Owlie

I love owls, so when I saw this cowl confection by Betsy Farquhar, I immediately plunked down $5 and dropped it into my queue. After studying the pattern, I realized that, as written, the pattern was large enough for me to use as a tube top. Besides being too wide, it was long enough to not only cover my neck, but would extend over the top of my head, as well. I live in Georgia and our winters are too mild for face masks. Besides, I would have to add eyeholes (too much work) and it was too memorable to use in a bank robbery.


A little pattern editing was in order. I reduced the number of owls from five to four and eliminated the chevron patterns above and below the main event. I found a pretty skein of peach and green Lisa Souza sock yarn and dyed half of it black.

When I had finished knitting the owls, I decided that the tube would make a lovely hat, should I not want to actually wear a cowl. Waving my magic knitting wand (patent pending), I worked a row of K2tog, K8, YO to make some holes, through which I threaded a tasseled cord after knitting a final inch and binding off.

No, I didn't make an i-cord. Instead, I tightly twisted eight strands together, folded the result in half, and knotted the ends, which produced a twisted cord in about one-tenth the time it would have taken me to knit an i-cord, assuming I could be compelled to do so (not in this lifetime).

The end result is a howl...tighten the cord and it's a hat; loosen the cord and it's a cowl. The concept, which I am sure is not my invention, is clever, requires almost no extra work, and can be adapted to any hat or cowl to produce a hybrid howl.

Jaali

One of the things I love best about Ravelry is browsing other people's favorites. There are knitters who have the same taste as I do, and some of them have thousands of favorites. My meagre list only has about 200 entries, because when I see something I like, I spend a lot of time admiring it and then forget to click the little heart.

One morning, while perusing one such glorious Favorites list, I stumbled across Jaali--a shawl similar to Percy--both use the elegant Frost Flowers pattern as the main motif.

Jaali was especially lovely to knit, because it starts at the bottom by casting on a zillion stitches and decreasing to the top edge. By the time the honeymoon period is over, the rows are short and getting shorter; I found it difficult to put down because I wanted just One More Decrease.

The yarn was handspun by me from an EverImprovingMe batt--merino, firestar, and angelina--using a Tibetan spindle. I added a few beads (6/0) on the border, and, in a miracle of pre-planning, I actually did not run out of them before finishing that section.

There's not much else to say about this piece--it's a relatively quick knit, especially if you choose the small or medium size. I went with the large size, because it required 680 yards and my skein of handspun was 700 yards. I had exactly 18 inches left over and knit the last five rows holding my breath.

Crocus Shawl and a Bunch of Excuses

Hello? Hello? Anyone out there? Ahem, tap, tap tap....

Fleegle surveys her faithful readership and lobs a handful of flash-bangs at the audience to get everyone's attention....

So, now that we're all awake and alert, I can list all my excuses for not having posted in, um, a while.

1. I was in-country on a secret mission.
2. I was out of the galaxy on a secret mission.
3. I was out of my mind on a secret mission.
4. I was out of order on a secret mission.
5. I was out to lunch on a secret mission.

Having supplied a surfeit of incontrovertibly believable excuses, I will now wrench your attention towards my latest knitting effort--the Crocus Shawl.

 

This piece was knitted with Malabrigo lace yarn (Amoroso colorway), to ensure that it will be especially warm and cuddly for my friend Kyoko-san. If I were to knit it again, though, I would use a finer yarn and larger needles to better emphasize the complicated patterns. And, as you can see, even slight variegation caused the pattern to buzz a bit--a plain color would be a better choice.

I have decided that large, glittery crystal beads are fun and blingy, I used a profusion of them in this shawl--4mm roundelles on the nupps themselves (yes, the pattern features beaded nupps) and 6mm roundelles on the border. They make the shawl a bit heavy, but also cause it to drape nicely.

The reason that this shawl took months to finish is because I am clearly unable to correctly place a bead order. I first ordered 6mm beads for the nupp section, but those were too large, so I revisited the Fire Mountain Gems website and ordered what I thought were the correct number of 4mm beads, but naturally, my calculations were, erm, imperfect, and I then had to order two more packets to finish that section.

When I got to the border rows, I started using the 6mm beads I ordered by mistake (waste not, want not), but, not surprisingly was exactly three beads short of a finished shawl. Back to Fire Mountain...

