Two lessons for the price of one scarf

This week I learned two lessons in one scarf, the first is don't leave your warp under tension and then cart the loom all over tarnation and let your cat pull at it, you will kill the warp.  The other think I learned, precious yarn is best when it's been used.

The scarf and the little ball of yarn add up to two big lessons that I seem to need to learn over and over and over again.

So both of these lessons are encapsulated in a single scarf.

The first lesson, about the warp, is one that I knew but managed to be willfully ignorant of the consequences.  By the time I decided to deal with it this week, my choices were to trash it, which seemed wasteful, or to weave it and see for myself the impact. 

One end of my scarf is weft facing fabric and the other end is warp facing.  This kids is why you don't leave your warp under tension!

What happened is that despite having the exact same beat, one end of this scarf (the end that was under tension) is practically a warp-facing fabric, and the other end of the scarf (which was nicely wound around the back beam) is a weft-facing fabric.   Because of the smooth transition between the two, it almost looks like a design feature, but it will work as a great teaching tool.

Now, the second lesson is about using that special skein of yarn.  We all have them, tucked up in our stashes, that skein that captured our imagination and were a bit of a splurge.  Mine was a skein of The Sanguine Gryphon Codex in Rachel Wall, now sadly discontinued.  A worsted weight single of 52% silk and 48% BFL, the yarn had the slink and shine like nothing else.   But it was also virtually useless for my knitting, too floppy for a hat, and with only a single skein it was too little for a shawl or garment.  

I bought this skein in the spring of 2011, when I first discovered hand dyed yarns, not knowing anything about The Sanguine Gryphon (or much about yarn at that stage).  I have caked and reskeined it many, many times, because I could never find the perfect pattern for it. 

However, when I looked at the poor, abandoned, overstretched warped, I thought, I bet that skein of Codex would be a nice complement to the laceweight warp.  And really if it's awful, its not like I've lost anything because it will still be a warm scarf and I had all but given up on finding a pattern for the Codex as is.

And, then something amazing happened.  

It turned out beautifully, albeit a bit off on the beat, but I'm declaring that a feature, not a bug, to borrow a term from one of my students from last weekend who is a software designer.

So the two lessons of this scarf are, always take the tension off your loom if you getting up from it for more than a couple of minutes, and don't let those precious skeins sit on the shelf, waiting for their prince to come.  Because sometimes you just have to make them into something unexpectedly awesome.

Thursday Things: Embroidery with Rebecca Ringquist

In the summer of 2013, I had my first exposure to embroidery, through the blogs and social media of the likes of Susan B. Anderson and Jillian Moreno (of Knitty), among others.  I was intrigued so I went digging and I found the samplers of Rebecca Ringquist of Dropcloth Samplers.  And I'm so glad I did. This week, her new embroidery book has been released and what a wonderful book it is.

I find embroidery to be the perfect counterpoint, or balance, to knitting.  For me knitting is about precision and math, because as a part-time technical editor and designer I can't help but think about the structure of the knitting and pattern as the enjoyment of the knitting. By contrast, embroidery is totally freeform, yes the pre-printed samplers do give you guidelines, so much more of the design work is up to the stitcher.  I find this freedom enjoyable and totally terrifying.  While I know, intellectually, there are no wrong answers in embroidery, I can't help but think that I'm doing it wrong all the time. 

Thankfully, Rebecca Rinquist's Embroidery Workshops reminds me that there are some proper ways to make stitches, but other than that you can follow the mantra of the book "A Bend-The-Rules Primer" and just make your art.  And that the embroidery police aren't going to come and take away your work because you decided to try something strange and new. 

Also, that I need to throw caution to the wind, because some of what has been holding me back on the samplers I already have, is a bit of analysis paralysis.  I can spend a lifetime working out the right colors to use on a sampler, when really, all the samplers I've done so far are just fine, wait, no they are kind of awesome. 

But back to the book, it is broken down into 6 sections: Get Ready, Stitch, Trace, Draw, Layer and Finish.  Get Read, Stitch, Trace and Finish beautiful job showing the tools, stitches and techniques you need to get stitching and displaying your work, while Draw and Layer highlight the beautiful embroidery work of Rebecca and gives you projects and inspiration to go beyond the sampler.

So whether you are a totally new to embroidery, or have lots of experience, the book is suitable. For those of us who lack inspiration, her projects all have ideas on how to start.  

My favorite part of the book is that it is filled with Rebecca's lovely little illustrations.  

They are so adorable and approachable, and makes the book feel like it's a gift from a friend who just wants you to get out and make art. The binding, a hardcover without a slipcover, is beautiful and the endpapers are printed in electric orange.  

