Posted by: prairiespinner | November 28, 2008

As much fun as mud pies

I’ll readily admit it - I’m as easily amused as your average 5-year-old. Sit me down in front of an anthill or give me a kaleidoscope, and go do your shopping. (I’ve decided to consider this a charming personality trait rather than an indicator of mental development.)

Anyhow, it turns out that starting over on that sleeve had another benefit. I cannot imagine WHY I didn’t think of splicing all those color changes the first time around, but I didn’t. Probably because I haven’t had very good experiences with that technique the few times I’d tried it in the past, but boy am I over the hump on that one now. Turns out that spit splicing is as much fun as making mud pies! Not to mention the fact that it relieves me of the responsibility of weaving in hundreds of ends, which I was totally prepared to do. What an idjit I am was.

Here’s a picture of the inside of my sleeve in the current iteration:

Look, Ma, no yarn ends!

Look, Ma, no yarn ends!

Compared to the first time around:

The private side. Lots of ends to weave in!

The private side. Lots of ends to weave in!

See?!? I’m still shaking my head over that one. What was I THINKING???

So here’s my little tutorial on “spit splicing”. Basically, what you do is thin out the yarn ends you want to join, fold them back over each other and felt them together. Of course, this only works with yarns that will felt! Don’t bother with this technique if you’re using superwash wool, cotton, or anything else that is non-felting. You’ll want to look at Russian splicing for those.

First, each end of yarn needs to be divided; in this case, I’ve untwisted the plies for about 2 inches, and broken off one ply. On a three-ply yarn, you may want to break one ply at 2 inches and another at 1 inch. Breaking is definitely better than cutting - you want the fibers on those ends nice and open and kind of frayed.

Plies separated and ends broken off

Plies separated and ends broken off

Now lay them across your palm so that they cross each other about 1 inch from the end. Fold each one back along itself, looping it over the other one. Make sure that all the ends are lying neatly in order, not bunched up in spots.

Broken ends looped over each other

Broken ends looped over each other

Here comes the fun part. Get the folded-over sections nice and wet, being careful to spit out any loose fibers that stick to your tongue. (Sure, you can use plain water for this, but where’s the fun in that?)

Wet down and ready to roll...

Wet down and ready to roll...

Then vigorously rub your hands together, rolling the yarn until you can feel heat from the friction. Check to see if they are nicely joined, and repeat as needed. If you do it just right, you can hardly even tell where the yarns change.

Hard to tell that there's a change from one yarn to another!

Hard to tell that two yarns are joined here!

Ta da! You have provided, on a miniature scale, the elements required for felting: the right kind of fiber + heat and moisture + agitation. It’s amazing how strong and invisible this join can be.

Okay, I’ll admit that so far, I have only done this in the privacy of my own home, and my family members don’t bat an eyelash. This little exercise might get some funny looks out in the real world, though, and I’d probably think twice before spit splicing in public. Maybe. Then I’d do it anyway.

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Posted by: prairiespinner | November 19, 2008

Before and after

I will let the pictures speak for themselves first…

Before

Before

After

After

No, I didn’t mix up the captions. I ripped out the whole sleeve, back to the cuff. It had slowly dawned on me that, aside from having other projects that I needed to work on, I was becoming reluctant to knit on this sleeve. I enjoy watching this colorful knitted fabric grow under my fingers, so the reluctance was unusual. Once I actually stopped to think about it, it didn’t take long to identify the cause: the sleeve was just too narrow. I had slipped it on my arm several times, tugged a little to approximate blocking, and thought it should turn out okay, but my subconscious was smarter than my conscious in this case (again). I wanted it to be better than just “okay”. So I finally listened, pulled out the needles and had a good old time ripping it back.

My eldest daughter watched me with a bit of dismay, but it felt good to start the corrective procedure. I knew darn well that if I wasn’t happy with it at this stage, I wouldn’t be any happier with it down the road. Any time spent knitting after I knew it wasn’t working out would have been wasted, but I count the time up until that point as well spent; it was the cost of learning (or reinforcing) something important.

I have changed the rate of increases and reprinted the chart. The yarn is ready to go, with all the different colors loosely knotted to each other in proper order and wound back around the working ball. This will actually make it much easier to work on – as long as I left long enough ends the first time around to make up for the extra stitches in each round!

I believe a good phrase to use in such a situation is “advancing to the rear”. I’m not sure who coined the term, but it is military in origin. As in, “not retreating, but advancing to the rear”. As in, regrouping for another forward action. As in realizing when it’s not working out, going back to a place from which it can be fixed and fixing it.

Once again, knitting illustrates a valuable life lesson. Too many important lessons have a much higher cost, so any time I can get a good one at no more expense than some time pleasurably spent knitting, I’ll take it and be grateful!

