hanna birke

lavender cardigan finished - finally!

When did I start the lavender cardigan?  Early June.  The knitting on it felt endless.  Who are we kidding with 3.25mm needles the knitting on it is endless.  But now we are at the happy ending.  

It fits, the set-in sleeves worked well, it's light and comfortable and I wear it.  At home.  It needs buttons but that will have to wait until I go down island and there are stores with buttons.  

Details on this again.  It's knit from Henry's Attic raw silk which I dyed with logwood.  The template for it was taken from a store-bought sweater I own.  The bottom edge is seed stitch ribbing and the top neckband is double seed stitch.  

You can't see it too well in this photo but the sleeves and neck edging are darker in color than the body of the sweater.  This isn't a dye lot issue but knitter foolishness.  After finishing the body of the sweater I washed it and set it outside in a shady place to dry while I went out for a few hours.  I was sure the place I left it would stay shady.  Wrong.  I came home to find my sweater fronts in full sun.  Logwood is fugitive with sunlight - so the body of my sweater is lighter than the sleeves.  But it will all fade to the same silvery color eventually anyway so I'm not heart broken.  I think this sweater looks like something I would make.  I'm used to the idea of having a recognizable painting style or writing voice but it seems odd to have a recognizable knitting 'voice' too.  

Eventually I will post a modeled photo.  

A few posts back I put up a photo of Stella McCartney and the other day I found an interview with her in an old magazine (W October 07).  At the end of the article there's two great quotes about fashion, personal style and age.  In speaking about her mother, Linda McCartney, Stella mentions that she had a natural sense of style and the way she wore clothes was very much a reflection of the person she was.  Stella says "She didn't conform, she had a good sense of, 'Enjoy it.'"

The author of the article, Bridget Foley, says Stella "believes enjoyment is still the better part of fashion, for consumer and designer alike."

When speaking about fashion, youth and experience Stella says, "My God, this is a forgiving industry ... In what other industry [do] you have people who are 80 who are really at the top of their field?  The young designers, their all knocking 40.  ... Fashion is so forgiving of age."

felt hats modeled

As a few people asked for modeled photos of the felt hats I made recently I asked a young woman to model them.  Here are two photos as well as a photo of a felt wrap I made this week.   

This is Kristi.  Doesn't she wear this cloche well.  I had folded the brim of the orange hat up but it looked very 80's.  Kristi suggested unfolding the brim and wearing the hat like a top hat.  

The felting is done on the scarf below but the piece feels unfinished so when I can get my hands on some embroidery thread I'm going to try adding some simple stitching to it.  

noticed

First a big thank you to every one who left a comment here saying they appreciate the personal factor in knitting blogs.  This made me feel good and gave me another reason to continue here.

I have a few things for a 'noticed' post.  The top photograph is from the July 08 issue of Elle Canada.  It's Stella McCartney in a gigantic and - I think - whimsical sweater.  No information is given about the sweater but I assume it's one of her designs.  I find the puffed sleeves and the scale of the sweater both amusing and encouraging.  Will I be knitting anything like this soon?  Not likely - but it's fun to see Stella wearing it.  Especially because she's a really tiny woman but she's not letting that stop her from taking on this sweater. 

If you've been reading this blog since the beginning you might remember some variegated mohair in purples and magentas I was attempting to knit a DROPS shawl with.  The knitting wasn't going well so I offered the yarn to anyone who wanted it.  Lucette volunteered and I'm happy to say she turned the yarn into a beautiful shawl with a huge ruffle. I'm impressed with what Lucette did with the yarn and I hope she has a lot of fun with her shawl.  

June and July are not my favorite month for fashion magazines.  I don't know any Canadian girl who hangs around waiting for the latest word in swimwear fashion.  So this time of year I dig out fall issues from a few years ago and page through them again looking for ideas and inspiration that I've missed before.  The image below is a Chanel dress from the October 06 issue of W.

I'm not completely wild about the skirt part of the dress but I love the motif on the yoke-style top, the randomness of the stripes on the sleeves and the length of the sleeves.

