Christmas knitting

I promised to show you my Christmas knitting. Each person got two knitted items. The trick was – they had to choose their own. What was meant to be a secret game quickly became a funny free-for-all. Everyone seemed to love what they chose from "Santa’s Bag."

And then there were the beer socks.

I did not finish the second sock by Christmas Eve.

Happily, sock one fit perfectly, and I quickly finished up sock two (it’s much faster when you can knit in public). As you can see, I ran out of the dark brown Jacob. Rather than spin more, I used up the leftover bits of gold yarn. And there is just enough left for future repairs (I expect these socks to get worn).

Happy Holidays

New Year’s Eve, and the holidays are almost over. It really has been a lovely season. We began, earlier in December, taking family to a Christmas concert, full of laughter and sing-alongs. Then, the weekend before Christmas, we had our traditional visit to New York City, to be part of the hustle and bustle, lights and decorations. Not to mention good food, and of course the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

We spent the entire day at the Met, including the extended evening hours, which gave us plenty of time to explore at a leisurely pace. We visited our old favorites, and took in several special exhibits, including Gilded Age furniture, and an exhibit of house-shaped vessels from Central and South America. This was one of my favorites:

I love the little dog waiting at the door for scraps!

And then there was the exhibit of 16^th century textile pattern books.

book by Johann Schonsperger the Younger, Augsburg, 1529

The Met has an extraordinary collection of pattern books from the dawn of the print age, and many
samples of period textiles created from the patterns. Needless to say, I spent hours in the exhibit. It clearly showed how the rise of printing influenced textile fashion across Europe. Printers were freely gathering patterns for textile prints and embroidery from Italy, Germany, France, the Levant… and binding them together for the public’s consumption. While some people may be frustrated by how all this borrowing makes it difficult to know the origins of a particular pattern, I find it exciting to think about the “free” exchange of information across great distances, for people (especially women) who might otherwise not have the opportunity to travel so far. Today these books are particularly rare because pages were often removed in order to copy the patterns onto the material to be embroidered. The Libro de rechami (1532), by Alessandro Paganino even illustrates women using various methods to copy the patterns.

I think my favorite part of the exhibit related to a pattern of birds. This was clearly a popular pattern. Here is the pattern, and its interpretation in several different styles:

I was excited to see the lacis artifacts. Since this is a technique I have recently begun to learn, it was fun to see so many period examples all together. I think I will try my hand at one of these patterns.

And then there was the modern lacis. Perhaps I need to make myself a shirt.

 c. 1920 and 1910 respectively

Then, as a little extra treat, we found our way to a little-visited part of the museum, with an exhibit of 19^th century samplers. Here is my favorite, because it was such a surprise.

London, mid-19th century

This piece is only about 3.5 inches square, so you can get a sense of how tiny these stitches are. But, who was this girl who was stitching complex math problems instead of quotes from Scripture?

We ended our trip to New York with a visit to the Central Park Zoo. The weather was perfect, and the animals were particularly active. Here is just one photo for your enjoyment:

Beer Lover's Sock

Sock one is done!

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The only part I had trouble with is the heel. That is the yarn I spun from the locks. With combed or carded wool I can spin any thickness my heart desires. Spinning from the locks, with a fair amount of lanolin still in the wool, it was difficult to spin as fine as the rest of the yarn. It took most of the yarn I had spun to finish it, so I will have to spin more white before I reach that point in sock #2. It is also significantly thicker, and therefore difficult to knit on size 1 needles. I will make sock two the same, but if I do this again, I will spin it all with combed or carded wool. I will say that my husband is very unlikely to get holes in this heel.

Here is my general pattern:

Using size 1 needles, cast on 68 stitches. Knit 5 rows of 1-1 rib. Change to the Jacob wool and knit one row. Increase to 72 stitches. Knit for 2 inches. Begin knitting gold stripes. Each wide stripe is 5 rows; each narrow stripe is 2 rows. After 3 wide stripes, begin decreasing. Decrease one stitch at the beggining and one stitch at the end of a row, every 5 rows, until 64 stitches remain. vary the stripes according to the yarn you have. Knit until the sock is as long as desired. This one is about 12 inches. Using needles 1 and 4, knit a garter stitch heel. Turn the heel and decrease as usual until 64 stitches remain. Continue knitting, changing yarns as needed, until the sock is the desired length. 

