Flagel Knitting Files

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in the U.S.  Although Canadians celebrated this holiday in October we are impacted by the U.S. November holiday.  Canadian stores are advertising sales for Black Friday in an effort to keep holiday shoppers here even though it isn't a holiday here.  I will be missing out on all of this. Instead I will spend the day flying to Minneapolis.  A very special little girl will be celebrating her first birthday over the weekend (yes, the celebration is after the fact, but her mom and dad decided to celebrate when family is in town). There was a cake smash. When I first got the invitation and RSVP'd that I would not be able to attend, I was disappointed, sad and perhaps a wee bit angry with myself.  This festered until I just decided I had to be there, purchased a ticket and started making plans.  So while most U.S. citizens are working off a turkey- with-all-the-fixings hangover on Thursday afternoon, I will be landing in Minneapolis and walking t

Days get short this time of year here in the Pacific Northwest.  When it is rainy like it has been for the past few days, one needs the lights on in the house well before 4:30 pm and the sun won't rise again until after 7:30 am.  When I was working it didn't seem to matter that daylight was in such short supply, but now without a routine it seems more noticeable.  Days will continue to grow shorter until December 21, so I need to adjust and what better to do than knit, so I have chosen knitting (I know, what a surprise) under a wonderful task light. The Jeweled cowl  is complete including the blocking.  It did give me an opportunity to cast it off twice; my first attempt pulled the selvage edge in too tightly.  So that edge was taken apart and a second one worked to my satisfaction.t As a cowl, doubled. As a scarf. It turned out to be the perfect length.  As you can see it can comfortably be doubled to make it a cowl; however, fully unfolded it can be used as a sca

One thing is assured when knitting, there will be errors.  Knitting is a human endeavor where decisions about colour and weight of yarn, size of needles and pattern combinations are determined by the creator.  Thus the enterprise can be both motivating and disappointing depending on the choices the knitter makes. In addition to those choices the knitter can mess up the technique by knitting a stitch or two or more incorrectly.  Sometimes a single stitch mistake is easily fixed, at others it might become a major issue. Tinking (taking knitted work apart one stitch at a time horizontally) or frogging (ripping the fabric apart horizontally, generally off the needles) are two techniques most knitters are familiar with because there is plenty of opportunity to practice it.  There are, however, times when neither are an efficient option. The Jeweled Cowl  currently on my needles has two things that make tinking and frogging difficulty.  First it is made up of 250 stitches, simply knittin

The Jeweled cowl although simple, in theory, does have a lace element.  And of course that lace element tripped me up the first time around.  To fix the problem the work needed to be removed from the needles and when that happened I found that it wasn't as long as I wanted it to be.  So, the entire first attempt was frogged and I started over. Now you might be thinking to yourself, how is it that the size of the cowl wasn't better determined, a valid question.   Although my yarn is a lace weight like that recommended by the designer, I wanted a fabric with a closer weave than the one the pattern made.  So instead of using size 8 or 5 mm needles, I am using size 5 or 3.75 mm needles which means extra stitches needed to be added to get the length necessary, 50 extra stitches to be exact.  In order to keep the proportion of beads to scale with the extra stitches and more beads worked in those stitches had to be used.  (Yes, my basic high school algebra came in handy.)  And then

One can be inspired and then motivated in the most interesting ways.  A few weeks ago I purchased some cute little buttons and they have been on my mind since then.  They are shaped like cartoonish butterflies done up in cheerful colours.  Miss M just must have something made that puts these butterflies to their best use.  Meet the motivations: Miss M and her Movember tomato soup mustache The buttons that just wouldn't let go There are a few things on needles right now that really should be completed first; a shawl just begun, the Jeweled cowl and finally the ¨O¨ scarf needs to be finished.  But instead I searched my stash for a yarn or yarns that would showoff those buttons and found leftover Malabrigo Duo in pinks from last year's West Desert hood . Additionally I needed to find a relatively small project since there was less than 50 grams of yarn left. I decided to knit a toque in a toddler size in a simple design that would allow the butterflies to shine.

Tena's Brandywine shawl is now fully completed.  She had some concerns that it might not stretch to the size she wanted it to be, but after the blocking was complete, she's satisfied with the results. And I believe she should be very, very happy with it. As a reminder this shawl has no spine running from the bottom to the top.  Additionally Brandywine is started at the bottom peak unlike Ashton which begins at the top of the shawl.  The results, however, are equally stunning. Brandywine all stretched out and showing off  This really shows the pretty variation in blues and browns Tena had shown me her start of Brandywine about 2.5 years ago when we first met.  It's potential to wow was already apparent even with the relatively small amount she had knit back then.  It was an 8 year old WIP when we started the shawl class adventure in October.  Thinking about it that long can be a kind of aggravation so I know Tena is more than happy to finally get this one off h

Vancouver Circle Craft Christmas Market acknowledges the entry into the Christmas shopping season for Vancouverites. The market has been around since 1973 and grown to hosting 310 artisans . It has to be held in the Vancouver Convention Centre since I've been attending it, giving the shopper room to linger, touch and examine everything. A friend and I attended it on Saturday from 11 am to 6 pm. Yes, that's 7 hours of looking, getting inspired and making a few purchases as well.  Of course I was most interested in those selling knit wears like Craftworks, Mimi and Vividworks .  But the most astonishing item was seeing Sola Fielder's exhibit.  Although she was selling hats and scarves, it was the item shown above which is 11.6’ x 5.3’ that completely mesmerized me.  From a distance it looks like an aerial photo of Vancouver focused on the downtown. But look closer and you can see that this talented artist has used recycled textiles, mainly yarn from thrift shop

There are now two Ashton shawls completed -- Mare and Pink.  Both have turned out IMHO to be real head turners.  And I know I said if only I made three shawls I could perhaps add lace shawls to my knitting skill set, but honestly, I need a break from lace.  A third was started, but my heart wasn't into it the way it should be. Lace knitting requires concentration and for my next project I want something mindless.  Having said that I don't want to be bored.  So I've been on the lookout for the pattern able to accomplish both simplicity but not boring.  Tah dah I found it in my LYS - Black Sheep Yarns.  Jeweled Cowl . Jeweled Cowl by Sachiko Uemura The look is quite something. There is a whole whack of stockinette (170 stitches) separated by 30 stitches using YOs and SKKPs to create the design element you see in the photo above.  This simple stitch pattern leaves room to add beads, lots of beads, 728 beads to be exact.  So even though this is not a lace shawl, Jewele

I said earlier the pink Ashton shawl was coming along and yesterday I finished knitting it.  This morning it got a bath and is now happily drying. Pink is all pinned up and wired to go Pink took about 10 days to complete, but there were a couple of days where no knitting took place on her.  I am satisfied with this improvement in time spent.  Having said that, this shawl is smaller; instead of being a bit over 60 inches wide Pink is only 45 inches appropriate because it is going to a smaller person.   There are many more beads on Pink too.  Beads were added in the double decreases as well as between the yarn overs.  I'm happy the added beads didn't seem to add much weight to the overall shawl either.   We can see the beads running along the bottom and right side of the photo above.  Again, I am thrilled with the results.  When Pink and I decided to work together good things happened.

Pink (the pink/dusty rose Ashton shawl I'm knitting)and I have made up.  It did take a certain amount of effort on my part mainly the removal of about 12 rows in order to fully fix the problems I had created for myself.  All those rows and more have been added back onto the piece and we are all good.  If I concentrate by paying close attention to the way I slip the stitch off the needle to attach the bead and then pay closer attention to how I place the stitch back on the needle, twists are avoided.  And in the end, that seems to be all Pink wanted, more attention.  Things are OK between us now. Pam has been busy putting the final touches on her Elder Tree shawl as well.  Here's a few photos she sent along to document the finished item. Pam's Elder Tree shawl in the blocking process In use all dried Laid out in all its glory A close-up so you can see the details as it dries It is true, these shawls can be a bit fiddly but the end results make up

Canada's National War Memorial in Ottawa November 11 is a day when both Canada and the U.S. take time to celebrate and honour the brave individuals who have sacrificed to make each country safe and democratic.  In Canada this is called Remembrance Day, in the U.S., Veterans' Day. This year is particularly poignant in Canada.  Less than one month ago two soldiers were gunned down in different cities and days in Quebec and Ottawa.  The October 22 death of Corporal Nathan Cirillo, a soldier guarding the National War Memorial, and the killing of Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent in Quebec off duty in his uniform two days earlier were truly shocking.  During the Cirillo situation, the assailant was able to enter the House of Commons and come within meters of both the NDP and Conservative caucus rooms.  The Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, was with his Conservative caucus.  The assailant shot at both doors before he was shot and killed.  So these two incidents erased the innocen

The pink shawl, aka Pink, and I had a serious talk yesterday.  Pink told me she was getting tired of all the tugging and grumbling she was getting from me.  (Perhaps it was more polite than that, but what I wrote was the message I received.)  I told her I just didn't quite understand what had happened to us.  We seemed to be getting along so nicely up to the point where I started adding beads.  Then all of a sudden things changed.  The beads inconsistently sat wrong on the knit stitch.  This had not been a problem with my mare Ashton.  Many beads were fine, but several were twisted in an unattractive way and when I tried to fix the problem things really ran off the rails.  Perhaps Pink doesn't like being interfered with by beads, so I asked directly about the change in her attitude.  After that Pink stopped talking and silently we decided it was time to take a break.  It seems it is for the best for now.  The whole thing was a rather lopsided conversation anyway. That was yes

Fox Paw I know, I know the whole thing about the challenge of lace shawl knitting is getting old.  I get it so I promise this will be the last post about it.  In fact this post won't talk about a shawl at all.  Instead you get to read about a beautiful set of stitches called Fox Paw shown above. Xandy Peters has developed Fox Paw and sells the pattern on Ravelry.   I recommend you look it up so you can see all the beautiful scarves, wraps, cowls and throws (basically anything that can be knit rectangularly) made using this technique.  It is described as using increases and decreases to create the look of intarsia without actually having to do colour blocking.  Apparently one knits using only one colour per row.  It seems like a mighty nifty thing but I know enough about knitting to know it would be very challenging as well. During the week of October 27 many of the normal things I do on a daily basis were neglected because I was getting my first shawl done.  I already

The second shawl in pink is working up well.  It took a total of four weeks of near constant knitting on the first shawl to reach completion.  The second pink shawl was started on Sunday and I am already on the fourth of five charts, that's quite a reduction in time.  There have been only seven rows needed to be tinked so far.   No score was kept during the creation of the first one but it was conservatively 10 times higher.  No wonder this second seems so easy. There is a reason for all this comparing.  Learning did take place over the past four weeks with one of the best things learned is to stop knitting when mental fatigue is setting in.  It is true I seem to find it very satisfying that this old dog can still learn new tricks, even if they seem complicated at the outset.  If nothing else the gray matter between my ears has been tested and continues to be working.  So my dusty pink shawl is keeping me in the pink (as in good spirits and health). Check out the progress and t

Just after I posted yesterday Pam sent me photos of her Elder Tree Shawl .  Here it is just off the needles and needing to be blocked. Pam's flawless first shawl As you can see her shawl takes on a triangular shape typical of ones knit from the top down, just like mine.  You can see the spine down the middle and the lovely picot edging she used to bind off.  Pam also added beads there; take a closer look to see them. A picot bind off is accomplished by adding a small number of stitches (2-3 or so depending how deep or long one wishes the point to be) at the start of the row and then binds off the added as well as a couple more of the regular stitches.  You repeat this process across the row.  Watch this video for more details.  Of course the tricky part for Pam was figuring out just where in this process to add the tiny little pearl bead.  She said it took a bit of fiddling but once she had it under control everything moved along quickly.  I can't wait to see her sha

My Madeline Tosh fingering weight ¨Mare¨ coloured shawl is now completely finished.   On Friday I picked up blocking rods or wires to complete the beauty making of this shawl.  Although I had previously purchased a few wires, more were needed for this project.  Saturday morning I started the blocking and stretching process. The directions for blocking a lace shawl given in the Ashton pattern by designer O'Keefe were very clear.  One is directed to spread the top or longest edge out first by running wires through the YOs (yarn overs) at the edge (you weave the rod over and under the openings).  A measurement needs to be taken of that stretched length.  In my case it was 63.25 inches/161 cm.  According to the directions the spine down the center should be one half of that measurement or 31.625 inches/80.5 cm.  Alison, the class instructor, recommended to help the spine remain straight that one should place rods in each side of the knitted stitch that makes up the spine.  I found t

I promised the lace shawl knitting would suck up most of the knitting time for the month of October and I was right.  In fact it was so all consuming that it also took away from writing.  But the three of us, Pam, Tena and me, we stayed true to focusing on the outcome.  Each of us can see the finish line of our shawls. First, we were all relatively new to lace knitting.  And as I have outlined here before, for a beginner lace knitting can be very time-consuming, expletive-causing, make you wonder about your sanity type of knitting.  Why you might ask?  Every stitch has to be correct because in the finished product you block the poor thing into much less than an inch of its stretchability, and as you stretch you also show off every single stitch. Second, each of us for different reasons wanted to complete the shawl this time around.  Tena was completing a shawl she started 8 years ago.  Pam had never knit with circular needles before and she needed to learn how to work with th