Flagel Knitting Files

Back in January and February of this year I was putting together the Upscale Baby Sweater.  by Kathleen Sperling.  You can check out the final post about it here . Just this week the colleague to whom this sweater was given sent me the following photos of her now eight and one-half month old son, Theo, wearing his Upscale Baby Sweater. Isn´t he simply adorable?  If you can take your eyes off of Theo, you might note the sweater is a perfect fit for him right now.  His mom said although he is in the 88th percentile for height, Theo is only in the 7th percentile for weight.   This boy will be tall and lean I suspect.  This was her explanation why she had to wait so long time for the sweater to fit him. There are two things I have to say about all of this.  First, I always make knitted sweaters too big for a growing child.  Children come in many different shapes and sizes and even though one might be knitting (to gauge) a sweater for a six month old, it might fit some as a newb

According to Donald Keene in describing Japanese tea ceremonies: The most valued bowls for tea ceremony are irregularly shaped, and some have gold patches here and there accentuating (rather than concealing) damage suffered at the hands of long-ago owners.   Asymmetry and irregularity allow the possibility of growth, but perfection chokes the imagination.  (emphasis added.) This is my understanding of the Japanese term wabi sabi.  There is something very special about imperfections; they should be revered and not seen as negative in any way.  And this my friends relates to my spinning of the Stormy Night roving I dyed in class this week.  All spun up, plied and put in a hank.  I love the way my camera picks up the fuzziness of this yarn. The colours really did turn out fine, although the green was a bit brighter than I had expected.  Since the roving had been wet, steamed and dried during the colouring process it needed a fair amount of work to get it ready for spinning.

Tuesday was the day we set up the class room with heavy plastic to protect the table, empty plastic snack-sized fruit cup to portion out the dyes, plastic gloves to protect our hands from becoming dyed, large syringes to apply the colour, acid/protein dyes in blue, red, yellow and black, wet roving and spun yarn.  It is so simple when the instructor has the dyes already mixed and has an old rice cooker and vegetable steamer available to heat the wool so the colours sets.  Once colours were added to the yarn or roving it is steamed for 20 minutes, cooled and then rinsed until the water is clear. The mixing of the colours on the wool was a lot of fun.  We were not being scientific in our measuring  because there was never an intention of making more than one skein.  Instead we made one of a kind colours of wool and roving.  The 2.5 hours flew right by and I came home with three very wet beauties.  They were hung in a small maple tree to dry and I took lots of lovely pictures of them fl

I have this spinning wheel as a part of my spinning class to use for just a few more weeks so there is a need to make the most of it.  Last week I continued to practice in an effort to improve the end product and I have to say things are getting better.   I finished spinning the cream coloured Corriedale roving we were given in class, then spun some natural light brown  coloured Shetland roving purchased at my LYS and finally spun all the pink pencil roving I had in my stash for years, probably 10 or more.  (In my defense I did use it to felt , but I can only use so much pink.)  These three were plied together to form a chunky ¨art¨ yarn.  ¨Art¨ in my case means yarn that has a few thick and thin parts in it, but as I continued to spin there was much more consistency.  Here´s the pictorial evidence of that effort.  (BTW, represented below is about 10 hours of spinning for me.) The Corriedale The Shetland My first three plied ¨art¨ yarn So what does one do with jus

¨It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead.  The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time. ¨ - Winston Churchill. There are several types of knitters -- beginners all the way to experts, cautious to degrees of risk-takers, those repeating the same instructions over and over to those who simply will not redo a set of instructions. Whatever type you are, you often want to know as you ponder a new pattern how difficult that new set of directions will be for you to complete.  The Craft Yarn Council has somehow put the following gauge about skills needed for a pattern into a grid. Near the start of most modern patterns one of these four options can be found.  (It is rare the description is attached so I am adding them here for you to see.) Skill levels for knitting 1 Beginner Projects for first-time knitters using basic knit and purl stitches. Minimal shaping. 2 Easy Projects using basic stitches, repetitive stitch patterns, simple color changes, and simple shapi

On Tuesday morning I was cooking an omelet for breakfast.  As I was making this meal I somehow managed to pick up the frying pan in such a way that my left index finger was burned at the knuckle.   Apparently feeding myself is dangerous. After the burn I first thought get some cool water on it.  After it quit throbbing, I thought oh boy, I hope I didn´t burn my finger to the point that I cannot spin or knit continental style. The boo boo On Tuesday mornings I take the spinning class and this week I very much wanted to participate in it.  As one converts roving to yarn, the spun roving is held between the left index finger and thumb.  After quickly checking I found it was possible to use the spinning wheel and happily attended class covering the burn with an adhesive bandage. Barbara, the instructor, standing helping my fellow learner, Susan After returning home I checked into being able to knit and found it was possible as well.  Sure the finger is/was sore, but I manage

Happy Columbus Day to my U.S. friends and family, and Happy Thanksgiving to those friends in Canada. Paul and I celebrated with a big meal on Saturday so we could eat leftovers throughout the weekend.  (Baked skin-on, bone-in chicken breast, dressing, gravy, mash potatoes, roasted cauliflower, steamed green beans and mini pumpkin pie)  Today, I am celebrating both holidays with all the leftovers of a turkey/chicken day meal. It was also a knitting weekend as well.  Another Bucky cap/toque was completed, a second Xmas ornament finished and shhhh--I started a slouchy toque for Paul for his birthday.  All are pictured below. Bucky deja´ vu A tiny stocking Xmas ornament made with leftovers And as for the Tall, Dark and Handsome toque I am making, check out Tin Can Knit´s pattern photos  here.   Thus far, my version is far too small to picture here today. And finally, my friend, Jami, read my post last week about a knitted orange and wrote this:   Would love for you to take

