Secret Santa Can Suck It: My Gift

One Version of  SpaceShipTwo

What do you give a fellow Miskatonic Alumnus, who also graduated from Arkham High and also was born on October 31, 1905?  What Happy Solstice/Merry Christmas/Whatever present could I possibly give someone who is so unreservedly similar to me while, inscrutably, nothing like me at all?  

Well of course I found not one, but two appropriate gifts for PDQ!

The chance to find The Colour Out Of Space and nudge it gently to earth would be one such unimaginable unearthly gift, and amazingly, though undecipherably, one that I could actually provide if I had the cash.  Yes.  I'm talking about a round trip sub-orbital flight on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo.

One Version of the Necronomicon

Why should the well-formed, bright, uber-sexy and definitely not Virgin at all NASA Astronauts be the only folks allowed to purchase tickets to pop up to the International Space Station for a fun filled unfathomably weightless weekend?   

And what unspeakable weekend space jaunt would be complete without a responsive reading from PDQ's Brand New Copy of .... the Necronomicon!!!  Yes, PDQ will be able to raise more than the dead and the Old Ones, and might actually -- from the safety of space -- be able to wake the immortal Cthulhu from his slumbers.  While wearing a lovely red leather Cat Suit/Space Suit, I doubt seriously that PDQ will need the assistance of a book, but it never hurts.  (Or at least it wouldn't have if the book hadn't burst into flames in the Village PostMistress's hands earlier today. And I can tell you that definately smarted, particularly when the Volunteer Fire Department inserted themselves into the unholy conflagration that gave off a deep and ungodly green smoke and the unimaginably acrid odor of burning feathers, roast pork and the stench of unameable denizens of an unknowable time and place.)

Have an undoubtedly Happy if strangely disquieting Solstice/Merry Christmas/Whatever, PDQ!!!  I'll be thinking of you as I try to get out of the straight jacket just one more time.

An Anti-Gravity Bidet Perhaps?

No, that rough design I posted earlier today was of this dog sweater. 

My apologies. After watching the coat shift around on Tcup during our fashion shoot, I realized it's not finished  

It needs serious modifications before I can post the pattern.  Buttons for the belly strap would be good because knit things stretch.  Actually, I'm thinking of making it a full fledged sweater.  For now, though, she does look cute doesn't she?

2 Weeks to X day, 3 Weeks to 2012

A Scarcity of Posts

It's not that I've been doing nothing.  At times it does SEEM that I've been running in place this month, but the truth is I've been making progress on the gifts I'm making.

The problem is the people I am making the gifts for, know where this blog is.  SO, I'm going to post a little bit about the coats I'm making the DOG.

Tcup may know how to navigate to this blog but she can't read English.  Since I've been trying this coat on her, she's also seen it.  But I'm expecting that I will get an enthusiastic "Yip" or two from her when I officially give it to her on Christmas day.

 I'll be posting a picture of it ON her, and the pattern, itself, later. Now ... mind your knitting!!

In Two Days It's December :::sigh:::

No matter when you start spinning, dying, weaving, crocheting and knitting, it's never soon enough.  Luckily, this year, I've been so damned busy knitting that even if I don't get the gifts finished that I planned, I have plenty of backups.

I'm not going to be posting a great deal for the next month so here's a quick run-down of what I've learned and what I'll be pursuing next year. 

If you think of any Mad Scientist Experiments you'd like to see me try in 2012, don't hesitate.  Explain it to me so I start thinking about it and who knows.

Beading

I remember, when I was 12,  that I sat over a catalogue of hand-knit, hand-beaded sweaters which could be shipped direct to me from Hong Kong for only -- I don't remember how much but it was probably -- $30.  I coveted those sweaters because it was all I could afford to do. They were breathtaking  examples of bead encrusted knit wear.  Some were glittering dragons draped across a cardigan's shoulders.  Others were complex splashes of flowers, or leaves or butterflies.  

They were out of my reach financially then and now they require more skill and patience than I have for one piece.  But this year I learned how to add seed beads to my knitting and though you can't really see from this picture, they sparkle.  That makes the 12 year old inside me very very happy.

Intarsia anyone?  Non-wrapped short-rows? 

Intarsia and short-rows require concentration and so in the past, have totally pissed me off.  This year, instead of trying to master both techniques while knitting a cover for the Pennsylvania Turnpike, I tackled them while making caps.  And the upshot is I learned how to draw an intarsia grid and write a pattern.  I also turned out some fun skull caps and baby bonnets.
 
I also played a little with dying yarn this year and discovered that adding Navy to Violet doesn't make a dark purple.  It makes a dark and muddy Periwinkle.  And because of that, I finally ordered myself a quick DVD course on Color theory. 

