Knit one, read two

Expanding my craft library

May 30, 2010May 29, 2010 Susan2 Comments

It’s getting harder to find decent second-hand bookshops in central London these days so we recently took a trip to Hay-on-Wye to satisfy our cravings. I spent a fair amount of time rummaging through any craft books I could find and managed to pick up a few interesting additions to my library. I plan on writing fuller reviews once I’ve had the chance to read them more carefully and try some projects but here’s a quick look in the meantime.

Alabama Stitch Book, by Natalie Chanin with Stacie Stukin:

A collection of sewing projects for recycling and embellishing old t-shirts. I first heard of this book when the House on Hill Road blog reviewed the follow-up book Alabama Studio Style. Having now seen this book and the review of the second one at House on Hill Road, I think the projects in the second book are probably more to my taste but there are a couple of projects in here, including a skirt and corset top, that I do really want to try. All I need now are some t-shirts!

Designing Knitwear, Deborah Newton:

I’ve been getting more ambitious with my designing (I currently have a couple of lace shawls in progress) and my eventual ambition is to learn how to design clothing. I had seen this book recommended as a good guide to knitting design and, at a first glance, it certainly seems to cover everything you could want to know. In fact, at first glance, the sheer quantity of text and detail in this book is a little overwhelming. I think this is going to be a book that I sit down and read through rather than dipping in and out of. I’ll let you know how that goes later.

520 Quick and Easy Patchwork Designs, Kei Kobayashi:

The concept behind this book is simple: using folded origami squares as the basis for quilt designs. Take your square of paper, fold your shape, unfold the paper and use the geometric pattern of crease lines as the basis for your quilt block. My quilting has yet to progress beyond simple patchwork blocks but there’s a wealth of inspiration in here for anyone from the absolute beginner to the expert looking for something new. There is a large section on traditional American quilt block patterns, as well as variations on geometric patterns and some Art Deco and computer graphic suggestions as well. It is a design book rather than a how-to-quilt book so if you’re looking for detailed guidance on quilting, piecing and finishing quilts, this isn’t the book for you but if you’re looking for inspiration, there’s plenty of it here.

Make-do and mend – recycling a knitted jumper

May 26, 2010May 25, 2010 Susan3 Comments

Steven discovered recently that two of the smart (shop-bought) jumpers he owns have holes in the elbows.We didn’t spot them until they were well past my darning abilities and I was loth to darn them anyway because both jumpers have a hole in exactly the same place, meaning that any repair would probably wear through again quite quickly.

Steven wasn’t particularly keen on my idea of sewing suede patches on, explaining that even when he was a physicist working at a university he didn’t wear jumpers with elbow patches, but did suggest that I could unravel the jumpers and re-use the yarn. As can be seen from the label in the picture below, this was a very appealing idea.

The first step to recycling a jumper to reclaim the yarn is to check the seams. Machine-made jumpers can be manufactured in two different ways. The first is the same as hand-knitting; the pieces are knitted to the appropriate size and shape, and then sewn together — this is ideal for unraveling as you will end up with a single, continuous length of yarn. The second is known as “cut-and-sew”. The fabric is knitted in a single large piece and then the pieces are cut out and sewn together. Unraveling a jumper made this way will result in a lot of short, individual pieces of yarn, which aren’t much good for anything. (Depending on the fibre, you could still recycling these jumpers by felting.)

The picture below is my attempt to show you what a “good” seam for unraveling looks like; it might be better to take a close look at some hand-knitted garments to get the idea.

The next step is to unpick the seams; a sharp seam-ripper is useful but be careful not to accidentally cut the knitted fabric. The pictures below show the under-arm section of the body and the sleeve with the hole after it had been removed.

After unraveling, I washed and dried the yarn to get the kinks out. I had wound the into balls as I was unraveling but wound these into hanks for washing and drying. I hung the hanks to dry and hung weights from the bottom to stretch them slightly to straighten the yarn.

It occurred to me after I had removed the sleeves (and fortunately before I had unraveled anything else) that the rest of the jumper was still in great condition and that it could work well as a tank top, if I knitted some bands around the armholes. Now that I had a large quantity of matching yarn, I experimented a little with needle sizes and stitches, picked up a lot of stitches round the armhole and started knitting.

I’m really pleased with the results; but K1P1 rib takes a very long time with such fine yarn on 2mm needles. Hopefully it will be finished by the autumn since it’s too warm to wear it just now anyway.

