Misc Summer 2020 Stitching Chat!

[Melodi]

The sewing sounds lovely!

If you really want to do simple knitting, try doing just plain knitting (garter stitch flat or stockinette in the round) with your eyes closed.

In Europe until very recently weaving and knitting was two jobs often assigned and taught to blind people.

I have tried knitting with my eyes closed but I have taught myself to do simple knitting while reading a book (propped open) or the net, it is a similar idea though.

For me it only works with simple knitting, even to pearl requires a bit more concentration but just knitting, practice it a bit and the hands will do it for you and let you look out the train window, watch Netflix or read a book.

 

[Faroe]

The sewing sounds lovely!

If you really want to do simple knitting, try doing just plain knitting (garter stitch flat or stockinette in the round) with your eyes closed.

In Europe until very recently weaving and knitting was two jobs often assigned and taught to blind people.

I have tried knitting with my eyes closed but I have taught myself to do simple knitting while reading a book (propped open) or the net, it is a similar idea though.

For me it only works with simple knitting, even to pearl requires a bit more concentration but just knitting, practice it a bit and the hands will do it for you and let you look out the train window, watch Netflix or read a book.

One of the on-line classes I took for "combination knitting" emphasized that skill.

I'm almost always in fingering or laceweight, which doesn't lend itself well to blind or distracted knitting. It recently occurred to me that if I want to knit a blanket, maybe some worsted or chunky would be more suitable for the size of project. Einband, and Plutlopi (spell? on both) are Icelandic unspun yarns that would make a thick, light weight blanket. Have only worked with Letilopi (thick and round, and easy for the fingers to "read."), maybe I'll order a couple of skeins of the other two, and see which I like best. US size 8 fixed on a 60" inch cord would need to be ordered. I have a sweater's worth of Leti, but in a jumble of colors that don't work well for a body and yoke. Love the yarn, and it made a comfy shawl.

Now, I want to start swatching...

I actually don't watch video much. Mostly listen to podcasts, and interviews. If i'm reading, I've probably got a pencil in one hand for taking notes.

 

[Melodi]

I found Iceland yarn (the stuff from Iceland, not what is sold in the US) to be too fragile to knit without looking at it (mostly) but then the actual Icelandic stuff is not really yarn but proving (spell checker when I write "roving" I mean "roving" it is a spinner's term - no donut for you again today), they just twist them a bit for the US and Eastern European markets - if you have experience with it you will be fine, otherwise get the US version for mindless knitting.

Lace knitting I can't even imagine doing without looking at it, some people probably can but not me.

I use the read and knit or seriously watch and knit (mostly I do podcasts and the like too or ignore the video part, put down knitting as needed) for hats and the plain parts of sweaters in the round or very simple scarves.

On a very simple scarf I can even do Moss Stitch or other very simple versions of K2 P2 (watch caps etc) but that is as far as it goes.

Still, I've seen blind people who could knit almost anything with markers as hand triggers and weave amazing things.

When I was unemployed in Denver during the 1980s, the elderly gentleman at the weaver's workshop wanted to hire me (my vision is bad enough without glasses that he could have gotten a waiver) but all his old floor looms were set up for standing up only and I already had back issues.

He said it was a shame because even though I'd not touched more than an inkle loom in my life, he said he just "knew" from talking to me I had "the weaver's gift."

He also said he needed employees like me that could see the colors (and this was before I knew I was primarily a color artist in textiles) which of course the totally blind workers could not do.

Pity almost all the workshops were gone by the 90s, their funding cut, and their production moved to Asia.

 

[Faroe]

True Icelandic wool is avail. in the US/shipped to the US. Istex out of Iceland makes Lettlopi, which is what I have on hand. That yarn is a single, with twist. The other two are probably a bit more of a challenge to work with. Last I checked, Helene Magnusson's gorgeous site below has the other two avail. The Woolly Thistle out of NH carries at leas two of them (am avoiding, until the latest politics calms down).

Covid-19 update – Icelandic Knitter – Hélène Magnússon

icelandicknitter.com

 

[summerthyme]

I haven't been doing any of the lovely, decorative stuff lately. My back is so bad that concentrating just isn't possible, and it's a toss up whether sitting or lying down is more painful. I'm trying to get through until fall before getting surgery, but that may not be possible.

