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2/18/2004 3:04:42 AM
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It`s almost here... Quecha Query
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So what colors of Quecha is everybody getting? I wanna know what is going to be all gone like rubies in the first day! I`ve already gotten the idea that the purple is going to be gone shortly after 6:00 AM Pacific Time. Let`s all fess up and admit which colors and tell what we plan to knit with it...
I myself am going to get some of the black for another ballet sweater... this time I`m going to knit Degas ballerinas in purl stitches into it, either at the shoulders or along the bottom... I charted one on graph paper and am trying it on a hat right now. I tried qulting it onto Polar Fleece to see if it looked recognizable as a line drawing, and it came out better than I`d dare hope, so this is pretty exciting! I like the fact that the Quecha has more sheen than fluff.
My daughter says we need matching cardigans in the Parchment, Vicuna, and Thistle. She is talking about making six cardigans here, not two with all those colors mixed... but since they look good together, I suggested mixing... she flat-out told me it`s high time we had something in one plain color that could be worn with any outfit. So I got my fashion lesson for the day! (But I still say that just as Fresh Cream and Mocha Cream were so yummy together in the Uros, Parchment and Vicuna are going to be just divine together in the Quecha). Ayway, I surely can`t buy 50-60 balls of yarn all at once, so we`ll have to decide which color cardigans to start with and hope that Quecha is a returning yarn, and maybe that can be a project we do together every now and then... knit a set of Quecha cardigans... this girl needs to hurry up and get knitting at a faster pace, so she can help me out! Gol-ly! You`d think at age 5 she`d be a bit faster than this! :) I`m gonna tell her she`d better get going so she can do Arans before she hits the ripe old age of 10, and be like ecasey!
What colors and projects does everyone else have in mind?
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2/18/2004 3:22:24 AM
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Ballet pink is A
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And if anybody wants anything I`ve posted here to be emailed directly, that`s no problem, my email is SewMacChick@earthlink.net.
Now that "resident wizard" stuff is a big misnomer, nearly everybody here is way more experienced than I at knitting and able to offer real treasures of advice and help if you ask... it just seems that whenever I get in front of a keyboard (or even a pencil and paper) I do the non-stop babble... I have some affliction wherein I cannot, for the life of me, shut up!
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2/18/2004 3:47:31 AM
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Medical miracle for dry skin!!!!!!
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I gotta agree with Theresa and Benne... GLOVES!!! Why on earth would you even THINK about putting bleach directly on your bare skin? Besides, any opportunity to put on gloves is also a great time to slather on some greasy hand creme and let it really get soaked into your skin.
As for dietary supplements... fish oil caplets, whenever there aren`t enough fish in the daily menu cured my problem... I had skin dry enough so the cracks were prone to bleeding, and I found that once I got my intake of Omega-3 up where it should be, the problem resolved itself beautifully. I know what you mean about the steroid treatments... it treats the symptom, leaving the actual problem to go on getting worse (I think it actually aggravates the underlying problem). BUT I`ve never had it anywhere nearly as bad as what you are describing. I cannot even imagine that!
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2/18/2004 4:00:06 AM
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Your six month review
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So, looking far down the road, if we keep on getting similar raises, and eventually reach 200%, will that be referred to as "Double of Nothing" or do we graduate to getting shares of the company stock and call it "Double or Nothing" (depending on the trading climate)????
Speaking of stock markets... maybe we should all be buying stock in Elann.com! I like those really appropriate stock investments... I will someday buy Budweiser and Harley stocks fr my husband, my parents bought Disney stocks for my daughter, a friend of mine who is Barbie-obsessed really should have Mattel stock... why not some yarn stock for all of us here? When is Elann.com going to appear on the Toronto Stock Exchange? Would dividends be payable in skeins?
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2/19/2004 10:49:15 AM
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Spinning-type question for Theresa
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Lord knows why, But I want to make mittens in Tvaandsstickning, and so I`m curious about Z-plied yarn. Also wondering if Uros will behave in a similar way as far as direction of the twist, because of its being a single ply. I thought that, between the spinning and the reading, you`d be the perfect person to ask. My reference here is "Knitting Around the World," from Threads, pub. by Taunton Press, page 51:
It says: "Most of the yarns we buy today are S-plied. The twisting motion of Tvaandsstickning will twist these yarns tighter, and it will sometimes feel as if the yarn is fighting back. Examination of old pieces disclosed that they were often done with a Z-plied yarn, which untwists as it`s knit."
