My Knitting Guru

Knitting, spinning, life...I have a guru for each one. Wednesday I had the chance to spend time with my knitting guru, Lucy Neatby. Lucy was teaching at Your Local Yarn Shop in Battle Creek for a couple days and Ellen (sister) and I cleared our calendars and made an afternoon of it. 

Lucy giving Ellen some one-on-one instruction.

Lucy demonstrating double knitting.

(L to R: Ellen, Lucy, and me)

Lucy teaching while watching a up-close video clip of the technique.

Lucy teaching more stuff about double (reversible) knitting.

Lucy's Venue sweater...a project Ellen and I are going to tackle together.

Venus sweater and a baby venus....so cute!

I met Lucy Neatby my first year that I started in the Master Spinner Program in Alberta, Canada. Lucy was the guest teacher for the week during Fibre Week. There are many fine knitting teachers out there, but Lucy Neatby is the best IMHO! It's like she's a knitting engineer or a knitting doctor; she can look at a piece of knitting and quickly figure out what's going on. And her color work is fabulous! She has helped my knitting improve over the last few years. Next August she is hosting a retreat in the Yukon, the Canadian North. Although I can't go, it will sure fill my dreams and I'll just pretend I'm there.

Speaking of gurus...I have a few more that give me great inspiration. When it comes to spinning, hands down it's Mabel Ross, an internationally noted master spinner from Scotland. Serious or not-so-serious spinners typically know of Mabel Ross and the contribution she made to spinning. Initially she worked in meteorological research and was a teacher of mathematics and music so when she wrote about spinning it was natural for her to reduce the techniques to simple calculations. Mabel Ross took a very technical, exacting approach to spinning. Some people don't like her approach but it's a great way to get repeatable results (if that's what you're aiming for).

My other guru is none other than Mohandas K. Gandhi. There's nothing that needs to be said about him, his teachings, his non violence, and his charka spinning.....he's the Mahatma!

Baby Stuff

Most baby gifts are done and were finished just in time for the shower. I made a small baby blanket on my RH loom. A plain weave with a two-color warp and multi-colored weft. Then sewed on a satin blanket binding. Having a binding around the edge made it easy because I didn't have to worry so much about even selvedges. When I learn how to weave a double width piece of fabric, then I can make our grand daughter a larger blanket so her toes can stay covered.

With the left over multi-colored yarn, I had enough to knit a newborn cap. I whipped it up one evening with size nine DPNs.
The other cap I made has ear flaps. With a skein of self-striping sock yarn and size two circs, I casted on about 132 stitches. Before the cast on, I knitted the ear flaps on two separate DPNs and left them on the DPNs. Then using the circs I cast on 20 stitches, knitted on 21 stitches from the first ear flap, cast on 52 stitches, knitted on 21 stitches from the second ear flap, then cast on the remaining 20 onto the circs (note: the 52 stitches make up the from of cap and the first 20 cast on and the last 20 cast on make up the back of the cap). So when the cast on is complete, the ear flaps are on and you can knit the cap using your favorite pattern or your own stitch design. The ear flaps can also be brought up to the top of the cap and tied together if aren't being used.
I would have loved to use my handspun yarn, but being baby items I figured that a washable yarn was more practical.

Now I can move on to the final baby project (which I'll post here when complete) and then onto my homework for the Master Spinner Program.

Happy New Year

Happy 2010 to every that reads my blog. There is so much to reflect on over this past year and past decade, and so much to be thankful for. Going forward, many things are on the horizon this year that center around sheep, goats, bunnies, wool, fiber, spinning, dyeing, weaving, knitting, gardening, and preserving what I grow. The most immediate "to do's" are a few projects that have a tight deadline (baby shower gifts):

Just finished warping the loom for a babies blanket (25" RH loom)

Baby hat with ear flaps.

Have to knit all the way up to finish.

Finish ends on the silk scarf I wove.

Close up of the silk scarf. I love the colors.

To start the new year immersed in sheep info, we're off to the Michigan Sheep Breeders Shepherds Weekend in Lansing. With a number of informational seminars and listening to the keynote speaker, Dr. Temple Grandin, the weekend will be very interesting. I'll report back on the Shepherds Weekend next week.

Godspeed and Happy Landings!

Carol

Weekend of Knitting and Weaving Classes

Two great classes at Woven Art (E. Lansing, MI) just happened to fall on this Saturday and Sunday, so that's where I spent the weekend. They were great classes, but my brain is fried!

Saturday was Portuguese Knitting using a pin hooked up on your shoulder which allows you to maintain tension on the yarn. You also use your thumb to move the yarn over the needle. It was very good and showed me that there are different knitting options.

Knitting class at Woven Art

My sister Ellen took the class with me.

Sunday was Double Heddle Weaving on a rigid heddle loom. Weaving with two heddles allows you to weave many different textures and patterns. I plan to catalog my projects on Weavolution. I took my new 25" Schacht RH loom to class and warped away. The others in the class wove some beautiful stuff.

My sample project.

My RH loom on its stand and sample weaving coming along.

Classmate's project

Classmate's project

Classmate's project

After two full days of classes and a head of fried brain cells it was wonderful coming home to our new sheep, our trusted ole guard llama, and all the rest of our critters.