While learning intarsia and how to design a cap, I also started using the sculptural qualities of crochet to add a bit more.  The crocheted leaves on the end of the chain stitch draw string take this little baby's Halloween cap one step closer to the Pumpkin Patch.  I'm going to be incorporating more crochet motifs in my knitted and woven pieces.


And speaking of sculpture, I pulled my felting needles out of their box and made myself a lovely pair of Catrina inspired Dia De Los Muertos earrings.  I discovered that I can see a skull in my minds eye, but really don't have the skill to compress one out of a handful of fiber -- yet.  I can, Bwahahaha, make pretty good eyes though.  I'll be adding eyes to this hat, whenever the urge to make little felted balls overtakes me.  So yes, I'm hoping to finally get started on my Wisconsin Brownies mini-terrariums next year ... but I'm going to need a lot of practice to hone my needle-felting skills.  Eyeballs and skulls are what I'll be practicing on.  Hopefully, by next Halloween I will have a hat so terrifying that I won't be required to wear a costume.

I won't bother you here with the lace charts and the cabled snakes.  Those will be pieces for January, but I'd like to leave you with Embroidered Berets -- which you will also be seeing a lot of next year.  I first started embroidering Second Hand Shop Berets because they were stained. I picked them up for a dollar or two and then used embroidery floss to cover the stained felt in iridescent stitches.  One had an ouroboros twisting around the brim, another favorite beret had a collection of flower bouquets.   Over the years I've given them away and I miss them.

Next year instead of floss on felt I'll be using the techniques I learned on my un-felted hand knitted Berets using hand spun yarns.  It should be fun.

It Only Takes One ...

Recently I had someone misinterpret that little catch phrase of mine ... "It Only Takes One."

So while laying out my outfit for work today, I decided to share my Halloween costume with you all as well as the meaning behind the phrase.  It has nothing to do with Ayn Rand, Keynesian Economics, Religion, or the power of a single person who is willing to stand up against an evil law, corporation or tank.  

None of those things.

It's about what happened to that prodigal sock.  You have the mate to it in your sock drawer because you keep hoping against hope that you'll find that missing sock one day. You probably even remember the day that one sock went missing.

Well, I'm here to tell you that "It [the Laundry Sock Monster] Only Takes One."  It does that just to let you know that it is there.  It does that just to let you know that it can ....

EAT

YOUR

SOCKS ..... Mwahahahaahahahahaha!!!!!

So there.  Something new for you to worry about when you're trying to go to sleep tonight.  

Happy Halloween.

Synchronicity

Everyone Needs a Pocket Monkey

I just got an email from the Knit and Crochet Now TV show and was following a link for knooking (a knit and crochet technique I still don't understand) when I came across their Facebook page and a picture of a teensey sock monkey and a disclaimer that they didn't have the pattern.  Theirs is cute and the proportions are better than mine ... but here's my version:

It occurred to me that it should be fairly easy to knit a tiny Sock Monkey, and if you have metal double points, it is. I chose size 2 metal double points and Red Heart worsted weight acrylic for this pattern, so you can already see that the knitting has tough work in it. But the monkey is so tiny ... not much bigger than a standard business card ... that it's quick to finish.  [You may want to choose something like Red Heart Soft or a DK weight yarn for this just to make it easier on your hands.  The arms and legs will not be as stiff, but that can be a good thing.]


Cheeky Monkey Pattern -- 4 to 5 Dbl. Point Knitting needles and 2 different colors of yarn.

For the legs, using double pointed needles cast on 3 stitches in white and in first row, increase one in the center stitch so that you have 4 stitches on the needle. Knit I-cord with white for about 1/2", change to brown and continue until I-cord is 2" long. Leaving your first leg on one needle, give yourself about 3" of yarn to use to sew up the crotch later, and cut the yarn. Make another leg. TIP: I used a Russian join to join the white to the brown so I wouldn't have any ends to secure later, so their little feet don't match exactly, but what the hell.

When you've finished the second leg, don't cut yarn. Cast on 2 stitches for crotch, then knit across first leg, and cast on 2 more stitches for butt. You're going to start knitting the body in the round now, so space your stitches on three needles and then join up to leg one.

(If you have 5 needles in the same size you can add the tail and arms as you knit, otherwise just get some safety pins handy to use as stitch holders.)

Knit your 12 stitch tube for 3 rounds. On the butt side, using a safety pin set aside 2 stitches for the tail, and cast on 2 stitches to replace. Continue knitting in the round for 1 inch. Then on the left and right side, directly above the legs, set aside 2 stitches each for the left and right arm, casting on 2 stitches to replace them.

