So Long, Log Cabin!

Purim came and went. We went to the 2 required readings of the Book of Esther Saturday eve and Sunday morn. Afterwards on Sunday, DD#2 and I hitched up Rocky to help deliver the Purim baskets (mishloach manot in Hebrew) in our neighborhood. Being I am in my year of mourning for my mother, I can't accept gifts, including mishloach manot, so I hid in the house while DD answered the doorbell. We had a delicious Purim feast (commemorating the feast Esther made for Haman and the King, at which she dropped the dime on Haman) at DD#1's in-laws, then headed to an engagement party for one of my nephews. At which party the hostess (brother's future in-law) wondered why nobody was eating. Clearly she wasn't at the in-laws for her feast or she'd know.

Feast menu:
Strawberry-rhubarb compote
Beef leek soup (like an onion soup)
Brisket
Sweet and sour chicken breasts
Pickled green beans
Sweet potatoes
More stuff I can't remember
Salad to cleanse palates
Peach cobbler and non-dairy ice cream pie
The ubiquitous Purim pastries known as hamataschen
Assorted wines, liquors, liqueurs, other beverages

Who could eat? I wasn't hungry until Tuesday!

I took SapphireBlue's advice (thanks so much!) and bound off what bit of Log Cabin I did. It's big enough to be a security blankie.

I started another blanket (all these ladies birthin', must be in the water), this one of pure wool (vintage Brunswick SheepsWool), also knit on the diagonal. If I'm going to make a big thing, at least I'll knit it using a technique I like. A diagonal knit is a technique I like. Here's the yummy wool I'm using.


And the latest development in the world of knitting knews is that, at loooong last, The Principles of Knitting by June Hemmons Hiatt is coming out with a new edition later this year. Cue the fireworks! This book has been known to go for $5000 (so say some folks on Ravelry). The usual price I see it for is between $100 and $200, but still -! I preordered, got free shipping, and will not have spent more than $30. Now all I have to do is knit so as not to be checking on my Amazon order every second until it's in my hot little hands.

Enraptured by Wrapped in Lace

While I was away, USPS delivered an early Chanukah present to me: Margaret Stove's new volume, Wrapped in Lace. If you don't know who Margaret Stove is, she's the New Zealander who brings a fresh approach to knitted lace. She incorporates New Zealand flora and fauna in her lace designs with great results. In her previous book, Creating Original Hand-Knitted Lace, she walked readers through her design process for a shawl, ending with painting the shawl in the most beautiful saturated pastel shades. The shawl featured sea life found around New Zealand such as sea ferns and urchins and whelks. It is utterly amazing. Go to your library and take a peek at it sometime. The earlier Stove book gave me a bluebell motif I used to design this scarf:


The new book gets my juices flowing just as much, if not more. Maybe because I've grown so much this past year in my lace knitting, I'm no longer intimidated by designs like this:

A Faroese-style shawl like this would be pretty easy:

I think my favorite of all may be the Christening shawl, which Ms. Stove writes replicates her very own shawl. She recreated the pattern from a fragment and a photo, helped along by a friend who sent her an old pattern for such a shawl:

There are clear charts, a section on preserving and repairing old knitted lace (marvelous to have!), and lots of encouragement to design your own. One of the best aspects, in my opinion, are the wonderful discussions Ms. Stove had with the likes of Barbara Walker and Elizabeth Zimmermann and Nancy Bush. Ms. Stove is not too arrogant to show any gratitude she might have to other knitters, and she says so. She includes a bibliography that I think many of us have in our libraries. I have to contrast this attitude with another recent book purchase, one on cabled knitted from the Aran Islands, in which if you didn't know better you'd think the author invented the entire genre (hardly, since the redoubtable EZ published the first Aran sweater pattern in the US around that time this particular author was born).

I have one peeve with the book: one pattern, the New Zealand Tribute to Orenburg shawl, is not included in the book. It's free on the Interweave site, but you have to sign up with your e-mail address first. I was already signed up; if I weren't I'd call this a major peeve (in my opinion, it should have been included and not used as a tool to get more people to sign up for the site).

