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!

A Stitch in Time

My wrist broke out last week, AGAIN, from a watch band.

I had assumed that since I'd worn the watch for some time without incident that it was okay, but then I hadn't been sweating then. Now it is summer and something about my sweat eats away at any plating or other barrier between my skin and nickel iron. Once that plating is gone I develop a rash of small oozing pustules that look a great deal like poison ivy. Though I've not told the Dentist this, this is why there will be no partial dentures, or implants or hip/joint replacements for that matter.

I've had ear lobes puff up to twice their size from "surgical steel" posts on pierced earrings. If it's not 14 carat gold or sterling silver, I can't wear it without repercussions in the form of weeping open sores.

So, I finally decided to stop looking for those great $5 plastic watches from Walgreens and am making my own watch bands.

This is the product of a day and a half of searching for a good lace insert pattern, turning it into a color coded graph (which you'll find below), starting to knit it three times and pulling it out twice. I used size two needles and some J&P Coats "Luster Sheen" acrylic cabled yarn which would normally be used for a crocheted Shell blouse or doily or perhaps a filet crochet curtain. I found the $2.50 ball at Goodwill for 49 cents. That price is perfect for experimentation, and that is what I was doing.



I'll probably be adding my Lace Graphs as free downloads to the Prodigal Sock site ... let me know if you'd be interested.

This particular lace wristlet, while lovely, is too time consumptive for sale, so tonight at work I'm going to be whipping out some 6 stitch wide garter-stitch bands that I'll be adding crochet edging to them later to make them saleable. Garter-stitch because I can do it without looking and it gives my hands something to do while my eyes are working for a living.

This is all just biding time, of course, while the yarn and roving that I dyed scarlet dries. I'm hoping that tonight I can spin some scarlet and gold thick-and-thin and then tomorrow I can start a new top down Beret. I am so excited by the look of one I knitted for my niece for her birthday that I can't wait to start putting these on Etsy. And now, this isn't a picture of the one I made for the niece. This is a beret pattern that is gorgeous but is more work than I care to spend on something I'd sell because I simply cannot charge what it costs me to make.

More Experiments

A while back I wanted to show a friend a strange phenomena I had noticed while spinning.

In each creative step, as the artist applies more constraints to the materials being fashioned into art, the natural beauty of the material is diminished. I believe it is diminished because with each manipulation the number of possible potential uses for the material is diminished. I think that humans can see potential and that is part of what they consider beauty.

First I showed her some raw wool that had only been washed, then roving that had been industrially prepared for spinning in a mill, then the roving that was space dyed in a roaster pan (and it was still breathtakingly beautiful). Then the yarn which is pretty darn special and now the beret. And the beret is something. Well, she liked the beret best of all ... so much for my theory.

I've also started using more than two needlework techniques at a time on a piece. Usually I just crochet and perhaps sew to finish, or knit and perhaps sew to finish. In this case, though, I've spun some white and some green yarn. I knitted a ribbing and then extended that into 5 repetitions of Double Leaf Lace and bound off so that the zigzag of the lace is retained. I then used the green yarn to crochet a small leaf, attach it to a point, single crochet down on zig and up one zag ... then single crochet the zig and zag together.

While I like the five points at the top of the hat and believe that I'll be using the crocheted leaf motif in other ways in the future, I've decided this combination of circular and Lace knitting is best presented in a single color (or a subtly variegated yarn that is created by hand). In this way, the lace and the hair beneath it are the true stars ... and that's what it's all about isn't it?

Enhance the person who wears the piece ... because the piece is at the end of it's potential and the human that wears it is always in the process of self-creation, has limitless potential and so is the beauty to be framed.