Continue knitting the tube for 3 more rounds.

Reposition your stitches so that the 6 front stitches are on one needle and join the white. At this point you knit a short row mouth.

Short Row Mouth:

Knit 6 stitches white, turn
Slip 1st stitch, purl 4, turn
Knit 5 stitches
Purl 6 stitches

Rejoin brown.

Stop at this point to lash down your mouth white yarn ends on the inside of the monkey's face. You don't have to be fussy. No one's going to see it.  

Knit in brown for 3 more rounds.

Before closing up the top of his little head you'll want to add the French knot eyes, ears and mouth. For the eyes, I whip stitch attached the white to the inside of his head then did one 3 wrap French knot for each eye, then ran the rest of the white through the backside of a couple of stitches to hold it. For the ears, I did 7-10 wrap French knots on either side of the mouth. The red of the mouth is just some red yarn in a lining stitch across the center of the white.

Stuff all your yarn ends into his head.

Closing his head: knit 2 together around. 6 stitches remaining. 3 needle or Kitchener stitch bind off.

For the arms and tail, leaving a 2 or 3 inch tail of yarn, pick up the 2 stitches you set aside on a safety pin. Knit 1, Make 1, Knit 1.

Arms: work brown idiot cord for 1", change to white and work cord another 1/2", bind off.
Tail: work brown idiot cord for 2" in brown and bind off.

When done, use the yarn tails on the arms and tail to close up any gaps and firmly attach the arms and tail to the body. Since you're doing some serious whipping here, you can get away with leaving the tails loose on the inside of the monkey's body.

Stuff 3-4 cotton balls into the monkey and sew up his crotch with the 2" of yarn you left on leg one.

Modifications:  I have ideas about putting a cap on this fellow and ways to control the size of the color changes on the four hands so that they are uniform.  If you'd like to see them here, let me know.

Idiotic Things

I mentioned to my friend Sandy that the biggest project I'm working on right now is a Prohibition Shawl modification.  She's been talking about knitting armor for a production her play company is putting on next year. (Which impresses me immensely.)  I told her the shawl wasn't much more than an Idiot Washrag expanded and she drew a blank.  She had never knit one.  Though she had friends who have done that she didn't see the need.

Personally, I find these washcloths to be the epitome of luxury.  When they are hung to dry they are as rough as any loofah -- which unfortunately doesn't translate to the shower. When flopping around in a tub full of hot water they are silky suds manufacturers. 

But more important than a daily brush with necessary excess is the concept of knitting on the bias and what you can do with that. First a link to the Blog I use most often to remind myself how to knit an Idiots Washcloth.

On Susie's Knitting

In the washrag pattern she supplies, you increase at the beginning of each row until you get to a certain width, and then you decrease each row until you get to the right number of stitches to bind off.  Washrags usually expand to a little less than 50 stitches before beginning the decrease back down to 4 stitches.  I've seen Baby Binkys that use the same design and take the number of stitches up to that number needed to wrap a newborn. It would work as well for afghans or any other large warm square thing -- including a poncho.

It occurred to me, some time ago, that once the width of a piece was reached, it would be possible to continue knitting on the bias to create a rectangle by balancing a decrease on one side with an increase on the other.  Here is an example of three uses for the increase/decrease.  

In no way am I unique in this discovery.  I've seen large shawls, small scarves, headbands and terrifying mittens made this way.  It's an AHA! moment for any knitter who masters the idiot washcloth and I am, perhaps, breaking a rule in mentioning it.  Perhaps this is an AHA! that every knitter should discover on her own. Kind of like the "never knit a boyfriend a sweater unless you WANT him to leave," rule.

:::come on, say it with me sotto voce::: The Sweater Curse.

Perhaps I should keep my trap shut and instead urge my friends to knit washcloths as housewarming presents and keep on insisting, no matter how much the new knitter protests that the cloths are goofy, gross, old-ladyish and truly stupid presents.  You know, so they can get to the AHA! on their own.

But then you have people giving away patterns of Idiot modifications, so keeping my trap shut actually verges on self-gratifying mock-aesthetics and misplaced hyperaltruism.  If you are AHA-prone, you'll have one.  If not, let's cut to the chase.

The Prohibition Shawl is an example of using the increase/decrease on one side only:  Increase only for the left front wing, an increase/decrease option for the back and decrease only for the right front wing.  

From a design point of view, anytime you want the speed and warmth of garter stitch paired with the stabilizing effect of knitting on the bias while leaving eyelets at the edges, the Idiot pattern works.  

