Scarlet and Gold

I guess I'm learning that picking one's colors, before picking the yarn, very difficult. I've been surfing for hours trying to find a worsted, that really has a scarlet and a gold, and I think I want a bit of olive, but that's never hard to find. And I always mix yarns and often feel like I shouldn't so it was important to me to try to find this perfect merino for a blanket. But so far I've got a list of possibilities, but that's it!Like Liberty's wool, the gold is so dull. And Swan's Island Worsted, no gold at all, Dream in Color, is so highly variegated, and Crystal palace's merino 5 solid has something called crimson but would that pass for scarlet?

Deaf and Blind Still ‘Coloring’ the World brilliantly

Graphic artist Alvin Lustig went blind years before his premature death, but memorized all the number of the Pantone color system so that he could still work the hues and shades in his mind’s eye.

The Stitch of Many Names: The Aftghan Stitch.

The Afghan stitch has been called hook knitting, railroad knitting, shepard's knitting, tricot crochet, tricot stitch, tricot crochet a la tricoter, tricot ecossaise, Scot's knitting, Scotch knitting, Princess stitch, royal princess stitch, railway knitting, Russian crochet, fool's knitting, idiot's knitting, hook knitting, and Tunisian crochet. It's varied history and use by women everywhere makes it all the more intriguing. Tonight I'm using it to design some Alice bands and bracelets. The key is to get some thread that has a bit of heft and a bit of stretch. Off to my fibers.

Madder the Color of the Paleolithic Age

When it comes to fiber it's hard to be fixated on one color or one color scheme, there are so many fascinating colors. As I chose a harmonizing palette I like to mull over the origins of the pigment. And talk about what is in the stash. I've been reading in Selvedge Magazine about kelsch fabrics of a hundred years ago and how either the natural linen color or woad for blue and Rubia tinctorum, the roots of the madder plan was used for these fabrics. Which sounds quite old., but in fact madder as a dye stuff  is much older. Madder was a color of Paleolithic times...the Stone Age....which began about 250,000 years BC and ended closer to 10,000 years BC with it's first phase...later phases of the Stone Age Came. And our Stone Age artistic fore-bearers used a bit of the red tones to embellish their works . Some of the 'colorful' history of the dyestuffs that made up madder can be found on the web. Some of the madder colors I've been working with now include: Jadite yarn 533 and a few others. In fact I can't help but seize any skein I see, in case the perfect project hits. 

Patterns Make Less Sense When You Are Paying Attention

My newest stash from Purl Soho just came and I grabbed the pattern from Brooklyn Tweed for the Cinder scarf. The patterns are very cute and I'm a bit perturbed that it came crushed in the box to fit, but that's the neat Purl Soho packing for you and it seems to be smoothing out. I'll be lucky if I don't douse it with coffee this morning. But I'm glancing at the pattern, and I'm always watching out for new patterns to teach my newest acolytes and this one seems pretty easy to start someone out on cables with a bit of a twist (pun intended). Anyway, just got started reading on the C16, and it says hold 8 stitches  back and do K2P2 and then repeat 3 more times, isn't 4 x 3 12 stitches instead of 8, or could they mean K1P1 and repeat 3 more times, but the whole pattern is in K2P2. Ok, I may have to pick up the phone, I've read it three times, and now written it down, and I still don't get it. And I'm determined to have holiday gifts knitted by the fall leave turning. Especially since UPS seemed to go astray with my newest layette, but that's a sad story for another night. Suggestions?

Cotton Fibers Creation

Having just finished the Heirloom Crib Quilt from the Erika Knight Natural Nursery Knits, I can't wait to get another one started! I used a taupe colored Soya Cotton for the knitted lace squares, and I'm going to bump up to the Rowan handknit dk cotton in baby blue, yes for a new boy, for the next one. I used Italian lace and some Liberty of London fabric, and fringed with lace from Britex Fabrics. The collecting of the pieces parts has been as fun as actually creating the blanket. I'm thinking of doing one in purples, the fabrics to choose from are so juicy!

Kiera's Scarf

The best reason to look up from your knitting when watching lLast Night is to see the fetching scarf Kiera is wearing when running out for a latte. Didn't get a great view, looks to be straight garter stitch, light blue, navy, white, with the robin's egg blue (a very in color this year) the dominant color of the pattern. Would be a lot of fun to experiment with a variety of different colorways and stripe thicknesses. Can't wait to bust through this hat project and make some sketches.

To Lord Raglan: The Sleeve to Fit the Occassion

FitzRoy Sommerset, became the first Baron Raglan, having already been injured in service, and then at Waterloo sustained an injury so severe he lost his right arm. To diminish attention to the fact that he had only one arm, he used to wear his garments very loose in the shoulder and henceforth, the Raglan sleeve acquired his name. It's an elegant sleeve. Raglan sleeves can be done in a variety of sharp detailing to make them your own, and they fit well on all sorts of body types, also befitting Lord Raglan, who was quite unique for many of his accomplishments and after his injury quickly learned to write lefty and went on to many more years of distinguished service even after his injury. 

