Hi Everyone
Another month has flown by. Again I seem to have been busy most of the time and I’m not sure exactly where the days have gone. That’s probably a good thing as I have not been at all bored. It is sometimes a case of trying to decide what to do first, and when I do (and I’ve had a cup or two of coffee!) it’s too late to start.
No update yet from the school, but I didn’t really expect anything and will be surprised if we hear before mid August. I will keep an eye on things so we don’t miss an opportunity to meet. With surge testing getting underway in this area I’m not going to suggest we meet outside any time soon. I’d rather be cautious and safe than meet up “because we can” and I hope you’re all in agreement with that.
The other day I (literally!) tripped over boxes in what is supposed to be my workroom. The damage was mainly to my pride and a some of the boxes of “stuff” got a bit misshapen. (I just got bruises to show for the accident.) There was no floor space at all and I couldn’t get to any of my knitting machines to use them, or open any of the cupboard doors to get things out. One of the boxes is what has been described as the club “archive”. It was an accumulation of papers gathered since the club was first formed over 40 years ago. I rang my fellow committee members and we were all in agreement—nobody wanted or had room to store it so it had to go. So I’ve been busy scanning so it’s not lost for the future. Having scanned everything I then shredded anything with a name, address and phone number on it. The next job is to rename the scans so we know what they are, and make everything available to at least one other committee member as a back-up copy. It will be so much easier to look back through it now. Nothing is lost; it’s all there in a digital format rather than on a yellowing piece of paper. We’re aiming to go paperless—almost! And I now have a small space on my workroom floor, just big enough for my feet. So long as I stand still I’ll be ok! We’re also working out how to save the blogspot content so we don't need to keep paper copies of that.
So now on to more interesting things!
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A reminder - World Wide Knit in Public Day is Saturday 12th June 2021. Unsurprisingly there is nothing showing as having been organised in the UK, but you could still fly the flag and sit and knit in your front garden or a nearby park.
Lifelines
In case you haven’t heard of them before, it’s a piece of strong thread or yarn that is threaded through your stitches as you knit, so that if you make a mistake or drop a stitch and have to “frog” it you have a known point to return to. This could be vital if you are knitting a complex design or lace pattern or even a simple pattern. The lifeline will be finer than the yarn you’re using. Read the 10rowsaday website for lots more information. (Whilst you’re on the site have a look at what else is there. I found quite a lot of interest.)
If you use circular needles with interchangeable tips they usually have a little hole which is used to put something through when you’re tightening the tips onto the cable. Watch this video from Breaking Yarn to see how to use the little hole for your lifeline. It’s around 2 mins into the video.
If you want to know more on the subject of knitting lifelines just use your favourite search engine, there are loads more websites where they get a mention.
Definitions:
To frog / frogging - to take your knitting and pull it back, undoing a number of rows. Gets its name from “rip it, rip it” which sounds like the croak a frog makes.
To Tink / tinking - knit spelt backwards. Refers to undoing one stitch at a time.
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Patterns
I was recently asked about writing your own patterns and how to adjusting a pattern when you can’t match the tension. It really isn’t anything to stress about. You will need some paper, something to write with, a ruler, maybe a tape measure and a calculator.
One other thing you will need is a tension swatch, knitted in your chosen yarn, stitch pattern and with your chosen needle size. You may need to knit more than one to find the right size needle to give you the finished look and drape that you’re aiming for. Some patterns give the tension measured over just a couple of cm or an inch or two, and if that is the case I’d knit something much larger as that really isn’t big enough to give a true gauge. The bigger the tension swatch the more accurate your calculations will be. I would knit a piece at least 15 cm (6”) square, and measure the centre 10cm (4”) for both stitches and rows. Measuring right up to the edges or needles will be inaccurate. When measuring the tension swatch put it on a flat surface, as measuring on your knee or the arm of a chair will be inaccurate especially if using a ruler. Don’t forget to replace your tape measure every so often as the do stretch with time.
And now comes the more complicated bit as far as explaining in words is concerned, but the actual doing easy. I think I’ll instead give you a number of websites to look and see if they help. And once we can meet we can spend an evening or two working things out together. Here are just some of the websites. A search will find more if you want to look into this further now.
Sew What Yvette Cara4webshopping
As these are from around the world, some are in inches, some metric so don’t panic if you don’t get the results you are expecting.
Of course if you do a lot of knitting or crochet and want to start from scratch with a sketch and a tension swatch, you might like to take a look at some of the computer programmes and aps. Some are expensive, some are free with the option to pay for more features.
DesignerKnit from Soft Byte is expensive and for a PC rather than a tablet. For anyone looking for something for a tablet then use the ap store on your device. There are plenty and either offer a free trial or demo version. Let us know if you find one you get on with.
Once we can meet again we can have a session or two (or more) on this subject and help anyone having problems.
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Browsing the World Wide Web
If you’re worried about having enough yarn for a project then take a look at a website called Place Marker that Gaynor sent to me.
Lots of free info for many crafts, including both knitting and sewing on this website. Annies Catalog is an American site, so you may need to convert some of the terms.
If you’re knitting something with fringing on it, here’s a macramé technique from Candyandike that could enhance it.
Don’t like, or can’t get on with, Kitchener stitch, then try Russian Grafting as an alternative. Instructions are on the 10rowsaday website.
A bit of history next with an article about the worlds oldest yarn from Ars Technica and another about to Cowichan knitters of Canada from Yam magazine
Here’s a couple of YouTube videos for you, the first is from Scotland and about Fair Isle Sweaters and the second covers a basic history of Fair Isle knitting
To finish, if you are looking to wind a centre pull ball by hand then this page on the I always pick the thimble website shows you how.