If you don't like beer, it could also be the chocolate and caramel lover's sock (that would be me).

Sock Progress

Here is my sock so far:

I’ve used up almost half of my yarn, except for the mixed gold that I am saving for the foot. The knitting is going pretty quickly, so I’ve decided to make knee-high socks. I’ll need to knit about 4 more inches, so I am spinning up more of the brown Jacob wool. It is tightly spun at 32 wpi (12.5 wpc) and the plied yarn is 15 wpi (6 wpc).

I had different amounts of each shade of gold, so I varied my stripes as I went along. Each wide stripe is 5 rows and about half an inch wide (1.2 cm). The last part of the leg will be mostly brown with one or maybe two thin gold stripes. I’ve decided on a garter stitch heel, using the white yarn, because it will look a little like the bubbles in a beer head.

Beer Lover's Socks

This is the time of year when I am frantically creating Christmas gifts. I've been knitting up a storm (but you'll have to wait to see what I've made). Meanwhile, I was in need of gold thread for embroidery. I happened to be in my local yarn store (Trumpet Hill), and came upon a beautiful bit of gold, hand dyed merino roving. Just the thing! It was dyed in several shades of gold, from light to quite dark. The first thing I had to do was separate the colors. I have a friend who does this all the time, but I had never tried it before. It was a little trickier than I had expected. Here is what I spun - some light gold thread for embroidery, and some dark gold, spun a bit thicker, for a sprang project I have in mind:

I probably should have put a bit more twist in the embroidery thread, but it will work.

While I was separating the colors, it struck me that the colors looked like all the kinds of beer that my husband likes to drink, from a lovely amber or October fest, to a tasty pilsner. I decided to spin it up and make him a pair of "beer lover's" socks for Christmas. Here is where I am so far:

His favorite beer is Guinness, so I added some dark brown Jacob, and some tan Romney/Corriedale yarn to the mix, and started the sock with a wide brown stripe for his favorite stout, with a little tan for the head. The rest of the stripes will be narrower. I've forgotten what breed the white is, but it was spun from the locks. I will use it for the heels, because it will be sturdier than the merino.

By separating the colors, I wound up with four fairly solid shades of gold (the little balls), plus two small hanks with mixed colors, where the colors changed in the roving. I cast on 68 stitches for the ribbing, then increased to 72 stitches for the leg. I know this will work because I've made socks for him before. I'm using size 1 needles. I'm not sure yet how tall the socks will be. I've weighed the balls, so I will stop when I have used up half of each ball. I will use the mixed yarn and additional Jacob yarn for the feet, and maybe some white for the toes. When I finish the first sock I will let you see how it turns out. It may take a little longer than usual because I can only knit when he isn't around.

teaching an old dog new tricks

That would be me. October has flown by, but I spent it teaching, and learning new things. First, to my surprise, Marjorie asked to learn nalbinding, as did another friend. Of course I said I would teach them. I love teaching nalbinding. So we sat down to learn the Oslo stitch. That's when I found out they are both left handed. So, I very quickly had to learn how to teach left-handed nalbinding. By the end of the evening, we had arrived at terminology that makes sense no matter if you are left handed or right handed. (Thank you, Marjorie.) No matter which hand you are using, you are looking at the front of your thumb (the nail side), and you work the stitch off the back of your thumb (the pad side). The working thread lies on the inside (between thumb and index finger), and the needle approaches the stitch from the outside of the thumb.

By our second lesson both women were confident nalbinders. Marjorie had taught the stitch to another friend, and she was ready to learn something new. I will not take the credit. They were both very quick learners.

Later in the month I spent a day with my friend Vibeke, while she taught me to throw pottery on the wheel. I came home with quite a few little pieces, but just as many were disasters. Two things were difficult for me - centering the clay, and making straight sides (I never did accomplish that). Here is what I made:

The straight-sided piece in the back, and the inkwell in the center were made by my friend Heather. The other three pieces are mine.

The three rather small pieces in the foreground are mine. 

I also made a tiny bud vase, and a spindle whorl (I couldn't help myself).

It was fun playing with shapes. They rarely came out exactly as I had pictured them as I placed the clay on the wheel, but I am pleased with my results. Vibeke is a great teacher. It will take a long time for me to be able to really control the clay. I will need much practice to make a piece with reasonably thin walls. But I left at the end of the day feeling like a good beginner. Now let's hope I have good luck with the glazes. (Patience, grasshopper. The clay has to dry and be fired first.)