To sum it up, Wrapped in Lace (ISBN: 9781596682276) should be included in the library of many knitters. I can't think of another single book spanning the styles of lace from Shetland to Estonian to Orenburg that this book does. Even if you are not interested in knitting big lace projects like shawls, you can incorporate the lace motifs into socks, berets, and scarves. The photos are lovely. The information is timeless.

If you have or do get this book, please let me know what you think in the comments.

A Bounty of Books

The New Year holiday was a welcome break from intense work activity. Synagogue services were inspiring, lunch with friends was delicious and fun. USPS worked through it as usual, bringing me some wonderful "presents" in the form of books, one of which I'd been awaiting since May.

First book I cracked open (post-holiday) was Sweater Quest: My Year of Knitting Dangerously by Adrienne Martini. In case you don't know, the 2 books are related by virtue of the fact that Martini wrote about how she spent a year knitting a design by the author of the second book. The design is Mary Tudor, and it was published in the out of print Tudor Roses, which I am lucky enough to own. I followed Martini's adventures along with Tudor Roses open at my side. I could appreciate the art and the craft of the design, the intricacy of the colors, the beauty of the finished product. Martini included no pictures, which several people on Amazon commented about in their reviews. The book entertained me for the most part until the end: the sweater did not fit Martini. How she didn't know this a priori boggles my mind: the schematics are right there, in black and white. Now, I've been known to resize a sweater (not drastically, mind). Often, going up a needle size or 2 can be enough (often, not always). In the case of designs by AS, who might specify a size 5 (3.75 mm) needle for bainin (Aran-weight wool from Ireland) to make a sweater waterproof, going up a needle size will not only make it larger but may give it better drape. If you don't need a waterproof sweater, why not make it to suit you? I was left, well, cold upon reading that Martini balled up Mary Tudor, stuck it in the closet, and declared that she's a process knitter. Well, so am I (that's my excuse for my kntter's ADD and I'm sticking to it), but I still make sweaters that fit folks (most of the time- I'm only human after all). And I look at schematics before picking out yarn and needles to see if size needs adjusting. The ending did not satisfy me as a reader or as a knitter.

A case in point about resizing a sweater is ongoing due to the second book I received, the long-awaited (since May) reprint of AS' Aran Knitting. We'll get to it in a moment. I have the first edition, and now the second. I do not regret owning both. The photography in the second is mostly updated, so you get more beautiful shots of sweaters (in new colorways) set against beautiful scenery. There's an retrospective introduction, with a couple of fantastic (in the sense of fantasy) claims made. And then there's the new design: Eala Bhan, which means fair or white swan.

To say it is gorgeous is to understate its elegance, its perfection (I couldn't get scans of the sides and back of the sweater to show you; trust me on this). BUT its largest size is like Mary Tudor, which is a tad too small for me. Oh it'll fit if I wanted it to be a blouse. But I need a dressy cardi for Sabbath winter eves. when I have the thermostat cranked down. I'm making the lovely White Lies Designs Collette for DD#2 in ivory wool (as soon as I'm caught up with other knitting); I don't think the Mom and Daughter thing will go over too well. Eala Bhan will suit quite nicely if I can get the size to work for me. My plan now as I mull it over is to make the largest size 10% larger by using a DK-weight yarn in place of the light sport-weight specified in the book. That'll give me the ease I need and I should be able to knit the pattern as written. A bit longer won't bother me, and I know I want the sleeves shorter than they are on the model. As befits a fair white swan, I'll look for a lovely ivory or winter white color.

Meanwhile, I finished the body to Twist and am currently blocking it.

No, your eyes do not deceive you. The pieces are wrong-side up, so I could flatten the edges. I love Magpie but its one drawback is that it's so tightly plied it curls like the very devil when knit in stockinette stitch. I now regret not having knitted the body in one piece, but what's done is done. Pattern says to block before adding the hood. DD#1 is now vacillating about whether she wants sleeves or not (please, not! there's so much other knitting I have to get to!).

