Feral Knitter

Taking TIme

In a world that seems to spin faster and faster out of control, shouldn’t we be looking for products that take time to unfold? Or products whose usefulness we savor? Shouldn’t we demand products that have stories to tell? Like good wine, a good design needs time to be a part of our lives, time to reach its full maturity.
         ~Natalie Chanin, EcoSalon

What's the hurry? The satisfaction of one good thing thoroughly made and enjoyed for decades is immeasurable. It's what counts.
        ~Sarah Swett

A visit to the Anatolian kilim* exhibit at the de Young Museum in San Francisco (The Art of the Anatolian Kilim, through June 10, 2012) has me thinking about time.

The rugs in this show are so jaw-droppingly beautiful it's hard to take them in. Useful textiles that show the maker's hand and personality within a cultural structure, the rugs—some just fragmentary and others dominating the room with their size—are woven without the benefit of permanent looms or labelled dyelots. Natural colors run the spectrum from soft to bold, maintaining their beauty despite the centuries that have passed; I was particularly intrigued by the use of purples and greens. In some rugs the patterning was even, while others showed a wildness that just drew me in. 

So often it is hard to remember that a human being made the article we are staring at in a museum. This time it was easy to look beyond the setting to see that someone, at some time, made decisions that resulted in this very individual textile on display before us.

Each one of these textiles took time. The weaver could not have predicted that this effort would have stood up to the rigors of time, yet she could not help but insert beauty and personality into the piece. It gave pleasure to her family, then. And that was enough. 

I'm knitting away on the Muir Vest, so happy with how it is turning out but wishing that it could be done by the time Interweave Knitting Lab rolls around. 

Ah, time. Why fret? Fair Isle knitting is a relatively slow process. There's no point in making something you don't love, or in making something for someone you don't love, or attempting to finish by a deadline. I'm free from the financial pressures that the original knitters in Shetland worked under. (Not that most of us don't have financial pressures, mind you. We just aren't attempting to pay the morgage with our stranded knitting.)

I don't mind the lack of speed. If I wanted my knitting to be fast, I'd head on down to Target and purchase a sweater.

When things move slowly I can express myself. My knitting tells a story: the colors, the patterns, the decisions I make along the way. 

Time all to often comes to equal loss when you are my age (wow—I sound really old here. Not that old, just autumnal I guess). I love that my knitting reminds me that this moment is also opportunity for expression and that, if my expression is true to myself, it might possibly give pleasure for years to come.

Pleasure today for sure.

Feral Knitter Shop News

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*Kilims are flat-woven rugs

Decorative "Seams" in Stranded Knitting

It is the practice in traditional Fair Isle knitting to place the motifs in a sweater so they fit perfectly into an unbroken circle around the pullover. This requires attention to several details: the size of the motif, the centering of the motif both front and back, and the necessary size of the final sweater. The classic OXO motifs used in banded-style sweaters make the resulting adjustments easy: the designer simply adds or decreases space between the O's and then doodles in an X to fill the space between the O's. Small peerie and border patterns can then be chosen to fit the circumference.

Have you noticed that sizing increments in patterns for Fair Isle designs are often huge? Say, 36", 44", 52"? That's the result of needing to add several motif repetitions to maintain the unbroken patterning and the correct centering of pattern.

This sweater (my own design, and adaptation of a border chart in Celtic Charted Designs by Co Spinhoven) shows how a motif is run unbroken at the underarm.

However, when you begin to work with larger, allover patterns or when you want to include body shaping, the restrictions of the traditional approach no longer work. That's when you need a way to break the design at the side "seams." 

I have also noticed that breaking the design at the side "seam" (hey, can I just drop the quotation marks around the word seam? we all know that there is no physical seam at the side of a garment knit in the round) makes the wearer look slimmer. This one observation alone makes adding a new pattern at the seam worthwhile.

Another benefit to adding a seam pattern is that the jog in the pattern is no longer an issue! I mean, if you ever worried about such things.

There are no restrictions to how you add a seam pattern. The simplest approach is to put in some vertical lines:

Northwest Raven, my design

Or add a small pattern between some vertical lines:

Woodland Vest, my design

Or add a slightly larger pattern:

Tiny anchors, Sea and Sand Sweater, my design

Acorns, Acorn Sweater, my design—the acorns are in honor of my husband, who picks them up wherever we are walking

Or a BIG pattern!:

Spiders, November Sweater, my design

You can use texture—here is a seam that is simply an extension of the corrugated rib:

Muir Sweater, my design

No matter how narrow or wide your seam pattern is, you will do all increasing and decreasing to either side of it.