Toiles Peintes and Sketching My Designs

Toiles Peintes is a French term meaning "painted linens" it actually was that a piece of heavy linen on which the tapestry under design construction was made to be sketched, and designed to be rigid enough, and durable enough that the design would be suitable for hanging. I actually prefer to do these on rolls of Japanese paper, as it's very handy to be able to cut off pieces of irregular sizes, I feel much more economical, and it suits the brushy style I like to write and draw when sketching.It's a great concept for those early knit sketches, especially to help me remember what I want to change up if I am adapting the design to a cushion or a hat or a pot holder. And I like to decorate my yarn stash room with these. My newest find is an antique album, and I use these sketches, or occasionally the swatches themselves  in place of the picture openings to create a unique heirloom all of my own.

Munsell's Coloring Wheel System

It's not always possible to match it all up. Usually I rely on eying the colors, or eying the stash more like it. I own several color design books, for decor, for paint, for photography, just for combining colors and learning what is "cool" and what is "hot" or autumnal, seemed pretty obvious at the start. But I'm starting to think the typical Munsell's Coloring Wheel System is not exactly powered for the light reflection of fibers. There are many ways that perfect color just doesn't match...or luckily visa versa. Will surf around for posts on matching color fiber.

Bluest of Blues

I'm beginning to knit up some baby boy hats. And of course, blues are what we grab for. But which blue? There in lies a challenge. When I grab a blue, it's likely to be green: Turquoise or Caribbean. So I'm trying to get at those purer tones, Royal and Navy are of course gorgeous, but perhaps a highlight of some other sparkling hue when knitting! My favorite is sitting in the sun, to really see the sheen, and of course whether it's a synthetic or a natural fiber the cast can vary so greatly. Here are some other blue shades that entice me today: Toluene, Indigo, Azure, Ultramarine, Cerulean, Prussian, Cobalt. Any others I should be considering?

Patternwork

If you can be disciplined enough to do your swatch, then you can measure it, and then you can create a graph that is customized to the swatch and then the pattern ou draw on to it will fit the yarn quite nicely.The last pattern I did I used "knitting graph paper" but then I knitted various gauge swatches to see what looked the best. Backwards, but fun! Here's the on line graph by gauge I stumbled on Sweaterscapes Knitting Graphs

Navajo Warming Blanket

The look of the last striped blanket I knitted was so Navajo in the look that as I looked at a stack of Manose de Uruguay handspun kettle dyed wool in colorway G I decided to make another blanket and this time get the brown, beige, gray, and red of an even more traditional Southwest look. The gray Twinkle yarn, and Rowan Big Wool, with  the remains of my treasured because discontinued chunky Malbrigo created a palate that was exciting to me and inspiring to just look at.

The Navajo weavings have been sorted into the Classic, the Transition and the Rug periods. The Classic period spanned about 200 years after the mid 17th century, the Rug period from just prior to 1900 until now, with Transition being in between. The styling was simple: rectangles that could be worn as a wrap or a shoulder blanket. The yarns of the tradional Navajos are S-spun worsted and they had long fibers and were somewhat stiff. By the time they were moving into the Transition period they had z-spun worsted that were probably from churro wool of the Spanish. Eventually more nappy yarns of the English and Americans was introduced. Then softer yarns they called Germantown or Saxony from mills of New England that came from the Saxony-Merino sheep found in Saxony and Germany. The yarn itself was spun in the Phily suburb of Germantown, and often the dyes were synthetic. Eventually the Navajos were convinced to try to improve their sheep with these blood lines so they could get more wool per animal, but often lack of suitable range to be fed and inbreeding produced wools that were poor in quality.

The yarns were used in weaving but I like to think that the thick blankets I knit with the 50 mm needles and the multiple strands use create a melange reminiscent of the weft and warp look. The traditional coloring reds were of cochineal or the bayeta. Cochineal itself is from a bug that lives on the prickly pear. Other red tones are achieved by the addition of Lac. Lac is an Oriental import that is the resin of insect scales that traders introduced into the Navajo color palate. The greens were of an indigo and native plant yellow dye mixed together. White as a color was not used in the oldest patterns, but probably was introduced by the Spanish. Sumac twigs and leaves created the blacks. As they moved into their Transition period, the weavers got practical and began using kit dyes that were provided to them by Wells and Richardson of Vermont. these prepackaged Diamond dyes would work by just adding water, although the resulting colors were compromised significantly due to their poor woo. By the 1930s a vocational high school teacher, and Navajo weaver named Nonabah Bryan began cataloging formuls from dye mixed of local plants.

