I've gotten some more questions about wiseNeedle and the yarn review collection, so I'll take some space here to clarify what it's all about.

What we are and aren't

The on-line yarn review collection hosted elsewhere on this site is the latest manifestation of a project I've kept going since 1994/1995. Back in the early days of the KnitList mailing list, (when there were fewer than 250 members) yarns would come up for discussion. Opinions and gauges achieved would be shared. Then a couple of weeks later the whole thread would be repeated because someone had another question or a new person had joined with similar questions. So I began asking people to "donate" their comments to a central list to preserve valuable info and cut down on repetition.

My list started out as a text file that we shared round-robin. In 1995 I posted that content on my first web site, in the form of one and later a series of interconnected static web pages. It grew to the point of unmanageability. The Resident Male saw a challenge, and volunteered to build the necessary infrastructure to make the thing into a fully searchable database with a web front end open for (vetted) public contribution. So in 2000 we did.

Since then the yarn review collection has grown to include basic data for over 5225 yarns, the names of over 490 yarn makers, and to contain over 2875 individual reviews from over 2000 knitters, worldwide. We have info on both current and discontinued yarns (very useful if you have an older pattern or yarn you wish to find substitutes for) as well as products off the beaten track or only regionally available. Aside from my looking over reviews to make sure they're attached to the intended product, that products are not duplicated without need, and that comments are not blatant planted ads or spam/graffiti, there's no censorship or editing of anything posted.

And it's just me (plus The Resident Male as resident technical wizard). There's no other staff here, nor is there a group of captive volunteers assigning yarns to be reviewed or performing assessments. I'm afraid that we can't respond to requests to see reviews posted for specific products. We have to sit and wait for someone who has used a yarn to post a review.

We have absolutely no involvement with yarn makers, sellers, or distributors and do not rely on them for subsidies or placement income. Nor do we accept samples or other marketing-related inducements. Therefore you are not going to see breathless endorsements of whatever the latest fad is, posted prior to a yarn's wide availability. Nor do we remove negative reviews because we fear a loss of relationship with a sponsoring vendor or diminution of click-through or ad revenue from retailers who are paying for the privilege of appearing on our pages (all ads that you do see are blind-placed through Google or Burst services. Income goes to defray the cost of maintaining the site without charging user fees).

What you are going to see are honest opinions both negative and positive from knitters of all levels of experience from beginner to advanced. For widely used yarns, you'll see reports of many different projects, knitted at a variety of gauges. Some will have follow-ups that report on washing or durability problems that crop up long after the actual knitting was done. And you'll find differences of opinion, with some people loving a yarn for particular properties, and others detesting it for those same (or different) reasons.

So it all adds up to this. If you find an independent, central repository of this kind of info to be of any value - one which retains info long after a yarn is discontinued, is independent and impartial, and provides the forum for everyone to voice an opinion - please consider adding a review for the yarn on your needles right now to our collection. Just because someone has reviewed it before doesn't make your experience less valuable. Your knitting experience, your project, your gauge, your care/durability experience may either confirm and strengthen group consensus about that product, or may provide a valuable point of difference. In all cases, your opinions are most welcome here.

How to post a review

The easiest way to enter a review is to look up the yarn on the search page, then add your notes to its basic info page. With as many entries as we have, unless your yarn is very old, a small run product, or very new this season it's likely that it's in there. Like all databases, you need only enter the minimum info to call up an entry - usually just the first few letters of the yarn's name, then hit search. That will bring up a list of similar entries. Click on the one you want, then on the "review this yarn" link on that basic info page.

If your yarn isn't found, there's a handy page on which you can add both basic data and your opinion at the same time. (If your entry duplicates data for something we already have but that you weren't able to find easily, and I can't confirm that it's the same I may eMail you to ask if your product is in fact something new). And there's a page to enter basic data for yarns without adding comments, even if you're not ready to post an opinion yet.

So please consider posting an entry to the wiseNeedle yarn review collection. I can guarantee you that somewhere in the world another knitter will be grateful for your help.

Technorati : knitting

Special thanks to Judith and Emily who offered up valuable advice on the curtain project. I am still hoping to do this is some sort of economical manner, by achieving two side-by-side panels out of my fabric width, but I will heed their wisdom and maximize the width of my panels.

Although I really like the linens at the vendor I contacted, I might have to see if I can find something wider elsewhere because I don't want to either seam or end up with gobs and gobs of left-over yardage. But then again, there's shrinkage. I know linens shrink, some more in length than width, others evenly in both directions. I am going to have to experiment by washing a swatch prior to final planning just to confirm final ratios.

Then there's fading - another caution from my experts. This may be a big problem because my windows are on the sunny south side of the house and I am planning on using high-contrast dark hunter green embroidery thread. I do have to take sun bleaching into account. Perhaps a well-washed cotton flannel or other 100% cotton with dense weave will be appropriate. For the record though, I am planning on losing the Colonial edge roller shades and putting up unobtrusive mini-honeycomb shades to control light and privacy. They will help considerably with the fading problem. (These curtains will be more decorative than functional.)

