AmberCake

Sling Shots

2008-02-05T17:09:00.000-05:00

This babywearing picture is so wrong. Baby is in the sling wrong, sling is incorrectly slung on me, which would result in sore back/shoulder/neck. I was wearing it sitting, using it to take a little of his weight out of my arms while getting him to sleep. I love the little leg swinging out.

Then I put him down in the sling, among the fabrics. I MADE that sling, and I'm going to make a few for friends - gotta pick fabrics. (Yes, yes, after this picture, I moved him to a safe spot and covered him up more warmly)

We saw someone with a similar style, and though I thought it was a simple design, maybe easy to make, I knew we needed it NOW and figured it would be well worth the $20 or $30 to pick one up. Except it was SEVENTY DOLLARS at the store.

For SEVENTY DOLLARS, we agreed that we'd wait a couple of days. If I couldn't get new-tired-mumma together to make one in a few days, the store would still have it. If I could sew a tube of fabric with a curve in the join, I'd have seventy dollars more for chocolate. It was so crazy easy that I'm going to make a few more, for the wonderful friends who have been so tremendously helpful and have babes & babes-to-be of their own.

I think for sophisticated urban papas like this dude's dad, I could do one out of suiting fabric with either a very nice shirting or some sort of dark, dense, smooth washable fabric on the inside - perhaps like a suit lining, but a little sturdier than the standard. Even in all the fancy fabrics, it would beat the store price.

Project details, such as they are:
Fabric: Stash: some khaki cotton + a hand block -printed sheet made by a friend of a friend
Pattern: Found via Mamma's Milk - I used these directions at Jan Andrea.

Perfect

2008-01-17T16:46:00.000-05:00

Benedict, my little prizefighter.

Two weeks old tomorrow.

Two months of eye-rolling

2007-12-13T17:02:00.001-05:00

And not a darned thing to show for it.

Contractors, late pregnancy, the dayjob, the maniacal devotion to finishing the one knitting project making me key-razy... two months of eye-rolling. Not one blog post. Not one interesting picture to put in this post. Really - I checked it out and it's all shots of "this is where we see item #37 that we will have to make contractor #2 correct..." I'll have to go take a picture of something for the bottom of this right now.

But I'm coming through it all, just as baby is due to arrive, oh, anytime he feels good and ready, because he's a fully cooked little nutter now.

House keys and materials have been collected from the dodged-out-in-the-middle-of-the-job contractor. House keys have been passed on to the rocking-and-rolling-says-he'll-be-done-tomorrow-and-I-believe-him contractor. Other contractors with outrageous bids and time schedules have been met and thanked. The other other contractor who is working in the building but not in my apartment but I am in charge of is also nearly done and I delegated the wrap-up on that to someone who is also pregnant, but less pregnant than I.

Pregnancy is pregnancy. I move slower. I am a comedy show when putting on my shoes. I bump into my husband a lot with my giant belly because I can't get used to how faaaar away it is from where my body used to stop. A few weeks ago, I thought these last few weeks were going to be really really killer, but then I started drinking at least 3 quarts, and usually a whole gallon of water every day, and it's actually totally fine. Well, the sleeping is tough. Tough to get comfy, tough to stay comfy, random insomnia... but I figure that's all a warm-up to the sleep and lack-of-sleep craziness just around the corner.

The dayjob? The dayjob is over. I can hardly believe it, and yet it's so easy to not get up and go to the office everyday. This is day four of no dayjob, and I'm already starting to lose track of the days of the week.

The knitting is happening. The frustrating project has been set aside (again!) to work on a less-frustrating but also highly requested items. For Kay's latest collect-a-thon of squares, I made about a dozen squares, and had the most fun laying them out, an adventure she detailed here. My very first fair-isle, a hat for a friend who never ever asks for anything but, when pressed, asked for this.

From Most Requested to More Requested

2007-10-15T16:13:00.000-04:00

More, please:
1. Photos.
Of: more finished dishcloths, an almost finished dishtowel, finished knit pieces for Blu, and a barely begun "nursery" aka "disaster with ray of hope" as the closet is being redone and the carpet is half ripped out and I'm so excited to see the bits of potential, but in the meantime, all is enshrined in plastic.

2. Air.
BabyCake is making a classic New Yorker's real estate grab. He's currently negotiating with the ribs for expansion, but in the meantime, I find myself panting just a bit after meals, because there's limited space here, and when my stomach is full, there's less room for lungs. It almost literally means I'm holding my breath for the last 8-12 weeks of baby anticipation. It's funny - I keep almost writing "until baby arrival" but the baby has arrived. He's right here, practicing his dance moves and keeping me company. I'm just not sharing his dance moves in public for a few more weeks while he gets ready. He says he's ordered a special "birthday suit" for his debut.

3. Light.
Part of the lack of photos is due to lack of daylight during the hours in which I am home. On this count, I could add: less requested: day job. And also, more requested: naps.

4. Space.
Mostly in clothing, though I could always kick a few choice slow-walkers on the sidewalk as well. I think it's high-larious when people ask me "so do you think you'll actually get bigger?" Um... If the baby was fully grown now, he'd come out. Why would we leave him in for another 8-12 weeks? Because he needs to get bigger. How will he get bigger while I stay the same size? He won't, we won't, we'll both get bigger together. My pants and shirts, however, don't seem to be with the program of "growing together." They seem to be getting tighter, in part of the air-robbing conspiracy, see item #2 above.

5. Stuff.
Actually, this is a total drag. I have all the usual instincts to get rid of stuff, stuff, stuff, a household full of stuff. I think it comes with pregnancy, though I don't know if it's really nesting or just an attempt to make room for this giant belly I'm growing. Or to lighten the load somehow. And at the same time I have to clear out everything for belly and then baby - I have to acquire things for baby. I don't have to acquire things for the belly, unless you count ice cream. We registered on Amazon this weekend, and honestly, you would have thought Mr. Cake was asking me to eat tacks (nooooo, I don't want any more stuuuuuuuuff), but now I feel hugely relieved to have a list, at least. And if you're dying to get me something cute, precious, beautiful, lovely, overpriced, and completely unnecessary, you won't find this on the registry, but right here at the MoMA store online.

Most Requested Picture

2007-09-24T07:39:00.000-04:00

Six months. Picture taken last weekend in San Francisco. In case you're wondering where I found palm trees in Brooklyn.

Hadn't said anything because... uh, you may notice I don't post much at all - lack of time, not lack of interest.

And? I don't know what else to say about it. There's something horribly formulaic about being a craftblogger being a woman who is or will be home with small children. About women and where we've found we can find satisfying pursuits? About men and where they aren't free to tread?

Those questions are so vague, I'm sure they could invite all manner of comments interpreting and misinterpreting what I'm saying. But that's all I have to say. I don't have any answers or posit any theories, it's just... a funny thing. Blogging about craft stuff is cool and I started just in the hopes of playing a little with the community and to give maybe a little back to the craftbloggers I've gotten so much inspiration and really great information from. Now, somehow, it feels very funny to me to be even more a part of the MotherCraftBlogger gang. There are a LOT of craftbloggers who aren't mothers, who have grown children, who aren't women or childbearers. But, um, I think I'm joining a majority, significant in proportion, and significant in implication.

Now, don't fret - I'm totally excited to have a baby. I have the right partner, it's the right time for us. Of course, it's big and crazy and overwhelming, but the excitement and goodness outweigh that by far. I'm just finding it very strange in relation to craftblogging.

Aiming for the Mitzvah

2007-09-21T10:28:00.000-04:00

Once upon a time, Kay and I decided to make a blanket together for afghans for Afghans Mother's Day challenge. Maybe to them it was just a collection, but we made it a Challenge, and decided that we would both knit half a blanket, then put them together and have something to send in.

Kay wrote about how that worked out. I made a half, she made a half, she went to make them a whole and... it was not going to happen. So she made another half to go with my half, finished the blanket, and sent it along. Which left us with her half of the blanket needing a new half from me.

Last week was Rosh Hashana, the beginning of the Jewish New Year, and Kay was writing about afghans for Afghans and other charity knitting, and I was debating what knitting to take for a long plane ride that weekend. It occured to me that the only project I should take on the place was that blanket. I figured I could pick up Kay's half and finish the blanket before Yom Kippur, which is sort of the end of the old year in Jewish tradition. I have a tradition with friends to mark Yom Kippur by eating dinner together (after the fasting ends at sundown) and we all take turns talking about our old and new years, sort of clearing the slate. I've been trying to wrap my brain around all the things I want to make and all the things that I should finish and thought it would be both a good start to the new year and a good finish for the old year to finish this little charity knit.

So I picked it up on Rosh Hashana, started winding the skeins into balls that night after sundown when Rosh Hashana had really begun, and Yom Kippur ends tomorrow at sundown.

Picture above is as of yesterday morning. As of right now, all the knitting is finished, I'm 8" from the end of the last seam, and I've got ends to weave and a border to add.

I'm aiming for the Mitzvah, which Mr. Cake once explained to me as "brownie points with God."

All that time I wasn't blogging, I was knitting.

2007-09-06T12:04:00.000-04:00

Indeed, I actually finally finished something for myself, essentially unheard of.
No really, I can't think of anything else I own that I knitted. Here's how it happened.

Step 1: Plan fabulous trip to Europe with Mr. Cake.
Step 2: Accept that there will need to be fabulous knitting for fabulous vacation.
Step 3: Realize that now is the time to finally buy some Koigu. You know you've always wanted to, and although it is expensive, it is small! lightweight! will travel well! And the fabulousness is only befitting for such an adventure. Buy three whole skeins so you're sure to have enough for your fabulous scarf.
Step 4: Copy selected stitch patterns from your Barbarba Walker (1st Treasury) for fabulous Koigu scarf, so you won't have to carry the whole book.
Step 5: During vacation, swatch almost an entire skein of Koigu in several of the patterns.
Step 6: Arrive home, and begin intending to wash and block and examine swatch and possibly swatch just a little bit more...
Step 7: Keep intending.
Step 8: Periodically run into giant swatch.
Step 9: Repeat steps 7 & 8 for 14 months.
Step 10: Run into free pattern online with a stitch pattern you hadn't swatched and realize that This Is It. Decide to forgo further swatching and cast on. (Rose of Sharon on MagKnits)
Step 11: Knit through awesome full-day poetry festival, knit through many many subway rides, lunch hours, movies, more subway rides, and get near the end of the second skein of Koigu.
Step 12: Pause. Consider length. Gaze out the window. Reconsider length. Wonder if it might be just about time to finish. Consider whether you might want to add edging? And what kind?
Step 13: Think of something else you've just got to make for someone else. Make that instead. And some other stuff for some other people.
Step 14: For 8 months, periodically consider edging? length? finishing? Ripping out the giant swatch so you can make the scarf longer? Blocking and photographing swatch first? But don't make a move.
Step 15: Pull the bugger out of the depths of the knitting storage and leave it lying about the house looking like the picture below, always being sure to leave it somewhere it's in the way.

Step 16: Repeat Step 15 for three weeks (or more!), continually moving it out of the way into the way of something else every time. All the time. Until it's making you totally nuts.
Step 17: On a fine Saturday morning, spend 2 minutes on the internet looking up pattern, now that you've forgotten it, spend an hour knitting the last dozen rows, wash, rinse, block, dance. Let it brighten the rest of your day as you walk by it grumbling about all the other (non-knitting, general life) obligations you have and are working on that day.
Step 18: Photograph. Wonder if it isn't too short. Decide not to care.
Step 19: Wonder if you might give it to someone.
Step 20: Blog it to prevent yourself from giving it to someone, despite not-so-fab picture.

Check me out! 20 easy steps to make a scarf in only 28 months!

Next thing you know, I'll be starting and finishing handtowels in under 2 weeks!

Dishcloths in under 4 days!

Felted boxes in under... oh wait, these aren't done quite yet. They're for me, of course. The others? Gifts.

