Flagel Knitting Files

Several years ago I purchased some pencil roving with which to knit.  Pencil roving has been drafted  until it is the size of a fat pencil (ingenious the way they named it, right?).   It can be used by spinners with minimal drafting (something at the moment I seem to need). Generally speaking anything that has not been spun will also not hold up very well under pressure, aka anything that will be worn or used.   At the time I was knitting a wine bottle cozy that was to be felted.  Felting or fulling refers to putting innocent wool in water (generally hot water) and working it around enough to make it shrink.  Yes, this is a real technique that often yields very beautiful end products.  So as the roving is felted the strands or staples of wool bond together and the final product can hold up to pressure. (BTW it worked out great in the wine bottle cozy.)  At any rate, there was quite a bit of the pencil roving left waiting for just the right thing...

There will be no knitting, no yarn, no needles or hooks, nothing that has anything to do with knitting involved in this post.  But having said that, the post will make up for this flaw in outright creativity, quirkiness and fun. Legos are those colourful interlocking plastic bricks many of us used to build simple stuff as kids. The newer versions of Legos sets include gears, minifigures and various other parts so that vehicles, buildings and even working robots can be built.  They seem to have become an obsession for some adults as well.  You may have already seen some in people's homes or during competitions, but just in case you missed the work created by grownups,  check this out . To bring this closer to home at the start of last year we decided to use over 400 pieces of Legos to help in developing camaraderie, team building and problem solving.  And to tie the year together, at the end of the year, we used those Legos pieces as center pieces, name t...

As the bells were chiming for the new Royal Baby, Prince George, Fiona Goble was up to her usual tricks.  You may remember my referring to her work regarding the  Royal Wedding and Queen Elizabeth for the Jubilee (or if you don't click on the links).  Of course since we're on my blog they are all done up in yarn. So it should come as no surprise that she's made up the young Royal Couple with their new Royal Baby.  Fiona is again offering the pattern for free .  But hurry, this is a limited time offer. These dolls are so lacking in embellishment they were hard to recognize as Ms. Goble's.  The only outstanding jewelry is Kate/Diana's diamond and sapphire engagement ring showing here as a splash of blue .   Otherwise the family appears to be quite casual for this portrait. William, Kate and George, of course! Yes, this birth was a thing here in Canada, not as big a deal as in the UK, but it certainly had its share of coverage.  As for k...

Jimmy Beans Wool listed the winners of the scholarship called Beans for Brains in their newsletter this week.  This is the fourth year of the program which has to date given away over $30,000 to deserving students. There were five winners this year from across the U.S each earning $3,200.  Applications were due in March for distribution in August.  If you'd like to see this year's application, just click here . Should you wish to read more about the knitters, crocheters, seamstresses and quilters who won, be sure to go to this blog post .  If you take time to read the first few paragraphs you'll also learn how much one financial aid professional appreciates the ability for those who might not be academically or athletically gifted to have a chance for a scholarship.  Jimmy Beans' $3,200 will go a long way in helping to pay for tuition at many public institutions of higher education in the U.S. and Canada. Way to go Jimmy Beans, this is a very nice way ...

A lesson had been learned regarding knitted lace, specifically around Little Arrows, do a few rows and take a break.  So during that break I decided to knit a sweater for an infant, one you've seen before, the Baby Kimono .  It was such a good plan. I found a lovely DK weight Berroco acrylic blend from my stash that is not only machine washable it can also be dried in a machine.  The yarn is so wonderfully comfortable to the touch, it is just the type of thing you'd want to wrap a baby in.  It is also pretty to look at, see. The tangerine baby kimono I'd knit on Little Arrows for a few rows and then take a break with Baby Kimono moving back and forth making good progress on both.  In fact I was able to start knitting the sleeves for the Baby Kimono when something seemed off.  The sleeves didn't fit in as they had in the past.  And then I saw it, the right side and left side had been reversed.   Incredible! The bumpy right of center sid...

It seemed to be progressing all too well that Little Arrows shawl .  One starts with 11 stitches and I had increased up to 189 in total merely adding two stitches per row.  By my calculations that's 89 rows and then I truly and completely messed things up. That lace thing, have I mentioned it before, it takes concentration.  Not that yes, I'm sort of concentrating on this, but the doing some kind of complicated statistical analysis kind of concentration.  (Well, again maybe it's me, but I have to concentrate if I'm using statistical formulas.)  I can do that sort of thing for spurts of time, but then I really should stop.  But do I stop, of course not.  I'm one of those stiff upper lip, get-'er-done kind of gals which in this particular case causes nothing but huge problems. There was a little minor problem on about row 20, but it was tucked into an edge so I knit on.  There was another entire row of stitches that threw the pattern off by one ...

I am about to outline my experience with the Drop Spindle Spinning class I took with Nicola at Baaad Anna's yarn shop recently. Beware ~~I am a novice at this skill so what is about to follow describes an experience and should not serve as anything more than ramblings of a beginner. First, let's discuss the drop spindle .  It is easy to see why this is a popular way to spin.  The spindle is so simple to use you can almost figure it out just by looking at it.  Place the roving on the hook, give the dowel a spin and you are off to the races.  Plus the investment is relatively minuscule, depending on the size of the spindle you choose, it will set you back between $15 and $40. The second item needed to spin is roving .  Roving refers to the fiber produced when clean wool has been carded.  If carding is done by a machine the fiber is "lined up" in a sheet.  All the spinner needs to do is feed the roving, in the appropriate amounts (called dra...

This yarn shop is one I have driven by every time I go downtown and back since it opened in 2009, but the words on the logo were a bit off-putting.   Baaad Anna's "Not Your Mama's Yarn Store" as I saw it meant perhaps I could be the Mama they were talking about.  The owner and individuals working in the shop are all 20 or 30-somethings so it seemed apparent, at least to me, I would more than likely be out of place.  So I have hesitated to stop in.  Here's more detail about Baaad Anna's written by Janna Maria Vallee upon its opening. On Saturday I decided it would be a good idea to actually check this assumption.  And guess what, I may know the Mama because we are about the same age, but I might not be that person.  Here's some quick pics of the shop itself.  It is small, like most yarn shops, but it carries a nice variety of good quality yet affordable wool. Blocking rods In addition it offers some inventory other ...

I talked about how the BSJ (Baby Surprise Jacket) lead me to Elizabeth Zimmermann and her contributions to the knitting world.  Today I want to focus on BSJ even though it has not yet hit my needles.  BSJ is waiting for the Little Arrows Shawl to be completed, but I have selected the yarns from my stash. (Note, I went shopping in my own store, aka my stash ~~ yeah!) EZ first BSJ made for her grandson in 1958 using the simple garter stitch Since the jacket has become so popular there's been requests for more detail about how to knit it, so Schoolhouse Press has put together a 12 page pamphlet to help fill that gap.  I secured this pamphlet at Black Sheep Yarns , my LYS.  It gives you directions to make a baby, child and adult sized version and recommends one make the baby size first before attempting any larger ones.  So since there'll be a new baby in my life soon, I am going to give it a try.  (Poor new baby girl Flagel, she'll be the test-baby as ...

Many current knitters have no idea who Elizabeth Zimmermann (EZ) is, I was among those uninformed until recently.  I should have known about her; she lived her adult life only a couple of hours' drive from my home.  Had I been a more savvy knitter back in the day I could have taken in her workshops at her camps.  But being savvy at 10 or so years old wasn't in the cards. An opinionated knitter, Elizabeth Zimmermann My journey into finding out about EZ started with this photo posted in a chat room I regularly follow.  The sweater was referred to as BSJ as if everyone knew what it meant. My first sighting of a BSJ For starters I had to figure out what a BSJ was and then try to find a pattern for it.  The "V" shaping around the mid section and the bold double stripping was very intriguing to me.  I found BSJ stands for Baby Surprise Jacket and became more intrigued by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's comments about the jacket on her blog.  This wa...

Nancy from Minneapolis is a fierce user of technology.  She is often posting interesting stories on Facebook.   Her post on Friday was one I felt I had to write about. On June 2 somewhere in Japan a 210 gram (7.5 ounce) kitten was attacked by a crow.  In addition to having a fractured upper jaw, hole in its throat and split tongue it also had fleas.  A kindly passerby by the name of Jessie shooed the crow away and took the kitten to a vet.  After the visit Jessie took the now named kitten, Wasabi-chan, home. Because of the injury to her jaw, Wasabi-chan was not able to eat properly and without eating she wasn't going to make it.   As anyone who owns a cat knows, placing a feeding tube into its mouth can be a trying enterprise so wrapping the cat up helps all involved.  As Wasabi-chan was an extra squirmy kitten, this is even more difficult. So Jessie with the help of her grandmother had a few purritos  (a happy purring cat wrapped up...

While in SteveBe's store in Minneapolis, Minnesota I spied this: It is a lazy susan like contraption that works well for most cakes of yarn.  Place the yarn on the lazy susan and it glides right off the spool.  I loved the real wood and ball bearings which make for a wonderful ease of operations.  But the $42 price tag took me aback.  So I took a couple of photos because I have a wood craftsperson in the family.  And I was sure he'd be able to make something like it for me. Dad had just these two pictures to work from to design a similar product for me.  The lazy susan bearings were the most time consuming to find and even that was easy.  Dad has catalogs and with a single phone call and 2 days we had it.  Dad had a lovely cherry wood in storage and all the tools he needed so within a few days he created this for me. I asked him to use wood that wasn't as thick as the prototype.  And even though it appears on the video as if t...

Last week Bernet put out a free pattern for the Little Arrows Lace Shawl . Little Arrows Lace Shawl The pattern says it requires intermediate skill, but when it comes to knitting lace my skills are elementary to be sure.  This lack of skill however didn't keep me from giving the Little Arrows a try. There were a few of reasons why this pattern was important to me now: It seemed about time to put my fear of lace to rest.  I have been upping my game and lace would be a nice addition.   Many knitters fear knitting lace because it is totally unforgiving.  If one makes a mistake the work must be taken apart and redone.  Thus lace knitting requires much more concentration than other types of knitting. Undoing lace is easy, but putting all the right stitches back on the needles is tough.  To create the holes that make lace so pretty a number of special stitches are used consecutively including the yarn over, (yo), knit two together (K2 tog), slip slip k...

Staying true to my commitment that should I buy new yarn I must use it, another project was found and completed. The newly purchased Ella Rae, Lace Merino yarn that is DK weight  needed to be used.  There was enough yardage to make a nice sized cowl, but I wanted to be sure to use a pattern designed specifically for this relatively light weight yarn.  A quick search turned up this pattern, Honey Cowl by Madelinetosh .  Remarkably I knit the pattern using the sized needles recommended and followed the design as written.   (This is such a rarity that I have to stop and congratulate myself.) The Ella Rae yarn is that lovely variegated type that is taken full advantage of by this pattern.  It uses a slip stitch honeycomb combination of four rows repeats.  Whenever a stitch is slipped the colour of the yarn from the previous row remains.  Then a stitch is purled which mixes colours.  The blending of this subtly variegated yarn yielde...

I have now knit one final Sunnyside Baby Cardigan  but it wasn't exactly planned at the outset.  My new mantra is if you buy it you have to use it.  So when I purchased a beautiful white pearlized Plymouth cotton yarn from SteveBe's a couple of weeks ago I wanted to be sure to make the baby sweater pattern that came with it. I started it while I was still away, but after following the pattern as it was written, I found the knit to be too loose for my taste.  Apparently I am developing a sort of attitude about how I want a knit fabric to look.  The fabric that lets a great deal of sunlight through it is not the type of fabric I enjoy for a sweater.  So before I got very far with the Plymouth pattern it was frogged.  That left me with yarn, a desire to use it and a need to locate a pattern.  Since the Sunnyside pattern was with me, I just started it using the much thicker Plymouth yarn and needles that were several sizes smaller than what was reco...

I spent one of my days of this long weekend downtown Vancouver.  More specifically in Gastown.  A car had to be delivered to friends disembarking from a cruise ship and since they had all their belongings in it ready to move into their West End apartment, I simply drove it to them.  They could then go directly to set up house and I'd be able to take the bus home.  But more specifically, I had time to spend downtown! With time to browse, I took in the typical haunt of Dressew and then decided to spend more time in the specialty shop called Button Button .  The store claims to be the only button store west of Toronto devoted to buttons.  This shop sells only buttons and you'd wonder how they can make a go of it, its claim to fame is it carries an exceptional number of buttons. If you believe the New York Times , Button Button carries over 1 million buttons.  In 2007 Marc Weingarten, from the NY   Times, wrote about this rather small ...