Is Pattern just a Tool?

Is pattern just a tool, a delivery system tool? A tool to deliver color.

For me, it is the colors in Fair Isle sweaters that ring my bell. When I first noticed them, just like many, it was the eye-opening Starmore. I knew I was in trouble as I crossed the threshold [more ways than one] at the Tomato Factory in Lambertville, NJ. While selecting different colors for a pattern and I got the first three easy. Then I was up to 6 with no problem. But when I was up to my 19th color, I was a little flummoxed. Or do I mean entranced? The blends, oh, those blends….

So here I am, stuck in the back yard on my carder. I am fighting those raindrops over the last few days and I am trying to finish the orange blend. For the last set, I am hoping I have enough left over for an Alpaca Legs mix. I have some light cadmium red that would go great. Looks like matching socks to me.


Something about this mix is just taking forever to spin. It is so light. I spin and spin and spin and only have 3 bobbins. Plying takes a long time too. I get a huge bobbin of 3 ply sport – fingering weight yarn. All excited I weight several batches. How can all that yarn weigh just 5 oz? The merino is very light and spongy but tightly plied. Now I will have to pull out my yardage counter and see just how big this is.


Gee, the merino has been fun, even if it is a sinkhole of time. Gotta be just me, I think. Logy with the heat and humidity? Playing with 4-way blends reminds me of the nights when I used to sit down with some Jamieson & Smith heathers and try to figure the percentage by taking apart a 3 in piece of yarn. All could be lost with a quick pass of a cat’s tail. I was mesmerized by the colors and just wanted to get a blend that was similar. I hoped for the relative percentage and base colors. I didn’t chart them all, but I do have about 20 of them. Sometimes, in carding the leftover superwash, I unwittingly match a color on my color card that I have admired. I would have to dig in the garage to come up with my list of all of them now, but I do have a couple that I use regularly. Do you all have a favorite Shetland color blend? I mean can you pick one, just one on the charts?

Mind you, all this work, this hair-brained scheme, was due to my love of the yarn. So when I try to make a blend like it now, it is as an homage more than an exact copy. Kind of like listening to a song you used to listen to in your youth. A remembrance, a quote to a past joy. I love making my own blends too. You are looking at one now.

Which brings us right back to pattern as a delivery tool for color. Pattern soothes our eyes and brain. Fine pattern, like the dots on your TV can deliver data, images, movement. But on sweater scale, is pattern a delivery system for the joyful Shetland colors. Wasn’t your enchantment of Fair Isle sweaters due to the soft and gentle blending of a bazillion shades so close you have to really search for the transition? Would you like the sweaters as much if they were bright primary colors? Or rich and complex blends of two, three, four, five, maybe more colors.

So many places for your eyes to rest.

Get some colors at Elemental Affects.

Return of the Giant Rolags

Fiber preparation, more so than spinning, is frequently done in a vacuum. Since we work by ourselves, odd habits can develop unchecked that you don’t even recognize until you do them in a group setting and get those curious looks from your fellow workers.

See how the firm cardboard tube helps me to clean almost all the fiber from the drum?

Case in point: When drawing off your batts, do you a) lay them flat and pull into strips, b) lay them flat and pull across to make rolags, c) make giant rolags ro d)Batts? I only use prepared fiber.

Be honest here, I am counting.

The next question is DOES IT MATTER? Does the final yarn differ with the three methods and is one somehow wrong. Remember that any prep coming from a carder is essentially woolen, not worsted. Are there differing degrees of woolen-ness?

I am of the giant rolag camp, but I have never seen anyone else do this. How crazy am I, or is it lazy? My yarn is nice and even and I like it so I will probably continue with this method. I do think that fiber might have something to do with your choice, particularly fiber length. But I am not sure why I think that, perhaps it is just an instinct.

I am using superwash merino for this, incredibly clean and easy to card even on my Mark V. The fiber is already prepared so I am just color blending for this batch. Vote below and tell me what you think.

Color is also a strange thing. I got several pounds of a rather ugly 50/50 mix of navy and medium orange. The bag just sat there taunting me. I couldn’t picture what to blend it with to make this nasty mix nice. Sample time. I pulled out my trusty box of mixables and tried a few. I mixed it with pale yellow & green (fiberguy’s choice), red and Steeler yellow (my choice). The final ratio was 1 hot red, 2 Steeler Yellow, 8 of the nasty 50/50 mix. Now I have bucketloads of this wonderful orange heather. Yummy.

Of course, that worked so well that I am wondering what other crappy mix of colors did I buy and what can I mix them with. No good blend goes unpunished.

