Feral Knitter

Designing Your Own Fair Isle Workshop

"There are many reasons for designing your own sweater (or anything else) instead of using a pattern drawn up by another. The primary  one, of course, is that you want to. If you are an anarchist at heart, part of that want is a desire for something unique--something that is wholly yours. Not fashionable; not proper or correct; maybe not even practical--but beautiful. Clothes, after all, say who we are... when we can be just ourselves we need something that is completely personal. Nothing could be better than a self-designed and personally knit garment."

Anna Zilboorg, Knitting for Anarchists

I will be leading a 3-day Design Your Own Fair Isle Sweater workshop June 27-29th in a town 20 minutes outside of Seattle. Suzanne Pedersen, the organizer, tells me that there are still a few openings. Here is the official description of the class:

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 sources of inspiration, how to use color theory, and helpful resources. Then we will plunge into the actual process of choosing colors. 

Day two will be spent charting and swatching pattern motifs. We will start planning the overall garment shape and motif placement.

Day three will focus on construction issues specific to Fair Isle-type garments: steeks, corrugated ribbing, purl-when-you-can borders, and shaping tips for armholes and shoulders.

At the end of the workshop, you will have the start of a customized sweater pattern, the skills necessary to knit your sweater, and the yarns you need to swatch several color combinations.

Level of Skill: Must have experience with 2-color stranded knitting (or be willing to practice before the workshop) and knitting in the round; must have completed a sweater or a vest (of any kind).

I expect this class will be a lot of fun, plus you can even stay at Suzanne's--it's like a Girl Scout Camp sleepover! Please contact Suzanne (suzanne@madronafiberarts.com) for more details about registration.

My Family Knows Me

John and Gingko gave me a sheep for Mother's Day! From Heifer, of course. It's like being a grandmother, I can enjoy the sheep without having to trim the hooves. I'm going to name her, though--suggestions?

They also gave me a copy of Zati: The Art of Weaving a Life by Susan Merrill. I'd read Sarah Swett's glowing review of this book recently, and since Sarah is the person I would most like to be if I could trade places (well, that's a dangerous statement because I don't actually know her...) I really wanted to read it. It was right up my alley.

Deep Thoughts during a Long Drive

I've just got to California, the car loaded up like the Joads had a little more spending money: a rain barrel, compost bin, bags of roving, knitting books and magazines. The 2-day drive gives me lots of time to think.

• Red-winged blackbirds are a wonder of nature.
• Southern Oregon is, as my uncle used to say, God's country. Uncle Jack's career in forestry took him from place to place in Oregon (the company once tried to make him relocate to Mississippi, but on his first trip he discovered that the waitress couldn't understand him and he couldn't understand her--so he quit), and he loved nothing more than striding through the forests of Oregon carrying a cast-iron pan to bake biscuits over a campfire. After he retired, he took a part-time job at the upscale camping chain REI--he was truly aghast at the spending habits of the customers, who would spend hundreds of dollars on fancy cooking gear while he made his own out of 10 tins (restaurant-sized cans). As I drive down I-5, I'm always cheered up as the mountains move in to meet the road south of Eugene. First a few isolated hills and some sheep farms, then the hills invite some friends to the party, and before I know it the road rises and curves and the evergreens fill in the empty spaces. I think about the hiking trips I've been on, and my love of backpacking (why haven't I done more of this in the last 5 years?), and how I'm a mountain person at heart. And I think of Uncle Jack, my father's only sibling, and wish he were still alive.
• I totally love my iPod! I have a built-in iPod player in the car, and it makes the long drive a blast. The music, set on shuffle, took me to my past: Donovan, Dylan, Mimi & Richard Farina, and (God help me) John Denver. Make fun, but you cannot beat Country Roads for a happy, loud, private sing-a-long. I love that I can hit "repeat" and play my favorites over and over again.
• Shadow can look so pathetic on a car trip: bedraggled, woebegone, and accusatory. I remind him that he wanted to join me, but he is not convinced.
• I came up with a new afghan design and can hardly wait to start!
• Nothing beats the view of a river glinting in the sun.
• I've got pretty bad allergies. This is probably of no interest to anyone other than myself.
• The Fair Isle Sweater from Scratch project is heating up: I ordered a small, dark Shetland fleece and a medium gray one from Schoonover Farm, which is located in the town my grandfather was born--I love this about spinning, that it can be so very local. And somehow a pound of light gray Shetland roving found its way to my house, following a circuitous route from Judith MacKenzie McCuin to The Artful Ewe to Linda K, to me. This Shetland from Montana feels local, too--my husband is from Montana, where the Flathead Salish side of his family dates waaaay back.
• I really admire the Yarn Harlot--her writing, her general good will, and her very very hard work have enriched my life.
• I've been thinking a lot about family. I don't have a large family, really, so it was a special pleasure to get a comment on this blog two weeks ago from my cousin Elisabeth in Stockholm! We've been emailing back and forth, discovering commonalities and sharing histories. This blogging thing is absolutely amazing.....
• Something else that is amazing: the Feral Knitters Knitting Group is having its 5th anniversary this month! May 2003 I gathered the first group together in my living room to play with color knitting, never truly expecting that the group would grow and grow the way it has. Some of this is planning (I think that groups thrive if they have a neutral meeting place, a regular meeting time, someone to send out reminders, and an open-door policy), some of this is luck (a guild newsletter that I could advertise in, no one could have found a greater group of people, plus Two Swans Karen was willing to take over the administrative tasks when I moved away). This group has meant a lot to me. Happy anniversary!