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Posted by: prairiespinner | November 17, 2008

Ezine update

Wouldn’t you know it… I simply could NOT wait any longer for the Winter issues of a couple of the online magazines (see the previous post) to go… well, online, so I did my little reviews last week.

But now, two new issues are up, with some great designs! Go have a look at the new Twist Collective and Knotions! I am enjoying them, and hope you will, too.

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Posted by: prairiespinner | November 9, 2008

Ezines = electronic/online magazines for knitters

The world of online knitting magazines will probably always be in a state of flux, wiith startups, successes, fizzles and shutdowns. I thought I’d see what’s out there right now, and tell you what I think about it.

Most online magazines mimic their print cousins to some extent, with articles, patterns, and advertising. The big advantage to publishing online is that production and distribution are so easy and cheap. Depending on the format, that is. Some of the most feature-rich ones aren’t cheap at all, I don’t expect, but are still in a whole different cost class than print publication.

Fair warning: this is a long post with no pictures to liven it up, but I thought I’d get through it all at once instead of breaking it up. So go have a look at some of these sites and see if you agree with me or not! Oh, and the entries are in no particular order. (You should be proud of me. It’s not easy to do ‘random’ with as many years of library work under your belt as I have.)

Knitter’s Review
An online newsletter, not in the “usual” e-zine format, since it doesn’t feature patterns. For me, the strength of this publication is the yarn review archive. Other reviews include books and tools, plus some good how-tos. There are lots of polls which you may find interesting (“Do you believe in the curse of the love sweater?”), and various other information which is faithfully updated. Quality stuff, which you would expect, since it’s written by Clara Parkes, author of The Knitter’s Book of Yarn.
Weekly, through email subscription or RSS feed

Knitonthenet
Started in 2006, Knit on the Net is based in the UK. It took me a while to figure that out! That’s one of the great things about the Internet – many of those boundaries are now invisible or nonexistent. Too bad “free shipping in the UK” from an advertiser doesn’t do me any good. There are several patterns per issue, a few articles and reviews.
3 issues per year, irregular publication dates

Black Purl Magazine
“Featuring ethnic-inspired stitches and stories”, online issues began in 2007. It’s light on the patterns, but has had some interesting articles. “Ethnic” is interpreted very broadly, so you’ll find inspiration from Japan to Norway and back around again. I just wish the navigation on this site was a little easier.
Quarterly; companion newsletter and blog

Knitty
Probably the best-known of the online knitting magazines, and its reputation is well deserved. It features a wide variety of patterns from easy and/or classic to entertaining way-out-in-left-field. The only annoyance for me is that it’s hard to tell from some of their thumbnail pictures what those items are, so you may have to click on one to see if it’s a sweater or… whatever. Excellent articles cover a broad spectrum of knitting-related topics, from pattern drafting and color advice to spinning and fiber information, to basic and advanced techniques. Again, it can be hard to tell from the article titles in the right sidebar exactly, or even remotely, what they are about. So you go exploring, and maybe read good stuff you wouldn’t have read otherwise.
Quarterly; “Coffeeshop” forum and chat for registered members

Knotions
 This is a fairly new entry in the field. At this writing, the winter 2008 issue is a week late going online, so I hope there aren’t any problems. There are some really nice patterns in the fall issue, and based on the preview of the winter issue, that trend of quality designs is continuing. A couple of articles, a couple of reviews, and some techniques round out the issue. I think this is a really promising site, and plan to keep an eye on it.
Quarterly (?), companion blog, RSS feed

The Inside Loop
Another recent entry, their third issue is up now. This British-based publication has fairly modest but pleasing content, with 8 patterns for sweaters and accessories in the current issue. I especially liked the article by Cindy Moore on rewriting vintage (OLD vintage, not 70s!) lace patterns, with several examples. Another article on charts, by Kate Blackburn, makes a good pairing.
Quarterly, companion blog

Popknits
Brand new on the scene, Popknits focuses on vintage patterns as inspiration for contemporary knitters. Their definition of vintage is 1970s and before… that’s a lot of territory, with lots of possibilities! I was interested to see a different Cindy Moore article, “Rewriting Vintage Patterns”. I happen to have an 1848 needlework book, so I think I might be able to use some of her tips to make sense of its instructions!
Quarterly(?); mailing list subscription, RSS feeds

