Feral Knitter

3-Day Workshop in Berkeley

Many people have asked me if I would be offering my 3-day Design Your Own Fair Isle Sweater workshop in California. I can finally answer YES!

When: January 15-17, 2010. 6+ hours each day.

Where: My home in Berkeley; limited to 6 students.

Workshop Description:

You can design a Fair Isle sweater that reflects your own personality—traditional, contemporary, subdued, extroverted—a garment that incorporates patterns that have meaning to you, colors that make your heart sing, a design that fits and flatters. Designing your own garment can seem daunting—but taken step by step, you can do it.

 

We will spend the first day playing with a collection of over 200 colors of Shetland yarn. We will begin by discussing the use of color in Fair Isle knitting, color theory, and helpful resources. We will start with an exercize in value recognition and then we will plunge into the actual process of identifying colors in our sources of inspiration. Then we will choose colors and start speed swatching to see how they work together.

 

Day two will be spent charting motifs and swatching with your colors. You can choose from among the hundreds of traditional, ethnic, and modern charts in my collection or bring a sweater pattern you already have that you’d like to re-color with your own palette.

 

Day three will focus on construction and fit issues specific to Fair Isle-type garments: steeks, corrugated ribbing, purl-when-you-can borders, and adding bands. I provide a basic, customizable pullover pattern and I will share some simple ways to calculate armhole and neckline curves.

 

By the end of the workshop you will be well on your way to finalizing a unique Fair Isle garment pattern and you will have the skills to complete it!

 

Please contact me for more information if you are interested! janine DOT bajus AT sbcglobal DOT net

Design a Day

The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.
~Thomas Edison

I needed something to counteract the dulling effect of early darkness, so I have made a vow to sketch a design every day for the next month. See my cute little notebook?

Nothing says commitment better than a dedicated notebook! I found this little pad at Office Depot, on sale for $1.99. I printed out the title and attached it with clear packing tape to make it an official notebook on the cheap.

I'm finishing up my huge work deadline, and we've also begun fixing up the outside of our house. When we bought it, the yard was about 50% concrete. Two years ago we got rid of a bulky ramp in the backyard; now we've begun a more ambitious project: getting rid of lots of concrete in the front and on the sides. (Please note that I use the word "we" quite broadly--I'm only directing all this work, but Royal of Sundance Gardens is doing the work.) Here are some before pictures of the front, side, and back:

And here are some part-way pictures:

it doesn't look like much now, but I can see how it's going to turn out and I'm so happy! The broken concrete will be used to make retaining walls and a little patio by the shed.

One thing that Berkeley has that makes work like this so pleasant: a Tool Lending Library that is part of the city library system.

So far we've borrowed a wheelbarrow, rebar cutter, tamper, and rebar wire twister (!). A fantastic resource--if your city doesn't have one, make it happen.

 
 
 
 

 

Enchanting Socks

There is a pain I have lived with all my life that I have never shared with you before:

I have big feet. Yes, big feet. I've never been able to enjoy shoe shopping the way other women do, having to content myself with men's shoes for much of my life. Even as a 5-year-old at the Buster Brown Shoe Store, hoping desperately to get my new school shoes there so I could have the special gift they gave out with the purchase of a pair, I had to leave disappointed, the salesman's words ringing in my ears: "She has fat feet, doesn't she?"

So one particular pleasure of being a knitter for me is that I can make colorful, pretty socks to fit my feet! Until recently, however, I've contented myself with simple socks knit out of self-striping yarns. Fun, yes, and fast (enough). No need for anything fancy.

But I now have in my hands a copy of Janel Laidman's new book The Enchanted Sole, and I think I am ready to branch out. Janel has designed 20 intriguing pairs of socks. Not your ordinary socks, no sir: these are, as the subtitle says, "legendary socks for adventurous knitters," each inspired by a legendary character or place. Top down, toe up, side to side, and several types of heels. Several of the socks (6) are lacey and others (6) have intricate cables. Some are also decorated with beads (and there's a good, illustrated glossary about knitting with beads as well as numerous other techniques). They are all charming and interesting--the Traveler's sock has a little pocket, the Galadriel sock laces up the back!

