In the studio

Hat, mixed fibers, stockinette stitch, size 5 needles

I've put some yarns together and have now begun the second project with them. They are a mish mash of cotton, linen, silk, wool tape ( I love Colinette yarns!), fuzzy acrylic and most in pale tints. A few are saturated hues that stand out and make a great interesting area. I started out making a shawl on large needles with these yarns but then decided that I want to make hats. So I ripped it out and voila.

I have to confess that I'm knitting virtually everywhere now. This photo was taken in a cafe on campus, where I take my own cups and get refills. I started with this sort of chimney shape, and I don't know where it's going, but I like it.

The knitting is a little tight, and I don't know how it'll effect the hat shape yet. I could draw the open top together and put a pom pom up there and it would stand up straight.

Technical note: the aluminum double pointed needles slip right out of the knitting. In the photo you can see that I'm switching to bamboo, which I'm sure will grip the yarn and stay in.

In the studio

Shawl, black rayon and nylon, size 11 cable needle, garter stitch


Although normally I'm not keen on knitting with nylon and rayon yarns, this is an exception. There's something about the way that this "yarn" drapes and reflects light that I love. It's South West Trading Company's Melody yarn, and it comes in 400 yard balls.

Although these "ladder" yarns have been around for the last few years, I haven't tried knitting with them as the solitary yarn until now. I've been using them as shiny bits in my more complex fabrics. But then I saw a shawl in one of my favorite shops, the Woodstock Wool Company, and I had to try it. The secret to getting a wonderful fabric that doesn't look plastic is to use largish needles and make it more of a lace or net than a solid fabric. In this piece the shiny rayon squares are distributed in a mottled pattern through the lace and the drape is superb and it is very sensual. And black.

In the last couple days I've been unable to resist experimenting with crochet. Since I have this yarn in bougainvillea, sky blue, purple and taupe I have plenty for experimenting! I'm trying a circle capelet using an improvised lace stitch pattern in the sky blue color. I'm trying a smallish hook and checking out the texture with the rayon squares put more closely together than the knit piece to form a sort of broken shiny surface. Instead of the spaces being evenly distributed, like the effect from the large needles using garter stitch, I'm making typical crochet lace spaces. Well...I guess I have to get out the camera and show you. Photos to follow.

In the studio

Shawl, mixed fibers, single crochet

I'm having a blast with this shawl using yarns from recent projects combined anew. I'm using a big aluminum crochet hook like an H size or close to that. I began with a rich wine wool that I acquired through barter for sewing lessons and have enjoyed selecting yarns that make a sturdy cold weather garment.

I'm imagining making the long edge of the triangle long enough so that the shawl can be fastened down the front and look more like a poncho.

Finished scarf

Scarf, rib stitch with crocheted fringe along the long edge, size 9 cable needle; approximately 5 in x 84 in excluding side fringe

This wool is by Tahki I'm not sure if they make it any more. It's an absolute pleasure in my hands and I'm sure the wearer of this scarf will feel the reason why. It's one of the softest yarns I've used. It is a thick and thin spun yarn, which gives it a textural interest even with very plain stitch patterns like this rib pattern. You can see the undulating surface in the photo. The color also has a stark pureness that is attractive with the uneven surface texture.

I've tried making four other (unsuccessful) items with this yarn before this scarf, all too loosely knit. It doesn't work well on larger needles, so once I got this size 9 needle and the tried the rib stitch pattern, it was clear that the stitch should be a more tight dense one rather than a loose or lacey one. Loose lacy stitch patterns make everything look wonky with the thick and thin yarn. Next up is a hat, I think, with a tight crochet stitch.

I used a slip stitch selvage. With a crochet hook I picked up stitches along the edge, making a 14 stitch chain, turn and slip stitch in each chain stitch back to the scarf edge, two or three single crochet, picking up stiches from the scarf edge, then another fringe. The fringes are like little creatures with lives of their own.

It's very thin - about 14 stitches per row. But the loft of the yarn makes it a very warm garment. If I wasn't moving to Florida I'd keep this one for myself.