Considerations for planning a side seam pattern

• Do you want the seam pattern to fit the color movement of the design? It doesn't have to.
• To be successful the seam pattern needs to be distinct from the main pattern. Be bold! 
• The seam can be your opportunity to build folkloric pattern-on-pattern effects, but you can be simple as well.
• When you are working with an allover design you can choose to leave out a seam pattern alltogether, shaping at the sides and letting your motifs create new patterns as they fall. This is more effective if it is obvious that you are doing this on purpose: for example, if your shaping is strong and regular. Think it through.
• I often add my initials and the date in the side seam; if you want to do this, you need to make the seam pattern wide enough to accommodate your letters and numbers.
• If your garment has sleeves, think about how the side seam patterns will meet at the underarms. Now, mostly I don't worry much about this—I mean, who is looking at your armpits that closely? Remember my $10 rule: If they are looking that closely they should be trying to stuff $10 into your bra! But it offends my sense of balance if, say, the spiders have their heads cut off. Perhaps the "rule" is: The larger the pattern, the more important it is to plan ahead.

Spiders meet at the armpit

• My experience so far is that banded patterns require a simple and bold seam pattern, say, a 3 background color, 3 pattern color, 3 background design color, because the motif and color changes are so different from band to band. A more subtle seam pattern gets lost in the shuffle.
• Another observation: The trickier I try to get the worse the results! 

Side seam patterns offer a great opportunity to add personality to your sweaters. They are rarely noticed, so you can feel free to experiment. Have fun!

 

 

New Mexico

You know how it is: you come home from a great vacation, happy to be home, kind of tired, and definitely overwhelmed by the awaiting tasks.

Yeah. That's why it has taken me several days to download my photos. But I know that each of you has a life that does not hinge on my decision to press "Publish" so I don't feel too guilty!

• The Taos B&B—the Old Taos Guesthouse (picture at the top of the post)—that we stayed at was a little outside of the city center. One night John and I laid blankets out on the lawn to enjoy stargazing without the intrusive lights of big-city living. The Milky Way was like a carpet.... 
• Marilyn van Keppel (yes, THAT Marilyn of Faroese and Icelandic shawl fame!) and I enjoyed walking around the Taos Wool Festival. Sadly, I am still firmly aware of the reality of my fiber stash, so I did not feel compelled to purchase anything. But I was especially drawn to the Elsawool booth: their Cormo and other blended wool yarns and knitted products were absolute perfection. (Dang—just looking up the link made me want to order!) I fell in love with the rugs woven by Fred Black, although the one I was that close to buying was gone when we returned later in the day. 
• Weaving Southwest is one of my favorite places! Marilyn and I rested our weary feet on a welcome sofa, enjoying the expansive display of tapestries.

Dyed yarns drying outside Centinella Traditional Arts

• On the High Road to Taos we stopped in Chimayo to visit Centinella Traditional Arts, the studio and shop of Lisa and Ivan Trujillo, prize-winning weavers in the Rio Grande tradition. Lisa Trujillo greeted us warmly—it is always a joy to tell someone you admire how much you like their work.
• Happy event: we were in time for the world premiere of a documentary about weaving in New Mexico, Woven Stories: Weaving Traditions of Northern New Mexico! Rachel Brown, founder of Weaving Southwest and author of the timeless Weaving, Spinning the Dyeing Book, is one of the people featured in the film—a copy of her book, purchased in 1978, has been a valued part of my fiber life. Lisa Trujillo (above) is also in the film. You can purchase a copy of the movie on DVD. 

Storm near Questa

• Also along the High Road we stopped at the Ojo Sarco Pottery to purchase some coffee mugs. I want to move there! Kathy and Jake, the potters, were at work so we could watch pieces being decorated and enjoy chatting with them.

Ojo Sarco Pottery

• I tell you, if you are in New Mexico, do NOT miss the High Road to Taos! In addition to being beautiful, many artisans and fine artists have made their homes in the small towns along this route. Their studios are often open to the public. Really, click on that link for a virtual tour!
• I got to meet blog reader Celeste. We discovered a shared love of Turkey—she is co-leading a 15-day handcraft and culture tour there this spring.
• We ate at Orlando's two nights in a row; they specialize in Northern New Mexican cooking. Ahhh, the grilled pork adovada and posole! (And of course I was entranced by the colors!)

Dinner at Orlando's

• After Marilyn left, John and I settled down in Santa Fe for a few days. Our favorite restaurant, the Plaza Cafe, was closed for repairs—but a second location has opened in the south end of town, so I got my steak and enchiladas in red sauce, and John got his Green Chile Apple Pie with Cheddar Crust. We are a divided couple: I will always go for the red sauce and John tends to the green! In Santa Fe, "Red or green or Christmas?" is the standard question when you are dining out (Christmas means some red and some green sauce). I came home with a pound of red chile powder!
• We drove to Pecos National Historical Park, where the self-guided tour led us to kivas, ruined pueblo walls, and the remains of an old mission. This large pueblo was situated at a natural trading spot, but rather than try to tell you story, here's a link that better explains the importance of this community.

John climbing out of the restored kiva

Fur of a small, unlucky animal at Pecos Pueblo

• Bandelier National Monument was devastated by a fire and flood a few months ago, but a shuttle was set up to take us to the park. Although the lower areas showed evidence of flooding and the bridges across the river were washed away, we could still walk through the remains of the lower pueblo and climb to the cliff dwellings, where ladders are set up so we could peer into a few of the remaining dwellings. A highlight was the petroglyphs, some of them looked quite modern! A heavy rainstorm moved in just as we ended our walk, so we settled into our hotel room for naps.
• Although we've been to Santa Fe before, we'd never walked down Canyon Road, the center of the gallery scene (this link will give an idea of what's to be seen there). At the entrance to the street, you are greeted by these happy sheep:

I'm embarassed to say that I forgot to note the name of the artist and the gallery... If anyone knows, please allow me to give them credit.

• No visit is complete without a stop at Kakawa Chocolate House, a shop that will change how you view chocolate forever!
• I was pretty sick during most of this trip, so I really appreciated the big splurge: three nights in a deluxe room at The Inn of the Governors in Santa Fe. The fireplace, the comfy sofa, the excellend breakfasts, and the location just one block from a fine bookstore, The Collected Works Bookstore, gave me the rest I needed.

We saw, did, and ate many more memorable things, but I think this is enough! 

VIew near Los Alamos

 

 

Colorknits!

Interweave's new eMag, Colorknits, has just been published! Available for the Mac, the PC, and the iPad* (yay!). For only $9.99 you get articles on several color-knitting traditions: Estonia, Fair Isle, and Bohus traditions are explored and the ways you can manipulate multi-colored yarns or work intarsia in the round are covered. AND six patterns: Estonian Rositud mitts, a lovely Bohus-inspired sweater, legwarmers with a charming owl motif, a cowl and scarf that derive some of their charm from the intentional pooling of colors (if you run from pooling like the plague, you should take a second look!), and my Faded Splendor Tam, a traditional tam with a colorway inspired by a faded Persian rug.

 

I am also pleased to say that I contributed an article on how color is used in Fair Isle knitting. Those who have taken my classes know that it must have been hard for me to distill the information down to a short article—much less for me to attempt to cover the subject without waving my arms around! But I think I did a good job describing how value and sequences work.

I love how Interweave uses links and video in their eMags. For example, they have a feature that links to free websites that allow you to chart motifs, isolate colors in a photograph, or devise stripe arrangements. 

Colorknits includes much more than I've listed here. Check it out!

*Edited to add iTunes link

Redbud Vest Colors

[hmmm, I thought I'd published this two weeks ago! oops]

Yes, I'm posting this picture yet again because I am so damned proud of this pattern! So sue me...

I've been suffering through yet another nasty cold—for someone who thinks of herself as rarely getting sick, I've been sick a lot this year! Thus my silence, both in person (lost my voice a bit) and on the blog. 

But Skeindalous asked me to post the colors of the Redbud Vest; because I am a slave to my readers, here they are (all Jamieson Spindrift 100% Shetland wool jumperweight):

 

• 580 Cherry
• 585 Plum
• 570 Sorbet
• 550 Rose
• 190 Tundra
• 315 Heron
• 108 Moorit
• 123 Oxford
• 183 Sand
• 769 Willow
• 785 Apple