Thanks for any insight you can give me on this.
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2/19/2004 11:09:17 AM
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Ballet sweater
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Seriously... knit a little 10-stitch swatch... what can it hurt? And try cutting that. It works like magic, and the 10-stitch swatch won`t take but a wee bit of time... and it will either confirm your opinion very shortly or liberate you forever in just a few minutes of experimentation! If you want me to mail you a copy of the pattern with the directions for cutting steeks and lots more how-to pictures, feel free to email me your snail-mail address... Jonana or anyone else. SewMacChick@earthlink.net
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2/19/2004 11:16:33 AM
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cute kiddy`s and kitty
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Those are some great sweaters!!! I really love the changing sizes of the stripes idea on the sleeves... i`m already picturing a variation in the other direction on the body of a sweater for a "slimming effect"... or on a diagonal... you never see the changing size on the diagonal, but it`d be so easy! You`ve offered quite a bit of inspiration here!!!
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2/19/2004 11:58:45 AM
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It`s almost here... Quecha Query
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bets—
Another birthday trick: just blatantly email everybody in your address book, reminding them that it is your birthday and giving them the link to the page at elann.com where they can purchase gift certificates for you. If only ONE person does it, that`s still a few balls of yarn you wouldn`t have had before!
Moonlight at Her window in Moonstone sounds heavenly! And as for little MacChicklet… I started her on the Granda yarn and bamboo needles last year and gave her some Highland Wool this year, she`s got some of the Regia sock yarn for her Knitting Noddy doll, but mostly she just sits on my lap and does some of the stitches of my knitting. She can do it physically, but she`s a bit too bouncy and hyper to do it for very long, and I`m reluctant to "enforce" it by saying, "Knit one row before you can play," like they used to do in the olden days.
Farmin Garmon—
Prepay your account online (then it WILL be credited towards your account!) then when you call, ask them to pay for it out of that same account… or call and ask advice before Tuesday gets here… you won`t want to be making your call complicated while you are on a noisy bus full of kids. (and yes, the time zone diff between coasts is 3 hours)
ecasey—
If you are a redhead, listen: I saw these colors on a redhead once before and they breathtaking: it was mainly out of the vicuna color with Nordic type simple color patterning in celery green and khaki green at the wrists, bottom hem, and yoke.
Peddling doll sweaters to your classmates, huh? That`s pretty enterprising! I`m not giving her any ideas, though, she`s already tried to peddle her drawings to people she doesn`t even know ("Drawings for a quarter or a nickel! But wait! There`s more! Buy one now and you`ll also get a crayon and an extra piece of paper!") We had to conclude she had heard too many infomercials in the background of her life…
Scullyknits--- so you`ll be trying to grab up parchment and black, too, huh? Well, if I don`t get as much as I need before it`s gone, at least I`ll know who to try and bargain with J!!!
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2/19/2004 12:35:58 PM
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To knit or crochet..this is the question
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I used to just crochet also. I don`t really remember how old I was when I learned, because I cannot remeber a time when I didn`t crochet. I preferred it over knitting because it was so much faster (those around me all knit with that method where you let go of the right needle to use the right hand to carry the yarn up around the right needle for each and every stitch). But the two things I always envied about knitters were that knitting produced a much nicer fabric, capable of more drape and finer color patterns, and that knitting was much more yarn-efficient, inch-per-inch. But time is of the essence, so i crocheted. I never was caught anywhere, in any season, without a ball of wool and a crochet hook. I used to make all the lace for my daughter`s dresses, made oodles of hats, baskets, afghans, dolls, toys, etc., etc., ad nauseum, but alas, I never liked crocheted sweaters... it isn`t the right fabric for a sweater, somehow... and so on... no idle hands... ust have wool in hands at all times...
