Sideblog for all the knitting, fibrecraft, fountain pen, calligraphy and ink love! Will block TERFs, other bigots, and people who put crochet or AI into the knitting tag (the latter because they're annoying, not because I am minimising bigotry). Main blog is @sorchaivy; Critical Role fanblog is @balmfrost; writing blog is @bretha-stitchwitch
Turns out that today marked the ninth anniversary of my learning how to knit!
Nine years ago today, I successfully cast on by myself, and managed to knit flat stockinette stitch without accidentally adding stitches!
I've come a long way since that project, with some ambitious finished objects, some even more ambitious WIPs and a to-do project list and stash that'll probably last me at least another nine years!
Longer and slightly maudlin retrospective below the cut. CW for parent death.
Nine years ago wasn't the first time I'd tried to learn how to knit - Mum tried to teach me in my teens. It... didn't go well.
Between my untreated anxiety and perfectionism demanding that I be perfect immediately or abandon all attempts as a permanent failure, and Mum's seeming inability to find ways to help me learn how to hold yarn to maintain tension or - more crucially - relax tension, it became an unmitigated disaster which led to me rage-quitting and flouncing off to feel sorry for myself.
She never did get to try to teach me again, later.
And then, ten years ago I picked up fabric, embroidery floss, hoops and needles and hyperfixated on cross-stitch embroidery. I stitched on public transport, in pubs, basically anywhere I could. And somehow in that year my fingers finally learnt to feel when the thread had reached the right tension - enough to pull the stitches taut without warping the fabric.
And after a year of that, I saw a video on arm knitting, assumed I'd be able to do it (I was wrong) and then bought chunky needles to match the chunky yarn, so as not to let the yarn go to waste.
And suddenly, FINALLY, something clicked and I managed to knit. Clumsily at first, but I wasn't pulling the yarn so tightly that I couldn't even insert a needle into the stitches on the return row. My fingers had learnt when to stop.
First I learnt knit and purl. Then I dove straight into basic lace (yarnovers and knit-two-togethers). I figured out my own overcomplicated way of holding and tensioning my yarn. From there, I played once with DPNs, then abandoned the "grumpy hedgehog" for magic loop on circular needles and never looked back.
I began adding changes and personal touches to patterns, then began developing my own patterns. Some of which I've even written down!
I discovered luxury yarns and independent dyers, met fellow knitters and made friends. I once knit on public transport in full Halloween costume (as a punk mermaid), to the fascination and amusement of many fellow passengers.
I learnt how to undo mistakes - how to forgive myself for making them, how to mitigate, or undo them. How to know when a mistake was fixable and when it would be easier to start all over again. And - more crucially - I learnt to let myself embrace that, how to let the mistakes be okay, to forgive myself for making them and focus on fixing them and learning from them, instead of beating myself up for making them.
I stopped biting my fingernails, a habit I'd had since age 2, which I'd previously thought was unbreakable. I discovered that when I could knit, I was less anxious, less depressed and more settled and centred.
I inherited a bunch of Mum's yarn stash which my sister had been keeping safe, and used some of it to make a big drapey-sleeved shrug, which I describe as being like wearing a hug from Mum.
I've now knit blankets and jumpers and fingerless gloves and hats and intricate lace shawls.
This year I plan to finally try to master custom-fit socks. Though I have a baby blanket to make first, for a colleague.
I wish I could show Mum how far I've progressed as a knitter - I wish I could show her that I'm carrying on a traditional craft into a third generation (her own mother was also an excellent knitter) - that I know of.
I can't, of course. But that's okay. I've also learnt how to be proud of myself, enough for the both of us!
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My first spin of the Tour de Fleece! Some lovely dark Polwarth I chain plied. I must say I didn't intend to spin it quite so densely but I guess my hands must be unintentionally set to 'spin weaving yarn' setting. It is interesting how a spinners default yarn evolves over time because when I first started spinning on a wheel (as opposed to a drop spindle) my yarn was much softer spun. I think it has something to do with my hands' distance from the orifice, closer letting less time for twist to build up.
I got an insane amount done in one day again. Have the pictures. I don't have the energy to pretend I'm still as excited about it as I was 6 hours ago.
Had family in town so I didn't do too much spinning, but I did meet my Tour de Fleece goal of "do something". While they were enraptured by FIFA I finished half of my mohair stash, going to do the rest on another bobbin and ply them together.
(and then. Judgement. Will I like how it turns out? We shall see)
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before and after photos taken today, to show progress both from yesterday (day seven) and today (day eight). not a ton done either day, but since both days involved enthusiastic questions and occasional "help" from my two favorite six year olds in two different states, I'm still counting it as a win 💚
I don't have much spare time on the road, because with this company, most days I run out almost all of the 14-hour on-duty clock.
But I've been so inspired by seeing all the beautiful Tour De Fleece posts, and I've been itching to spin something. It seems like ages since I did.
