Textiles and Bicycles

It got done — in time even.

Last weekend I went to what I knew would be a stylish and lovely wedding in Tribeca, at the Tribeca Rooftop. I bought an interesting dress that I was relatively excited to wear given the fact that I had literally not bought a formal-ish dress since 1999 and had not worn one since 2004. In between then and now there have been a few saris and one bridesmaid dress. This was an occasion.

After I bought the dress I immediately realized I would need some sort of a cover-up since it was at night and was supposed to be outside (though it rained and it was moved inside). Given the color of the dress and some lovely silver shoes, I wanted something armor-like, quick to make since I only had about 10 days, and very lightweight since it is July afterall.

I found the Shetland Shorty from this summer’s new Knitty. With some modifications, I think it all turned out pretty top-notch.

I used Habu Textiles bamboo XS-45 in charcoal and silk stainless steel in gray for the body and the bamboo and wool stainless steel in wine for the neckline and part of the right front..
I ran out of the silk stainless with about 10 rows to go, so there’s an awkward/artistic stripe at the right shoulder…but I think it was fine. I actually wish I had had the foresight to know that would look nice so I could’ve done it on the other side for some symmetry.

Given the threadlike weight of the yarn I used, the net-like shetland lace pattern wasn’t really going to work, so I went with classic stockinette, which produced the chainmaille effect I was going for (especially with the incorporation of the stainless steel).

The fabric the yarn produced was absolutely perfect for what I wanted and was really just beautiful. The bamboo was shiny and the silvery steel gave it more dimension and an airiness. The garter stitch border using the steel was also three-dimensional in a way that “came alive” when the whole piece was done. I say that because it kind of looked ugly when I first started.

My only complaint with the whole project was picking up stitches with this yarn, weight and needle size used. It was messy. I will definitely be making other things with this yarn combination again — but I will be knitting neckbands separately and sewing them on. Thank you Phildar for letting me know that’s perfectly acceptable.

For the record, I decided as alternative fibers (steel and bamboo) they still met my “green” criteria for the year — (the wool was used sparingly and I don’t have much of an issue with silk at this point). This is despite my issues with the production of alternative fibers. I think there are better green choices, but the Habu yarns are not a bad once-in-a-while choice. Habu also has quite a few choices using vegetable and other natural dyes. Though I have not seen anything organic from them, which is more important to me.

Thanks to a lot of time at the hospital while my man was recovering from possibly the weirdest (and scariest) case of appendicitis ever (his appendix burst a couple of days before he even felt enough pain to go to the hospital, which then resulted in a 3+ hour surgery, some removal, cleaning and replacement of vital organs, and a week of recovery in the hospital) and hours in airports and airplanes to Los Angeles and back for memorial day weekend, I finished my new favorite Cabled Capecho.

As a result of the well-documented, long-standing capecho-fit saga with knitters all over the world, I was able to make mine with the advantage of some pretty effective mods. For those unfamiliar, the capecho is shown on the cover of Vogue Knitting Winter 2007 to fit pretty closely and tightly on the model. But when knitters actually took to the pattern it would turn out quite large and bunchy.

To remedy this and achieve the close-fitting look of the cover, I copied most of this blogger’s mods, which mainly consisted of using DK weight yarn and 6s (instead of 8s), and changing the 8 stitch cables into 6 stitch cables, thus reducing the perimeter of each pentagon by 10 stitches. I didn’t follow the sleeve mods though (which theoretically are important since the pentagon pattern is modified) and just went with the pattern, which seemed to have no effect. The benefit of doing this is you get a smoother transition from the cable pattern to 2×2 rib (this means not doing the final decrease in the pattern). Using these mods, the fit is pretty damn good I think. I was worried before I blocked it because it seemed a little small actually, but it now looks the way I had wanted.

I used 4.5 skeins of Lorna’s Laces Green Line DK in Hope, which is 100% organic merino wool. It’s beautiful and soft, with a lovely slight sheen. I highly recommend it and it’s a pretty decent price for the yardage.

This pattern was actually insanely fun for me. I never got bored with it and was actually kind of sad when it was over. I realized that as long as cables are involved I’m happy. One could say I am in fact *obsessed* with cables.

And so I was a little excited when I happened upon these in a little shop in Silverlake:

I’m getting into the idea of using cable patterns in non-traditional ways, like these ceramics with knit patterns. I’m curious as to how they were done — knit fabrics pressed onto wet ceramics? Wouldn’t that ruin the fabric? How sad! I guess I like fabric more than ceramics…but I did appreciate the incorporation of one medium into another in such an interesting way. It really draws attention to the textural patterns in textiles, which I think often lose out to visual patterns.