But I promised to describe how I'd choose among various thread count fabrics.Here's the original list:

• Flax Canvas 28 x 24 - 52" wide
• Craftsman Linen 20 x 18 - 55" wide
• Osnaberg 40 x 45 - 58" wide
• Irish linen 40 x 32 - 55" wide
• Belgian linen 34 x 38 - 54" wide
• Raw linen 34 x 38 -54" wide

To figure out how large my motifs would be on each of these I do a bit of math, using my first choice design's measurements - 53 units tall x 308 units long for one full repeat. Note that I'm figuring to do my stitching over blocks of 2x2 threads, so on 28 count, I would be performing 14 stitches per inch (and people whine that 7spi in knitting is too tiny to see!) Also note that I'm taking the variance between the warp thread count (the direction running the long way of the yardage) and the weft count (the direction from selvage to selvage).

Fabric	Length	Width
Flax Canvas - 28x24	22"	4.4"
Craftsman - 20x18	30.8"	5.9"
Osanberg - 40x45	15.4"	2.4"
Irish Linen - 40x32	15.4"	3.3"
Belgian/Raw Linen - 34 x38	18.1"	2.8"

As much as I adore stitching at tiny gauges (50 thread count is normal for me), the thought of working these curtains at anything higher than 32 is - even for me - just plain nuts. Especially when you consider that in a curtain of about 71 inches long, I'm planning on producing a stitched piece that's about 60 inches long, and I'm planning on making four identical panels. In 28 count, that's a bit less than three full repeats of my 308-unit motif. At the same time, I don't like embroidery at bigger gauges either. I'm too spoiled by the grace of these patterns done on finer scale. Using this yardstick, Flax Canvas comes out as the best choice - just at the borderline between too coarse (Craftsman) and too fine (Raw Linen/Belgian linen).

And ratio? Squareness or distortion of the final design, considering that I'd be working on non-evenweave stuff? By looking at the thread count ratios (warp count/weft count) I can see that the largest distortion would be using the Irish Linen (factor 1.25); and the least using Craftsman (1.11). The Flax Canvas works out at a 1.16 skew ratio. I'd have roughly almost 12 stitches across the fabric for every 10 up and down. Not great, but not horrible either.

But then we come to the last and first problem. Of the fabrics available from this source, Flax Canvas is the narrowest on the bolt at only 52 inches wide. And my Curtain Advisers have suggested that more fullness is better. As much as I like these fabrics, I may need to go back to the drawing board and find another source of beautiful, affordable, but wider linen. Suggestions would be very welcome.

Technorati : sewing

I am always the last to find out about these things.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6ZjMWLqJvM&eurl

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5299855665083820396&q=knitting&hl=en

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8068663008782254608&q=knitting&hl=en

Oh. And if you search on any of the video clip services you'll find a ton of how-to videos, too.

Technorati : knit

Yes, I'm still knitting. I'm in the "I've memorized the pattern repeat and up to churning out yardage" part of the project. The center area of my scarf/stole is approximately 3 feet long. Another two feet and I'll be ready for the edging:

On the other needlework project contemplations, I wrote to ACP Textiles (the linen source I cited in my first post on the curtain project), asking them about thread counts of their products. They were gracious enough to reply immediately. Here's the data in case you're looking at their products, too:

• Flax Canvas 28 x 24 - 52" wide
• Craftsman Linen 20 x 18 - 55" wide
• Osnaberg 40 x 45 - 58" wide
• Irish linen 40 x 32 - 55" wide
• Belgian linen 34 x 38 - 54" wide
• Raw linen 34 x 38 -54" wide

That's one set of vital data points necessary for further contemplation of this project. The remaining two are what stitching design to choose, and how and to what size specifications will the curtains be made

Stitching pattern

I am contemplating using one of three historical patterns from The New Carolingian Modelbook - all done in monochrome: If you have a copy, here are the citations.

Plate 33:1 - an extremely long block unit repeat, which I would embroider in voided style (working the background, not the foreground) in either cross stitch or long-armed cross stitch. This one is of a complicated interlace sporting grape leaves, and columbine flowers.The strip is 53 units wide, and the entire pattern repeats in about 308 units, center to center. The first publication I found of this was in a modelbook printed in Lyons dated 1533, although it was reprinted at least once by a different publisher in Venice in 1546.

Plate 63:1 - one of the more open straight stitch unit motifs, not suited for knitting or cross stitch but perfect for double running stitch (aka Spanish stitch, Holbein stitch) work. This one is an interlace with pomegranate and acanthus motifs. It's also 53 units wide, but the repeat is complete in 146 units. This one was graphed from a photo of a boy's shirt, circa 1540.

Plate 69:1 - another straight stitch motif. This one is of grapes and grape leaves, 65 units wide, with a repeat complete in 127 units. If you happen to have a copy of Drysdale's Art of Blackwork Embroidery, the original 16/th/17th century Spanish artifact this was graphed from is also shown there on page 33.