And I have yet to take a photo of the new project for DD#2, but that's its own story (and therein lies a clue).

About those crafter's book clubs

On the Internet, you will find mentioned in tones of awe a knitting designer from the isles along the northwestern coast of Scotland. I am purposely not giving her name, because she has made it her life’s mission to secure intellectual rights to anything and everything to do with her name, her designs, even her island. But her designs are so beautiful they cannot be ignored.

This designer has published about a dozen or so books of her designs between the late 1970’s and the mid 1990’s. Most of them are currently out of print, though one of note is coming back in print this autumn. Most of them command impressive prices on the secondary market. Recently I noticed that one of her books, named after her home isles, was going for nearly $1000 (no, that is not a typographical error) at a used bookseller. Clearly, owning a set of her books is equivalent to nearly a semester of college tuition for one’s children.

Or is it?

Years ago, back when daughter #2 was in early infancy and #1 a pre-schooler, I joined a crafter’s book-of-the-month club. For a dollar, I got to choose 5 books, and I only needed to purchase 2 books over the next year, then I could cancel my membership. Fair enough, I thought, especially when there were great knitting compendia to choose from. So I picked up a couple of knitting bibles, two of Barbara Walker’s Treasuries of Knitting, and as luck would have it, THREE of the coveted books by this woman. This was before she became a phenomenon. I was struck by the intricacies of her designs, the lush colors, the gorgeous photography, the casual poses of the models. I wound up putting the books away on my bookshelf where they lay, forgotten.

Until a couple of years ago, when a knitting site mused out loud about the outrageous prices her books command, especially the later ones (rats, I dropped that membership right after buying the two required books). I dropped it too soon. I could have bought books worth hundreds, at 25% off the list prices. What was I thinking? What I was thinking was that DH wasn’t all that keen on the book of the month club, even if it was for knitting and even if he benefited from the lovely new patterns I uncovered for him.

Now, I haven’t rushed out to rejoin that or any crafter's book club because the rest of the books I covet are out of print. I’ve been watching auction and used bookseller sites, and so bought nearly all that I want at relatively good prices; a few at list price or near it.

Indeed, I have found that many great knitting books by designers are issued once, even if the designers still lives (Orenburg lace book, I'm talking about you!). So in my opinion, you should keep a bookshelf reserved for your knitting literature. Even knitting magazines with designs by the great ones will command astronomical prices on the secondary market ($49.95 for an old Vogue Knitting, anyone?).

The lesson I have learned is to keep every knitting book with designs in it that strike my fancy, whether or not I’m going to knit them right away. Either I’ll knit the designs, or I’ll pay for my retirement.

Lace Knitting? Knitted Lace? Who Cares??

On Ravelry, Knitter's Review, and Knitty the subject of lace knitting vs knitted lace sometimes comes up. "Purists" maintain that knitted lace is patterned every row, while lace knitting (sniff here to signal contempt of this lesser art form) has resting rows of all-knit or all-purl stitches.

So what do you call this pattern?

It's patterned on every row, yessirree Bob, it is- but it doesn't have lace stitches (YOs and decreases) on the wrong side rows. Hence I say, who cares? Many knitting designers don't make a distinction, and absolutely drop-dead gorgeous Shetland and Estonian lace patterns have resting rows. Who cares, indeed.

Some more info on the little blue piece I'm showing you: the lace pattern is from Margaret Stove's book Creating Original Hand-Knitted Lace. She used it as a border pattern for a baby's outfit. I've had the book for years, and for years this border pattern of bluebells has intrigued me about its possibilities as an all-over lace pattern. At first I thought I'd design a sock using it, but the swatch shows me it doesn't have enough lateral stretch (it has a nice vertical stretch though). I'm using it to design a symmetrical scarf that will have an Estonian lace border knitted on to each end. Having just received Nancy Bush's definitive book, Knitted Lace in Estonia, what can I say except that the breathtaking designs beg to be used. If all goes as planned, I'll write this up and post it on Ravelry and the sidebar as a free pattern. Oh and the yarn is Dream in Color Starry, color is Midnight Derby. And the finished product, if it turns out as I hope, will be gift number 4 for my 5 friends.