Then at a medieval war (not long ago, October 2002), I took a nalbindng class and got into sideline discussions about nalbinding vs knitting as regards speed and ended up learning continental style knitting, right there on the spot... which was way faster even than crocheting (and I have been told that I crochet faster than the eye can follow). Ran home and went to the local library and got Richard Rutt`s History and started trying various methods to go faster, got some old WWI patterns and started getting into the knitting multiple socks, sleeves, hats, etc. sinultaneously (one inside the other)... to go even faster... got on the internet and started hearing about simultaneous tubes on 2 circs, and tried that (to go even faster)... even combined the methods to actually knit 4 socks simultaneously (which turns out to be NOT as fast, because you are managing so many balls of yarn at once) time is so precious and I am so impatient for the finished product...
And as for crochet? it makes nice hair accessories and edgings for knitting... that`s about it for me anymore. You couldn`t pay me to pick up a crochet hook and do a whole aghan these days...
On the other hand, one request from my child, and I am 1050% sure I would do it anyway, so I hope you have a big pile of yarn and one of those comfy cushiony crochet hooks, because I`m pretty sure you are about to crochet an afghan!
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2/19/2004 1:22:06 PM
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I`m sunk....
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You are my hero!!!
My worst confession dates back to my crochet days... we needed a floor for our 13 foot diameter round canvas pavilion tent. We went to a rug store to special order a persian style one, if possible, and were told that we were never going to find a round rug that big... that the looms they are woven on would not accommodate a 13 foot round rug.
So, naturally, I decided to crochet one. We decided it should be out of cotton strips, like a braided rug, and so I went through my fabric stash... that got eaten up way too quickly, and I went to the $2.00 fabric store, but that wasn`t going to work either...10 yards were gone in just two days... the rug was eating up cotton by the mile, it seemed. I eventually moved on to sheets, and as we sat in the laundromat one day, waiting for the washing, I ran out of cotton (again)... and muttered, "look at all those sheets... nobody is even watching them... that could so add many inches to my rug..." My husband looked at me in horror and told me I was sick. Then he brought me to the thrift store and we bought every king-sized and queen-sized sheet set they had, and my rug kept growing.
Now I want to make it clear that I would never have actually taken somebody else`s sheets out of the laundromat, but I was so obsessed with getting more yardage to crochet, that I just wasn`t thinking clearly, and those sheets all seemed to be going to waste just headed for beds...
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2/19/2004 7:32:32 PM
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I`m sunk....
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Oh, now that`s a whole other nightmare... the bigger it got, the heavier it got... when it got up to around 10.5 feet in diameter, we started using it at events... no need to wait... I still worked on it in between events. But my DH had to lift this 12 foot high center pole, braced in the middle with iron and all hung with the heavy canvas tent, while I tried to wrestle the rug in underneath it... I`d left a 5" center hole in the middle for the pole. That was probably a hilarious scene for others to watch... kind of like a 3 stooges movie without the intentional meanness and only 2 stooges. So, before the next event, I cut a slit from the outer edge to the center hole... so we could just put the rug in around the center pole after the tent was up, then tie the slit closed. This was a great improvement, but it meant that new rounds had to be crocheted back and forth... no biggy, though, nobody`s really examning the stitches out past ten feet anyway. However, at the next event, we got a fair bit of rain and mud. By now the thing was about eleven feet in diameter and took up almost as much room in transport as the heavy canvas for the tent`s walls and top. And now we had to figure out how to clean it... I dearly wanted to cut it all the way in half and bring it to a laundromat and stuff each half into one of those triple-loaders... DH said to stop cutting it, that it had too much work in it to keep hacking it up like that... for now, cleaning it is a garden hose affair, and very unweildy.
So did it ever get finished? Well, it isn`t quite 13 feet yet, and probably won`t grow any more unless I cut it the rest of the way, because it`s too much to handle in one piece when we use it. And that`s the only reason I finally stopped adding to it. For all practical purposes, it`s plenty big enough to be called "done," and it does the job of giving an insulating layer over the ground... does that beautifully. But we are considering going to a painted canvas dropcloth for a floor, so we will have something thinner and more manageable. I would never recommend a similar project to anyone else... it was really overkill. The idea of crocheting rugs is better suited to smaller ones, I think. Though KNITTING opens whole knew ideas, because you can create a thinner fabric... and it`s actually much more historically correct for the period... knitted carpets having been one of the gild requirements back in the days of old... yes, yes... that would actually be the perfect thing... How did we end up on this topic? aww, now... let`s not go down this road again... no, no, no, JUST SAY NO... but what a justification for thousands of skeins of yarn, huh? Oh, now who started this thread? Off with her head!!! lol!
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2/20/2004 1:31:17 AM
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To knit or crochet..this is the question
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First, there are artists who would gag at speed for the sake of speed and lecture us about enjoying the process (to which I always end up wondering: who says we aren`t enjoying it just because we are going for speed?). And second, I am NOT, repeat NOT the best one to ask for advice on this, because I really haven`t been knitting for long AT ALL, and there are some true knitting Goddesses right here at this web site. However… since I seem to be the one with a bad case of what we can only call "verbal diarrhea," and probably way too many opinions about everything, I will jump right into this anyway.
O.K., Nalbinding is what predates knitting... one wide wooden needle with an eye (looks like an oversized darning needle) and your fingers. It`s way slower than knitting, if for no other reason than the fact that you are using several arm`s length of yarn at a time, then doing a felted-splice to add each new length of yarn, as opposed to knitting off an endless ball of yarn.
I take classes (they are one-time-only things that usually go anywhere from an hour to several hours) at medieval wars (sort of like Renaissance Fairs… we only go to one or two a year anymore) in every type of fiber art for which classes are offered (only twice were they yarn-related, the other was a drop-spindle class)... because I`m a fiberholic, and the teachers are people who are so deeply engrossed in their arts, that I just love being around them and hearing their stories and picking up their hints and picking their brains and watching over their shoulders and talking fiber with other fiber-lovers... it`s a very creative thing for me... sort of like this place!
On speed vs number of projects… I actually find it is faster to have lots of projects going simultaneously, because no matter what is going on, or where we suddenly have to rush off to, I can grab an appropriate project… if we are going on a drive somewhere, I grab the big knitting bag, if I am going to be standing in line somewhere, and can`t work on a sweater body or something big, then I grab something that fits in a fanny pack… I color code the fanny packs… if I am going to be waiting long enough and uninterruptedly enough to work on something a bit tricky, I grab the black fanny pack… if I am going to be constantly interrupted, or talking at the same time, or something like that, I grab the purple fanny pack with the small and mindless super-easy thing in it (lately that`s the one that has been holding a ball of Uros and a 16 inch circ for making hat liners)… you get the idea. I can always be working on something… although I have nowhere near reached the needle stash systems Theresa has accomplished, but that is a goal to shoot for! No idle hands!
Theresa can probably recommend books better than I can, too... she strikes me as pretty amazing. But for now, here`s a start. Richard Rutt`s "History of Handknitting" gives some pretty good descriptions of different ways of knitting and the "why" behind which ones are faster, and some helpful pics of the Greek and the Shetland or Fair Isle method with the knitting sheath/belt. Ann Feitelson`s "Art of Fair Isle Knitting" has some great descriptions and pictures of different ways to handle two strands for fast multi-color knitting, Elizabeth Zimmerman`s "Knitting Without Tears" discusses different ways to hold the yarn for faster knitting.
One of the books I have found the most helpful on this topic was "Step-by Step Knitting," by Mary Walker Phillips… it has the clearest drawings I`ve seen anywhere on how to do continental knitting, both the knit stitch and the purl stitch, for both right-handers and left-handers. Now I am not a left-hander, BUT I often find it is faster to go back and forth by knitting right handed, then left handed, always from the right side, never turning the work. (For example, heels on socks seem to go faster this way.) When I started mixing left and right handed, I found I was getting better speed if I crossed the stitches when purling the right-handed rows and crossed the knit stitches when doing the left-handed rows… for in depth analysis of crossed and twisted and eastern and western, I found Mary Thomas`s Knitting book had the most helpful pictures (though I still haven`t found one that addresses the issue of wrapping the yarn clockwise vs counterclockwise to any great length, and I have had some fun experiments with this).