Placing a bead order before finishing my morning coffee turned out to be a bad idea, because when the new shipment arrived, they were 8mm...and well, it took a week for each bead order to arrive so this shawl just went on and on...you get the idea. The people at Fire Mountain are likely convinced that a certifiable nutball lives at my address, but they keep sending me catalogs and free stuff like pens and magnifying glasses anyway.


All's well that end's well, and I am now planning to knit Tiziana's lovely Meridiana shawl. Ooo, it has nupps, so I'm working on the bead order, which will, of course, be the wrong color, wrong size, or wrong quantity. As I have often said, consistency is important.

Percy Shawl

I received a huge pile of lovely batts for my birthday, custom-blended by the incomparable Ever Improving Me. I admit to having been lazy--I didn't photograph them. But I've spent a lot of time spinning them, and one of the batts just seemed perfect for Percy. The pattern is, unbelievably, free, and a fantastic knit--interesting, non-repetitive, and adapts easily to any length.


I wanted the top of the shawl to be a bit darker in tone than the rest, so I snitched some orange fiber from another one of EIP's birthday batts and spun it up first. The yarn, a two-ply spun on Tibetan spindles, is merino with lots of lovely, sparkly angelina and firestar, which makes the shawl twinkle happily.


No matter how it's wrinkled and folded, it looks lovely:


The top portion of the shawl is a little cat's paw design. You can repeat this motif as long as you like.

The pattern then segues into Frost Flowers, which some people don't like to work because it's patterned on both knit and purl rows. I confess I enjoyed knitting these--they look so lacy and delicate.




Alas, I didn't have enough yarn to work the border nupps, so I ordered some 6mm faceted round, glittery Czech glass beads and used them in place of the nupps...


Note to Self: When calculating the required number of beads on one-half of a symmetrical shawl, don't forget to multiply by two, or you will have to sit around for another ten days waiting for the rest of the beads to arrive.

The yarn was one continuous strand--I didn't have to break the yarn to make the colors work. I just kept knitting the Frost Flowers pattern until I was into the greens and then proceeded on to the border. I did stop the Frost Flowers pattern in the middle of a repeat and just decreased away the extra stitches.

I fully intend to knit this pattern again, making it a bit smaller next time for a little scarf that will tuck gracefully into a winter coat.

Circular Honeycomb Brioche

Well, I was certainly pleasantly surprised by the response to my last blog. I figured about six people might want me to keep babbling about spinning, but there apparently are quite a few who enjoy the postings, so of course, I shall continue. As every blogger knows, feedback keeps us going. The last spinning post had four comments, so I figured that either (a) Harry was deleting posts just to be annoying or (b) everyone's head hit the keyboard in stupefaction when they saw Yet Another Spinning Post. Clearly, the answer is (c).

So, now that I have explained things to everyone's satisfaction, let me respond to several readers, who requested the secret to Circular Honeycomb Brioche. Here's the little neck warmer I made a using a strand of silk and a strand of cashmere:



The pattern is mildly tricky, but once you've run through one repeat, it's a no-brainer. Please swatch carefully, though. Brioche patterns are incredibly stretchy--you'll need a lot fewer stitches than you could possibly imagine.

Cast on an even number of stitches.

Row 1: Knit
Row 2: Purl
Row 3: K1, K1 below, that is, knit into the stitch of the previous row. Doing so unknits the stitch, so you will have the equivalent of a slipped stitch, thusly:



Row 4: P1, Purl the next stitch with the slipped thread of the previous row, as shown below.






Row 5: K1 below, K1
Row 6: Purl the next stitch with the slipped thread of the previous row, P1

Repeat rows 3-6.

I realize that this pattern could be done by slipping stitches instead of knitting in the stitch below. Many Brioche stitches are written using slips instead of belows. Try it both ways and see which one you prefer.

Next time, Harry will post about his exciting goat-herding class that he took in Albania, followed by a slide show of his whirlwind tour of Krasnoarmeisk, Myshkin, Putchezh, Kholui, Urupinsk, Mariinsky Posad, Kirillov, Suzdal and Gus-Krustalnyi.

Here ends my 300th post, and I want to thank all my readers from the bottom of my heart for your support and comments. Harry doesn't have a heart, but he thanks you from the bottom of his purple iPod for electing him Ruler of the Known Universe. Did you guys really do that?