Book Report Time Again

My other two books finally came, Wrap Style by Pam Allen and Ann Budd, and Knitting Lace Triangles by Evelyn Clark.

First the rap on Wrap Style. It has gorgeous pictures, clear instructions, but few items I want to knit. Most of them are short tight wraps or capelets, not shawls or larger wraps. I bought it primarily for Evelyn Clark's Shetland Triangle Shawl pattern, though Norah Gaughan's cabled capelet and Nancy Marchant's brioche stitch wrap have me itching to get my needles and worsted wool stash out (no pun intended; I'm OK with most wools, though Shetland wool right next to my skin makes me turn red). I'd make both of these longer though. There are general directions for designing your own capelet, but in general this book leaves me underwhelmed. Page numbers are hard to see: turned sideways and printed in light green ink. Not being spiral bound, I'm having a hard time keeping pages open to the charts I need, and the charts are small to begin with. We'll see how long it takes up valuable shelf space after I knit the shawl and maybe a capelet or two. Recommendation: Buy it if you love the patterns or foresee the need to knit wraps and capelets.


On the other hand, Knitting Lace Triangles is a strategy for, well, knitting lace triangles into shawls or scarves, and includes general directions for knitting the same Shetland shawl as in Wrap Style (though the lace pattern is called something other than fir cone lace in Clark's own book). I like the spiral binding, allowing you to lay it flat as you knit. The charts are very clear and large. The instructions are quite good (that's true of most of Clark's patterns; I was able to knit her sock patterns as a sock neophyte). She gives several methods for starting a lace triangle, and I find that to be invaluable. In the back she gives information on approximate required yardage for several yarn weights. This is great for using up stash yarn. Since she planned the triangles in multiples of 10 rows, it's easy to modify sizes by knitting more or fewer 10 row repeats. if you want to add beads to the points of your edging, there are close-up photos and clear instructions for that too, and the chart in the back tells you about how many beads you need, whether you add 1 or 3 beads per point of edging. If you're getting into lace knitting, this book is pretty good to have. It's not as advanced as other lace knitting books, so you won't be frustrated and will complete your project. The edging is completed on the shawl, rather than casted on separated and then knitted to the shawl; I think this is easier for lace neophytes (at least for this one). Recommendation: A good book for lace neophytes or the geometrically-challenged to own.

To put theory into practice, I used a cast-on from Knitting Lace Triangles to start the Shetland Triangle shawl. I'm using Beaverslide Dry Goods light sport in Whitetail Fawn from stash and size 5 needles (6 would probably be a bit better but my size 6 needles are claimed by other WIPs; oh well). The garter tab at the base of the neck and the first 20 row pattern for the neck are complete:

BTW, this is my first time knitting with BDG light sport, previously I'd only knitted with the heavy worsted-weight yarn. Opinion? Lovely yarn but when I wound all 440 yards into one center-pull skein and tried to start the skein from the center, it snapped. So I'm unwinding from the outside as I knit. It's not plied (it's 1-ply), so joining may be slightly visible if I add another skein. It's called light sport, but fingering weight may be more accurate; it's described on the site as a 20 wpi yarn, 6-7 stitches per inch on a size 2 to 4 needle. I had bought it initially for a pair of socks, but even non-knitting DH (my human swift, who observed the snapping of the center strand) remarked that the yarn is not strong enough for socks. I agree. I think it's great for lace though. And I love the color. Moreoever, the yarn has some mohair and therefore isn't real slick. I think that will be an advantage as the number of stitches grows on the needles. There's a one pound cone of it in this color on sale on the website right now.