But DS visited last weekend with the two small granddaughters, and we had another of our odd weekend temperature crashes... we've been having a weird weather pattern where it's hot and lovely all week, and then temps crash on the weekends. Their mom packed for them (she's expecting again and isn't feeling well at all... the visit was partly to give her a break!) And it turned out they had no long sleeve shirts, and only one pair of underwear for the 3 year old (almost potty trained). So, I dug out the patterns... made 4 tunics from fuzzy sweatshirt material, 2 pairs of fleece leggings, and 6 pairs of knit shorts. I currently have 6 pairs of underpants cut out, and will get them sewn up once we deal with the 65 chickens we have to cut up today- and as soon as my order for fold-over elastic arrives.

I was frustrated to discover that a package of "20 yards" of assorted colors of fold-over elastic I purchased last fall was 20 pieces that are only 24" long... about 8" short of the length needed for each pair of undies.

My daughter can't figure out why I bother sewing basics like this...(she also doesn't understand why their dad hasn't just gone to Wal-Mart and bought some... forgetting that she hasn't taken her two boys, ages 9 and 10, into WalMart since February!)... but they're fast and fun.

And the 3 year old is so appreciative. She frequently comes up and says, "grandma! I love the nightie you made... it's so floaty and comfortable!" And the 2 year old has to view the latest items in a mirror when you try them on... she's a little fashionista.

Having a huge stash of fabrics and patterns is so handy at times like this. My next project will be half a dozen simple pullover sundresses for the girls to wear around the farm...they're hard to beat for potty training, and they're just adorable.

Hoping someday to get back to my quilting and (dream on!) Knitting machine!

Summerthyme

 

[Faroe]

Love making clothes for little kids. There is nothing sweeter than a little girl in a home-sewn sundress. When I was about three, my mother sewed two sun dresses out of the same fabric - one for me and one for her. There used to be a photo taken by my much older brother of me in that dress holding a watering can by our rock garden in the front yard. IIRC, there was another black and white (my brother had his own darkroom and developing equipment) of me in that dress by some shrubs holding a smallish rake. (Ma started us early.)

Am almost finished with the back of the sweater. A few days later than I wanted, due to a couple of mistakes that required unraveling, but getting there. I would like to have the shoulders joined, and start picking up stitches by July 4. I've come to a basic breakdown for one of these if the process goes smoothly: Set-up - about two weeks of graph paper and math, referring to the big stack of gansey books, planning, and swatching. Not so much work, but ideas need to be chewed on for a while. Next, two weeks to knit from cast-on up to the widest part of the gusset. Two weeks to knit both the front and back (this is less knitting, but more tedious), and two weeks to knit the sleeves. Give the neckline, plus finishing and blocking another week. Adds up to 8-9 weeks, give or take, assuming no long breaks wishing the project had never been undertaken (there is always some of that!).

Purchased Lowe's book, The Ravelled sleeve. Link to her interview in post #26. Not an inexpensive book, but I've heard a lot about it. Hope I like it as much as other's have, because, could have bought a cone Frangipani (or two yards of wide 100% silk charmeuse), for that amount (basically a month's worth of knitting, or some very nice underpinnings).

 

[Melodi]

Finished one hat for me now and am working on a second - in bulky wool, my housemate gave me for my birthday last year - it is so chilly, wet, and gloomy (with a big wind storm expected tonight) I realized I am adding metallics just for some brightness.

This started when I found some silver metallic that rats had gotten into (in my old studio that we are still working on clearing out) so unfit for weaving (even as weft yarn its to broken) but OK for small bits of decorative chain stitch.

Now on this new hat, I'm using copper metallic that didn't look great for Norse/Medieval trim but looks great on a kind of "I am an old bohemian hippie who refuses to age gracefully hat."

The first hat I finished is in dark blues and silver because this weekend if we get the stove running for hot water I plan to dye my hair silver and see how it looks if I hate it, I can go back to red but I think silver might look nicer and the natural dull grey/dull brown of my own hair is rather drab.

But most of my clothing is still based on being a red head hence the second hat.

Summertyme have you tried CBD oil/related products if they are legal (or semi-legal) where you are? I find that helps a lot with basic pain control, not enough to go plow the lower 40 but enough I can sit here and knit.

As for my "production levels" understand I have spent most of this year in front a computer for days at a time due to health issues (the most recent a kidney infection, as well as over-all arthritis, caused back problems for which there is really nothing to be done except live with it).

So Nightwolf has been doing pretty much everything from cooking to gardening and livestock management - that means if he wants a pile of hats in two weeks, I am more than willing to crank up to 1 hat every 2 days (by hand) if my Passup machine didn't need a professional cleaning (not happening right now and now we know - make a cover if you have cats) I'd use that but that wasn't an option (plus I need to have the paid for motor attached, I don't think I'd last long trying to push the thing right now).