On the left, I have a sampler of kitchen things in orange and red cotton craft yarn.  The left towel is a combination of mitered square ends connected with knit and purl texture.  The kitchen rug is an experiment in mock-window pane weaving on a rigid heddle loom. The towel on the right is the idiot towel from the previous picture and as far as I'm concened it wins the hangability contest.  Because it's knit on the bias, it doesn't stretch out of shape while hanging. Since it's knit in cotton craft yarn, it also doesn't absorb anything, but that's what the ugly towels in the drawer are for, right?

Finding a Style

I took a needle-felting class over a year ago and was taught how to make sheep -- standing and lying down -- because a. The class was given at the WS&WF and b. Xmas is perpetually 'right around the corner.' There must be a creche somewhere without a purchased ovine totem and I have the needles and wool to correct that deficiency.  

It's taken over a year but the idea of needle-felting something fun has been bubbling away in the dark recesses of my mind and I've finally unleashed that unholy desire.

My first attempt at needle-felted Day-of-the-Dead Catrina earrings was successful in that the eye-pins are the right length, and the sterling ear wires are easy to manipulate.  I have plenty of wool that is just this side of unspinnable and plenty of bits and pieces of spun and unspun materials. My ideas on hair styling work very well and I'm pleased with the little buns and soon (hopefully) Pompadours.  The one thing I don't have is a style. 

In cruising the Internet for inspiration, I ran across a critique of a painting of a Day of the Dead celebrant with Catrina-like make-up.  The critic blasted the artist by assuming he/she was attempting to make some sort of statement with half-baked zombie imagery.  The critic made much of the 'sewn lips' and the 'racoon eyes.'  It's a good thing several passers by left comments correcting the critic's under-educated assumptions, otherwise my google search for "Catrina" wouldn't have pulled it up.  It's also good because that's the main problem with my first earrings.  They look more like shrunken heads than Catrinas, which is okay of course, but not what I was trying for here.

I started with a different size and shape of wool blob for the second set of earrings.  I also started with an idea that Frida Kahlo deserves more than just standing on the sidelines while Catrina has all the fun.  The Braid Experiment was a success as was the use of dark gray alpaca for the eyes, nose and limited success with tooth definition.  I just don't like the skull shape.  And I hated the Kahlo uni-brow so much I pulled it off.  I'll use her hair styles but she gets to keep her signature facial hair.  

The second set are fun but I'm still not happy with the shape of the skull.  While there are plenty of people who are horse-faced and plenty of Catrina images that represent that homely caucasian bone structure.  I'm looking for the apple-head shape.  

I think.

Starting with cylinders isn't the way to go then.

Which didn't stop me from trying it again, at least to get a better handle on the tooth construction.  The third set of earrings will be more abstract in construction as far as shape is concerned.  I will be using more of the Catrina type paraphernalia to accessorize them as well.

I can see that there will be many permutations of these earrings as I work towards the style I want to use for each type: Catrina; Zombie;Shrunken Head.  I know there are enough people who are going to want these earrings all year long and so there will be no reason to force their construction into the two-months before Halloween.

The single most important thing about these earrings is the weight.  I love big earrings but they can be painful and disfiguring if they are heavy, and they usually are -- very.  My felted earrings are so light that they don't tip over this empty plastic cup.

 More Halloween later ....

I Wish I Had a Thousand Words

The two barns given over to the sale of all things woolly at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival remind me a lot of the Dealer's Room at a Science Fiction Convention.  You have to walk very slowly to avoid missing anything and breath very shallowly to avoid hyperventilating and refuse to spend a dime the first and second time you walk that path of fiscal destruction.  This mohair was beautiful hanging and swaying in the warm September breeze that blew through the wide barn doors.

You have to remember, it's not just one barn that is half a city block long with two aisles all jam packed with dealers of spinning wheels, fiber, knitting and felting needles, books, fiber, hand dyed felt, silk, hand-spun yarn, roving and fiber, looms, spindles, and patterns for knitting, crochet, tatting, spinning, dyeing, weaving and felting.  It's that there are two barns full.  They should just supply brown paper hyperventilation bags and drool cups at the door.

Demonstration pieces like this lace cape and gorgeous cardigan that show precisely what kinds of exquisite clothing you could make if you had the time AND the patience using this purveyor's hand spun and that dealer's dye -- these examples hang everywhere. 


 
I never thought seriously about learning how to double knit until I saw this scarf.  Like some of Barbara Walker's knit stitches it appears that double knitting like summer-and-winter weaving does spectacular things with hand dyed variegated yarn.  That scarf on the left is a single piece, flipped so you can see both sides.  The crocheted shawl to the right displays yet another way to use variegated yarn (on sale at that booth) to best effect.  FYI, I couldn't dye a yarn like this.  It would require a dyeing table about half as long as the barn, meticulous attention to detail and impeccable skill in applying just the right amount of dye in just the right amount of wool. 

And there are inventors there too.  Here is Nels Wiberg, inventor of my favorite spinning wheel the PVC Babe. On the table before him from left to right are: teaching drop-spindles, his Little Spider Charkha Wheel which sits behind 1, 1.5 and 2 yard niddy-noddys lying next to plying bobbins which are in front of the Pinkie spinning wheel which stands behind a box of odd bobbins.

Then there's Nels writing up my receipt for a single 1 yard niddy-noddy.


Behind him there are the fliers and bobbins and maidens he has built from Patio Furniture Pipe so that I can afford to spin.  And behind that, more dealers.


And that is it for pictures from the 2011 Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival.  There are more, of course, but I won't be taunting you with them.  You'll just have to go and see for yourself next year.


Next week.  Halloween is coming ... oooOOOOoeeeeeEEEEeeoooooOOOOoo.

A Brave New Pattern

Born to Rock

I need Beta testers for my Halloween cap patterns.  I've knitted about 20 of these Li'l Punk Skull Caps and have settled on a pattern that makes them one-size-fits-all-babies.


The problem is I automatically adjust patterns written by other people to suit myself as I'm knitting.  I'm afraid that I may have done that unconsciously while following my own pattern.  


If you would like a free copy, or have a knitting friend who would like a free copy of the pattern in exchange for a critique, let me know.  I'm going to be charging around $5 for these patterns online, so it would be a more than suitable 'just because' present for someone you know who finds fault in table salt and is vocal about it.


Thank You!

Friend. Good.

Was there ever a more poignant movie scene about new friendship than the one between Peter Boyle and Gene Hackman in "Young Frankenstein?"  Probably.  But those other scenes manipulate kittens, flowers and butterflies, crying children, puppies and rainbows and so don't elicit the same tender feelings from me.

It's always great to be encouraged by a friend when you're learning something new.  It doesn't matter whether they are a new friend or someone you've been talking to for years.  Outside input and encouragement makes a difference.

The Mistress of Shadowmanor is one of those cool friends who knows how to make Bridge Mix out of garlic cloves and common crickets and sews her children's Halloween costumes.  If you don't already know about her blog, you should.

The delightful thing about her is -- well one of the things -- is that she's much more conscientious about the job of blogging than most and she will find something interesting for you to mull over almost every day.  Her encouragement and pointing me to tutorials that were actually helpful is directly responsible for the felted eyeball pictures today.

Jumping from present to past, I have pictures of sheep left over from the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival that I haven't posted because I've not had the time to study all the breeds of sheep.

I'm already familiar with the Jacob, though, and this fellow was one of the friendliest rams I've ever met.  He made me question the rumor that Jacob Sheep are mean, tempermental spawn from hell and only suitable for clearing brush and weeds in unpopulated areas. One of the handlers said that Jacobs have personalities and so frighten farmers accustomed to dealing with walking slabs of meat.

I don't need to crack any books on this particular breed. I first learned about Jacob sheep with their 4 to 6 horns (on both male and female) and spotted fleeces not long after I started spinning.  I had been buying roving and top from dealers on Ebay and decided to take the next step with a whole fleece.

I dealt with some pretty dirty and nasty things that arrived in the mail.  One fleece hadn't been skirted at all and was full of dung tags and another -- a merino fleece -- required three washings before it was clean enough to spin.  But of all the fleeces, I would buy a Jacob again in a heartbeat.  If it is well skirted (the four arm-pit areas, the neck, belly and the briches area should be removed) it washes easily and dries quickly and on a sunny day you can have fiber to spin by nightfall.

The white wool has some long guard hairs, but they're obvious and easy to pull out when carding or combing.  The hard-wearing white wool is lusterous and long with a wave and reminds me of a shorter, softer Mohair.  It makes excellent worsted and I have warped a rigid-heddle loom using only single-ply white jacob.  The brown and black wools are spongey, dense and soft, and perfect for spinning woolen.

Loading a hand card with light on one side and dark on the other  makes it possible to spin a variegated yarn that takes dye well and produces a lusterous intense single. While I wouldn't want to wear the white close to delicate skin and the dark isn't merino, the wool is still wearable as hats and mittens and maybe even socks.  (Oh look what I just did.  Now a Jacob Sock Experiment is going to haunt me until I buy a fleece.  :::sigh:::)

Jacob fleeces are pricey because they are easy to clean, a joy to spin and create variegated yarns that dye very well. They are worth every penny.

