Flagel Knitting Files

Althea Crome from Bloomington, Indiana categorizes her knitting as extreme.  No, she doesn't knit while spinning 360 degrees on a snowboard or jumping a bicycle.  She knits using Size 0 needles, which are slightly smaller than a toothpick using "yarn" about the size of thread.  If that weren't enough, she places intricate designs on her work as well.  I would be challenged adding this type of detail to a normal sized project, she does it on sweaters that are 1:12 in scale! Here's a sample of her work from her website Back of Althea Crome's Crane Sweater Back of Crome's Picasso Sweater This woman is indeed doing extreme knitting.  How about the details of the three cranes on the back of the photo to the left.  Unbelievable. Look at the Picasso sweater; there must be at least 8 different colours used to create the torso with a nod to Guernica at the hem and it fits on your thumb.  I am in awe, I don't see well enough to do cross-stitch beca

Once I found Fiona Goble's pattern for Queen Elizabeth, I knew I had to make at least one for someone I know would enjoy it.  So I began following the pattern and much to my surprise Her Majesty has been coming together rather rapidly. The pattern starts by making a doll underneath the dress.  The arms and hands are  knit as one unit; so are the feet and legs.  There are two pieces for the body and head.  Her eye pupils are small buttons and then a cream coloured chain is slipped around it.  I used the blush from my makeup kit to colour her cheeks.  Once all the pieces are sewn together and stuffed she looks like this: Her Majesty without adornment (Paul says this photo is disrespectful, so I only took one.  Your Majesty, I did not intend to show you this way to be irreverent, it's just the way you came together.) The hair was fun to knit and was done in one piece.  The stockinette stitch (K 1 row, P 1 row) naturally curls and the pattern takes full advantage of this

Perhaps this story wasn't a part of your news this week, but I can tell you every knitting-related blog, website and social media group was talking about it.  So let me give you a quick overview. Ravelry, an online yarn crafting community that I have referred to with some regularity,  has been around for 5 years.  During that time they have 3 times challenged members to push themselves beyond their normal yarn skills set and try something new or difficult or both in support of Olympians.  However on Wednesday, June 20, the group was asked to cease and desist by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC).  The USOC said that by using the name  "Ravelympics" for a competition that involves an afghan marathon, scarf hockey and sweater triathlon, among others, tends to denigrate the true nature of the Olympic Games. In a sense, it is disrespectful to our country's finest athletes and fails to recognize or appreciate their hard work."    Ravelympic-gate  Yarn ve

When I buy hanks of yarn I have to convert them from a measured amount of yarn wrapped together, bound with string and twisted into a small rectangular shape into a ball from which to knit.     A typical hank of yarn you purchase at the LYS A hank of unwrapped and unwound yarn As you can see from the photo just above, I would not be able to knit with this yarn because it will get incredibly tangled.  So this hank needs to be converted into a ball.  This can be done by simply slipping the unwrapped hank over your knees or the back of a chair and winding the yarn into a spherical shape  rocking back and forth so the yarn doesn't twirl around and tangle itself .  There are two problems with this technique.  First, if you are doing a large project you can spend a good deal of time winding the yarn before you start knitting.  (Delayed gratification is generally not a strong suit for most knitters)   Second in winding yarn this way it comes from the outside of the

I'm back again with the topic of knitting and therapy, or knitting as therapy, or knitting/therapy, take your pick.  I seem to be on to something because, not one but two of the many sites I generally follow mentioned the therapeutic impacts of knitting.  (I'm such a trendsetter, everyone important in knitting is following this groundbreaking blog, don't you think?  Yah, you're right, not so much!)  Is it synchronicity that I posted something recently and two other unrelated sites addressed the same topic the same day? Or is this just what happens when one really well read site (not mine) starts something and another picks it up.  I just want the record to show I was first this time, that's all. Me doing research, no more like this My nonacademic search mode The Mayo Clinic recently did a study with 200 seniors aged 70-89 who were beginning to show signs of mild memory loss.  Researchers interviewed them asking what types of activities they were invol