Window size and curtain construction

My window is pretty big, original to the house. And it's one of two. Here it is, adorned with the tired dime-store lace curtains and tobacco-stained roller shade left by my predecessor

I have not sewn curtains before, but it should be pretty logical. Especially for something this plain. I've you've done this and have warnings or spot flaws in my thought processes, please chime in.

I want flat panels with little or no extra width compared to the window. I want to sew little brass rings on the top that will be threaded onto a narrow brass rod, so I don't have to allow for a header. I am also going to line the curtains to improve drape, give a bit more privacy, make the back neater, and increase their thermal retention (such as it will be). My window is 44 inches across, from one edge of the sill to the other. My window is 71 inches from top of the casement to the surface of the sill, and 74 inches from top of the casement to the bottom of the casement. It looks like any of the fabrics listed above would be wide enough to provide the two panels I need for the window side by side.

Since I would be hanging the things from a rod attached to the casement, about .75 of an inch below the top, and the rings are likely to be about an inch in diameter, I'd subtract about 2 inches from the 71 for total finished length. That gives me two mirror image panels about 23 inches wide x 69 inches long. I have enough width in my fabric for seam allowances. My guess is that for stability and drape, I'd want a hem of about 2 inches at the top, and about 4 inches at the bottom. That means that for each window I'll need to buy about 2.25 yards of linen, plus an equivalent amount of lining fabric.

Now which fabric would be suitable for which of my motifs, and how would I go about placing them on the curtains, and how would I treat the right-angled corner when using designs that don't provide that detail? Obviously more public contemplation of this project will appear here.

Technorati : knitting, sewing

My list of future (someday) projects keeps getting longer.

Contemplating our living room, The Resident Male and I have decided that the perfect thing for over the fireplace would be a tapestry. So we went looking at various tapestry reproductions sold on-line. The ones in our price range are pretty uniformly horrible - bad cartoons (the drawing on which the weaving is based), cheap looking materials/bad drape, and garish color choices predominate. I won't even mention the awful chenille surface type and printed things that look more like stuff that along with 8-foot tall inflatable teddy bears are normally sold out of the back of vans parked at busy intersections in the summer.

As we were looking we also saw some of the painted canvases intended for needlepoint. Big ones that encompass scenes or details of historical woven tapestries. The better ones imported from France seem to offer more faithful reproductions of their inspiring works than do all of the modern woven reinterpretations.

Now I've done needlepoint before. It's not my favorite, but technical implementation of the style is not a barrier. Plus I know exactly how long (read forever) it takes to do one of these. My mother did a a needlepoint tapestry reproduction in the early 1970s, working a rendition of this classic bit of canvas:

She did it in DMC embroidery floss, stitching the details including the hunter's face, gloves and tassels, plus the hound, songbird, and hawk all in petite point. It's heavy from all that cotton, but substantial enough (and mounted well enough) to resist distortion or curl. That she did most of it in basketweave rather than tent stitch has helped it keep its shape. The thing is a bit less than a yard wide and a bit more than 4 feet tall. It took her the better part of a year. Maybe a bit more. It's roughly the same size as the one that caught our eye - a reproduction of a French woven tapestry from the mid 1500s (the clothing style is early 1500s, but the weavers may have been deliberately trying to imitate earlier works):

In canvas, even with the full thread kit, this one would be within my price range. Not counting a year or more to stitch it, of course. Will I end up doing this? Will the curtains I described yesterday come first? Will I stay true to knitting, and deaf to the enticements of other needle arts? Only time will tell...

Technorati : needlepoint

No knitting today. It was a happy but hectic holiday weekend here at String, full of family and food. Needless to say nothing beyond the targeted activities was accomplished. Still all are fed and happy, with grandparents spoiled beyond their expectations and back on their grand tour road trip.

Just as all of this was getting underway, I received a package from Long Term Needlework Pal Kathryn. She sent me glossy print catalogs from Bradbury and Bradbury, an outfit that offers reproductions of historical design wallpapers. She's right in that some of their offerings are spot on for our 1912 house. I've not trembled to a halt on any of the offered designs yet (although several are very tempting), but I can say that after leafing through the catalogs I am in the early stages of project lust for something else.

Curtains for our library.

The bulk of the pictures from the catalog are available on line. You can see the type of curtains there that hit me. Plain linen rectangles of simple line, hung from narrow brass rods threaded through the top (or through small brass rings rings). But I don't want unadorned curtains. I want to embroider mine. I happen to have on hand a huge set of counted thread border patterns of various widths at my disposal. Plus a pretty good idea of how to go about it all.

I want to put a pair of curtains on each of my two windows, each stitched with a border parallel to the center and bottom edges. Kind of like this:

If you happen to have a copy of The New Carolingian Modelbook to hand, I'm thinking of doing the full giant repeat of Plate 33 - the daSera grape leaves and flowers meander. Possibly in deep hunter green on natural linen. At four curtain panels to cover two windows that are about 5 feet tall by 3.5 feet wide, yes I'm nuts. So nuts in fact that I have to do more serious contemplation as to whether or not I will have the fortitude to take something like this to completion. But I've already started looking into linens...