I'm only mentioning this to explain the high production of knitting going on here, nothing much else is happening unless Nightwolf does it (or our housemate) the house is a complete wreck but I'm just having to learn to live with it, my last attempt at serious clean up (last December) got me six to eight weeks in bed along with x-rays that discovered the problem and pain injections.

Anyway, I will try to get pictures of the hats shortly - and I love knitting and even sewing baby and small kids clothing. I learned to sew from my Mom making small outfits for kids on a Native American reservation sponsored by her Church. The goal was every year, every child got a new outfit selected by the parents - so they got to choose, not just handed something.

Right away I started adding decorations (my Mom hadn't thought of that) like applique (I didn't know the word) balloons and rick-rack kites to make them more interesting.

These days I mostly knit baby clothing instead, it is so fast, so pretty and you can "get away" with color combinations that look amazing on a 3 months old baby but terrible on an adult.

Years ago, people would stop my former housemate and ask her who "did" or where "to buy" her daughter's wildly colored clothing and she said, "I bought the yarn" (she's an artist) and my friend Melodi makes them.

Her daughter is now 18, in the Old Days I'd probably be planning her baby's first outfit but I suspect it is some time yet (besides her Mom still keeps the old ones handy).

That Sweater sounds like it is going to be absolutely lovely (the Gansey) I hope you can get a photo when it is done.

 

[Faroe]

Those *&%$#@! phone cameras are a PITA. Zero patience with them. Took lousey pics, can't seem to take a good one with that thing. (My stupid expensive digital real camera that someone gave me about twelve years ago is also impossible to use.) Hate 'em! Anyway, then, there is the problem of getting it into anything I can post - the computer always has some unintelligible damn objection. Whatever. I much prefer the film canisters, and the Fotomat (spell?) kiosks of olde days.

Anyhow, decided on a shoulder strap for the join - they always fit better, and look better. So studied the old Beth Brown Reinsel edition (falling apart, at this point) for the tech. specs on getting that to look right. I think I have it, and will probably start it today.

Also, swatching for the next sweater. I actually like swatches - experimental and no commitment, but you get the boost of something NEW, and working out new skills/refinements. Size US 0 Hiyas, getting 8 stitches to the inch so far. Nicely slick and fast. I used to think Hiyas were too slick and pointy, but now starting to prefer them. I ordered four US 0's in fixed (2 in 24" and 2 in 32"), so I won't have to deal with the untrustworthy joins. Changed (again) the pearl method, actually back to how I used to pearl, it cramps my hands, but gives a perfectly even texture with no rowing out. Looks machine knit, actually. This yarn is Fangipani in Falmouth Blue. Absolutely gorgeous shade of inkey dark indigo-ish blue. I do NOT love the way it sucks in all available light, and is making me think I need to budget for one of those Ott lights on a neck cord. Extra magnification would help too. Whatever... any sweater out of that yarn, will be well worth it.

 

[summerthyme]

My Ouch! Liniment is actually the most effective relief I have... it's literally the only thing keeping me sane some days. I put the neurosurgeon off until August (in a fit of insanity mostly because I was having a really good day, and knowing that our summer gardening season was coming- if we don't grow and preserve it, we don't eat.)

But the "good" days are getting fewer and farther between. At some point, I may end up needing emergency surgery to keep me out of a wheelchair, if the liniment doesn't relieve the nerve inflammation enough... of course, the doctors who tell me that also say in the next breath, "but you don't look that bad... your strength and muscle tone are... "unusual". Sigh... I've heard that about every serious injury I've ever had... mostly because I just refuse to quit. It really is amazing how much the body can compensate for, if you're too stubborn to just lie down and say "help me"! I once had a 3rd degree shoulder separation that I threw hay bales, drove tractor and delivered calves with for 8 months (often with tears streaming down my face from the pain) before an orthopedic surgeon decided that, despite "normal" x-rays, *something* was wrong... he came in after the surgery and said, with the strangest look on his face..."you were working with that arm? How?! There wasn't anything holding it on!"

Yeah... I'm there again, and this whole COVID mess isn't exactly encouraging me to push to get it fixed... not to mention my valid concern that, too often, spine surgery actually makes things worse.

The foldover elastic came yesterday, and our weather forecast is for mid nineties for the next 7-10 days. No AC, but the big maples keep it under 80 in the house, as long as we close up all the windows in early morning. Next weekend, all the kids are coming to the farm to help with whatever we need help with... talk about an interesting exercise in trying to set priorities! I'm hoping to get the sewing for the girls done by midweek, then clean up the house a bit and do some cooking ahead before they get here.

