knitting sheath. (I get the concept, but not the mechanics quite yet, though the sight of those beautifully turned wooden objects that actually have a function has me reeling…)
2 April 09
Knitting Assistant
Charlie makes the best of finding an interloper in his chair and proceeds to supervise the knitting.
18 March 09
The Land of Knitting
Numenius has been reading to me from the Yarn Harlot’s latest book, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot’s Guide to the Land of Knitting, while I knit my sweater. The Yarn Harlot is a brilliant writer and you don’t have to be remotely interested in knitting to enjoy her prose, as Numenius will tell you between guffaws. She’s written quite a few other books, one of which is Things I Learned From Knitting (Whether I Wanted to Or Not).
I haven’t read it yet, but here are some things I’m learning about knitting as I go:
a) Don’t knit anything beyond garter stitch when drinking. Even just one glass. And maybe not even garter stitch if you have to do increases, decreases, or any kind of counting. This is really important.
b) If it’s a boring stitch or a monochrome yarn, have it be a small project if you’d like to finish it. If it’s a combination of the two, “small project” amounts to a sock for a Barbie doll. (Then watch Barbie not wear it; but why should she? You have fallen prey to Second Sock Syndrome, and there is no second sock in sight.)
c) Large projects should only be undertaken if they are staggeringly appealing to you, are knit on large yarn and/or large needles, and contain enough of interest to keep you going but are simple enough not to have you get bogged down in complexity.
d) The quality of the needles you use makes a huge difference in the ease of knitting. I’m going to guess the quality of yarn (and its price) make a big difference too. These factors are likely to determine whether or not you buy a condo in the Land of Knitting. They will also determine whether your bank account is going to get depleted in a hurry.
e) Attempting to knit lace is like embarking on reading Ulysses. It’s not about where you’re going, it’s about the journey. (In my case, a journey in the dark while riding a malevolent arab mare, spiteful rolling eyes and gorgeous. Landing in the ditch is the most likely outcome.)