Once more Kathryn leads me astray!

Technorati : embroidery

As you can see, I'm making progress on my Print of the Wave scarf/stole thing. It's roughly 24 inches long. I figure I'm a tad under half-way home.

I am now contemplating whether or not I want to do the center back graft thing recommended by the author. The advantage is that the highly directional orientation of this texture design would then present the same way on both ends when worn.

They'd match, with the vine-like bits growing up from the each end. On the other hand, there would be a noticeable seam across the center back - another area of visual focus.

And the jury is still out on how to edge the piece. Part of me says that working the narrow complementary edging specified in the pattern would be quick and easy. And part of me says "Easy. Heck. Just think of the challenge of edging the thing with an 8-inch wide mitered border using at least three different stitch designs and THEN putting on an edging." We'll see which one prevails - sense or the lack thereof.

As an aside - if you've had problems with sporadic access to this site or leaving comments here, please send me a note at admin [at] wiseneedle [dot] com. I know that moving is disruptive and that when you move part of the audience is lost, but the silence here is deafening. Of course shouting out "Where did everyone go?" in an empty field is an exercise in absurdity. Sort of like thinking about adding a complex 8-inch border to what amounts to a spur of the moment knitting doodle. In any case, a safe, healthy and prosperous New Year to all!

Technorati : knitting, lace knitting

Knitsy asked two questions - what was my first lace project, and why lace at all since I've said I am not really the lace-wearing type. I'll try to answer.

First Lace Project

In the best tradition of flinging one's self off the end of a pier in order to learn how to swim, my first lace project was the Rose of England cloth from Kinzel's Second Book of Modern Lace Knitting. It was back in the days BI (before Internet), when aside from my mother, I didn't know anyone else who knit. While I had no one to ask questions or provide help, I also had no one to tell me that I might be just a bit overambitious for someone who had just picked up needles a year or two before.

It turns out that I wasn't overambitious at all. The pattern was clear and logical, with no errors. All I had were simple increases and decreases to worry about. Yes, the project was big, but even so it wasn't a bad choice for a first timer.

I have to admit however (sheepishly) that the thing isn't finished. I have one more round of petals to do and I have to end it and block it. Why has it sat in the closet all this time? Several reasons. First, it was a first project. While there are no structural errors in the thing my stitches are less than even. Second, lace yarn wasn't readily available. I used cotton crochet thread, and didn't have a clue as to how much I needed. Even that was hard to find. As a result there are supposedly similar weight white cottons from three makers in the piece, bought at three different times. And I still need more! The spots at which I transition from one lot of thread to another are very evident both in texture and even color (not all white is white). Third, until recently I had neither dining room nor place to block something so large. I can't use this excuse any more because now I have both (although the table is rectangular rather than circular).

My long time pal Kathryn has twitted me many times about letting this one languish. But I'm not entirely sure it deserves to be finished. Sure, I'll have finished off the piece, but I won't be happy with it. I know every time I look at it I'll think of what might have been or how it could have been done better. Is it worth it to invest the extra time if the result will be only disappointment? What would you do?

In a conservation of things lost moment, my copy of Heirloom Knitting being found, the bag with my unfinished Rose has now disappeared. Otherwise I'd show a picture of that sad resident of my Chest of Knitting Horrors^TM. Instead I'll give you happier eye candy. Here's a link to the incomparable Judy Gibson's finished Rose. I melt in shame for my own shortcomings. I still love that pattern, but perhaps it's time to toss in the towel on attempt number one and re-knit the thing for real.

Why Lace?

Why not? Actually, there's more reason than that. I find the way patterns build in lace fascinating - how the charts or prose directions translate into the visual impact of the actual work. The more involved or complex the design, the better. Even more so if there are almost no row for row repeats in the piece. Plus I have to admit that making things with no garment shaping or final fit to worry about is wonderfully relaxing. So what if my flat lace pieces end up being a bit bigger or smaller than target? They're splendid just as they are.

Technorati : knitting, lace knitting

Working away on the Wave scarf. Looks much as yesterday, but longer. I have however found my Heirloom Knitting book. I'd swear the knit gremlins stole it and then replaced it because it turned up on the shelf where it was supposed to be, in a spot I had checked a half-dozen times before. I am sorely tempted to use one of the wider Wave family border variants shown in the book instead of the elegant but simple one included in the pattern. We'll see what happens when I get there.

In the mean time I continue to work on wiseNeedle. I'm tinkering with the KnitWiki's structure (on paper). I want to get the skeleton logically organized before leaping into populating the thing. I've also been answering old advice board questions. There's a spotty backlog of about a year, mostly inquiries that were stuck behind the junk entries. I am sure I've surprised some folk who posted their questions years ago, requesting that answer notifications be sent to them by eMail, who then never got an answer. More than a few out-of-the-blue notifications have arrived this week past.

