I stole a bit of time today to get my brown/gray shawl pinned out and blocking. Lace is INCREDIBLY stretchy - or at least if knit from a good wool, alpaca, or other animal fiber - it should be. Here it is in an optically challenging presentation thanks to the rally check sheets I use as an alignment aid:

The checks make it very hard to see, but you can make out a bit more of the pattern now in the detail shot. I promise more pix tomorrow, and I'll take those on a plain white background.

Now how stretchy is lace? My unblocked piece was approximately 39 inches across. See those checks? They're 2 inch squares. My shawl is pinned out to be a square of approximately 60 inches on a side. My guess is that it will spring back somewhat after it's dry. I'll probably end up with something closer to 54 inches on a side (about 4.5 feet across).

We also made significant progress on the final stage of our bathroom renovation this weekend. Here you see The Resident Male exercising his inner artist. Before you write to me with safety tips, please note that we've got about 2 inches of closed cell camping mattress pad topped with another layer of bath towel underneath the no-slip tarp in the tub. The ladder is stable, and won't mar the surface beneath its feet. Plus the ceiling is so low that no one has to climb above the second step to reach it.

As to the color - I don't know if you can make out the difference given the variability among monitors, but the ceiling is bright white, and the walls are barely green. Not mint, not pistachio. Think three gallons of milk with one drop of food coloring. It's my hope that they will contrast nicely with the white tile underparts and fixtures, echo (just barely) the green tile accent stripe, green stone sink top, greenish tint of the glass shower door, and make the green (rather than the yellow) in the stained glass window pop out more.

Even though it's shrouded in protective plastic, you can see that the refinishing of the window and its replacement in the wall have both accomplished. A special merit badge for chemical management (with scrapers rampant) to he who did that work. Goodbye ugly mustard yellow enamel paint! And good riddance.

Comments Problems

We're having intermittent problems with the comments feature that screens out automatic postings. Sometimes if you go to enter your comments the little "type what you see here" box isn't displaying. If you want to leave a comment please scroll down and make sure that you can see that box before you begin typing. If it's not there, try reloading the screen. We're not quite sure what's happening, although we're working on it. When he's not elbow deep in brushes and rollers, The Resident Male (website plumber par excellence) is busy applying his biggest software wrenches to wiseNeedle's pipes. Apologies for any/all inconvenience.

Technorati : knitting; bathroom renovation

This little fellow is fluttering in distress on my back porch. He doesn't appear to be injured, but his behavior is that of a bird that's been hurt - tolerating people walking close by, and flat out panting in fear.

He's small - smaller than a house sparrow, and distinctly greenish above. The eye stripe and the crown are sharply defined gray with a faint black line around it. The eye is brown, and the bill is something like a sparrow or tiny vireo. And the feet are sort of blueish.

We've got no place to bring him, nor do we wish to cause further harm, so we're leaving him alone for now. But I've not seen a bird like this around here before. For the record, we're in the Metro Boston area, a close-in suburb to the northwest; inside Route 128.

Leafing through bird books and on-line references, but I don't see anything that has the gray hat and mask, brown eye, olive upper part and cream breast. But this might be an immature bird not yet displaying its final colors. Any birders have an idea on what our little refugee might be?

UPDATE

Special thanks to Sally, who identified our little flutterer as a Philadelphia Vireo. We kept watch against cats (from a distance), but otherwise didn't bother him or go near him. About an hour and a half after he was first spotted on the ground he shook out his wings and zipped up into the trees. Given the range reported on the bird ID link page Sally provided, he's just passing through on his way down to the tropics somewhere. I hope he makes it.

Technorati : birds

Lead a Horse to Water Department

Reminder - every NYT file I posted a link to earlier this week is free-for-view to people registered at the New York Times website. I didn't pay a cent to look at any of them. If you are getting a paid access message it means you are not logged in. Go to the main NYT page and register. It's free. I've been a member since the site went live and not once in all that time have I received spam traceable to that source.

Cashmere Lace Shawl

It's done! Here it is in the not-so-harsh light of a cloudy morning, unblocked but patted flat on a white rug:

It measures approximately 100cm (39 inches) square in this state. I'm sure blocking will add another couple of inches as it stretches. Some detail shots, too!

The patterns were adapted from charts appearing in The Knitted Lace Patterns of Christine Duchrow, volumes I and III. I'm pleased with the way my corners worked out. They'll display better under blocking, but the designs meet up at the corners without truncation. The edging is a bit narrow to be in proportion, but I think that blocked it will also display better.

