Wee Wonderfuls the finest selection of fabrics i think i’ve ever seen. blimey she even makes me want to quilt!

lack of blog activity doesn’t represent lack of stitching - far from it, but most of the things i’m working on at the moment are swap or xmas related so i don’t want to post until after they’ve been received. so to make up for lack of project pix thought i’d post some recent acquisitions instead.

handmade glass brooch by lionel nichols. i’ve been drooling over the button sets for ages, but never found good reason to justify them. this was modest enough to treat myself to just because.

sock yarn! i’m tackling a hat on dpns in preparation. this (the yarn and the time to knit them) will be my xmas present to myself.

mexican oilcloth!! from vivalafrida. i stumbled across a mexican site selling these fabrics and fell in love immediately. googling to find the site again much to my surprise turned up a uk importer, resistance was useless :D. we might be in danger of heading into theme restaurant territory in our dining room if i can’t get a firmer grip on my inclinations though…

no pix but my other recent exciting parcel was a sackload of leather offcuts from this ebayer. enough to keep us in slippers for life, and a mix of colours too. it’s mostly fairly thin which suits me just right as i don’t want to lose the softness and suppleness you get from the felt and i wouldn’t expect them to be super hardwearing. i’ll be making some more as soon as i can as my first (prototype not failure!) pair have utterly disintegrated this was down to stopping fulling sooner than i wanted because the hairy fibres were meshing through the lining, which itself was a result of not using thick enough layers in the first place. for version 0.2 i’ll try roughly double the amount of fibre, and a finer wool for the outer so the meshing should be less problematic. (nikki-shell, if you’re reading, you’ll be glad to hear i’ll be making a second protoype before i do yours!).

Two Pointy Sticks

not her work but dig the caterpillar cushion:

and how’s this for colour inspiration?

Nautilus Hat
seaman’s cap
marsan watchcap
top-down hat generator

Sock Knitting Tips
glitter sock thread
and a whole forums at knittersreview and angelyarns

toe-up sock pattern
knitty sock tutorial
knittersreview sock tutorial
german twisted cast-on and on video

guess what i’m planning after i finish xmas stuff…

yay for learning to knit! yay for beginner yarn that doesn’t show beginner knitting mistakes! there are only 2 really obvious goofs i’ve spotted, a dirty great hole and a stitch that goes straight across for some odd reason. the fact that i meander between slipping the last stitch and knitting it doesn’t show enough to count. i didn’t like the reduced stretch slipping the stitch gave to the edge, even if it was a bit neater.

i don’t count the fact that i changed from english to combined knitting half way through either, as far as i can tell there isn’t any difference in the fabric itself. combined knitting was a godsend with the 2×2 rib, moving the yarn back and front was a doddle. although overall i was probably slower because i’ve done wee bits of swatch knitting and way back when i was a kid i’m sure i tried to learn to knit and that was all english style, so i was kind of familiar with the movements.

i used 3 yarns, all bfl - straight oatmeal, straight humbug and a random chunky mix of the 2. i was hoping for a more random distribution of the blocks, but it’s come out looking quite designed (lol, my inner control freak surfacing no doubt). the way the colour blending’s worked up is very educational for me to know, though i can’t say i’m greatly struck by it. i’m very pleased there’s no screamingly obvious weight discrepancies. it’s turned out very warm, surprisingly dense and drapey. there’s a very slight prickle which i’m a bit disappointed by, perhaps that’s the ultimate test, as it feels fine on my face. i’ll be interested to see whether that’s still there with the silk blend i’m spinning at the moment (with a lower twist).

i’ve been wearing it round the house all night and will probably wear it to bed. it’s fucking arctic here at the moment.

utterly o/t, but since this is the repository of all my creative bookmarks i thought i’d drop these here:

PRINT MORE POST CARDS on how to use a gocco printer.
flickr gocco group
craftster thread
blog entry with links
supplies, lots of tips and demo videos (urgh no longer supplies to uk :() the printers exchange pages are full of ideas and techniques.