After the recent crisis of confidence I've buckled down to finishing the lavender cardi.  The first sleeve has been knit and sewn in and I've spent most of today on the second sleeve.  If I work on the sleeve all day tomorrow as well it should be ready to be sewn in.  Then I just have the small collar to do.  Non-knitters say it's looking better than I think it does.  With any luck you'll soon be able to judge as well.  

One other thing - if anyone has been wondering about whether I still think about clothing and why we wear what we do and if I will write about it again - I still think about it and I hope to write on this topic again.  I haven't had much to say about clothing lately but the topic hasn't dropped off my radar.  When I have words to add on the topic they will appear here.  

'fashion's most charming medium'

I haven't been posting as much recently and I've been thinking about whether to continue knit blogging or not.  It looks like many have made the migration to the Ravelry forums.  I've thought about following too and certainly Ravelry adds to my life but I've come to the conclusion that for now anyway I'd like to continue adding posts here.  

On Sunday I ran in to a small bookstore called Laughing Oyster expecting to find I don't know what but not a great knitting book and out I came with a bright red bag and the book Knit Couture by Gail Downey and Henry Conway.

Gail Downey is of the London-based knitwear design company Weardowney and was a knitwear designer for John Galliano for six years.  Some of you might remember this winter I considered knitting a vest designed by Weardowney and featured in Rowan #42.  I even started said vest and then concluded the yarn I was using was far too puffy for the pattern.  But that's another story - back to the Knit Couture book.

The book contains 20 patterns and some of them are cute but it's real interest for me are the chapters covering knitting history and the place of knitwear in the collections of John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier, Kenzo, Sonia Rykiel and Vivienne Westwood.  And the photos of the designer knitwear ... they are the treasure in this book.  

I can't find any information about the knit below but it's an example of one of the knits I like.  There's something about it's unconventional shape and mixture of stockinette and textured stitches I find appealing.  It looks like something to throw on without a second thought and yet it doesn't look frumpy. 

Here's a quote from the Introduction "With it's practicability, decorative potential, and the unhurried pace at which it must be executed, hand knitting must be fashions most charming medium."

I should write this out on a small piece of paper and keep it in my pocket right now - fashion's most charming medium ...

As we speak things are less than charming with me and the lavender cardigan.  Actually on a stretch of Highway 30 we almost parted ways today.  The fault is mine of course - what was I thinking using 'no memory silk' for a sweater.  This yarn has use-only-for-a-wrap-or-shawl written all over it.  It would have made a gorgeous wrap.  Instead I'm 75% of the way to a baggy shapeless sweater.  Sigh.  One and a third more sleeves to go.  I'll finish it and hopefully move on the something wiser.  But I'll also not weave in the ends too tightly.  This stuff will frog well and ta da perhaps in a future year you will see it reborn as a wrap.  

This book has come at the right time for me as I've been thinking a lot about my knitting since January 08 and frankly most of it's far less than stellar.  The only piece I'm really happy with is that striped wrap with the indigo ruffle.  The rest feels pretty much like lessons learned hard.  

unhurried pace ... fashion's most charming medium ... 

hats!

I've wanted to make a felt hat since last summer when I did the Nuno Felting workshop.  This week I collected my hand felting equipment and went at it to produce two hats.  The orange one in the photo above and the blue cloche in the photo below.

If you're in a summer knitting slump a hat or other Nuno Felted item is a great idea.  No knitting involved and ohlala in half a day you have an FO.  

One word of caution - with hats correct size is an issue.  My felting book said to make a hat cut yourself a bubble wrap template by measuring around your head (22 inches in my case) and dividing this number in half (11 inches) add this to your 22 inches and then divide by 2 (33/2 = 16.5).  This gives the width of your bubble wrap template.  To get the length of your bubble wrap template measure from your crown to your mid ear (9 inches) and divide this number in half (4.5) and add this to the first measurement and divide by 2 (13.5/2 = 6.75). 

I wouldn't recommend this method.  My experience is that a template of this size will result in a hat that is far too big in circumference and not nearly deep enough.  I ended up using a bubble wrap template 12 inches wide and 14 inches long and rounded at the top.  The template could have even been a bit narrower.

