Flagel Knitting Files

I want to cover the act of creativity as I experience it.  As has been documented several times in this blog, I spend a certain amount of time searching the World Wide Web for ideas for knitting and other creative ventures as well.  Then sometimes someone points me in a direction that captures my imagination. After I find the spark of an idea I seem to mull it around for a while.  Sometimes this takes weeks, other just a few moments, in both cases this degree of thoughtfulness requires quiet time to live inside my head.  At times I invite others to comment on what I am thinking about and in many cases the idea or how to execute it is improved.  Generally however I keep this seedling of the idea to myself.  It seems so vulnerable at this point, any whiff of discouragement could stifle it. Then comes the actualizing where materials need to be gathered, imaginations of how it should come together are tested and rethought and the materials and testing continue.  Again this can take tim

No knitting discussion today.  It is more of the same with Viaduct and the UND scarf.  Today I want to talk about a phenomenon that happens in nature once in 100,000 times.  Let's start by filling in a few blanks first. I have been walking regularly in Loring Park in downtown Minneapolis.  In Minnesota terms it is a relatively small park wedged between a major highway exit and the Walker Art Museum and housing on the other sides. I find it is a lovely place to start the day.  There are sculptures to walk among in the Walker's grounds, tennis and basketball courts and a small slough where both geese and mallard ducks thrive in Loring Park.  There were fuzzy goslings and ducklings when I arrived a month ago.  Both have lost their fuzz and the ducklings are now so big they no longer appear to be walking on water as they swim fast to keep up with mom.  And of course there are grey squirrels scampering around in the early morning getting their breakfasts as I walk by them. Last

I had to leave the kitchen because if I stayed there was a possibility I would eat an entire strawberry rhubarb custard pie.  It smells so good, but I digress.  It is a good time to finish the post about what knitting has been occupying me lately. To offset the more challenging lace of Viaduct, I  am also working on a Xmas scarf for the son who got his undergraduate degree from the University of North Dakota.  This institution has had for years the unfortunate moniker of The Fighting Sioux, a name they had been locked into using due a generous gift from a donor who required the name not change, probably about 20 years ago.  In 2012, however, the school was mandated by the NCAA to drop the name and as it did it decided to take three years to "cool off" before identifying a new name.  A  college hockey juggernaut (a lot of Canadians play for the team which is located less than two hours south of Winnipeg), UND has been to the Frozen Four several time using only the three

There are times when I have something to say about life, knitting or other topics.  This past week has NOT been that type of time.  With Memorial Weekend here in the U.S. and time with friends and family, I seem to have been distracted from writing, until today. It is time to bring you up to date on the slow and steady progress made on Viaduct.  It is being knit on my square needles with the Indigo coloured Zephyr lace weight, Fantastic Knitting yarn. This wonderful yarn is performing beautifully with this design As a brief reminder, I seem to be on a roll with lace knitting so another shawl/scarf seemed in the cards.   Viaduct  uses nupps to create what I find to be a lovely open and airy design. An image from the website Hedgehog Fibre where the pattern is found. The instructions fit easily on one page meaning it should be easy to remember, but I have not yet conquered it.  As you can see below, three full repeats of the 14 rows for the design have been finished.  I am sta

Way back in June 2012 I wrote about an extreme knitter by the name of Althea Crome.  She uses very tiny needles and thread to re-create master pieces on very small sweaters.  Check out what I said then about her work here . Tools for using only 150 strands of yarn Tugging yarn to ready it for knitting is a workout here Today I want to write about another extreme knitter who has taken things in a completely different direction, using multiple strands to knit a mattress among other items.  Rachel John from the UK is a textile artist and according to her own website: During 5 years of research and development (2000—2005) Rachel re-invented textiles by changing the way yarn is used. She discovered that by mixing anything from 5 to 1000 strands of yarn together and, with her redesigned tools for the very thick yarn and extra wide pieces, you can easily and rapidly create stunning textiles for use at home, as gifts, as apparel. For instance hand knit a king size throw in just

Yesterday while watching the final two episodes of Mad Men, with a friend, I cast off the last row of Blue.  It seems to take about an hour and one-half.  (BTW, thanks, Nancy for watching the last two episodes a second time for my sake.)  What a satisfying act, putting closure on something started in November 2014.  The blocked size is 61 inches across the longest edge and 30.5 inches down the spine, putting it at almost exactly the same size as my first Ashton. With all the complaining I did about poor Blue you might think I am not very fond of it, but that is not true.  It seems I was doing so much complaining because I really, really like Blue and perhaps that's the way it is sometimes.  We show affection by pointing out areas of imperfection or where improvements could be made, that if only they were changed things could be perfect.  And Blue is wonderful.  The yarn, Fantastic Knitting's Zephyr Lace, is feathery light; remember the entire skein is only 2 ounces.  When Blu