so last night i was knitting in bed and the yarn was somewhere on the floor to my left. since it was too cold to get out and pick it up and it was bugging me to have it running across the work i had a go at holding the yarn in my left hand instead (which i guessed must be something like the continental style i’ve heard mentioned). it was possible, if tricky, so i went searching for proper instructions and landed at knittinghelp. i found doing it properly was more fluid than my busked version, but still pretty tricky. so then i tried the combined method, aka eastern uncrossed, also illustrated (and here) and wow! how easy is that? i can see that it could cause problems following patterns, but for simple stuff like scarves it looks like a real winner.

as far as i can tell (from my very brief experience, might be totally wrong) the only difference is how the stitches are held on the needle, not the fabric that’s produced. i went from one style to another on my scarf and i can’t spot the changeover.

i think i’ll probably try to learn all 3 methods since each seems to have an advantage in different situations, all i have to do is remember which method i’m using and not get mixed up between them.

so for my ref:

• standard: k&p both through front loop, yarn wrapped anticlockwise*
• combined: k through back loop (which is leading loop, opposite to standard), p through front loop, needle over yarn and scoop through.

oh and i also want to learn how to knit lefthanded so i can do the stockinette without turning trick as per this craftster thread.

*just reading a thread over on knitty that said wrapping clockwise is the right way. but studying the videos i think i’m going the right way but viewing it from the pointy end of the needle back towards the work, in which case it is a-c. still, i should probably start thinking of it the other way or i’m going to get very easily confused.

another version of “standard” knitting, with better economy of movement.

another discussion, this time at angelyarns.

yet more discussion with a nice clear explanation of the differences from knitty.

l a u r a s p l a n: textile art to freak out the squeamish. the virus doilies are exquisite.

i think i’ve reached the point where there’s no good reason to blog every yarn i spin, which is a milestone of sorts. my most recent is more bfl for the scarf i’m knitting (aka my first ever knitting that isn’t a swatch, which is practice for a scarf made from the bfl/silk if i ever finish spinning it, i really don’t like spinning from the fold).

it’s hopefully a similar wpi, very roughly 85 yds. i got more humbug instead of the plain brown/grey i’d ordered and wanted something else for the scarf that was different from the humbug and oatmeal i’d already spun. don’t think i blogged the oatmeal as it was the second half of the very first bfl i tried, even though it turned out as a very different yarn (so my yarn numbering system is already a bit askew and i think i might have to abandon it altogether - should i count things like the teeny lengths of thread i ran up for the slippers? i think the system might be falling apart, but then i’d be tempted to think up names, and, try as i might, i can’t get my head round the idea of naming yarns. i also like the sense of perspective i get from the numbering system).

anyway, for the colour i predrafted handfuls of the oatmeal and humbug side by side, aiming for a bit of patchiness, so that hopefully i’d get strong colour combinations in the ply rather than an even blend - i want it to look distinct from the 0ther yarns. i do have some white bfl i could also throw in, but i need t find out how much of a scarf 200g makes as that’s all i have of the bfl/silk, less accounting for swatching.

the yarn’s pretty well balanced, just a 1/4 S twist in the final skein, so a little overplied but that’s because i never took a plied reference sample and instead guessed at what it should look like.

i don’t want to weave (well maybe a little bit) but even if i did want to weave (just a little bit) i wouldn’t want to weave tapes (not even a tiny bit) but still i really really want (oh so much) one of these.

Wovenflame: Proud Peacock cos yeah, i really need another laceweight shawl.

seriously. i will.

Yarn Harlot

article on how to deal with ends in knitting from knitty

fabulous article on gauge, yardage, wpi etc.

have been musing about adding sturdier soles to slippers, hence tangential re-enactment links :
roman
medieval
general instructions for making shoes which includes this fascinating (if not strictly relevant) picture tutorial.

it’s turned icy cold tonight, and just in time we have new slippers. not sure whether madam’s are as warm as mine which are ridiculously warm, if they weren’t open-backed they’d be too hot

adventures in felting proper started with little slippers for madam:

using a pattern designed to fit her feet and a cardboard resist as per previous links. it really is a straightforward process, start to finish (including drying overnight) in 12 hours. i haven’t included the time it took me to unravel 1 1/2 oz pencil roving (oh for a :rolleyes: smiley when i really need one). my fault - i said that if i got pink fluff in my delivery i’d make her slippers from it, forgetting if it did arrive it wouldn’t be in easily-feltable form.