I don't know why but I found that even though I laid out my roving slivers horizontally and vertically, I got a lot of shrinkage lengthwise and no shrinkage width or circumference wise.  Similar to my experience when I felt knit pieces. 

I love my hats but I want to experiment with more modern shapes as these seem very 1980's to me - so - you guessed it - I ordered more roving.  In case you think I've given up knitting I haven't.  I still knit every day.  But it feels like my rows are being sucked into some summer black knitting hole - I knit but my pieces don't seem to get longer.  Tomorrow I'm going to give it some concentrated effort to see if I can't make more progress.   

knitting update

Have been thinking I don't write enough here about my process.  Still working on the lavender cardigan and thought I would outline my process with it.

Close to 2 years ago I ordered 2 skeins (over 2000 yards) undyed Henry's Attic Naturalle Silk - the order was a whim as I didn't have a project in mind.  But I had fond memories of sewing with raw silk fabric in the early 80's.  Raw silk has a strange smell - quite sweet and strong so the first thing I did was leave the skeins on my deck for a month.  Then (again on a whim) I dyed the yarn with logwood and came up with this lavender color (which is a bit more grey than it shows up on my monitor).  I wasn't 100% sure I liked the color and considered overdyeing it but didn't.

The yarn sat for a while and then I started thinking about knitting with it.  I swatched it with some other yarns and considered using it for the SKIF Zena, the Lacy Bowed Skirt (Kat Coyle), and the Gear Linen Tunic (Setsuko Torii).  None of these seemed quite right for the yarn so it went back in the stash emerging every once in a while for another look. 

Finally this spring I started thinking about knitting a cardigan to replace the Hall of Shame Grey Hoodie and this silk on it's own seemed a good choice.  It won't hold a lot of shape and will bag and droop but comfort factor was my main concern for something that will be worn only at home.  

I had a store-bought grey cotton/wool/angora cardigan that I wore a lot this winter and decided to use it as a template for this cardigan.  I settled on knitting the sweater in pieces and using short row shaping for the shoulders.  After swatching I calculated a cast-on number for the back neck and shoulders (108 stitches).  This cast on seemed way too big when I got it on (happens frequently with me) so I ripped it off and cast on 82 stitches.  This also seemed too big and so I tried 76 stitches, which seemed good until I got the short rows done and realized yikes the whole thing shortens up with short rows!  So I frogged again and cast on 102 stitches.  Back almost to where I began, so I could have just stayed with my initial cast on and saved myself a few evenings of work.  I should mention this is a completely typical process for me.  

Once I got the shoulder shaping done I measured the arm holes and drew out the shape and calculated my increases for the back armhole shaping.  Even though I calculated my increases I never rely completely on these, instead I held the piece up to my body and the grey sweater and when I felt the shape wasn't right I frogged back.  

I finished the back piece with some ribbing at the bottom edge but didn't like the look of the ribbing so I frogged this too and will look through my books for an alternate edging.  I'll probably swatch a few edges and then make a choice.  I thought about just going with a rolled edge but decided against it.

To start the front pieces I picked up stitches at the shoulder edges and did short row shaping here again.  Increases have been added at both the side and center edges for the neck and arm hole shaping.  Once again I calculated these increases but also tried the knitting on every few rows to see if the shape was matching what I wanted.  I frogged a few times but not many rows.  

I'm not wild about ribbing button bands so on the front edges I've created a turn-over edge by purling the sixth stitch from the front edge on both sides.  The edge stitch is also purled.  I'll turn this edge over and sew it down when I'm doing the finishing.  I'm undecided about what I will do with the neck edge so will solve that problem later.  Maybe a tiny tiny collar, maybe just a bit of crochet to give it more structure - but not a ribbed edge.  

At this point I'm in the misgivings stage - like wondering why I didn't just go buy a new hoodie and be done with it.  Knitting gives you too much time to think about what else you could have done with the yarn.  Like wouldn't this silk have just looked better as a fairly dense wrap with a lot of stockinette in it.  Like this Meandering Vines Shawl. 