On the yarn review side, I'm slowly adding basic info for as many of this season's yarns as I can find. I've put in about 130 this week past, but have barely scratched the surface. I do note that people continue to be confused about the yarn maker list. There are hundreds in the collection - far more than the top 10 or so that appears on the drop-down list. In an effort to clarify how to use the thing I repeat some of the info from the how-to page.

The list of makers that appears on the drop down is a list of convenience only. It's automatically generated, and changes as more yarns and reviews are entered and posted. We do not alter this list in response to manufacturer requests, nor do we put forward this list as a "short list" of recommended manufacturers - it's based on a flat-out census count of yarns in the database only.

To look up a manufacturer that is NOT on the top-ten list, we provide a handy search utility. Click on the "Lookup/Add" button next to the "Manufacturer" field. A small secondary window will pop up.

Type in the first few letters of the manufacturer's name and then click on the "Search" button in the little window. A list of manufacturers with similar names will pop up. Select the one you are interested in by clicking on its blue code name.

Some manufacturers are particularly arcane due to mergers, acquisitions, licensed "celebrity" names, national-market specific branding, or sub-lines. Here's a list of the more arcane:

• Alice Starmore is listed under Broadbay
• Babajoes is under Merino Sheepskin Co, Ltd.
• Cestari is under Christoper Sheep Farm Yarns
• Dalegarn is under Dale of Norway
• DGB is under Difference G. Brui, Inc.
• Galler is under Jospeh Galler
• Holiday is under Robert Bremen
• KFI is under Knitting Fever
• Filtes King is under King
• Knit One Crochet Two is under K1, C2
• Kraemer is under Robert Kraemer, Bremen/Holiday
• Lady Fair is under Eaton
• Lily is under Spinrite
• Lewis is under John Lewis
• McGregor is under JL McGregor, Ltd.
• Peter Pan is under Wendy
• Pierber is under Laines Pierber
• Plassard is under Laines Plassard
• Trend Collection is under On Line
• Triola is under Bonnie Triola
• Vittidini is under Adrienne Vittidini
• Zitron is under Atelier Zitron

When you click on the manufacturer's blue code name, the little search window will close and the "Manufacturer" field on the main form will be filled in with your choice.

Technorati : knitting

It was cookie time here again at String Central. School Bake Sale season is upon us. I know there are some readers here from outside the US and Canada who may not have run into this custom before, so in the interest of sharing the joy, I share the joy. (I do hear that the UK shares this particular custom, too although it's more centered around church groups doing good works than it is civic groups and schools.)

On election day most polling places in the US are in public buildings - very often county, town, or city-run schools. School parent committees see all that foot traffic as opportunity, so on most election days they mobilize as many parents as possible to make edible goodies to sell as fund raisers - always with some lofty goal or another. Send the band to the regional competition; refurbish worn-out playground equipment; send supplies to a sister school in a disadvantaged area; buy books for the library, a van to transport special needs children, robes for the choir, violins for the orchestra, or uniforms for the sports teams- the list is endless and every cause is deserving.

Most often it's hapless non-baker moms who are dragooned, and interminable plates of cake mix brownies and slice-to-bake chocolate chip cookies are prepared by those with generous hearts and more volunteer spirit than time or baking knowledge to spare. Zucchini (vegetable marrow) season is especially feared because of the flood of zucchini breads and muffins that overflow the sale tables. I don't think there's a parent of a school age child in the US who has not heard "Oh, and we need to bring something to school today for the bake sale" ten minutes before the bell rings. You can find those parents buying cupcakes at supermarket bakeries on most bake sale mornings.

Needless to say, it's local/state election day tomorrow and the clarion call for cookies has been made. This time around I made icebox cookies: half and halfs - chocolate and cinnamon. Seven dozen. On a work night. Thankfully I had advance warning and mixed the dough and refrigerated it on Saturday. Which explains in part why time was at a premium this weekend past. Even so, I'm cookied out.

Knitting? Yes I did some of that, too. As you can see, my Wave scarf grows:

Working with this linen of forgotten provenance is interesting. It's relatively soft - no sharp bits of cuticle like some linens I've used. There are some fluffy slub like areas, and some places where the stuff is sewing thread fine. I am not having any problems working the lace pattern in it, and the result is surprisingly soft for something as slash-your-fingers-before-breaking durable as the the yarn actually is. I've got a ton of it. My foot or so of lace has made no discernible dent in the ball.

Technorati : cooking, knitting

Well, it's obvious that talking about wiseNeedle is a sure-fire way to keep people away from this blog, so I'll give the topic a rest. Back to knitting.

I'm swamped again at work so discretionary knit time is at a premium, but I did manage to cast on for a Print o' The Wave scarf. The body pattern is relatively simple - a 12 row 16 stitch repeat, with half-drop symmetry. That means there's only three substantive rows to memorize, plus the fact that after three rows they're repeated with an 8 stitch offset. I'm not sure whether or not I'll bother with the author's specifications for grafting two pieces together in the middle thing to make the two ends symmetrical. Perhaps instead I'll just pick up stitches and work out in the other direction. Or maybe I'll just keep going. It depends on how mindless everything end up being and how bored I get without other sections or pattern changes to look forward to.

