Meg's Blog

I should have done this ages ago – add Schoolhouse Press’ blog to my sidebar.  My oversight has now been corrected!

I taught myself to knit by reading EZ’s “Knitting Workshop” in the late ’80’s.  Actually, I just read the first few chapters, then walked to the local dime store to buy circulars, and CO for a color pattern pullover in my handspun wool.  

Up until that point, I was knee deep in washing fleece, picking, carding, spinning, naturally dyeing it, then weaving it.  No, we didn’t live on a farm!, just a small house in a village.  I’d lay washed fleece out on the grass and skeins of yarn would hang from the wash line, to dry.  The neighbors had never seen anyone do what I did.

Later, when we sold that house, I also had to sell all my equipment - the picker, the carder that hubby had motorized, and the floor loom.  

But the knitting needles stayed, although I replaced the cheap dime store ones with Addi Turbos and Bryspun’s previous style of dpns with the blunt tips – both still my favorite needles.

When all else is lost, there is still knitting.  I have a floor loom again, though I don’t get to weave as often as I’d like.  I no longer want to process fleece, and although I *think* about dyeing yarn, I never seem to have the time and real motivation to carry through with this thought.  Maybe one day.

Knitting, though, is a permanent fixture.   Most of my ideas involve the endless hours of enjoyment in making those hundreds to thousands of loops of yarn.

Blogging, however, I know I am not as good at!  Ideally, it would be like Meg’s blog, which is a delight!, but there is only one EZ and Meg, with Cully’s video skills.

On my rather long to-do list is to one day redo the videos I have, and add more.  Mine were done decades ago, with a camera of low resolution, as was typical then.  Even the camera I’ve had since is out of date, resolution-wise.  Hence, its place on the list.

Meg’s videos are excellent, clear, and charming.  I find myself clicking on topic after topic is the tag list, eager to read and see more, even with topics I know.  So, I defer to their excellent presentation of knitting info!

Happy Knitting, Happy Spring!
Dawn

How EZ Always Brings Me to My Senses!

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been knitting up samples and beginning the pattern writing for a new collection, then I got stuck with one design.  

Three pattern reps (of 2 cable stitch patterns) worked well enough at a larger gauge, but then I wanted a 2nd sample in a thinner yarn and spent a couple days fighting with it.  I tried 4 reps with this thinner yarn.  Of course, it works, but the resultant size would be too large for the intended purpose, and 3 reps would be too small.  I then substituted a different cable for one that I used in the first sample, but I didn’t like the look of it.

No matter how much I wanted to use this particular yarn with these particular stitch patterns, it would not work.

Finally, I remembered an anecdote by Elizabeth Zimmermann, in her Spun Out #11 “Fisherman’s Guernseys”, where she talks about how she admired Mrs. Laidlaw’s guernsey pattern in Gladys Thompson’s book, “Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys, & Arans”, except whatever yarn Gladys had used allowed her to get 10 sts/1” in pattern.  Elizabeth picked up size 0 ndls and Homespun wool, and, naturally, couldn’t get any tighter than 6 sts/1”.   Gladys must have been using fingering wt. wool, not worsted wt.

LOL, this reminded me that yarn can not always do what we want it to do, just because we wish it to do so!   Of course, after 3 decades knitting and designing, I do know this, but even seasoned knitters can fall into the trap of fruitlessly trying to make a yarn fit the bill.

In the end, I acknowledged that if I wish to make a 2nd design sample with 4 reps in that particular pair of stitch patterns, I will need to use a sport wt. or, possibly, a DK wt yarn.  

I put that design temporarily on hold and CO another color work design, which always soothes me and flies off the ndls!

Which reminds me of another of Elizabeth’s anecdotes about being in a boat knitting, whilst her Gaffer fished, making the first ever Aran sweater, for Vogue, if I remember correctly, and how it felt to her like her hands had done it before, long ago, in another life, on another shore.  I know that feeling well.  I feel it when I weave, spin, and when I knit, especially color patterns.  The hands remember, even if we don’t.