And, there is a stitchable sampler right there in the book!  I will be leaving my safe and sound for now, because my pile of unstitched samplers is a bit large, much to my embarrassment.  But thankfully samplers pack up a whole lot smaller than a yarns stash does.

As a subscriber to the Dropcloth Stitch of the Month and Colorburst Samplers, and someone who owns nearly all of Rebecca's samplers that have been available since I first found her shop, I have a whole bunch of stitching to do, but this book serves as both inspiration and guide to help me make my way through them.  

I think what I might do is try to commit to doing at least one sampler a month, because it helps me turn off my knitting brain and engage with a completely different skill set.  I already have a head start on April's, but mostly because I think I started it last summer. 

So keep your eyes on my instagram feed, that is where I usually post my latest projects and finished designs.

Building the resource library

I finally pulled my spring/summer shoes out of deep storage this weekend as I went out for teaching gigs.

Well, after a very long, cold, winter, it seems that spring might actually come. With highs of +16C, and clear blue skies, it was a perfect weekend.  What made it even better for me was that I got to teach new rigid heddle weavers on Saturday and Sunday!  

I teach a beginner rigid heddle weaving class every couple of months at my local yarn store in Bracebridge, Muskoka Yarn Connection.  The class is about 2hrs and we get through as much as we can, going over the parts of the loom, warping up a loom (sometimes the store loom, sometimes my loom, and sometimes a students loom) and then the very basics of weaving.  Somehow, that two hours is never enough.  There is always one more skill, one more tip, trick or technique that feels so essential in that moment I realize I don't have the time to cover it.

So in the interest of helping my students, and other new rigid heddle weavers out there, I've been trying to build a Resources section on my website with my favorite blog posts, videos and links that show valid techniques in a clear way.  

I know that some instructors are wary of suggesting students go to YouTube, and I completely agree with this.  You don't know the quality of the instruction and if the technique the person on the internet is using is valid. However, with a sense of what you are trying to learn, you can find some great videos out there that will help you along the way.  Generally if the video is by a known brand, Schacht, Ashford, WEBS, KnitPicks, Lion Brand Yarn or a great content providers like Interweave Crafts, KnittingHelp and Craftsy .  There are great independent teachers out there putting out videos, however there is a whole bunch of crap, bad quality, bad instruction and bad technique.  So if you do decide to dive into youtube, please use a critical eye and if something seems off or wrong, it very well could be so check a few other videos before you go all in on something crazy.

 Because of where I live, in Near North Ontario (my mom is from Kapuskasing, so I really can't pretend we are in Northern Ontario, even though the people in the GTA think that we live in the barren north), there aren't the density of LYSs or workshops that you find in other areas, so when I went to learn a whole bunch of things, I turned to books, videos and the internet.  I'm mostly self-taught from these resources.  Learning in person can be amazing, and I've loved all the in-person workshops I've been able to attend as part of our local spinning & weaving guilds, but those are few and far between, and I wanted to learn so much more than these groups had the ability, or budget, to provide. So it is possible to learn techniques this way, however, without feedback you might be using the wrong spinning wheel and when a real spinning instructor sees you, their first words to you are "that wheel is too small for you".  But on the balance, the internet has been very good to me.

So, go check out the Resources Page, I've started linking up my favorite resources, with Rigid Heddle Weaving 101 and Sock Knitting to start, but I will be adding to those as I remember all the videos and resources that have made my learning easier.

So, what are your favorite resources?  Let me know your fave resources in the comments so I can add them to the list.

Two skeins of yarn walk into a stash ...

This idea of learning to speak yarn has become a bit of an obsession recently.  Knowing how to confidently substitute yarns in patterns, or find the perfect pattern for a stashed you just had to have.

I'm speaking from experience here, I have a stash full of "I will totally find a use for that" and somehow ended up with enough single skeins of sock yarn to make about 50 pairs of socks.  That number used to be closer to 100, but through some aggressive destashing I managed to drive that number down to a manageable state, and to leave room for when I want to get more! I mostly destashed my Felici Fingering & Sport, which I love, but ever since I found an indie dyer Nomadic Yarns who hand dyes sport weight self striping, I've been quite happy.

However, not everyone is in a position to destash, or wants to rehome their yarn, so finding its best pattern match is key.  And the secret to good matching is knowing how the fiber content, spinning style and plying structure directly influences your yarn and what that makes it well suited for.