Knitting for Therapy

That’s *FOR* therapy, not *AS* therapy. Know anyone with arthritis in the feet? Or just unusually cold feet. As knitters we can help that. As spinners we can really help.

This all started as a discussion with Judith McKenzie about Angora and its properties. She mentioned that it was used by hospitals in blankets for therapy. I investigated this and found she was correct, of course. But beside angora, what can we use for socks that will help? After some experiments, this is what I tried:

For non-spinners, try Knit Picks Andean Silk twist. With 55% Super Fine Alpaca, 23% Silk, 22% Merino Wool, it is warm and reflects heat a great deal. At $1.99/ball it's a great bargain (3balls minimum per pair). You must knit in some structure to hold them up for all that slinky goodness. I added ribbing starting mid-foot up to leave room for swollen tootsies. Knit on #3’s and using my standard 52 stitches (think deck of cards), afterthought heel with white woolly nylon. At the moment, this is so soft and warm that it is in the running for one of the top 3 socks I have ever made.


For spinners, try blends. I used alpaca leg wool mixed with a crappy but crimpy and felty brown unknown wool. Alpaca for softness and felty wool to hold slippery ends in a bit. My foot area is made from 2 plys of recycled cashmere (each two ply), 1 ply woolly nylon, 1 ply crappy brown. That makes it cling and reflect heat. It gives me a chance to use recycled cashmere leftovers in a machine washable sock. The alpaca legs just fuzz right out when washed – yummy and soft.

During the stormy times when joints move poorly, I try to stick to simple patterns for ease and distraction. At the end of the day, I have a new hat. (original pattern photo - Magknits Fake Isle).


So that got me thinking about favorite socks. What is YOUR favorite pair of socks ever? They can be handknit, handspun or store bought. Now, the hard part; tell me WHY it is your favorite. I think I would have to say my fav is a pair that has sat in my drawer for at least nine years. I loved them so much, I let them take up space just so I can remake them someday. They were combed grey Jacob and multicolor Kid Mohair spun into a 3-ply sport. Sadly, they shrunk more than I planned and blew out the heel/leg. I will honor their existence by remaking them.

Hot sauce is good for arthritis too. Fiery foods booty (and today's pretty apple).

Darn socks & Blend-a-long part 1 -- Ply blends

More things off the table today. 8 socks darned - yes I darn handspun, handknit socks. Usually though, I will replace heels instead of darning. This is not really picture worthy as they just look like really old socks and sometimes have heels of different colors.

Two second mousing gauntlets done. Again, no pics as you have seen these. Like second sock syndrome, SSS, I have problems with glove pairs. But I am all done but one.

The wonderful Habetrot has put up my humble little sheep on her famous site. Gee, I feel honored. It's like making the cover of Time Magazine for sheep paintings. I have been enjoying her many knitting and sheep graphics since she started her site. But she really blew my mind when she brought my attention to the Latvian mitten collection. Full of knowledge, fiber-oriented and a wicked sense of humor - any wonder why I love this woman?

Ply Blends
I have been getting a lot of emails to slow down this blend-a-long until people without an enormous stash could get some fiber shipped. Fair enough. No photos of finished blends for a few days until everyone can catch up.

In the first part, we will determine a personal unit length, then spin 9 unit lengths of each of our 4 colors. We will create our two-ply blends. Then either cable these together or just hold 2 two-ply strands together for a swatch. We will repeat these steps for each of 4 colors as per the chart below.

This is ply blending only. All of our singles will be a solid color. In part II, we will get to using carded blends. This is a great exercise for spindles.

Here is the chart for this first part. A unit is whatever you define. For myself, A unit will be 3 armlengths as I go into the wheel or about 2.5-3 feet. Remember that for my colors, I chose Green and Purple, but you substitute your own colors here. You will need the black and white.

I will ply 3 units with like color (BB), and ply 3 units with opposite color (BW). Repeat for each of 2 colors and 2 neutrals as per chart.

It may sound a little confusing, but you are only making 9 total blends in this section, as per the middle chart.

Tips
Try to spin evenly so your sample shows color and not size variation.

Instead of a swatch, consider making socks, fingerless gloves, or some other small project with our samples. This way you will see your results and be able to show them off at guild meetings. If you plan this, you might need solid black to separate your rows. And since ply-blending is 4 ply but everything else will be two or three ply, you might want to spin thinner for the ply-blends.

In the carding sections, you could also comb. If you don't own cards or combs, consider a set of cat or dog brushes, or dog combs. I will be using the dog brushes for the carded section as I only want a short stripe of two rows.