May your yarn always give the correct gauge, and suit its desired purpose!
Dawn

Christmas in August

I always need a Plan.  Not a Deadline, mind you, just a plan.  At this point in life, ‘deadline’ is a dirty word. Who needs the stress?

I do, however, need my mind and my environment to be organized, or I feel overwhelmed and flounder in indecision and a lack of motivation.  It’s logical, as being motivated intimates a state of action, or near action, but if one doesn’t know what to take action upon, the action is stymied.  Energy flow is blocked.  It’s bad feng shui, for both the mind and the body!

So, as I’m back to feeling well enough to cook, clean, and climb stairs to do laundry, my natural inclination is to get back to work - knitting patterns, spinning, and weaving, as well as planning some home projects – sewing, organizing, getting in a few much needed things, and getting rid of the old tat and broken electronics and appliances.  

There’s a lot that needs doing!  And although I am feeling well enough, though still on the mend, I’ve learned (finally) not to over do.  Being organized and having a Plan of Action is crucial.  Hence, Christmas in August.  I’ve begun the knitting for the grandkids’ Christmas gifts now, instead of putting it off until November.

I don’t really have time right now to design things from scratch, as heaven knows, there’s a pile of half-finished designs and patterns sitting here waiting for me the past 2 years.  

So, I pulled out the kids’ pattern books that I have hoping to, just once, be able to follow someone else’s pattern, as EZ used to say, as a Blind Follower.  At least, that was the plan.  And we all know how the Universe laughs at plans!

I have 2 Minnowknits books, this one and this one, also Takle and Kolstad’s “Small Sweaters”, 3 Debbie Bliss books, and VK’s Kids issue from 2001. Not a lot of books, but enough to inspire.

I also pulled out my binder of sizing info – data I had collected over many years of designing.  Looking through all this data, however, made my head begin to swim.  It all wasn’t organized enough to be a quick reference.  

So, a Detour.  Spent an entire day (and will need to continue it another day) organizing all this info into charts – body measurement info, but also ease and sizing info, which is affected by yarn weight and stitch patterns.  This short detour is a necessary refreshing of the memory, as I’ve not been knitting for children often, just once a year.

But of course, all the patterns I like will need some (or a lot of!) reconfiguring. It’s always the way – I’ll like a particular stitch pattern or color chart being used, but don’t have the pattern’s given weight and style of yarn, or the pattern isn’t in the size I need.  I’m sure a lot of knitters are faced with this same scenario.  Most of the time, it is all easily enough remedied, so long as one doesn’t mind some math.

I’ve begun with this hat, for my granddaughter, who turns 3 in January. The hat was originally designed in a DK wt. yarn, and I’m using Lamb’s Pride Worsted which leans toward a heavy worsted weight, so I had to reconfigure the stitch counts and the stitch patterns, as well as the ear flap shaping.  The ear flaps took the most time and I’m still not sure about them.

The edges of the earflaps, front and back edges are also left plain in the pattern, which I don’t like, so I’ll be adding an edging.  And a hat needs matching mittens, so I’ll need to design them.

I’m still not sure I want to continue knitting this pattern in the yarn I have, so I ordered 16” and 24” Basix circulars in sizes 4, 5 and 6, in case I decide to rework it (or start something else) in a DK wt. yarn, likely Nature Spun Worsted, which, despite the name, really wants to be knit at a DK wt. gauge. 

I have plenty of circulars, but in larger sizes, and, as is usual, the price of my beloved Addi Turbos have risen quite a bit since I bought my circulars 25 ish years ago!  I don’t mind investing in tools, as I LOVE tools, but am not eager to spend $90 for 5 sets of circulars!

So, while the hat is on hold, I decided to knit this aran sweater for grandson, who turns 5 in December.  

In both of Jil Eaton’s Minnowknits books, there is the same cream-colored aran sweater, in a chunky gauge. I have more than enough Lanaloft Worsted in Manor Grey and Ash, and I decided on the grey. Again, despite the name, the LLW really wants to be knit at a heavy worsted wt, gauge.