Finished scarf

Scarf, mixed fibers, garter stitch, size 13 needles; excluding fringe about 5 in x 84 in

This is the completed scarf from the Oct. 12 entry. It worked up quickly and was very satisfying. I still want to do many more with the fringe along the long edges. Or at least some sort of embellishement along those edges. After finishing the Noro Silk Garden scarf in the Oct. 10 entry I've realized that it needs something, and I may try some kind of long-edge embellishment.

I liked working with a rather limited group of yarns for this scarf, especially since one of them is a Noro Kureyon that changes radically in color through a sky blue, pink and bright yellow. All these yarns are also worsted weight or near that, so there's a uniformity to the fabric that I like quite a bit.

Saturday I met a friend who gave me wonderful advice on free lance art work, since she's a singer in New York City. I met her in Poughkeepsie and we had a nice lunch in Rhinebeck at the Beekman Arms. It was raining steadily, so it wasn't a great day for walking. She agreed to accompany me up to Woodstock and I took another box of knitting to the Fleur de Lis gallery of the Woodstock Guild. The knitting that I took on my previous trip is displayed very nicely and put in different places around the shop. All the pieces are in the blog. I could tell that the shop manager had tried on all of them. She told me that the customers in the gallery like reading the tags. I usually put some sort of collage or rubber-stamp work on one side of the tag, then a desciption of the work and care instructions on the other side.

Also I should send more hats.

I felt the slightest sensation of a vacuum with all those pieces gone when I got back to my studio. So I started a few more and scrounged back through the in-progress bin. Red wrist warmers, mohair capelet II, shaggy shawl in teal and purple, "mossy" colors shaggy shawl, big mother of all shawls, etc. etc. Peectures soon!

My first capelet

Capelet, lavender mohair, rib stitch, size 13 cable needle

This is the completed version of the Sept. 27 entry.

I've been imagining how to put one of these together since last winter and finally the idea came about with the mohair because it's very warm yet won't do well next to the skin in a scarf. I did the flounce by knitting into the front and back of each stich after I picked up a stitch along the long edge from each row of the ribbed "body" rectangular piece. I've been browsing Nicky Epstein's book on edgings for the past couple months (Knitting on the Edge) and the chapter on ruffles is one of my favorites. At first I was imagining a stole that would have either two retro large buttons at the top of one side and loops to go around them, or a band at the shoulders that would be contrasting to the main stole and have one large button and buttonhole. In the end I crocheted a row of double crochet around the neck edge and made the cord out of a long chain with one row of single crochet to give it body but not too much weight. And that turned it into a capelet.

It's the first thing I've made that doesn't fit me - it's made for a girl or a very petite woman.

I like the off-center opening in the front.

Finished shaggy shawl

Here's the shawl in yesterday's entry completed! The garter stitch shawls on large-ish needles work up very quickly once the strands of yarn are all tied together. Most of the work is in selecting and preparing the yarns. This piece is on the light side rather than heavey and the softer fuzzier yarns make it very comfortable against the skin.

How to display finished pieces is becoming a real question for me. This one is wrapped around the back of a chair, but it still isn't sufficiently revealed in the photo that way. I've not worked up enough courage to ask the young people all around me to put things on so I can photograph them. I'm also thinking about working up a papier mache torso to use for pieces that are meant to be worn there. After I move. With the glass head I have and a papier mache torso or two I ought to be able to show off just about anything I make.

Another idea that I'm pondering is how to "sign" my work. So far I've only signed a few pieces using an embroidered ribbon. Maybe I could use fabric paint on a ribbon. Embroidering my name takes just long enough to drive me crazy with impatience.

In the studio

Shawl, mixed fibers, garter stitch, increasing two stitches each row, size 11 cable needle

I began this in the summer and still love the lightweight feel of it. The base color, if I can call it that, is a tan EuroFlax linen which creates a lacey effect when knitted on the larger needles. You can see a thick tan stripe off to the left in the photo. Other yarns are bulkier and fuzzy or tufted and fill in the fabric so that the effect overall is sort of webby and mossy and very uneven rather than uniform. There are several metallic fibers that don't show up in the photo and they give the occasional flash of light. I'm leaving the knots right out there without weaving in the ends. I make up balls of yarn from about 15 different yarns, cutting arbitrary lengths as I go along. I use the EuroFlax linen just about every other yarn, so that it's pervasive and the other yarns stand out from that base smooth matte tan texture and color. The knot ends contribut to a very shaggy, barbaric fabric look. I've described a similar shawl as being like something you'd pick up off the forest floor.

