Yesterday the sun was shining as we were leaving home for work so I grabbed my half-finished Soumak and asked Doug to take some photos in the sunshine.
Here are some closeups. In the shade:
Sun on Soumak
8
Musing on fusing
I’ve been asking for advice the past few weeks about how to finish the project I’ve been knitting for my daughter Leah. To review for any new visitors, I have knit a rectangular panel, which measures about 13×41 inches, which has the inscription from the One Ring of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings knitted into it. I used Quince & Co Chickadee wool, knit it in the round with stranded knitting and steeked it. Here is a photo of the steeked and blocked piece:
Both my friend Teresa (who was serendipitously also visiting Vancouver for the holidays) and my blogging friend Ann (who responded to the blog post) suggested using fusible interfacing to stiffen the fabric. I believe this intervention was intended irregardless of whether I ended up using a knitted or silk cloth back. Both of them felt that the knitted piece would be too flimsy to hold up in the pillow and should be reinforced.
Well, this has set me to musing about fusing, so to speak. Here is my concern: I knit this by stranding. This means that there is always one strand of yarn being carried across the back of the work. Because I intended this to be a pillow, and thus the back would not be seen, I was also not meticulous about the length of the floats, which I varied quite a bit, and are sometimes quite long. I can’t take a photo of the back now, because I am ensconsed in business school for the weekend (I am writing this after a full day of micro-economic theory). Here is a photo of me cutting the steek, however, in which a portion of the back is visible:
In addition to wondering how the fusing will interact with the stranded fabric, I am worried that it will interact differently with the unstranded portions thus once again highlighting the distinctions between the stranded and unstranded portions that I managed to hide with a good blocking.
If anyone has experience using fusible facing on a stranded knitting project, I would love to hear from you. Also, to Lora, thank you for your lovely comments on my last post. I really do love the silk fabric I bought for the pillow back, and my main concern about using it is my lack of confidence and experience in sewing. I will definitely take your advice and consult a professional seamstress before I make any decisions.
Well, I will stop musing about fusing now, and go back to musing about the Income Elasticity of Demand. Sigh….
Rite of passage – the steek
In the end, after all my worries, steeking turned out to be rather anticlimactic. For those who haven’t been following, I have been knitting a birthday project for my daughter, Leah, which is a panel with the transcription from the One Ring (from The Lord of the Rings) knitted into it:
I used the method provided by Kate Davies in her wonderful steeking tutorial, which involves using a crochet reinforcement. First, I crocheted up one side of the cut line (using a brown yarn for the reinforcing):
Here is the piece with the reinforcing done, just before cutting:
The two rows of crochet lean away from each other and when pulled slightly apart, reveal a line of ladders which are the bits actually cut. OK, here goes nothing:
And, behold, the blocked piece:
It is worth every bit of trouble it took to knit. (Mostly, just that it demands you pay attention to what you are doing. It is not a TV knit.) Here is a small portion of one page of the chart:
Unfortunately, it was at this point that problems set in. My initial plan was to use the fabric to both make the pillow slightly wider (by sewing long strips above and below the knitted piece) and then to back it. The blocked knitted piece measures about 13″x41″ (which makes it pretty long for a pillow; definitely not a standard size). I had planned on aiming for a completed pillow size of about 25″x40″. I am not a seamstress and have little sewing experience. I was on holiday in Vancouver, and my sewing machine back home in England, so I had hoped to borrow both a sewing machine and some sewing expertise. I talked to a number of people who had more knowledge of sewing than I do, and each of them thought that sewing the knitted fabric to the silk fabric would not be an easy task, and that the different tensions between them would lead to problems with pulling and stretching. Each of them had the same advice: knit the pillow back. As Teresa put it: “You know how to knit. You feel comfortable knitting. Sewing this makes you uncomfortable. Stick with what you are good at.”
I have lots of extra yarn, plenty to knit the pillow back (of course, the extra yarn was at home in England). In the end, I decided to stew on the matter for a bit. This means that Leah did not get her birthday present. I brought it back home with me, and am now busily debating how I should finish it. Should I risk sewing these two fabrics together? Should I consult a seamstress and pay to have a professional do it? Should I admit that the different tensions will likely lead to the knitted side stretching over time even if I can solve the sewing problem? Or should I just knit the back? And if I do that, how should I do it? Should I still knit panels to make it wider? (13″x40″ is too long and narrow.) Should I knit a border panel? And how to fasten it? Zipper, buttons, envelope closing? Too many questions, lots of indecision on my part. (I would welcome advice.)
