Needles & hooks

Yarn to the rescue!

Yesterday I went down to NYC for a friend’s masquerade party. I was driving down and I brought the geisha wrap project for my sister because I thought I might want something mindless for a few spare knitting moments (which never materialized - and darned if I don’t know how to drive and knit).

Anyway, I saw something in the latest issue of the British magazine Simply Knitting on Twice Knit’s blog. And so I made sure to swing by my local Borders on the way out. I wasn’t sure if the local one carried it (I find that not all Borders do and I don’t know the formula), but I knew that I pass a store in Connecticut that does if I couldn’t find it. I was in luck. So first I present you with my find:

Which contained these:

If you must know, that’s Issue 25, March 2007. There are still a few issues at my local Borders and I might be convinced to go fetch them…(it’s $9 plus tax and yada). This issue had the patterns for the horse, sheep, and cow; pigs and fowl will be in issue 26.

Anyway, one of the neat things about Simply Knitting is that they often include freebies with the issues. This time, it was a magnetic needle case with a few pins and needles. That’s where the rescue came in.

My friend Marta had this gorgeous mask that she was planning to wear to the party. Problem was, it was mounted on stick, and well, she’d have to hold the stick somewhere, um, unpleasant. So she wanted to remove the stick and attach something to tie it on. After some careful surgery to remove the stick, she was at a loss for what to tie it on with. She wanted some sort of ribbon, but we couldn’t find any in the shops in her neighborhood. So I offered a small length of one of the ribbon yarns I was using for geisha. It wasn’t quite the right color, but it was good enough. She poked careful tiny holes in the mask, but was unable to force the ribbon through them. And asked me if I had a yarn needle or something. Well, I hadn’t brought my usual sack of gear with me, because geisha really only needs scissors. But then I remembered my new Simply Knitting needle case. The needles aren’t as good as Chibi bent-tips, IMHO, but they got the yarn on her mask. Isn’t she beautiful?!

Comments: 5 — Posted under: Almost Random

Vogue’s Knitting Book 7th Edition, 1946

The cover features a lovely cream-colored coat and boasts “over 50 new designs”…”in 12 sizes”!

Turns out, the 12 sizes are for the classic sweaters that come sized for kids, women, and men. But, those patterns come in the nifty column-style layout that I found in the Beehive book I last reviewed.

Most of the magazine is black and white, but there are several color pages. A couple are advertisements, but a few feature items to knit:

This top I found somewhat interesting. It’s knit in two pieces. Fortunately, they are sewn together, so you don’t have to simply hope it will stay in place. Of course, you have to sew in the shoulder pads too. I think every pattern called for shoulder pads. Knit it in white, and it could be football padding.

I found the stitch on this sweater to be very interesting. It’s called the ribbon stitch. Might be fun for a scarf.

There were a number of vests. And, I always knit matching gloves….

There was a whole section featuring lacy fashion gloves. Watch me make these keys disappear…

And these ones had a cuff you could roll up!

Most of the ads were rather boring. Mostly for yarns. A few for knitting and sewing tools. But I loved this Susan Bates ad for a children’s knitting kit. Maybe she’s just earnestly concentrating, but that little girl doesn’t look too happy to me. Perhaps it’s the awkward underhand method of holding her needles.

Finally, please someone tell me that this illustration captures the scene at home when you are knitting….

In the end, there were a couple of things that I might try in the future. One is to play around with that ribbon stitch and see what becomes of it. The other is a pair of spiral, no-heel, baby socks. Of course, I have to make a dent in that WIP list I just shared first.

Comments: 3 — Posted under: Vintage Magazines

Keep it togther!

Some time ago, Knit Clips came out and I got a set. They’re small clips that you can use to hold knit pieces together while you are seaming them. Well, I’m attaching the sleeves to Mermaid, so I thought I’d try them. Problem is, Mermaid has a small gauge. Which makes the clips seem HUGE.

And the only thing that touches your knitted fabric is that one plastic pin. So, the 5 clips you get in a set might be good for a nice bulky straight seam, but for something fussy like an sleeve attachment, you want really careful alignment of pieces. Well, here’s my drug store solution:

Yep, those are mini hair clips. Easily found in packs of a dozen at any drug store for a few dollars. Example: Walgreens for $3. Compare to $7 for five Knit Klips.

Let’s take a longer view (which do you like better?):

And the bonus with the hair clips? When your bangs get in your face while you’re bent over sewing a seam, you can use one to hold them back.

Why yes, that is Mermaid…

Comments: 4 — Posted under: Tools

True Confessions, March 2007

Also known as WIPELE (Works In Progress Exceed Life Expectancy).

Okay, I want to finish stuff. In order to do that, I have to guilt myself into how many WIPs I actually have. The first step is admitting you have a problem.