Maybe I'll get *some* of it done! Grrr...

Summerthyme

 

[Melodi]

I love my neck light or I did until Nightwolf decided it was perfect for everything from "candling eggs" to who knows what, I haven't seen it in a month at least.

Headlamps are the next best thing, I also have a Lidle's full spectrum lamp that I use on days like this when it is so gloomy I couldn't really see the colors well at High Noon...

I think even a "bad" picture of the sweater might be inspirational but up to you, I know I look at some of the older photos (early digitals) and they are kind of a blurry mass, ugh.

Summertyme, if you are willing to let Nightwolf (or I) in a private e-mail what goes into your medicine I'd be grateful (with even a signed pledge not to sell it) since I don't think we can order it from here.

While the "special meddie" has been helpful, I don't have nearly your pain thresholds (I suspect few people do) and I'd like to have other options between "special" and "codeine" (which I also have but don't like to take).

 

[Faroe]

Shoulder straps are tedious.
There really isn't much fabric in them, but the technique is very fiddley, and a lot of turning. Most of ONE, took me most of the day. I thought the diamonds would look nice; the same as are on the front, and I would add the edgings, and the 6 stitch ropes when I picked up for the actual sleeves...

Clown. Only a clown would wear this sweater. Too many diamonds. The shoulder strap needs a long linear element.
What the heck was I thinking?

The slip 1, knit across in pattern, knit the last tog. with the next stitch on the other needle, turn the work, slip 1....
down to the new invisible strap cast-on I was rather proud of learning, all ripped out. Returned the original front and back stitches back on the needles as best could, mostly mounted wrong, and split - that's sort of the nature of knitting with smooth 5 ply yarn, but you MUST get them ON before the little heads slip below the surface...

Gah! I'll fix it all and try again in the morning.

 

[Melodi]

Sometimes you need to take a break, I'm not even sure where the "Sweater of Way Too Many Cables is" it is probably in a plastic box in the spare room - I might think about it if the weather turns warm again, that and NOT doing the cables down the sleeves (or just doing one) - or I will never get the monster finished.

Housemate has been out twice to my old weaving studio (too far to go in Winter, the electricity went out in that room too - moving stuff gradually inside except for long term storage).

She found some of my boat shuttles, weaving spindles (that the yarn winds on to and you use it in the boat shuttle), the weaving spindle winder (looks sort of like a ball winder), and the tablet weaving cards.

She brought my loom reeds in last week, we still have to figure out how to get the warping board off the wall outside and move it inside with the stone walls (I can't sit on the floor with it as my weaving teacher did) meanwhile if I get brave and want to try something small, I can use an inkle loom as a warping board.

Housemate needs more trim for her/our SCA business - yes Viking Lady Traders may return to join her "Clever Paws" but I'm not pushing it. Trim is easy to weave on the Inkle loom though and I just got the new German/English book: "Tablets at Work" yesterday (took two months to get here from Germany, shipping is erratic these days).

My fingers were not even up to knitting yesterday or today (too cold and wet) but tomorrow or the next day I'm planning to olive oil the looms in preparation for getting back to some weaving.

Linseed Oil is better by I have nasty allergic reactions to it - Nightwolf can use it if I'm not in the room but I don't want to breathe it in while weaving, and olive oil is fine, it just darkens the wood a bit.

The last two days I really have done very much other than planning.

 

[Faroe]

I am jealous of your weaving skills. Even if I had the equipment, I don't have the time I would want to devote to mastering it. Think it has been about 2+ years since I last warped the inkle. Love the inkle, just never seem to get around to it.

Enjoy!

 

[Melodi]

Inkle Weaving and Tablet weaving on an inkle can be "picked up" in an afternoon - I had one class in Inkle Weaving just before leaving the US at a "West Kingdom" SCA class in Berkeley and then after years of being confused, an afternoon with an SCA tablet weaving Laurel had me doing tablet weaving by the next day.

I've taught classes and usually one or two people pick it up that fast - now my next goal is complex tablet weaving which my engineering roommate figured out "in her head" before she ever started, I also want to try more brocaded or pick-up work inkle weaving.

Floor looms are another story and I haven't done much the last six or seven years (not since I had my arm in a cast for several months after breaking it near the shoulder).

Even in floor weaving, I am a huge fan of "looks difficult, really isn't" with some modifications of twill to do simple overshot patterns.

I don't sell floor loom weaving, it takes too much time (often in the set up) it is better for "gifts" for special people (like full-sized knitting projects).

