Two Toques, Two Tales

So as I have returned to knitting this fall I decided to use bigger needles. The smaller ones used to knit socks were part of the problem making; so with socks off the table and I moved on to toques.

S9844 Hat

The first one is simply called S9844 Hat designed by Arne and Carlos using Schachenmayr Merino Extrafine. Knitting this was part of a class Arne and Carlose taught at StevenB's in Minneapolis. (BTW SteveB's was listed as one of the top 10 knitting shops in the US by USA Today in October 2016.)

Arne and Carlos are a pair of Norwegian knitters, designers and most importantly, textile artists creating self-patterning or striping yarn. During the two hours we spent together they taught how to purl in the Norwegian way, something that you too can learn by watching minutes 7-8 of this video.

If you watch any part of that video you can see what talkers they are. We learned about their newest book called Arne and Carlos´ Field Guide to Knitted Birds, due out in the U.S. sometime in the spring. Additionally Carlos talked at length about the process of taking their colour scheme from concept to finished product. He said it can take well over a year for a manufacturer to get the dying process just right to match their schemes. Arne actually was the one to teach the purl stitch with the assurance it would change our lives. I won´t say it exactly changed my life, but once I got the technique down I find I like it a lot. The video is a testament to how little one´s hands move using this approach.

Above is a photo of the finished project. The brim of the toque is doubled and the back of it is very slouchy. All the apparent colour work is done by the yarn. It is indeed self-striping and that might be the thing that changed my life; I love this type of yarn. This toque is mine since it contains all my favorite colours and quickly became a real favorite of mine as fall ran into winter in Minneapolis. For some reason I cannot explain, I forgot to bring it to Vancouver with me and I could really use it now.

A small Wurm

The second toque is one I made several times. The inspiration came from Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, the Yarn Harlot. I religiously read her blog and both she and VeryPink, wrote recently about process vs. project approaches to knitting. The process approach means the knitter enjoys knitting and rarely is concerned about the degree of difficulty or ease of the thing being made. Process knitters enjoy the process (amazingly!). Project knitters work to finish something. Their driving motivation is to get the thing off the needles or wrap up a project. Project knitters resent ripping out mistakes; process knitters have no real emotion about mistakes because ripping it out means they get to knit more.

OK, so the Yarn Harlot wrote about how a toque pattern called Wurm wasn't a general bucket of fun for her because she needed to finish it quickly due to the change in weather. This thought launched her into a discussion similar to mine above. But the hat is what intrigued me most.

Photo credit to the YarnHarlot

Wurm is a toque designed by Katharina Nopp that has a doubled rim to keep ears warm, doesn't muss up hair much and works for either sex. It has nearly 14,000 projects made on Ravelry, has been translated into four languages and is very simple to make, so easy I put together about four of them this fall. Mom loved my first one, which was knit with black and purple yarns, so it now lives in Wisconsin. The one above and one with a red and black combination lives in Indianapolis. And the other is found in Portland, with this guy and the second guy in Indianapolis.

A large Wurm

Wurm #2

Ode to the Cat

It has been six months since Mike, the cat's, passing. I think of him every day and miss him especially when Paul is away. Mike was a being in the house with me and we were close. Grieving his death has been muddled with my Dad's passing and sometimes I feel guilty about that happening. As time passes the ache becomes less hurtful for both and I am starting to get mostly good memories in its place. Recently I helped celebrate Pablo Neruda's birthday with Jami, my poet and overall very creative friend. Guests were asked to select one poem written by Neruda to read to the small group who gathered for the celebration. I picked this one: Ode To The Cat -- Pablo Neruda There was something wrong with the animals: their tails were too long, and they had unfortunate heads. Then they started coming together, little by little fitting together to make a landscape, developing birthmarks, grace, flight. But the cat, only the cat turned out finished, and

Anatomy of a Sock

I've been knitting socks for a relatively short time. One of the disconcerting things for me as I started following patterns for socks is the pattern designer assumes the knitter (in this case that would be me) knows all the parts of a sock. So I thought I'd devote a post to improve my own knowledge about the anatomy of a sock and maybe some of you will learn something about the humble yet necessary sock as well. Here's the names of the parts of the foot as I know them. #49 ankle, #50 heel, #51, instep, #52 ball, #53 big toe, #54 toe, #55 little toe, #56 toenail. There are some parts more important for this discussion; first the heel of a foot is generally used to refer to the entire C-shape from the ankle to the instep. Speaking of the instep, it refers to that curve near the bottom of the foot. And what seems to be missing in the design above is the sole which generally refers to the bottom of the foot in total or plantar aspect in more technical terms. (BTW

Yarn Barf

It's back to quirkiness and time to step away again from the cuteness for a while. But as you see I'm someone who slips from one to the other without much effort so anticipate this back and forth to be my new normal. A dramatization of me in the midst of my startitist frenzy Yarn barf . I'm willing to bet you hadn't thought of putting those two words together, had you? It just so happens yarn barf can be a reoccurring pain for those of us who use yarns that come in a skein instead of a hank. (No pun intended regarding the current Noro virus, well maybe a little pun.) Skeins of yarn wound by the manufacturer These are hanks which need to be wound into balls If you look closely at the picture on the right you'll see the start on the millet yellow skein at the centre right of the photo. Its start can easily be seen coming from the centre of the skein onto the violet skein to the left. Easy to find, right! Sure but what about the remaining 4

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