The denim shawl "on"

Shawl, cotton "denim" yarn, garter and stockinett stitch with yo rows

It's not that I'm obsessed with this shawl, it's just that it looks so much different on a person than it does stretched out over a massage table! My friend knows how to wrap up in it perfectly, don't you think?

There's still half a cone of this lovely cotton yarn remaining. What to do? I'm thinking of a filet crochet top made to be worn over a tank, or a small poncho.

Finished scarf

Scarf, acrylic and polyester, garter stitch, size 13 cable needle

This scarf has 11 stitches per row and it really looks as messy and shaggy as the photo. I tried getting the colors right for the scarf, but the background went all out of whack. It's another entry in the purple and gold series, which I'm still enjoying. I think I have the beginnings of everything here in the blog, so there'll be around of "finished" photos coming up of the next few weeks. Along with being in the purple and gold series, it's a member of the "skinny" scarf series that I've been creating since the spring. I always think of them as being favorites of the 11 - 20 crowd.

I was a complete knitting fiend over the weekend and am done with a couple of things along with making substantive progress on others. Photos will come soon.

All will go to the Fleur de Lis gallery in Woodstock, New York which helps support the Woodstock Guild. The gallery manager is trying to learn web skills and her goal is to eventually have something like an online catalog.

In the studio

Scarf, wool, garter stitch with separate strands knitted in, size 9 needles.

This is my experiment so far. Each row is twelve stitches plus a selvage stitch at the beginning of each row. I'm knitting in the separate strands for 3 to 4 stitches, depending on what seems necessary to really bind in the strand. Each strand is about 6 to 9 inches long and I've cut bunches them and put them in a cigar box. I'm not too keen on the color combination at this point and will probably rip this out and start with either a different base color or take most of the black out of my separate strands box and replace it with colors. I've got some creamy white yarn that could make an excellent base yarn for all the black.

Beyond the color situation, the effect is that shaggy appearance that I love very much and I can see myself doing lots and lots of it real soon now.

In the studio

Small triangle scarves, cotton, garter stitch, size 8 needle

This cotton yarn is very dreamy and a pleasure to knit. A very smooth hand shows off the stitches. I got it in the purple and gold (sort of) school color combination that I'm using for many pieces right now. These small triangles can be head scarves or neck scarves - more of an accessory than for warmth. The small needle size means there's quite a bit of knitting. I'm experimenting with combining the two colors to the best effect. The fringe on the striped scarf is not very successful and I believe that is because the color change and stripes already make the fabric "busy" and fringe is too much more busy-ness. I like the solid color areas of the second scarf. The challenge is to make the color twist in the middle as even as possible, and that's quite difficult for me. I need more experience.

In the studio

Scarf, mixed fibers, garter stitch, size 13 needles

Here's my first result from the "unlikely combinations" play of Monday. This is my first scarf with the side fringe along the long sides of the scarf. I like it very much and am going to do many variations of it in the near future. I'm changing yarns every two rows which I think allows every color to make an impression in the overall fabric. I arbitrarily do a single row of color now and then just to be inconsistent. There are approximately 9 different yarns involved.

Last night I spent a very pleasant 90 minutes with three young women who want to learn to knit. One of them knows knitting a bit and is simply not yet able to read the knitting or completely understand what's going on. Remember that phase? She has yummy yarn and a set of hand me down needles that all look very very interesting. One has learned to crochet and knit from her grandmother, but gave it all up for a few years to study hard and come to America. She just is recalling crochet and now wants to see what she can get going again with knitting. One has never picked up the needles before. It was lovely time, sitting around the table and giving instruction and encouragement. I showed them the two Sally Melville books that I have and told them how good it is to have a basic book to use when they forget how to do something or want to learn a little something new.