Laundry Quilt

2007-08-21T08:31:00.000-04:00

A clothesline quilt, hanging on my mother's clothesline. Made in 1976 by my Auntie M and my Unk J for my big brother.

I love the simple graphic quality of this thing. I think the design and execution are just brilliant. I don't know if they made up the whole thing or used a pattern or had an inspiration from somewhere, but it doesn't matter - they made it, and this quilt is sharp.

I realized yesterday that it belongs to a family of quilts that Hillary at Wee Wonderfuls has made: kid quilts with large representational graphics. Here's snippets of her cars & trucks quilt, a tree quilt, and a barn quilt.

Butterflies in Mom's Basket

2007-08-16T11:44:00.000-04:00

This is a quilt my Mom finished on 7/7/07. It was partially inspired by a African stripe basketweave quilt by Kaffe Fassett in his book Passionate Patchwork (I think that's the right book).

It's prettier than "Japanese Beetles In My Bucket," which is another composition of my mother's that I had a good laugh about. While I was at my mom's, just before we took these photos, we walked around her garden together on the daily "beetle walk." She has a sharp eye for them, and she holds whatever leaf they're on and tips them into her bucket of soapy water, where they drown. I suppose there's no way not to make it sound morbid, but they're a pest. It's a whole lot nicer than spraying a bunch of toxic chemicals on everything, and otherwise they ruin the trees and bushes and grapes.

One excellent feature of this quilt is that it becomes two sided. The backing is a light color, and my mother quilted all the stripes in colors that match the fabric of the stripes, so the pattern of the basket shows through on the back, even without this much sunlight streaming through.

Nice job, Mom!

Quilts, Quilts, Quilts

2007-08-12T10:01:00.000-04:00

I actually have three quilts to post, but they are all so very deserving of their own posts, I'm going to spread out the love.

First things first: My First Completed Quilt. For real. For DollQuiltSwap II.

Mailed off a bit after the deadline, but the recipient should definitely have it by now.

I'm still waiting to receive my doll quilt, but she who sends late must not have impatience for the tardiness of others.

One more picture, just because I'm so pleased with myseslf. I hope Miss Rita likes it!

With a big thanks to the organizers of the swap - it gave me the impetus I needed to start and finish a whole (tiny) quilt.

70 Flags for 70 Years

2007-07-23T12:31:00.000-04:00

There was a long, hard, think about what to do for my Papa's 70th birthday gift. He's my host father from a student exchange in Germany from over 12 years ago, I love him dearly, and we would be there for his party, 3 days after my host sister's wedding.

After much thought about the number 70, their love of garden parties, his love of sailing, and my love for the fabric banners/garlands/buntings that have cropped up over the web (see them all in a Flickr! group here), I landed on the idea of a banner with one flag for every year of his life. I made larger flags with initials of important people for special dates: the year he was born, the year he married his wife, and the years his children and grand-children were born.

The flags hung well in the garden and were very festive, and I sewed them with a water-and-outdoor-friendly cord in the spine, with extra length at both ends, with the idea that they might also be able to string them up on the sailboat. We watched them get tested through their first rain on the day of the party, and they survived quite well.

Project Details:

Dimensions:
70 flags, smaller ones about 5" across the top, larger about 8" across the top Total length: about 32-34 feet

Fabric: Free! Mostly upholstery samples that were being thrown out of my office

Methods:

-For the flags, I pinned two fabrics back-to-back and drew the outline of the flag on one side. I did a dense zig-zag of the outline (not quite a proper satin stitch), then cut out. None of the flags are the same on both sides.

-For initials, I sketched them on paper, cut out, applied double-fusible webbing to the fabric, traced the outline of the letter onto the paper backing of the webbing, cut the letter out, fused it to one piece of fabric with flag outline traced on it, then outlined with my not-quite-satin-stitch zig-zag.

-To put it all together, I laid everything out on the floor in rows to get the intials in the right places for the right years and get a reasonable distribution of colors/fabrics, then started sewing onto the spine. I stitched each flag onto half of a one inch piece of cotton webbing (woven strip of cloth like they make kid's belts with), then tucked a nylon cord into the center of the webbing, folded the webbing over, and stitched the cord and flags into a sandwich. The 1" webbing worked - I would have preferred a little wider, but I was working (and shopping) with a bit of a time crunch there at the end.

Doll Quilt Swap II: Progress Shot

2007-07-11T17:21:00.000-04:00

For Doll Quilt Swap Round II.

Rainbow of Miters, Baby Blanket

2007-07-10T07:24:00.000-04:00

The big reveal, taken at the very last moment before we left it in Berlin with the mother-to-be and dashed away to the airport.

Details:
Yarn: all cotton: Debbie Bliss Cotton Aran, color #510 (dark blue), Araucania Patagonia Nature Cotton, Reynolds Saucy, Rowan 4-ply, Blue Sky Cotton, Manos del Uruguay Cotton

Pattern: Variation on miter formula and no-sew formula from Mason-Dixon Knitting

Needles: Crystal Palace dpns size 6. With rubber bands on the ends, and actually rather too short at the beginning of a square, but I was too cheap and too excited to start to go buy new ones. Yes, I laughed at myself the entire time.

Started: April 2007?
Finished: June 26, 2007 (with many breaks inbetween)

Best part of the making: My dear husband couldn't bear to watch me weave in all those ends by myself, so he asked for a needle and did quite a few of them himself.

Geschafft!

2007-07-05T11:48:00.000-04:00

That's German for Accomplished! Done! Finished!

Trip to Germany and Copenhagen was successful and very fun. Handmade gifts were a big hit. I made a baby blanket for my host sister and 70 flags for a 70th birthday for my host father. Baby blanket and flags to come, with stories and pictures. Blogger, now "saving my drafts automatically," just ate the post while I previewed it. I don't have the time to re-write it just now, but I will.

In the meantime, On To The New!

I made it into the Doll Quilt Swap - hooray! After an hour of cleaning up the craft room from all those flags and a little ironing and sorting, I have this:

Still in progress

2007-06-14T08:16:00.000-04:00

un-Photo Finish

2007-05-29T15:49:00.000-04:00

I did finish my half of the Kay-n-Amber Half-and-Half Afghans for Afghans Mother's Day Baby Blanket Challenge blanket, while standing on a train, on the morning of the day I was to hand it off to Kay.

I didn't get a picture. But Kay did: click here for the full shenanigans.

Since then, I've gotten been back to mitering away at another baby blanket, this one for a dear friend.

WIP

2007-05-06T11:26:00.000-04:00

Kay-n-Amber Half-and-Half Afghans for Afghans Mother's Day Baby Blanket Challenge.

It's turning into something. I got a little past the halfway mark this morning.

How the other half knits

2007-05-02T14:09:00.000-04:00

Dear Kay,

I know that usually only Ann writes open letters to you like this, but I hope she'll forgive me this once.

Since you keep shouting from the rooftops about how you're all, like, finished with your half of this blanket and oh, some other stuff just happened to fall off your needles in the meantime, I figured it was high time for a WIP shot.

I took this picture at my desk after I got this morning's subway commuter knitting done. It's already a little bit bigger, now that I've done my working-schmuck's lunch break knitting. It will be a little big bigger tonight after I do my evening's subway commuter knitting done.

AmberCake Fakin' It Day-Job-Knitter's Tips:
- You don't need a seat on the subway to knit. Just a place to lean. This includes leaning on the doors, but be courteous and pick up your things and scoot it when you're at a station.
- Some leaning spots are more well-lit than others.
- If you're carrying around a really rather large bag of yarn for your project (two balls each of three colors), go ahead and put it in a plastic bag and knit from the floor. Honestly, you cannot lie to yourself that this is a big step from hanging a big bag of yarn from your elbow and knitting from that. This saves arm strain and improves circulation.
- Exception #1 to bag-on-the-floor is mohair. I do wash everything before I consider it finished, but the danger of what mohair will pick up and not release is not worth it, especially for what a light fiber it is to carry.
- Exception #2 to bag-on-the-floor is when you can cram it all into your messenger bag and wear it across the chest and knit out of that bag. Requires extra caution if you are also bringing lunch to work. Also a danger to consider with this option is Velcro on the bag. Danger is reduced by knitting with cotton.
- Teach all your co-workers to knit so someone will always be ready for a knitting lunch hour.

This is totally going to look great, right? I mean, that feeling I get when I look at yours and I think that these blanket halves have no common coloration at all, well, that's just totally wrong, right? It's going to be great.

Or we'll swap yarn now that the deadline is extended and knit other halves for our other halves or something. But we wouldn't have to do that, because it'll be awesome, right?

xoxoxo,
Amber

Makin' Miters

2007-04-20T19:40:00.000-04:00

This is what I was swatching for.

I can't keep up with the breakneck speed at January One, but I am cranking them out in my own way.

It's to be a baby blanket, just four squares of four mitres each, plus a nice deep border.

Per Kay, I'm using the no-sew method.

Per Alice, I've made a checklist. And a diagram.

Per AmberCake, I am using all navy (faux indigo), all the time as one color, and at least three yarns for the bright stripes in every square.

My main yarns are:
-Debbie Bliss Cotton Denim Aran: Navy blue main color (discontinued)
-Araucania Patagonia Nature Cotton: Vareigated thick-and-thin cotton - this stuff is really really awesome

My accent colors are brought in with:
-Reynold's Saucy: nice mercerized cotton solids - these are most of the brightest colors
-Rowan Handknitting Cotton
-Blue Sky Alpacas Cotton
-Manos del Uruguay Cotton
-Cascade Luna

I'm actually a little surprised that I'm counting only seven yarns there. If you count all the colors of all the yarns, it's from at least 15, I think. Just because I Am That Way About The Yarn Colors. And Textures.

Knitting Revelation: Combination Knitting

2007-04-20T14:16:00.001-04:00

Thanks for the inspiration to swatch and get technical, Nona.
Thanks to Annie Modesitt and Grumperina for helping me learn something new.

See how awful my stitches are in this close-up?

No? How about if I outline the size of the stitches for you:

Or like this:

Yeah. See how I went from having one row of squished, tiny, tight stitches, followed by a group of big, gloppy, loose stitches? I've always known that my purling was looser than my knitting, and for a long time I've known that it's not just me, it's an inherent thing because of the way the stitches are formed and the relationship of the wrap around the needle and previous/next stitch.

I had looked at Combination Knitting before, and had some false impressions of what it was all about, looked at it a little cross-eyed for one hot minute, and then skipped it. I ran into it again recently, somewhere in my web meanderings, and this is what I learned:

Combination Knitting is all about wrapping the purl stitches differently to make up for the natural differences in tension between a "normal" knit stitch and a "normal" purl stitch.

The mechanics are basically that you wrap the purl stitch the "other" way from "normal" (clockwise instead of counter-clockwise, when viewed from the tip of the needle). When you turn your piece to the knitting side, the legs of the stitch are accordingly "backwards" - the leg that should be on the right side of the stitch is now the back leg, not the front leg - so you knit into the backs of the stitches so that they're not twisted.

That's just my conceptual summary. You should seriously check out Annie's info here, and Grumperina's info here and Nona's well-documented exercise here.

Friday Ketchup

2007-04-20T12:45:00.000-04:00

I've been busier than appearances on this blog would readily indicate. Maybe it's indicated by lack of appearance on the blog? There's even MORE than is shown below, but here's a little Friday Ketch-up.

Went to the Empire Quilt Guild Show. Here's my favorite, total size approx 14"x20".

Got some yarn. And some more yarn. Lots of yarn. Mostly cotton. Lots of summer babies to knit for this year.

Swatched.

