Amazing Andean knitting
Back in November I spent a day at Interweave Knitting Lab. The small but excellent market included a booth selling Peruvian textiles - mostly woven, but including some wonderful knitted caps, one of which I bought:
It's baby-sized, knitted from handspun yarn (wool? alpaca? not sure, the label just said "natural fiber", though it feels more wool- than alpaca-like) at an extremely tight gauge of about 12 stitches per inch. It's worked intarsia-style in about 10 beautiful naturally-dyed colors. Here's the inside - gorgeous, no?
Most amazing of all, it's completely covered with tiny bobbles:
and I mean tiny - they're about 1/8" across. I realized the bobbles must make it very warm by adding an insulating, air-trapping layer. But how the heck could you knit those tiny things?
The answer is, you don't. I knew I'd read an article somewhere about Andean bobbles, and a little sleuthing turned it up in an old issue of Interweave Knits. According to Linda Ligon, they are added to the yarn before the knitting happens: knitters take their 2-ply handspun and finger-crochet three to five chain stitches for each bobble. ("Innovation in the Andes: Making Bobble Yarn," IK Winter 2006, page 50). Brilliant, right? Simple, right? Well, try it - I did, very clumsily, and have just as much admiration for the bobble-making as if they had been knitted. They have to be evenly sized and spaced perfectly so they can be placed just so in the knitting.
The ultimate source of this wonderful cap was the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to preserve traditional Andean weaving and knitting traditions by buying and selling woven and knitted textiles and - more importantly - teaching young people the crafts. Explore the site to see how beautiful this work is. You can buy directly from them. Cloth Roads in the U.S. also imports and sells some of the wovens. Here's a woven cloth from Patabamba to give you an idea what they look like:
I paid $35 for her handiwork, not enough really...but it will be treasured. It's made its way to chilly Wisconsin to live with granddaughter Malena...
and no doubt to be passed down to other children when she outgrows it.
Wintry trees
Kate Davies just released a new sweater pattern (Boreal), and seeing it sparked a little search for other colorwork patterns featuring wintry trees. Just the thing for December - January knitting! Click here for the Ravelry search link.
Tuulia Salmela's beautiful Deep in the Forest mittens (fingering weight)
Winter Twilight mitts by Laura Rintala - the free pattern is here. Written for heavy laceweight cashmere but may be knitted in fingering weight. Be sure to check the projects pages on Ravelry - there are many lovely versions of these mitts.
Emily Elizabeth's Douglas Mittens (worsted weight).
and tree-patterned Pulse Warmers by Friederike Erbslein (free pattern). Fingering weight; pattern is in German but there are charts and with a little translation help you could figure out the numbers.
Kyllene by Kirsten Jensen, from Twist Collective - this one in fingering-weight yarn, with a keyhole neck.
The Elements earflap hat by Crystal Flanagan in worsted weight Lett-Lopi / Lite Lopi.
Meg White's Bosque hat, in bulky-weight Cascade Ecological Wool.
Happy winter!
edited to add: January 5, 2012
Nancy Bush's Spruce Forest shawl from the new Brooklyn Tweed collection, Wool People 2, in Loft (fingering weight)
Little Fair Isle Hat, free from the Purl Bee - ombré shaded trees in Koigu fingering-weight merino
Pattern roundup: Quick gifts part four - kids and miscellany
Welcome to the Knitfinder quick gifts pattern roundup, 2011 edition (you'll find the 2009 and 2010 lists here). This series is for people who love to give handknits, but aren't organized enough to get them done early. You know who you are. It isn't too late to knit a little something for a dear friend or relation or two. In this final post, patterns for kids and a bit of miscellany.
There are only two rules: under 300 yards of yarn (or up to twice that for stranded colorwork, because after all you're only knitting half the yardage); and available instantly online so you can cast on immediately. The yardage limit means a project can't take too long, and increases the odds of your finding appropriate yarn in your stash. Some patterns are free; others cost a few dollars.
Babies and kids are so much fun to knit for - that's been a highlight of my knitting year. Here are a few designs for them that fit the rules.
Joji Locatelli's Baby G is a cute cute eyelet-rib baby vest with garter-stitch buttoned yoke. 130-400 yards worsted weight, for newborns to 18 months.