But of course what interested me were the absolutely wonderful stranded colorwork socks: Labyrinth, Mirror Mirror, Alchemist, Firebird and Tree of Life.

Labyrinth

Mirror Mirror--isn't that clever!

Alchemist

Firebird

 

Tree of Life
 
I'm really impressed with these stranded designs--having graphed my own motifs I know that it's not a simple endeavor. And Janel keeps the interest going to the toes! (I'm hard pressed to say which is my favorite--I've been designing a jacket called Feather & Wings that would look great with the Firebird socks.... )

Janel takes advantage of painted yarns paired with solids to provide color interest, although a color control freek could easily create their own Fair Isle-type color sequencing. She states specifically which yarns and which colorways she used, but she also gives the WPI (wraps per inch, a way of measuring how many times a yarn wraps around an inch measure, just touching--a good way to find substitutions). I like that each pattern includes calf shaping, correcting for the non-stretchy characteristic of the technique. Each pattern has specific information about the foot sizing and suggestions for changing length and circumference (so helpful to those of us who are not "normal").

I have admired Janel's dyeing and spinning work for a long time (she wrote a great article in Spin-Off magazine on using painted rovings, for example), so I am pleased that she offered me this opportunity to review her book. It is not often that a sock book catches my interest the way The Enchanted Sole has! Unlike many other self-published titles, the photographs are very good, the layout quite user friendly, and the charts clear.

Available from your local yarn shop or directly from Janel at Rustling Leaf Press. $25.95, paperback, 128 pages.

An Ent at Saruman's

Whew--I've been feeling rather Ent-ish recently: slow moving, slow talking, slow witted--yet, I hope, retaining some old-timer sense of humor and perspective. (Perhaps I flatter myself.) And yesterady, as I drove home from the Oakland Airport (having picked up Gingko, who is visiting this week), I was presented with a flood of water not unlike that the Ents unleashed upon Saruman's army. Oakland received more than an inch of water in 2 hours, and we were in the thick of it: windshield wipers barely keeping up, speeds of 35 mph on the freeway, hydroplane-race-high wings of water on each side of the car, and here and there freeway lanes totally flooded.

So, who's the geek, anyway? I've been re-watching the extended version of Lord of the Rings in my spare time. And there's been precious little of it recently. I'm just about finished with a giant work deadline--I've taken only two days off in the last seven+ weeks. My knitting has suffered, that's for sure. I just keep plowing away on the huge garter-stitch center of the Bridgewater Shawl (there it is, water again!) by Jared Flood (oh, stop it!!!) while dreaming of colorwork.

But a spot of brightness arrived to alleviate the pages and pages of black and white I'm working on: Janel Laidman's new sock book, The Enchanted Sole: Legendary Socks for Adventurous Knitters. I'll be doing a full review of this book on October 23rd (I'm on the Blog Tour, right after Franklin Panopticon--like the third-year violin student playing after Isaac Stern.... I'll do my best, she says, resignedly).

I recieved something else in the mail last week: a lovely neck scarf knitted for me by Seattle knitting friend Linda K. She used a new pattern by Evelyn Clark, the Wildflower Lace Scarf, which is knit from corner to corner in garter stitch--Linda used Koigu for this one, and it drapes beautifully! I love how it hugs and protects my neck without being bulky. Mwah! A knitted hug that will be used and loved.

Me, trying to figure out how people photograph themselves in a mirror and totally ignorant of the fact that you would see my bathroom and my sloppy hanging-around-the-house attire

Speaking of Gingko, she now has a blog: Shakespeare Was Right (when he said "there are too many crap books out there, if only there was a blog about it".....Oh, he didn't say that? Well, never mind). She's writing book reviews when the spirit moves her. 