With the economic mess, you may be able to get a loom going cheap by the Fall; if I had lived in California in 2008 I could have bought another loom like mine (only a more recent model) with every bell and whistles, bench, accessory etc from a desperate person for about 300 dollars (I considered trying to have it shipped over but I did that once and in future will stick to flatpacks from the manufacturer if I do that again).

I really really want an 8 harness loom but I probably won't get one, my old (one of the original model) Baby Wolf Looms can't be modified for that, the new ones mostly can.

I got mine used in Denver in the 1980s from an advert in Handwoven magazine, back before the internet, I paid about 700 in 1980s dollars; a new one today is between 2 and 3 thousand.

 

[Faroe]

I hope someday....
Do you follow Durham Weaver? I have two of her books and get her e-mail updates. Gorgeous work. Mostly Sami and Baltic inspired belts, but her last posted project was cottolin plaid tea towels.

Re. knitting: This is already a "bizy" (spell??) sweater, so decided that the usual three needle bind-off with the ridge on the inside would be more suitable. Done, and picked up the stitches for both arms. Have about 1" of patterned knitting on one arm. Wasn't sure about motif placement, but looks good...so far.

Dunno, it is looking smaller than I expected. I did the math after swatching, and used two existing sweaters for comparison. Patterning draws in, so it should get back to the expected size with blocking. The next sweater will have different choices in motif for a flatter appearance.

Revised estimated date for finish is the last day of this month.

 

[Melodi]

One sock almost done (I'm on the end of the toe) now I just need to make another one; then I hope to set up the tablet weaving loom if not before then.

 

[Faroe]

Congrats.

Am halfway down the first arm. Progress very slow. Headaches and inc. screwed up eyesight, but it is getting done. Lowe's book came. Am about a third of the way through that. Very dry, but I was warned. Heavy on precision, and rather technical - she re-thinks how pattern instructions should be written, how a knitter should approach the pattern, and disguards a lot of conventional bull shit. Nevertheless, some of her direction seems a little over the top; I swatch more than most, but I don't think anyone out there consistently knits multiple 12" square swatches at the start of a new project. I do like her emph. on gauge (getting YOUR gauge, not the pattern writer's gauge), and doing the simple math to obtain the intended fabric measurement. She envisions the end product, and then meticulously works back to the materials and stitch counts.

Most of us tend to wing it more, and I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing. It is a good book, and worth the read, but I don't think most knitters (even very skilled knitters) are all that concerned about the results she would have us aspire to.

 

[Melodi]

Halfway through the second sock and looking at starting some tablet weaving (simple) but need to move the printer and a few things first.

I want to get this pair of socks done, cast on a second pair, and/or an ordered pair of socks (trade exchange) that I can work on in between trying to use the small loom.

Normally I don't sell knitting but I will trade things for it (in this case that major arcana deck that I showed a picture from in Unexplained - the card with the lady farmer).

 

[Faroe]

Yay for little projects!

There is a one-skein shawlette that I'll be making when this sweater is done. Still not finished with the first sleeve. One and half moss stitch diamonds to go, and then I"ll be finished with the patterning on that one. Stockinette goes fast to the cuff. At least the end is in sight. Tried it on. It fits...sorta??? Hard to tell before blocking since this pattern draws in a great deal. A bit odd around the arms - just included a basic smallish gusset. Hoping that issue disappears when the sweater gets blocked.

The next one will be MUCH better.

 

[packyderms_wife]

Normally I don't sell knitting but I will trade things for it (in this case that major arcana deck that I showed a picture from in Unexplained - the card with the lady farmer).

Which thread was that in the Unexplained?

 

[Melodi]

The one (and I don't remember which one I'm sorry but it was one of the prediction threads) where I showed the photo fo a "card" with a Lady Farmer on it, in front of her crops under the blazing sun holding her hands to the sky in that universal "why Lord/Lady where is the rain?"

At first glance, it looks like the Americana "field of corn" but if you look close (and I didn't know this at the time) it is Wynonna Rider who has retired to grow Cannabis (legally).

The card "got me" because in her tye-dyed shirt she looked so much like me (in feeling not actual looks) standing in front of my Mom's orange tree, where the old hippie who now rents it turned to me and said basically:

"I kept it alive with bathtub water..." and then with no discussion of religion or anything said;

"Pray for Rain Sister, Pray for Rain, we need rain..."

There are times I joke that I must walk around with an inevitable sign on my head that says "Priestess" or something because this sweet old guy just knew.