Schrödinger's Toilet Paper

I'm sure that everyone reading this blog is completely familiar and comfortable with Erwin Schrödinger's Verschränkung that involves a box, a cat, and a random number machine.You can follow the link for a refresher here on quantum mechanics and who was arguing about it when, or take my quicky explanation which is -- a lot of things (on the quantum level) don't actually happen until you see them happen.

What does that have to do with knitting? Well, I'll tell you.  

I would very much like to learn how to make my own 'porcelain' dolls eyes for my Halloween Shoggoth Hat and that is because most truly eerie and chilling eyes cost $9.00 a pair.

 

Nine bucks a pair would be prohibitive for a Shoggoth anything, and a chocking hazard to boot, but frankly right now I don't have the time to learn a new craft for one piece. I've compromised my horrific artistic sensibilities and have substituted glow-in-the-dark yarn for the whites of the eyes on the Toddler version.

While visiting friends this weekend, the three of us were watching the news. I was working on my hats when a commercial featuring an abrasive woman's voice chastised a man for leaving a "naked" roll of toilet paper sitting on the water closet.  A can to house the TP was touted as the "solution" to the "problem." 


My friends, who are world travelers and members of the intelligencia have used bathrooms belonging to friends, relatives, lovers and complete strangers and so have had the opportunity to be confronted by the doll-in-a-hoop-skirt toilet paper cover.  They asked me why any sane person would crochet something like that and I said I'd already decided it was because some people just can't stop knitting/crocheting -- or perhaps they had traumatic potty-training issues and can't pee unless someone is watching.


And so, they gently suggested that my Li'l Shoggoth hat would make a perfect TP cover.  Ahem.  Well!  Okay.  They're right. It would also (with some minor alteration to the pattern) make a superb tea cozy.  And dammit ... it will be one.

I CAN stop knitting anytime I want to stop.  But they've already started putting Xmas decorations up in the stores so it would be a bad idea to quit right now.

I'll be taking pictures with an infant model later in the week.  Until then ...

Wool Gathering

I imagine that the telepathic message the border collie was sending the sheep went something like, "I eat you, you don't move, you stupid, omnomnom,"  or "I am wolf in bunny clothing, hurry to safety of blond lady."  This dog got a lot of applause.  Not all dogs can move so many sheep at such a distance so adroitly.
 
The image is deceptive though.  I "photo shopped" it.  Well, truthfully I used my much cheaper and easier to use program, Paint Shop Pro so it's not technically photo shopped, but then that border collie on the left isn't technically that close to the sheep.  With your mind's eye, double the width of the picture and put the Border Collie on the far left edge.  Yep, that dog was a good 50 to 100 yards away from the sheep while willing them into the pen.  

The dog's blond handler on the right of the picture also technically has a face, but I didn't technically ask her if I could use this picture on my blog so I smudged her at the same time that I moved the dog closer to the sheep.  No offense lady, just protecting your privacy.  You have a genius dog though.

I took a few pictures at the Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival, but I won't be posting them all today.  Some will be going up over the next couple of weeks, others will pop up when you least expect them.

I'm bummed.  I didn't get to take a class I really wanted to take.  It was cancelled day before yesterday. I was so looking forward to meeting Jacey Boggs and learning her technique on slub and coils that I took a whole day off work. Anyone who knows me understands that I only take off a whole day's work for amputations and/or oral surgery.  

BUT, I did get great roving and a new and necessary tool.  So I'm not TOTALLY bummed. 

I've been wanting a smaller niddy-noddy for taking off novelty and art yarns as I make them.  Nels Wiberg, inventor of my favorite spinning wheel, makes a little one-yard niddy-noddy out of PVC and it's less than $10.  I also picked up two large balls of dark brown jacob roving for $4 each, and a 1.5 oz. ball of Cormo Sheep's Wool blended with Angora Bunny.  

Prairie Moonrise Farm out of Minnesota had Bunny Fur for sale at $6 an ounce and they had it in those clear plastic take-away containers ... the kind that hold a full sized meal.  You know the size I mean, the size that is contributing to the obesity of this nation?  That size.  

I'm hoping they start selling it on the internet soon because I keep stopping and getting up  from the computer to go over and touch the roving.  Wool from a sheep whose daddy was a corridale and whose mama was merino all carded up with fluffy bunny.   It's something.

 $6 an ounce may sound expensive, but there is a LOT bunny fluff in an ounce.  