In the meantime, back here in the UK, it is stormy and rainy and flooding all over the place. I have b-school this weekend, so very little knitting is likely to occur over the next week (or blogging for that matter). I hope that all of my UK readers stay dry, and all in North America keep warm this week.
PS – I asked Doug for advice on what to name this post. This is what he came up with:
- Steek with me, baby!
- Steeky fingers
- It’s better than a poke in the eye with a sharp steek
- Jose Jalapeno with a steek (with apologies to Jeff Dunham)
- Steek figures
- Steek to your guns
- Steek it to the man!
- How to steek to a New Year’s Resolution
- Just cut the damn thing already, so that I can go to bed!
Why do I bother to ask?
My year in knits 2013
I will follow in the tradition (rather grandiously claimed as I started last year) of posting on the final day of December a review of my year in knits. I only post here projects which were actually finished in 2013, which leaves out quite a bit of lovely knitting on some unfinished projects like the Soumak wrap, my Exeter jacket and Leah’s Lord of the Rings-inspired pillow. (With any luck these will be included in the 2014 review.) I made two pairs of fingerless mitts this year. First, I knit the Flecktone Mitts, designed by Susan Moskwa, for Leah:
Way back in February, I knit the amazing February Scarf, designed by Beth Weaver, for Leah. This is a very long, thick, cushy cabled scarf, knit in Quince & Co Osprey in Winesap.
I knit three cowls this year, which were all destined as Christams gifts. Unfortunately, I don’t have photos of the recipients modelling the first two. I knit a cabled cowl from Rowan Cocoon for my neice Lydia in a pattern I designed:
I also knit a cowl for my sister-in-law, Vivian, in Cocoon. For this one, I used the Infinitude pattern, designed by Jeni Chase:
Despite the above evidence to the contrary, I am primarily a sweater knitter. I love knitting sweaters and am passionate about fit. This year has been a lamentably slow year for sweaters – I only finished four. The first was the best, the amazing Audrey sweater I knit for Emma. I modified the pattern, designed by Kim Hargreaves, quite a bit (all of it documented here on this blog; search for the tag Audrey).
In March I knit a very fast sweater using the pattern Arleen, by Dona Knits (this pattern is available for free.) It took just 10 days to knit, and I made it from Cascade 220 recycled from my frogged Levenwick cardigan. For such a quick and simple pattern, it is surprisingly pleasing:
So that is the year in review. There was a lot going on this year – both girls going off to university, me starting business school, work being hectic, lots of travel. These things combined to mean less knitting. I thought about ending with the phrase “I had hoped to knit more, but life got in the way.” But, as we all know, life doesn’t get in the way of knitting or anything else for that matter. Life is just what happens, the good and the bad, the knitting and not knitting, and being swept along on the journey is good enough for me.
I wish you all the best for the New Year.
A few knitted gifts
While in Vancouver, I knit two cowls in shades of rust and burgundy. The first was a gift for my sister-in-law Vivian. I don’t have any photos of Viv wearing it because the light fades very quickly this time of year. So you will have to make do with a few hastily taken photos of me (taken before my morning coffee no less).
Emma’s friend Indi has spent part of the holidays with us and I knit her a cowl as well. Indi’s cowl presented some difficulties. Indi is vegan and doesn’t wear animal fibres. Emma and I spent quite some time searching for a suitable yarn. Unfortunately, we searched online, which means the tactile portion of the yarn buying experience was missing. I must admit here to being a bit of a yarn snob; I don’t want to use manmade fibres. It’s likely that there are some very soft acrylic yarns out there that would make wonderfully cozy, vegan-approved cowls, but I only looked at the cotton and linen options. The yarn that we settled on is really very lovely and has a great sheen to it, but let’s face it – it just doesn’t feel like wool. But as Emma kept reminding me: “That’s sort of the point, Mom!”