It is finished

Shawl, cotton "denim" yarn, garter and stockinett stitch with yo rows

The shawl is stretched out flat over my massage table and covers the entire thing. I wore it over to my dining hall yesterday and I can wrap it around my torso like the Indian shawls that I love very much. Yay! I don't know exactly what drove me to finish this thing so quickly except the feel of that marvelous cotton yarn through my fingers. It's divine. I spent the morning getting it completely finished with everything all neatly tucked in and had to undo the bind off row. I had used a larger needle in order to not get that too tight effect. It turns out I needed a tightening effect on the end because I had knit many yo rows and it was loosey goosey. The tight bind off row gathers things nicely back together again with a firm edge. Since it's so lacey it was difficult to weave in the knots, so I used sewing thread to secure them so that they wouldn't ravel or fray.

Then I celebrated by fooling around with bunches of old projects. I pulled another large shawl out of the bin and I'm sure I'll be sailing through it. See the Sept. 24 entry - the multicolor wool. I'm in love all over again!

I also started going through the miscellaneous bags and pulled out unlikely combinations while I'm thinking about scarves that will work up quickly on large needles. We'll see what turns up. I'm hovering over a black and red combination.

Progress

Shawl, cotton "denim" yarn, garter and stockinett stitch with yo rows

This is the same shawl from the Sept. 12 entry. I thought I'd upload this photo now, because I have to take a photo soon of the finished product. Maybe tonight. I'm calling it a "monster". It's huge! The drape of the fabric is really great. The lacy effect of the yo rows also results in a lovely very soft drape. I was able to work on it day and night while I was on a vacation trip over the past week so I'll finish about six more inches and it'll be ready to bind off. It's the biggest thing I've finished in quite awhile, but I have another about the same size within a foot or so of being done (the Noro wool one in the Sept. 24 entry). Woo hoo!!!

That Knitting Blog will return Oct. 6 or so...

In the studio

Scarf, chunky wool and acrylic boucle yarn, double rib stitch, size 15 needle

This yarn produces a fabric that feels wonderful. I have my doubts about using the double rib stitch, and may still rip it all out and start something different. The bulk and softness of the fabric make me think that it'll be a very good-feeling scarf, and I'm tempted to change it to a tube scarf.

In the studio

Stole, lavender mohair, rib stitch, size 13 cable needle

Well heck darn, the purple and gold scarf photo won't upload for some freaky reason that I can't discover just now. But here's this old thing.

I've had the cone of mohair around for a few months, wondering what I could bear to make with it. So I'm doing this very girly stole, I think with a flounce on the bottom and big buttons. I'm knitting side to side, so the rib will make a strong horizontal stripe effect. I'll try to take photos as I progress. The rib also makes the mohair fabric rather thick, so this thing is going to be warm as all get out.

In the studio

My image size isn't passing muster with the Blogger software today, and I don't have time to mess with it any more. I want to show you the purple and gold scarf I've been working on over the past few days. It's half Brown Sheep bulky wool and half fuzzy nylon yarn blended with a lovely wool sock yarn. It's an unusual combination because I've made the color change using intarsia and the stipes go the length of the scarf.

In the studio

I've been working on these two pieces and have also started something in a lavender mohair that is very girlie, but I haven't taken the photo yet. I'm trying to learn to make consistently better photos, so that's slowing me down. I'm too conscious of everything so the photo shoot is becoming a labor in itself.







I also am going to start asking my neighbors to pose in the garments for me. It seems to me that the photos look kind of sterile after awhile with no human touch.

Hat

Hat, cotton chenille, single crochet throughout, really big hook

This is the Cherry Tree Hill cotton that I spoke of a few days ago. Sunday I sat down with it and voila! a hat. It didn't quite take a skein. I also have some of the chenille in pale colors called "birches". I like these primary colors. I hope they keep making very cool yarns like this.

Finished scarf

Scarf, wool, rib stitch, size 19 needles

This photo was taken during the last moments of working on the scarf. Since the yarn itself is a knitted tube it tends to ravel. I'm still trying to sort out how to properly finish off the ends. Right now I'm thinking I'll bind the yarn ends with a few sewn stitches in a matching thread. Otherwise if the little loose fiber catches on anthing it's bye bye strand of yarn, hello long ravel.