You know what gets me about the swatching? Using the yarn. I totally don't mind doing some pre-knitting, I knit because I like doing it. Why would I be mad about doing more knitting? And if I'm all excited about a project, it's really easy for me to be excited about pre-project experimenting. In fact, I think I often conceive of experiments first and it's only the utilitarian in me that makes me want to create a "finished object" sort of project to use the experiment. But then, the utilitarian in me RAILS against using the "project" yarn, the precious, yummy, paid-good-money-for-it, but-i-LIKE-it-so-much yarn for a swatch. Like there will never be enough of it. Like if I use it now I won't have it later. I know. There's a lot of great yarn in the world, I will always find a new other yarn I like and if I won't use it now so that I can use it later, when will it be time to use it? Why have it if I can't use it? I know.

Anyway, I dodged that particular pathology this time 'round by not cutting any of it. That's right. Those swatches are connected to each other and also connected to SIX separate balls of yarn that I schlepped around while I worked on them. The very same six balls of yarn in the yarn photo above - see how the yarn is all trailing off-camera? Yeah. I actually intended to wash the swatches (while still connected to the balls) to see how everything would behave, but then I was really too excited to get started and figured I had enough worked out to just get going.

In even MORE yarn news, there are co-worker babies again this summer. This year, the plan is to knit several small individual items, rather than repeat the blankets from last summer. They were lovely but required so much seaming (98 total squares!), it's almost all I can remember about them. We picked colors together so everything will coordinate, and we can share half-balls for accent colors, etc. We started with the baby-item patterns from Mason-Dixon Knitting: the baby kimono, burp cloth, and bib.

This is the beginning of burp cloth #2:

Tune in this weekend for a Knitting Revelation - from the swatches, of course - and the beginnings of what will be a truly fantastic baby blanket. With a lot fewer than 98 squares to sew together.

Easter Rebirth: UFO to WIP

2007-04-10T07:28:00.000-04:00

Many moons ago, I started a quilt. I pieced the top. I pieced the back. I layered it with batting. It was a small quilt, and I like "sandwiched" edges, so I sewed the three layers together inside out, pillowcase style, and there it was. Everything but the quilting. And there it sat. I had figured I would machine quilt it, as I had tossed it together willy-nilly on the machine on the fly. But I was having troubles with my machine, and with my willy-nilly toss it together, I had a feeling I would just end up having so many horrid quilting lines with bunching fabric and bunching bobbin thread, I would end it ripping the thing to shreds. No deadline, no particular recipient in mind, just making it to make it, so... it was tucked away. For pondering. An Unfinished Object: UFO.

I didn't forget it, as it's the first quilt I've made that's gotten even that far (I also have a partial top that will probably resurface later this year). It was so fun to get it that far. I had Hit the Wall with how to proceed. I couldn't figure out what sort of quilting lines I would want on it, how I could quilt it, knew I couldn't use my machine on it, don't like tied quilts (I actually sometimes like ones others have made, I not well enough to make one myself).

Last fall I took a hand-quilting class, just because. I knew I wanted to be doing quilting and I thought I might as well.

Last week, I pulled this baby off of the shelf and started to look at it for how it could be quilted. I knew I wanted to do quilt lines that accentuated the piecing. I'd been floating ideas around in my head, but I hadn't even looked at the silly thing in months!

Last weekend, I dropped into my local quilting store, bought four colors of quilting thread because I couldn't decide and I might just use them all.

And on Easter Sunday, I threaded my needle and started in on it. It will be quilted as pieced: willy-nilly. I'll outline a couple of pieces, I'll do some criscrossing over a section at a time, I'll make it up as I go.

Back to being a Work in Progress: WIP.

Owls! Puppy on the coffee table!

2007-04-05T13:10:00.000-04:00

When Moonstitches had just first posted her owls, I was smitten. Swooning.

When someone needed a gift for a 1-year-olds birthday party, I jumped out of my chair. An Owl! That kid needs an owl! Let's go make a prototype and pick fabrics right! now!

As long as we were at it, I threw one together for a co-worker who could use a little cheering up. She named him Puppy.

An Owl for Charlie, a co-creation with my roommate:

Puppy on the PrOwl on the Coffee Table:

Details:
-Inspired by Moonstitches. I saw a pattern schematic and made it up from there, with a quickie "muslin" test.
-Wool plaids from an old upholstery sample book, just the right size for these and not much more.
-Other fabric scraps from stash.
-I couldn't wait for Moonstitches' kindly provided "tutowlrial", but it's quite nice, and I am excited to try her method for the circle on the bottom - mine are a little free-hand wonky, though I'm pleased with my improving blind-stitching skills.

AmberCake-Faked Innovention: filled mostly with polyfill, then lentils for weight. It takes a little manuvering and a careful holding of the gathered bottom to get them to stay in there. Gives them a nice weight, makes them stand up straight or roll up to standing however you sit them down. Also, makes it a paperweight, which is exactly the excuse we all need to make them for grown-ups!

Yarn Crawlin' - Down and Dirty in the Garment District

2007-03-21T22:24:00.000-04:00

The Garment District in New York is Amazing. Because it is still really used by an Industry, and not just the industry of Retailing to Hobbyists. As such, it's messy and not all that clean and not all that clear, and in some ways, not so convenient. Anywhere else in America, the store you go to for fabric also has zippers and thread and needles and velcro and interfacing and patterns and buttons and a Bedazzler. You know, all the stuff you need. Here, you go to blocks and blocks of stores, in weird old buildings, sometimes without storefronts, hidden inside the buildings. And there's no Bedazzler, but a bedazzling array of fabric. But only, for example, satins and silks. Or weird unorganized odds and ends on long unwieldly tubes, not on handy Retailing to Hobbyists bolts. And they ain't got buttons, or needles, or zippers or zip. Just fabric. Unless maybe they do, because sometimes they do have thread or something. But don't count on it, and there's something there about gift horses and looking in the mouth - it's an awesome system, don't mess with it.

But you're looking for yarn, anyway. And it is here. In the same sort of weird, specialized, tucked away, not-too-gussied-up way.

I will say that for the sewing and fabric enthusiasts among you, the Empire Quilt Guild's big show is THIS WEEKEND at FIT - Stephanie's speaking gig is. March 24-25. You know you want to go. Click anywhere on this whole sentence for the details.

The Garment District Yarn Tour

For: The down-and-dirty show-me-funky give-me-amazing crowd. And anyone who can get around by themselves and gets to the big Stephanie Representing event early.

Start: Anywhere. Time is running short for my blabbering on and on. This is more of a what's-in-the-area list.

We've got The Yarn Connection. It's not really in the Garment District, but it really is worth a visit. These ladies are seriously serious, this store's been around longer than many, many of the others in the New York, and they've got lots of great stuff.
The Yarn Connection
218 Madison Avenue, by 36th Street (between 36th/37th)
2nd Floor
Mon - Fri 10-6, Thursdays open 'til 8, Saturday 10-5

Then there's the somewhat famous School Products. Also a yarn store in New York with a history a lot longer than Stitch-N-Bitch Nation. They've got a funky stock - they keep some standards in (Brown Sheep, Karabella, baby yarns), but they've also got a lot of wild stuff on cones and in irregular skeins. They're most famous for having great cashmere. And they do.
School Products
1201 Broadway (between 28th/29th Sts)
3rd Floor, Suite 301
Mon - Fri 9:30-6:30
Sat 10-3:30

Also the slowly-becoming-famous Habu Textiles. Japanese artisinal. I don't even know what to say. They sell their own yarns, I don't think they carry anything that's made for commercial yarn retail except their own stuff. More oriented towards weaving and what a lot of folks might call experimental or fiber art pieces. Wild. Amazing.
Habu Textiles
135 W 29th Street, (between 6th/7th Aves)
Suite 804
Monday - Sat 10-6

And the elusive Vardhman Inc/Unique Knit Craft. No website, though it's the one one in this area that's actually a walk-in-from-the-street and not on a second/third/eighth floor. Very few listings on "lists of New York yarn stores." But a real person answers the phone there and the greeting is "Unique Knit." I think it's probably a gold mine, if you take the time to track it down and sift through their offerings.
Vardhman Inc.
257 W 39th Street (between 7th/8th Aves)
Mon - Fri 10:30-6:30, Sat. 11-5

Happy shopping, happy knitting, and have a coffee at Antique Cafe: at FIT on 27th between 6th and 7th OR their larger and packed-full-with-amazing-fresh-flowers location at 26th just off of 6th Ave (between 6th & Broadway). One of the earlier careers of the proprietor was the manufacture and sale of amazing silk plaid boxers made in India.

Yarn Crawling: Guest Tour!

2007-03-20T09:44:00.000-04:00

Yarn Crawling: Guest Tour With Guide! And Pitstops!

Lizbon has not only fantastically offered up this well-written tour, but has offered to TAKE YOU WITH HER on this tour. She will be going on either this Friday 3/23 or this Saturday 3/24. Email her at lizbon AT girlwich DOT com if you’re interested and let her know which day(s) you are available.

Also, Lizbon's Knitter's guide to New York Restaurants (many in the path of this yarn crawl), available as PDF by clicking here.

Lizbon’s Tragically Hip (Soho and E/W Village) Yarn Crawl

Meet at Le Gamin (132 W. Houston, just west of Sullivan, on the north/ uptown side of the street) to fortify for the trip with caffeine and croissants and crepes. Cross Houston and walk half a block down to Purl Soho, at 137 Sullivan St. Gawk and finger and buy. Don’t miss Farmhouse Yarns’ or The Fibre Company's new Terra line – oh the colors.

From Purl, walk east along Houston (Crate & Barrel, on the corner of Houston and Broadway, has publicly accessible restrooms upstairs, if needed) to Ave. A (one block east of 1st Ave.). Note that on the south side of Houston, Ave. A will be called Essex St. Turn left to walk north (uptown) on Ave. A. to Downtown Yarns, located at 45 Ave. A (just north of 3rd St.), on the west (left) side of the street. It is tiny, so look sharp or you’ll walk right past it. Lots of pretty things crammed in here.

Then wend your way westward and northwards to Knit New York, on 14th St., just east of 2nd Ave., on the north (uptown) side of the street. Optional stop on the way is Magry Knits, at 80 E. 7th St. at 2nd Ave. Knit New York has a café in front (lavender chamomile tea, yum!), and yarn in back and along the sides.

Next, you can either walk west along 14th St. to 6th Ave. (bathrooms available on the way in Whole Foods, on 14th St. between Broadway and University – go to 2nd floor, bathrooms are in hallway to the left of the juice bar. Also in Barnes & Noble, at northern side of Union Square, 16th St., between Park Ave. So. And Broadway) or hop on an M14A or M14D bus heading west, or walk one block east to 1st Ave. or west to 3rd Ave. and get on the L train, heading toward 8th Ave. Get off the bus (or subway) at 6th Ave., and walk one and a half blocks downtown (south) to Gotta Knit, at 498 6th Ave., 2nd Floor, between 12th and 13th Sts., on the east side of the street. Look up for the sign in the window.

From Gotta Knit, you can either walk downtown and westward to Bedford St. amid the tangle of streets that is the West Village, or take the F or V train (at 6th Ave. and 14th) downtown one stop to West 4th St. At West 4th, follow signs for the West 3rd St. exit, which will dump you unceremoniously onto 6th Ave. at W. 3rd. Cross 6th Ave. at this intersection, then walk downtown (against the flow of traffic) along 6th Ave. till you reach a kooky intersection of three streets on your right (it will look like more than 3). Look for Bleecker and Carmine streets on your right. There is a little square with a lot of pigeons in the center of it. Amble to your right along Carmine St. (or on Bleecker a very short distance to Carmine where you will be turning left to get onto Carmine). Walk one block along Carmine St. to Bedford St. and turn right onto Bedford. The Point will be on your left, at 37a Bedford. Whew! Stop and refresh yourself and marvel at how tangled a web the West Village can weave.