Starting a new relationship

An important part of being a Laurel is the commitment to passing on your knowledge. The common way to do this is to take on an apprentice. Having been the apprentice to Mistress Brid, I have big expectations for how to undertake this new relationship. It was definitely not something to rush into. But after much thought on my part, and a period as Teacher/Student, I have taken my first apprentice. Her name is Marjorie Parmentar. Her interest in fiber arts is not the same as mine, but our interests intersect. I will not be teaching her spinning or nalbinding or knitting (at least not yet). Her passion is the history of clothing design. While I do not see myself sewing late medieval period clothing, I love researching all periods and cultures of textile design. And research is where she has asked for the most guidance. I think we are a good fit. I look forward to a long friendship and an enjoyable time learning together. She has begun her first project. There is a link to her blog - To Stitch a Story - in my blog list on the right. I am very proud of her first steps. I hope you will visit her blog often and watch her skill and knowledge grow.

Today is worldwide spin in public day.

So I did.

At first I thought it would be nice to work on finishing up the silk/alpaca blend I've been working on. It shines so beautifully in the sun. But it was very windy here today, and it was difficult to control the roving without my distaff. So I made a new plan. I had a few mystery locks that a friend had given me, and I decided it was the perfect day to spin in the grease. It was just enough to fill the comb. I combed, spun, plied, and washed. Here is my little skein, drying in the garden:

 You can see my alpaca roving on the chair; later I brought it inside to finish spinning.

 The nice thing about spinning in the grease is that the fibers don't fly all over. (Of course alpaca doesn't have grease, so it tends to be fly-away not matter what.) Also, I find I can spin a finer thread, although I spun this at a gauge to be able to add to some yarn I spun for knitting, as a little accent. I like the feel of the  lanolin on my hands, but it did make the spindle shaft a bit sticky. No problem, it washed right off.

embroidery project

It's so nice to have a day off from work. Besides catching up on yard work, and getting ready for an arts and sciences event I am running next Saturday, I found time to finish an embroidery project I have been working on for a few months, off and on.
 Back in the spring, I participated in Artisans Row at Mudthaw. I was lucky to be seated next to Kathryn Goodwyn, who was demonstrating various late medieval embroidery techniques. By the end of the day she gave me some thread and fabric, and off I went to try it on my own. First, I decided to make a bookmark. I chose a counted pattern of laurel leaves, and set to work. I didn't figure on how large the finished piece would be (there are about 7 squares to the inch). I like how it turned out, and I love the weaving technique, but I'll need a very big book to use it.

I was so taken with the technique, I immediately started a second piece, based on a 14th century Swedish embroidery. I love this little horse:

I haven't been able to find a source for the netted fabric, so I guess I'll just have to learn to make the net myself. I'll save that for another day.

Pueblo Shoe-Sock

The Arizona State Museum has in its possession three shoe-socks made by looping thread. They are made of cotton thread, with woven yucca soles. These date from pre-European contact (c. 1100-1300 CE). This past spring there was a flurry of discussion about the socks on the nalbinding yahoo group that I belong to, as people discussed if the stitch used was the same as any known European nalbinding socks. The final suggestion was that they were made using the Coptic stitch. I disagreed, and decided to verify it by reproducing the stitching pattern.

Here is a close-up of one of the socks:

While I did not recognize the stitch by looking at the photo, it became obvious as soon as I started stitching. If you are familiar with embroidery stitches, you will recognize it as the detached buttonhole stitch.

Here are my samples:

Detached buttonhole stitch is on top, Coptic stitch is on the bottom.

Both the detached buttonhole stitch and the Coptic stitch create loops in the same manner, working from left to right, bringing the thread in front of the loop. But that is where the similarity ends. The Coptic stitch places each stitch directly above the stitch from the previous row, creating vertical lines that resemble stockinette stitch. Like stockinette stitch, it curls over at the edge.

The detached buttonhole stitch places each new stitch between two stitches on the previous row. The resulting fabric is more net-like, and it does not curl at the edge.

Do you agree with me? You can see more pictures of the artifacts on the museum's website.

on to new things

Pennsic was fantastic! My classes went well, and of course I took classes every day. Two are particular favorites. My favorite class was Viking Civil Engineering. We learned about period measuring methods, and then laid out a scale model of Trelleborg - a ring fort in Denmark. We laid out the circular wall, the roads that cross in the middle, and one of the buildings. Everyone took turns measuring, and in the end, it was exactly right.