I'm methodical in my knitting though so I will finish this even though there are a few other things I've got in mind that I'd love to work on.  But one knit at a time is all I can deal with.  And I've got to tell you - not finishing a knit just slays my self-esteem - now is that silly or what. The one thing that I'm really glad about is that I didn't overdye this lavender color.  It looks pretty knit up - greyer than in the photo.  And this yarn feels like velvet when it's knit.  

knitting resources for Japanese patterns

After my last post Ana asked if I had any advice on understanding Habu patterns.  

I'm the last person come to for advice on dealing with patterns as I never stick to a pattern - for me a pattern is a jumping off place.  I do have a bit of advice though and I've also talked with some friends who have been kind enough to share a few resources.  

Here is an article on interpreting Japanese patterns and here is some information on charting patterns.

For understanding what you're doing with knitting stitches I recommend the book Knitting for Anarchists by Anna Zilboorg.  Deborah Newton's book on sweater design is also helpful for understanding garment shaping and getting the hang of sweater math.  

With the Habu Kushu Kushu Jacket I started with a large swatch 8 x 10 inches which I measured pre and post felting.  From this I came up with a pre and post felting gauge.  I also came up with a % shrinkage length and width wise.  The % shrinkage is really important when figuring out how long and wide to knit your pieces.

Next I checked the measurements on the Kushu schematic and compared this to some sweaters I have and decided on the final measurements I was aiming for with my jacket.  From this I came up with the number of stitches I needed to cast on for each piece.  I followed the general idea of the pattern but did not use the same cast on number or the same row numbers as the pattern does.  

At first I was puzzled by people saying they have trouble understanding the Habu patterns. The instructions for increases and decreases particularly seemed clear to me.  You're given a small grey box and at the bottom told how many stitches you will need to increase or decrease.  Then you're given a set of figures. 

For example the grey box will have a set of figures like below:

2-1-4

2-2-2

(-8)

The figures are read from the bottom up and left to right.  The first number (-8) means you will decrease 8 stitches in this set of shaping.  The first number in the row of 3 numbers (2-2-2) refers to the number of rows you knit before increasing or decreasing.  In this case on every second row - so knit one row and on the second row increase or decrease.  The middle number is how many stitches to increase or decrease - so in this case decrease 2 stitches on every second row.  The third number means how many times you repeat this - so you do it twice.  After you've done this you move on to the next set of numbers (2-1-4) and on every second row you decrease 1 stitch and you do this 4 times.  It took me a while to get used to this manner of knitting instruction but once you get the hang of it it's very elegant.  Stripped down to the essence as one friend calls it.  

It was only when I sat down to chart the front of the jacket for someone that I saw where people might be getting confused.  The grey instruction boxes are placed around the pattern schematic and it's not always easy to know when you should be paying attention to which box.  This is where some understanding of garment construction helps.  You really do need to be able to visualize the shape you're creating and how knitting increases and decreases help you create this shape. 

After having thought about it for a while I'm fairly certain with the right front of the Kushu jacket the decreases for the seam side of the right front piece begin 8 rows into your knitting.  To begin the piece you cast on 1 stitch and then every other row for 7 times you cast on 12 more stitches on the center edge.  Then you do one more row in where you cast on 11 stitches on the center edge.  At this point you begin the decreases on the seam edge and this should begin to create the parallelogram shape of the lower right front of the jacket (see schematic in photo below).  This is an unconventional way to begin a sweater front and it did take a while of mulling it over to sort it out.  So I can see why people are confused.  If you plan to knit this jacket I would suggest knitting the back piece first, then the left front piece and then the right front piece.  The shaping on the left front piece is less complicated than the right front piece so it seems a good place to start. 

With some of the Habu patterns I think that charting each line of the pattern is the only way to go.  The patterns come with a small chart and instructions for how to chart the pattern.  With the right front piece of the Kushu jacket the seam edge and the center edge are shaped a bit like a parallelogram rather than having standard waist shaping.  This means that you aren't doing the same increases/decreases on each end of your knitting.  On the center edge you're increasing every 6 rows and on the seam edge you're decreasing every 8 rows.  The only way I would be able to keep this straight is to do a chart like the one I did below.  

To make this chart you have a number for each row and have a left and right edge - then anytime you increase or decrease on a row you write the number of increases or decreases on the row line on the edge where you increase or decrease.  Charts like this take a bit of time and concentration (and triple checking) but once you've got one you can knit with more confidence.  