Front and back of Milkshake are done. Even after blocking, the back of Milkshake looks pathetic. I'm going to take out the big guns, er steam iron, and see if I can't flatten those seams better.
Pathetic-looking, right? Wait 'til I take the iron to it.

OTOH, Carefree is looking more like something. Lovely depth to those staggered cables, just love them.

Book Report Time and (Non-Knitting) Eye Candy

Since getting back into the knitting groove, I've added a few books to my knitting library. Some of you may be in the market for knitting books, so I'll comment on my new ones here briefly.

Pub. Date: February 1993
Publisher: Reader's Digest
Hardcover, 318pp
ISBN-13: 9780895774675
(There are a couple editions of this book around, so I'm including the details of mine).
Provenance: Purchased

I've had many handy-dandy knitting guides over the years. The Vogue Ultimate Guide to Knitting (first edition) is one I used to turn to frequently. But as my knitting skills grow, I want a book that has more: more methods for cast-ons and bind-offs, more troubleshooting tips, and so forth. This book isn't perfect, but it has 40 (yes, 40) different methods of casting-on, including 2 variations on the Channel Island cast-on. It calls the Guernsey cast-on the knotted cast-on, but that's a minor quibble (maybe that's a UK nomenclature, since Alice Starmore calls it the knotted cast-on in her books too). Along with the explanations are Montse Stanley's personal observations, such as her observation on one cast-on method: why bother? It has illustrations rather than photos (they are very clear). It's not spiral-bound (too bad!), and it doesn't have nearly enough on fixing mistakes (also too bad). If you are looking for patterns, this book isn't for you, though it has enough essentials to start you on designing your own. The 1993 edition can be found for as little as $13 if you hunt around. Recommendation: It's a good book to have in your library, even if you're an advanced knitter.

Next up is Scarves and Shawls: The Best of Knitter's Magazine

Pub. Date: Jan. 1999
Paperback, 106 pages
Publisher: XRX Books
ISBN-13: 978-0964639164
Provenance: Received from paperbackswap.com

I had some of these in separate issues of Knitter's, in fact I made some of the designs already. I thought it would be nice to have everything in one place. Well, the republished patterns are fine and EZ's explanation on making Shetland shawls is superb, but what's up with the new patterns included in the book? They are not complete. As in, the directions for one Faroese shawl shows you a chart, tells you how long to follow the chart, then tells you to finish as per yellow shawl. Only there are no instructions for yellow shawl. Yellow shawl is a snippet of a chart. If you've made a Faroese shawl, maybe you know how to finish. If you haven't, you'll be stumped. If it's in errata pages on line at XRX, I haven't yet checked (and for the record, I deplore sloppy redac editing that forces you to check a website for every pattern or knitting book you buy). Perhaps this is why the book was up for swap. On the positive side, the Eugen Beugler patterns are lovely (I made the Lace Dream shawl; blogged about it here. Those patterns and the Shetland shawl section make the book worth keeping for me. Prices for used copies start at around $12. Recommendation: if I rated on a scale of 1 to 5, I'd give this a 3.5.

I'm awaiting delivery of two more books, Evelyn Clark's Knitting Lace Triangles and Wrap Style by Pam Allen and Ann Budd. I'll write another book report on those when they arrive.

Meanwhile, one of my lab assistants just returned from an extended trip visiting family in India. Look what she brought me as a present:

The pearls are from Hyderabad, a center for pearl jewelry in India. I love South Asian jewelry. I have some Pakistani jewelry sets from a former post-doc whose mother is forever sending me gifts. When I have a chance, I'll post photos of those; they are equally exquisite.

In the meanwhile, Milkshake is nearly up to the armhole in the front. With DD#2 back at college, I think I'll appropriate her bed and pin the edges of the completed back. Don't tell!