The yarn is a nameless lace-weight linen I bought aeons ago at a Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. You can see some of the texturing it has if you click on the thumbnail above to pull up the larger image. No stretch in the stuff of course, which will make blocking interesting, but it's butter soft. I'd estimate that it's about 15 inches across with minimal on-needle smoothing out.

I have to admit that one of the reasons I like complex lace knitting is that there's always something interesting and new happening. It's fun to watch the pattern build row by row, accumulating each new texture and design. This scarf by contrast is a long strip of a single stitch pattern. We'll see how I as a knitter with the attention span of a mayfly handle this challenge to perseverance.

On the domestic front, my Heirloom Knitting book is still AWOL and I'm at sixes and sevens over it. I wish I could blame Franklin's Delores, but she was no where near Boston during the week it disappeared. Besides, she's not my hallucination. I'll have to get both more creative and entertaining before I come up with an excuse half as amusingly incorrigible.

Technorati : knitting, lace knitting

Another reason we moved String over here to wiseNeedle was to help me stay focused on wiseNeedle maintenance. I've spent my discretionary blogging time this morning answering wiseNeedle advice board queries, so I feel minorly useful so far today. Again apologies to those who have been waiting for answers - questions were stuck in a morass of spam that was jamming our to-be-processed box. We've winkled them out and all have been posted. But not are all visible.

One advice board feature people may not know about is that readers can rate answers (anonymously, of course). Questions remain on the open list until the aggregate score of all accumulated answers is high enough that we are reasonably satisfied that the question has been answered. So even if you aren't intending on providing answers yourself, feel free to go over and review what has been posted. More unanswered queries lurk below the ones that have been addressed, but won't be visible until items above them in the Open Questions queue are judged adequate.

Oh. And if you want to answer queries, please know that your assistance is greatly valued, not only by the original posters of questions but by everyone in the future who may search the collection looking for similar advice. Plus we remain open for new questions. Feel free to send them in, too.

On the knitting front, I didn't get to do the grafting on the big red doily last night. My assistant photographer in residence had too much homework to help out, and barring growth of two more hands I can't manage a camera and grafting at the same time all by myself. I did do some swatching for the Print o' Wave scarf,. I am narrowing in on my chosen needle size for full implementation, but have no actual product to show off yet.

Technorati : knitting
Del.icio.us : knitting
Zooomr : knitting
Buzznet : knitting

Small progress on several fronts. First, I've finished the knitting on my red doily. I have done the ceremonial breaking off of the yarn, and am up to the grafting part. I will begin that tonight, possibly even documenting it with photos, if I can find a willing volunteer photographer in the house. I will also try to get to the blocking of both doilies this weekend, although pre-holiday preparations and work may intrude.

On the website front, our resident technical wizard is fine-tuning some aspects of the site and boldly slaying bugs. Comments should now be working properly. I have put some pointers on the old String site's most popular pages, redirecting folk over here, so with luck some of the people who link to those pages will notice and make corrections before those pages go dead. I've also started to answer the backlog of questions on the advice board, add more of this season's yarns to the database, and to learn Wiki syntax. I'm plotting out the KnitWiki structure right now, diagramming hierarchies and interrelationships on paper. Suggestions for areas not to miss, or for how content would be most usefully organized are most welcome.

In addition to all this stuff going on (plus heavy deadline pressure at work) I still haven't worked the lace bug out of my system. I'm not quite sure what will be next up. I've got a ball of lace-weight linen in a natural ecru. It's two-ply construction, with a small bit of thick/thin and linen slubbing going on. I got it at the one Maryland Sheep & Wool festival that I went to, circa 1996. For solid sections, it looks best on 1.75 or 2mm needles, so I suspect for a bit lighter, lacier look I'll move up a size or two. Not quite sure of my yardage, but whatever it is, that's all there is. I'm thinking of messing around and making something up, combining lacy stitches from Hither and Yon (two of my favorite sources), adding an edging, and ending up with something wearable. Perhaps a medium-sized rectangular or square scarf, able to be worn as a dress accessory (there's not enough there for a huge shawl). One minor complication that should work itself out - I have misplaced my copy of Heirloom Knitting. I used it last when I was selecting the edging for the second red doily. The one I used came from its pages.

Or I might do Eunny Jang's Print o' the Wave Stole. She's already worked out a simple layout using a traditional Shetland pattern and companion edging. The Print o' the Wave design itself is visually complex, but very easy to work, with a logical 12-row repeat. Eunny has also done an excellent tutorial on lace shawl construction. The series goes on from the one on shawl construction (links are on the right hand side of her page) and includes a highly useful round-up of lace-knitting cast on techniques.

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43 Things : knitting

I sheepishly admit I whined in public and was so pitiful that someone took pity on me.

I've mentioned here many times that I am probably the last person on earth who enjoys using DPNs, and adores the extra-long DPNs more commonly found overseas than here in the US. The whining was that extra-long DPNs are hard to find here. Judith from the UK had a stash of them, collected over many years of happy knitting. She recently moved over to circs, and her collection of long DPNs languished. So she packed them up and sent them to me!