Speaking of visual patterns, Norah Gaughan has been putting up speak previews on Ravelry of her new Volume 3, in which she has some interesting interpretations of the cable, where she’s kind of doing the opposite: taking a textural pattern and turning it into a strictly visual one. I’m speaking mostly of the pattern I found the most interesting, which is her Portrait of a Cable, a fairisle pattern of a cable. I love that she does things like this and it got me thinking about my own interpretations of cables–some of which will hopefully be forthcoming. In the meantime I’ll just dream of knitting more cables.

I’m relieved that I finished it in time.

This is the Medallion Shawl by Norah Gaughan from this past winter’s Vogue Knitting. It’s made on 9s with the now discontinued Rowan Linen Drape, acquired through Ebay and my first Ravelry trade, which is my new favorite thing. It’s a fantastic way to keep the possessions from piling up while still getting new things to keep me excited. The pattern calls for alpaca (I think) and smaller needles (6s I think), but I went with what I had and I wanted bigger, lacier, more summery hexagons. I’m actually really happy with it and am happy to give it to my stepmom for Mother’s Day. I did make a couple of modifications/short-cuts in that I left out the last 2 hexagons because I thought they would be too droopy tacked onto the ends and I didn’t do the crocheted edging. I thought it would actually look kind of messy since the hexagons are so loosely knitted in my version.

So, this will now be my offering to my great stepmom.

I consider myself to be pretty selfish and so I have endless admiration and wonder for those women that have assumed the most selfless position in life.

This day always makes me think back to my mother who died when I was young. Mothers are the ultimate role models and mine was and always will be a real life goddess to me: incredibly smart, skilled, talented and just lovely. She had a fabulously effective strictness and thoughtfulness in raising me and hopefully some of her strength and integrity has trickled down to me. One of my most distinct memories as a child was spending afternoons at the library with my mom cobbling together a huge pile of books to bring home. I consider myself to be endlessly blessed for that.

Happy Mother’s Day!

I bought more yarn.  Can’t even take my own stupid advice.

This is for the Cabled Capecho I mentioned last week. It’s Lorna’s Laces Green Line DK in Hope (or off-white).  I ordered it from Jimmy Beans Wool.  I wouldn’t normally plug an online retailer, but I’m pretty pleased with them.  I got the yarn yesterday…and the package was soaking wet.  The yarn was soaked and stained in some places, as was the pattern I had ordered too–ripped and soaked through.  So I called them today, told them that I got the package damaged, and they were kind of amazing.  I’m getting a new package in the mail with my order again and I don’t have to send the old stuff back.  I can try and use it or donate it or something, she said.  Amazing.  So I washed it and am hoping the stains come out…if not I think I could have some fabulous Etsy dyer dye it for me.  It’s kind of a sweet deal actually.  The most educational part is that in order to prevent the problem in the future I can ask them to wrap my orders in plastic in the special instructions.  I’m not so excited about asking for more plastic…but I couldn’t find the yarn anywhere else.

So the yarn.  It’s 100% organic merino and comes in DK and worsted weights.  It’s beautiful and so so soft. We’ll see how the capecho turns out but I foresee a lot of future projects using this lovely lovely yarn.  I high recommend it just by the feel and look.  And it’s 100% organic!

I also did recently frog the puff sleeve jacket I was sort of working on and made Teva Durham’s Steek Vest from Loop-d-Loop:

I knit this up in a few hours on Saturday morning with some of my Savannah Bulky on 15s.  It came out a little shorter than I wanted…but I was (and am) too lazy to do anything about that.  I love the design, but it’s not quite what I thought it would be.  The yarn is a little too “earthy” for me…no sheen to it, which I don’t like so much.  It’s super soft though so I think others would love it.

These days I’m working on another Norah project (slightly obsessed), the Medallion Shawl from this past winter’s Vogue Knitting.  It’ll be a Mother’s Day gift for my stepmom, so I’m currently on a 1 hexagon per day minimum rule.  I currently have 4 done.  11 more to go.  I’ll just make it just in time at this rate.

This was a serious test of my patience, but now that it’s FINALLY finished, I’m so happy with it. This took me about two months, which in the scheme of things isn’t so long, but I got pretty bored with it after a while. After I finished the back and realized I had a whole other side to do I knew knitting dresses probably wasn’t for me…unless they’re the Twinkle, done-in-four-days kind (though to be honest the chunky trend may be losing the chic appeal that it first had with me).