1. Baby Cardigan: Showed you that one yesterday. Needs some seams. And some pom-poms. And well, then there’s those ends.
2. Mermaid Sweater: She’s soooo close. All the pieces are knitted. Shoulder and collar seams are done. Applied i-cord on front is done too. I attached one sleeve last night, and it went smashingly. Then I just have the i-cord on the sleeve cuffs and a few ends to take care of.
3. Rockin’ Sock Club Kit #3: That one I started. I got through about 2 repeats on the cuffs. Then I picked it up again and knit a few more rows. And forgot that you’re supposed to alternate pattern row with a plain knit row. So now I have to figure out how to recover that one.
4. Giant Green and White Secret Project: I got about 1/4 of the way done and then got stalled.
5. Entrelac Tam: The main entrelac portion is done. Just needs a ribbed band.
6. Felted Cat Toys: About half are knitted. None are felted.
7. Grandmother Shawl: Needs to be blocked and fringed. Oh, and I promised I’d write up the pattern.
8. Ribby Cardi: Back and one front finished. 2nd front almost finished. Then it needs sleeves.
9. Stuffed Turtle Toy: About halfway through with the body.
10. Geisha Wrap: Into the 3rd repeat. Of, oh, 8 or so? Maybe?
11. Knit Flat Gloves: Most of one glove.
12. Tiny Felted Sack: Started this one the other night because a friend wanted me to show her how to do it. So I had to have one I was working on as a demo piece.

Comments: 3 — Posted under: Knitting, Absurd

What’s wrong with this picture?

Well, nothing’s really wrong. It’s just that I’m gonna have to do something about all those ends. And that’s wrong!

That’s the Baby Cardigan from the fall/winter 2006 Knit It! The matching hat didn’t really need blocking, so it’s not pinned out. I knit this for my new baby niece, Rose, while I was out in Los Angeles. I knew she was on the way, and I picked out the pattern and brought yarn with me and knit it during my off time (so evenings while I was watching TV and, well, in a pedicure chair one day).

Great things about this set — I knit it entirely from stash (yep, Cascade 220 Superwash again, the yarn that can do no wrong). It used up lots of small balls of colors that I didn’t know how I would get rid of (you know the ones, those tiny balls that are too long to be scraps to toss but too short to do much else with). The hat will have 4(!!!!) pom-poms!

So, it’s gonna live on the blocking board for a few days. My house has negative humidity right now, I think, so it will probably be dry tomorrow. We’ll see if I get around to seaming it then. I can’t leave it laying out for long, because my cat, Mough, is gonna wanna start chewing on all of those tasty ends sometime soon. Right now he’s busy investigating the wet tub where it soaked and giving me a review of that. Meanwhile, I’m gonna go off and see if I can manage not to start another project. I think I might have to have a “True Confessions” post again one of these days.

Comments: 3 — Posted under: Knitting

Fuzz Around

Visiting the archive of stuff I did in the past two months and haven’t shown yet….

This is a bag I made for my friend Emma for her birthday. It’s a simple crochet sack with some eyelets that spiral around it. Then you take the furry yarn and crochet it on top around down the eyelets. It was a quick project, all of a morning, and took one skein each of Lion Brand Homespun and Fancy Fur. I gave it to her on the Barenaked Ladies cruise we took in January and it turned heads all over the place. She adored it.

Here’s a little close-up of the texture.

Comments: 0 — Posted under: Knitting

What Not To Wear: U.S. Customs Edition

I visited a number of yarn stores when I was up in Vancouver last month. I had intended to take careful notes and write up another safari post. That fell through somewhere. But there was one store where I bought tangible souvenirs, so I can document that. One must-see store was Urban Yarns. I got a couple of balls of something silky with a nifty scarf pattern on the label. But I also got this fantastic girly T…

Front:

Back:

If you can’t read the photos: “She was quite a nice girl…”; “until she started all that knitting”.

Of course, I had to get the shirt. And I was so excited by it, that I wore it home the next day. Home on the plane. On the international flight back to Los Angeles. The poor wisdom of this didn’t hit me until I was going through Customs/Security at the Vancouver airport. Where the front of the shirt was visible through my open cardigan and jacket. And the security guard asked me what it meant, and I proudly showed off the back as I removed the jacket and zipper cardigan and placed them in the x-ray bin. And I realized I marked myself as someone possibly risky, sporting pointy needles, trying to board an international flight.

Fortunately, everyone had a good laugh. And I got to return to the United States. And I got to keep my needles.

Comments: 3 — Posted under: Absurd, yarn safari

Hand Knits by Beehive, 1944

Some time ago I acquired a cache of vintage knitting magazines. Mostly Vogue Knitting, but a few assorted other things. It’s been my intention to go through them and share gems, but I haven’t had the time. Well, necessity has forced me to organize my collection. So I spent a good deal of the weekend sorting and preserving and cataloging. I have Vogue Knitting from the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s (what happened to the 70s?!). I also have a good long stash of Knitters and Interweave Knits (mostly 90s and 2000s, but one issue of Knitters from 1985 with a Tom Selleck look-alike on the cover (mmm…moustache…)). And a handful of one-off pattern books in a few eras.

So, now that they’re organized, the sharing begins. With luck, I can focus on one issue a week. Just a quick glance through as I was sorting them showed all kinds of fascinating trends evolve over time.