Nicole Montgomery's adorable Sock Monkey sweater uses 200-300 yards Aran-weight yarn; there are two versions of the monkey decoration - duplicate stitch or an intarsia square. Sized for 3 months - 18 months.
Teresa Cole's Langston shrug is a top-down cropped cardigan with ruffled edges and cable accents. 125-475 yards DK weight, for 3 months to 10 years. I knitted one of these - it's cute, cozy and fast. Picture here.
Ribbed pullover hood/neckwarmer from DROPS, finished with a long peak and a pompom (free). 200-300 yards sport weight for sizes to fit 3 to 9 year olds. The pattern is here.
For toddlers, Convertible Owl Mittens by Rebecca Reveal (free) have a slit on the palm side so fingers can be slipped out without taking the mittens off. Less than 200 yards worsted weight, worked at sportweight gauge.
Frankie Brown's Russian Dolls (free): Simple softies embellished with embroidery. Small amounts of yarn in whatever weight you like.
Now for the miscellany. First, a trio of necklaces, two with beads and one without:
Amy Fowler's Lexington Waves (free): 15-20 yards fingering weight, plus beads
Laura Nelkin's Butin Collar: 15 yards fingering silk or silk/wool, plus beads. From her Adorn jewelry collection. Laura sells kits for Butin with everything you need here.
Olga Buraya-Kefelian's Cable Braided Necklace (free): A tiny bit of yarn and a simple, unusal technique. May be worn as a bracelet too. Pattern is here.
A pair of fulled, stranded colorwork bags: Ann Kingstone's Fleur Tote and Brooks Jones's Misty (free). Each uses less than 600 yards total of Aran or worsted weight. Here's a pretty version of Misty.
From one lace knitter to another, a doily would be a lovely gift - for under the teapot or the coffee cup:
Linda Browning's Poinsettia Lace doily is coaster size, 5-6" across. 40-60 yards fingering weight. Browning has several other pretty doily designs - you can see them all here.
Coats & Clark knit flower doily (free) requires 300 yards size 10 crochet thread and works up to 8" across.
The Lace Flower Doily from Knitting on the Net (free) uses 93 yards of DK weight yarn and blocks out to 11 1/2" across.
Lastly, some Christmas decorations:
Balls Up! (free) Traditional Scandinavian Christmas balls in stranded colorwork. Small amounts of fingering weight yarn.
Karolina Eckerdal's Stjarna star ornament (free) uses 35-50 yards DK weight.
Ysolda Teague's Last Minute Stockings use less than 164 yards Aran/heavy worsted weight yarn. They're big, but quick!
That wraps up the series. Now get busy!
Previous posts:
Pattern roundup: Quick gifts part three - headwear
Welcome to the Knitfinder quick gifts pattern roundup, 2011 edition (you'll find the 2009 and 2010 lists here). It isn't too late to knit a little something for a dear friend or relation or two.
The rules: under 300 yards of yarn (or up to twice that for stranded colorwork, because after all you're only knitting half the yardage); patterns available instantly online so you can cast on immediately. The yardage limit means a project can't take too long, and increases the odds of your finding appropriate yarn in your stash. Some patterns are free; others cost a few dollars.
Today, plenty of hats! Simple ones first:
Leah Thibault's Dolan beret (free): Gansey-style texture patterning in Aran-weight yarn - less than 170 yards.
Jennifer Adams's Graham (free): Textured slouch hat in a reverse broken rib stitch. 220 yards worsted weight alpaca.
Susan Mills's Simply Slouchy Hat (free) in 2 hanks of Fresco (sport weight) (< 300 yards). Totally simple & minimal, but would be delicious in this wool-alpaca-angora-blend.
Kelly McClure Orbitus hat: a simple hat, gracefully shaped with short rows and accented with purl ridges. 150 yards heavy worsted or Aran weight.
Michele Wang's Jaffrey hat from the BT Loft Collection 150-270 yards fingering weight, beautiful twisted-stitch patterning
Carina Spencer's Regina cloche hat (free): unusual vintage-inspired hat with contrast band, knit for custom fit; 160-200 yards worsted weight. This one is a beauty.
Jared Flood's Rosebud: Garter and cable slouch hat; 140-160 yards worsted weight
Kirsten Kapur Ida's Kitchen hat: chevron-stripe slouch hat in 230-250 yards sport weight - great pattern for stash busting.