This dress was knit with the Venetian yarn I bought while on vacation: Madil Zaffiro in color 210. It’s a lovely blend of cotton, viscose and silk. The pattern was also a blend — of made-up shaping, the Vogue minidress as deduced from Another Shopgirl’s lovely interpretation of the pattern (since I didn’t have the magazine), and Norah Gaughan’s Anais.

I think of it as the Norah/Vogue love child.

This was definitely an experiment and it was definitely a test to see if I had learned enough skills to be able to just wing something. I’m pretty excited (and relieved) that the thing fits and that the different elements of these designs seem to work well in the romantic way I had envisioned.

(What you see here is relief. I am not stoned. I swear.)

The Anais pattern is so beautiful I think, as are just about all of Norah Gaughan’s designs. She introduces me to techniques that are so interesting and really makes these projects learning experiences, which is something I’m starting to find necessary in any new project. Her cabled capecho will be next on my list for this reason.

I can’t express how happy I am to be done with this dress and to know I can actually wear this happily!

So happy I thought I’d slide down a railing at the school across the street in celebration…

…and snag my new dress. Don’t worry, I stopped before it was a full-blown crisis.

I leave you with some more excitement:

It’s spring! The curse of winter has been lifted and my previously happy life can now resume.

My attention has not been undivided lately…it’s had been tossed all over the place and easily drawn into instant gratification endeavors, such as quick knitting projects.  I’ve been wanting to do some side planning-related projects, one of which will be forthcoming, get to know my not-new-anymore Crown Graphic large format camera, and also to finish some craft projects that have been going on for a while now.  But I keep getting sucked into the allure of new yarn and quick new patterns. 

Actually, I think I just had my very own I-have-ADD epiphany.  Seriously…a light or bell or some other sort of alarming signal just went off in my head. 

Right so, back to the diversions…here they are in finished form:

Diversion #1:  Finished Twinkle Cropped Top:

Excuse the apparent confusion on my face…I had sort of just woken up, which is always a traumatic event for me.  I hear it’s like watching a baby deer learn how to walk every morning. 

So, this is the Cropped Top from Twinkle’s Weekend Knits and was knit on size 11 needles with 2 strands of Rowan Purelife Cotton held together.  It should have come out insanely small given the directions to use size 15 needles and 4 strands of the Twinkle Cruise, but alas, it’s not and it still stretches.  I did add 2 more rows of ribbing to all of the borders except the bottom to make up for the expected smallness, which was the only modification I had. 

So the yarn.  The yarn I have talked about before and this was my first test run.  It’s apparently the only commercial yarn to be organically grown AND dyed.  And I love it.  It’s definitely my new favorite and I will be using it as often as is economically possible-however my yarn diet does begin now.  Purelife is very light, extremely soft and has a beautiful sheen that actually makes it a perfect substitute for the Twinkle Cruise, despite being 100% cotton.  It’s really quite beautiful and I highly recommend it.  Just in case this information affects your decision, the cotton is grown in India (the label indicates some sort of fair trade deal, but I’ll double check on that and report back) and the yarn is made in Italy.  Combining those two destinations is apparently a popular trip, given the fact that I just did it a few weeks ago…    

Diversion #2: Purl Bee’s Rochefort Chapeau

This was done using leftover Jo Sharp Alpaca Kid Lustre…which is sourced all the way from New Zealand.  I’ve been reading about how buying far far away may not always be an environmental evil if the production of that good can be done more energy- and resource efficiently.  The example I read about was apples, where if you live in the UK for example and buy apples locally they would actually have a higher fossil fuel input during production than those produced in New Zealand.  I’m not convinced yet, but it’s an interesting concept.  I’m also not sure how this would play out with fibre production.

Whether I made the earth cry or not by using this yarn, this is my new favorite hat.  It really isn’t easy being green.  Actually I used stash yarn, so yes it is.  Always on top, Mona.

I made this last night after acquiring all my necessary supplies at a bead store in Dupont Circle and after spotting this necklace in a catalogue of a major chain store that shall remain nameless because I’m kind of embarrassed for shopping somewhere so…generic. I blame having to go to an office in DC. People dress pretty conservatively here and it seems to grab people’s attention when anyone even kind of steps outside the suity box, which isn’t really a good thing when you’re at work.

So here it is. The color is a little off, it’s more of a lapis blue than the turquoise it looks like in the picture. I haven’t strung beads and made a necklace since I was 12. And I didn’t completely know what I was doing. So the clasps are kind of screwy and required an emergency Etsy buy of brass bead tips (which are these fantastic devices that hide your knots, keep them more secure, and generally make the process much easier). So it’s not actually completely finished and will have to be restrung when I get the bead tips, but it’s functional right now.

