Flagel Knitting Files

What is a meme, you may first ask? Well Dr. Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist, came up with the idea in the late 1970's and stated something like: a meme is to a society what a gene is to a human. Both are an element or unit that can be replicated or passed from one individual to another. During the Internet age memes can be easily shared, replicated or otherwise passed on to another. Recent examples can be found on Gawker . Memes can include piano playing cats, a honey badger, the Call Me Maybe phenomenon and so on. The political campaign in the U.S. helped fuel memes using some of the most unusual statements like, "binders of women" and "you didn't build that." A few memes have staying power but most have a relatively short life span. Gosling's meme related to knitting has been around for some time; so when I again saw another post about him recently, it was time to figure out the origin. Ryan Gosling is a Canadian actor born in Onta

I have been travelling recently and as you know when I travel I must, must, must have some kind of project with me to fill the hours alone.  Since I was out of the house for nearly two weeks I needed to fill my suitcase with as many pieces of clothing as possible and minimize space required to transport  crafting.  So, I took one project only, the crocheted  Wavelength Scarf.   Click on the link to get to Ravelry for the free pattern.   Debra Ellerd designed this pattern in 2008 at a time when she was an experienced crocheter who had just learned to knit.  She was inspired by a knitting pattern created by Lucy Neatby  for a Fishtail Scarf.  At that time Ellerd didn't yet have the skill to follow the knitting pattern so she figured out how to crochet it. Done properly the pattern should yield a six-foot long scarf that looks like the one of these photos.  Lovely isn't it. The design uses Noro Kureryon Sock yarn and is perfect for this scarf.  As you can see the finishe

One of my WIPs is a beautiful scarf from Churchmouse and Teas called the  Koigu Linen Stitch Scarf .    Koigu refers to the brand of yarn used to knit this scarf.  I didn't use this brand and needed help in making the selection. But let's start by talking about the stitch first. Someone else's version of the Koigu Linen Stitch Scarf The linen stitch is a simple stitch to knit that offers dramatic impact.  Click this video to get a close look at how easy it is to do. It includes knitting, purling, slipping stitches and bringing yarn to the front or back of the work.  Moving the yarn forward and backward adds the tiny horizontal bars you can see above.  The video shows the woven look the linen stitch creates even more clearly.  And the look is impressive in a single colour. My combination of colours However, if you change colours every few rows, the look is even more dramatic.   See above in my sample.  The slip stitch will place one colour into the next row

It is hard for anyone who considers themselves more than a beginning knitter and with a modicum of  Internet search skills not to know about the online yarn, needle and fabric shop call Jimmy Beans Wool .  Lots of people on  knit chat rooms and on Ravelry talk about them.  And even though I have known about Jimmy Beans I haven't really ordered from them nor was I particularly familiar with them, until now.  I would have never guessed they have been around for just over 10 years. Lee was kind enough to recently send me the link to a New York Times article about Jimmy Beans Wool. (Lucky for me I have readers and then people who share their reading in my family.) Click here to read all the details in that article. Should you not wish to read the entire article let me summarize.  In 2000 the couple Laura and Doug Zander, a husband and wife dot.com team, left San Francisco after they decided it was time to get out of software engineering.  They moved to Reno, Nevada and decided to

Yes, I do realize it is February 19 and I'm still talking about Xmas.  But the syndrome I am about to talk about does last for sometime so talking about it mid-February is still appropriate, at least from my POV. It seems to happen every year to many knitters, myself included.  We have deadlines to meet with gifts that must be completed by a specific time so we are so motivated before the holidays.  We will sit for hours on end getting projects done knowing precisely what the next thing that needs to be done.  No time for browsing online for new yarns, new patterns or new techniques; the focus has to remain on the projects that are intended to be gifts and must be done by Xmas. Then the holidays come and the gifts are shared and we knitters collectively all sigh in relief.  We rest for a bit, releasing the tension between our shoulders and then sink into some form of unfocused knitting withdrawal.  We know we should be knitting, but we have trouble figuring out the right next t

The Before and After scarf was dry by this morning and ready to go.  And because the colours were so appropriately picked for me I own plenty of options to wear with it. This morning I selected my purple shirt and wrapped the scarf around my neck.  Needing to take some quick photos before heading to work I compromised and took a photo of myself in the mirror, and as you can see the match was about perfect. What you see if you look closely on the right side of the scarf is it having a very hard time staying straight.  And this is only minutes since I took it off the yoga mat.  Fighting the nature of the stockinette stitch is a tough thing to do.  The stockinette stitch is made by knitting on the right side of the item and purling on the wrong side.  The curl is natural because the knit stitch is slightly shorter and narrower than the purl stitch so when all the knit stitches line up on the right side and purl on the wrong, the knit side or right side tends to curl.  Want to know

It's Super Bowl Sunday and Mike, the cat, is avoiding me and for good reason (at least in his mind). Mike avoiding me and my camera  But let's start this story at the beginning rather than the end.  I am of a certain age and race that means even in a self-humidified climate like Vancouver's I need to slather on body butter to avoid looking like a prune.  Lotion is no longer heavy duty enough, I have to have the butter.  And body butter comes in these rather cute little covered tubs.  The empty tubs have been used around our house to round up all kinds of small things.  See how cute they are. A sample of my tub collection Perhaps you remember I used one as a platform last summer to help hold up HM the Queen .  (You have to scroll all the way down that post to see the platform.)  It seems I decided they would become more useful somewhere in the future so I started a small collection and as they accumulated I realized different brands come in slightly different s

As you may remember I received a special yarn for Xmas from Yarnia and decided to make myself a scarf.   Click here for more detail about the type of yarn and the pattern, if you like.  (You have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to get to this gift.) This scarf is knit using a stockinette stitch which means it will not hold its shape without some severe blocking.  The pattern explains one should use blocking wires and a blocking mat in order to accomplish this successfully.  Problem is I don't own either, and the scarf is really impossible to wear until it is properly blocked. My blocking solution If the truth be told, the scarf has been finished for a few weeks as I have contemplated whether to spend the type of money necessary to buy wires and a mat.  I even purchased some coated fine grade electrical wire from the local hardware store thinking it might work.  But I didn't make an effort to come up with a solution to the blocking mat.  After much stew