And now, for the color knitters:
Elena Nodel’s Color Me Pretty hat Roll-brim stockinette cap with not-too-difficult stranded colorwork, sized for children and adults. 120-180 yards DK weight yarn.
Purl Bee Brioche Hat and Cowl (free) 219 + 164 yards worsted or Aran-weight yarn in two colors makes the hat; cowl takes slightly more. Simple pattern to teach yourself two-color brioche
Kate Davies's free wwww#1 (wazz's woolen winter walking wardrobe): Fair Isle colorwork headband, lined for softness. Small amounts of fingering or sport weight yarn in 5 colors, plus about 10g for the lining.
Leef Bloemenstiel’s 3-color Earflap Hat (free) Simple zigzag colorwork, cozy garter-stitch earflaps, and a pompom. 300-350 yards worsted weight.
Erika Wine’s Graupel hat: Another beanie with simple stranded colorwork – bold in bulky weight yarn (160 yards) or worsted weight held double (200-250 yards).
Crystal Flanagan’s Elements hat: Water, tree and mountain motifs in the colorwork for this one – knitted in a rustic worsted, with optional lining
Hiroko Fukatsu’s Myrten beret: Nontraditional flowery colorwork has a mod look. Matching mittens, too. 300 yards fingering weight in all.
Kate Davies's Fugue tam and mittens in geometric stranded colorwork. 190 yards each of two colors fingering weight for either hat or mitts - 100g of each color makes both.
Previous posts:
Coming next: for kids, plus some miscellany
Pattern roundup: Quick gifts part two - hands and feet
Welcome to the Knitfinder quick gifts pattern roundup, 2011 edition (you'll find the 2009 and 2010 lists here). It isn't too late to knit a little something for a dear friend or relation or two.
The rules: under 300 yards of yarn (or up to twice that for stranded colorwork, because after all you're only knitting half the yardage); patterns available instantly online so you can cast on immediately. The yardage limit means a project can't take too long, and increases the odds of your finding appropriate yarn in your stash. Some patterns are free; others cost a few dollars.
Today, projects for warm hands, wrists and feet.
Leila Raabe's Lockhart mitts from Brooklyn Tweed Fall 2011: 125-150 yards worsted weight, beautiful twisted-stitch patterning with smocked effect
Misa Erder's Vagabond mitts: Simple, graphic stranded colorwork - 110 yards each of two colors (fingering or sport weight)
Miriam Felton's Tributary gloves: about 300 yards DK weight yarn. Elbow-length gloves with bold cabling - how luxurious in Tosh DK!
Alana Dakos's Oak Grove mitts: Embossed oak leaves framed by arching cables; 150 yards sport weight
Rebecca Blair's Maplewood mittens (free): Knit-purl texture pattern with a picot-edged garter-stitch cuff; 200 yards worsted weight
Karen Everitt's Cozy Cuffed Mitts (free): Simple stockinette mitts with ribbed foldover cuff that unfolds to cover the fingers. Perfect for handspun yarn. 160-180 yards worsted weight.
Thistle Mittens (free) by Libby Gillard-Somers feature a pretty Scotch thistle motif in twisted stitches and tiny bobbles. Knitted from fingertips to wrist. Ribbed cuff fits under your coat sleeve, flared ruffle fits over it. 219-273 yards sport weight yarn.
Katherine Matthews's Rani or Donna Druchunas's Lithuanian Riesines (both free from Knitty): Gorgeous beaded garter-stitch cuffs, worked sideways. 190-250 yards fingering weight yarn.
Derya Davenport's Bow Pouch (free): Whimsical but practical bowknot wristlet with a tiny pocket. 71-82 yards fingering weight yarn. Great idea, this - would be lovely in a bit of special silk or wool/silk or sea silk - something with luster.
Catherine Shields's Beatrice Gloves with bead-and-eyelet chevrons on back of hands. 150-225 yards Shetland fingering weight
And three for the feet:
Kirsikkatie cabled ankle socks (free) in 219-284 yards sport weight yarn
Amanda Rios's Soxies: old-fashioned garter-stitch and cabled slippers adorned with a button or pom-pom. 150 yards worsted weight
Churchmouse Classics Turkish Bed Socks: super-simple stockinette socklets, but so pretty in handpainted merino. 175 yards fingering weight.
