Month: May 2009 Page 3 of 6

Spring Cleaning #3

On 25 May, 2009

pinwheel-edge

Project #2: Circular Shrug

I started this back in January. I was always cold while sitting in my home office for hours at a time. I was thinking shrugs. Then my mind went to the circular baby blanket I made a while back. I used the dimensions specified in Elann’s Pinwheel Sweater for the sleeve placement. I chose to use the same edging as the baby blanket — Godmother’s Edging.

The yarn is Araucania Nature Wool. The kettle dyed yarn makes really pretty subtle variations, which gives the fabric some depth.

I stopped after working 2 repeats of the edging. I remember thinking that the edging took more mental power than I had remembered. I don’t know why I thought this because it definitely wasn’t hard before.

The other night, I sat down with an Agatha Christie DVD and got to work. Again, I have no idea why I had problems with the edging. It’s going very quickly right now. But quickly is relative. It took about an hour to finish the edging for one panel. There are 8 panels, so 7 to go.

Then there are the sleeves. I knitted in some white waste yarn where the sleeves should be. I need to unpick those stitches and knit the sleeves before adding the lace edging. This will take a bit longer than the last project to finish.

Spring Cleaning #2

By Ann

On 24 May, 2009

In General

Spring cleaning of another sort.

The cottage is finally nearing completion.Â The new French doors are in. The cabinets are getting their finish this week.Â The new sofa and chair are in the warehouse, waiting for the construction crap to be hauled away. It was time for me to dig my rugs out of storage.

Today, they came out of the garage and onto the front lawn for a hose down. I first vacuumed them out with the vacuum beater brush, then used the strongest spray I could get out of my garden hose.Â After spraying the first side for about 30 minutes, it was time to turn them over.Â Guess what? They were still dry on the underside.Â I’m never going to worry about the wine soaking through to the floor again!

All the rugs are wool. Left to right:

Room sized kilim, approx. 8’x10′ or 12′, purchased about 15 years ago. Provenance unknown. Purchased from Bloomingdales (yes, how authentic is that?)Â This will go in the conversation area with my new conversation sofa. It’s possible that natural dyes were used given the variations I see in the rug, but I don’t know for sure.Â Woven on cotton warp.
Area rug, approx. 2’x3′. Gift from Ian & Sandy. Purchased from Mexico. Handspun, dyed, and woven.Â Natural dye.Â I even have the receipt somewhere with the plant material used for each color!Â Warp and weft are both wool.
Area rug, approx. 3’x4′. Purchased from Mexico. I doubt that natural dye was used here since the colors are so even, but I could be wrong (and pleasantly surprised). Warp and weft are both wool.

Having taken a navajo rug weaving class after acquiring these rugs, I have a new appreciation for the amount of work that went into weaving these rugs, natural dye or not.Â The ones with natural dyes? Wowza! Even more impressed, given the number of times the yarn had to be put into dye baths to get the saturation you see here.

They are still damp, but I’ve since moved them from the front lawn to hang on fences and tables in the courtyard. I wouldn’t want these babies to disappear before they dry and repacked.

Spring Cleaning

By Ann

On 23 May, 2009

In FO, Knit

I know. This weekend actually marks the beginning of summer here in the United States, but the summer equinox isn’t for another month, so I’m still good.

I’ve been thinking a lot about projects that have been languishing in various knitting bags around the house, and it’s time to make some hard decisions about these projects. What caused me to stop working on them? Are they worth reviving? If so, what do I need to do to get them going again?

Project #1: Unspun Silk Scarf

unspun-silk-1 I actually don’t have a picture of the state of the project before I picked it up. This is a picture of it after I started working on it this week.

Last spring, I had an urge to play with unspun silk hankies, so I dug up a package of Chasing Rainbows hankies in Peacock colorway. I chose a simple 5×5 rib for a quick scarf. I casted on 40 stitches and worked about 4″, then stopped. I don’t know why I stopped. (Maybe I needed a manicure?) In any case, I stuck the whole thing back in a bag with the silk hankies and forgot about it.

This past week, I had an idea for working with unspun silk again.Â (Hmm. There seems to be a theme here.Â Looking back, it’s always spring when I want to play with unspun silk.Â There was at least one other instance of this to support the theory. If it’s May, it must be time to play with silk hankies.) Anyway, back to today. I pulled out a bag of silk hankies and found the knitting with it.

unspun-silk-scarf A few hours of knitting over the course of 3 days, and it is finished. I don’t know if I intended one of those long and skinny scarves, but I chose to finish it off quickly by making a slotted scarf instead. Many, many inches shorter this way!

The finished scarf weighs less than half an ounce, between 10-15 grams. (I really need to get a better scale!) So, one package of hankies (Chasing Rainbows put up is 1 ounce) is more than enough for a scarf.

Knitting notes:

40 stitches in 5×5 rib with 2.25 mm needles
at approx. 24″, knit 20 sts,Â attach new strand and knit the next 20 sts
continue working 2 sides separately for 2″
join the 2 sides again to close the slot
continue knitting as a single piece for another 4-5″
cast off

unspun-silk-2 I like the sewn bind off, but it’s a bit difficult to work the sewn bind off with unspun. I worked around this by compressing the unspun a bit by rubbing the unspun between my palms, as if I was washing my hands. Do this all along the length of the unspun.

It’s not spinning because the twist goes every which way. But because the silk is so sticky, it stays compressed.Â Now, the silk strand is ready to be used for the sewn bind off. The rest is history.

On to the next project!