The best bit is that, even when the armbands on this jumper are knitted, I still have another jumper to unravel (it has a round neck so can’t be turned into a tank top) plus nearly 100g of yarn from the sleeves on this one. That’s enough laceweight cashmere to keep anyone happy for quite a while!

Vintage sewing machine adventures: part 3 — the other bits

May 23, 2010 SusanLeave a comment

As a child, I loved rooting through my mum’s sewing basket trying to work out what all the different bits and pieces were and how they were used. No matter how much time I spent looking through that basket, there always seemed to be something that I hadn’t seen before.

That’s why when the salesman in the junk shop showed me that the sewing machine table drawers were filled with attachments for the machine and other craft-related paraphernalia I knew I had to buy it. I’ve already talked about the sewing machine parts but here are some of my other favourite bits.

Punchcraft tool — If it hadn’t been for the fact that my mum used to have a couple of punchcraft kits, I might never have worked out was this was. Punchcraft is a way of creating pictures on fabric by “punching” yarn or thread through the fabric to create little loops. (It turns out that the tool can also be used to make holes in leather treadle belts when repairing vintage sewing machines.)

A Turkey Rug Wool gauge — used for cutting lengths of wool to the right size for rug-making. You wind the wool round and round the gauge and then your scissors or knife slide down the groove to cut the lengths. I’ve never tried rug-making so I’ve no idea what you do after that!

Buttons — none that are particularly exciting but you can never have too many buttons!

Hooks, clasps and pins — I love that some of these (and some of the buttons) have small pieces of fabric attached, showing that they’ve been saved from old clothing.

Screws, picture hooks and curtain hooks — It’s always reassuring to see that other people end up with weird collections of DIY oddments in their craft stuff.

Blue sequinned triangle — part of a fancy dress costume, perhaps?

Vintage sewing machine adventures, part 2 – Identifying the parts

May 15, 2010 Susan1 Comment

One of the first things I did with the sewing machine was to empty the drawers and sort the contents into sewing machine parts and everything else. The first picture below shows what I first thought were all the sewing machine related parts (not including bobbins, screwdrivers, needles and the lint brush since those didn’t require any research to identify).

My next task was to work out what each of these was. Two things made this reasonably straightforward. Firstly, the sewing machine came with its manual, which has pictures of most of the parts in use. Secondly, this is a Singer machine. All Singer parts are stamped with “Simanco” and the serial number of the part. A quick trip to Google to search for serial numbers and most of the rest were identified.

The harder part is going to be working out how to use them!

Below is a full inventory of the attachments I have with pictures and serial numbers in case this helps anyone else trying to identify parts.

Continue reading “Vintage sewing machine adventures, part 2 – Identifying the parts” →

Vintage sewing machine adventures – part 1

April 25, 2010 Susan1 Comment

Steven and I took a day-trip to Whitstable yesterday to celebrate my first day of freedom after the latest batch of exams. It was just supposed to be a nice trip in the car with some lunch, a wander round some shops and then home again. Except that one of the shops, a small junk shop right on the sea-front, had this:

A 1940s Model 15K Singer treadle sewing machine and treadle table in what appeared to be almost working order.

And, yes, that is our lounge that it’s now sitting in.

The advantage of buying a Singer machine is that there is a lot of information out there on how to identify and date them. Looking up the serial number of our machine on the Singer website, I identified the type and learned that it was one of a batch of 300,000 built in Clydebank, Scotland between November 1945 and August 1946. In fact, I spent almost the entire evening reading about the history of the Singer Manufacturing Company and the factory in Clydebank.

I love the detailing and aesthetic of these machines and have been admiring them from afar for years. It’s so pretty that we decided it would look great as a piece of furniture even if we never got it working, although both of us thought we’d like to see it sew something at least once. However, the more I read about these machines and how good they are for sewing and, in particular, quilting, the more tempted I am to get it fully set up and learn how to use it properly.

I don’t think it will be too difficult (famous last words!) to get it working properly again. The machine needs a new belt (already ordered), a good clean and some oil, and the woodwork needs some restoration. The ironwork just needs cleaned. The worst part is going to be removing all the dead spiders from the inside.

The other advantage of getting it working is that it came with a wide range of different attachments for hemming, quilting, and attaching cord and bindings that would cost me a fortune to buy for my electric machine. More details of those and the other contents of the table drawers to come in my next post.

Blowing my own trumpet – but just a little

April 20, 2010April 19, 2010 SusanLeave a comment

I’m not very good at self-promotion. It’s been suggested to me in the past that Scots can be “a bit backwards about coming forwards” and, while I wouldn’t like to comment on the general application of the statement, it describes me to a tee.