I like the idea of seeing something in a catalogue and figuring out how to make it instead of buying the thing, which in this case is almost definitely made in China. The China thing is even more important to me these days as the Chinese government trashes the Dalai Lama. It seems shocking that this would be an advisable political move for them considering the worldwide, deserved adoration for him, but apparently invoking the strong nationalist identity of the Chinese is working among the domestic populace and they do in fact seem to agree with the government. That a group of people can be condemned for peaceful protest in the face of persistent human rights abuses against them is something I simply cannot understand.

Unfortunately as a normal American without much political power my identity is little more than consumer, so the power of the purse will be my vehicle for expressing myself.

I have never really made a “nice” necklace so this kind of proves it’s more possible for most (if not all) of us to substitute our ready-made purchases with home- and handmade stuff (not to mention I saved more than $50). And I learned from a coworker the other day that fabrics sold in the US are almost always made in the US because of tariff laws, which do not apply to ready-made clothing. I haven’t checked this statement out, but it sounds like I’ll be sewing a lot more than I have been.

Details:
Pattern: Meridian Tunic Dress from Twinkle’s Weekend Knits
Yarn: Louet Euroflax Sportweight in black, pure white and shamrock
Completed: March 2008
Modifications: None

I’m not sure in what skanky world this would be considered a dress, it covers not even half my ass…I even had the right gauge.  I swatched and everything.

But I like it as a shirt.   And I had been wanting to do the Twinkle stripes since I hadn’t with the shopping tunic.  I think doing the stripes with the chunky wool would be horrible on most people that aren’t unhealthily skinny, so this was a good opportunity since I used the very un-bulky linen.  The linen was actually nice to work with–not so soft but I think the stitch definition and the vibrancy of the colors are beautiful.  And it does feel quite nice and cool on.  A little like chainmaille but I like it.  And I’ll be washing it soon to soften it up.

One issue I had with this yarn was weaving in the ends later.  Having four strands of it made it especially difficult, but linen itself is so smooth and hard that the weaved in ends tend not to stay in place.  So the inside looks horrendous with all sorts of long ends poking out.  I suppose that’s not so much of an issue, but I have to make sure when I put on the thing the ends aren’t poking through on the wrong end (you can see a stray end in the first picture).  Any way to fix this problem?

I only noticed one issue with the pattern: it lists two needles, a size 15 and a size 11, but it doesn’t tell you when to use one or the other.  A few months ago in my inexperience it wouldn’t have been obvious to use the 11s for the ribbing and the 15s for the body.  And anyway, I used 11s for the whole thing to get gauge and it was already holier than I wanted it to be (looser knit, not blessed…).  Four strands were annoying enough, I wasn’t going to go up to 5.

I like this one.

Well, here it is. Seemed like it took forever after being spoiled with the instant gratification of the Twinkle knits. But this may be the nicest thing I’ve made–the kind of thing where I wore it to work and people who know I’m knitter didn’t assume I made it. I’m really happy with it and pretty proud of it. This was my first Phildar knit and I love the simplicity (and thus wearability) of their designs. The patterns are also extremely easy to follow. The mistakes I made were when I was rushing through something and weren’t a reflection of pattern vagueness or typos. The only thing about Phildar is actually getting your hands on the magazines, which for me ended up costing a small fortune–I ordered through Knit n’ Tyme in the fair land of Canadia and for 2 magazines I paid something like $50!! I’ve learned through the Ravelry forums that it would’ve been better to have ordered directly from Phildar.

I used Jo Sharp Alpaca Kid Lustre, which I have to say is gorgeous yarn. It has the right amount of sheen to make the piece look so nice in the end. And the alpaca makes it so warm and soft. The yarn gave me a slightly smaller gauge than the pattern called for, but since I wanted it to fit a little tighter than on the model I didn’t do any mods. The fit came out generally the way I wanted.

The buttons are ginormous vintage glass faceted buttons I got on Etsy. I had something else in mind but I couldn’t find what I wanted anywhere. My next endeavor may be button-making.

The skirt actually is another FO, of the sewing variety from a year or so ago. I love the buttons on it, which I got at Mood in NYC while I was living there. I only wish I had that place at my disposal still. It’s a very simple skirt, but finally something wearable. I went through a silk phase where I made all these silk pants and shorts and fluffy shirts that are cool…but in a costumy sort of way. Actually the shorts are cool. Maybe I’ll share those at some point.