Finally, I ran into one of the owners of Argyle Fiber Mill.  I've been wanting to visit them for some time because they're an honest to goodness fiber mill in South Central Wisconsin that processes local wool.  50 Mile Fiber is what they call it.  They also hold what sounds like absolutely hilarious and fun knitting get-togethers at their mill.   Who knows ... maybe they'll let me take pictures.  

I'll be posting again later in the week as I finalize some designs I've been working on for the Drooling Crumb-Crusher Line of Halloween Haute Couture.  I have a model lined up for the "Punk" and "Li'l Punk N Head" Halloween hats but the "Li'L Shoggoth" hat is giving me problems.  Making a three dimensional static representation of ... a terrible, indescribable thing vaster than any subway train—a shapeless congeries of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and un-forming as pustules of greenish light all over the tunnel-filling front that bore down upon us ... particularly one that people might actually buy to put on their 6-month-old's head, has proved to be challenging.  

How's that for a convoluted Lovecraftian sentence married to an gross understatement?  Until later this week ...

What Regretsy Taught Me - Ask for Feedback

Beaded Little Leaf Lace in Sage

I just got through listing several berets and neck laces on Etsy and it seems like that was a lot more work than actually making the things.   I decided to NOT use the word steampunk as a keyword, style, description or any other thing, anywhere on my listings because

a. Nothing has clock parts knitted into it and
b.  I know better than to call something Steampunk, particularly if it actually IS steampunk. 

I did use the tags of Edwardian, Victorian and Goth for my neck laces.  So I'm asking for feedback on that.  If you believe that I've misused the descriptive words Edwardian, Victorian or Goth anywhere in my Etsy shop, please let me know.

While I was posting the berets I've been making, though, it occurred to me that I can offer something I've not seen elsewhere.  After knitting a couple of berets using hand spun it occurred to me that I couldn't possibly charge $200 for a beret -- so I shouldn't be using hand-spun exclusively when I knit my designs.  

I should concentrate my spinning time on novelty/art yarns and use them to enhance berets that had been knitted primarily in commercial yarn.  And that is what I've done.  Though one or two of the berets are completely hand spun, most start with a base of Lion's Fisherman's yarn and go from there.

Thick N Thin with Flags Novelty

It was just a small jump from that to the idea of offering berets with extra novelty yarn so that customers could knit their own matching scarf (with suggestions on how to use the novelty yarn to best effect -- or not.)

The beret here, for instance, is primarily White Fisherman's wool with a couple of different novelty yarns.  Hems of novelty on both ends of a garter stitch scarf would be easy to do, and when the customer is finished they could say "Hey, I knit this scarf just for you!  And here's a hat too!"  ... but is that too odd?
 

Next Lace -- Neck Lace

I checked a few online dictionaries and not only is the word pronounced neck-less, no where in the definition is LACE mentioned at all.  I suppose it was irrational of me to hope for a detailed etymology of the word online and I'm starting to wonder if the internet is the best thing for absolutely everything -- like as a replacement for a trusty unabridged to get that wordophile fix.  True it's English and obvious right now, but the closest most online definitions come to the actual individual words in the necklace portmanteau is the probable date of the word's creation -- 1590. Elizabethan, of course. 

If you google "neck ruff," you will find pages like this Elizabethan Ruff tutorial or truly delightful items for sale that you could only wear on Halloween or to a Society for Creative Anachronisms get-together.  With many of the more expensive Ruffs tipped in extravagant (machine knit/sewn) lace you can see where the word actually came from.  Most lace "edging" patterns I've seen have a handy row of eyelets written into the pattern.  I'd always thought them ugly, and they are, but they are also perfect for sewing the lace to the edge of a ruff or threading a ribbon or gold chain through to make a Neck Lace.

I don't want to buck any sumptuary laws so I'm going to keep it simple -- which isn't actually all that simple. Once I translated the written lace pattern to a grid there are only four pattern rows. Unfortunately, the pattern rows are all distinct strands of stitches and holes.  It's not something that can be easily knit like the perennial shetland lace favorite, Feather and Fan.  My first set of Necklaces will be of little leaves and here's a completed piece, with gold seed bead accents.  

I am working on a version using larger needles and higher grist yarn in a different color for a choker that will be attached to itself with seed bead buttons.  I also picked up some #10 cotton thread and #1 needles to take another crack at that elusive Kali Choker as well.  And I'm still on a treasure hunt for online sources of lace inserts and edgings that lend themselves to this type of ornament.

The beret knitting frenzy has not stopped either.  It's just slowed a bit as I spin some yarn for 'variegated windows' and rolled novelty brims.  I'll be adding several new berets to the Etsy store and will preview them here for you first.  Next Week. 