If you've been holding off on starting a Habu kit I hope this helps.

My last bit of advice is that there is no substitute for picking up the needles and trying something to see how it works.  You don't have to cast on 90 stitches.  If you want to see how a armhole or neck edging will work just cast on 30 stitches and make a test increase/decrease swatch - like a mini shape of what you're after.  Recently I was trying to follow instructions for short row shaping for shoulders.  I read the instructions over and over again and could not see how it would work.  Finally I cast on and tried it out and it worked much differently than I was imagining it would but it worked very well. 

more about Habu and working with silk and cotton yarn

Details on my next knit further down this post.

After my last post Carlene asked for more information on working with Habu yarns.  I've also been getting e-mails requesting information on working with the Habu kits.  So this is a little post sharing some of the things I've learned about knitting with Habu.  I'll also add a few tips for working with silk and cotton yarns.  

To start though - let me remind you I'm no expert.  I've been back at knitting for not quite 2 years and I've only made 3 Habu kits (Shippo Tail Scarf, Kit 74 and Kit 75).  I've also made one of Kat's skirts with a mix of Habu merino and Coats Opera Cotton.  I can't give you the last word on how things 'should' be done - can just say what works for me.  

One of the things that seems to make people nervous about the Habu yarns is how fine some of them are. They are fine and this made me nervous too.  When I ordered my first sweater kits from Habu I let them sit for a while just trying to work up the nerve to deal with thread weight yarn.  At first it did feel strange and I switched from bamboo to metal and back to bamboo needles until I finally felt more comfortable with the yarn.  Mostly I use bamboo needles with the Habu yarns but sometimes I use metal ones and really I think it's not the needles that are the issue it's just getting used to a much lighter weight yarn.  Once you get used to the light weight of these yarns you'll appreciate the lack of wrist strain.

One of the other issues with the felted kits that seems to unnerve people is that you knit the pieces so large and you can't try them on to check fit.  True again.  But I found if you swatch first and felt your swatch and keep careful notes on your pre-felt and post-felt swatch size and your felting process there shouldn't be a problem.  You just need to be sure to calculate the % shrinkage you get width and length wise and work with this.  If you get 50% length shrinkage as I did you need to make each piece twice as long as you want the finished piece to be.  With the Kushu jacket I would fold the knitting in half and hold it up to my body to get a rough idea of how it was going. 

A few people have wondered why I would want to knit something twice as big as the intended size - that's a lot of knitting.  True.  But in Issue 15 of Selvedge magazine the editor, Polly Leonard talks about believing that it's better to spend time making one beautiful thing rather than many so-so items. Sometimes it gets discouraging to look at my knit gallery and see so few items but in the end I'd rather have fewer more beautiful items.  Remembering that beauty is subjective.  

If you want to try a Habu knit but a thread weight yarn or felting is more than you want to bite off I recommend starting with the Shippo scarf or something else made with the paper linen yarn.  I also love the cotton gima yarn and it's got a bit more heft to it than some of the other yarns.  It's nowhere near a DK weight but it's not quite thread weight either.  I'm thinking of using cotton gima for Purling Plans Chyrsalis. 

Next we come to the issue of yarn management and tangles.  Silk and cotton yarn will tangle.  Fiercely. If you have a silk or cotton yarn cake or center pull ball always use the outside end of the yarn not the center pull end.  This tip comes from the No Sheep For You book and it does help with tangles. Still with this method sometimes I've had tangles toward the end of the cake.  With cotton and silk yarn I often use the old fashioned unglamorous 1950's ball like the one in the top photo.  It's not cool or pretty but it's the best bet for no tangles. 

While on the topic of silk - some people might not know there are many types and grades of silk.  Most people think of silk as a yarn with a sheen to it - like the cake on the left in the photo above.  There is also a silk called raw silk or silk noil and it does not have a sheen - like the cake on the right.  I tried to find out a bit about raw silk this week but wasn't able to turn up much information on it.  I think, but can't say for certain, that raw silk is made from the waste fibers leftover from making the shiny silk.  In any case raw silk is not shiny - instead it looks a bit like inexpensive or substandard cotton yarn.  It's very soft though and I rather like it.  The cake on the right is raw silk - it's Habu Kenbo Chushi which is now discontinued but Habu has many other lovely silk yarns. 