Now my latest discovery in this department is "Knitting Around The World", by Threads magazine… this book has a final chapter with descriptions and pictures of knitting Scottish, French, Continental, Norwegian, Eastern, and Greek, plus two different chapters with good pics of Tvaandsstickning (yet another way of handling two yarns at once). I am working my way through learning them all, so as to combine techniques wherever they work best. On a circular needle, I have found continental to be the fastest. But I envy those who knit Scottish style, with one needle jammed up under their arm, for that seems faster still, and so I am working on learning that way, too… for those flat projects where two straight needles are the right tool. And Lord knows I would love to learn that Shetland style with the long long LONG dpns and the knitting sheath… I hear over and over again that it is the fastest of all, and the fact that it is knitting in the round means it is faster in terms of construction, too… bind off, and you`re done (but I`ve priced those needles and knitting sheaths, and have to say no for right now). The Eastern Method was easy to learn; it is like one of the Mary Thomas variations of Continental, and Norwegian was similar enough to be a breeze, too… and now I will always do the ribbing sections on circs this way. The Greek intrigues me to no end, and I know I will have to see for myself if it`s faster with notched ends on the needles or regular points. I`m currently working on the Tvaandsstickning.. which they warn you is slow, BUT (always a but) I have theory about using this method to carry yarns a ridiculously long ways so as to make a double thick fabric and do something the equivalent of intarsia, while working in the round (I keep reading that intarsia is the one thing you can`t really do in the round, and so I am determined to do it and find a way to do it fast, too… but, then, this kind of thinking is why it took me nine years to complete a basic four-year bachelor`s program, so odds are I will end up siding with all the professionals who say it really isn`t a practical thing to do… it`ll just take me a dozen experiments to admit it!)
I do the same as Ellen suggested: ILL… our town doesn`t have a library, and the library of the next town has (count them) only 4 (yes, four) knitting books… but oh, the treasures I`ve found through ILL!!! If your public library can`t get much on Inter Library Loan, go to the nearest college or university and see if their library can get something via ILL. If you absolutely cannot get a look at a book through a library, you can get a peek inside some parts of some books at either Amazon.com or Knitpicks.com. After I`ve verified, through a library loan, that a book is something I can`t do without (i.e.: I have renewed it more than 5 times, I panic if it`s not available when I go to sign it out again, and I reluctantly agree that it is worth however many balls of yarn I could buy with the same money), then I go buy it. Some books, like Knitting Without Tears, I specifically looked for "used," because I wanted one of the old hardcover versions… one of the book`s main attractions for me was all the knitted items on the original dustjacket. Linda Ligon`s "Homespun Handknit," on the other hand, was one where I bought a new copy, because the older versions I kept getting at the library had errata notes and corrections attached, and I wanted a copy that had the errors fixed. When I find a book I like, I ALWAYS try to find every single book listed in its bibliography. Some great resources discovered that way, let me say it`s a real gold mine! And now I`ve way exceeded even my own babble-limit, so I`ve gotta go!
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2/20/2004 1:34:31 AM
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the high price for getting Quecha
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Yeah, what she said! You know those Peruvian Collection yarns will be around forever, just go to work... we`ll tell ya how it was afterwards ;)
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2/20/2004 1:38:53 AM
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Quechua Question
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WAIT! That`s not *my* technique... I`ve been doing for a lot of years, but SkullyKnits was the first to introduce it here... long before I even started posting here!!!
But the bra idea has me laughing!!!! I`m picturing Mae West! Can we call that *your* method!!!
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2/20/2004 1:38:53 AM
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Quechua Question
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WAIT! That`s not *my* technique... I`ve been doing for a lot of years, but SkullyKnits was the first to introduce it here... long before I even started posting here!!!
But the bra idea has me laughing!!!! I`m picturing Mae West! Can we call that *your* method!!!
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2/20/2004 1:47:02 AM
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Spinning-type question for Theresa
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Thank-you... I know you wasted some of your knitting time answering this for me, but i really appreciate it... so now I am going to print it out and go through my stash to see what I`ve got... they suggest a z-ply in something close to a sport weight for best results with this technique, so I`ll see what I have and look at wool in yet another new way! And no, I`m not a spinner... the yarn I made on a drop spindle is very fine stuff for a comedy routine of some sort, but not much else. I definitely do NOT have any talent for that AT ALL!