Where in the World is fleegle?

No, I was not suffocated by mountains and billows of the Queen Susan shawl, although it was a close call there for a few weeks. I've actually been quite busy, but just haven't had the urge to photograph anything. Fortunately, Hyperactive Harry got a new camera for Christmas, and condescended to take pictures for me. I winnowed out the dross, namely an extremely unflattering set of early-morning-before-coffee snapshots, and instead present you with the remainder.

First, I managed to slog through the Queen Susan border--all 165 miserable rows. By the time I was finished, I hated the pattern, loathed the yarn, detested the stitch markers, despised the needles, and abhorred the color. The instant I finished the last stitch, I zoomed into a closet, threw the huge hairnet inside, and slammed the door. At some point, I will have forgotten the tedious slog through the endless rows of repetition and optimistically resume on the edging, but in the meantime...

I've been busy spinning. All of the skeins shown below were spun on Tibetan supported spindles.


And some closeups...





After the Knitting gift rush was over, I took the incredible step of actually knitting warm things for myself. The first is a simple neck warmer in circular honeycomb brioche stitch. I wanted something very warm and soft, so used one strand of silk and one of cashmere. Fortunately, Harry wasn't around to see the first attempt. I forgot that brioche stitch is really very stretchy...and the result was more of a waist warmer. By eliminating 3/4 of the original stitches, I obtained something that actually fits my neck.



I always wanted a pair of hand-warmers, but always ended up giving them away. This pair is a keeper. Knit from a worsted-weight merino-silk, the pattern is my own invention. Too lazy to find a cable needle, I simply knitted three rows, then knitted the third, second, and first stitch on the left-hand needle to produce a cable-ish effect.



And I finally got around to casting on for two lovely shawlettes. Percy here is being knitted in my own gradient handspun:




Krokus is being knitted with Malabrigo laceweight in the Amoroso colorway. The beads are 4mm bi-color faceted rounds.






Both patterns are freebies and lots of fun to knit--there's little repetition, so boredom cannot set in.

In other news, I decided to discontinue my spinning series--few of my readers seem interested, so I will forgo publishing the rest of the articles that apparently bored my readership into a stupor. Anybody still there?

Spinning for Lace, Part 3: Fiber

After some high-powered nudging from an assortment of readers, I've finally gotten around to writing the third in a series of blog posts about spinning lace yarns.

Let's start by defining lace yarn so we know what we are talking about. Just as there's no standard sweater yarn, there's no standard lace yarn--you can knit lace out of hawser line if you have Really Large needles and a good-sized backyard. But conventionally, lace yarn is that which is finer than fingering weight--in the area of 10,000 meters per kilo--about 5,000 yards per pound. The finest handspun I've seen was made by beadlizard: 171,360 meters per kilo (85,000 yards per pound), useful to people with the eyes of a hawk, the patience of Mother Theresa, and the mindset of, well, words fail me.

Bear in mind that the thinnest yarn you can spin is comprised of three fibers. Yarns of this grist were used, three-plied, for Shetland lace.

There are some spinners on Ravelry who aspire to such wispy (and fragile) yarns, and several who have accomplished this impressive feat. I confess to have spent a week making about 100 meters of this stuff out of Optim merino, which was carefully plied on a charkha, wound off into a tiny ball, and reverently placed in a drawer so I can admire it periodically. I have no compelling drive to knit with it anytime soon. I estimate the plied yarn to be about 37,000 yards per pound--about a 150/2 grist.


I am frequently asked what sort of fiber is best for spinning fine lace yarns, and will answer the question this way: There's no Best Fiber, because the ability to spin fine grist is all about fiber preparation.

If the batt or roving is immaculate, my hands will be spinning away as I read a book. Perfectly prepared fiber draws so evenly that, with a bit of practice, you shouldn't have to do more than glance at it once in a while. Clearly, producing an even yarn is just a matter of rhythm. Your hands will be repeating the same steps over and over--draft out a length, twist, and wind on. If the fiber prep is flawless, the rest of you can be doing some thing else--a pleasant application of multi-tasking that's well worth mastering.