Here you see her collection, ranging from 4 to 6.5mm (US#6 to #10.5), displayed on the converted-from-jeans denim skirt I'm sewing with and for my daughter. Since no good deed should go unpunished, a suitably splendid gift in return is being boxed up for shipment back to Judith. Ten thousand thanks to her again. I'll have lots of fun with my new needle library!

On the skirt, who knew they'd come back into style? I wore them in the mid-1970s, and made dozens for my friends. I even have a bit of blurry, faded photographic proof from that era (let's just say my lack of camera skills runs in my family):

Now I find my skills are in demand again as converted skirts seem to be the rage with my daughter and her set. Even though it's not knitting, if anyone is interested, I'll diagram out how to go about doing it. With the top, and jean jacket I described before, the ensemble reaches counterculture nostalgia critical mass, just in time for cold weather.

Technorati : 70s style, knitting, sewing

Quick aside: I don't know about you, but a small window onto a whole new universe of costume options just opened up for me and mine today. Too funny!

Technorati : knitting

Finally.

I've caught up on the by-hand port of last month's entries from the Blog City incarnation of String or Nothing. I've copied over comments, too. It was much easier to do this for the months prior to June. In June BC changed their blog back-up methods, and stopped offering XML exports. Earlier stuff we were able to (mostly) automate, although there will probably be some links here and there that need to be replaced. My premium Blog City account will expire at the end of November. At that time all of the photos there will disappear. Shortly after that BC will probably pull the plug on the account proper, as I will no longer be posting anything new over there. If you have links that point to entries there, please take a moment and use the search page here to hunt up the comparable entry in this location. Otherwise your links will go dead. I'm afraid I can't contact each of you individually (Google says there are thousands of links to String pages out there), so apologies on this blast notification.

I've also caught up on entering the backlog of yarn reviews and advice board questions on wiseNeedle proper, although there are lots and lots of advice board answers that remain to be written. Feel free to pitch in and answer fellow knitters in distress. Even though in some cases the questions themselves are no longer "shelf fresh" future knitters with similar queries will benefit from our assembled knowledge on file.

Aside from getting back to a semi-regular schedule of semi-regular postings here and updating the yarns database with as many new season products as I can find in catalogs and on-line listings, the biggest rock remaining to roll is our KnitWiki. I'll be dividing my time between blogging and structuring that resource. Lots of reference material that I have posted on String will end up over there Plus there are books and books worth of other articles to create. But first I have to do the basic tree structure type index that ties the whole thing together. Everyone needs a hobby...

Doily progress? Here it is (click on pix below to enlarge):

As you can see I'm pretty close to finishing my edging. I estimate that by mid-week I'll have completed it and grafted the seam.

Other than that, a hearty welcome to the ten people who have followed me here from Blog City. With luck and time (plus getting the word about our relocation out), the rest of String's regular audience will find this spot, too.

Technorati : knitting

[Repost of material appearing on 1 September 2006]

I've been too busy to blog in the morning, but not too busy to knit at night. I had mentioned before that I wasn't all that pleased with the crochet edging of my smaller red knit doily. The reason harks back to the original difference between knitting and crochet - the thickness of the stitches formed.

In needle lace, the stringy bits that connect more opaque sections are called "brides." In knitted lace those bridging units are very slender, often only one or two thread thickness equivalents. By contrast, brides formed by crochet chains are by crochet's own nature a minimum of the equivalent of three thicknesses of the base thread. While most people aren't phased by this, I prefer not to mix crochet and knitting unless I've ironed out the thickness difference between them. One way I do that is to knit with two strands, but do any accompanying crochet with one. More on this another time, when I've got a solid combo project to play with. Back to my doily.

It's grown. It's now the size of a small tablecloth or large centerpiece. I estimate that it's about three feet across, including the edging. Give or take for blocking. Yes, I did say edging. I decided to use a knit-on edging in place of the simple crochet finish. So I am in the middle of doing just that:



As you can see, I've chosen a pretty simple traditional Shetland-style edging, and I'm knitting it right onto the live stitches of the piece's body. I picked something that echoed the alternate YO/decrease texture used elsewhere, plus something that was relatively visually dense compared to the previous patterned band (that one had lots of double YOs, so it looks quite airy compared to the rest of the piece.) So far things are going pretty well, but rather slowly. The airy band had 17 full repeats of 33 stitches around the circumference - a total of 561 stitches. MATH UPDATE: My lace edging is 28 rows per point, and "eats" 15 live stitches in the attachment process. 37 repeats of my edging is about 555 stitches. That leaves 6 other stitches to be randomly consumed, evenly spaced around the piece. I've completed about five of the edging's gazillion repeats so far. (That's what I get for writing about this stuff when the actual knitting isn't to hand. My every-other-row attachment scheme eats half as many edge stitches as there are rows in the repeat.)

Now what do I mean by "eaten?" Simple. To start this edging knit perpendicular to the doily's body, I used a half-hitch cast-on to add stitches to the end of my left hand needle - the same circ that I just finished using to complete the doily's body. I worked a wrong-side edging row back, purling together the innermost of my newly cast on stitches along with one of the live stitches from the doily's body. One eaten. Then I did a right side row, proceeding out from the edge of the doily's body to the outermost edge of the lace strip I'm adding (the edge that forms the outermost zig-zags). On the next wrong side round I worked across my newly added strip, purling the last new stitch along with the next stitch of the doily's body.

I continue in this manner, attaching the live body stitches to the growing strip of edging. Every now and again (most notably on the shortest row of the edging's repeat) I "eat" an extra stitch by purling that last wrong-side row stitch along with TWO body stitches.

Clear as mud?

Technorati : knitting

[Repost of material originally appearing on 28 August 2006]

As you can see, I'm up to giant snood stage, where the piece is larger in circumference than the circular I am using to knit it. Since I am loathe to spread it out onto two needles just for a photo opp, you'll have to bear with me:



As you can see, I'm past the area that contains the center star, and past the (very boring) stripe of plain old diagonals formed by an infinitude of SSKs and YOs. I'm up to the outer ring of patterning, about three rounds from the end. Plus or minus. While I finished the last piece off with crochet, I didn't like the look. This piece, at roughly 20 inches across right now pre-block, is just big enough to be a mini-tablecloth for a tiny tabletop. Big enough to show off an edging. So I'll probably end off with some sort of knit-on edging. Exactly what, I'm not sure. But I'll figure that out when I get up to it.

In the mean time, I can report perfect accuracy on this pattern, and the probability that I'll knit more from the same booklet. Perhaps a lace collar. I've got a boughten black top with a jewel neckline that would be killer with an antique-look white lace collar. Either that or I'll figure out something lacy to do with some spectacular blue fingering weight I bought from June...

This lace stuff. It's addicting!

Technorati : knitting

[Repost of material originally appearing on 25 August 2006]

Like socks? Ever hear of the socks shown at the Great Exhibition of 1851? No? You're in luck. The Victoria and Albert Museum never forgets. Their collections are now searchable on-line. A bit of poking around brings up this set of images, socks from that very exhibition, when all things Scots and the latest advances in machine knitting were the rage.

Now don't poo-poo machine knitting. Sock machines of that time required quite a bit of hand manipulation. How about these socks - stockinette, with some openwork, finished off with hand embroidery, from the early 1840s?

Socks too mundane? Contemplate Sara Ann Cunliffe's exquisite cotton lace baby gown, knit sometime in the late 1800s.

White cotton lace knitting too late for you? How about a brilliant 17th century silk and silver brocade jacket, with a thumbnail opinion that it was probably knit on needles and not a frame. What do you think. Cut and steeked? I think so. Even at 17 stitches per inch, I'd love to make one...

Looking for wool? How about an early 1800s baby ensemble that looks like it inspired Debbie Bliss.

There's 19th century bead knitting, too. And (amazing to me) 18th century beaded knitting! Not to mention hand-knitted lace doilies from the Azores (1875-1900); 16th century liturgical gloves, a Shetland shawl to die for (19th century), and lots of other stuff from every era since knitting impinged on Western consciousness.

Of course, if you prefer stitching over knitting, especially Blackwork or monochrome embroidery, there's some well-known examples of that there, too. Also samplers showing motifs straight from early modelbooks. Even an Egyptian piece from the 14th-16th century I've never seen before. I'm in heaven.

Technorati : embroidery, inspiration, knitting

[Repost of material appearing on 23 August 2006]

Still fiddling with lacy knitting and doilies here. I'm making progress. Although the notation used in the Schnelling pattern is squirrelly, once the unfamiliarity factor is removed, it's not difficult to follow. I'm now up to round 58 or so. I plan on working this pattern out to round 125 or so, so you can see I'm a little way over a third through with this project. (Remember, as the rounds progress, they get larger, so while I may be almost half-way through the round count, my later rounds will be much larger than the initial ones, so there are lots more stitches to go).



What's next in terms of lace knitting? I'm not sure. I've got the Princess Shawl pattern safely stored away, waiting for the inspiration to work up. I'm sorely tempted to buy the Wedding Ring pattern, too. But those are both very large life-consuming projects. I am sure I'll enjoy them, but I'm not in the mood to give over to yet another monster project right now. So Princess will sit a while. In the back of my mind lurks the thought that someday my two rugrats will be female adults, and that it would be nice to provide them each with an heirloom. But they're both still in the anime, Popsicles, and homework phase of life, so I've got lots of time.

To answer yet another question - the tiny stitch markers. What are they?

They're inexpensive silver color 4mm split rings, bought at a crafts store. 4mm is big enough to sit comfortably on needle sizes up to 3.5mm, perfect for lace. I think a little bag of 50 set me back a princely $1.75. They're thicker than single jump rings, and so stay put instead of wandering off under YOs. I save the wildly fancy ding