Textiles and Bicycles

It is an exciting day.  While frantically searching for the yarn I need to make an emergency bolero/shrug/whatever for a wedding I’m going to in a couple of weeks (Habu’s laceweight bamboo in wine in case anyone has some and they want to sell it to me, please please), I came across something amazing on one of my favorite sites, natursongyarn.com:  Fleece Artist Organic Wool.  Fleece Artist and Handmaiden make some of the most beautiful handpainted yarns I’ve ever seen.  The colors are rich and interesting, but until now they didn’t meet my criteria for 2008: organic, local, socially responsible, or (in a pinch) naturally dyed.  Until now.  Naturesong says this about it:

It really is creamy soft, it is not superwashed, so you can use it for felting if you feel so inspired, it comes from sheep raised organically, and was processed in a certified organic mill. Its DK weight is ideal for just about everything and, now that it is robed in Fleece Artist’s flowing colorways, well, life doesn’t get much better than this. 

Too bad the other thing (besides buying “green” materials) is buying less materials.  It looks like everyone’s coming out with their green yarn lines, which is fantastic but also tempting to the point of possibly negating all the positive effects of buying green by buying too much.  I just recently bought some unneeded Malabrigo Limited Edition Organic Cotton, which is lovely and comes in lovely colors.  My excuse is the limited edition really put that fear into me–God forbid I miss out…or have a strong will.

So one of you will have to let me know more about this stuff….at least for now. 

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’ve been doing pretty well with my shopping rules, meaning I’ve been doing pretty well sticking with organic and/or local and/or second-hand purchases. The only problem is I haven’t been doing so well on cutting back the unnecessary things I buy, which is definitely the most important of all those goals.

While I have been doing extremely well in dampening that gut reaction to buy something brand new by looking to Ebay or Craigslist for something used instead (like my new tripod or my new sewing book), I’ve recently been faced with something harder, but possibly more responsible in the long run: making used things work (thank you, Tim Gunn). In some cases I mean that literally, like this old Remington typewriter that my Tim (not Tim Gunn, because he’s clearly not mine) got from his now-deceased grandmother’s attic.

It weighs like a million pounds.

That’s obviously an exaggeration. But it weights A LOT. I think it’s cast iron. I know it’s pretty much absolutely gorgeous. Although I feel like I was raised on computers, I was actually on the generational cusp of having to use typewriters. I remember using them for college applications because just a mere 10 years ago not all schools offered PDFs of their applications that you could fill out online.

This is actually a terrible example, because the typewriter isn’t going to keep me from using a computer…it’ll just be a fun thing to test out and play with every once in a while. Could be fun to make prints and art with or something…

There are other things that are a better example of using the old to make something that will hopefully prevent me from buying something new.

Like this dress he also found in the attic:

I think it’s from the 30s (his great grandmother’s). Right now it’s a huge sack, but the rhinestones are actually quite nice–they’re set in brass in a way that, like everything else, seems to be done of a high quality you never see now. The plan is to seriously alter it into a fancy-ish dress. If I ever get my hands on that sewing machine.

So in preparation for my new life of altering old things and making them new again, I thought I would look for some tutorials on altering old clothes…and I found something even better. Did you know you can get incredibly old New York Times articles online? I found one from 1915: “Altering Frock Often More Expensive Than New Suit; Frequent Changes in Styles Likely to Make of No Avail the Hard Work of Reconstruction.”

Haven’t you seen a woman work for over a week over a frock that should have been discarded, and which never gave a moment’s satisfaction after it was finished? This condition implies lack of judgement.

Ouch! That’s totally me usually….

One of the greatest financiers, when asked to what especial quality he thought he owed his success, answered: “The elimination of the non-essential.”

I agree. But 1915 was a different time (amazingly profound, right?)…and the elimination of our non-essential would probably refer more to our purchase of new things rather than our need to more readily throw away old things…which most of us seem to have zero problem with. Remember when people used to fix things?

I guess maybe if this was what I had to make, I wouldn’t be considering rehabbing that old dress.  Luckily I can get away with a simple design and call myself deliberately minimalist.