Look What Came: A Sorta Rara Avis, er, Book

Saw this book listed somewhere as another guide to traditional guernsey knitting, with charted motifs. So I started searching for it and found it for a good price HERE. The charts are nice and BIG, there's a history section, and another one on pitfalls. I haven't looked yet to see if steeking is discussed. The photos are much sharper than the ones in Gladys Thompson's book (it's only slightly larger, maybe the paper, maybe the reproduction method). One thing mentioned is that Guernsey patterns really were used to identify drowned at sea. So not a myth at all that became attached to Aran sweaters. So there, AS! {I'm looking over Aran Knitting by AS and got just a wee peckle annoyed at her assertions about the origins of Aran knitting; she's not a historian for heaven's sake. Next thing you know, she'll be discoursing on mine or anyone's cancer research-! Just my own gripe du jour.}

Knitting knotes: Rogue pocket is done, attached, finis, finito, and only had to be frogged once during the attachment (I miscounted the stitches to knit before attaching!).


Tree hat came out nice and slouchy; should fit any member of our troops overseas with a mere adjustment of cuff fold-over. This is part of a series of hats I'm designing, to for sale to raise money for the Ships Project. Trees is the second hat. The anchor hat was first; next is a sand rib mystery-knit hat (you knit it on the wrong side). I'll announce when the patterns are going on the side bar.



And must tell you that DD#2, the concert mistress of her wind ensemble has been chosen to take a master class at Lincoln Center, taught by members of the New York City Opera Orchestra, later this month. Her music came today and she's first clarinet. Her early decision college application went off today, let us hope she gets in (so we'll know December 15; I don't think I could stand waiting until April!).

New Bernat Knitting Book and It's a Winner

I learned to knit from Bernat Handicrafter books; still have every one I ever bought. Some of the best vest patterns ever are in 1; my favorite cardi of all time is in another (must have made it 5 times for various folk). Even though the patterns aren't charted, I find them so well-written that as a novice knitter I was making the most complicated Bernat patterns (short rows before I knew they were called short rows). Substituting yarns was easy. Back then Bernat made a lovely wool called Sesame 4; it knitted to the same gauge as Berella 4 and had nearly the same luscious color palette. And Gloucester! Who could forget that cabled cotton, and the peach seashell pattern pull designed for it (I have that booklet still on my shelf)? That was when Emil and Eleanor Bernat owned the company, before it was sold to SpinRite in Canada. Now it is no longer the Bernat I knew and loved. Berella isn't as soft as other acrylics, and unless one is into the fun fur and eyelash scene (I decidedly am not), 'tain't much to get from Bernat.

So I happened upon an ad for Bernat Natural Blend yarns and thought, this deserves at least a brief look via Google. Forget the natural blends themselves (IMHO, bland colors, and the cashmere blend is only 5% cashmere)- take a peak at this book! OK, forget the lousy photography (pale neutral colors against pale neutral backdrops- what were they thinking?? And what happened to the cover model's left eye? It looks like it's nearly swollen shut. Someone get this gal eye drops!). Can you see the beautiful Aran sweater? With shaping yet. A dream of a sweater.


I can't wait to take a better look at this set. Not that I intend to make the mukluk socks, but the hat and scarf set could be tweaked for the Ships Project (they need gaiters and scarves too). And slippers, they need slippers. Maybe the mukluks could become slippers.


And this: Is it Rogue with a zipper or a cross between Rogue and Eris? Add pockets and undulating cable panels at the sides, edit the deep ribbing and I am totally enchanted by the possibilities. I can just see DD#2 in this number now, walking across college campus in a year (G-d willing). But tell me, if the model needs to wear the hood, why is she barefoot? Maybe she should have put on the mukluks.
Would you believe this book is scarce as hens' teeth? I don't know why it's out of stock everywhere I tried (American retailers must have order maybe 1 copy of it). I did find it on a Canadian site and so it's on its way to me (I hope; mail from Canada can be leisurely).

Ah Rogue! I am just a few rows away from joining the pocket front to the body. At this point, it is almost mindless knitting. Almost. I don't think I'll ever have the entire chart memorized; I'm lucky I can figure out the symbolcraft without resorting to spreading all 19 pages all over the place.