i’ve got a load of process shots that i might upload if the fancy takes me, i just followed the directions and it worked a treat. it was merino so felted no problem. i had to do a fair bit of tweaking to get the foot to sit flat, as i thought i might looking at the pattern. stuffing with newspaper helped a lot, but slowed down the drying.

thanks to excellent advice received on glitter i had puff paint at the ready to slip-proof the soles. i could do with a lot more practice with the puff paint i trimmed down the original design which had flappy bits round the ankle. i didn’t like how they turned out and madam couldn’t manage to get them on on her own. the extra meant i had enough to leave a tag on the back to help get them on and i much prefer the more minimal look. i ran up a quick batch of fine candy-cane pink and white yarn to finish the edges.

only one slight hitch - she won’t wear them but won’t explain why, they fit perfectly and my guess is they really are just too hot.

i tried a different approach for mine, cutting and sewing from a sheet of felt. i liked the idea of making double sided felt, especially since i had some herdwick that should make durable but not very comfy slippers. so i thought i’d back it with a softer fibre, dyed, cos nothing that goes on my feet would stay white for long. i chose bfl in the hope that it would felt when i wanted and not in the dye bath. dye was my standard vinegar/food dye combo, worked a treat.

i had to stop the fulling process sooner than i wanted because the long hairy fibres of the herdwick were starting to migrate through the bfl, defeating the object of having a soft fluffy lining. so the felt wasn’t as sturdy as i would have liked. at the last minute i decided to double up the sole layer and didn’t have enough to cut duplicates without piecing, hence the joining you can see on the right “insole”, thought i’d go for brazen rather than subtle. it’s stitched with a thread i spun from the bfl (slightly thicker than i’d used on the pink ones, the thickest i could get through the needle).

i made up a pattern based on drawing round my feet and allowing extra room on the top piece. they’re not very snug fitting as i wanted room to wear with socks. i tested the pattern by stapling the paper pattern pieces together and trying them on, and they’re just as i wanted. i finished the raw edges with more blanket stitched bfl thread. perhaps next time i’d make more of an effort to match them up re: how the grain runs - i can’t say it bothers me at all, but i’d spot it straight away if i hadn’t made them.

next time i’d definitely make a thicker felt, more layers to begin with. you can see how thin and patchy the bfl is, and i’m not sure how much life i’ll get from the soles, even doubled. i decided not to puff the bottoms since our floors aren’t all that slippy and there isn’t enough room to get up skid-worthy speed. overall i’m really really pleased with these, for a rough and ready and very quick prototype (start to finish, dyeing spinning and all in less than 12 hours, which included cooking and eating a roast dinner :)). i love the hairiness and i still can’t believe how ridiculously warm they are.

this was supposed to be a basket to store yarn, but i severely underestimated how far my yardage would get me. this is all 95 yards of handpsun #7 transformed into a thing 12″ by 5″ by a paltry 2″ high. i gained a little extra height with the picots which are totally out of keeping with the yarn and the rectangular shape, but i actually quite like it. i’m using it to (try to) keep my keys, cards and other essentials together.

i made it up as i went along, starting with a long spiral, squaring it out by increasing just at the corners and not along the ends. i realised i’d have to change to rows when i got to the sides as the spirals make for a single-sided fabric, fine for the base, but not the sides. on the first side row i worked into the back loops only, which makes for a nicely defined corner.

it’s worked with a small hook for the wpi (4mm iirc) and the fabric is pretty tight, it’d stand up a bit more if the picots didn’t make it wider along the top row. i’m pretty pleased i’ve got a (semi) functional item out of what was all along a colour experiment. i can’t believe how all the colour repeats happened to fall together though.

from helloyarn

pluss essential tutorial

and more help

jo sharp .:. The Wool Shack Knitting Store of Australia
yeah right like i need another crochet shawl…