I've never font TDF before, so I joined the Rookie thread. I had this braid in mostly Harvest colors, and I threw in bits of Sari Silk and some mulberry silk.
There are 14 days (and 2 rest days) left in TDF, so I bundled the fiber into 13 little batts, each weighing 9-12 grams. I figured that's a small enough amount to spin each day, and the 14th day to ply, either half the spin with the other half, or all of it with thread.
I have 2 different drop spindles that each weigh about the same, so we'll see how that goes.
I'm knitting in silk but it feels more like linen. Wonder what it's going to be like once it's been washed.
Gauge is a mess. I'm already at such tiny needles and mine is still bigger. Combined with the negative ease it's doing my head in. So I'm making size 4 and hoping for the best.
Speaking of, something about how this pattern is written makes it hard to parse for me. Also things like telling you to place 5 stitch markers and then later telling you that one of those five does something different than the other 4 - tell me that up front so I can pick one different color
Some yarn I forgor to show. We got natural brown alpaca I processed from raw fleece (I think this may have been some of the first yarn I spun after graduating from drop spindle to spinning wheel) and some dyed alpaca I bought as roving while back. Aaand finally some purple merino/silk blend plied with BFL.
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12.5g of alpaca spun, plied one of the corriedale/nylon bobbins, and wound the previous day's plied yarn off onto the niddy noddy and gave it a quick soak.
I'm halfway through this alpaca, with more bags lined up and waiting. And I'm so far on track for my hopes of completing 300g to let myself buy a new skein.
I did discover that my first skein of c/n purple, started a while ago and left to sit is thinner than the other three bobbins of it which is a bit worrying but not surprising. I'll gauge test both and figure it out.
Public holiday yesterday, so a good day to pull out the dyepot!
I experimented with adding two colours of dye (Ashford peacock and turquoise), and pre-soaking the fibre in acid before adding the dye.
I was expecting stronger colours at the points where the dye initially hit the fibre, and hoping for a left-right difference between the two colours. Not exactly what happened: instead, the fibre developed a much darker colour on the bottom where it was fully immersed, and a lighter colour on top where it was floating.
For my first TdF challenge day I continued spinning a bit of the Corriedale (over 2/3 done!) but also started some lichen dye jars! It’s crushed up lichen and a mix of 2/3 water and 1/3 ammonia. It’ll take about a month but I’m planning on dyeing some of my handspun with it if it works out (should be a purple🤞🤞).
All of the lichen is from dead branches that were in my mom’s fire pit to be burned so I got as much as I could off of the branches. If you’re not getting it from a burn pile do not take all of the lichen as it grows super slowly and some varieties are endangered!! I threw about half of the branches back into the woods without taking anything from them to keep them from getting burned
gonna be another hot day; planning to spend as much of it as possible working, but am afraid to list out everything I’m working on because then if I lose the plot on one or two of these things, I’ll think about that all the time.
So more vaguely and informally: weighing a bunch of scrap yarns! Also absolutely blazing through my last few cones of 3/2 cotton and that discontinued cotton flake, which feels great to be honest. The idea of finally clearing out all my color choices from the past decade and starting over with something more deliberate is indescribably appealing to me. Like it’s so good it almost feels soothing, or comforting, somehow.
Hii, I'm a knitter and i wanted to get into hand spinning. Do you maybe have some resources to help with that? Or if not, reccomend someone who might? Thanks a lot!
Hello! You should absolutely try spinning, knitting with you own handspun is so satisfying.
My journey of getting into spinning was buying a beginners drop spindle kit, watching a single random YouTube video that I could not even tell you what channel it was, give up immediately, four years later buy a whole ass spinning wheel and then binge watch JillianEve’s YouTube channel.
So whilst I love enabling I am not the best person to come to for advice. I know there’s people here who have compiled resources and written up tutorials but I cannot think of them right now so maybe they can shout up in the comments
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In "jokes that probably only I find funny" news, I decided to combine "19th century men's smoking jacket" with "lesbian(tm) flannel shirt" and, well, I am pretty amused by the result!
The collar, cuffs, pocket tops, and button coverings are some leftovers from the lining of my swooshy green coat project, and I have to say I am *pretty* satisfied with the pattern matching on the plaid. (Is it perfect? No, but shhhhh.)
In a *proper* smoking jacket, there would be a lot of tailoring structure on the inside, but I wanted something that had some nice *vibes* but that I could just wear to be comfy and, crucially, just chuck in the wash without worrying about it. Also, I can fit an entire book into the pockets VERY easily, which is fantastic. Is it in essence a fancy bathrobe? Yes, but it amuses me. And yes, I am now working on a more seasonally-appropriate project after doing a lot with wool and flannel when it was far to hot to be doing that.
I also made the skirt and shirt, all made by me by hand. (And the book was too, actually! :) ) The smoking jacket pattern was by Black Snail Patterns.
So anyway.
Ladies.
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