This is a Danish yarn called Allino, made by BC Garn. It is a 50/50 cotton and linen blend. I really like the colours; you can see that the linen and cotton take to the dye differently, thus producing this interesting marled effect in the yarn. (Neither of these photos shows the colour very well but my light is limited this time of year.) I knit the cowl using the yarn held double on US 9 needles. I started by casting on 200 stitches and knitting in 4×4 rib. My intention was to knit the whole cowl in rib, but about half way through Emma said “Mom, this is pretty boring.” She also said “You can buy a boring cowl in any store. The reason to knit a cowl is to avoid buying the boring cowls from the stores and have something beautiful and interesting to wear.” So, I put in some cabling in what I thought was an interesting way, and then went back to the 4×4 ribbing. The cabled portion is placed assymetrically into the ribs, which I find pleasing.
I do think that this cowl is pretty and has an interesting structure. The linen makes it quite stiff, which gives it a sort of architectural feel. The colour is wonderful and looks great on Indi. (I will post a modelled shot tomorrow.) In retrospect, however, I should have shopped around more for a good vegan cowl option. This yarn would be great in many things but I think a cowl should be soft before all else. Next time I will go for a cotton yarn and bypass linen all together.
In addition to these pretty gifts, I also gave a knitted cowl to my lovely neice, Lydia. I don’t have a photo of Lydia in it, but here is one of me modelling it:
Emma also received a little knitted cheer in her stocking: the pair of Noro mitts that I posted about here. If I am able, I will post a modelled shot tomorrow because everything looks better when Emma wears it.
For regular readers of this blog, let me say that I have steeked, it went well and will be reported in due time. Tomorrow I will post up my end-of-the-knitting-year review.
One does knit simply walk into Mordor
My Tolkien-obsessed daughter came up with the bad pun in the title. An indication of my pun-addled brain is that I I found it irresistable. (If you don’t get the joke…never mind.) I have continued to knit on the Ring-transcribed panel for Leah. Here is a new progress shot:
The beautiful fabric you see on the left in the photo above will be the backing for the pillow. I bought the fabric from John Lewis in Reading, UK. It was actually a remnant stored in the back storeroom. I went to John Lewis with the knitting in hand and gathered together all of the sales staff to help me find the perfect piece of fabric. It was late in the day and there were not many other customers, and the staff responded with great enthusiasm and helped me find the perfect piece. I love how it looks like burnished gold, and also has a vaguely medieval feel to it. (Plus, the fact that it has squares all through it makes it easy to cut for a sewing novice like myself!)
I am knitting this with Quince & Co Chickadee yarn, obtained from Loop in London, in the colours Frank’s Plum and Carrie’s Yellow. Looked at separately neither the purple nor the yellow looked right to me, but together they are perfect. The yellow pops beautifully against the purple and looks just like gold.
We have now been a week in Vancouver. We haven’t been up to much yet. We have all been tired and Doug is having knee problems. We did, however, make our all-important trek out to Deep Cove, which we always do when in this part of the world, to stand on the very spot where we were married more than 22 years ago. Leah took a photo:
Since I need to finish Leah’s One Ring project before heading back to England, I will now stop writing and start knitting! (And, just maybe, eat another Lemon meringue tart…..)
Secret identity revealed
In my last post I mentioned that I was knitting a top secret project for a birthday present. Well, today is the birthday, but the present is nowhere near done. Alas, such is the life of a busy woman! SInce there is no longer any reason to protect it’s secret identity, I give you a progress shot:
The writing is a pain in the you-know-where to knit, but beautiful to behold. Here is a close-up:
The three weeks before we hopped on a plane to Vancouver were among the most stressful I can remember in a long time. Not the kind of stressful that comes from bad things happening, but rather the kind of stressful that comes from too many things happening, deadlines to meet, too little sleep, and nerves. Enough so, that when I finally got onto the plane, I burst into tears. (We flew here on Wednesday, a day that was so foggy at Heathrow that planes were being cancelled left, right and centre. I was so relieved to actually take off and leave some of the craziness behind. My apologies to my fellow passengers who no doubt thought I was a crazy woman.)
Now, however, I have three weeks in Vancouver where I can spend time with the girls, knit, hang out with Doug’s family, knit, write a blog post or three, knit, maybe even get some knitting done. And, oh, did I mention the paper in Managing Process Systems I have to write next week?