When creating my patterns for the striped blankets it is so tempting not to plan at all but to knit and just grab whatever fancies my eye next. But then, when using some expensive yarns I'm more apt to want to plan, and it's fun to experiment with patterns with some tape and short cuttings of the wools. I have loved the Moqui pattern of narrow indigo blue and black stripes, but I had decided not to use an actual blue in this blanket. The Chief blankets, the small, almost square blankets of the fourth phase of the Classic period are some of the most inspiring striped patterns. The wider than long blanket are more traditional of the Navajo, and the ones more long than wide are the serape of the Spanish. Red or blue bordered blankets were also called "maiden shawls". I'm sticking to stripes for now and may more into some graphed designs with the traditonal diamond centers that are common in these rugs.

The project is underway, the night is young, I rest my hands every few rows as it gets heavier and heavier, and as the fire is winding down, the blanket will help to warm me while knitting in the quite house.

Reference Navajo Weaving, Three Centuries of Change, by Kate Peck Kent

Fierce Fibers

I've loved the "yarns of transformation" logo of Alchemy, and hae made many a flowering concoction of beads and knitted balls, and trinkets just to be able to grasp the concept of art and magic that their subtle dying conveys. And bamboo ,pine, silk, jadite and steel have intrigued me from other spinners of fine threads, just to give you some examples of my favorites. And as I read the lore of whitches brews, love potions and the fircests of treatments for fevers: like the henbane and wolf's bane. If I could weave just a few fibers into some flax as tribute to the women before us, it would be quite something.

Knitting on a Rainy Day

The claps of thunder were always believed to be the reeling in of the flax that Frau Holda, the supernatural matron of both spinning and childbirth. Frau Holda's cloth was finely spun linen, which she might be loaded back into the spindles at night. The threads of her flax were a bit portent, 'as many good years as many threads" and the cloth must be finished by Epiphany. Are you holding the flax, are your hands flying so fast you must stop them to stretch. Play some music from Braveheart and it will take you away to times of castles and candles and let your imagination knit wild.

Knitting and an 'Agent Provacature'

Getting to the root of why we want to knit what we are working on. It has to be the inspiration, no? We all have seminal events in our life, and some may grace your emotions with an "agent provocateur". For some of the history behind that provocative name, check the blog post on GynoGab. And for those who have an ongoing 'agent provocateur' it would be well to identify it's source. So when I knit, I take copious notes in the margins of things I've read during the day, remembered to look up, or spoke about in hushed tones late at night.

Squares and Boarders

My grandmother Pearl taught me to crochet. She and her sister Rae used to knit and crochet. They knitted an exquisite set of boy girl dolls for all the cousins, and needless to say mine didn't survive my play dramas. They also would crochet blankets for all of us. One did squares, one did boarders. One did the doll bodies, one did the clothes. What amazes me is how perfectly the gauges always match. I've madly studied my sisters dolls (the saver in the family) and it's impossible to tell two women had their hands on these dolls, they are perfect. When I got older I thought about their collaboration on colors, it wasn't anything I ever talked to them about when I was a little girl. But theirs was the endlessly beautiful granny square blankets I never tired of looking at. At their house they did more complex ivory lace spreads, and place-mats and samplers. My first little afghan I made around the age of 8 or 9 survives, not too wobbly, and I can't look at it without thinking about how I couldn't wait for grandma's visit to show her the completed project. And though I eventually taught my sisters, two daughters, a daughter-in-law to crochet I don't have that perfect harmony collaborator, although we've occasionally helped just a bit!. Now that there's a new generation, there's a part of my tiny dream: someone to share squares and the boarders with!

Is Knitting Your Raison d'être ?

Of course not! Our Raison d'être is not knitting it's being creative, through knitting. 

Knitting by the Era

I knit therefore I remember. Or at least I'm trying this. Have you memorized the order of the era's of history? Well, here's a list and as we go we will be thinking about what to knit to honor each era.
VICTORIAN: 1830-1914
ROMANTIC: early 1800s
REALISM: LATE 1800SNAPOLEONIC: 1799-1815
BAROQUE: 16th to 18th century; rococo style
ENLIGHTENMENT (RATIONALISTIC) or Age of Reason: so late 17th century
RENAISSANCE:Florence was the root: 1400s
MIDDLE: a big one, and not really in the "middle" but from about the 5th to the 11th century
DARK AGES: a phrase first used in 1602, but refers to before the Middle Ages

The Seven Virtues of Knitting

I'm liking Plato's Seven Virtues. And they certainaly apply to our knitting, so to break it down for us I have appropriately retranslated for the clicking needle set:
PRUDENCE: Finish your projects.
JUSTICE: Spend as much time and technique on the finish work as on the project
RESTRAINT: Restrain the overwhelming force of forging ahead without a gauge swatch for the fitted items
COURAGE: No pattern is too hard to try
FAITH: I think this on applied to my first attempt at turning a heel, they told me to just follow the instructions and believe it would be a heel, and it was!
HOPE: So many ways this applies, no need to elaborate!
LOVE: To thy ownself be true: color, pattern, texture