Two more full balls and a partial ball left!! I think I'm going to try to blend it into a mixed-fiber piece.

Finished scarf

Scarf, wool and silk blend, twisted stockinette stitch, size 13 needles

This is another item in the finishing frenzy. This curled quite a bit during knitting, and I really spread it apart when blocking, to maximize the lacey effect. After doing that, I think I'd make it wider. It will be plenty warm since it's long enough to wrap around the neck a good couple times and won't be too bulky. But it looks a little forlorn to me, since I'm accustomed to much more dense fabric. I simply had to try lace using a bulky yarn. I do love the effect of the stitch pattern done with those big needles. They're big bamboo, so they feel like wonderful warm sticks while knitting.

I took fourteen finished pieces down to the Woodstock Guild gallery, Fleur de Lis, last night. For the second or third time I did an artist's statement, and I think it's the best so far, although only about my knitting:

Knitted textiles by Lorre Smith

Knitting is a hand looming technique that uses a strand of fiber and two sticks to form and intertwine loops in such a way that they create a stable and sometimes stretchy fabric. I have knitted all the items in this display without using assistants or apprentices. All the processes I use are manual processes or those that may use a very simple apparatus such as a yarn swift and a ball winder. Yarn manufacturers and spinners often shape lengths of 100 or more yards of yarn into a very large loop called a skein. The skein will tangle easily, so the swift and ball winder help put the yarn into a tighter and more usable form for knitting. The yarns I use are from all over the world and include, silk, wool, cotton, linen, nylon, polyester, metallic fibers, viscose, tencel, acrylic, alpaca, acetate, mohair, cashmere and rayon.

I knit in order to create beautiful textiles in ancient forms such as wraps and scarves. I often seek a wide range of yarns, sometimes more than 30 or 40 to create one fabric. The colors and surface design of each piece grow through a duly considered process of color and fiber selection and combination. In some pieces it is important to select a smooth yarn that will highlight the fabric pattern. In other pieces it is more desirable to use wildly different yarns with extraordinary texture created by yarn combinations rather than a fabric pattern. I am endlessly attracted to the combination of utility and beauty.

Shawl

triangle shawl, mixed fibers, garter stitch, size 9 cable needle

I got the purple wool yarns for this shawl at my local farmer's market. The price was unbeatable, and the colors are lovely. The color blend is the most bizarre I've ever tried, and the mode is what I like to call "barbaric". I've cultivated different types of shagginess based on the various tufted yarns produced in recent years. Some shaggy fabrics look rather refined, but this is just down home barbaric. The yarn is worsted weight, and it makes me warm just holding it in my lap while I knit. I'm within a few inches of being finished, and it's been in my "in progress" bin for about a year. With a size 9 needle it's a LOT of knitting. The colors are lavender, periwinkle, deep magenta, rust and variegated gray.

I only have one more "monster" shawl like this, also within a few inches of getting done. So life is mostly finishing up things these days. Although I couldn't help myself and began a super-bulky scarf on Saturday. I also just started fingering some Cherry Tree Hill super chunky chenille yesterday and about an hour later I had a crocheted hat in my hands. Photo coming up soon.

In the Studio

Hat, Wool Noro Kureyon, knitting Nancy and silk ribbon

I'm finishing so many things that I'm reaching way back into my "in progress" bin. I was happy to see this hat again. It'll be a pointy pixie style, made of a spiral. I'm sewing the cord together with silk ribbon so that the stitches show a little bit and I'm matching the ribbon to the yarn color. The embellishment of the point is still up in the air. I do love pompoms and other fluffy - floaty - moving things up top.

Finished scarves

White scarf, wool, rib stitch; variegated scarf, abaca, seed stitch, both embellished with sequins

Both these scarves are finished as of today and will go with many others to Woodstock for sale in the Fleur de Lis Gallery there. I decided to sew each sequin individually to the front and back of each black patch in the abaca scarf, and it took time to knot the thread each time to begin the stitches and anchor the sequins into the scarf, then to knot it again after the sequins were attached. For the wool scarf I used a continuous thread and worked in a zig-zag path across the scarf, alternating from RS to WS. So I'd fasten a sequin on the RS, then take a very long stitch down through the knitting and end it on the WS of the scarf. Then I'd fasten a sequin onto the WS and take a long stitch and end it on the RS. This went much faster, but now there's a sewing thread that runs all through the wool knitting. This requires a careful selection of the sewing thread so that it is as invisible as possible. I found it easier to match the yarn with embroidery floss, because I have about a million colors of it.