There has been a fair amount of stash diving being done recently.  Having to find just the right colours for the knitted fruit requires searching through all the acrylic yarns to find just what would help identify that particular fruit.  While there looking around I found two skeins of 180 meters/198 yards Lane Borgoseisa Toreador yarn.  (Searching today it appears this yarn is now discontinued.) The photo is not capturing the brilliant golden sparkle this viscose (64%) and polyester (36%) yarn offers.  It is stunning in person, you´ll just have to take my word for it. With Xmas creeping up, I have started thinking about making some sort of tree ornament with this yarn.   My new Great White North patterns from Tin Can Knits has two ornament patterns, but neither would make the most of this yarn.  Ravelry, on the other hand, offered the perfect Six-Pointed Star Christmas Ornament pattern created by Barbara Breiter .  Her version looks like this: And my version, which is st

For years now I have proudly taken something I am knitting and literally shoved it into Paul´s face hoping to hear words of approval.  Every new skill whether it was knitting food, lace knitting, Fair Isle, it all was displayed for him to see and was received with very supportive responses from him.  And to his credit I always, always get something like:  ¨Nice,¨ or ¨Well done,¨ or ¨Looks lovely to me.¨ The other night, late into the evening I finished something, put it down to go to bed and then retrieved it as I realized Paul was still reading in bed.  In light so dim even I could barely recognized what I was holding there it was again, that sleepy approval of ¨Nice job.¨  It was then I realized he could not possibly see what I showed him and had probably been doing this for years perhaps feigning appreciation for my skills.  For a split second I was upset, no more like disappointed, until it occurred to me he was being a wonderful partner and not really offering a critique of what

It was time to move forward with the fruit project.  Over the last couple of days I created an orange and a pear and am very happy with both.  The orange is very orange in colour and the pear is that Bartlett type that isn´t quite ripe.  BTW, I haven´t given credit to Susie Johns, it is from her book about fruit that I am getting all these patterns.  (Check out my Knitting Books  page for details.) There was a lemon started, in fact, it is all but complete but the colour needs to be lemon yellow and mine is more golden in colour.  Back to the drawing board on that one.    I am also thinking about a bunch of Concord grapes; there is one already knit.  I just have to figure out how to make them detach from the stem.  There is more than likely a visit to Dressew in my future for Velcro dots. Note the tiny bits of stem on each of the fruit The oranges in my frig have that bit of pucker at the top. And the rather long stem on the pear The other news is on Tuesday I start

On Sunday Pam, Tena and I met up to check out Knit City (a marketplace for anything to do with fiber art).  This year it was held in the PNE (Pacific National Exhibition).  The venue was considerably larger than the last time I attended making it easier to move around.  We were also told Sunday was not quite as busy as it had been on Saturday.  Thus for me the experience was much more enjoyable. More about it later. Tena and I drove together with a plan to meet Pam at the selected time.  Generally the trip from my place to the PNE on a Sunday should take about 10 minutes and 15 minutes if we get caught up at the lights.  Problem was neither Tena nor I knew that it was the same time on our route bikers  (aka Hell´s Angels) would be riding en mass delivering gifts for kids for Xmas.  All accesses were blocked off so we had to take a longer alternative route.  Then when we got to the PNE we found the group was actually dropping those gifts off there as well.  (Only in Canada would Hell´

To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk -- Thomas A. Edison My stash remains stocked for the same reason I stock my fridge . . . it is never clear what I will want to make next.   (Famous words of anyone who has a yarn stash of a certain magnitude.) A reasonably well accessible stash Somewhere I copied the 12 items below, I have no reference to offer.  These are not my words, and are shared with no offense to the 12 Step Program for serious addictions.  Having said that, there are times when some of us need an intervention to stop purchasing more yarn so that what is already in our possession can be used.   Perhaps these steps will help us. 12 Step Program for Yarn-oholics Step 1 - Admit we are powerless over our addiction - that our stash had become unmanageable. Step 2 - Believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. Step 3 - Decide to turn our will over to the care of a higher non-knitting power. Step 4 - Make a

First, Knit Nite.  Stephanie Pearl-McPhee said in At Knit´s End: There is nothing that does a knitter´s heart more good than finding a dear, dear friend who knits.  There is very little that is more fun than sitting with someone who loves you, laughs at your jokes, and truly wants to have a two-hour conversation on the revelation you had about twisted ribbing. Last night was Knit Night again and there are four of us who meet on Thursdays to knit as regularly as our schedules will allow.  We learn from one another, share knitting tales and laugh a lot over tea (it has been decided wine and knitting isn´t as good a combination as it might seem on the surface.)  We do a lot of laughing and made plans to attend Knit City this weekend.  One member said something like:  ¨I am so excited, this will be my first knitting event.¨   The amazing part of this is she really means it and we are all as excited as she is even if it isn´t our first event.  Friends like this are a wonderful gift tha

You woke up this morning, had your coffee, turned on your electronic device and, of course, checked my blog.  Much to your surprise you found it looking quite different.  Why, why you say to yourself, why is she changing that background?  Because it has been there for over two years and frankly, I am tired of looking at that stockinette stitch.  Now you can look at a bit darker whelk stitch pattern.  And if you are very astute you might have checked out the Knitting Books I own and found there are 12 new books listed.  Additionally, the why you should read my blog has been removed.  I believe if you are reading this blog, I don´t have to give you a reason.  But you are probably still wondering why, why all these changes now? Because four years ago I started Flagel Knitting Files, yes it is my 4th blogiversary.  (Actually, my first post was on October 2, 2011 , but it was written and revised days before then.  One could argue I jumped the gun here celebrating today.  I am OK with