My Stay and Home and Keep Busy List/Chart
After my little tumble I am determined to clear space so I’m continuing to work through my stash of everything craft related, either using items from it or adding it to a pile of things to go. That pile is now a mountain so I must start photographing and posting it on some of the Facebook groups to find new homes for it. I’d rather things went to someone who will use them than the tip. No charity shop would want it as it is now all stuffed in carrier bags. I never realized quite how much ribbon/lace/braid/binding/zips I had until I pulled it all out of the cupboards and collected bags and bits from other places. It’s filled a large black sack to overflowing! Add to the pile more haberdashery and other items that I haven’t touched in the last ???? years and you can imagine how big the pile is.
My days of setting up and manning stands at exhibitions are over too, so a lot of that has gone. I’m eyeing up what remains and thinking do I really, truly, want it. I’m slowly learning to say no I don’t!
I have yet go sort through the stacks of boxes of yarn and the piles of paper crafts to say nothing of the books, leaflets and patterns that have accumulated over the years. I’ve been putting it off, but must start making inroads into them as soon as this first lot has gone. I have made a start on the fabrics by going through it once to take some out that can go, but I’m thinking I need to go through it another couple of times to make the pile to go bigger than the pile to keep, and to have an idea of what I can do with it if I keep it. I’m sure I had intended to do things with it all at one time, but even with extra days in the week there just won’t been enough time to do everything.
In the mean time, club members and other craft minded people in this area of North East Hampshire don’t be shy. If you are someone who likes to repurpose any of the things that I am putting on the “to go” pile do get in touch.
In between all this sorting I have done a little knitting and weaving, but nothing is finished yet. I did finish another crochet blanket and you’ll find a picture of that in the show and tell.
I’ve also had something rather exciting arrive in the post - all the way from Australia - needles and pushers for my vintage Harrison Knitting machine. I’ve found out more about these old machines too. They weren’t given model numbers like the machines we have today, but the different needle spacings were named after fruits, so my 7 needles to the inch needlebed makes it a Grape and the length of the needle bed is 9 inches so it’s B. There were 12 different needle spacings/fruits varying from 4 to 14 needles per inch and 16 different bed widths ranging from 6½ to 36½” wide. Why fruits and letters? To simplify transmission of orders by cable or telegram of course! And the price? A whopping £65 for the most expensive, that’s around £7,800 in todays money. I don’t know the date of this price list, but my machine cost £17/10/- roughly £2,000 today. So the new needles will be put in and I’ll be putting the machine through it’s paces as soon as I have room to move my feet in my workroom.
Some of you know that I am a member of the Fleet u3a. It’s the National u3a Day on Wednesday 2nd June, and the groups were asked to make a diorama to show a bit about what they do as well as to wear blue and yellow on the day. I’ve been working on the ones for the Making Cards Groups and the Crafts Get Together ‘n’ Knit group. Look out for these and others in shop windows around town.
If you’d like to find out more about the Fleet u3a visit their website or the stand in the Hart Centre between 12 and 2pm on Wednesday 2nd June. They are also having a lunchtime walkabout that day so if you’re in touch look out for the people in blue and yellow!
Show and Tell
Carole has sent a couple of photographs. This first one is a sweater for Adam. Carole said: This is in Stylecraft 4 ply. Set in sleeves as raglan wouldn't look right. My usual suppliers had no 4 ply so I had to go to ebay. It was very reasonable and quick and, when I ordered extra, it came vacuum packed so 2 balls went through the letterbox. The blue is stocking stitch, and the white is mock rib.
The cardigan is hand knitted in Stylecraft Wondersoft print, now renamed as Bambino (shade Alice). A basic raglan but I decided to add pockets I often think about pockets but usually forget. As usual I knitted the fronts and back together. I also put some cable detail on the raglans, but they don’t show up that well.
Lovely Carole
This months knit is a golf jumper knitted in Stylecraft special DK. Knitted with my Brother KH900 using the Knitleader.
Thanks Ros. The jumper looks lovely.
Nina emailed after the last Newsletter She said: hopefully things will improve and we’ll be able to meet up in the Autumn. I’m hoping to do some knitting again soon as I’ve almost tamed the family photos (something I’ve been going to do for years!).
I also heard from Sandra who said: many thanks for the newsletters - keep up the good work. Here are some things for the show and tell.
Next is a baby jacket machine knitted in 4-ply from an old magazine item - picot hems/holding position on raglan but without wrapping yarn and then putting back and one front on machine and knitting sleeves down - again not wrapping yarn round last needle in holding position. The holes can be left as a decorative finish or can be threaded with ribbon or cord. Another garment for the hospital box.
Hopefully in the next few weeks I will have to start knitting baby garment as we are to be "great grandparents" in October - makes me feel even older than ever.... You have been busy Sandra. They all look lovely.
So that’s it for this time. I look forward to receiving photos of more of your work for the next issue.
I just love this drawing by Missy Martin that was posted a number of different websites so I can't give a good accreditation except to say thank you to Missy Martin wherever you are. If I’d put it as the And finally it would be too small to read so it’s an extra this month.
Until we meet again
Keep Calm
and carry on
Knitting or Crocheting!
Hands, Face, Space
Keep Active, Stay Positive - We will meet again
Apologies to those who read on line for posting later than you expected. I kept forgetting till I'd switched off the computer! Will try and do better next time.