I've got to say that I should have had more deep thoughts than this to show for such a long drive!

Fair Isle from Scratch: The Plan (So Far)

Washed fleece

Wow! Who would have guessed that my little Fair Isle Sweater from Scratch project would provoke such response? In answer to the questions:

The fleece comes from a Shetland sheep of some sort--lamb? hoggett? ewe? I don't know. I was browsing in The Weaving Works (Seattle) and I ran across a bin of Shetland fleece. Now, I was not looking for fleece. No, sir! But, I do love the smell of fleece! And this one felt so very soft. Lots of crimp. And the locks had a nice sound to them when I snapped them (this is a hard thing to explain to non-spinners: you take a lock of wool at both ends and you tug it quickly while listening--a sound fleece will ping a bit, whereas a poor fleece will break apart or be silent--that's how I understand it anyway). The tips weren't matted and there were no guard hairs or kemp. Although there was some vegetable matter, it didn't seem excessive given that I suddenly and urgently wanted to get started right away.

Why did I choose Shetland wool?

• I've been working with Shetland wool yarns for many years now, and it is the traditional wool for the type of color knitting that I love.
• Shetland sheep have been on the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC) list, which classifies rare and endagnered breeds of sheep, as Recovering. That is, there are enough of them not to be endangered but not enough to feel like they don't need monitoring. When we use a rare-ish breed's fleece, we help assure that ranchers will continue to raise that breed. A great introduction to rare breeds can be found here.
• Shetland sheep are cute as buttons. They are relatively small and their personalities, I am told, are "endearing."
• Shetland sheep come in many colors.
• Shetland wool, carefully chosen, is very soft and wearable.

In Sheep's Clothing by Jane and Nola Fournier is full of information about different breeds, what to look for, and the uses of their wool. The sweet book Handspun Treasures from Rare Wools by Deborah Robson explores a number of rare breeds and the uses of their fleece. Spin-Off magazine has published several articles about Shetland sheep recently (did you know that indexes to Spin-Off are available at http://www.interweave.com/spin/spinoff_magazine/spo_indexes.asp?)

I bought 1.25 pounds of the fleece, which I have washed in a hot bath (directions here) with Orvus paste, a gentle detergent for horses and cattle, and rinsed several times. It is now drying on a towel in the kitchen. I toss it a bit every time I walk past.

Plans:

1. I'm going to hand card the fleece because that is how it was done in Shetland as far as I can tell. It's hard to get accurate information about technical details from the past, but I found some photos from 1910 online and a drawing purportedly from the "mid 19th century" that showed Shetland women using handcards. I'll spin up the yarn woolen and ply it to match commercial Shetland 2-ply jumperweight yarn in grist.

1. My sister and I are going to the Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, Oregon, in June. I hope to find a gray fleece and a light brown one, which I will also wash, card, spin and ply.
2. I will then dye the yarns with natural dyes: indigo and madder seem to be the traditional dyes, plus the Shetlanders used lichen dyes that I cannot approximate here on the West Coast of America. (Of course, we have our own lichens, but I assume they are different.) I'm planning to dye the yarns to different depths of shade, and of course overdyeing the gray and light brown will produce different colors than dyeing the natural white.
3. Once the dyeing is done, I'll design a garment. I really don't want to dye to order--I think it's easier to design based on what is at hand. I don't envision a museum copy of an old Fair Isle, however--to be honest, the older patterns have never appealed to me. But the design will come later.

When Elizabeth Gilbert and Anne Lamott were talking last month, one of the subjects they spoke about was the importance of staying in the "now." But they also noted that, according to specialists on happiness, the happiest people are those with memories of good times and things to look forward to. Anne (or Elizabeth, I can't remember) said that the lesson is to "take lots of pictures and make lots of plans."

I'm having fun making plans!

Fair Isle Sweater from Scratch: The Start

What you see here is the start of a casual, very long-term project: the Fair Isle Sweater from Scratch Project (or almost scratch--I'm not going to raise the sheep!). For some time I've wanted to explore the Fair Isle tradition from the ground up--washing the fleece, carding, spinning, dyeing with natural dyes, and knitting.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step....

Parcheesi Afghan

I've received several lovely responses about the pattern--thank you, everyone! I cannot track exactly how many people have downloaded the pattern, but if only half the people who have accessed my site from Ravelry donated just $5, Heifer now has $2,000 to spend on its programs. And I know that some people have donated considerably more than $5.... This makes me so happy, you can hardly imagine.

Spinning

A week or so ago I posted a picture of my brightly dyed roving. Here it is, spun up as a fingering weight yarn:

If Seattle is going to be pelted with rain day after day, the least I can do is brighten up my yarn corner....

Parcheesi Afghan Pattern

Many of you have requested that I write up the pattern for my Parcheesi Afghan.

Well, I have done just that!

The pattern is available free of charge (see the sidebar) in exchange for a donation of any size to Heifer International (www.heifer.org), an organization that works tirelessly around the world to solve the problems of poverty, hunger, gender inequity, ecological degradation, and lack of education. The recent news of food shortages and riots in many parts of the world bring new urgency to the work Heifer does, which is not short-term response to crises--Heifer works to create systemic change within families and communities.

Of course, I will not be checking to see whether you have made a donation. But it took me many hours to put this pattern onto paper, so I hope you honor my work as well as honoring your own reasons to be grateful.

Thank you, everyone! I'd love to hear from you if you decide to knit this project!

The Lion Roars

I'm making quick progress on the Leo Vest! At the end of every round I think, just one more!

Another Redbud swatch.

And I am totally in love:

Shear Spirit by Joan Tapper, photos by Gale Zucker, is a marvelous book--the author and photographer travelled around the country to 10 different fiber farms. Their interviews with the ranchers are realistic about the economic and physical demands of their farms (so I won't be selling up and buying that place in the country anytime soon) but filled with the joy the farmers have in the lives they've created. A wide variety of fiber-producing animals are represented: sheep of many kinds, of course, but also camels, goats, alpacas, llamas. I really enjoy books like these, filled with biographies of the people who share my passions: Knitting in America by Melanie Falick, Handpaint Country by Cheryl Potter and Alexis Xenakis, Sweaters from New England Sheep Farms by Candice Eisner Strick are some other favorites. And the photos--if you melt reading Wildfibers, you will love this book.  

EZ's February Baby Sweater

What could signal the arrival of spring better than a sweet little baby sweater nestled among the violas? This is my first experience knitting Elizabeth Zimmermann's "Baby Sweater on Two Needles, Practically Seamless" from Knitter's Almanac (and if you don't have a copy of this little book jammed with patterns and hints and spirit, you need to seriously reconsider your priorities--dudes, it's less than $10 and the perfect size for reading in bed). Before I stop digressing, I want to register a complaint about the name of this sweater. Every time someone asked me what I was knitting, I'd have to say the whole dang thing and follow up with "you know, the February entry in Knitter's Almanac." SO tiresome.

At any rate, I used handpainted superwash sock yarn from Heidi Parra at The Artful Ewe. Size 3 needles and about 275 yards resulted in a nice medium-baby sized sweater.

And I was feeling very pleased with myself that I had knit up one of the 28 potential pairs of socks that are lurking around. Very pleased, that is, until this hank of Socks That Rock followed me home today:

It's one of their Raven series, subtle deep colors that don't photograph well.

I guess the universe is always striving for balance.

Designing Redbud

While finishing up a number of projects, my mind has wandered, in its restless way, to the future. I've decided to stop coloring my hair, having just finished the excellent and thought-provoking Going Gray by Anne Kreamer, and I've been thinking about colors that would flatter a softer hair color. (Man, is THIS a freighted subject! I'm not at all sure that I'm ready to go gray--in fact, I don't really know how much gray I've got at this point. In my mind, I'm Emmylou Harris. In reality? Lord only knows. I'll keep you posted.)

I saw a photo in a magazine recently that set my thoughts to designing a V-neck pullover. I'm calling this design "Redbud" after all the flowering shrubs that show up in spring: redbud, flowering quince, crab apple, cherry. I think these gray-ed pinks and browns could be lovely in a sweater.

I begin a project by pulling out any and all colors from my collection that are found in the photo that inspires me:

Then I start swatching for color and value:

I figure out what I like and don't like--these are nowhere near what I'm looking for at this point--and then swatch again:

My next swatch will start to look more like a normal swatch, although I won't be ready to swatch in the motif yet.

Meanwhile, I've been searching for motifs that would seem to fit the color story and the garment I have in mind. I found something like what I want in the out-of-print marvel called Swedish Sweaters by Britt-Marie Christofferson, with shaping refinements from Sweater Design in Plain English by Maggie Righetti. 

In the meantime, I've been spinning some yarn for striped socks. I purchased 5 colors of roving (described as "New Zealand Wool"). Half of this was mixed into batts that were run through the carder twice. The other half was carded in the short strips method (see Deb Menz' Color in Spinning or Jo Reeve's Ashford Book of Carding for details). I'm now plying my sadly inconsistent singles together, using a lot of twist, as suggested by Abby Franquemont in her recent workshop at the Spinning Loft (as reported by my buddy Greg, but seeming to be supported by Abby's article in Spin-Off magazine).

Springtime

I opened the bathroom window to ventilate the room after a shower, and look what I found between the screen and the window:

The bird probably began building this nest when I was in California recently--yesterday I was surprised to find a single, spotted egg in it (I hadn't heard anything so I thought it had been abandoned). Despite my avid curiosity, we'll have to wait because I don't want to disturb the little family-to-be.

I've started to feel an upsurge of energy. Thank God, it's been a while, as those of you who have written wondering if I'm OK can attest. It's true that I've been sort of blue for a few months, but if the roving I dyed last week is any indication, the tide has turned. There's enough red in there to counteract any amount of blue!

I got tired of seeing the squares of Lizard Ridge gathering dust in the corner, so I've seamed them together! Next, a trip to Ravelry to figure out how to finish the edges. It looks better than this flash-photo would imply--there's always some concern when knitting a hodge-podge project, and these random balls of Noro Kureyon came from a number of friends and shops. I like it.

The Leo Vest is coming along, but still at that unsatisfying state where you knit and knit and knit and you STILL don't have an interesting photo for the blog.

Ditto the spinning for the striped socks. Ditto the Turkish Pillows. Ditto the Blue Jeans Pullover. I've got so many things going at once that it's dangerous to sit in my knitting chair these days. Avalance country.

I am swatching for a new project, however, so you and I have something to look forward to.