Lacey

As promised I've created a PDF file with the extremely basic plain watchband pattern and a more complex lace wristlet complete with a lace graph.  You can get  Free Prodigal Sock Patterns by clicking here or by going to the Prodigal Sock website at 

http://www.prodigalsock.com  

You'll also find a pattern for my "Yellow Wheat Sonja Van Gogh Ear Warmer" pattern that uses any bulky size yarn.  And no, it is not sized for one ear although you could wear it like Sonja Henie would have, while ice skating.

In the next couple of weeks, I hope to have the navigation fixed on the Prodigal Sock website so that you can get anywhere from anywhere ... so remember, until then use your back-button early and often.

A Sudden Fascination

I've developed a sudden fascination for patterns which depend on proportion, actual measurements of the person for whom the item will be made, the gauge of the yarn being knitted up on the favorite needles and the room to improvise.    I found a perfect Beret pattern online and you can check it out at  Beret Recipe - A Kirsten Kapur Design.  I have been so delighted with its versatility that I've been knocking them out these past few weeks.  Here is one for which I specifically spun yarn.  

The two-ply used to make the body was lightly spun english long draw.  Then that yarn was dyed with un-spun roving which I used to make the thickNthin two-ply for the brim.  It's just been through the washer and is now drying on a plate.

Here is a detail of the yarn texture so you can see how the mild variation of the body yarn, knitted stockinette, works with the greater variation in the brim yarn which is purled for bumpy effect.  

In addition, on this beret, I've knitted in ribbon holes around the bottom of the brim because there is no ribbing to adjust the size.


I'll be running some gold ribbon through that later, and I can see that this version of the beret will be excellent for dour colored men's berets of the Scottish military variety.

For the most part, though, I've realized that it is far more time and cost effective for me to use commercially prepared 100% wool for the body of these berets and  save my hand spun for detailing, like the brim above and this slip-stitch detail to the right.

The  dark brown is Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool and you can see the glossy sheen of the lanolin they leave in this yarn.  The orange-yellow-red is the last of the roving I space dyed in a roasting pan with Scarlet and Sunshine Yellow Jacquard Acid Dye and then spun worsted and Navajo Plied. 

I found this slip-stitch pattern from my copy of Homespun And Handknit which is so old and used that I've had to put it in a 3-ring binder via plastic page protectors.  I believe this slip-stitch pattern was first documented by Barbara Walker in her knitting stitch treasury as a "honeycomb" type stitch.  When off the mannequin the colored squares do recede.

With the rest of the Dark Brown I'm knitting up matching fingerless mittens that I will be adding a small picot edging to at knuckles and thumb using the last of the Navajo Ply. I'll be offering them as a set on Etsy.  And where did I get the Hobo Glove pattern? The web of course.  I like to have my thumb knuckles covered so it was necessary for me to find a good generic pattern for mittens and I did with the Forepaw Socks  pattern designed by Judy Gibson.  Who, I might ask, with monkey toes can possibly resist a pattern called Forepaw Socks?  They WILL fit me and any other medium pawed woman.

I feel as though I'm finally armed with a great pair of patterns that provide a decent canvas on which to display novelty and art yarns in the future.   Next post will be of my simple patterns on wrist watch bands, sometime next week.

She's Gone MAD, I tell you, MAD!!!

I just threw caution to the wind and registered for a spinning class with Jacey Boggs at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival next month.

Caution to the wind?  Yes, I work every Sunday so actually asking for a Sunday off during this recession is as close to "Oh MY God SHES Jumping OUT of the AIRPLANE!" as I can get and I'm extremely uncomfortable about it right now. And a Sunday off to do what?  Spin Thick and Thin yarn and then COIL IT?  Jeez!  Talk about crazy.

But seriously, I gotta go to the Sheep and Wool Festival for the smell of sheep and dogs and people as obsessed with fiber as I am.  I need to find sheep dairies in driving distance so that I can pick up Pecorino Romano and Feta when I MUST HAVE IT. I must see the latest in this, that and the other. And I must take a spinning class.

I'm spinning some thickNthin right now for use as an accent on a hand-spun, hand-dyed, hand-knit beret.  And I'm feeling insecure about it because I don't know if what I've learned from reading books is really enough for this.

Insecure in my work insecure in my crafts or insecure in my arts.  Which is the most tolerable ache?

None of the above.

Utilitarian Watch Band

And following up on my previous post about a different itch I wish to stop scratching, here is a utilitarian watch band, which I whomped up and I will be happy to share the pattern if anyone is interested.

That's it for today though perhaps not for the week.  Later!