New Lincoln bred ewes...Haley and Winnie

Puzzle

WSWF - Sheep, Spinning, Knitting

Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival was a good combination of sheep shows and spinning and knitting classes. Initially we planned to take sheep and participate in the BFLBA show, but then decided to just go and enjoy the show instead of hauling sheep. It was great to have the freedom to move about without sheep duties. There was a lot of nice looking BFLs at the show. Steve and I did help out at the show on Saturday morning. I introduced the UK judge, John Stott, and acted as announcer and Steve helped with recording class placements and ring steward duties. He also helped during the NAMSS show on Sunday. I didn't get to take a lot of pics during the show because I was so busy. But here are a couple of pics that I did take:

I figured if we weren't taking sheep I might as well take classes. The WSWF offers some of the best classes! On Friday I took an all day "Spinning Fine Wool Yarns" with Patsy Z. We spun a variety of fibers and Patsy was a wealth of knowledge:

Then after the BFLBA show on Saturday morning, I moved on to my "Thrums Knitting" class. A thrum is a little piece of unspun fleece or roving that is knit into your project. Thrums make the inside of your garmet soft and fuzzy, and extremely warm. After a while the soft wool inside (the thrum) starts to felt and takes the form of the garmet. Thrums are used in hats, mittens, socks, and jackets. I think thrum mittens originated in Canada's provinces of New Foundland and Labrador. Here's a pic of each side of my knit sample from class:

Outside (right side) of my sample piece.

The inside of my sample.
That would make for extremely warm socks!

Then on Sunday I took an all-day "Binge" knitting class. It's pronounced Binga. In Halland, Sweden the old word for knitting is "bindslöjd" (the dialectal form "binge" is used to identify the knit designs and knitting patterns of the area). Traditionally, the binge patterns are knit in the colors of blue, white and red:

Samples of the Binge patterns

Bjärbo pattern - wrist warmers - half done
This is what I started in class.

Not much is written about Binge designs and knitting. Carol Rhoades taught the class and presented a wealth of information about the Binge designs and history. She gave us a list of some good resources about Binge. Most of the Internet searches I've done have come up in Swedish. Google will translate some of the sites which helps. Here are some links to some pictures of binge garmets: jerseys and caps (double flower, Bjarbo, Crown Princess Margareta's hat).

Then as I strolled through the vendor barns, I discovered a vendor that sold kits for Bohus hats. Of course, I had to pick up a couple. The patterns for the hats are in the book "Poems of Color: Knitting in the Bohus Trandition (and the womens who drove this Swedish cottage industry)" by Wendy Keele. The kit is basically just the yarn.

The Swedish Bohus tradition and its 400+ designs allowed women to supplement their income during the depression in the 1930's and help their local economy. Here are a few pics of the hat kits I bought and the corresponding sweater in the same design in the book:

Design: Blue Shimmer

Design: Blue Shimmer

Design: Dean

Happy spinning, knitting, and/or shepherding!

Books! Books! Books!

Just wanted to share a few good books that I recently picked up and some that have been around for a while.

A great section on types of fiber (cellulose, protein, manufactured) and the science of fibers followed by a myriad of spinning techniques. Judith MacKenzie is great!

The author presents an impressive amount of info on the knitters of the Oomingmak Musk Ox Producers' Co-operative in Alaska along with their beautiful lace patterns. The book also gives a history of native Alaskians and how the Oomingmak knitters helped the economy of their small towns. The book also talks about the musk oxen of Alaska and its exquisite rare fiber, qiviut. (My dear brother brought me two ounces of qiviut yarn along with a pattern for a lace hat from the Oomingmak Co-op in Anchorage...that will be a special knit project :-)

This comprehensive encyclopedia has a great section on dye plants and the dye process. It also has a nice listing of herbs for dyeing. A wealth of information.

Socks, socks, socks along with good descriptions of various cast-ons, increases, decreases, and other basic sock instruction. I want to knit just about every pair in this book.

Like the Oomingmak knitters in the Arctic Lace book shown above, the Swedish Bohus tradition and its 400+ designs allowed women to supplement their income during the depression in the 1930's and help their local economy. The designs presented here are incredible. Along with the beautiful patterns and color work outlined in the book, Wendy Keele explains how the women from southwestern Sweden produced a variety of knitted garments in fine multicolored angora-blend yarns.

Color in Spinning is loaded with info, techniques, and instruction on blending colored fibers with various blending tools, painting roving, and spinning and plying multicolored fibers. Lots of colorful pictures.

More socks! From whimsical to practical. I want to knit all of these too!

This 60-page booklet is a great 'how to' reference. Lot of good information about mordants, various natural dye materials, and dye recipes.

"When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes."
Desiderius Erasmus (a Dutch humanist and theologian: 1466 - 1536)

Few More Ribbons

This is the year for spinning competitions. I entered three skeins at the Michigan State Fair and three at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. In both competitions I entered (for the first time) some novelty yarns. Received an honorable mention at the State fair and second place in Wisconsin...was thrilled! Novelty yarn is harder than I thought. I'll be showing off all my yarns from the summer's competitions at the Spinner's Flock guild meeting on September 13. Here's a pic of the skeins.

Now I've been spinning some white alpaca (from my herd) for a scarf for my sister's birthday. I'll post a pic when it's completed. Her birthday is October 4 so I have to keep moving on it.

Knitting Project for Flight to Calgary

Ready to head north to Alberta and spin for a week straight and dye fiber and shop at the fiber festival! Suitcase is bulging but everything fits. The seven hour flight/airport time will be a good time to work on the lace scarves that I started in Sharon's Lace Knitting class but never finished. I should be able to get a lot done. Here's a pic of the two scarves I started.

I'll take a lot of pics and post when I return.