And then, a few days later I kept weeping as my cousin drove me through the central valley, I know she thought I was crying for my Mom (which was also true) but the kicker was seeing the dead, dry bones of the Central Valley.

I got to Paradise California (that would later burn to the ground) and wrote a blog post here somewhere on the Forum called: "Dead Valley Days."

The card did is her Covid-19 Deck the Artist only had about 35 printed but she may have a few left, some are funny, some are just whimsical (the artist doesn't really know tarot well).

One of my favorites is Arnie with his miniature horses as "The Chariot"

 

[Faroe]

The cards sound like fun. Hope you both enjoy the trade.

Patterning is finally done on the first sleeve, with six to eight more inches of plain and rib cuff to go. I'll decide on final length after I have both done to that point, and have finished off the neck. Second sleeve has been started, and should go smoothly. Ordered several lengths of Hiya fixed in sizes one and zero. I use those two sizes the most, but prefer the smoother joins of the fixed. ChiaoGoo's work well for openwork lacy projects, but seem to drag with a couple hundred tight stitches in the round. It was messing with a consistent gague. I just got tired of the extra friction, even though it is an obvious no-no to change needle brands mid-way through. This sweater IS a bit of a mess for several reasons, Well, I did my best - can't win 'em all.

I also ordered straights as back-up (hard to find, The NetLoft has them). The coated wires and nylon cords don't last forever, as a beginning knitter I once broke a cord on a fairly new Addi. Yes, the trad.'s are dangerously long skewers, but I don't want to be w/o needles if/when the nylon cords wear out.

Busy also building a new viv for the Sonoran Gopher. She is too long for her glass 40 gallon. The wood frame still needs a plastic lineing, hinges, and a latch. She is in shed right now (and miserable), but it will be in place and ready for her when she is done with that.

Happy crafting.

 

[Melodi]

Hope the sweater works out to be wearable, that is usually my final goal when they go "pear-shaped" (I loved that local term it works so well when projects get wonky).

I'm still stuck on the second sock, just really didn't feel like knitting for a couple of days - I am hoping to get back to it today.

 

[MissionBend]

I normally crochet (my favorite is mile a minute) but I have been trying to learn to knit. So far I can do the knit but for the life of me I cant purl. Dont understand why not but it just doesn't work for me!

 

[Faroe]

I normally crochet (my favorite is mile a minute) but I have been trying to learn to knit. So far I can do the knit but for the life of me I cant purl. Dont understand why not but it just doesn't work for me!

You can always just work in garter for a while, by knitting every row. Make a handy stack of washclothes.

YouTube is full of videos for basic knit stitches. Numerous ways to make the pearl, stitch, just choose based on which hand you tension the yarn in, and also which direction you are transferring the stitches. (Mirror knitting/reverse knitting gives you stockinette w/o purling - you don't turn the work, just go in the opposite direction, used to speed up Entrelac, which would otherwise require constant turning). Assuming you are not Andean or Portugese knitting - both are viable, ergonomic, and very speedy options if you REALLY hate the standard way purl is done. Again, check videos. Also, if you have the funds available, Craftsy seems to be back on its feet, and has a good format for videos with experienced instructors. I've learned a lot from there.

Look up Combination knitting (confusing name, used in conjunction with, but not to be confused with "Continental") if you are tensioning the yarn in your left hand, with the usual stitches transferring from the left needle to the right needle (Continental knitting, or a "picker"). The pearl wrap is much simpler in Combination, it just goes under, not up and around, however the purled stitches end up with the opposite mount (which leg is forward on the needle), and must be knitted from the back loop on the following row, or you will cross the legs of those stitches. Very speedy technique that also gives excellent results once one is used to the "combination" of where to enter the stitch on the needle in a row of mixed-up stitch mounts. Some people use this specifically in ribbing and cables, because you don't get lop-sided knit stitches next to columns of pearl. Suzanne Bryan has at least one video on this.

Norwegian purl is another way to go if you are a Continental knitter. I've worked with this one too, but never achieved good speed or tension. Others use it exclusively, and love it. This one is confusing even on video, but I found Roxanne does the best job, in a short ten-year old YouTube. I can get the link if you want it.

All THAT said, are you perhaps wrapping the yarn with your right hand, "throwing" "English" style? I can't advise, because even though I work on it, I suck at it. Those knitters historically used supported needles set in a belt or sheath, and I think that makes a big difference in speed and ease. Fruity Knitting has a recent (last one ?) podcast on a couple of hand positions for English (unsupported), which I would actually like to download. Andrea is an expert knitter and teacher. I'll find the link if you want it.