I barely captured the sequins, but you can see there aren't too many of them. I'm convinced that on a lot of scarves, fewer sequins are better and they add interest because they're a little bit mysterious. The temptation at first was to put something that starkly contrasted with the white scarf, like black or hot pink. But I'm endeared to the "flash" effect, where the sequin starts to show up after flashing light, rather than being an obvious embellishment at first glance.

Progress

Scarf, wool, rib stitch, size 5 cable needle

This is within inches of taking it off the needles. It's about 1.75 in. wide and will be about 72 in long. I think I'll add about 6 more inches, which won't take more than a half hour. The butter colored sequins are the ones I have chosen to use for the embellishment. That tends to go slowly, but I adore the effect.

This is done with Colorado Wool's "Vail" yarn, which I like more and more as I handle it and use it to create different pieces. It's a dk weight, and in a tight rib like this scarf it's just perfect. The sequins are from Cartright's which has provided endless fun for only $20. I have to restrain myself on a site like that because of course I want them ALL.

I finally am investigating the closeup focus function in my camera, so I hope to have less and less blur in each closeup image.

Hat

Hat, mixed fibers, stockinette stitch, 5mm cable needle and dpn

I loved making this hat. I like working in novelty yarns, and this combination provided just the sort of colors I was looking to use in a purple and gold theme. I worked on a cable needle most of the way up from the bottom, then switched to dpn to start decreasing. The shape is mostly like ancient bread ovens, with a broad bottom, and then what looks like a chimney I didn't close it because I think that adds to the funkiness of the hat. I bound off and then got out my crochet hook to do the fringes on the top. Then I made I-cord as a tie so that the wearer has control over how tight the hat is at the top and how floppy it is. The top is sort of like a big pony tail.

Back in the studio

Shawl, blue "denim" cotton, garter and stockinett stitch with yo rows.

I doubled the size of this monster over the weekend and had a great time with the cotton yarn, which feels really good. I'm using an Addi Turbo cable metal needle and the knitting goes very very quickly! Over the summer the cotton yarn stuck to my fingers because of the high humidity we suffered most of the time. Now that the humidity is down to more normal levels the cotton is once again an immense pleasure. The top photo is how I'm working it, which is basically side to side, so that the efffect of the popped out garter stitch rows will be vertical stripes.

Like so:


I realize that the fact that I'm taking many of these photos on a couch under a window makes the colors difficult to portray. The incoming light really jerks the camera's optical systems around. I can usually mess with the images in photoshop, but today's efforts don't seem to have done much good. I'll have to start setting up a photo place on the other side of the room. The couch is just easy.

The color of the yarn is a wonderful faded or washed blue like old blue jeans. I think this shawl will be extraordinarily comfy without being fussy. Since I have a massive cone of this yarn I'm looking forward to trying a stitch pattern with a lot of definition, like leaves on a reverse stockinette background or such like on another shawl.

Resting

That Knitting Blog will be inactive for a few days while I recharge my knitting batteries.

Books

Apologies for the photo-my usual source doesn't have one for this book.
The Art of Knitting is a book I've been stalking for weeks. I'm fondling copies of it in shops and letting my eyes wander all over the delightful photography. It looks terrifically inspirational. Some day the urge may strike when I'm not saving pennies for other things and I'll get to take it home to bed (now shared with a rather tasteless fall issue of Knitter's magazine). The Art of Knitting looks both inspiring and educational. It's the first book I think I've ever seen that mixes discussions and illustrations of machine knitting and hand knitting.

Here's the full cite: The Art of Knitting: Inspirational Stitches, Textures, and Surfaces by Francoise Loumagne Tellier, June 2005, published by Thames & Hudson
ISBN: 0-500-28557-8 320p. $39.95