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.

I’ve been missing New York a lot lately, perhaps because I just visited a couple of weekends ago.  Unfortunately on that visit I didn’t get to visit one of my favorite places in the city: Barcade, a bar in my old hood, Williamsburg, BK (aka land of the super hipsters).  It’s a fantastic large space (run on wind power) with a pretty decent beer selection and an even better selection of old Atari games.  My personal favorite (and tormenter): Frogger.  Damn, that game is hard.  I got pretty decent by the end of my 2 years in my soulmate of cities, but eventually those logs just go by too fast…and I lose my patience.  And perhaps I get a little drunk.  Whatever.

Speaking of frogs.

Here’s a project I started already heading to the frog pond:

Right now it’s the Puff sleeve jacket from this past winter issue of Vogue Knitting made of the Fibre Company’s Savannah Bulky, which is a nice blend of merino wool, organic cotton, linen and soya fibre.   I was already modifying the pattern for bulky yarn, but I think this may have been a bad idea.  I’m not sure what to use this yarn for, but it’s another of the relatively eco-friendly yarns I’ve now used that I would feel comfortable recommending, since half of it is either organic or alternative fibre.  It’s more of an earthy look (though very nice and soft), so I’m not sure it would work with everything.  There’s a dk weight available too, which I think may be more versatile.  At full price it’s not cheap though…and I probably wouldn’t buy it if I hadn’t gotten it half off.

A possible project for this stuff is #3 (the cropped raglan top) from VK Winter 2006/2007–an issue I just discovered so I could do the famous cabled capecho, which will be my next project once I finish the never-ending Anais dress.

I need to stop buying yarn without a specific purpose in mind.  That’s possibly the most un-eco-friendly habit ever.

Yarn!

I apologize for the obvious insult in there…but I’m a city, anti-sprawl, sustainable transportation advocate. I believe in personal responsibility and choice that should reflect more than wanting an enormous, cheap house on what could otherwise be productive agricultural land…which for non-Washingtonians, is what is largely happening in Loudoun County.

Thankfully, some of the farms of Loudoun County persist and provide local fibre, meat and produce alternatives for the DC area. I found this fantastic website for the The Loudoun Valley Sheep Producers Association, which:

exists to promote and support the Northern Virginia area’s farm flocks, providing education on all sheep issues including health, management and marketing; promoting lamb and wool; encouraging and mentoring youth and promoting fellowship and comaraderie among the members.

You can look for farms that specifically sell yarn here, which lists the farms in the Loudoun Valley and attaches nice little picture symbols for different products they offer, from fibre to meat. There aren’t many websites listed–most have email contacts, which requires a lot more effort and inquiry than most, including myself, are often willing to do. So I did find a few that provide useful websites:

Solitude (They’re having an open house on Saturday April 12th at Redgate Farm in Round Hill, VA)

Wooly Booly Cormos (More for spinners)

Willow Hawk Farm (This one may be my personal favorite. They offer handspun yarns, but also all sorts of services adhering to a love for 18th century living and techniques–like fibre arts instruction)

It seems local may be more possible for me than I thought…looks like I can’t be so lazy anymore.

I learned some new things today that I’d like to share.  Since today is a day of lists here’s another short one:

#1.  If you live in DC, you’re in luck.  I just found some seriously local yarn sold at the Proper Topper in Georgetown (but not at the Dupont Circle location).  It’s made from a sheep farm in Loudoun County, Virginia, which thanks to good ole SUBurban sprawl is now considered just over the river.  As far as farming is concerned, it’s definitely among the most local to DC you could possibly get, unless you managed to squeeze a sheep in the small backyard of your rowhouse.  In any case, I forget the name of the stuff and I didn’t get to check out all of the colors, but I’ll be trying it out at some point and will share more then.  It’s exciting to find a yarn finally that’s truly locally sourced. Yay!