 

[Faroe]

Politically Incorrect Knitters.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxk0a_FBcMo

Found these two young gals last night. Something to listen to in the background while stitching away. This episode has some pretty color-work. Mostly current events chit-chat, US and Global. I haven't finished this one, 40-something min. run time.

They have about four episodes out so far.

 

[MissionBend]

I do wrap the yarn ("throw"?) with my right hand and hold the tension with my left. I will watch these videos over the weekend and see if I can get past whatever I keep messing up on. Hubby brought me 3 new skeins in a color I LOVE, so really want to make something knitted for once instead of crocheted! LOL Thanks for all the info!

 

[moldy]

Don't laugh, y'all, but my sewing project is sewing 33 foot lengths of landscaping fabric (6 foot wide) together to cover a 33x66 foot area. I got about 20 feet done and am having problems with my machine. When I rethread it, the bobbin thread won't catch. Presser foot is up and bobbin fill is in correct position. Any other thoughts?

 

[summerthyme]

It's possible (even likely) it's slightly out of time, possibly from the drag of that much fabric... sometimes it doesn't take much to knock a machine out of time. It's probably easiest to take it to a sewing machine repair guy, unless your hubby is handy with stuff like that. I'm blessed to have 2 sons who can fix anything, but otherwise, I would have had to take mine in a couple times over the years.

I wouldn't think landscape fabric would create a lot of lint, but if you haven't, remove the bobbin, bobbin case and foot plate and make sure there isn't a bunch of lint/dust/trash built up in there...

Summerthyme

 

[Faroe]

I do wrap the yarn ("throw"?) with my right hand and hold the tension with my left. I will watch these videos over the weekend and see if I can get past whatever I keep messing up on. Hubby brought me 3 new skeins in a color I LOVE, so really want to make something knitted for once instead of crocheted! LOL Thanks for all the info!

Ha! I don't know how THAT works, but many very advanced knitters have quirky methods. (I think most of us are taught, forget half of it, pick up knitting later, and teach ourselves. ) More often than not, I both tension and "pick" with the yarn held between the left index and middle fingers. Good control, efficient, and consistent results, but it causes hand cramps, so I have to frequently switch out for bit. My above tedious and verbose text is the worst way to teach knitting, even drawings in a book convey it much better. A zillion knitting videos out there...you will eventually narrow things down to your favorite instructors.

Anyway, ENJOY!

 

[Faroe]

Five diamonds are done on the second sleeve, so not so much more to go.

I've been trying to source yarn for the next sweater, but no luck. I know what I want, but no one seems to be making yarn like that anymore, or small producers who never have sweater sufficient quantities in stock. It'll probably be either skeins of Rauma Finull a cone of Jameison and Smith (sp?) shetland, or some sport weight from these people:

https://mountainmeadowwool.com/collections/yarn/products/natural-gray-sport?variant=5897912123431

I would prefer coarser wool, and three ply, but apparently no such luck. At least this one is the right weight, right shade of natural grey, and is domestic. These people have a mill, so if I like it, I'll have to ask if they generally have it available all the time. It is annoying to find a good yarn, and then have chronic availability issues. Blacker Yarns, Upton Yarns, and Birlin Yarns all make gorgeous skeins, but never seem to have good greys available in larger amounts (fine for a hat, not enough for a sweater, and if you buy it once and love it..well, they never seem to have it again). I love it when the wool comes from a sheep with a name, but at that point, you are pretty much purchasing that animal's entire fleece. Not the best way to source a basic, staple, go-to yarn.

I'm blaming the sock knitters. They sqew (sp???) the market with their demand for hand-painted skeins in Superwash with 10% nylon, and novelty additions like alpaca and bamboo.

ETA: while knitting diamonds, and sewing hexies, I've been listening to these podcasts:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVuPVFt0wtA


This one is over an hour (the usual run time for this channel). Gary and Vonna discuss Quaker cross stitch samplers: antique, reproduction and inspired contemporary examples. This show gets off to a slow start, just skip ahead to the good stuff. These things are beautiful. I was hoping for a new cheap needle craft - this isn't it, but I suppose one could just get by with a library book for the charts, aida cloth, and the usual DMC cotton. Otherwise, it's twenty dollar PDF charts, 32 count linen in special antique impression dyes, and fancy flosses. For about a hundred bucks, you too, can re-produce an antique sampler originally stitched by a twelve year old in an orphanage. Anyway, all snark aside, these are beautiful, historic, and well worth the money for the work that goes into the kits. I'm just a little pissy right now, because I'll need to re-work the budget, first, if I decide to ditch the yarn search, and get a kit instead.