For my next knit (top photo) - I'm using some Henry's Attic raw silk that I dyed with logwood last year to make a simple cardigan.  The silk used without any wool will stretch and bag but I'm not too worried about this - what I'm after is a sweater to replace my hideous grey hoodie.  I plan to mostly wear the logwood cardigan at home and am hoping it turns out to be something comfortable to put on when I come in the door from work.  

If people have other questions about working with the Habu yarns or cotton and silk please leave your questions and if I can answer them I will.  

finished!

The silk wrap for my aunt is finally finished.  Details on it again are - Habu Silk Kenbo Chushi yarn - Garter Lace stitch from The Book of Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls by Martha Waterman.  Except I messed with the stitch a bit and I wouldn't recommend this.  I also used 4mm needles for the body of the wrap and this was too large - next time I would use 3.2mm needles.

The edging is Grandmother Edging from Barbara Walker's second book of stitches.  In this case it's knit separately and crocheted on to the body of the wrap later.  I love this edging.  In fact it's my favorite part of this wrap.  

knitting update and meme

First the knitting update - the silk wrap for my aunt is almost done.  It would be really done but I decided to add an edging to the ends.  I've wanted to use the Grandmother Edging from B. Walker's second stitch book for ages.  I've gone down to size 3.25mm needles for the edging and what do you know I'm much happier knitting with this silk.  I should have been using this needle size all along.  In my haste to finish the gift knit I chose the 4mm needles and it turned out to be a mistake.  Happier knitting makes more sense than faster knitting even with gift knitting.  Here's a photo of the edging.

Now the meme.  The first question is that one the I'm tripping up on.  But here we go - Where was I ten years ago?  Freshly moved back to Saskatchewan - living 20 miles out of Saskatoon on an acreage.  A long way from family and friends.  In yet another ... what word to use ... let's just say difficult relationship.  I was doing work I liked well enough but for someone I didn't like.  So not the best of times.  But to look at the positives I was happy to be living under an open sky again, the sun was endless and I was writing again (short stories).  Everything was being rejected for publication but I was having fun writing and learning that while literary rejection is no fun it's not the end of the world.  

Five things from my to-do list today (besides work).  Pick up jeans that had been hemmed. (check)  Take disk with photo homework on it to the printer (check) Finish filing my expense report (no check but at least I found out what the problem was).  Post to my photoblog (check).  Do laundry (check).  And many other things not done.

Favorite snacks.  Dark chocolate.  And a strong cup of tea.  Especially in the afternoon.  If I eat a large lunch I'm kind of toast for my afternoon clients so I eat a bit of cheese or smoked salmon for lunch and then nibble on chocolate between clients.  My first thought when I read this question was to remember a psychiatrist I saw who used to eat mixed nuts sometimes in the sessions.  Yes the irony was not lost on me.  Btw: sometimes when people come to see me they ask how many degrees I have or where I studied - this is so the wrong question when you're looking for a good therapist.  In my view the best therapists have all learned their trade by spending many years in the client chair.  The question to ask is not where did you study but how many years of therapy have you had.  Okay that's a big tangent from snacks.

If I were a billionaire I would buy my husband a big boat with lots of downriggers and trap pullers and holding tanks for all the fish he catches.  Oh and a safety suit cause I want that boy around for a while.  I'd also go to photography school.  And take a trip to India.  

Places lived - too many to list.  But my favorite place was the summer I lived in the forest on a cliff above everyone else and had a view of the ocean.  It was the best place to live.  And free because all I had was a tarp, my bike and a borrowed camp stove.  

Wasn't there a question about jobs held?  Again too many to list.  But I'm the only person I know who walked away from a good job and a private therapy practice to mow lawns and clean houses.  Everyone thought I was crazy but it was a careful and deliberate decision.  I needed time to think and not see clients. I never regretted this decision and I loved being outside and working with my body instead of my mind.  I'm back to working as a therapist but somedays I miss those leave it all behind workdays.