Resilience

More and more I have come to admire resilience. Not the simple resistance of a pillow, whose foam returns over and over to the same shape, but the sinuous tenacity of a tree: finding the light newly blocked on one side, it turns in another. A blind intelligence, true. But out of such persistnece arose tutles, rivers, mitochondria, figs--all this resinous, unretractable earth.
~Jane Hirshfield, "Optimism"

Thank you all most full heartedly for your messages of sympathy. I've relayed your healing wishes to John, who has been taking care of the multitude of decisions that must be made following the death of a family member. He had been able to spend time with his mother before her death, and so he not plagued by guilt over things un-said.

He does, however, have my camera with him and he is snowed in in Butte right now, so no pictures this time. So I'll just mention a few things:

Remember, Marilyn van Keppel's Icelandic Lace Knit-along started this week at Schoolhouse Press.

Thinking of Schoolhouse Press, did you know that they have reprinted Susanna Lewis' excellent lace book as well as a collection of Maria Erlbacher's twisted stitch books in English? Check out their New Products page!

Roseanne Cash has a marvelous new album out (warning: the link has sound)! You gotta hear this if you like classic country.

Did you all know that Spindlicity is now being published blog style? Great spinning articles.

The second season of the PBS program Craft in America is showing tonight and again on Sunday. (You can see the entire first season here: www.pbs.org)

The newest issue of Selvedge is all about color! What a joy.

And an apology for the past and in advance for future transgressions: Typepad has changed how I reply to comments, and not in a good way--I can no longer tell if I've replied or not, and I get even more confused than normal. If you have not heard from me, mea culpa. My apologies are sincere although I don't know that I'll be able to do a better job in the future despite my sincerity. Just let it be known that I love you all!

Goodbye, Billie

We send out our love and blessings, and our wishes for your days to yield whatever you need and take you wherever you need to go to feed your hearts and spirits.  ~Susan Tweit

I read these lovely words at the end of Susan Tweit's blog, Walking Nature Home (named after her recent book of the same title, which I heartily recommend). They struck me especially today because John's mother Billie died last night.

Billie was a native of Montana--her family could follow its history in the state back to 1848, when a John Silverthorne from England married a member of the Flathead Salish tribe. Billie was born in 1914 (or perhaps 1915, she wasn't sure). As a child she lived on a small ranch in the Bitterroot Valley, but her family moved to Butte in the 1920s. One of her uncles had founded the town with two other silver prospectors, and Butte was a flourishing and prosperous city in those days, providing copper to the world and previously unknown riches to the mine owners. (John's family, need I add, were not among the mine owners!)

Billie's life was quite long and filled with many of the sadnesses that such a long life brings--two husbands died before her, and her cherished independence ended four years ago when social workers, police, and a judge agreed with us that she was unsafe at home. By then her memory was failing badly and the unrelenting paranoia of Alzheimer's had taken hold. She loved Butte so much that she refused to move near us in California, so we found her a caring place that would let her keep her dog.

Her death was peaceful, and the hospice workers took very good care of her. We are grateful.  

I Hate to Admit It

...but I've become quite ditzy the last few weeks. I have a clutch of excuses--long work days, not a single day off for weeks; menopausal blank mind, just waiting for that vaunted "menopausal zest" to kick in; family stresses (John's mother is hanging in there, blessedly free of pain and anxiety); I gave up sugar (which should make me sharper, right?).

At any rate, for days I've been planning to blog about some knitting. Specifically, Fair Isle knitting. Getting even more specific: I was going to make progress on my two yoke sweaters--Starry Night and Esther.

But a strange thing happened--I couldn't find the yarn. Or the notes. Where could I have stored them? Why on earth did I put them away, anyway? That is so totally unlike me. My knitting never constitutes "clutter" that requires "neatening up."

So rather than knit, I've been spending my rare free time searching. I poured all 300 balls of Shetland yarn out onto the living room floor in an attempt to locate the missing balls of yarn for these sweaters. Why would I have put them back in the box? (Of course, the mass of loose balls in our small room is adding to the sense of chaos....) And this morning I think I found the notes!