I plan to focus mostly on the Vogues, but I’m starting off the tour with the oldest item in my collection: a pattern booklet called “Hand Knits by Beehive” dated 1944. It’s book No. 128, 25 cents. Beehive was a yarn by Patons & Baldwin. According to the back cover, it came in two varieties, an all wool fingering weight yarn, and “Moorland”, which is billed as a non-shrink knitting yarn, with no hint given as to the fiber. From the gauges listed in the patterns, Moorland was also fingering weight.

Here’s the cover, featuring a lovely belted suit.

The booklet contains a number of sweaters, vest, and cardigans, and several complete outfits. All the sweaters have set-in sleeves. There’s some two-color fair isle, and plenty of stripes. Most of the outfits are rather tasteful, but this one, a vest with matching stocking cap, is a little over the top:

Most of the designs are pictured in black and white photographs on models. However, these two vests are pictured flat with suggested wearing illustrations next to them. Without those, I would have had no idea that they were meant to be worn under stylish suits.

Most of the patterns are for sizes 12, 14, and 16. But before you get too excited, that corresponds to bust measurements of 31″, 33″, and 35″. All the patterns include row and stitch gauges, with most patterns worked at 7-8 stitches/inch. Suggested needle sizes are mostly 3 (3mm) and 4 (3.5mm), metric diameters included! If you look closely at the pattern text to the left of the photo of this dress, you’ll note the helpful convention of putting all instructions for one size in a column running down the pattern. After each new line of knitting instructions, you simply need to look to the column for your size to find out how many stitches you should be working at that point in the pattern. Much better than having to circle something buried in a paragraph somewhere. Also, this dress features something rather common in these patterns - a wide ribbon for a button band.

This next photo I had to include because at first I thought I was looking at an impressive feat of photography. Then it struck me, they actually knitted two of these jumpers for the photo shoot! Called “Sunday, Monday and Always…”, the caption is “A girl’s best friend is her jumper. Here in soft green with stitched pockets, it may be worn with long or short sleeved blouse.” Thankfully, they cleared that up!

The back cover, showing the yarn. Seems that it came in a nice range of colors. Colors listed in the various patterns include Scarlet, Cyclamen Red, Navy, Nantucket Blue, Sandringham Blue, Birch Green, Myrtle Green, Emerald, Peach, and Chestnut.

Finally, there’s a small slip of paper included in the fold on the first page that reads: “A Necessary War Measure: We regret that we are compelled to ask you to be patient if you are unable to find all the Beehive yarns you want. The usual plentiful supply of these fine imported wools has been curtailed, due to the manpower shortage in Great Britain. We know you will be glad to cooperate at this time, and “Share the Yarn” for Victory!”

Comments: 3 — Posted under: Vintage Magazines

Following the herd…

One of the projects I made last month was a couple of Calorimetrys. After my huge Los Angeles Yarn Safari, I went to visit Compatto Yarn Salon on Jocelyn’s advice. I had a nice time and ended up being convinced to buy a ball of 127 Print to make Caliometry (and they even printed the pattern out for me!). I realized that I was heading up to Vancouver for a Barenaked Ladies concert the following weekend and that I’d sent all my winter gear back to MA. So I would need ear covering. I ended up grabbing another ball of something else to make another one for my fellow northward traveller, Kathleen.

So, without ado, here they are…

First, Kathleen’s. I made it with a ball of something now mysterious, because the yarn label has since disappeared. I vaguely remember it being something wool and acrylic, and that it was really soft. I knit it on the plane (so it’s a 2-hour knit, folks). And as such, the photo was taken in the Vancouver airport before Kathleen flew back to San Francisco. You’ll notice that the setting is a little different from where I usually pose my knits. To get a simple background and enough light, I perched up on a chair near an internet station. I’m sure I was no weirder than the Super Bowl fans cheering in their respective sections of the terminal. What I like about this one is that somehow, the striping worked out to be mostly symmetrical. Couldn’t have done that if I tried to.

Then the one I made for myself. This one is with the 127 Print.

And a close-up of the button I chose for both of them:

Comments: 5 — Posted under: Knitting

Winter Watermelon

This is the hat that my sister picked up at Threadbear.

Well, my interpretation of it.

It’s based on the Knots and Spirals Hat by Sarah Peasley and it’s made with Cascade 220 Superwash. I think Lisa really liked the stuff on the top. In fact, she asked me to make the spirals longer than the pattern called for.

I asked her to pick two colors, and I think it was her undoing. She’d pick up a ball of yarn, and put it with another, and then put them both back and repeat the process. Finally, I told her to wander around the store and look at all the samples until she saw a color combination she liked. That worked. She pulled me over to a scarf that was mostly black but had some pinks and greens in it. So we walked back over to the Cascade bins and I picked up the two colors in the hat first thing and surprised her. How the hell did I do that?! I think it looks like watermelon.

Anyway, she thought the store sample wasn’t quite long enough, so I added one more section of the striped band. Personally, I still think it could be a bit longer, but it is long enough.

It was a quick knit, but maybe too quick. Because looking at it now, I see a stitch that should have been purled. Oh well, I’m my own harshest critic. Dare anyone else to find it.

Comments: 2 — Posted under: Knitting