However, the whole point of publishing things is to share them with other people and, in a previous post, I promised to share all my publishing news so here’s the full run-down of what I’ve been up to publishing-wise and a sneak preview of what is to come.

There’s been both self-publishing and non-self-publishing so let’s start with the stuff that other people have published.

In the other post, I talked about Theresa, which was actually the second pattern that I had published in The Fibertarian; the first was my Stylish Squares blanket in their Winter 2009 edition. This was my first ever published-by-someone-who-wasn’t-me pattern and both the submission process and the publication were more than a little nerve-wracking but so exciting that I was determined to do it again, which I promptly did in their Spring 2010 edition.

Those of you who clicked on the blanket link will have realised that it doesn’t take you to The Fibertarian site, it takes you to Yellow Ginger Designs instead. I decided that I wanted to keep a certain amount of distance between this blog (personal) and my publishing (public) and so I started Yellow Ginger Designs. The name comes from the beautiful yellow ginger plants that we saw in Hawaii. We later learned that they were actually an imported pest that the state is trying to eradicate completely but I still think they’re beautiful! (Unfortunately, the design of the site doesn’t currently live up to the beauty of its name but pretty-ing it up is definitely on my to-do list.)

Yellow Ginger Designs will have all my self-published knitting patterns as well as sewing and other craft projects. At the moment, it’s mostly knitting patterns but I have some sewing projects and craft tutorials that just need some decent photographs before they can go up. Everything is free at the moment, but I do plan on adding a “for sale” section in future. Everything that is currently free will remain free and there will continue to be free content added.

I’ll continue to blog about craft stuff in general on this blog but any patterns or tutorials will be published over there. I will probably mention here when I’ve updated the other site but I can guarantee that, given my dislike of promotion, this blog won’t be turning into a constant stream of advertising!

Book review – Pattern Sourcebook: Japanese Style

April 19, 2010 SusanLeave a comment

A post-exam wander around the craft and design sections of the bookshops on Charing Cross Road today turned up a wonderful little volume entitled “Pattern Sourcebook: Japanese Style. 250 Patterns for Projects and Designs.” The book is a collection of Japanese pattern designs in nine different categories, including plants, creatures, geometry and, of course, waves.

Wave pattern

The book comes with a CD with JPEG and PSD versions of each of the patterns and, best of all, purchasing the book permits unrestricted use of any of the patterns for any purpose whatsoever without any further fees or need for acknowledgement or credit. Many of the patterns are set up so that they can be tiled in all directions.

Japanese cherry blossom pattern

There is a sentence or two accompanying each design with a short explanation of its origin or symbolism. The translation from Japanese is a little quirky at times but not enough to be distracting.

Japanese geometric pattern

The patterns are purely patterns and no instructions are given on how to use them but I’m already in danger of being overwhelmed by ideas for ways to incorporate the designs into knitting and quilting patterns.

Wave pattern

To sum up, if you’re interested in Japanese patterns and styles or just looking for a new source of inspiration, I can highly recommend this.

Details

Title – Pattern Sourcebook: Japanese Style
Author – Shigeki Nakamura
Publisher – Rockport Publishers

Pattern – Theresa Lace Scarf

April 8, 2010 Susan1 Comment

There was just enough light left when I got home from the office to take some bad web-cam pictures of some of my more recent projects so I thought I’d get caught up on updating my Ravelry projects and actually blogging about some of these.

First up is my Theresa Lace Scarf pattern that is currently available in the Spring 2010 edition of The Fibertarian (more to come later on other publishing news).

I’m going to admit upfront that I love these scarves possibly more than I should so I apologise in advance if I end up sounding like I’m selling something; I’m not on commission, honest!

The first scarf started with a rough idea in my head as a way to use up some leftover laceweight yarn. I played with some stitches from the Encyclopedia of Needlework at Project Gutenberg and Theresa was the result (named after Thérèse de Dillmont, the original author of the Encyclopedia). The second one was when I realised I was addicted.

The first one (in the orangey-brown colour) was knitted using Knit Picks Gloss Lace that I brought back from honeymoon and the second (in navy) is Knitwiches 100% Pure Cashmere Laceweight. These photos really don’t do them justice but there are some better ones at The Fibertarian or on Ravelry.

The pattern itself takes a little bit of concentration at first due to the slipping, lifting and re-knitting of stitches but, once you get the rhythm of it, it is almost meditative. Due to the twisted nature of the pattern, it is very difficult to frog this scarf even with relatively smooth yarn; I can only imagine it would be completely impossible with something like Kidsilk Haze.

