The Seattle Knitting Asylum blog

Ideas-a-brewing...

2011-09-27T00:42:00.000-07:00

As September rolls to a close, I find that I might have caught the lace bug. More specifically, the Niebling bug. I finished a small 53 row doily in 12 days, which I know is not fast, but I am getting more use to the size 0 needles again as I continue with a second. I'm finding them to be quite meditative.

On another note, I has signed up for NaNoWriMo this year. I've never done this before and because I don't write very well, I'm kind of scared. What's the worse that can happen? So I don't win a Pulitzer. Oh well. I wasn't planning on having it turned into a screenplay to eventually go on to win an Oscar. The world will not stop spinning and it'll be fun, right? (I'm going to tell myself that last part every day for the next month.)

So what am I going to write about? I'm going to write the book I wish I could have been given when I was 9 and learning to knit. Yes, knitting for boys by a boy and all that entails. And I do mean ALL.

If boring is the new sexy...

2011-09-18T22:27:00.000-07:00

then I'm up for playmate of the year!
I'm either overwhelming or underwhelming, but rarely do I feel interesting. Why do some married couples feel that being single is fine, but I should at least put myself out there? Thanks for the best of intentions though. I'll see if it gets better.

Hey wheel makers!

2011-09-15T13:32:00.000-07:00

All I want is a wheel that can support all my needs, from spinning cotton singles to bulky coils, can be powered manually or electrically, leaves no carbon footprint, weighs less than 5 pounds, looks beautiful, and costs under $200. Could you do that for me, please?

Dear Ms. J.

2011-04-04T03:03:00.000-07:00

Origins of the terms “Scotch” & “Irish” tension.

According to Elsie G. Davenport in her 1953 book, Your Handspinning, she makes reference in chapter 6 titled, The Spinning Wheel , bulletpoint #11 (p.70) headed “Scotch Tension”, she explains thus.

Some spinning wheels, particularly old one of the upright type, have no tension screw (not be confused with the tension peg as she is referencing the screw used in the previous discussions for adjusting the mother-of-all closer or further from the drive wheel.) and the old Scottish woollen spinners overcame this in the following ingenious way:

The driving band passed round the wheel and thence round the spindle whorl only, not round the bobbin whorl. As the flyer revolved, the bobbin on the same shaft naturally revolved at the same speed so that although the yarn was spun, it could not wind on. By means of a thin cord, passed round the bobbin whorl and attached to some convenient part of the spinning wheel, the bobbin was still further retarded. This meant that the flyer, putting in the spin, revolved considerably faster than the bobbin and so wound the spun yarn on to it in the reverse direction; i.e. when the wheel was running clockwise, the yarn wound on to the bobbin anti-clockwise and vice versa.

She then goes on to explain further about where this brake-band is placed and says something I hadn’t heard of, or perhaps I had but had forgotten and dismissed due to hearing a different definition commonly assumed.

First that this brake-cord which passed around the bobbin, both ends are passed thought the hole in the tension peg and secured by a knot with sufficient length of cord to allow it to wind at least once around the peg. The amount of tension is so slight, that if too much is applied, neither the bobbin nor flyer will move at all. I have a feeling that this was later developed to have one end secured by a spring and then later by some of us with the use of a rubberband.

Here comes the part I found interesting. She then goes on to describe an alternative:

In many old Irish linen wheels, the same kind of brake control was used, not on the bobbin, but on the flyer. The drive band was used on the bobbin only.

There is then a diagram showing the brake-cord over the flyer pulley and the drive band on the bobbin. To me this makes sense in the evolution of how the brake-band was used, though now we have almost completely eliminated the need for it on the flyer and thus call such a wheel “bobbin-driven” or may be sometimes referred to as “Irish Tension”, but to truly be Irish Tensioned, it should have the brake-band on the flyer, not because of either it was either before or after the Scottish woollen spinners, but because this is what the history has shown us how the Irish linen spinners used their tools.

Ms. Elsie then closes this chapter by giving what I consider her thumbs up approval by saying:
By a slight turn of the peg the relative rates of wind and spin can be adjusted as perfectly as by use of the tension screw and spinners who are accustomed to this method of control prefer it to any other.

I then turned to Peter Teal’s 1976 book, Hand Woolcombing and Spinning (ed.2005) and Alden Amos’ 2001 book, Big Book of Handspinning (ed.2) and found information that may and may not supported Ms. Davenport’s statements and raised additional questions.

Mr. Teal cites the first illustration of the flyer principle wheel to the Saxony Wheel printed in 1480, fifteen years prior to Da Vinci’s sketchbook drawings, but notes that Da Vinci shows a much more advanced design. The 1480 drawings are in the Waldburg Hausbuch or more correctly, Mittelalterliches Hausbuch von Schloss Wolfegg, which being of a German household makes sense when Mr. Amos refers to a flyer-driven wheel as German-tension (ch.8, p.211,ed.2).

Neither of them refers to when or where the double-drive wheel evolved to bobbin or flyer-driven, so I can live with Ms. Elsie’s descriptions and reasoning for how Scotch-tension was named after the Scotch woollen spinners which converted the double-drive to flyer-driven/bobbin-break, the Irish-tension being named after how the flax spinners of Ireland used their wheels by converting the double-drive to bobbin-driven/flyer-break, and how the double-drive originated in German, hence Amos calls it so.