Happy Victoria Day to all my Canadian readers.  Hope you are enjoying your day off and that the weather cooperated for your three-day long spring holiday.  Here in Minneapolis, the weather has been fickle.  Yesterday it was 78 degrees and then plummeted into the 40s overnight.  Add in a cloudy sky and stiff winds and the weather people are saying the wind chill could be in the upper 20s or lower 30 F today.  That's winter in Greater Vancouver's terms which means I pulled out the winter-wear, for at least today. So I am sitting here at my desk, I put a desk together this weekend.  (Don't ask, it has 56 parts and I managed to put certain parts together three times.)  But as I said, I am looking around the internet for knitting stories and I found one.  (I am knitting, but it is more of the same rather repetitive stuff so I won't bore you with it.  Knitting is like that sometimes.) This is the time of the year when some yearn to spend time planting and tending to a gar

Let's start with a photo.  Take a good long look at this knitted sock. I rather like the earth tones used to create this sock obviously designed to be worn with sandals It is the sock of a child knit in Rome approximately 2,000 years ago.  And it is purported to be in near excellent shape.  According to the Smithsonian the technique used to construct this sock is called nålbindning, or single-needle knitting, which is a time-consuming process requiring only a single thread. The technique was frequently used for close-fitting garments for the head, feet and hands because of its elastic qualities. Primarily from prehistoric times, nålbindning came before the two-needle knitting that’s standard today; each needle was crafted from wood or bone that was “flat, blunt and between 6 -10 cm long, relatively large-eyed at one end or the eye is near the middle.” This got me thinking about my own knitting, is there any chance any of the hundreds of items I have knit will hold up as wel

Last night Blue and I were clipping along like nobody's business.  I added the second row of beads and decided to take a closer look at the finished work.   One pulls on lace in order to get a clear view and as I did a few stitches started unravelling below my working row.  It was late, I was tired so instead of trying to resolve the situation, I put the stitches on a holder and went to bed. But this morning, I took the rather bold approach of trying to incorporate one of the techniques Laura Nelkin taught in the video class I purchased recently.  It was going to be a relatively easy fix, good for a first attempt and perhaps an ego boost in my abilities to do this type of repair if I succeeded so I just went for it. First a diagnosis of the problem had to be done.  It appeared as if  I missed one of the K2tog (knit two together) stitches a couple of rows down.  The missed stitch was a YO (yarn over) so it slipped down an additional row.  Problem identified. The error was f

Let me start by wishing a big Happy Mother's Day to all mothers reading this.  I have been much more than sufficiently honoured with a five-course brunch, a shopping trip to my favourite local Middle Eastern grocery and a bouquet of lilacs.  Certainly living near kids makes being able to celebrate such days so much easier for everyone. Lilacs are one of my favs Now on to the knitting topic of today.  Despite a request of no beads on Blue, I happened to find the perfect little beads as I cleaned this spring.  They are tonal colours of gray and so small they will hardly be seen yet add a helpful bit of weight at the bottom the shawl which will improve its overall shape. The pen gives you a sense of the beads' size They will be added only at the points of double decreases which means beads will be added to a total of five rows on the last two charts.  This afternoon as I worked my way out of a food overload stooper, it seemed like a good time to start adding beads.  Th

I do, of course, have two sons and have been and remain very proud of both of them.  But this post will be devoted to just one.  It is not meant in any way to indicate diminished pride in the other, but this writing is a matter of immediacy.  The son I am about to brag about will be chagrined I am focusing on this because he is unpretentious about such things. Last evening I was lucky enough to join my son the teacher at an event where he received a certificate of appreciation from his school district.  It is an award selected by peers rather than those being paid to administer which can arguably make it all the more precious.  This son was one of 85 who received such awards during the event, and they are among a group of 3,789 teachers in the Minneapolis Public School system.  Statistically these recipients represent about 2.5% of teachers district-wide. There was a dinner at the Nicollet Island Pavilion , a lovely venue often used for weddings due to the setting.  There were spe

These are certainly no trying times by any means, but moving life in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia to downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota is a change.  It is like leaving a quiet suburb to the hustle and bustle of a city with the sound of traffic, sirens and life.   It has taken a week for me to find my rhymn, but today I feel as if contentment is here.  (Funny, about 20 years ago a friend and I joked about finding contentment at a time that was troubling for both of us.  I know I have found it; wonder if that now distant friend has found it too.) I have also found equinimity with the Blue Ashton shawl.  We seemed to be struggling in BC so I tucked it away because the person I am making it for said she didn't need it until mid-June.  There is no "fun" if being creative is a struggle.   Blue was picked up this week and we continued to be at odds with one another.  So I pulled out 13 rows of roughly 350 stitches/row (you can do the math) or about 4 hours of knitting.