If you are so inclined, you can, after leaving The Point, walk back to Bleecker (head west on Bleecker, away from 6th Ave.) and enjoy the lovely smells of Aphrodisia (spices, natural bath products), the fantastic cheese at Murray’s Cheese Shop, or have dinner at Home Restaurant or Cornelia Street Cafe - both on the tiny Cornelia street, which is just off Bleecker, about a block west of 6th Ave. At its other end, Cornelia runs right into 6th Ave., and you can cross 6th and walk up a block or two to the West. 4th St. subway station again (here you can pick up F/V or A/C/E trains). If you need an N/R/W train, walk east from here, passing through or just above or below Washington Square Park to 8th St. and Broadway, where the R and W trains stop (you can transfer to an N or Q train if needed at 14th St., one stop north, or at Canal St., two stops south).

Yarn Crawling: The Village People

2007-03-16T18:07:00.000-04:00

The Village People Tours
For: Villagers, Disco Dancers. Lots of walking and lots of alternatives on this tour.

Abbreviated Alternative Tour: The I ♥ the L Train Tour. Start at the Bedford Ave station in Brooklyn for The Yarn Tree. Proceed on the L Train one stop to 1st Ave for Knit NYC (or walk over the Williamsburg Bridge – it’s such a lovely view!). From 1st Ave, back in the L to 6th Ave for Gotta Knit. To get to Stephanie The Yarn Harlot’s book signing on March 22 from there, take the F/V from 6th Ave at 14th up to 23rd Street/6th Ave OR go over to 7th Ave at 14th and get out at 28th Street/7th Ave.

Now, the Bohemian-who-could-walk-all-day tour.
The East Village Start: Knit NYC
on 14th Street between 1st & 2nd Avenues. This is one of those brilliant knitting cafés, so you can start here when you’re ready for a little snack. There is a danger that you’ll find some great yarn and a new pattern and oh, just look at casting on while you drink your cappuccino and suddenly finding yourself spending the entire day knitting there. If you consider that sort of thing dangerous.

If the caffeine gets you hyped up to move on, head south. Stop at Magry Knits on East 7th Street (80 E 7th, near 2nd Ave, between 1st/2nd). I can’t believe I haven’t been to Magry Knits, but it sounds like they’ve got finished fashion garments as well as yarn for sale, and will even do repairs and possibly custom work.

After you’ve gotten an eyeful (and possibly a bag-full) of the yarn action at Magry, continue heading south, and a little east, to Downtown Yarns on Avenue A (between 2nd/3rd). This is one of the well-loved, well-visited, well-discussed yarn stores of New York, and they’ve always got an amazing window display. They’re also amazing for the selection of yarn they’re able to fit into their small space, but if you’re touring with a large group, perhaps you’ll consider rotating shifts of people inside Downtown Yarns and the eateries across the street. There’s The Bagel Zone for bagels and funky atmosphere and Two Boots for great specialty pizza.

From Avenue A, you’re surprisingly close to the 2nd Avenue stop of the F/V train, where the 24-hour entrance is really at Houston and 1st Avenue. If you don’t get waylaid by possibly the best whiskey and beer bar in New York, d.b.a. on 1st Ave between 2nd and 3rd (16 rotating beers on tap! Scotches listed by region on long chalkboards!), pop into the F or V uptown to the West 4th Street stop.

This is the alternative West Village Start to the Tour: From the West 4th Street subway station, walk down Carmine St. (go a little South on 6th Avenue until you get to the intersection, ignoring the cream-puffs on the corner), past both the adult and children’s Unoppresive Non-Imperialist Bargain Book Stores (real name!) to Bedford Street. Peek to your left down Bedford and you’ll see Point, another knitting café. You know what to do.

No village tour would be complete without a dip into SoHo to Purl. If you think you’re “yarned-out” already, go anyway for Purl Patchwork, two doors down from Purl, and full of really great quilting fabrics and supplies. They have classes taught by Liesl, they have the Wee-Wonderfuls Put-Together books. From Point, it’s really easiest to walk to Purl. Just keep heading down Bedford Street, at Houston turn left and go a little block to Sullivan, right onto Sullivan and you’re there already.

If it’s Magical March 22nd, 2007, you’ll be wanting to get to Stephanie The Yarn Harlot’s book signing at FIT on 27th between 7th and 8th Avenues.
From Purl: Take the C/E from Spring Street to 23rd Street/8th Ave.
From Point: 1 at Houston to 28th Street/7th Ave OR C/E from West 4th to 23rd Street/8th Ave.
From Downtown Yarns: F/V to 23rd Street/6th Ave.

Stay tuned for the Updated! Improved! Map! And more tours (now I've got 27 stores on my list), including The Garment District and the Upper West Side. Please feel free to add corrections or ask questions or just say boo in the comments. I will update the tours and info as I can.

Yarn Crawling: The Ladies Who Lunch Tour

2007-03-13T10:00:00.000-04:00

Ladies Who Lunch

The Ladies Who Lunch Tour
For: Ladies and Gentlemen who need cashmere. Ladies and Gentlemen who will enjoy the thrill of strolling by the windows of high fashion at skyscraper prices on the Upper East Side. Ladies and Gentlemen who want to end up at the Metropolitan Museum. Ladies Who Lunch.

Caveat for this tour: I am a Downtown Girl with a Brooklyn Wallet, not a Lady Who Lunches with an Upper East Side Pocketbook. I haven't been to a single one of these yarn stores. However, having written the tour now, I'm quite excited to take it. I herewith present you with the tour and the chance to beat me to it.

Start:
Edited to add: I forgot The Wool Gathering on this tour! Feel free to start at The Wool Gathering at 84th at 2nd Ave and then proceed to the rest of the tour as below.
String at 1015 Madison Avenue, between 78th and 79th Street. It's a Madison Avenue yarn boutique with appropriately, outrageously, Madison Avenue Yarn. The woman who owns the store literally wrote the book on luxury knitting. Cashmere, silk, and more cashmere. There's so much Cashmere in that store, even the Koigu is in cashmere. That's right, Cashmere Koigu KPPPM (except it's not M, it's C, for Cashmere). You have been warned.

When you're ready to step outside and begin breathing again (after you've emptied your wallet or broken your heart from what you left behind, or both), you could stroll down Madison to 75th Street and turn left and walk four long avenue blocks to Knitting 321 at 321 E 75th Street. If your legs are still a little wobbly, go up to 79th Street and take the M79 bus crosstown to 2nd Avenue and walk to 75th Street, left on 75th. (I know, that sounds like the same amount of walking, but it's uptown/downtown blocks vs. crosstown blocks, trust me here). Knitting 321 also tilts towards the high-quality, high-fashion, high-price end of the yarn spectrum. Please, don't let that stop you. It's a yarn store. A store full of yarn. What could be wrong with that?

From Knitting 321, you can walk back west to Lexington Avenue and down to Knits Incredible, in the atrium of 971 Lexington Ave, between 70th and 71st Streets. There's also a downtown bus on 2nd Avenue, the M15. Or hop in a cab - it won't be far, so it won't cost much (possibly about $5-$8 including tip), and what's a tour of the Upper East Side without a ride in a yellow taxi?

The almighty Google seems to give mixed information about the elusive and not-well-known Knits Incredible, so I went straight to the source. Well, to the phone of the source. On the phone, a real, live person informed me that indeed, Knits Incredible is still quite present and quite in business. If you stop in, please, dish all about it, we all need to know more.

For the multi-crafter multi-tasker, you're very close to Wallis Mayers Needlework, at 30 East 68th Street, near Madison Avenue. Their emphasis is on needlepoint and embroidery, but I think they also have quite a bit of knitting yarn. And after all, the amazing Color on Color scarf from Interweave's Scarf Style was knit with needlepoint yarn, and needlepointers have every color imaginable. Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride? About 80 colors. Brown Sheep Waverly, their needlepoint yarn, also touted for knitting on their website? Almost 500 COLORS.

If you like what you see at Wallis Mayers and want to check out another needlepoint store, it's easy to get to Stitches East from there. Hop on the 6 train at 68th St/Hunter College on Lexington Ave and head downtown to the 51st St. stop. Walk west to Park Ave, north to 52nd, and Stitches East is between Park and Madison, inside the Park Avenue Plaza.

From here, well, I can imagine you're ready to head to a whole 'nother part of town. To eat something, drink something, see some other yarn stores. From Stitches East, you're near the E or V at 53rd Street/5th Ave or 53rd/Lexington OR the 6 train at 51st and Lexington. If you're glutton for punishment, you're also near the Museum of Art and Design, where they have the Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting show on right now. And the Museum of Folk Art down the block and MoMA across the street. And the Donnell Library, a special branch of the New York Public Library system that specializes in all the fun art and craft books. You don't have to have a card to have a browse and a sit down.

And, if you're finishing the tour on March 22, you'll want to chase down Stephanie The Yarn Harlot at her book signing. Take the E train from 53rd and 5th Ave or Lex down to 23rd Street. It lets you out on 23rd and 8th Ave, Stephanie will be speaking at FIT on 27th between 7th & 8th.

Yarn Crawlin'

2007-03-10T12:56:00.000-05:00

There are 26 Local Yarn Stores in New York City. Where does one begin? You might need help. I need help! But I’m doing my best to come up with some good routes to hit a few of them in one day.

The fine print writ large: I have only been to 13 of these stores (I know, can you believe it? I haven’t met HALF of the yarn in New York!). This information is all gathered from the world wide web. I’ve only included information I thought was quite reliable, but if especially if you’re dragging a gaggle of knitters out into the wild, it may be advisable to call and make sure of hours, etc.

Below are the first two proposed routes. More routes are forthcoming – these barely hit on Manhattan! Also, I wish I could elaborate on these tours a bit - I could spend the next six weeks adding descriptions of these places - but these yarn tours are intended as a favor to Stephanie and her hoards of devoted knitters, crocheters, and general yarn-a-philes, who will descend on this town on or around March 22. Time to get this out there, already!

The Driving Tour, aka The-Manhattanites-Have-No-Idea-What-They’re-Missing
For: Those who are in Queens or Long Island, looking for the slow road into town. Alternatively, someone with a yarn-loving, car-driving friend in town and you want to hit the places with the Mega-Inventory. In New York, the further you are from Times Square/Wall Street, the cheaper the real estate, the bigger the yarn stores. And the bigger stores can afford to carry more yarn and less-expensive yarn.

Start: All the way out at Knitwits Knitting Studio
in Bayside, Queens. Cruise on in to Smiley's in Woodhaven, Queens for crazy crazy low prices on massive quantities of yarn. Smiley’s has a somewhat limited breadth of inventory, and yes, some of their cheap yarn is inexpensive anywhere, but you can get $3 balls of good-quality name-brand 100% wool there. A place where you can buy the yarn for a queen-sized blanket all at once (without re-mortgaging your home). I’ve been there, done that. Almost done with the blanket.

If you want to remain in areas where there are single-family houses with yards for a bit longer, come down to Roxy's on Coney Island Avenue. If you want the full Brooklyn effect, you can take the scenic route and go all the way down to Coney Island, ride the Cyclone or get a Nathan’s hot dog, drive up through Brighton Beach, admire the crazeee Russian signage & groceries on the way.

When you’re ready to visit a neighborhood that your Manhattan friends have heard of, come up to Red Hook to Brooklyn General Store. If you’re NOT the driver and you’re ready for a drink or a bite to eat by now, you could take a quick detour to Hope & Anchor, a really great place for a cheesesteak, ground pork burger, milkshake, etc., and they’re got really nice house cocktails. If you ARE the driver and you’re starting to think about what you’d like to drink later (or what you’ll have to bring home with you to dull the shock at home over how many bags of yarn you managed to fit in the trunk), stop by LeNell's. LeNell bills herself as a liquor boutique, but not because she’s high-falutin’. She’s got a really amazing inventory of liquor and wine, vast knowledge, and she’s just plain charming. She’s happy to recommend a great $13 bottle of bourbon or a $70 bottle of real Holland gin, it’s all what you’re looking for.