In short,
Scotch = bobbin brake
Irish = flyer break
German = double drive
but bobbin driven does not equal Irish.

I think this covers all our wheels now. Did I forget anything?

Thanks for making me think, pull the books off the shelf again and making me restart Ms. Elsie’s work. I love her use of language as she explains how to spinning cotton.

All the best,
D.

Closing 2010, welcoming 2011

2010-12-31T15:03:00.000-08:00

There was too much to do and too little time.
In 2011, I will:
1) Be more organized.
2) Focus my time and energy.
3) Get some exercise.
4) Write.
5) Have at least 3 dates (friends don't count).
6) Renew my faith.
7) Not feel sorry for myself.
8) Create a body of work.
9) Raise my awareness.
10) Take a vacation.

MFKR2010

2010-09-21T23:28:00.000-07:00

What I learned from the guys at the Men's Fall Knitting Retreat 2010:
1. When you are just guys, there are no sexist comments freaking out because you're a guy that knits.
2. Although we are all different and come from very different backgrounds; gay/straight, liberal/conservative, married/single; we know each other because we see ourselves in each other.
3. We know we're there to knit and share our love of creating, but it becomes more than the craft and truly bonds us together by our appreciation for life, each other, and ourselves.
4. In turn, we take back this appreciation to our everyday lives, hoping to reflect on it and taking a sip from that bottle when we need a refill.
5. It is a spiritual experience because it reaffirms the idea that we are all one.
6. Perhaps when more men knit, we will lose the aggression of the alpha male and maybe, just maybe, will find a new way to solve our world problems, through creating rather than destroying.

Knitting backwards explained, part 2

2010-09-21T23:06:00.000-07:00

Keep an open mind.
When in doubt:
1) Do the stitch
2) Turn it around and study it.
3) Undo the stitch
4) Do the stitch half way.
Rep steps 2 & 3
5) Do the stitch to the same point from the other side.
Rep steps 2 & 3
6) Do the stitch a little more than you did in step 4.
Rep steps 2 & 3
7) Do the stitch to the same point from the other side.
Rep steps 2 & 3
8) Do the stitch a little more than you did in step 6.
Rep steps 2 & 3
9) Do the stitch to the same point from the other side.
Rep steps 2 & 3
10) Do the stitch backwards.

Knitting backwards explained, Part 1

2010-08-17T19:05:00.000-07:00

FROM and IN are not the same thing.

Traditional knitting is worked from the left delivery needle to the right receiving needle.
Knitting in the opposite direction means the delivery needle becomes the needle in the righthand and the receiving needle, in the left.

Because of this, everything is reversed.

If you are doing stockinette stitch, the stitches are worked FROM one specific side of the fabric.
This means that to work a row in the opposite direction one is use to, you would do the opposite type of stitch.

The Purl stitch is just the Knit stitch worked FROM the opposite direction.

If the pattern instructed to purl across the row, the same effect could be had if the work was knit FROM the other side.

Left leaning decreases (SSK) and Right leaning decreases (K2tog) from the traditional side of the work will change if worked IN the opposite side.

Therefore:
Side A Side B
K2tog==P2tog
SSK= =P2togTBL

(P2togTBL? Well, sort of. Nice idea, but you need to manipulate the stitches a little to have the correct orientation.)

Now you never need to turn you work.

Modular vs entrelac

2010-08-05T22:12:00.000-07:00

Which came first?
Currently experimenting with sliding-loop technique for joinery in a bastardization of a VH design I did once before. Basically I'm pitting Vivian Hoxburo, Rick Mondragon, and Kaffe Fasset against each other. Visualize that and I'll post pictures, some day...

Joinery...

2010-07-21T20:19:00.000-07:00

Task: List all seaming techniques:

1) sewing by hand
2) sewing by machine
3) crochet
4) grafting
5) knitted
6) tatted
7) linked
8) ...

Idea...

2010-01-25T16:07:00.000-08:00

Queen Anne's lace vs. Queen Anne's Revenge?

Discuss amongst yourselves.

New Year, New Mindset

2010-01-03T11:12:00.000-08:00

If ever there was a year to do something you've wanted to do but either kept putting it off because you didn't feel it was the right time, were too busy, or didn't feel you could because of resources or motivation, this is the time to do it! Get healthy! Create that idea! Give it everything you've got and when you need help, ask! It will come to you!

Winter is around the corner

2009-10-14T10:29:00.000-07:00

Getting cooler! Broke out the javalogs already. Must finish carding targhee so I can spin it and make my boot covers and hat before the first snow. Maybe spin the Gotland and make the chainmaile and knit shawl. Mmmmmm... dragonscale.

Tuesday Idea

2009-09-29T10:39:00.000-07:00

Double knit slip stitch herringbone scarf.

Tuesday Idea

2009-09-22T09:41:00.000-07:00

Materials: cream romney, dark brown romney, white alpaca, two-tone brown alpaca.
Prep: blend by color
Spin: Coil

...

2009-09-21T12:12:00.000-07:00

Soon.
Very very soon.