Naturally, my gauge is a smidge snugger than the pattern’s, so more reconfiguring was needed.  But that was just the beginning of the needed adjustments. As I knit sweaters in the round, never pieced like in this pattern, this too had to be addressed.  The next thing to change was the direction of the cables on the left front and the left back, so that the cables face each other (mirror image), instead of all crossing in the same direction. I really like things to be balanced, which shows an attention to detail when creating a pattern, that enough thought and planning has gone into the design.

The last change I’m making is how often the 2/2 and 3/3 cables are crossed. The pattern has them both crossed every 8th row, which is rather loose for my taste, so I’m crossing the 2/2 cables on every 4th rnd and the 3/3 cables on every 6th rnd.

I could have just designed this sweater from scratch, for all the changes I’m needing to make, but it will be all the better for it!  

Grandson is said to be fussy about what he will wear, so I knit this aran pullover more in hope, than expectation, that he will like it enough to wear it!

Onward,
Dawn

Sheepy Grey Rescued by Beautiful Norwegian Countryside!

 (Originally posted on WP 3/3/22.)

When I’m feeling loquacious (which hasn’t occurred at all this past year), I tend to start many blog posts. Start, not finish. I want to get the gist of them down on (virtual) paper, lest I forget them.

Time passes, though, and life and work move on, so about half of these half-written posts are no longer relevant. The following post though still holds true. To be honest, I don’t remember if I ever posted it to my old blog.

Sheepy Grey Rescued by Beautiful Norwegian Countryside!

Until recently, I had been knitting up my modest stash.  It amazes me that the yarns and colors I wish I had more of, I don't, yet the yarns and colors I do have, make me go, eh.

Like sheep's grey.  That earthy, isn't quite grey, isn't quite brown, can't make up its mind, murky color, which only men seem to tolerate!  I have bucket loads of the stuff. Well, not bucket loads, but, about 1.5 lbs of it, which is a lot, compared to the bits and bobs in the rest of my stash.

I was beginning to go off the Garter Stitch Deep End, aka Garters on the Brain. Washcloths, in various stages of progress, sit, as yet unfinished, as do the rest of the garter stitch lampshade covers, and a rough sketch of a garter stitch design sits with sample yarn, yet to be fleshed out. But, as I was writing that post, hubby was on his way home from the library, with our usual magazine load – Yankee, Consumer Reports, Martha Stewart Living, Real Simple, Country Living, and any VKs he can find.

What he also had in his arms was The Best of Lopi, More Sweaters, Monkeysuits, and Knit One, Knit All.

This last book is one of two EZ books I did not own. I have Knitter's Almanac, Knitting Workshop, Knitting Around (my all-time favorite), and The Opinionated Knitter.

I don't have Knitting Without Tears, although I did borrow it from the library once, but saw no need to purchase it. But, after slowly perusing it, I had to get a copy of ‘Knit One Knit All’ And although I've seen mention of EZ's Add-A-Bootees, I never saw the pattern. 'Til now.

So, did I finish up the all garter stitch work piled onto the back of the love seat, necessitating that I sit gingerly, lest all the yarn balls, with their attached ndls, don't come tumbling down upon me?  Of course not. I immediately pulled out that boring, sheepy grey wool yarn (Cascade Yarns Ecological Wool), made sure the ball had been wound with doubled strands (it had), pulled out a size 8 Addi Turbo and the old-style Bryspun Flexible dpns (love, no, LOVE my Turbos and Bryspuns, but only the old-style Bryspuns, not the newer, concave ones), and CO an Add-a-Bootee, to see if I like the design.

I'm always up for a good slipper sock design, but, have not (yet, anyway) found one I want to knit repeatedly. We will see how this one goes.

As I cogitate about the matter (and I do like to chew on things, until I really understand my own perspective and motivation), I think my long-time aversion to garter stitch is connected to its use in clothing.

I don't mind it used in household linens, like afghans, area rugs, and the lowly washcloth – the stitch seems to make sense in these applications. In clothing, however, it makes the fabric thick, unless knit in very thin yarn. It also makes it bumpy, and uncomfortable.

For thickness, I prefer Fair Isle or stranding – to me, a riot of color and pattern, or fabulous cable texture, should be the trade-off from having to have the extra fabric thickness. I'm not (yet, anyway!) sold on garter stitch's use in clothing, except, hopefully, these bootees.

But, this post is also about design, not just color. We all have colors we are attracted to like honeybees to flowers. My heart stops when I see a particular shade of intense fuchsia. My brain suddenly goes into dreamy mode. Cobalt blue also has this effect, though to a lesser degree. It's something about the red/blue balance in fuchsia, which speaks to me.

Then I look at earthy colors, like that sheep's grey, and it's Thud. No sparks, no dreaminess, no inner sighing. I know the sheep can't help the color wool they make. And I love sheep. One can hardly be a knitter and not at least appreciate sheep, if not love them, but the earthiness does not inspire design.

Or does it?

I love many things. One thing I love, and have yet to get to do, in my nearly 63 and counting years, is travel. It's one reason I love to read EZ's Knitting Around. I could (and do) read of EZ's magical early years, over and over. All that travel, all those wonderful experiences in places far afield from where she grew up. Some knitters prefer her Knitter's Almanac, but, I'm already that older women, living a hidden-away life, so I don't harken for more of the same – I yearn for Adventure, to, finally, get out of the house!

We can then want to surround ourselves with what we don't have, so I love to watch travel shows – Rick Steves, Rudy Maxa, The Visions series on Amazon, especially Visions of Austria, and to some extent, Debra Rixon's shows.

I cannot watch these shows, though, without seeing design, everywhere.

As Rick Steves' videographer pans across the Western Norwegian countryside, what do I see? Farmhouses in that sheepy grey color, with barn red or white trim - Ooh! Look how well they go together, I think to myself, and store the idea away.

As we’ve owned this cedar-shingled cape-style house on Cape Cod for the past 11 years, I'm well familiar with sheepy grey (it’s everywhere on the Cape), though I'm usually inside, looking out from it, and yes, more white or brick red would punch it up. Same for that ochre yellow house with white trim.  Ocher yellow - definitely not my fav color, yet, used on these Norwegian homes, it suits its place – terroir.

His quick shot of the Bergen harbor (at 17:38 mins. in the above video), shows repeated elements and colors, from the buildings and their roofs below, just screaming to be another design.

Here's another. And another, even better.

Can anyone look at Nyhavn Harbor, in Copenhagen, and not see great colors which work well together? More design.

I actually want to pause at all the great shots, and take photos, to store away as design inspirations!

May sheep (even sheep’s grey fleeced-sheep!) safely graze.
Onward,
Dawn

The Thinking Knitter aka Knitting to Think

 (Originally posted on WP 8/5/20.)

I love EZ (Elizabeth Zimmermann), and her approach towards knitting to make us all thinking knitters, instead of blind followers.  I bet her brain was just a mad whirr of activity while she was knitting.  

Some people get their ideas in the shower, or whilst they are sleeping, and I get those too, but the surefirest way for me to get 20 things jotted down on a notepad, is to pick up some knitting, preferably a pair of socks, which after nearly 30 yrs, I can almost knit them in my sleep.  

* Pick up ndls, knit half a round, put down ndls, pick up pen.
Put down pen, pick up ndls, repeat from * until brain goes fuzzy and sleep beckons.

They’re not all grand ideas, most of it is all the stuff I need to do the next day, which is best written down in advance, otherwise these chores will swim around in my brain all night, keeping me from sleeping.  But in-between the mundane, and the frankly far too long list of to-do’s, are Ideas.  Knitting Ideas, but lately, mostly Weaving Ideas, and Thoughts About Life.

The ‘what if I put this yarn with that one, sett it at x, and make y with it’ type of stuff.  The next day, these ideas each get fleshed out on their own Estimates page in the weaving binder.  Estimates of materials cost, time to execute, and then whether the price point allows it to be a salable item.  

Though this last part is irksome.  Salable *where*?  

Which leads me down the road of Handcraft Activism.

Most people think of Etsy, when they think of handmade, but although this may have once been the case, I am not so sure any more.  I cannot tell you how many times I have had to refund a $6 knitting pattern pdf purchase because someone thought they were buying a handknit, wool tea cozy (despite “PDF" being everywhere in my pattern listings).  For *$6*.  *Really?*.  Maybe on the planet Cheap Imports, but on a site specifically geared towards *handmade*?

This is exactly why I do not do project estimates for knitting designs any more.  BTDT.  There is no price point that hand knit items can be sold at, profitably.  At least not on Etsy.

I have heard Etsy referred to as an incubator. A place for small biz to start up (but should not stay).  Though even within that limited framework and time span, *how* cheaply are makers supposed to value their skill and time?  I’ve seen how cheaply.  I’ve run the #’s of similar handwoven items for sale, and if the makers are clearing $7/hour, they’re lucky.  

Can you pay your mortgage, put half-way decent food on the table, and pay your utilities and health insurance premiums earning $7/hour? Never mind all the extras one needs as they age.  

Don’t let anyone fool you - life does not become LESS expensive the older you get, it is MORE expensive.  Ironic, as most people are phased out of the workforce just when life insurance premiums begin to skyrocket, along with the expenses of life-supporting medications, hormones, and nutritional supplements, none of which are cheap.

I’m sorry, that’s unacceptable, on both counts – for the maker under-valuing their work, and for its direct result – the consumer thinking that cheap is the norm.  Then all other makers think they need to compete with these too-low prices.  It’s a downward spiral, which soon takes quality with it.

Perhaps I am living in the wrong country.  There are countries that value handwork, quality materials, well-made items, and don’t *expect* them to be sold at Dollar Store prices.  

We’ve lost touch with what it means to make or buy something for your closet or your home, which will actually last 20+ years. I’ve been making things since the 80s, dealing with this Dollar Store mentality a long time.  It’s not the ‘80s anymore – that throw-away society should have been thrown away ages ago.

So, as I do not wish to undervalue my time and skill, I am now only listing smaller  handwoven items on Etsy, and only until the listings expire.  Then, as with my other work, I will be moving them onto my website.  At some point I will cease to put anything handmade on Etsy, and only have my PDF patterns there.

Why bother with Etsy at all, then?  

I wouldn’t, but, and there’s always a but, I have been taking note, for quite some time now, that some women’s magazine editors DO scan Etsy for products, although I wish they’d take Martha’s lead and highlight work not being sold on Etsy, as in the Martha Stewart Living, Nov. 2018 issue's article about women weavers.  

The women (Elizabeth Eakins Studio, Stephanie Seal Brown Handwovens, A Little Weather, and Hart) all have their own WordPress or Squarespace websites, and their work is appropriately priced for being handmade, aka not cheap.

With Covid keeping us all home, with little to no social diversions, most of us have time to think.  Some of us are also gardening, cooking and baking, others are turning to fiber or other making pursuits,  These activities, which are much harder to find the time for, under normal circumstances, are now the line in the sand between us and the loony bin, as this 24/7 togetherness bit is *not* natural, it’s exhausting, especially in down-sized houses!  People need personal space, in order to recharge.

But, through engaging in these home and creative arts, we are also re-finding connections to How Life Should be, lost for decades.  Growing vegetables and flowers, making food from scratch, crafting things for our homes and families.  Depending on our age, we may remember our grandparents or great-granparents engaging in some of these activities.  

They weren’t connecting to others through thumbing their days away on health-damaging cell phones, all the while becoming less invested in activities which ground us.  Of course, life wasn’t perfect then, it is never perfect, but it was more Real.

So, in this whirr of thinking we are all engaging in, it may have dawned on us that Covid is both a blessing and a curse.  Yes, it has changed everything, but not all for the bad.  And, as in this well-known Chinese tale, it really isn’t possible to tell if an event is *just* good or bad, as everything can be both good and bad at the same time, depending on how we perceive it.  And thanks to our linear human lives, our sight into the future is *very* limited.

But, my hope is that the other side of this pandemic will find our lives changed permanently for the better, not just a temporary backslide into the Real, but that we will decide to stay real.

And once we can actually be social again without having to barricade our bodies, that it too will be Real, where all this electronic gadgetry will drop down a notch or two in our consciousnesses, to become the support systems they are meant to be, not replacements.

My hand knit sock drawer – where thought becomes reality.

Onward,
Dawn