A Very Swedish Knitting Night

Last night Inger Fredholm, author of Knitting with a Smile, visited Unique One. She is a wonderful person; I felt like I've known her for a long time. She's an amazing designer, totally dedicated to the craft, and she has a great sense of humor. She talked about her own history of knitting and about knitting in general; we were thrilled to have a chance to see the actual garments from her book; she told us several funny stories. In one story, she found herself in an elevator with her teenage daughter, and a celebrity. She was trying to get her daughter's attention to see the celebrity, and her daughter, very sleepy, just kind of looked up and squinted. Later, after the celebrity was gone, her daughter said, "Why were you poking me?! It was just an ordinary sweater!" Inger's very charming husband, Nils, knitted on a Very Swedish Sweater as Inger talked. It was a great night and I was so happy to have met them both.

I was utterly stupid and forgot to bring my camera! Sorry. But Victoria brought some Very Swedish Cinnamon Buns that she had baked from the recipe in Knitting with a Smile, and I forgot my worries. They are good buns! I'm so glad Inger included the recipe in the book. All knitting books should come with tasty recipes, don't you think?

The garments she brought to show us were even more gorgeous in person than they are in her book. My fingers are itching to pick up some Jamieson & Smith 2-ply shetland wool and some needles and start knitting. Problem is, I want to knit them all! I'm sure my great niece would like the Tango Dress, knit in Stork (Dale of Norway's fine gauge cotton). Alas, my time is not my own.....

Inger was very nice and signed a boatload of books for me, so I have some autographed copies of Knitting with a Smile. They're $48.95 -- email me if you want one. :)

Visit Inger's website, if you get a chance!

Weaving 101

Wow. I just took a 3-day weaving class from Mike Patterson at Halcyon Yarn in Bath, Maine. It was incredible. I went in knowing nothing about weaving except that it used yarn and looms. And now I can weave! Yay!

It was an amazing 3 days, Mike is an excellent teacher. I recommend if you have the chance to take any class from him, and especially this weaving class, do not hesitate. I was a little iffy because the class was kind of expensive, but believe me it was worth twice what I paid for it.

There were five of us in the class, and the classroom had 6 looms set up, all different makes. Each of us was assigned a loom and a project sheet; we made the warp for our project, and then warped our looms (back to front, in case you were wondering). Then we each wove a piece from our project sheet. And then -- we switched with another person, and wove their project sheet on their loom, and then switched again -- overall, each of us tried 6 different looms and 6 different kinds of weaving. I learned so much!

We then learned how to take the weaving off the loom, and our sections of weaving were cut apart, so each of us came home with a little piece of weaving and the project sheet for each of the little pieces, so we can go on to try them on our own. It was great.

I started with a twill project, using Shetland wool on an Ashford loom. I only remembered to bring my camera on the second day, so here ya go:

The warping board.

My record sheet.

The loom is warped!

I threaded the heddles.

My first weaving!

My second weaving!

That's all the pictures I got in the classroom.

Here are photos of all the weaving samples I did & brought home:

The twill I started with.

My second weaving was lace weave, done in linen. It's very pretty when light shines through it -- I'm thinking curtains....

Another example of twill, in a pattern called Gothic Cross. I beat it too hard at the beginning, so it looks kind of squashed, but I got better as I went on.

This is overshot weaving, and probably was my favorite. It was fun because it was a little more complicated and ... fun. And it's really pretty.

This is plain weave, or tabby.

I only had time to do a tiny little bit of rug weaving. This is weft-faced weave. It's pretty, but not really my thing. You have to beat the rug weaving a lot harder than the others, and while it is kind of fun to beat it like that for a while, it would wear me out if I did it too long, I think.

I love my weaving, but Nick didn't want to look at it. It wouldn't pat him and he couldn't eat it, so he didn't see much point in it.

Newsletter: Fall '05

Sorry no posts lately! Been busy. (Still am).

BUT

The new Unique One Fall Newsletter is online. Click here to see it.

It includes info about what's up at Unique One: a yarn sale; a Swedish designer (Inger Fredholm, author of Knitting With a Smile) who will be visiting Unique One soon; a new hat pattern that I designed for one of the new yarns we got this fall, and more! There's also a really early heads-up about a knit-inn I'm in the process of putting together for March 24, 25, & 26. If any of you are near Camden, Maine, I hope you can drop by to take advantage of the sale or to hear Inger's talk about Swedish knitting, but even if you're too far away to do that, you can at least benefit from the hat pattern -- I designed it for K1C2's new Paintbox yarn, but you could use it with pretty much any worsted weight yarn. However, I see that I very stupidly forgot to include the gauge in the pattern. Duh! Oh well. The hat is done in a worsted weight yarn on size 7 needles.

Jayne Hat Pics & Pattern!

Here, as promised, is a picture of the Unique One Firefly Gang attending the Serenity movie in their Jayne Hats:

From L to R: Tracy, Stacy, Grace & Victoria. Y'all look WUNNERFUL in yer Jayne Hats!!

And Tracy was so gracious as to write out the pattern for her Jayne Hat, mostly because I begged and whined unceasingly for her to do so, and she is allowing me to post it here. Thanks, Tracy!!! Please leave her a comment of appreciation here on this post, and I'll make sure she reads it. And go see the Serenity movie! Here is her pattern:

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Jayne Cobb's mom made him this cunnin' hat. It's not beautiful, but it does say something about the wearer! This pattern closely matches the original hat as seen in Firefly episode "The Message."

Lambs Pride Bulky in A. Autumn Harvest, B. Sunburst Gold, and C. Rust

Size 10.5 needles--16" circulars and double points

Basic hat is knit first, then stitches are picked up around the edge for the earflaps. This fits a 22" head and would easily stretch to a 23" head.

CO 60 loosely in A. Autumn Harvest on circular needles; join, being careful not to twist.

Place a stitch marker at the beginning of the round, k 20 stitches, place a second marker, *k1, p1* rib for the rest of the round. Repeat this pattern for five rounds.

The 20 K stitches will be the forehead of the hat.

Change to K each round and continue with A. Autumn Harvest for a total of four inches (edge to end, including the ribbed section).

Cut A. Autumn Harvest and join B. Sunburst Gold. K around for four inches (total hat length, 8")

K2tog for two rounds, switching to dp when there are not enough stitches to go around the circular needles. Cut 12" tail, pull through the stitches and weave in on the inside of the hat.

Earflap:

Hold hat open side up. Pick up 16 stitches with C. Rust starting at the edge of the K stitches (pick up in the ribbing).

St st for three inches (k one row, p one row); end after a P row.

Do short row: K 13, sl 1, TURN WORK AROUND, bring yarn forward, p 13, sl 1, TURN WORK AROUND, k to end of row.

St st for two inches; end after a P row.

Decreases:
K until there are 3 st left, k2tog, k 1
P until there are 3 st left, p2tog, p 1
repeat these two rows until you have six stitches left on the needles. Bind off. Leave 6" tail.

Pick up 16 stitches on the other side of the hat, this time ending at the K area. Make earflap again.

Finishing:

Make pompom out of C. Rust, do not trim for evenness. Attach to top of hat. Cut a few 6" pieces of C. Rust and dangle from ends of earflaps. Flip earflaps up; the short row will help make the flaps flip up.

Roll in straw and wear pearched high on your forehead. And, go see Serenity in the theater so that Jayne will fly again!

Do Sheep Play Paintball?

Ran across this site today & had to share it:

The Sheep Theory

Love the SAS (Special Air Sheep)(face disquised to protect identity)

heh heh