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2/20/2004 1:15:29 PM
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Zitron Samoa and how I couldn`t wait `til March
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Oh, I`ve been drooling over that same stuff, too!!!
The last time I had my hands on mercerized AND GASSED cotton was Elba, last year at this time, and all I could get was one ball, and it was unbelievable stuff, like silk, way better than Kolibri even, and I`ve been saying for a year that I will get lots of nice cotton for a particular project I have had on hold, and the problem is always that I can`t get the same cotton in all the colors I need... and here comes this yarn with SO MANY colors... sadly, unbelievably, there was no just plain purple... I need a "crayola" purple, a light purple, and ditto for blues, and a sage green and a grass green, a bright crayola yellow, a crayola orange, and a red, as well as a pale peach or something close to that for the background neutral. And I just never find all those shades in anything but kitchen cotton, which pills so horrifyingly badly that I have sworn off any cotton that isn`t mercerized forever and ever (but I may break that for some of the denim)... and last year`s Mama Mia and Sonata were beautiful... but not quite all the colors I needed... and this Zitron looked to be even better... oh for a plain old crayola purple and a lighter purple... I love this kind of cotton soooo much! Maybe I should just find a way around the purples... no, I really need them... why is it I always end up saying, "I`ll just dye it," knowing my dye experiments are always a disastrous mess that just wastes whatever fiber i was trying to dye...
Yes, can collecting is possible whie knitting... you rig up a thing similar to a pooperscooper, but totally foot-operated, so you can just walk up to the cans and kick them into the scoop, whilst knitting along with a ball of yarn pinned to your shoulder like the great-grammas of the olden days on their way home from the pastures and watering holes...
Stop Sleeping? Of course you should!!!! Why ever are you wasting precious knitting time on sleep???!!!??? Good golly, you`ve only got but this one lifetime with this partiular stash, girlie... "So much yarn, so little time," as they say...
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2/20/2004 9:32:10 PM
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To knit or crochet..this is the question
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Hey, I`ve never heard of edwardrhamilton.com before, so I am really glad to know about it!!! I`ve also found some *tremendous* book deals at overstock.com; believe it or not, they have quite a few knitting books there!
If I am going to have to pay retail, I prefer Elann over Amazon or any of those, because you get yarn coupons! Yay!!! (But I still go to Amazon or Knitpicks to find out more about a book.)
And, of course, for all those out-of-print books, there`s no place like eBay! I love the feature where you can set up a search and just have them email you if the book ever shows up.
I also never thought of checking a publisher`s website for info about errata... great idea! And I second the Dover thing... those people are a Godsend... the out-of-print books they have resurrected ought to earn them some kind of an award!
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2/20/2004 9:38:17 PM
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Chat Gallery Archive
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WOW! That sounds like a lot of work!!! Now we all want to know... is your personal yarn stash this well organized? I`m betting it`s organized by fiber content, weight, and color sheme, isn`t it? And it`s probably like walking into a library... you can immediately find exactly what you are looking for.
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2/20/2004 9:57:01 PM
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Mae West update
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Hey, I think you should get all the aubergine you want... so you won`t be buying up the colors I want (hee hee hee)!
I nearly always find that Alpaca feels very silky to the hands, but is a little itchier than you would think to the most sensitive parts of your skin... and it still surprises me every time.
BUT as for what else to do with Quecha, can you imagine a delicate yet sturdy lightweight cardigan... one of those patterns that`s got a lot of eyelets, but not full-out "lace"... or lace, but stabilized between a larger portion of non-lace... oh, yes, I`m getting a picture now... lace PANELS in a cardifgan... OMG that would be perfect for this soft-with-sheen yarn!!!
Oh thanks you guys, like I needed another reason to buy even more yarn... you all start up the inspirations with tantalizing questions like that, and then the buying frenzy begins, and we all know what happens next... Quecha will be gone within a week or two, and we`ll all be begging Ann to restock it, while debating the philosophical implications of various additional color possibilities... Here we go again...
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