#2.  My dad told me a lovely story today about cooking rice.  Apparently back in the day, while growing up in Northern India, they would make rice by boiling it in water and then draining the starch-laden water, much the same as we do with pasta.  The way I’ve seen most folks make rice these days is to use the exact amount of water necessary leaving nothing to drain.  The way my father used to do it eliminates most of the starch in white rice, making it much healthier. Now the best part is that they then used the starchy water to starch their laundry! They would rinse their clean clothes in the starchy water and then hang them out to dry…presto, starched clothes.  Spray starch is rendered useless and the earth can smile.  or at least crack one for a sec.

How’s that for some recycling?

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.

Ok folks.  Major error on my part…sometimes I skim through magazines because I’m so used to ads that I actually miss something useful.

And here I totally did–the article accompanying the “eco-friendly” designs! (not totally my fault, as it is a special advertising section)

But the article is actually pretty good.

It takes you through “a tour of natural fibers” splitting them up by animal and vegetable, which is great for veggie/vegan knitters that would prefer not to use animal products.  One issue I have with the animal section is the mention of “vegetarian silk.”  I’ve learned tons on Ravelry about Tussah silk, such as it isn’t actually the amazing humane process we would like to believe it is.  Tussah is actually the breed of moth (and not a magical process).  After taking the silk from the cocoon, the moths die of starvation.  So I hear.

The article also provides a good list of known and new alternative fibers, like Sea Cell (which I’ve sampled with Handmaiden’s Sea Silk, and is gorgeous), soysilk, and corn.  But again, there’s no discussion of the energy and resource intensive process required to make them.

The author puts in a really interesting bit about bamboo being rapidly renewable and thus helping to fight soil erosion, which I appreciate.  But I go back to playing my broken record about bamboo (and other similar fibers).

I actually think she touches on some good points, such as the effort required for cotton to “earn the organic label” and the benefits of purchasing locally sourced yarns.  It can be a good source of ideas for people to begin incorporating “green” yarns.

So onto my tip of the day.

Yarnzilla is having a sale on all Rowan yarns, one of which is their (new?) Purelife Organic Cotton.  It’s organically grown with natural dyes–”From start to finish, no chemicals are involved.”

What I really love is when you click on your color of choice, it gives you a little “about the dye” blurb.

One of the colors in my order is Logwood.  “Logwood is a chipped and fermented wood grown in tropical America used in dyeing violets, blues, greys, and blacks. It is also a mild astringent and used in treating chronic dysentery.”   I think this is just super.

I just got my new issue of Vogue Knitting and was pleasantly surprised by a special section on knitting green. Of course, I expected greenwash, which is generally the case.

Vogue does a pretty good job, although it’s anemic…I like that it couches the enviro-friendliness of the yarns in practicality by saying that they’re actually better fibers to use in the summer because they’re cool in the heat. But the section is just a few patterns using yarns of organic cotton, bamboo and soy silk. And I think most of the yarns are more of the alternative fiber/vegan variety rather than the specifically “eco-friendly” kind.  The two are often linked, but not always.

While bamboo is rapidly renewable, the processes by which it’s turned into yarn are by no means “treading lightly on the earth.” Soy silk was a bit of mystery to me until I looked it up. I wasn’t sure why soy silk would be considered environmentally friendly. I thought maybe it was because of the associations with soy from tofu and other meat substitutes being an environmental choice…but that’s obviously a whole different thing–meat is environmentally intensive to produce compared with any vegetable product. Taken alone I would guess soy is as environmentally destructive as any other crop (though I’m not sure about the fertilizer/pesticide requirements).  It’s grown all over the place and is taking over much of Asia as the crop of choice–and I’m pretty sure it’s not organic in most places. Apparently, according to Knitter’s Review, soy silk is actually made from tofu manufacturing waste. That sounds good to me–unless it’s the same kind of energy/resource intensive process like with bamboo.

So, I’m not sure about the rush to label these fibers “green”….though I think they’re great substitutes for vegan knitters. I just think this stuff has to be questioned for it to be effective (the point I was trying to make in my rant against “optimism”).

I wasn’t incredibly inspired by the magazine but there were a couple of designs I really liked and will consider knitting later:

I love the sweater dress:

And the back:

I love this, whimsical and girly: