Flagel Knitting Files

Steganography, not to be confused with stenography, is the art or practice of concealing a message, image, or file within another message, image, or file.  Knitting has been used as a tool in steganography in several distinct ways. Arguably the best known example of steganography in knitting is written about by Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities.   The character Madame Defarge is a tricoteus  or knitting woman who chooses to knit while watching beheadings during the French Revolution.  Defarge didn't just sit and knit she used her knitting as a form of code and created a list of the upper class doomed to die.  Leave it to Dickens to take the act of knitting, generally done by kindly, mature ladies demonstrating domesticity and turn it into an act of cruelty, revenge and the macabre. Sky Fish Knitting offers up a way such a code could be achieved because Dickens didn't write about it: One possible way to encrypt names is by using a unique set of three stitches for each l

When your nails look like this you might want to improve their look.  Granted I just clipped them this weekend, but they look pretty rough right now. Sure I could go to a nail salon and get a gel manicure, but that solution seems to be a gift that keeps on giving to the salon.  My nails in the past using this solution have become thin from the grinding, the UV light to dry the polish can cause problems, and like all polish it does chip and need professional repair (my personal experience would lead me to say gel nails aren't easily repaired at home) and have I mentioned the expense, oh they are expensive as well. So you can imagine how I reacted to the photo below; I have the ability to crochet, perhaps not this well, but I had to find the story behind the photo. Hooklook from Paris, France offers up a unique solution to nail problems.  I could have her crochet a set of nails that would adhere to my own nails with the adhesive she includes in the kit.   I particul

Remember what it was like with regard to attention spans and growing children?   They seemed to be totally interested in something one day; then there isn't a glimmer of intrigue for it the next.  So now that M is 4 months old it is important to act quickly with regard to her current infatuation, Cornelius, Mr. Chicken Waffle . M is now laughing out loud every time she sees the chicken waffle embroidered potholder no matter how little time is spent between sightings.  Hopefully my 3D version will be equally as funny for her.  Check out Cornelius, Mr. Chicken Waffle, the Flagel knit version. It is a bit taller than a Sharpie pen. Decisions were made to knit the beak, wings and tail. The wings are actually made with instructions for a large leaf, but I think they look like feathers anyway. Although the beak is 3D, the comb and tail are not. The idea of having to match the self-designed parts with a second was too much for me since I didn't really bother to write down what

Meet Cornelius, Mr. Chicken-Waffle Ever heard of a chicken waffle?  If not check out this definition from Wikipedia: The best known chicken and waffle pairing comes from the American soul food tradition and uses fried chicken . The waffle is served much as it would be at breakfast time, with condiments such as butter and syrup . This unusual combination of foods is beloved by many people who are influenced by traditions of soul food passed down from past generations of their families. My sons and their wives got together a couple of years ago in Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina where they had a meal at one of the local chicken waffle restaurants.  This is not a dish found in most Northern U.S. cities so it was a treat.  (I have to say this combination does not whet my appetite, but then I've never had it either.)   To commemorate the meal one set of "kids" took home a chicken waffle potholder, featured above, and named the character Cornelius.  So this story st

This spring has brought out the gambler in me with regard to yarn yardage and knitting projects. Remember the tan/green striped baby blanket  (1) I had to frog?  If not, just click on the words baby blanket for a photo at the bottom of the post to see this ill-fated adventure. It is now frogged and the tan yarn will show up this weekend being used in another way. Then there was the found yarn (2) shown here .  I knew the amount of yarn would be very close to being the right amount to complete the Barley toque.  This time the guess was right, but it was very close, though.  I won the bet. A success, the completed Barley toque Finally, I've been knitting the Dot Pattern baby blanket, the start of which can be seen here .  It has been a slog, an infinite sea of stockinette, with the ever so slight respite of knit stitches on the purl-side every 4th row.   The luster and excitement of knitting this blanket is wearing off and it is feeling more like a negative thing to do than

One of the things I get a kick out of is watching the Google Analytics for my blog.  I know I have talked about it several times, perhaps too often some might say, but it gives me some sort of pleasure seeing all the information Google provides. Yesterday someone must have found my post called Sci Fi in Yarn  written and posted on July 18, 2012.  (You can check it out by clicking on its title above.)  What I did in this post was put together a small collection of knitted items from Star Trek and Star Wars showing how the knitted or crocheted projects look and where to find patterns if they were available. Like most of my posts, before yesterday this particular one had about 30 or so reads, but yesterday it added another 130 to the Analytics.  What happen you might ask?  I suspect someone found the post and shared it on their own more popular social media group.  Wow, someone thought the post was worth sharing, I'm flattered.  Or maybe they thought it was a joke and lots of folk

The news these days can often be down right ugly.  The accounts of individuals who are killed, crashes of any mode of travel, wars and then there's all the tragedies of friends and family that doesn't make the news; it can be downright depressing. Jane Van Zyll Langhout So today's post is news about a good type of knitter.  Jane Van Zyll Langhout, an 85-year-old grandmother, has committed to knitting toques (stocking caps) for the NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology) Share the Warmth Campaign.  NAIT is located in Edmonton, Alberta (think West Edmonton Mall and northern Alberta [oil and really cold country], for those not familiar with Canada).  This campaign works to offer warm clothing to the homeless.  (The juxtaposition of knitting with an institute of technology grabs my attention.  Isn't it funny that such an old skill can help a cause for a place that teaches the next new technological ways to solve problems.) For the second year in a row Van Z

Local yarn shops (LYS) do come and go.  It is a tough business with a fair amount invested in inventory, personnel and rent.  All these expenses need to be covered by the patronage of a group of rather frugal consumers  (Most yarn artists want to get their raw material at as low a cost as possible.)  That's why you'll see so many classes offered at LYS.  These classes are a great way to bring in new customers, help them increase their skills, learn about all the services a LYS can offer and, of course, sell a few hanks of yarn and other knitting paraphernalia along the way. As a customer it is very nice to have a good working relationship with your LYS because it is there one can go to help solve problems like selecting appropriate colour combinations or substitute yarn, solving knitting problems and find others as fanatic or more so about knitting. But how do you know if a shop is near you or not if they are popping up or closing down like a whack-a-mole game.  Some would

Yarn comes to me in different ways.  Most of it is bought by me, but some comes to me from family and friends.  So it was that this ball of yarn came to me on Friday night. Jami and John invited us to their home on Friday evening for a Southwestern feast.  Good Mexican food is not easily found in Vancouver so we were excited to see what Jami had prepared.  It was a wonderfully flavoured red mole with chicken.  It was full of nutty goodness and the best part was we brought some home and have enjoyed a couple of meals of leftovers. BTW she also made a killer chocolate pudding with avocado.  Yum, yum and yum. But back to the yarn. Jami said she had been attending a workshop and as she was leaving the multi-coloured ball of yarn shown above was just hanging out all by itself. She looked around to see if its owner could be found, the owner wasn't found so she decided to take it home.  She does know a knitter, and now I'm the lucky recipient.  It came to me just as you see i

It can be said that knitting for some is a strange combination of relaxation and activism, of protest and tradition (thanks Katherine Martinko for those words).  This contrast can be best explained by considering the act of knitting as a part of the slow movement, specifically the slow fashion movement. The slow movement is a cultural shift to impact the hectic pace of life and pushes against the notion that faster is better.  It started with the slow food movement in the mid-1980's, but here's a list of other slow movements that have begun since then:  art, church, fashion, gardening, goods, media,  parenting, photography science, technology and travel.  Many are taking up these movements as a form activism or protest.  They believe the fast speed of culture negatively impacts society and by protesting against fast they are also protesting against big business, in general. Specifically for this post, slow fashion takes a hard look at the shopping cultural in North A

Who? you might be thinking.  Is this someone I should really know much about? Perhaps not since Gwen Matthewman's claim to fame had to do with speed knitting.  She held the Guinness World Record for knitting speed at 111 stitches per minute from 1980-2005.  In 2005 her record was broken by Miriam Tegels from The Netherlands who knit at a rate 118 stitches per minute or 6% faster.  To help put this into perspective, I can knit at a rate of 30 stitches per minute, which means it would take me four times longer to finish a row or item, than it would take either Gwen or Miriam. Gwen Matthewman in the 1980's Why am I mentioning all this now?  Gwen Matthewman died last week at the age of 86, near Featherstone, West Yorkshire, UK.  It is reported she had given up knitting approximately 10 years ago due to health reasons.  (Mom you're doing well to be knitting at your age!)  BTW Gwen also held a Guinness World Record for the most prolific knitting prior to the speed record (

Above is a simple lace knitting chart.  Generally speaking lace projects are knit on single pointed needles and the final items are not circular in design; think scarfs, shawls, etc.  There is movement as one knits this type of project from having the right-side face the knitter and on the next row the wrong-side facing.  This back and forth makes it important to track exactly what row is being knit.  On the odd numbered rows the chart is read from right to left (because that's how a right-handed knitter knits) and on even numbered rows it's read from left to right because the chart is always showing you how the right side will look.  (OK, can you see how this might already be a bit too complicated for some of us, or do I really mean  me . )  There are only four types of stitches to remember in this chart.  The vertical line is a knit stitch on the right side of the project and purl on the wrong side.  There is the yarn over  the knit 2 together (k2tog).   If you

Reading Fair Isle charts can be easier than reading other types of charts for one big reason.  In Fair Isle knitting there's only one stitch used, the knit stitch for those projects done in the round.  Most Fair Isle knitting is done on circular or four or five double pointed needles thus one is always knitting on the right side.  Charts of this type are read to make the change in colours and not to determine the stitch type which changes if you are on the right or wrong side of the project.  (This will be clearer once I talk about lace chart knitting.) Below is a photo of the rather used looking Fair Isle chart from Selbu Modern.   (You'll remember it was easy to transport because this project is small, so the pattern was folded and unfolded often as it moved from travel to home to travel and back.)  If you look at the chart very closely you'll see that I have added four red vertical lines.  These lines mark off 5 stitches and as you can see the pattern being knit is eas

This concept of moving the clock ahead one hour in the spring and back in the fall has long perplexed me.  If we followed our natural tendency to get up with the sun and then go to bed as it sets the entire rigmarole could be avoided.   However, this simple approach to implementing daylight saving time (DST) doesn't hold up in today's work world.  That plus the lights we now use with the flip of a switch, make this time-shift necessary.   But I wanted to read a bit more about it before letting it go. Apparently the concept of DST like most things started a long time ago and more recently started almost simultaneously in Germany and New Zealand  in the late 19th century.  It was dreamt up to save candles and lantern oils.  During WWI much of Europe and North America instituted DST to conserve coal for the war effort.  However, after that war, the U.S. left DST behind until WWII and then it was on again, off again until 1966 when the Uniform Time Act was enacted.  Canada on the

This photo ended up in my mailbox within the last two days not once or twice but six times.  The amazing part was it came not only from friends but also co-workers.  No family members participated, but then perhaps it would have been all too close to home for them.  Truth be told, that bobbled sheep-sweater for this poor pouch probably keeps him/her quite warm, so what's the problem.  Perhaps that IS the problem, I don't see it as a problem and just may knit something like this. Today I received from a couple of people the photo below of an oil-soaked penguin in need of a warm cover up.  It came with a call for knitters to make this type of cover up because wildlife rescuers are in need of them. Seemed rather sensible and there is a pattern for this "jumper" as it is called in the UK.  So I decided to strike out on my own and see what other wild kingdom related items could go on my knit list and I came up with these: A crocheted snail shell cover/

I have long lamented about my inability to walk into a yarn store and walk out without yarn.  To prove I lack this ability I have shown you my stash , already the size of a small yarn shop. Saturday was a day to run errands with some shopping and a haircut as a part of the trip.  My hair dresser does lots of weddings and I need to make an appointment on Saturdays.  So it should come as no big surprise that on Saturday she was running late.  I spent that extra time at Michael's and found these at 67% off because the instructions were missing: I find the booties too cute for words.  The sheep-skin look on the inside of the sole is so grown up for a baby!  They were marked down because the knitting instructions were missing from the container.  But I happen to own many patterns and feel confident one can be located that will work!  So the lack of a pattern is no big deal (or so she thinks now).  I expect to work both sets up soon. Now for the visit to my LYS, Black Sheep Yar