Julia!
I think they’ll have a good home there because Julia can make beauties like these:
which I think is totally amazing.
Congratulations!
Tag Archive for 'Knitting'
Last week, I went to Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum to see Fashioning Felt before it closes in September. It is a lovely exhibition and the Palace Yurt is the most peaceful, almost cocoon-like environment I’ve ever been in, but the real discovery for me was Christien Meindertsma. Her work is not only featured in Fashioning Felt, but also in Cooper Hewitt’s second major exhibit: Design for a Living World.
Photo by: Roel Van Tour
Christien focuses on the connection between the producer of the raw material, in this case farmers and their sheep, and the final consumer. For Design for a Living World, Christien worked with the Lava Lake Ranch in Idaho where she gathered and felted wool into yarn tagging each lot with the particular sheep that produced it. Using giant knitting needles, she knits individual hexagons that loosely emulate the shape of a sheep. Each hexagon uses all the wool produced by one sheep. The individual shapes can be linked together to produce a larger rug made of a flock of sheep.
Check out this 2 minute video to hear her talk about the process and watch her knit in this enormous gauge.
Jane Cunningham Croly
I was going through some antique Needlecraft magazines I had received from my grandmother and found a little book called Knitting and Crochet. A Guide to the Use of The Needle and the Hook. It was edited by Jenny June. Curious to find out more about Jenny, I stumbled upon a powerhouse of a role model.
Jenny June was an alias for Jane Cunningham Croly. Born in England in 1829, she was a journalist and probably the first syndicated woman’s columnist with her column “Jennie June.” In 1868, the New York Press Club refused admission to Croly who wanted to attend a dinner featuring Charles Dickens. In response, Croly founded Sorosis a professional women’s association. With Sorosis, Croly sought to create a
club composed of women only that should manage its own affairs, represent as far as possible the active interests of women, and create a bond of fellowship between them..” (J.C. Croly, The History of the Woman’s Club Movement in America (1898), p. 15)
During her long professional career, Croly went on to found the New York Women’s Press Club in 1889, ran the women’s department at New York World, and became the chief staff writer of Demorest’s Monthly Magazine. She also taught journalism and literature at Rutger’s Women’s College.
As a journalist, mother of four, and women’s club leader, I think she would have quite enjoyed this world of blogs and alternative career paths. So here to honor her work is an excerpt out of Knitting and Crochet, edited by Jenny June:
No. 36 Triangular Kilted Pattern
Cast on any number of stitches divisible by nine.
- First row.–Purl 8, knit 1; repeat.
Second row.–Purl 2, knit 7; repeat.
Third Row.–Purl 6, knit 3; repeat.
Fourth Row.–Purl 4, knit 5; repeat.
Fifth Row.–Purl 4, knit 5; repeat.
Sixth Row.–Purl 6, knit 3; repeat.
Seventh Row.–Purl 2, knit 7; repeat.
Eighth Row.–Like first row.
Ninth Row.–Like first row.
Repeat from second row.
For the crochet edge: Work one double into the first stitch–that is, knitted throughout–pass over three stitches, three trebles, three double trebles, and three trebles into the next stitch, pass over three stitches and repeat.
Continuing with this week’s knitting theme, let’s talk hats. Over the weekend, I’ve rediscovered the knitting of caps. There are many reasons to specialize in noggin covers:
You can:
- Knit one in the time it takes to watch [insert two-hour activity e.g., Iron Man, election coverage, hockey game]
- Use up your leftover yarn
- Use that one special skein you got in a swap
- Try out a new pattern
- Practice knitting in the round with double pointed needles
- Test drive a design before committing $200 in yarn for the sweater version
So here is your basic hat pattern:
Cast on Stitches
Before you start, you need to know the circumference of the hat you wish to make. Either measure around the head to be covered with a tape measure, or use one of these standard measures: Women’s hats are about 21 to 22 inches in circumference, men’s hats are about 22 to 24 inches around. Lucia has a great chart on her blog on the bottom of this page.
Then you need to determine your gauge (aka how many stitches equal one inch and I leave it up to you and your confessional whether you actually knit up a swatch or blindly trust the banderole information on your skein), plug in your numbers in this formula.
(number of stitches per inch) X circumference in inches = number of stitches to cast onYou may need to adjust this number, depending on
- the requirements of the pattern you are using. For example, if you will have a 2 knit 2 purl ribbing around the edge, you need a number you can divide by four. And,
- the decreases you wish to take when you knit up the crown of the hat. For the hats in this picture, I gradually decreased the number of stitches at the crown at six different points. Consequently, the number of stitches I cast on had to be divisible by six.
Example: For the pink hat, the gauge was 2.6 stitches = 1 inch. For a hat with a 21 inch circumference, the calculation is 2.6 X 21 = 54.6. The pattern at the bottom of the hat had to be divisible by 5, so I rounded the 54 stitches up and cast on 55 stitches. The number of stitches at the crown however, had to be divisible by 6. When I got to that point, I knitted two stitches together (54) and then proceeded to decrease the stitches 6 times over the round.
Using either a short, 16 inch, circular needle or a set of double pointed needles, cast on your calculated number of stitches and close the round.
Knit the Hat
This is the fun part, knit whatever pattern you selected until your hat is approximately 6 1/2 inches tall. If you’re making a men’s hat, you may want to add an inch. For the pink hat, I used Nicky Epstein’s Eyelet Rib (sans bobbles). Right now I’m trying out a false flame stitch with this hat.
Shape the Crown
Make even decreases around the round to shape the crown. This is what six evenly spaced decreases look like.
Example: Using the infamous pink hat one more time: If you want to take those six decreases, follow this pattern: 54:6=9
- Round 1: *knit 8 stitches, knit 2 together* repeat five times, equals 48 stitches
- Round 2: *knit 7 stitches, knit 2 together* repeat five times, equals 42 stitches
- Round 3: *knit 6 stitches, knit 2 together* repeat five times, equals 36 stitches
- Round 4: *knit 5 stitches, knit 2 together* repeat five times, equals 30 stitches
- Round 5: *knit 4 stitches, knit 2 together* repeat five times, equals 24 stitches
- Round 6: *knit 3 stitches, knit 2 together* repeat five times, equals 18 stitches
- Round 7: *knit 2 stitches, knit 2 together* repeat five times, equals 12 stitches
- Round 8: *knit 1 stitch, knit 2 together* repeat five times, equals 6 stitches
Cut off yarn leaving a 10 inch tail. Thread tail through remaining six stitches. Pull tight and sew in the end.
Embellishments
Now is the time to decorate. Sew on some pretty buttons. Add a little crochet something. Try your hand at needle felting. Sew on a ribbon, or just leave it plain.
Charities
If you get addicted to this pasttime and even your mom smiles painfully when you offer her another hat, here are some charities that gratefully accept your work:
Knitting for Noggins collects hats for patients at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital.
Afghans for Afghans collects knit and crocheted goods to send to Afghanistan.
Cubs for Kids collects clothing for teddy bear cubs. The dressed up bears are distributed to children in homeless shelters.
Interweave Knits has an extensive list of knitting charities.