Technorati : knitting

Several small developments on this end. First, I'm up to the final corner on my gray/brown shawl. One more night's knitting should put it to bed. Then it gets added to the ever growing to-be-blocked pile. Second, I've decided I should take personal steps to decrease the "overweight, middle-aged women who knit" demographic. Since I can't do much about the passage of time nor do I have any intention of abandoning my hobbies, I have embarked on an exercise program. I won't speak about it again until it produces some sort of result. Third, the bathroom renovation is now in its final step - painting. I've spackled, sanded, and washed down the walls. I've cut in the corners with primer, and am about to roll the walls and ceilings with that base coat. After that comes white ceiling paint, plus a white tinged with green for the upper parts of the walls above the railroad tile. Pix when I'm done.

For the meat of this entry, last week the New York Times announced that it was throwing part of its archive open for free access. People who have registered with the site (a painless, no cost, and non-spam-generating process) can view most articles prior to 1928 or so, plus a subset of articles after that point without paying. Needless to say, I took advantage of the opportunity to see what early knitting-related material might be there.

The New York Times was never noted for frivolity and never ran a crafts or continuing women's interest column that published needlework interest items, therefore it's not surprising that I found mostly business- and war-related knitting articles. I found quite a bit of interest to textile historians - accounts of mills opening, burning, and closing down (all very common); reports on inventors or new processes; documentation of poor working conditions and worker exploitation. I did find some fashion commentary for both home and personal wear; but more on war knitting, describing materials distribution, yarn and needle shortages, yarn rationing (and the resulting protests), and famous people knitting for the cause. Amid all of this were some scattered patterns and knitting trivia.

Here are some of the most notable. Remember though that these are all written in the vernacular of their times. Few are ready-to-knit in the modern sense, but experienced knitters with a bit of perseverance should be able to make sense of most of them - especially the how to knit socks for soldiers piece from 1914. All are in PDF - remember you need to sign up with the NYT website to view these:

A human interest piece from 1908- warning of the dangers of knitting on trains and buses. Amusingly enough, I've seen this very same story repeated as a gentle caution against knitting on planes. Perhaps this is the ur-source of an Urban Legend.

Patterns from 1883 - includes knit over gloves intended to be worn over kid leather gloves for extra warmth that uses #16 needles (in between a modern US #00-#000 or 1.75 and 1.5mm); a simple lacy shawl knit on #14 (modern US #0, metric 2mm); and baby booties (also on #16s); and a sock using fine wool that looks like it starts mid-pattern - this last one may in fact be directions only for the heel. I'd need to experiment to confirm.

Fancy ornamented knitting accessories are nothing new. Silver plated and brass straights with fancy charms or jeweled button ends were offered for sale in 1917.

For Civil War period re-enactors and historical needlework buffs - a pattern for Soldiers' Mittens with a separate forefinger from 1861 (aka shooters' mittens). From the number of stitches cast on I suspect these can be worked from sport weight yarn today.

Again everything old is new again - carpal tunnel syndrome as a result of writing, sewing and knitting -described in 1882.

How to Knit Socks for Soldiers, 1914. Mrs. De Lancey Nicoll presents comprehensive prose instructions on sock knitting in excellent detail because "The trouble with American Women is that so few of them how know to knit socks. Practically only the foreign-born women know how." Surprising because today we think that everyone in the past knew these skills. Excellent beginners instruction in sock knitting (and in period terminology), these socks are standard 5-needle top-down socks with a drawstring toe, calf shaping, and a gusseted heel, worked on size #14 needles (US #0 or 2mm). They start at 80 stitches above the calf, but narrow down to 60 at the ankle, making them dead on for modern fingering weight yarn and a fit close to contemporary socks. Plan on at least 200g of sock yarn to make a pair of these. Probably a bit more.

War work, this time from 1917. The illustrious Mrs. Leeds offers up patterns for knitted sleeping socks (#12 needles, around modern #2 or 3mm, but the 84 stitches around make me want to work this pair on #000s or 1.5mm). Also two crocheted scarves - note that worsted is not a yarn weight descriptor for these, instead it specifies a twisted multi-plied long fiber staple yarn of high quality. I'd use a light fingering weight or 3-ply baby yarn. Directions also for an abdominal band, and two knitted helmets.

Official Red Cross patterns for war knitting, also from 1917. Again Mrs. Leeds - the knitting and crochet instructor for the Atlantic City Red Cross - is mentioned. This collection includes wristlets, a trench cap, knee caps, a sleeveless jacket (pullover vest); a helmet, muffler, and jacket. There's also a bath mitt, eye bandage, and crocheted hospital stockings.

1917 war knitting again - a plea for knitting to comfort sailors. This includes cursory directions for sleeveless jackets (vests), wristlets and mufflers. These three garments were considered a set. The article points out that each battleship requires 500 sets of these garments and each submarine, 20. This article, also from 1917 also mentions the Navy sets, and offers Red Cross directions for an abdominal band.