From here, if you’re still ready to look at More! Other! New! yarn you haven’t bought yet, check out the Inner Brooklyn tour or any of the others. Otherwise, if you managed to get through all of that while it’s still daylight, go for a walk in Prospect Park or the waterfront park in Dumbo, between the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge. Or hurry up and get up to FIT to see The Yarn Harlot.

The Intrepid Brooklynite Tour
For: Those of us who know our way around a bus. And everybody else who’s been curious about what’s so cool about Brooklyn. Seriously, I can’t believe you don’t know yet.

Start: If you’re starting at lunch time, take the F train and get out at Carroll Street in Carroll Gardens. Stroll up Smith Street, one of the best restaurant districts in all of NYC these days, and pick a nice French, Peruvian, French, Italian, French, or French place for lunch. When you’re ready for a walk to work it off, head down Union Street to Brooklyn General Store. Or take the B71 bus at Sackett Street and Smith Street down Union St. to Columbia St. to get there. From there, the B61 bus will take you back to Atlantic Avenue.

Try not to get too distracted by the many amazing new and antique furniture places on Atlantic and get out at Bond Street and check out Knit-A-Way, with a wide variety of yarn types and a comfortable browsing space. They’ve got Noro, they’ve got Brown Sheep, they've got Red Heart Pound O’ Love. From there, you’re a short walk to the big subway stop at Atlantic. Take the Q or B to 7th Avenue in Park Slope. Navigate through the strollers down 7th Avenue a few blocks to Lincoln Place. Ozzie's Coffee is right on the corner if you’re ready for fortification, and Stitch Therapy is just barely up Lincoln Place, one or two storefronts uphill from 7th Ave. When you’re ready to move on, walk uphill to Grand Army Plaza at the northern end of Prospect Park. There you can admire the lovely Grand Army Arch in honor of the Civil War veterans, see the lovely art deco fountain, the art deco Brooklyn Public Library Central Branch and… duck back into the subway. Take the 2/3 into Manhattan. You can get out at the Fulton St stop (Fulton/Broadway/Nassau) in downtown Manhattan to visit Seaport Yarn - So much yarn! Of every kind! Beware, cash or Personal Check ONLY! Or proceed directly on the 2/3 to 14th Street, step out and across the platform to the 1 train (the local!) and get out at 28th Street. That drops you off at the campus of FIT for Stephanie’s engagement.

Okay, can you tell I love Brooklyn? Really, there's a whole lotta yarn in Manhattan. More on that soon.

Map of New York City Yarn Stores

2007-02-28T16:07:00.000-05:00

It is astonishing what a vortex of time it has become to assemble all of these yarn stores and their info, including hours and webpages, where available.

Click here for the map with full info on all entries.

Suggested "Yarn Crawls" will be forthcoming.

Friday

2007-02-16T17:06:00.000-05:00

Click Here to make your own.

Fabric Anatomy I

2007-02-02T15:13:00.000-05:00

Fabric Anatomy I: In which we skip the basics and cut straight to 'Knitting like a Wild Finn.'

EDITED TO ADD: Ha! Heard from Susanna and I'm WRONG. Creative, but wrong. Oh, well. I still think my theory is interesting enough to me to leave up here.

I'm totally fascinated by fabric anatomy. I think this may be part of a series of posts on it, but I'll cut to the chase.

So I read this Yarn Harlot post yesterday and got all worked up about the totally crazy new colorwork she's got going from Susanna and Lene. My wheels were spinning so fast I nearly popped a wheelie just looking at it all because I think I know what's going on with that stuff! And it's awesome! And I totally have to share! I think it's a hybridization of regular knitting and this other crazy kind of knitting that's done industrially that is so unusual for handwork that it took serious studying in Finland (good job Susanna and Lene!) to figure out. I also might be totally wrong about all that I think I'm understanding about it, but I herewith consider the caution thrown to the wind, the gauntlet laid down. Stephanie, I hope you'll let me know, but I also hope you'll be gentle if I'm wrong.

The great big disclaimer and caveat and homage to the knitters who have explored this territory before me: This is NOT a how-to. It's a conceptual overview of loops, a 'what a neat-o concept.' I do not know the techniques by which the yarn would be manipulated into the acrobatics I think it is engaged in. I could probably sit down and try to make my needles pull the yarn this way, but I think I would find that Susanna and Lene and the marvelous Finns have refined the tactics and I encourage you all to travel to Finland or Madrona and learn from the masters.

Concept:
In the usual style of knitting, the yarn travels in a horizontal line - you pull a loop through the loop below it and then go to the stitch NEXT to it, horizontally, and pull a loop through that loop, then go NEXT to that one and so on.

In the Rovaniemi mittens (aka The Wild Finn Method), the yarn is moving vertically. You're really pulling a loop through the stitch below and then you just move up and pull another loop through the loop you just made and so on and so on. Basically, a crochet chain. But we all know that several crochet chains lined up next to each other do not a fabric make, because they aren't attached to each other. So, every row or two or six or whatever, you zig or zag the yarn over to the next row of vertical stitches, or two rows over, so that the yarn is attaching to a new vertical string of loops. Speaking of crochet... is this also sort of what "tapestry crochet" is all about? I think it is, and this is a bit like a tapestry crochet panel in the middle of the knitting. And also mixed in with the knitting, to carry the main color across.

Examples from your closet:
Your undershirt: "Jersey." Plain Stockinette.
Your polo shirt: "Tricot." Ever notice that this is "knit" material but doesn't unravel in that same, normal, knitting way? Yes, I know "tricot" is the French word for "knitting." In American-Textile-Industry-ese, "tricot" is the word for "stuff knitted as though the machine were a Wild and Amazing Finn."

Philosophizing:
I find it fascinating to see this in hand-knitting, and of course it would appear as a colorwork panel - it would be true insanity to do an entire garment this way. As per the above, each column of stitches requires its own ball of yarn. Imagine doing even a hat where each cast on stitch requires its own ball of yarn. A ball of yarn that has a beginning and an end and each one has to be woven in.

And also: what's the history of the development of "tricot?" Crochet --> Knit? Knit --> Knit? 'I could build a machine that loops this way' --> how will I make that into fabric?

Philosophizing from Evelyn: (from Stephanie's comments, with permission from Evelyn)
"In your amazing wristlet each color can shift only one stitch to the left or right in the next row, right? The same is true of the bells in change ringing. Each ringer hauls on the rope in turn (probably I'm not using the proper lingo), so you might hear A B C D E F G, and in the next round of clangs there can be a different order... such as A C B E D F G.
But because of the design of the rope and the bell, the ringer can slow down the next clang or speed it up by only a small amount. That bell is going to ring, and it's a huge heavy bell. So the bell can shift forward or backward in the sequence of bells by only one place each round.
The bell ringers (just as addicted and loyal as knitters are to knitting) are actually doing this Finnish knitting, and the knitters are doing bell ringing.
In either case, there is a very real danger of strangulation. Be careful out there."

Diagrams:
Okay. These are SCRIBBLED. These are HORRIBLE. But I already told you above I'm laying it all out there with this one, so if you're not sleeping yet, and your head doesn't hurt yet, here they are.

Regular Knitting:

Crochet Chains Next To Each Other:

Crochet Chains Crossing Over Each Other:

Win Some, Lose Some

2007-01-30T23:13:00.000-05:00

The Chair posed for pictures, and is now in service at my desk.

The square was not sent and will be frogged. I followed the recommended needle size and yarn and heeded when it was stated that the number of stitches was more important than the exact size. However, at 2 inches or 30% over requested size, it was unfit. I think the squares that didn't make the cut for the book were going to be made up into blankets for charity, but for the trouble of fitting it in, the undurability of such a loosely knit bit in a sock yarn for a blanket... I was more excited to use even tinier needles and re-use the yarn for something else. Someday.

Progress on The Blanket was almost nil. I have some more Thoughts on The Blanket, but the Actions haven't followed along yet.

Babka was baked.
Babka was eaten.

Yarn was purchased and socks were begun. (Brown Sheep sportweight, heathery brown, for The Jeff Next Door, first time trying toe-up.)

The house was cleaned.

Is it the next weekend yet?

Weekend Tease

2007-01-26T16:45:00.000-05:00

I've been sorely lacking in many important ways this week: SLEEP, blog posting, and photo sessions. I'm catching up in that order.

I'm NOT lacking in finished objects. If Blogger behaves this weekend and I'm able to use it again, I will show you pictures of:

- A knitted square for Larissa

- The finished chair

- Progress on The Blanket

- How (not) to make a delicious coffee flan

- Yarn details on the hat pattern

I mean, can you STAND the anticipation? Ha! I know that most of us are keeping these blogs as self-inspiration, self-motivation, and keeping self in check, so I think you understand.

Baby Sherbet Swirl: Knit Hat Pattern

2007-01-23T11:33:00.000-05:00

Baby Sherbet Swirl
Yarn: DK/Light/Worsted weight yarn. I used a cotton/rayon blend from a Smiley’s sale in NYC.
Needles: Size 6 or appropriate for yarn. I used my Denise Interchangables, Size 6. I have a special technique for using just one set of interchangeables for 2-circs knitting in the round.

Step-by-Step/For-the-Sake-of-Posterity/This-is-Exactly-What-I-Did Instructions:
CO 55 sts. Join to knit in the round using your favorite method, being careful, as ever, not to twist the cast on row.
Begin knitting: *K6, P1*
Repeat this row and continue until you’re ready for the decreases – I did about 4 inches.
1st Decrease round: *K6, S1, P1, psso*
2nd Dec round: *K5, S1, P1, psso*
3rd Dec round: *K4, S1, P1, psso*
Continue decrease rounds in this pattern until you only have about 16 stitches left. Cut yarn about 8-10” away from last stitch. Using a yarn needle, thread the yarn through the remaining loops and remove them from the knitting needles. DO NOT PULL TIGHT. Yet. Thread the yarn through the loops again, so that the end yarn goes through all the loops at the top twice. Then tighten the first round through the loops and then the second round through the loops. The knitting police will not ticket you for skipping the second go-round, but you get a much more satisfyingly tight close if you do both rounds. Weave in the ends and Voila!

Conceptual/Recipe/Y’all-Know-What-You’re-Doing Instructions: This is basically an all-stockinette roll brim cap with a variation: a purl stitch at regular intervals that shifts with each round. You can make this with any yarn in any size. When you know approximately how many stitches you would need to make a regular hat with your yarn and needles, you can figure out an exact number based on the idea of a multiple of 7 plus 6 stitches. If you don’t like any of those numbers, you can use a multiple of 8 plus 7 stitches, or a multiple of 6 plus 5 stitches… you get the drift. Then you’re doing a purl stitch every 7th stitch (or every 8th stitch or every 6th stitch). Because you took one out of the cast-on number, every time you come around the round of knitting, you’re “one ahead,” and every purl stitch happens just above and to the left of the one below it.

The decreases might not be the very best looking one to use with this hat. They were what I thought of on the fly to imitate the purl stitch, and they’re only mediocre on that front, but I chanted to myself that done is better than perfect. Done is better than perfect, and the decrease above is done, and works well enough. I’ll probably try some other decreases next time to get one that looks a little better – feel free to do the same and let me know your results.

Tricks I used on this hat and others:
- When joining the cast-on row in a round, put the 1st stitch and the last stitch next to each other at the end of one needle. Pull one of these stitches OVER the other, and put the one that is now at the end of the needle back on another needle (your other circular or dpn).
- I knit it with two circulars with my interchangeable needle set. The magic of knitting with two circs is not to be underestimated, and instructions are pretty easy to find all on the web. The magic of using only one set of interchangeable needles, with only two tips that are the right size, is a stroke of genius if I do say so myself. Or at least, I did a lot of needle-tip changing every single half-round before I came up with how to set them up without having to change them. If you post interest in the comments, I will make a tutorial.
- Double pull-through at the end. As described above in the step-by-step instructions. Not an AmberCake original innovation, but I think it’s vastly underutilized. I love it when the principles of friction and surface area work together in fiber. No, really. I think about that more than you know.