And, of course, let’s not forget the Imminent Steek:
Steek-aphobia
This is just a drive-by post to say that I am very busy knitting at the moment. What I am knitting is top secret and thus the unhappy lack of progress photos. I may or may not be knitting a birthday present and the recipient may or may not be reading this blog.
Two small hints: First, I am doing stranded knitting in the round, using the two handed method (one strand in the left hand and one in the right). I have very little experience with this technique and it does not flow off the needles well. I still have to concentrate very hard to get any kind of consistency in tension. This is only my third project attempting this; the first was my Peerie Flooers hat (a Kate Davies design):
The other small hint about my new project: It will involve a steek! (Steeking is a technique which allows you to knit in the round and then cut your knitting so that you end up with a flat piece; it is often used for colourwork cardigans.) Yes, dear readers, I am planning to cut my knitting! Be still my heart! Who is afraid of a little steek? I am.
I have been steeling myself, however, by reading (for the umpteenth time) Kate Davies’ fabulous series of tutorials about steeks. If you are ever planning on surmounting the steek summit this is a must-read. (For many knitters, the steek represents the “peak” of knitting skill – that is, until they’ve done it, and then they invariably say “Oh, that was no big deal!” In this sense, I think it is one of the major rites of passage for knitters.) Kate’s tutorial is so clear, and beautifully illustrated, and just makes so much sense, that even the most steek-aphobic among us will find herself thinking “I could do that!” The series has four parts, An Introduction to Steeks, Reinforcing and cutting, the Sandwich, and Your questions answered. The sandwich technique is, I believe, an innovation of Kate’s and is so utterly brilliant it deserves a moment of quiet contemplation.
Now, if you have managed to read though Kate’s lovely and informative steek tutorials, and you are still suffering from steek-aphobia, then I direct you here. This is, without a doubt, the BEST, most freaking adorable, unbelievably scary post about steeks that I have ever read! And if she can do it, then so can I!!!
In remembrance of knits past
Yesterday, I came across this photo of a sweater designed by Marc Jacobs for the Fall/Winter 1985 edition of Vogue Knitting:
I bought every issue of Vogue Knitting the instant it hit the news stands. I was living in Washinton DC at the time, working as a paralegal in a law firm while taking time off between college and graduate school. I read this issue and instantly knew this sweater was for me. I remember shopping for the Lopi yarn. I knit the sweater in a deep charcoal grey, and the colour panels in yellow, orange and red. It was absolutely fabulous. I loved it! It was so completely 1980s too. I was young without much cash; I could never afford a designer label but I could walk around looking like a million dollars in that sweater.
The sad thing is, so many knits disappeared over the years. Why? I can think of a few reasons. I was considerably thinner then, what would now be a size 0, I think. Once I hit my late 20s I began to put on weight and then pregnancy sealed it, so I am now a fairly average size. Perhaps as I filled out I gave some sweaters away? Second, some things definitely got eaten by moths over the years and were regretfully and lovingly retired. Third, I have always been a wanderer. I was born in California, and have lived in Michigan, Florida, New Jersey, Long Island, Manhattan, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Boston and Tucson before leaving the US over 20 years ago and moving to Australia, Germany and the UK. And in many of those places, I would shift houses frequently. With all of that moving, things are bound to get lost or left behind. Moving aross continents is expensive so you tend to whittle away all of your belongings each time you move.
Another factor is that back then I was definitely a process knitter; I knit for the sheer joy of it rather than for the finished product. But now, how I wish I had all of my early knits carefully packed away. (Regular readers of this blog may recall the posts I wrote two years ago about the beautiful clothing knitted by my mother and grandmother that my mom has carefully kept all of these years. I promise, I am now reformed.)
So, here’s to all the knits I’ve lost! You kept me sane in crazy times. You made me happy. I learned from you and became a better knitter. We had fun together while it lasted.
The well-dressed tortoise
Today’s episode of Surfing the Knit brings you the tortoise suit:
A quick internet search shows that Ms. Bradley not only crochets costumes for tortoises (which she sells on Etsy) but rescues them as well. You never know what you will come up with when Surfing the Knit.