From 1915, the most curious piece of war knitting I've ever seen. Invented by a French doctor, the "Multipurpose Garment" that appears to be a loosely knitted body-wide strip with a head hole. The idea is that it can be used or worn in several ways: flat as a comforter; or with the sides laced up in various manners, making the thing into the equivalent of a sleeveless vest, an upper body cropped sweater, or swathed around as an odd looking combo abdominal band/balaclava. This may be worth knitting up just to see what it looks like.

Embedded in this 1910 women's column is a cursory description of a crocheted afghan - long strips of plain crochet, joined with openwork.

From 1911 - cursory directions for a striped knit afghan, in a women's interest column that also warns about the dangers of diet pills.

And finally a cast-on hint from 1907 - use bigger needles when you cast-on.

I hope someone finds these bits entertaining and useful. If you attempt to knit from any of them, I'd love to hear about the result.

Technorati : knitting

Progress on my shawl!

I'm finishing up the edging along Side #3, in preparation for Corner #3. Then it's the mad dash along the final side. It's taking a little over week per side, so I expect to be done by the end of next week. Then the sorry thing gets added to my blocking pile, which has itself become an embarrassment.

Now is the part of any project that I find the hardest. No new challenges, just more of the same, with the siren call of other things beckoning me away. For example, there's the Resident Male's Galaga hat. I need to finish that before cold weather sets in. And the quickie strip scarf out of black Merino Lace. That was begun as an interim project until I could finish the big shawl. There are other half-finished things from The Chest of Knitting Horrors(tm) that I really need to finish, too. Like my dragon-skin Rogue. Older Daughter is looking pained about it.

But (and I'm sure my fellow flitterwing knitters will understand) there's something that's calling to me. In the back of the Duchrow #3:

there are six hand-drawn charts included as an appendix. They're not well documented, and use slightly different symbols than the more formal repros in the rest of the book. The key and few accompanying notes are not only in German, they are a medium-quality photocopy of the pattern author's hand-written script. That makes them very difficult to decipher, especially considering that I don't read German. Marginalia names the author of the appendix charts as Gertrud Weywod, a "contemporary of Christine Duchrow." I've done some cursory searching for more info on her, to find out if anyone else has worked these patterns up; and to see if any of her work was ever published professionally in her own day. So far, I haven't turned up anything, but again - I can't read German and don't have access to much in the way of German-language libraries. If you've heard of this pattern author, please let me know. I'm itching to find out more.

As you can tell, these patterns fascinate me. Several are floral rather than geometric, and most of them are very complex. One of the simpler ones reminds me strongly of some double running stitch and counted band patterns from patternbooks published in Germany in the 1520s.

I think I've deduced what most of Weywod's graph symbols mean. Using those assumptions I've translated one of the graphs to modern notation. I'm proofing it now - doing the calculations to see if given each row's stitch counts, increases, and decreases, whether or not my assumptions are knit-able. I've also got some lovely sage green laceweight - another gift from Friend Dena. So it's pretty much a given that by the middle of the fall, I will have fallen to a new challenge, and will be hopelessly fuddled working out the Weywod patterns.

But first I have to finish my shawl, and that hat, and all that blocking...

Technorati : knitting

First some administrivia. This site has been under massive attack by comment and trackback spammers. As a result, we've totally disabled the trackback feature, and limited comments to the most current three months of entries. We have also instituted a protected comment system to prevent automated spammers. But since the crowd that visits here doesn't appear to be particularly chatty, that shouldn't be a problem. We've also updated the software that runs the infrastructure of the blog. Whenever a set of changes of this magnitude is undertaken, it's going to take a few days before the bugs are ironed out. Apologies if you tried to consult these pages and received error messages. We're working on the remaining nits as fast as we can. Special thanks to The Resident Male - website plumber extraordinaire for the hours he's put in wrestling with these issues.

In the mean time, knitting here continues. Friend Dena was amazingly generous, giving me more of the gray/brown laceweight (also lots of other goodies destined for some more over the top lace projects). Ten thousand thanks! Armed with more yarn, I've been able to work more on the big shawl. I'm rounding the second corner and on the back stretch. No pix today though. It looks much as it did last week - a frothy gray/brown object too unblocked to see well.

It turns out that this blog serves a major purpose that I didn't really appreciate. I am not good at cataloging what exactly I do as I fudge my way through a project. I was careful to note the pattern and mechanism I was using for the framing area of my shawl, but I hit on the edge pattern during the time I was stretched thin and didn't have time to write up entries. Therefore I didn't make a written note of where that edging pattern came from and what I did to adapt it for this piece. Since I also set the shawl aside when I ran out of yarn, I had lost my thread of continuity on it. It took me a couple of days before I located the edging that I was using and figured out what I had been up to. It's from the first volume of Duchrow reprints compiled by J. and K. Kliot:

I now present it here as much to keep track of what the heck I'm up to for myself, as for others to play with. The pattern I'm using appears on Page 35. The original stumped me a bit because I couldn't make the last three stitches work out correctly. According to the book, every row should end with a SSK, K2 - but I find that working the "uphill" side of my triangular dags, I have room for a plain K3, and on the "downhill" side as the dag narrows back, I have room for a K2tog, K3 - but need to cheat, working the first stitch on the wrong side return row as a P2tog to preserve the visual line of the narrow strip at the outer edge of my border.