It made me want build a real model of the whole fort.

My other favorite class was learning to set up and weave on a warp weighted loom. Now that's a loom I could learn to love! 

The first day we set up the warp:

The second day we threaded the heddles and wove some cloth:

We only wove a simple tabby, but it felt like such a wonderful accomplishment. I had expected setting up a warp weighted loom would be more difficult than a rigid heddle loom. It was easier. Well, maybe not easier, just different. And very easy to understand. We made some mistakes along the way, before we understood how to add the warp threads into the tablet weaving (see the wider spaced threads?) but it worked, and we learned from the mistakes. My next piece I will weave with my handspun thread.

Recently, I've started to explore some Pueblo socks. These look like nalbinding, but are different from other stitches. Some people think they are Coptic stitch, but they are different. So, I've started making samples to see if I can reproduce them. Today I bought some cotton thread to start the samples. On my next post I'll show you what I make, and then you can draw your own conclusions.

Preparing for Pennsic

My favorite thing to do at Pennsic is to teach and take classes. While some classes may be better than others, I always come home energized and itching to start a new project.

When I was Mistress Brid's apprentice, she had me keep a book of quotations that inspired me, for whatever reason (not just related to fiber arts). As I am gathering together my supplies for Pennsic, I thought it would be nice to share a few sentiments I found:

"There is no better teacher than the process of teaching itself."

"General duties of a teacher: pull everything out of your students."

"General duties of a student: pull everything out of your teacher, and your fellow students."

These quotes are from a Corita Kent, an artist who taught at a small college back in the 1960's. She did amazing graphic arts work, with a social responsibility message. I was lucky enough to see an exhibit of her work a while back at The Tang, a small museum in Saratoga Springs.

So, if you are going to Pennsic, don't forget to take time away from the battles and shopping to take a class. And if you happen to be one of the many amazing teachers, you have my heartfelt thanks. I am looking forward to learning new things!

Medieval Style Knitting

One of my goals for this year is to knit something in a medieval style. This has taken a lot of thought and practice. I decided I wanted to make a small bag. First I looked for some appropriate inspiration.

 Then I started knitting on smaller and smaller needles.

I worked my way down to size 0 as I played with various colorwork designs. Here are a few of the things I made:

The "white" mitten was knit on size 1 needles, the grey sock (my own design) was knit on size 0 needles.

While I was knitting, I was designing my pattern. I decided to base my idea on an embroidered bag that included large versions of arms. I plotted out my arms and my husband's arms, and then experimented over and over until I was happy with the surrounding images.

 The problem with this idea is that both of our arms include 3 colors. I have not found an example of medieval knitting that includes more than 2 colors per row. Perhaps I should have stuck to embroidery! But I am persevering. I am using size 000 needles. I started by practicing carrying the colors around the row, using cotton crochet thread. It was terrible to work with at such a small scale, and I quickly switched to a lace weight wool/silk blend. I played a bit longer, and have now started my actual bag.

You can see the start of my arms on the cotton sample at the top of the photo. I've gotten fairly competent at keeping the threads untangled. On the actual bag, I have knit a plain band for the top and I'm ready to start adding the designs. Check back at the end of the summer and I will show you how far I have come.

The book is out!

Perhaps this proves how busy I have been. The day I had long been waiting for came and went, and I never told the news. On a day back in April I came home to find a package in my mail box. Volume 11 had arrived! I am so pleased with how it turned out. And besides my article, the others are equally interesting. I've really been enjoying reading it when I can grab a spare minute.

 


I hope you will find it interesting, too.

Happy Spring!

Washington DC has its cherry blossoms festival, Rochester, New York has its lilac festival, but my city has the Tulip Fest.

        

This year the city of Albany planted 137,000 tulip bulbs of every color and variety imaginable. This weekend people come together from all over to admire the flowers, eat tasty food, listen to good music and enjoy wonderful crafts. When the weather is this good, the crowds are thick:

"But what about your crafts?" you ask. I've been making slow progress on my little spinning experiment, working on several Kingdom and baronial projects, and doing a little teaching,  but mostly I've been busy at work. Hence no time to blog. But this is a day for me - so I thought I would take a few minutes and show you a few photos. I'll write about my projects very soon. In the meantime - happy mother's day to all mothers!