To that end I have been working with Carla at Georgian Bay Fibre Co. on this topic and over the next couple of months I will be doing a series on her blog about how to speak yarn. You can find the first post HERE.  There isn't a fixed schedule on when posts are going up, but I will share it on the Lone/Maple Studio Facebook Page and if you aren't already following Carla's blog I would suggest doing so.

Also, I will be taking the show on the road.  I will be teaching a FREE session called "The Right Yarn at the Right Time" at the spring Creativ Festival on this same topic. Find me at the Discovery Centre at 11:30 on Friday and Saturday.  I will confess, this will be my first time teaching to such a large crowd, so any friendly faces would be a great benefit. So if you are coming to the show, please come find me at the Georgian Bay Fibre Co. booth (#301). 

Thursday Things: The Best Knitting Needles

Tools, good ones, make such a difference when working on a project.  As a knitter, the primary tool is the knitting needle and what makes a knitting needle "good" is just so subjective.

Some of the considerations include the needle material (wood, metal, or acrylic), configuration (DPN, circular, straight), needle shape (round or square) and tip pointy-ness.  And then within each of these sections are subsections upon subsections.  And each one of these begets more decisions.  Oh and if you are a circular needle fan, do you do fixed circulars or an interchangeable set?

Fixed Circs, Interchangeables, DPNs and 9in Circs - my ChiaoGoo Collection.  Jack just can't help but get in on the action.

For me, the best knitting needle is the ChiaoGoo Red Lace needles. I have them in interchangeable, fixed, 9in circs and DPNs.  These needles work for me because they have very pointy tips, and amazing wire-y cables that are AMAZING for magic looping.  

They are steel, so they don't make my hands smell like pennies (like Addi needles used to, I know they've changed).  They have a crazy smooth join, which means when my stitches are too tight they don't snag (like the KnitPicks/Knitter's Pride needles do).  They also have their sizes (and lengths on the interchangeable cables) lasered in, and somehow they don't wear off or have any sort of impact on the smoothness of the needle. 

Two interchangeable needles, they show the size in US and Metric as well as the cable size.  In the interchangeable set, there are two cable sizes so that the joins are proportional to the different needles.

ChiaoGoo is not the most popular or flashiest brand  Signatures), they don't come in fun colors (KnitPicks/Knitter's Pride), and they aren't square or have leather cables (like Kollage).  But, they also don't cost a fortune (Signatures) or have a miles long waiting list (DyakCraft - which has cleared its backlog, but are unfortunately unable to make their DarnPretty Needles after a fire at their suppliers factories).  

The matching cases for fixed circulars (bottom), interchangeable (middle) and DPNs & 9in circs (top) just make me so happy.

Now all the things I've mentioned make them the perfect needle for me, but you may need a totally setup.  Maybe the Addi Sock Rockets are the only ones that make it possible for you to knit socks, maybe you can only get gauge with a square needle. 

This whole idea of finding your best needles was inspired because recently I stupidly left a knitting project out on the couch and Jack (the cat) managed to get his teeth into the cables.  This meant that it was time for me to order a few new ones, because the idea of not having cables for my interchangeable set, was seriously upsetting, because these needles are my most favorite of all!

I also saw that they have 37" cables, which I haven't found before.  With the 5" tips that makes a 47" circular needle.

Since getting my ChiaoGoo Red Lace needles I've tried others (including their traditional tip needle) and it just didn't work for me.  My knitting was was slow and sluggish and I kept splitting stitches.  I was not being the best knitter I could be. 

But that doesn't mean that everyone should be running out to by ChiaoGoos, although I am a big fan and suggest that you might try one if you are looking for a pretty fast, pointy needle and you plan to do magic loop (or not).  But if you find that there is something not quite right with your needles, try another kind.  

If you are in the KnitPicks/Knitter's Pride universe, they have a million different types of tips (okay maybe a dozen at this stage) and I know there are ladies in my knit night group who swear by the Carbonz because they are fast like metal but are warmer and have a bit of flex in them.  

I know of one knitter who loves the Knitter's Pride needles because she can switch between material types depending on where she is going, like out hunting with her husband.  When she uses metal needles the clicking sound drives him batty, but the wood ones don't make a peep.

So what are your favorite needles and why? Please share with me your favorite needles and why.  I would love to have a way of recommending needles to new-ish knitters based on their knitting needs, rather than thinking that all needles are the same.  Maybe your hint will make knitting easier for another knitter out there.

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Oh I found buttons for the little red sweater.  Now I just have to convince my mom to sew them on for me, because she is the official button sewist of the family.  Maybe another pair of knitted socks will be a fair trade to her.