MetaPostModernKnitting
Generally speaking, anything with the “postmodern” label will have me turning on my heel and heading off in the opposite direction, but I was intrigued by this new (second issue out now) online magazine. It’s predicting the future, not looking at the past. Very tied in to the fashion industry, it has color and design forecasts, plus a dozen patterns in this issue. I really like the line drawings that link to detailed pattern information – those simple sketches give you a nice sense of the project. Again, I was pleasantly surprised by the real-world patterns, as opposed to the avant-garde designs (also linked to on this site) that are only worn for a few seconds on the runway… but I will admit to a certain bizarre fascination with them, too! I’m a new regular visitor to this site.
Biannual; companion blog provides monthly updates between the Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter issues

Twist Collective
I’m waiting with bated breath for their second issue! The premier issue lived up to its hype – it’s just beautiful. Its layout is much more like a print magazine, with careful styling and photography. Expect to page through advertisements. I don’t mind, since I think those can be interesting and inspirational, both online and in print. Of course, we now have broadband at home, so I might have minded a lot more if I had been paging through last year on dial-up! The other thing that is different about TC is that the patterns are not free. That’s certainly not a problem for me; I will buy a whole magazine for one pattern I really want, so will happily pay a few dollars for one enchanting pattern from this site. Especially when I know that the designers are actually getting a significant chunk of the money, not just the publisher.
Quarterly, monthly email newsletters to subscribers and companion blog

For spinners:

Spindlicity
This spindle-oriented ezine has been around for a little while, but has evidently undergone a revamping. Archived issues from Winter 2005 through Winter 2006 are available online, but I couldn’t find the 2007 or earlier 2008 issues, even on The Wayback Machine. Anyway, it’s here now, and is definitely worth a look! Even if you’re wheel-addicted, you will still want to explore. They don’t want any spinner to feel left out. Just prepare to be tempted by the gorgeous handmade spindles featured in articles and ads! There are patterns for projects (mostly small ones), some good tips and techniques, and profiles of interesting craftstpeople. But I think its real strength is the articles. The Fall 2008 issue focuses on silk, and anyone will come away with some new information.
Three times a year, February, June and October; companion blog and Yahoo! group

Knittyspin
This recent – ahem – spinoff of Knitty is just the quality you’d expect, and is in fact an extension of the spinning articles that Knitty has included for a long time in its flagship magazine. The two are intertwined, and link merrily back and forth to each other. It looks like there are plans to expand it even more, since the audience is expanding as more and more knitters are getting bitten by the spinning bug.

Well, that’s it for today… there may be new online knitting magazines out tomorrow (or yesterday) that I haven’t run across yet. If you find any, please let me know, okay?

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Posted by: prairiespinner | October 28, 2008

Startitis

I try to keep it under control, but I seem to have developed a much worse case than usual of ‘startitis’ just recently. I suspect that the cause is twofold; one is the weather change (see the plants we brought inside for a couple of nights?), and the other is the sudden need for a couple of thank-you gifts.

Here is photographic full confession:

Too many projects??

Too many projects??

However, I am making progress! I have finished the shawl collar on the green cardigan for K, and have finished the first chocolate lace sock. Unfortunately, it looks like that sock’s foot may still be too long… I am waiting for a fitting opportunity for the recipient before I start (there’s that WORD again!) on the second.

The orchid summer top is going into winter hibernation, so I won’t be looking at it for a while.

The red cuff on the birch dpns is the start beginning of a pair of Evangeline cabled fingerless mitts; thank-you #1, using the wool/alpaca blend Cascade Yarns Lana d’Oro. (See pictures on the Sweet Sheep blog; the pattern is a free download on Ravelry, but you have to have a free account to log in.) I hope to have enough yarn left over to make a companion Calorimetry.

The fall-colored swatch of Plymouth Happy Feet (color 17) is for thank-you #2, a pair of socks for a rabbit-breeder friend. You can’t tell from the picture, but the sock swatch is on needles from the same set as the swatch for the blue and white mittens-to-be. Yeah. I think buying more needles is the solution to that problem.

Of course, there’s my Ithilien Brocade Jacket. I have made good progress (considering the fractured nature of my knitting time) on the first sleeve. The large size of the chart and frequency of color changes makes this one a poor candidate for take-along knitting, so the smaller projects have taken over those bits of knitting opportunity.

Oh, yes, not to forget the paua-shell colored yarn that I need to finish spinning for a sleeveless top, which didn’t make it in this little photo shoot.

The tell-all picture does show some versatility… a little lace, some cables, color work… at least I’m not in a rut!

So that’s SEVEN works-in-progress, three of them major, without even counting the hibernating top. And I see that the yarn I want for my next design, the one in the sketch, is now available. And affordable. Resistance is futile.

The diagnosis is in. My case of knitter’s startitis is incurable, but since I can expect the symptoms to fluctuate, it won’t be this bad all the time. Fortunately, the recommended treatment is not painful, consisting of regular exposure to yarn fumes and frequent periods of fiber manipulation.

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