 

[Melodi]

Can you spin, do you have a wheel? I don't know if you would have time but that sort of yarn tends to not be that hard to make (especially for knitting).

I should be getting a couple of fleeces tomorrow morning and I already told Nightwolf he's going to have to help me process them since I can't dag anymore (get down on the ground, cut around the outside of the fleeces especially belly fur and read end parts with poop in them) and I may also need help a bit with rinsing the wool.

But home washed wool usually still has a bit of oil in it and is perfect for outdoor "rough" sweaters.

You can also try ordering from Spring Wools in Ireland, their shipping rates are low and they carry a lot of the recent new Irish Yarns (often revivals of old mills and other places being set up again) like Donegal yarns, Wild Atlantic Way and a number of others.

Springwools.com | Ireland | Online Store

springwools.com

They often have other colors or sizes than are on the website, so sometimes calling them is best because they may have a particular brand with other colors but not enough to post on the website.

Melodi...still working on that one danged pair of socks!

 

[Faroe]

Thanks, I'll look into those sources. No wheel here - I do much better with a hand spindle, but I've only ever processed and spun enough for socks and gloves. I'd rather knit than spin. I have more cones of Frangipani and other stuff in the stash that at this point, should probably get used first. Budget crunch for the next several months; I need to be saving, right now, not spending.

Less than two more inches of pattern on the sleeve to go, and then just knit the last few inches down to the cuffs on both sleeves, and finish the neck. It's been a solid two plus months of knitting. Gonna take a breather as soon as it is done, and get my life back on track.

Will be going through the stash of linen fabric to see if I an find a thread count coarse enough for cross stitch. 32-40 threads per inch seems to be standard. I'll just start practicing with whatever DMC is on hand, and find some simple free motifs to start with. Charted alphabets interest me the most, and I recall a collection in a Dover type thin paper back that I picked up a long time ago from the thrift store (its somewhere....). Been sewing a lot of hexies together, but I get tired of them, too.

 

[Jacki]

I much prefer even weave for cross stitching.

There are free stitch-alongs that are interesting, and a magazine called Sampler and Antique Needlework, I have several issues with antique sampler patterns.

Jacki

 

[Faroe]

I much prefer even weave for cross stitching.

There are free stitch-alongs that are interesting, and a magazine called Sampler and Antique Needlework, I have several issues with antique sampler patterns.

Jacki

Yeah, may have to go that way. Linen is gorgeous, but I'm not sure my eyes can handle it, even with extra magnification.
Worked with some smaller weave scrap linen last night, and woke up this morning with a blazing nauseated headache. May not have caused it, but now, I have that association. No linenwork today, I can barely function this morning. I may end up as a big stitch Aida cloth devotee.

I've also been looking at small repetitive designs instead of letters. I'm inspired by the aesthetic Krista works with at her site Avlea Mediterranean Folk Embroidery. She suggests needle work as a way of spiritual meditation, and chooses patterns which support that - the process being as important as the finished object. Reminds me of Fair Isle and the small repeats in some Scandinavian knitted colorwork, and textured ganseys sometimes have it too (Sabine Domnick's book has numerous swatches in that sort of patterning - I dislike all of the finished sweaters she provides written instructions for, but the swatches in the more historic section of the book are mesmerizing). To my eye, many of the most visually satisfying designs are also rhythmic to physically knit.

 

[Melodi]

Finally, they are done! That would have happened faster if I had actually been working on them...lol

 

[Grouchy Granny]

Anybody doing any beading? I have my late SIL's beading loom which I will never use. It's all wood and I don't know the size off the top of my head. I'm getting ready to move sewing room back into the house and need to divest myself of some stuff!

PM me if interested - I just want it to go to a good home and not Goodwill or ARC.

 

[Faroe]

Finally, they are done! That would have happened faster if I had actually been working on them...lol

Those are beautiful. I want to wear them!

 

[Melodi]

I'm delighted you like them, my housemate got the yarn for me in Germany; where they sell this stuff really cheap in most supermarkets (the lucky knitters!).

I was a little worried because this is exactly the sort of sock yarn that has taken over the market, but I love the colors on this one.

I've now started the commissioned ones with heavier (sport weight) wool and kitty cats on them, at least this should go faster (I hope).

Melodi

 

[Faroe]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuK3ldZCRBw

50 something min run time.

Gary Parr interviews a collector and author of antique needlework tools, Dawn Cook Ronningen. Worth listening to while stitching. Some pretty photos from the collection.