They’re wonderful to wear; very light with just a little bit of extra warmth. They can also be squashed very small to fit into bags or a pocket when even that little bit of warmth is too much. Last, but not least, they are also (unusually for something I’ve knitted) highly fashionable at the moment!

The sweater curse

March 27, 2010 Susan3 Comments

I used to think that I didn’t believe in the sweater curse — the idea that if you knitted a boyfriend a jumper before you were engaged the relationship would break up shortly after. I’m now realising that there are other forms of sweater curse and I’m suffering under one of them.

My curse seems to be something like this: if I offer to knit Steven a jumper and let him pick the pattern (so that I can be sure he’ll like it) he will inevitably pick a pattern that requires a technique that is completely new to me. In the past this has included cables and inserting zips and, for the jumper that sparked today’s post, intarsia.

The jumper is the Argyll Vest (Ravelry link) from Men’s Knits by Erika Knight. I’m knitting it in Rowan RYC Cashsoft 4-ply. It’s not the most exciting pattern to knit but it is going to be a great jumper when it’s finished.

Like the other techniques that I’ve had to learn to knit Steven’s jumpers, it turns out intarsia isn’t really hard at all. Pay attention to the chart, remember to twist your yarns where the colours meet and try not to let the yarns you’re not currently using get too tangled. If only that were the only thing I had to worry about.

The back of the jumper (where there’s no pattern) knitted up very quickly, even considering it’s 4-ply yarn on 3.25mm needles.

The front, however, is a different story. The front has gone from what you see in the photograph above to this:

Yes, that’s right. The front has had to be ripped out all the way back to the ribbing. Why? Before I cast off for the under-arm, I thought to check the size of the front against the size of the back. The cast-off for the under-arm was two inches lower on the front than on the back.

I re-measured … still two inches different. I re-calculated the number of pattern repeats that I was supposed to knit on the front to get the same number of rows as I had knitted for the back … those were right. I re-counted the number of diamonds that I had actually knitted … those were right. I then repeated those three checks many, many times but every time it came out the same. I had calculated my pattern repeats correctly, I had knitted the correct number of pattern repeats and the front was still two inches shorter than the back.

The jumper disappeared into the bottom of my knitting bag, not to be seen again until a miracle happened that would result in either the front magically matching the back next time I measured, my number of pattern repeats magically turning out to be wrong (either as calculated or as knitted) or some other explanation for the problem magically presented itself.

The jumper stayed in the bag for a couple of weeks. Nothing magically fixed itself.

Then I went looking for my 3.25mm needles to swatch for another pattern.

Remember those 3.25mm needles that I mentioned above? Well, when I went looking for them, it turned out that they weren’t in this jumper after all. I had knitted the front (including all the intarsia) all the way to the under-arm on the 2.75mm needles that are used for the ribbing.

I now had my magical explanation for the missing two inches and the front of a jumper to rip out. Do you know what is hard about intarsia? Ripping it out.

Two red shawls

October 29, 2009October 29, 2009 SusanLeave a comment

The number of red shawls in progress around here has risen from one to two.

The first is the Circular Shawl which, as you might be able to tell from the picture is still kicking my ass. There are four lifelines in there at the moment and I’m about to have to rip back to the last one unless I can figure out where I’ve gone wrong in the current row.

The new needle has definitely helped with this pattern, to the extent that even if I have to rip back to the last lifeline, I’ll still have 5 completed repeats out of the 42 that the pattern suggests. I still haven’t gotten used to the level of concentration that lace knitting with all patterned rows needs though and still haven’t quite accepted that, even if inserting a lifeline is slightly fiddly, it’s still better to insert one after every repeat than have to rip back two repeats at a time. However, I am making progress and am absolutely determined that I will finish this shawl!

The second is what I’m calling my Mojo Shawl, purposefully cast on to remind me that knitting isn’t always complicated and lacking in fun. It’s Laura Chau’s Simple Yet Effective Shawl with vaguely Fibonnaci-series-based increasing sections of garter and stocking stitch. I say ‘vaguely’ because I have a bad cold at the moment and so keep forgetting to keep track of how many rows I’ve knitted in each section and am therefore just going ‘by eye’.

The yarn for this one is some leftover Noro Cash Iroha that I had so it’s going to be nice and warm and soft and snuggly. Just perfect for wrapping yourself up in when you’re feeling under the weather.