Fiberfiend is currently blogging on her attempt to knit an almost authentic Bohus sweater.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

A Year of Lace

One of the things I love most about knitting is that, no matter how much you know, there's still so much more to learn about. I remember the year I decided to really figure out fair isle; I must have knit three or four man sized multi-colored pullovers one after the other. I love watching the patterns develop row by row by row. There's a real rhythm in two color knitting, a chant specific to each row and its colors that moves me to a Zen place (one-one-two, three-one-three, two-two-two.) It's very hypnotic, and one of the reasons I knit.

And learning to strand with a color in each hand, which makes a beautiful, fluid fabric, was a great accomplishment to me

But that was then, and this is now. This is The Year Of Lace.

I don't know why lace has taken over my knitting preferences lately, but it seems like every new project I pick up is lace based. It started at the beginning of the year with the Brenda Cardigan, and lace has followed into just about every project I've chosen since with rare exception. Some of my projects have been true lace weight lace, the yarn as thin as cobwebs. Some have been knit of quite heavy yarn, the lace weighty and substantial. And others have been a little of both.

Of the four classes I took while at Stitches South, two were about lace. And actually, since each of those two were full day classes, they are each the equivalent of two regular classes, so I guess you could say I took seven classes and four of them were about lace. But I digress.

The first of the Stitches lace classes was about freeform lace, run by Myra Wood. I've taken other classes by Myra over the years, and she's a hoot. Freeform lace and I, however, are not a good match; the concept is that you can knit lace that is not, by it's very lack of design, symmetrical. Being the daughter, sister, and wife of engineers (and a closet obsessive compulsive) I find this somewhat disturbing. A yarnover with no attached k2tog is bad enough, but freeform lace asks one to accept many many instances of unpaired holes in the fabric. I tried, really I did, to "go with the flow" but I'm just not that kind of girl. (Well, my knitting's not "that type" of knitting.) I spent hours in that class with lace weight merino on size 5 needles, making random holes in a 5" wide strip of knitting. It was frothy. It was ethereal. It was random. My brain takes delight in recognizable patterns. The minute I got that swatch home I pulled out the needle and frogged. Thanks, Myra, for the attempt to shove me out of my comfort zone. Sorry I couldn't oblige.

The second class was on Shetland Shawls. I wasn't familiar with Shetland shawls when I signed up for the class, which is why I signed up for it. The instructor, a lovely woman named Joan Shrouder, was knowledgeable and well prepared and a great knitter. She knew her shawls. What I came to understand is that Shetland shawls are based on garter stitch. Both EZ and Jared Flood have a deep love and respect for garter stitch; not so I. I just don't like the way it looks. Garter stitch always looks a little juvenile. I know it's fast. I know it's easy. I just haven't found a way to appreciate it's deep simplicity. I loved learning how Shetlands are made. I loved learning how to build a square shawl from the middle and add the borders and edgings in one piece. I just wish it hadn't all been garter stitch. So I guess Estonian lace is more my style.....

Monday, May 4, 2009

Buffalo Girls Won't You Come Home


Stitches South was everything I had hoped and then some. The classes were very good, the instructors learned and effective, and the other knitters were a marvelous resource. But the Market! Ahh, the Market. The vendors were friendly, well stocked and very helpful. The big surprise was the amount of spinning fiber I found; in booth after booth were braids or bumps or bags of fibery goodness. So many, so beautiful, that it hurt my heart to know how much of it couldn't come home with me. (After all, Stitches is supposed to be about the knitting and the yarn, right?) I did bring home a little bit of fiber in addition to the yarn stash expansion (which, vast as it was before I went to Atlanta, is significantly bigger now....)

There was fiber everywhere; Miss Babs Handyed had beautiful handdyed rovings, and there was raw pycazz to be had at another booth. Carolina Homespun had everything from merino/silk blends, rare breed rovings, quivit (which was almost as expensive as raw gold) and bison fiber. No joke, the undercoat from american buffalo, in fluffy one ounce bags, calling my name. Call it fate, call it kismit, but I had taken my Louet Victoria along just in case. As it turns out, just in case I found some buffalo fuzz. What could I do? I was helpless in the face of the inevitable. An ounce of Buffalo Girls fiber was mine! As soon as class was over that afternoon I hurried back to the hotel room and began to spin. A fine, lofty, soft laceweight thread emerged from the cloud I held in my hand and I was happy. At least, I was happy until I ran out of fuzz about two hours later. Two hundred yards of single ply lace just wouldn't do. I needed to feel that je ne c'est pas of silky softness sliding through my fingers as I spun just a little longer.

So I went back the next day and bought another ounce. And spun another two hundred yards. And then I plyed them together.

Wish I'd take a photo, because once plyed, I finished the yarn as suggested on the card that came with the fiber. What started as a decidedly lace weight two ply didn't end that way after a hot bath and a severe beating; the yarn bloomed. And bloomed. And once dried bloomed some more. My 400 yards of singles lace was mostly 200 yards of 2 ply fingering by the time all was said and done. Which really wasn't quite enough yardidge for the Buffalo Girls Shawl I had planned. But it was lovely, lovely yarn.

The Rest Of The Story: Once we arrived home after Stitches, I found the April installment of my fiber club waiting for me. It was several ounces of Shetland wool in several colors, including a medium brown that, while not the exact shade of the spun bison, was close enough to make a lovely border . Another 200 yards of 2 ply almost-fingering later, and the yarn requirements of my Buffalo Girls Shawl were met.

Production notes: The Buffalo Girl Shawl is an adaptation of the Vernal Equinox Shawl by Ryhmä Lankakomeron. Size US 9 knitting needles and portions of the first several clues from the KAL were knit until I ran out of handspun. About 29" from center back to lower edge. I think it's beautiful.