Coming later this week: headwear, projects for kids, and some miscellany. Part 1 - cowls, scarves and wraps is here.
Pattern roundup: Quick gifts part one - neck & shoulders
Welcome to the Knitfinder quick gifts pattern roundup, 2011 edition. (You'll find the 2010 and 2009 roundups here.) Projects small enough that you can still whip out one or two for friends or family members who appreciate receiving handknits - you've got a month yet!
The rules: patterns use 300 yards or less of yarn (or up to twice that for stranded knitting, since you really only knit with half of it), so they're quick to knit, and perhaps you'll have yarn in your stash. Also, patterns are all available online so you can get started NOW - and many of them are free.
Today, a dozen or so designs to keep necks and shoulders warm - more posts to come throughout the next week or so.
COWLS & NECKWARMERS
Heidi Kirrmaier's Circumnavigate cowl: longer-length cowl in a pretty, intricate knit-purl texture pattern. 300 yards DK weight yarn.
Kira Dulaney’s Svelte cowl: Closer-fitting cable-and-garter-stitch cowl in angora blend (210 yards fingering weight)
Hiroko Fukatsu's Cupido cowl (free): airy slip-stitch texture pattern in a lofty yarn: 180 yards Aran weight mohair-wool (like Rowan Kid Classic)
Laura Jansen’s Tea Latte cowl: 120 yards super bulky (Patons wool roving is called for) – buttoned cowl in herringbone texture stitch
Lisa Mutch’s Heartache: Buttoned garter-stitch neckwarmer in edgy short-row wedge stripes – two colors with a third for accent. 260 yards worsted weight
Laura Chau's Turbulence: Garter stitch cowl in waving short-row stripes. 2 colors, 210 yds total (worstedweight)
Melinda VerMeer's Hannoki cowl: Japanese lace pattern in chunky/bulky yarn (150-165 yards)
SCARVES & SHAWLETTES
Kirsten Johnstone's Hakusa: minimal, elegant wisp of a scarf in two different Habu yarns held together; asymmetrical triangle shape in two sizes.
Nancy Marchant's Rodekool scarf (free at Knitty): two-color brioche stitch keyhole scarf; 195 yards color-change fingering weight yarn (pattern calls for Crystal Palace Mini Mochi)
Grace McEwen's Twisted Vine Neckwarmer: embossed keyhole scarflet in 150 yards worsted or DK weight. A poor pattern photo on Ravelry does not do this design justice. I knitted this one in Great Northern Yarns mink/cashmere DK and it was a big hit as a gift.
A trio of larger shoulder wraps:
Bea Schmidt's Maluka shawl (free) is a stockinette crescent with pretty cable and lace edging - under 300 yards fingering weight yarn.
Tracy Withanee's Garden View shawlette: Stockinette shawlette with garter leaf edging, knitted sideways. 200-300 yards Aran weight yarn
Gabriela's Vaire shawlette: Shawlette or scarf in 300 yards worsted weight yarn - garter and stockinette stitch with bold lace edge. This version was knitted in one skein of Malabrigo worsted.
Stay tuned through the coming week for more. Next up: headwear, I think.
Alice Starmore at Interweave Knitting Lab
photo by Kristi Herbert
photo by Scott Denham
photo by danielduce
photo by Travels with a Camera and a dog
photo by hds
Halloween and Day of the Dead knitting
I'm not much for holiday-themed knitting, but Halloween projects and patterns are popping up all over Ravelry and I was reminded of a few that I like. Please, don't make your children wear pumpkins on their heads or bodies - but perhaps you'll find something in this tasteful little collection that calls to you. Bats, black cats, skulls, spiders - something for everyone.
Remember the Scare Isle Tam from last fall's Knitty? Free pattern in lovely Jamieson Spindrift. You can buy a kit for it from Feral Knitter for $23.60 - click here.
Day of the Dead is a much-celebrated holiday in my area and I like the sentiment behind it. I've been meaning to knit a pair of the Skulls and Flowers mitts ever since they came out. (10/19/2011 edited to add Allison Guy's Day of the Dead Mittens.)
Click here to see all the patterns on Ravelry with live links. If it's taste-LESS Halloween patterns you're after, you're on your own.
Pseudo rolags
I know, more spinning. But I'm learning something new, and having so much fun with this technique that I wanted to show you exactly what I'm doing. These are what are known as "pseudo rolags," as discussed here at Rosemary Knits and in an article in the Spring 2011 issue of Spin-Off magazine.
I'm still pretty much a beginning spinner - I can spin my "default yarn" pretty well, but that's about it. My default seems to be fairly high twist, smooth, and worsted-spun. I like woolen-spun yarns too, though, and have always wanted to figure out how to spin something along those lines - something with the soft, fuzzy, airy qualities of the Shetland yarns I love. I've never carded or flicked anything, so when I came across the Rosemary Knits post this sounded like a method that might get me that from a batt.
Here's the fiber I started out with: a 4-ounce wool/alpaca batt from Spinners Hill, bought online from The Dizzy Sheep. They seem to come up for sale there now and then - I've bought them on two separate occasions. The colorway is aptly named "Thistles in the Meadow," a mix of yellow, green, rose and wine.
I simply pulled little tufts out of the batt and laid them out on a piece of fabric. Just one layer deep, because I'm aiming for a fingering- to sportweight 2-ply, so I need a pretty fine single and don't want too much fiber in the rolag. That's a 10-inch chopstick in the picture. The tufts are 4-5" long. I lined them up until they were about the length of the chopstick or just a bit longer.
Now we roll it up. (This is a different batch of fiber, hence the different color.) Lay the chopstick on the fiber at the lower edge and start rolling. As soon as the chopstick is enclosed, I lay a knitting needle above it to hold the fiber edge down (this one's a size 11), then keep rolling upward.
Pull out the knitting needle...
Roll it all the way up, plus a couple of extra light rolls to make the top edge of the fibers stick...
Pull out the chopstick, and there's your pseudo rolag.
It took me 15-20 minutes to make the 16 of them you see in the photo at the top of the post - about an ounce of fiber total. They're about 11" long and average just under 2 grams.
All ready to spin!
I'm using a worsted spinning technique, pretty much - not letting much, if any, twist slip below my fingers into the fiber, and smoothing gently as the singles wind on to the bobbin. Even so, the fibers are in such a jumble as they come off the pseudo rolag that the single definitely has a woolen quality.
Here's a closeup of the nose of the pseudo rolag, and the single plied back on itself:
The rolag looks pretty funny hanging from the wheel.
Again, the method is described in this post at Rosemary Knits. And here's a post at Southern Cross Fibre describing a similar technique for making pseudo rolags from combed top. Of course, you could have a lot of fun playing with color using these techniques - it can be manipulated as you lay out the fiber for each rolag, and again as you choose what order to spin the rolags in (and which end to spin from). Endless possibilities!
Edited 7/21/11: plying was finished this morning...
and here is the finished skein. Thicker than I thought it would be, but soft and lofty: 108 grams, 230 yards or so.
Spinning away
My Tour de Fleece is coming along swimmingly. The goal was modest - spin every day, for at least half an hour, to get back in the groove; try some new techniques. Twelve days in, here's what I have to show for it:
Next, some Purl Up and Dye superwash wool from Purlescence. I bought this at Sock Summit 2009. I spun it semiwoolen, letting a bit of twist slip below my fingers into the fiber. The first bobbin of singles was spun without splitting the roving - I tried to work back and forth across the whole width of it for long color sections. I'm not very good at that, so got singles of pretty uneven thickness. The second bobbin was spun from stripped roving for shorter color sections. I'll two-ply this as soon as the current bobbin is off the wheel, and we'll see how the colors look.
Onward to something more like my "default" yarn - I'm happiest spinning skinny worsted. This is tussah silk from Snake River Fiberworks (no website or Etsy store, unfortunately) in a colorway called "Autumn Leaves" - lovely browns, golds, oranges, and greens. I'm spinning very thin singles and hoping for a laceweight or heavy laceweight 2-ply.
And on and off there has been spindling as well. This is Evilla Preyarn, spun on my little 17-gram Turkish spindle from Threads Thru Time. It's a very thin wool pencil roving from Estonia - perfect for spindling practice because no drafting whatsoever is required. Actually I guess that's not very good practice - at least it won't improve my drafting. The first five balls were spun before TdeF began. Hoping to finish up the roving with 3 or 4 more balls, then spindle-ply it.