Sitka via a tender from the mother ship On the cruise we docked at Sitka, Alaska, a city of approximately 9,000 people located on the south side of  Baranof Island . That population makes it the 4th largest city in Alaska.  There were three cruise ships at the docks the day we arrived adding another 9,000 tourists to the population.  The city was a busy place. First a very, very brief  history, Sitka was the Russian capital of Alaska until 1867 when the entire state was sold to the U.S.  It still has Saint Michael's Russian Orthodox Cathedral with its characteristic onion dome. Paul pondering in front of Saint Michael's As you can see by the way Paul is dressed, it was cool, in the 40F, 8C degree range cool, with an on again off again drizzle.  But we weren't deterred by the weather, hey we live in Vancouver where on again off again drizzle is the norm.  After exploring the cathedral we move on to Castle Hill a short climb to a very important overlook.  

I've been away for a week.  At the last minute (5 days before departure) Paul and I decided to take a cruise to Alaska including Glacier Bay.  This is quite a departure from our normal approach to travel.  Generally we plan weeks or months in advance.  Dack even pondered if perhaps the Earth had been thrown off its axis since this was so very uncharacteristic of us.  No the Earth is fine, we like to be a bit unpredictable and apparently this decision rates in that realm. At any rate, I had to make several decisions about what to take for knitting.  The flower picture had to stay home because of all the balls of yarn.  I had started the variegated sweater and wanted to work on it so I packed several hanks of that yarn for splicing (see my previous post).  I also brought the Ugg-bootie yarn and a new project I'll talk about later. Just to prove I was there; my photo of Margerie Glacier in Glacier Bay There were two full days at sea.  One on Sunday to get to Juneau and one

Good Colour Pooling  The photo above shows what one gets when variegated yarn is used to knit.  This particular sample is one where the colour pooling or the way the different colours come together is satisfying to the eye.  However depending on the length of the row being knit and/or the length of the colour blocks in the yarn, things can go wrong. Colour pooling that is not so satisfying If you look closely at this sweater front you can see that the striping above the armpits are relatively horizontal until increases are made for the bust.  At that point and below you see the horizontal lines begin to slant downward and by the time the front is completed, the blue is completely pooling in the lower right-hand corner and there are almost vertical striping on the left.  This is the type of pooling knitters generally don't like.   In fact because of pooling many knitter avoid using variegated yarn altogether.  Just to put a really fine point on pooling, take a look a

So all the festivities are now fully complete regarding the Queen's Diamond Jubilee festivities.  Like William and Kate's wedding, I do believe we get much more news about the happenings here in Canada than south of the border.  Since I am most interested in the knitting part of any celebration, I conducted a quick search to see what I could find and, of course, I was not disappointed Speaking of William and Kate, you may remember the entire wedding party was knit last year (click here  to see that project).  Fiona Goble, the designer of the wedding ensemble, also designed this knitted replica of the Queen.  I particularly like how well the Queen's hair is done in this version plus the sequins as shoe buckles, purse latch and dress button are very nice.  Perhaps a blue matching hat would be better than the crown, but then Fiona, a real Brit, might know more about this type of thing than me. The Queen in her Diamond Jubilee dress Should you be moved to make your own

Knitting has been on the upswing during the last decade or so after quite a lull in the last couple of decades of the 20th century.  The revival started when yarn makers brought out the fancy and fun fur yarns. They continue to produce new yarns that keep  knitters intrigued. Lion Brand Yarn There are, however, other reasons people of all ages knit: handmade can be a quiet rebellion against mass produced, knitting can be a creative outlet or means of self-expression and knitting can be a retreat from an otherwise very busy society. Some of the seasoned knitters I know knit to relax.  Not that I'm all that seasoned, but I do knit for relaxation as well as an outlet to create.  There is something about the rhythmic clicking of the metal needles or the repetitive movements of your hands (if you are using non-metal needles) I find soothing. So, I thought I'd do some checking to see, what if any, real research has been done about this.   Betsan Corkhil l writes about the t