Crazy. That's all, just crazy.

In the meantime, I've been knitting Jared Flood's Bridgewater Shawl--that endless garter is about all I seem to be capable of at the moment! Never fear, I'll be back--I've got a million ideas and lots of yarn to pick from....

More Spindrift Colors!

This is my week for surprise gifts on the porch:

Four new Jamieson's Spindrift shetland jumperweight colors! Karen of Two Swans Yarns very kindly sent me these new additions to the Spindrift line.

From lightest to darkest they are #720 Dewdrop, a light aqua blue/green heather; #688 Mermaid, an aqua green/blue heather; #757 Splash, a bright turquoise; and #1400 Mirrydancers, an intriguing tweed with blue, magenta and yellow flecks on a deep deep deep bluegreen, or is it a deep red-brown, or? quite mysterious.

They form a bright focus of color on my desk, which is dominated by hundreds of pages of proofs for my paid employment. A nice respite... Not much knitting these days until I meet a deadline, but I'm mentally plotting a new design to take advantage of these new colors.

I don't see these on Karen's website, but she has them. Thanks, Karen--and thanks to Jamieson's for continuing to expand their color offerings!

Way to Brighten a Day

What's this?

It's Sunday--there shouldn't be anything in the mail box.

OMG! It's a Reader's Copy of Rachael's new book, How to Knit a Love Song!!!! [That's Rachael HERRON, all you search engines, and it is available for preorder on Amazon, which means it really IS a book, not just a very elaborate prank]

It looks WONDERFUL! I can't hardly wait until I stop working tonight so I can sit down and start reading...

John's mother is in hospice now--at age 96 and diagnosed with colon cancer several years ago, her failing health was not a surprise, but of course our concerns have made things a bit somber around here. I'm expecially pleased to be able to enjoy the result of someone's imagination, hard work, and love of life right now.

Thank you, Rachael!

Rose Leaf Shawl

• Naturally dyed Blue-Faced Leicester

• Woolen spun

• Fingering weight

• Size 6 needles

• 5.5 ounces

• About 44" deep and 94" wide

•   

(The last photo was taken with a flash, which makes the orange look quite bright--but the entire effect is of the shawl is not bright at all--deep, autumnal. There's no one here right now to help me photograph this, so the sofa was called into play.)

How I Did It

I took 6  2-oz rovings that I had dyed a while ago with Earthues extracts. I split each roving in half. I then split one of the halves in half again. (So each 2-oz roving was split into a 1 oz piece and two half-ounce pieces.)

I arranged the rovings into a spectrum: light rose, dark rose, deep red-orange, medium red orange, lighter red orange, and tan. 

I pulled out my Patrick Green drum carder and began carding and blending. First, pure light rose. Then the half-ounce light rose mixed with the half-ounce dark rose. Then the 1-oz dark rose. Then the remaining half-ounce dark rose with the half-ounce dark red-orange. Then the 1-oz dark orange. You get the picture....

I split each batt in half as carefully as I could and began spinning for a 2-ply fingering weight yarn. The resulting product was far from perfect, but I love it anyway. I then plied the two singles--the colors did not end and begin at exactly the same spot, but I was hoping for that to further blend the colors.

 

I chose two lace patterns from Knitting Lace Triangles by Evelyn A. Clark: Medallion and Leaf. The shawl knit up quickly, and for a time I thought of abandoning Fair Isle knitting for good and sticking with the immediate gratification that repetitive lace on large needles offers! I didn't know how large I wanted the shawl to be--and it started to look really huge on the needles, so I bound off with 1.5 ounces of yarn left (the lightest tan never appeared in the shawl). However, after it was blocked I began to think that I could have done a few more leaf repeats. The mojo of a finished item, though, is such that I think it is pretty damn unlikely that I will rip out the border and knit more!

I love it!

[Note: some very persistent spammers and some odd Typepad issues are making it hard for me to get your comments--and some of my responses have gone astray. So here's a hearty THANK YOU for all the lovely comments! Janine]