Wristwarmers

2007-01-22T11:52:00.000-05:00

If you're here for the wristwarmer links, hello! Welcome!

Click here for the wristwarmer links I collected on del.icio.us.

If you're not familiar with del.icio.us, let me HIGHLY suggest you become acquainted. I find it totally brilliant for collecting weblinks and keeping track of all the neat stuff you find out here on the internet. Click here for a basic summary of how it works.

Keeping Going: A post of Extraordinary Length.

2007-01-09T20:36:00.000-05:00

Blogland, I know that The Holidays are Over. Christmas is now such a distant memory that the unwritten thank you notes already seem months late. Still, it was only this week that I could put out my tree for proper collection to get mulched. And I have to tell you about my Christmas tree. Because my Christmas tree bloomed. That's right. You know all those dormant little brown nubbins at the ends of branches? The ones that look like teeny tiny beginnings of pine cones? They're buds. And in my house, they open.

All over the tree, too, not just in one little spot.

This is not the first time this has happened. I think it was two years ago now that by the time New Year's rolled around, my tree was covered in them. I estimated at least 300-400 opened buds, many of them an inch or longer.

It's hard to say what it means. I think it's because I can't figure out what I want it to mean. A friend told me today that her parents planted their cut Christmas tree one year and it took root and grew. Maybe it just means that life is really determined to Keep Going. So I've been Keeping Going.

Filing, anyone? Most of my weekend went to organizing paperwork for my co-op apartment building. Did I mention that I'm the President of the Board of my co-op building? The Jeff Next Door likes to follow the announcement that I'm on the Board by telling people they are welcome to call me "Madame President." And Madame President has been collecting everything that she can and this weekend, the First Gentleman of the co-op and Madame President put it all into a little filing cabinet in sensible order with clear labels. I would never have imagined I could be this pleased with a filing cabinet. One could be perturbed that there is not one single sheet of paper from almost 10 years of this building's 18 year history as a co-op, but I prefer not to think about it, considering how very little I can do about that. I'm just looking forward and Keeping Going.

I also built a desk for myself this weekend. Okay, I only attached a couple of legs, courtesy of West Elm.

As I'll be wanting to sit at the desk, I started refinishing this chair I picked up on the street when someone put it out for trash collection.

"Refinish" feels like a strong word for what I intend to do - "remake"? I'm replacing the seat's rotting foam and recovering it. I'll hit the frame with a little sandpaper to clean it up a little and show more of the blue paint under the green, then reassemble and call it a day. It's a stable little thing, and although it's of the fake-o "antiqued" genre which usually earns a raised eyebrow from me, I'm growing a bit fond of it. I think the hardest bit will be choosing the fabric for the seat. A nice rich dark red velvet or brocade could be fitting, but a nice sturdy canvas might redeem some of the preciousness. I think I'll just Keep Going with it and see what happens.

Already January 4th? The Future is Now!

2007-01-04T17:28:00.000-05:00

Well, Happy New Year. I usually don't go along with that whole resolutions bonanza, but I'm feeling it this year, at least a little bit. I think it has more to do with the post-holiday (please, enough crazy!) than with the changing of the calendar year, though perhaps the combination of the two makes both more powerful. At any rate, I'm ready to seize the spirit of taking a moment to consider what's up and what there should be more of and what there should be less of.

I usually wholly dismiss the standard resolution lists - clean the house, spend more time with ___, lose 10 pounds - as ridiculous and overwrought and cheap sentimentality. But I'll shrug my shoulders and go with the flow. Call the past the past and call the future the now and take a moment for reflection and contemplation of what that could be. Consider realistic notions of what I want my life to look like, but things I can aspire to, not just fall into.

Now is the part where I would post a list, if I had such a thing. It's under development. It will continue to be under development until next year, when I will turn the page and start a fresh sheet with similar things on it. I was very pleased that some of the items on the developing list started with "Continue to ..." and "Keep going on ..." I think part of why I've often looked down on "New Year's Resolutions" lists is that it's not as though you're going to start going to the gym three times a week and cooking healthy meals every night if you don't know how to boil water yet and haven't ever been to a gym. (For the record, I've been to gyms, and I can and do cook) Maybe I'm just not the extreme hold-myself-to-goals type - I sure can't start a bunch of things I've never been good at or been able to force myself to start or stick with them just because they're my "New Year's Resolutions." I would quickly dismiss it all as ridiculous and unrelated to my life.

I think instead of making Resolutions, I'm making Assessments, taking Inventory: do more of this, keep going on that, get rid of this, this is something I've been intending, time to fish or cut bait. So the real resolution in this is simply: Better. Not because 2006 or any other year or time or day was Bad. Better as a superlative of Good, not as an improvement on Bad. Call it good, call it over. And this year, as with all other years, let's also have Better.

Cheers to Better.

The Piiiiiiig!

2006-12-30T09:17:00.000-05:00

I mentioned in my last post that there was a mug. With a pig. Deserving of its very own post.

Check out this pig.

He's trying to get to the corn at the bottom! I love him so much it's hard to not squeal and use exclamation points!

In other news, in a far-off distant universe of Knitting After The Blanket, I've got some great yarn that a friend gave me - enough for a garment. I've been thinking of a vest, a little lacy, maybe with a vertical rib with some openness. And I was at a post-Christmas sale and found this sweater, which is almost great but not quite big enough. (ahem - too many cookies) Anyway, I picked it up anyway for further consideration at my own home (does it really fit with the things under that I would wear...). Before I return it, I had the presence of mind to trace the outline and take a picture. I always tell myself "oh, sure, yeah, like that..." but then I find it a little difficult to remember exactly what "like that" was, much less draft the thing up. A tiny step towards making this actually happen. Even better, this is something I would wear over a tank top, so it would be a spring/summer/fall garment. Meaning there's some sort of chance I could make it in time to wear it, as there's no way I'm getting this done while it's still cold enough for a vest.

What I said I wouldn't do and evidently shouldn't have.

2006-12-27T16:29:00.000-05:00

Oh, man. So, like I said, I wasn't making nothing for nobody for Christmas. I mean, I didn't even WRAP the cookies for my mom, and I LOVE wrapping stuff.

But then, there was going to be this last-minute addition to our Christmas day, that person who just moved to town but ain't got nobody in town to celebrate with. Ya know - just moved to the big bad city, two friends in town, one of them is our roommate - he was gonna come to our place for Christmas and I wanted him to feel welcome and have a real Christmas a little bit. So I did a real race-to-the-finish little Odd Fellow from Jess Hutch's book so he'd have a real, handmade present made for him under the tree, and I knew he would really like it. And a big fat chocolate bar (a really big one) and I took the paper off and made it a silly quickie customized label with his name on it. I was really pushing it to get them done, so I wrapped them before I took a picture - figured I'd get the Odd Fellow in the daylight.

And then, for Christmas, he didn't come. There was a 3 PM phone call indicating that he might meander our direction maybe later, maybe who knows, maybe whatever.

Which starts me thinking I'm developing a trend here of the unwilling & uninterested on whom I'm foisting my Christmas crap. Last year I knitted scarves for my father's mail-order Ukrainian widow and her daughter. We really wanted to have them and my dad for Christmas, to be welcoming and family-like. Then he went and died, and then I thought we should really have them for Christmas. They really didn't want to be there. Didn't come out of their bedroom until after noon, then couldn't be bothered to look at their (also handmade) stockings until after they'd made a few phone calls.

So, yes, we can all admit that we give gifts partly to feel good about having made someone else feel good. By "we" I mean, "you all" because me, I'm giving gifts to make myself feel like crap.

If The Blanket turns out this way, watch this site for a big giveaway of every craft implement and supply I own.

Oh, sigh... I did squeak out a tiny stocking that was well received:

And I got this mug? With a little tiny pig on it? Which sounds so dumb, but I LOVE it. A lot. And this bookmark that someone made for ME. It has the letter of my name on it. For ME. And I'm already using it, because who doesn't need a bookmark?

Oh, yes, and of course there was good food. Another non-daylight picture because before the sun was up, my husband made me breakfast with some of the leftovers. More here.

So, yes, my Christmas was fine, thanks for asking.

But I swear I'm not making anyone anything next year, for real.

A Brief Post in Celebration of the Well-Woven End

2006-12-19T14:29:00.000-05:00

I love stripes.

It's good I don't mind weaving in the ends.

I always love it when people tell me how they do what they do, so here's what I do: Weave on the subway. By which I mean to say, do some duplicate-stitch with the leftover ends, because you can, and it's so much better than having this fat old incongrous line through your knitting because you just went straight through a few stitches and came straight back. Duplicate stitch on seed stitch is wacky, but still fun and doable. Also, as with all things, fake it - if you've got too many in one line, too close to a corner, whatever - just kind make it in-and-out-y, more than straight-line-back-and-forth-y.

Do NOT get out the scissors on the subway.

When you are sitting in the stability of a chair in your home, your office, or someone elses home, get your scissors out, cut off the ends of the ends you've woven in, and beam with pride at all that work you've done.

Marvel at the way you can't even see where they were.

Marvel at how many stripes you've made.

Wheeeeeeee!

Now there are design decisions to be made...

What I'm not up to.

2006-12-13T17:30:00.000-05:00

For one thing, despite delusions of potential grandeur, I'm not making any holiday gifts. Ok, I will bake some cookies. But that's all you're getting, gang. Cookies and a heartfelt smile. A select few will also recieve a precious jar of homemade rhubarb-lemon marmelade.

There are so many things I would love to sew, but my sewing machine is officially impossible. I thought I would write "toast" there, but as it turns out, I can't bear to say that. I love that machine and I really really want it to work well, because if it did, we would be unstoppable, the machine and I. But there's something wrong with the tension knob and you think you've got it fixed and a minute or two later, it's doing the bad thing again. Which is exactly the kind of thing you can never get them to really fix at the shop, isn't it? Because I've tried to have them fix it better before, and it didn't work. Which means there will be no aprons, though I've got a great template and great fabric and everyone in my household wants one. And no stuffies, even though I'm dying to make some up from the Wee-Wonderfuls Put-Together Book. And no bonnets or ear-flap hats from Mailorder, though man-oh-man, would I love to make some of those. I've also been dying to make needlebooks and pincushions. And wouldn't those be great gifts? Yeah, those or a million other things.

So, I'm allowing time and tools and prior priorities hold sway over me this year. No one I know is going to go cold if I don't knit them a hat for Christmas. No one I know will cry because I didn't make them elf stitchettes on a homemade stocking. I am mourning the lack of space in my life to make beautiful things for people I love BUT I would certainly end up in tears if I started all these things I want to make but cannot possibly finish. In the commuting time and the watching dvds time, I'm working on The Blanket, a project not related to holiday deadlines or rampant commericial pressures to present people with OBJECTS on schedule.

I'm also resisting the urges to shop shop shop and buy beautiful things for the people I love. There are SO MANY wonderful things available at this time of year, and I really am a generous person and I love to give nice things to the people I love. But enough with the Objects On Schedule. The holidays are not about gifts, they are about being with people and celebrating whatever you celebrate - light, rebirth, friends, family, getting through another year, having a new year as a blank slate in front of you. Part of the reason I don't have time for this silliness is that I'm busy DOING THINGS with all these people. We've had loads of visitors for weeks now, and this last weekend when we didn't, we went out of town and threw a party for someone else and then went and visited someone else. I was out last night with friends (dance performance) and will be out tonight with friends (craft circle) and will be out on Thursday night with friends (a cousin performing with his band) and Friday night a friend is making us dinner...

I do want our place to be decorated, I love the atmosphere of the holidays. So I want to make Stephanie's trees and I want to make stockings and I want to make a new tree skirt, and a nice cloth/set-up for our advent candles, and I want to make an advent calendar. But we have a tree, a real tree that smells lovely and will be great mulch in a few weeks. And we will decorate it with things we already have, with the help of a couple of borrowed little girls, and that will be more fun than getting it done RightNowRightAway. And we have some decorations already and just getting them up will be Enough.

And so I'm very busy here, very busy resisting the urge to Make Stuff for this invented need to Give Stuff at Christmastime, very busy being with people I love, very busy with Events but not Things. I have to remind myself every day not to worry about it, not to figure out the special gift for so-and-so, because I'm not doing that, I'm not buying that pressure about Stuff.

As Calvin Trillin says, Enough is Enough. We have plenty of decor, and plenty of stuff, and so do our friends. I have plenty of projects, and plenty of materials, and plenty of plans and plenty of time to give objects to people. This does not need to all happen right now.

Two things there are never enough of are hand-written cards and home-baked cookies, and these are the only voids I will be working to fill.

As for the rest, Enough is Enough.

The Blanket Continues

2006-11-30T17:36:00.000-05:00

The Blanket continues apace. Much more apace than I've been showing. More apace than I will show you now, even, but here's some of the progress.

Marvelous Miters Mightier Together!
There is a stripe being knitted on (mid-row, hence the bunching). I was going to claim rebel status for their non-square forming formation, but it may be just a fear that they would dominate the blanket if assembled into a bigger square.

Try Them Triangles!
So much longer now. Note the string. I felt ingenious adding the string. I tied it on when I laid everything out approximately One Hundred and Thirty-Nine days ago (I'm not counting) (I'm calculating) and saw approximately how much longer it should be. Tied the cotton string on so I'd be able to see my status. In typical non-committal fashion, I haven't done a final half-triangle or bound off yet, it's on a stitch marker.

Bubbling Bias!
Oh, the reasons to lightly felt this blanket, they are many. The sin hiding I hope to accomplish therewith, it is great. I did a variation of a regular garter-stitch bias square in seed stitch. Saw that two of them were lookin' real good together, and could use two more friends. After sewing up, realized they really have an honest bubble to them, not just a too-lazy to smooth them for photos bubble. Looking at the photo some more, I begin to contemplate actually blocking this before sewing it with the rest and felting. Don't worry, it won't go any farther than contemplation. Seed stitch bias squares for finer work will require further tinkering. For now, Onwards!

If you're still reading here, you may be interested in what I've been eating this week. Which is to say, LOTS. The Jeff Next Door has been cooking up a Storm of Asian Goodness. Read all about it over there .

Friends, Food, Home.

2006-11-22T10:03:00.000-05:00

There is a lot of craft action going on right now - my co-workers have really continued in their knitting fever and there is a "knit lunch" usually about 2-3 times a week, and sometimes even an after work knit-and-chat not far from my place (WOO-HOO!). And I have a marvelous temporary roommate who knits. The Blanket is progressing (WOO-HOO-HOO-HA!). I hope to update with pictures on all of that very soon.

More important today is tomorrow: Thanksgiving. We'll be a table of 10. I will not give you a picture of the beautiful linen plaid tablecloth that has not been made yet. Errrrhm...I think it will perhaps have a Christmas debut instead. Neither have I a picture of the table-runner in progress that will hopefully lend a more continuous and deliberate look to the two different tablecloths which will grace the table this year. Who says a plaid cotton and a satin stripe aren't made to share the table?

Let's focus instead on the things that HAVE been accomplished before Thanksgiving.

We have a dishwasher. We installed it ourselves, which involved 4 trips to the hardware store, several evenings of pushing it into the hole and pulling it out of the hole, a new circuit breaker, and a professional electrician who was at our house one, two, three evenings in a row figuring out the inanity of the kitchen circuitry. It all works now, and we even have a ground-fault-interrupt outlet at the sink now (that's the test/reset kind that saves your bacon when you get a splash of water in there).

We have lights. We were living in darkness. Ok, dimness. Our living room had no overhead light fixture, just a large expanse of drywall, poorly lit by two Ikea lamps with compact flourescent bulbs and the occasional Netflix flicker of the movie box. With the help of my father-in-law and our non-knitting temporary roommate, we cut a hole in the ceiling, snaked a cable of wires from the hole to the switch, installed boxes and had it all ready. With the help of Schoolhouse Electric, we had a fantastic fixture to put up there and it looks great now. I can tell, because there's light in there now, and I can get a good look at it. While we were at it, we also got and installed two new fixtures in the dining room and our hallway. They're just lovely.

Did I mention I have two temporary roommates and have had five houseguests in the past 2 weeks and my house is clean? And ready for two houseguests on Friday? I really love having guests and having people in the house. I've had the excuse to make 4 pans of gingerbread, souffled crepes, whole-wheat dairy-free pancakes...

Photos are of pre-turkey shopping in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. More pics, including the larger-than-life pig at the pork store over at The Jeff Next Door.

Vamp and Re-Vamp were sitting on a fence...

2006-11-16T14:04:00.000-05:00

Vogue's Learn to Knit, 1972:

Rowan, 2004:

Weaving a House

2006-11-09T08:08:00.000-05:00

Weaving was my first and still deepest textile passion. I've done it here and there in bits and pieces, on "toy" looms and handmade weaving boards and a rigid heddle loom in high school and at FIT (Fashion Institute for Technology) in New York.

The Sheila Hicks: Weaving as Metaphor show at Bard Graduate Center recently was really gorgeous and inspiring. I went with better bloggers than I: Marci, who writes about it here, and then also with Kay, who wrote about it here. Almost every amazing piece of that show was woven on a little homemade loom, basically a picture frame with nails at the top and bottom to string the warp on.

It brought to mind the fun times I've had with simple little homemade weaving boards, too. I had been thinking of making small-scale houses from fabric and starting thinking about a 3-D weaving frame to weave little houses.

Voila. The first piece, finished yesterday afternoon:

My homemade frame:

The Glamour Shot, on the Danish Modern rosewood shelf with the Amber Modern red wall:

Click on photos for more views, including In Progress shots with it still in the frame.

Kay gave me the tip-off that I'm not the only one who had to weave after seeing that show - check out Little Red Hen's piece here.

Many ends, not yet an ending.

2006-10-31T12:15:00.000-05:00

The Blanket, Still a Work in Progress:

This does NOT mean that all pieces are completed and seamed together, not by any stretch, but things are Coming Along. I hope to post more soon.

Knits of the past

2006-10-28T07:36:00.000-04:00

Ran into these pictures today and since I have been very neglectful of my camera of late, thought I’d post these past projects.

Baby Blanket
I was inspired by all the log cabin knitting going on over at Ann & Kay’s, especially by this photo. The blanket was for a friend who is a graphic designer, and I wanted it to be bold and bright – this seemed just perfect. I bought three different brands of cotton, all with their own textures, to get a set of colors I liked.

Specs:
Yarn: Blue Sky Cotton, Rowan 4-ply Cotton, and Manos del Uruguay Cotton.
Needles: I think they were size 7s?
Pattern: Garter stitch in basic log-cabin format – start with a square, *bind off, rotate and pick up stitches, knit a stretch* repeat.
Border: I crocheted on a narrow red border – probably 2 rows of single crochet. I was skeptical about the need for a border, but it really makes it a finished object, not just “I was knitting, then I stopped.”

Wrist Warmers
I love Excel. I love having a small stash of Cascade 220 to whip together the occasional last minute birthday gift. After making the first one, I wanted the second to not match exactly, but I wanted to make sure that I liked the stripes and that they landed in good places relative to the first, the thumb, etc. So I drafted up what I had already knit, row by row, in Excel, and played ‘til I got an arrangement I liked. This was such a last minute gift, actually, that I actually finished them AT the “birthday dinner.” They were put on immediately after they left the needles and worn rather a lot, so I never managed to snap a picture.

I also think this was the project that I figured out how to use my Denise needles to do them on 2 circs. I used to change the tips all the time so I wouldn’t have to buy more needles (yes, every freaking half-round, I clicked them on and off). The secret is to assemble 2 circs, each with one “correct” size tip, and one a size smaller. You arrange the needles so that on each circ, you’re always knitting off of the smaller one onto the larger one. What you’re knitting off of doesn’t affect the size of the stitches, and once you have them set up that way, you don’t have to change the tips. I’m totally in love with my Denise needles, despite my general aversion for all things plastic.

Specs:
Yarn: Cascade 220
Needles: Probably size 7.
Pattern: A classic AmberCake Fakin’ It. 2x2 ribbing in a tube. Thumb holes made by working a buttonhole.

Adventures in Inspiration

2006-10-23T09:49:00.000-04:00

I've been really busy making and checking out what other folks are making lately, but NOT so busy taking pictures of my own stuff, so enough about me. Let's talk about them.

Song of Saint Joan
Pamela Niskanen
Photo by Jason Mandella

Just this weekend, me, the Mr., our roommate, and a pal of hers headed out to check out A.G.A.S.T. the Annual Gowanus Artists Studio Tour. We were definitely more agog than aghast. We saw work by two friends of ours and a lot of other folks besides. First stop was our friend Pamela who's got a welding studio and a great sense for sculpture. She makes some pieces that have moving parts and all her pieces are really just stunning. I'm not often very interested in sculpture, but she's got it going on. Check her out at: www.pamelaniskanen.com.

We meandered through several other studios to slowly make our way to the Brooklyn Artist's Gym where we saw some nice charcoal drawings done by our friend Courtney. In that building, we also met an amazing oil painter, Debra Goertz, whose website does no justice to the beauty of her paintings. She and the Mr. also had a grand conversation about favorite radio shows, as she was playing Jonathan Schwartz, a regular at our house.

As always, it was inspiring and fun to see so many people doing so much work. So many people doing it, going for it, being it. I'm glad they're there and that they share their work.

I totally blog, f'real.

2006-10-17T15:15:00.000-04:00

Marci just won't let me give up on the blogging before I begin, so here I am. Less than a month since the last post. Made this a while ago, but it's new to you:

Zippy Pencil Pouch made from upholstery fabric with upholstery fabric applique. First one with the Ever-Intended and Finally-Implemented Pull Tab.

Made as a birthday gift for a friend of a friend. I almost changed the shape entirely but she does great artwork and she's the type who draws a lot and always has her stuff with her, thought it might be good to leave it long enough for pens/pencils/markers. It was supremely satisfying to see her delight and know that it is being USED. She actually had been carrying her pencils in a ziploc and tried to not mess with it in the middle of her party... but in the end, she really just couldn't wait and tranferred all of her stuff right away. Yay!

Fur Yarn

2006-09-21T14:51:00.000-04:00

A post all its own:
Fur Yarn

I'm in shock or awe. It gasts my flabber. I really, really don't know what to think about this product, but I found it today and can't keep it to myself.

It's the product of Paula Lishman in Canada. She takes a fur pelt (yes, a real one, we'll get to that in a second) and cuts it into very thin strips, then basically fuses it around a core of cotton to stabilize it and pulls it into a round shape so that it's fur on all sides, radiating out, rather than a flat strip of fur ribbon.

I find this to be astonishing, fascinating, and innovative way to create a yarn and a business. Rock on, Paula. Business & techinical? A+. Superfantastic. Seriously, I think it's brilliant and wacky and playful and it seems like it's long established and I know how much work that it. Wow.

Aesthetics and "moral"? No grade. I can't grade it. Aesthetics because, well, I don't even care for fun fur, or eyelash yarn, or nearly anything that could get categorized as a "novelty" yarn. Even "fuzzy" yarn is dodgy. But to each one's own, and also, I have often found that anything I categorically reject will inevitably show up somewhere, sometime, looking totally cool and fresh and just right.

As for it being real, actual fur, I think my string of reactions went something like:
Ew!
Wow! Isn't that totally un-pc? I thought fur was over.
Oh, but she's in Canada...
What? So what if it's in Canada?
Funny, there's something about it being more northerly and colder and more into being a big wild place - like Bison in Montana seeming more sensible than Bison in New Jersey, though it's sort of the same thing.
Right.
Fur, man - weird.
Dead animal.
Ew (gut level gross-out).
Ew (political level gross-out).
But it's not like she's the only person using fur - it's still in fashion, still used, still available.
And it looks like she's using at least some that would have been trapped/killed anyway in the processes of normal wildlife management. I won't apologize for NOT being squeamish about that - we build houses and communities where other wild things live and in the course of co-habitating, we want things like clean water, and unflooded roads, and electricity, and not too many trees cut down by beavers, and not so many house pets and livestock killed by coyotes and ... it's all part of a modern human and nature ecosystem. There are lots of individual aspects of that which you can think about, be for or against (people shouldn't live there, people should live there with the consequences, people should live there in a primitive way, trap and release vs. trap and kill, release where, kill how...)
But that's a whole other complex set of issues.
Then there's the old set of questions about having fur, using fur, glorifing fur, even the leftovers of non-farmed sources, perpetuating a fur industry - you could argue that fake furs keep the look of a fur in fashion and so more furs are produced.
But then where does that stop? Does a leopard print t-shirt really encourage people to get a real leopard fur coat or rug? A shower curtain we had when I was young was printed with ferns, but I'm certainly not interested in getting a real fern shirt or rug.
And where are the economic impact studies on these things, anyway? We can theorize all day, but who has the evidence about how it really affects the fur industry...

Yes, I find this all TOTALLY FREAKING FASCINATING. Maybe you're all glad now that I don't post more often. But if you're still here, you deserve a picture.

Craft Room: Studio Shot

2006-08-30T14:50:00.000-04:00

I forget sometimes to count my home improvement projects as craft. But I hand-crafted these shelves this summer, and I'm darned proud of them.

I made them myself out of straight pine lumber: 1 x 12 for the shelf itself, 1 x 8 for the support backing along the wall, and 1 x 4 cut into triangles (using my clear quilting ruler!) for the brackets. I cut everything myself, gave everything 3 coats of clear acrylic varnish, sanding after the first two coats. I planned it all myself, and even remembered to plan in lots of details, like two slightly smaller brackets where the coat closet door opens, and a bigger bracket where the stretch of unsupported shelf makes it over the closet door opening.

My big help came on the last day - my husband held things in place while I assembled, and my neighbor joined us in holding them up on the wall while I attached them to the wall. (Thanks, J & J!) I already found and marked the studs (again with a quilting tool, my chalk pencil - washes off the wall) and made a very messy but reliable diagram of where to place the brackets so that they didn't end up over the studs. We have metal studs in our apartment and they're a total nightmare for putting things in/hanging things from, so I didn't want to miss a single point of attachment. Also due for thanks is my friend who took time out of a very busy Saturday to drive me to Lowe's for the lumber and dropped it off at my place.

For the record, no, I don't have the luxury of this whole room to myself, I share it with my husband and filing cabinets and our computer. Which sits on a monstrously large desk that I refinished. Still, pretty luxurious to have a separate room for all that, and now even more dee-luxe with custom shelving.

They're all loaded up now, though I still want them cleaner and emptier!

What's that in the corner? The Rainbow of Zipping Flavors! Ebay auction came with a few jeans zippers still in the jeans flies, and I had a zillion safety pins from the dollar store and I've always loved a rainbow.

The Blanket: March of the Miters

2006-08-23T19:40:00.000-04:00

Spiral Miter:

Spiral Miter Un-Wound:

I graphed this out on a basis of units, 12 stitches each. Some units were sides of a corner, some units were straight.

Mini-Miters make Mini-Blanket:

You put your stuff in it

2006-08-17T16:44:00.000-04:00

I've ogled the really cute/pretty/awesome/zippy pouches all over the web and the stores for a long time, but never bought one because whatcha gonna do with that? I don't own any cosmetics. I have a pencil pocket. "What's the point?," I thought.

Everything. As it turns out, everything is the freaking point. Zippy Pouch = Magic. I finally decided to make one, based on this tutorial at Craftster ,just to do a zipper, just because I could. And they're so cute, and what nice gifts they'll make, I thought. I put one together out of upholstery scraps and a muslin lining and I was terrifically pleased with it and with myself, and put it proudly on my sewing table. I showed it to a friend (look what I can do! zipper!). Then I helped her make one. I cranked out a couple of them as quickie Christmas gifts for two little girls we know, then for a friend's birthday, then for another friends birthday. All very last minute and all very pre-digital camera, so no pictures. "So clever," I thought, "Me, with the pouch gifts! Everyone seems to like them, isn't that nice?"

The first one sat on my sewing table for probably 8 months, looking cute and reminding me that I make things sometimes. Finally, I noticed that there were too many little things floating in my new bag that has no inner pockets, and thought, "Sheesh! Well, maybe I could put them all in that little pouch, just for now." The girl scout in me always wants to be prepared, the stage manager in me always wants to have a band-aid, small tube of ibuprofen, chapstick, safety pin on me, though I very rarely get these things out and use them. But now they're always there, in the pouch. Handy. And I can move them from one bag to another just like that. And I can find them all very quickly, because they're right there, in one easily accessible, contained location. I'll say it again: Zippy Pouch = Magic.

Also, since I'm still clever with the gifts, I made this one recently for a friend who was moving. I couldn't help her pack, but I figure her move will be a cinch now that she's got this. I told her, "It's for your stuff. You put your stuff in it." She looked back at me with the crazed face of someone who's been having a showdown with everything she's ever owned, a showdown that's lasted for days already and there's no end in sight. But when she realized that the thing in my hand was for her, really, that I made it for her, she seemed very happy and forgot about the showdown, at least for 90 seconds. I hope she found a place to pack it.

The bottom, because I'm proud of my skillz here:

The inside shot, because I'm proud of using the remains of one of my husband's dead workshirts as lining fabric and remembering to put the chest pocket of the shirt in for an inside pocket:

Circle of Co-Workers Baby Blankets

2006-08-16T17:48:00.000-04:00

I work at an architectural firm and there were two babies due to two different co-workers this summer. This spring, someone took some knitting lessons at Purl and that brought some more experienced knitters out of the woodwork, which led to more would-be newbies. I thought it would be a great project to make collaborative baby blankets for both of the co-workers. When I floated the idea, everyone was crazy for the design in Last Minute Knitted Gifts.

Nothing comes without complications, even things that are "Last Minute" and even things that are all garter stitch. We wanted a somewhat washable cotton (I usually translate cotton labels that say "hand-wash" to "machine-wash gentle"), and we had to get enough of the right colors. Each blanket needs seven colors, and we needed two totally different color schemes. One couple is using "white" as their decorating/clothing color of choice for the baby, and one couple was waiting to find out the gender of the baby most specifically to avoid the deluge of pink or blue gender-themed stuff, but they're generally very colorful folks. And did I mention I work with architects? These are design minded sophisticates, not happy to just throw together any old thing, these colors had to be right.

Then people figured we had to do individual squares, not the strips the book calls for (too complicated with color switching, we had more than seven knitters for the seven strips, everyone wanted to do some on each blanket), so that left us with 49 squares to sew up for each blanket. Yeah, that's 168 seams total. Don't ask me how many ends we sewed in. Many new knitters learned casting on, binding off, and the tediousness of seaming and sewing in.

But finally, finally, I threw a single crochet border on them. And finally, finally, they are done, and they are gorgeous.

Things to do in a New York summer

2006-08-04T09:14:00.000-04:00

-Start blog.
-Post a little.
-Get a houseguest.
-Get houseguest's brother plus wife to round out the houseguest roster.
-Spend the next few days running around with them like mad and melting your brain in the heat wave.
-Feel guilty that you're housing them in an apartment without air conditioning. In the room with the computer (and not a lot of wiggle room when you fill it with an air mattress and three people's stuff). So you can't upload photos from your computer to flickr and from flickr to finish the blog posts that otherwise ready to roll.
-Flick(r) the sweat from your brow, prow, and everywhere else, because girl, you are DRIPPING.
-Vow to self that you will clean house this weekend and get those crazy pictures in/up/on.
-Borrow office camera in a desperate attempt to put some sort of picture in a post: your favorite SoHo graffiti! Discover it's been shifted just today after being there for over a year, and post it anyway.

Because the world should know that in SoHo, even the graffiti taggers want you to

THINK ABOUT CARBS

The Blanket: Some Bits

2006-07-26T20:31:00.000-04:00

A log-cabin bit that may yet get dramatically increased in size:

A funny silly piece that is sort of a mini-version of the whole blanket – experimenting with different shapes to make smaller bits that get joined with the other bits:

A miter, a bias square, and two garter stitch squares made of 4 smaller squares each, using the two primary colors of the blanket (the copper and the green) paired with the same set of 4 accent colors, and knit and joined (picked up) in the same fashion. In fact, everything’s the same except in one, the accents are striped in every 2nd row, and in the other, the accents are striped in every 2nd row only for the last few rows of each square.

The Blanket: An Introduction

2006-07-24T20:36:00.000-04:00

Many moons ago, I learned that one of my very favorite people in the whole wide world was getting married (she's gone and done it already, now), and I wanted to get her or make her something extra super special. I was sort of starting to consider making her a blanket, because one of my favorite wedding gifts was this blanket from my father:

A nice blanket is a good wedding gifty kind of thing. Substantial, lasting, keeps them warm, it's something for them to use together. The kind of thing that might fall out of daily use, but you'll be using it for guests or picnicing or whatever 20 years later and say "That was a gift for our wedding." But that's a whole mother lode of knitting, and a lot of yarn dollars, and a big commitment. I am TOTALLY into the idea of making quilts, but I haven't actually completed any just yet, and didn't want to get into a big mess of trying to make my first quilt and face all of those disasters that are bound to happen and try to get it all just right and then give away my very first quilt ever. It's going to be a labor of love and intensity and also probably that 'child only a mother could love,' that first quilt. I would feel bad for me AND for them to give them my first.

I'd been getting into trying out different things with knitting, different stitch patterns, different shapes (miters! log-cabins! short-rows!). I love designing and thinking about design and seeing other people's designs and wondering how they came up with them. I often love really complicated things but I have a hard time imagining how I could sit down and think up the details of a really big, complex design that has lots of "randomness" and isn't too uniform but all still really works together. But oh! There's color - it's sort of the cheap trick of tying things together. Take three of anything in three different shades of blue with different patterns that don't match at all. Add two more in other shades of blue and you've gone from "mish-mash" to "lovely coordinated set." So I could just knit a lot of stuff with some common/coordinated colors and it would all come together, somehow, right?

Right. Smiley's sale. Intriguing green yarn. Interesting copper color. Check is exchanged for a GIANT bag of bags of yarn. Mix-it-up additional colors are added from friend's leftovers, Elann purchases, and my stash. And because it's not enough to knit an entire blanket, I will felt it a little at the end.

Last week, I pulled out all the bits I've got so far, and here's where we sit.

That is to say, with both a Good Beginning and a Long Way To Go.

Dedicated to Kay & Ann

2006-07-21T13:55:00.000-04:00

Kay & Ann have had one of my favorite knitting blogs for a long time, Mason-Dixon Knitting.

They got me back into a big knitting swing with their Afghans for Afghans project by collecting 8"x8" squares that were then sewn together and sent off to Afghanistan. They put together a fantastic book that has created a storm: a knit-along blog , a flickr gallery for projects from the books. I've met them both, and they're also just lovely people.

I love their stuff, I love them, and I love to give them a hard time about sewing in the ends of their knitting (machine stitch and cut! I say), so this post, and especially this picture, is dedicated to them.

Just to be very, very explicit: I made it that way On Purpose.

Stay tuned to see what happens to THAT piece.

From Read-Only to Read-Write

2006-07-20T17:45:00.000-04:00

After years of blog-surfing, I'm finally going to start a little blog-posting.

Lots of knitting, sewing, thinking, linking is