If the fiber is less than optimal, I will put it away and use it for another purpose. If there's one thing I have learned, it's that raw material will always dictate what it wants to be. And some of the batts and roving I have bought insist they want to be sock yarn. Or hat yarn. And in one sad unspinnable case, the only thing that fiber wanted to be was stuffing. And so it was.

Here is an example of a lovely, smooth batt eminently suitable for fine lace spinning (the dark pink dot is dye, not a fuzzball):

And here is one that is not:

The nepps (little wads of short fibers or snarls) are circled. You can, of course, hold the batt up the the light and daintily tweeze them out. Not being that energetic, I spun that particular batt (merino, silk, and angora) in a heavier weight yarn and thus avoided all the delicate plucking and concomitant mumbling, and whining.

It's often difficult to tell if a batt is really smooth by inspecting the prettily wrapped or folded fiber you see on the Internet. You can ask the artist to take a picture of the batt with light behind it--most sellers will be happy to show off their carding prowess.

Roving, because it's machine-made, tends to be more uniform than batts. However, if you are buying dyed roving, you need to make sure that the stuff wasn't felted or over-handled by the dyer. A good close-up picture will give you good idea of spinability, but no guarantee.

I almost never get lumps in my yarn, probably because I learned long draw, my preferred spinning technique, from a master spinner in New England 40 years ago. Lumps mean your fiber prep was not perfect and/or the twist is running into the fiber too quickly. You will also get lumps if your fiber is sticky. Some fibers are naturally sticky; others may have too much lanolin and just require a good wash to make them easily slip by each other. Adding silk to a fiber mix dilutes the natural tendency of wool fibers to cling to one another. But too much silk makes for a non-elastic yarn and I like my yarns to be springy.

Because I really hate it when people talk in generalities, I will give a few sources for superior fiber that work especially well with long-draw and supported spindling and have produced, for me, exceptionally wonderful lace yarn.

1. Dragonfly Fibers 65/35 merino silk top. Utterly flawless mixture that's a bit springy, a bit shiny, and altogether perfect for fine drafting.


2. Ever Improving Me Batts. Her batts are scary. There's not a tangle or nepp to be found. Fluffy and perfectly blended, they set a standard for carding fibers for lace. She has also mastered the rare ability to evenly blend in sparkle. Make sure you order smooth batts, though. She also offers art batts--lovely, but not so good for fine yarn. Sorry I don't have a close-up of a batt--I've spun everything I bought from her. No leftovers.



3. Adventures in Fiber Batts: Just as frightening as Every Improving Me products, these batts often feature gorgeous color gradations, which keep me from getting bored with a single color.


4. Optim Top. Optim is a fine merino (19 micron) that has been mechanically stretched to a finer fiber diameter (14 microns) and chemically fixed to prevent bounce-back (14 microns is a typical diameter for cashmere fiber). Optim is silky, lightweight, and and very strong. The three-fiber yarn I showed above was spun with Optim; the picture below is heavier--about 30,000 yards per pound. It's a bit difficult to dye--it resists wetting out and floats around on top of the water for hours. If you don't want to spin white fiber, weight it and then soak it overnight before trying to dye it.


5. Corgi Hill Roving: Heart-melting colors in all sorts of fiber. I am particularly fond of her angora/merino and the wonderful merino/silk blend shown here:


If you take a peek at my Ravelry stash, you'll see that I am helplessly in love with her batts, as well. However, the fibers are sometimes not uniformly blended, which makes it a bit difficult to spin uniform frog hair. For heavier lace yarn, though, you can't go wrong with her carded preps.

It's certainly possible to spin from a loose cloud of fibers--just be certain that the cloud is uniform and doesn't contain bits of short second cuts. For example, here's a lovely sample of Rainbow Farms Pygora goat fiber spun on a Gripping Yarn Snakewood Russian spindle:


And a bit of Rambo's prime German angora, spun on a Russian supported spindle.


Finally, there are vegetable fibers, such as cotton, that can be spun very fine. I don't care to knit with it, so I don't have anything much to say about it. Bamboo and similarly processed plants are just rayon. Some people love the stuff, but I don't care to spin it or knit it either. There are several Etsy artists whose color sense makes me swoon, but they add bamboo to everything. About the kindest thing I can say about bamboo fiber is that it's shiny and cheaper than silk.

The next post in the series will probably cover charkha spinning. Or not! Stay tuned!