The pattern page (click on image above to get a readable version) presents both the original from the book, translated into modern notation; and my adaptation.

Technorati : knitting

Long-Time Needlework Pal Kathryn (she of "too many centuries, too little time") is mid-sock, knitting up a pair loosely following Paton's own recipe for Kroy Socks. She's using Kroy in Retro Red, plus navy and Blazing Blue. The nifty cloverleaf motif she's using is the reason for this post. She's adapted it from my New Carolingian Modelbook, Plate 1!

As ever, I'm tickled to see one of my pattern children make it out into the real world. Great socks, Kathryn! You made my day. (Photo is Kathryn's, reproduced with her permission.

Technorati : knitting

I'm delighted to announce that at least one other human being has the courage, fortitude, and profound lack of reason to attempt my North Truro Counterpane. Not only is she doing the pattern, she's simplifying it a bit by cleverly knitting some of the pieces together, avoiding several seams in the process

High-fives to Sandra B. who is busy knitting on this right now, but who took the time to send me the snap above. She made my day! (The photo above is hers, reproduced with her permission).

Technorati : knitting

O.K. Where have I been? Here, but totally snowed under at work. In the corners of time between deadlines, some progress on the home front was made.

After a series of two steps forward/one step back mishaps involving subcontractors (all made good by the general contractor at no cost besides delay time, and the extra effort of a bit more repainting than we planned), the bathroom renovation is now 90% done. All of the fixtures and tiling is complete and the room is functional. I'm particularly pleased with way things have turned out, in spite of the delays.

All that remains is finishing the woodwork and painting the upper part of the walls. We're doing those things ourselves, including stripping paint from our door and stained glass window (both missing in the photos above), staining both to match the rest of the room's wood. At this point, we've finished staining and finishing the in-place part of the cabinetry, plus the window frame and the frame around our mirror. We've done the first pass stripping on the door. The window is stripped and sanded, and has been stained. The upper cabinet's doors and shelves have been stained and are awaiting finishing, and we're in the middle of staining the doors and shelves in the lower cabinet.

On the knitting front, I've got a ton of things I need to block. I finished the baby blanket, am almost done with the gray/brown lace shawl, and finished a small lacy doodle. I also have quite a few projects from earlier this year to pin out and/or block. Here's proof that the baby blanket is done, although not yet blocked or mailed.

On the lace shawl, as predicted, I ran out of yarn. But Friend Dena has graciously offered up a some more to complete. As you can (sort of) see below, all I need to do is finish the final edging.

The doodle was to try out a pattern in one of the lace books I gave myself for my birthday - Old World Treasures by

I am not a big fan of prose directions, but although unorthodox these are pretty clear. However I did note that the photograph of the piece that accompanies the pattern I tried is not a literal representation of the pattern as written. The photograph clearly shows a much deeper section of the final petaled shapes, involving at least four more repeats of the design as written, with some sort of accompanying increase to account for the ever increasing diameter of the piece. Although my unblocked lace doodle is difficult to make out, you can see that the final petals between the two orange lines appear to be less tall than same area in the book's photo. Obviously blocking is in order here, too.

I'm now doodling with some black Skacel Merino Lace, trying out some of the patterns from the German Language Kunst-Stricken (Knitted Lace). In this case, the patterns are graphed, using a block and triangle system that's not standard, but not difficult to read. I find them easier than the typography based system used in the Duchrow books. Duchrow's numeral 1s and German lower case letter ls are particularly confusing to me.) The charts in Knitted Lace however are particularly tiny. The visually challenged might like to either regraph or use photo enlargement. I chose to regraph.

Here's my progress from last night. I've chosen an insertion pattern (shown in the book as dual insertions meant for use on a decorative linen pillowcase), and a simple zig-zag lace edging used in the book as a handkerchief embellishment. Needless to say, I just started with the insertion, but I've played with the pattern somewhat. I changed the side to side framing, and I chose to tinker with the diamond centers. Rather than doing all in the heavily eyeleted lower style, I'll either alternate that with the one above, or figure out a bunch more variants as I progress. My goal is to make a scarf about 8 inches wide and about five feet long, or as long as I can get out of my one 1375 yard skein of Merino Lace.

I'm not entirely sure I'll keep this intact. I'm leaning towards reworking the thing on a larger size needle to make it a bit more lacy.

Oh. My advice on knitting lace from black thread-weight yarn?

Don't.

Technorati : bathroom renovation, knitting