S and Z

I am intrigued by yarn structure.  Until I started spinning I never gave it a thought that yarn is made from many choices of fibers (animal, vegetable, and mineral) but only two choices of twist (S or Z).  The twists are so named because of their resemblance to the middle part of the two letters.  Most yarns are spun Z and plied S.  Twined knitting yarns, and a few others, are spun S and plied Z.  This difference in twined knitting yarns compensates for the constant twisting of the yarns in that technique.

S plied and Z plied yarns

What many knitters don’t know is that the act of knitting adds twist to the yarn: S twist for conventional Western knitting, Z twist for Eastern knitting, where the yarn is thrown under the needle rather than over it.  You can check this out for yourself by using a tape measure and holding it firmly (don’t let go), wrap it around a knitting needle several times as if you were knitting.  Now unwrap it and throw the “yarn” the other way.  You are looking for the angle of the twist that develops near your hand holding the “yarn”.

Well, it turns out that is not the end of the story.  I have seen my students struggle, as I do, trying to make the SSK (a left leaning decrease) as neat as the K2tog (a right leaning decrease).  And plenty of knitters in my Aran classes have mentioned how their traveling stitches that go to the right are neat and consistent while those that travel to the left look stair-steppy.  I also noticed that when I work a Herringbone Braid (AKA Latvian Braid), the part that leans to the left sits up more and looks fuller than the part that leans to the right.  It got me thinking that just maybe, the culprit is the twist of the yarn and not knitter error.  I meant to investigate!

I finally got started one day by visiting the Green Mountain Spinnery right here in Putney, Vermont!  (If you haven’t seen the Spinnery’s new book 99 Yarns and Counting, run right out and check it out!)  I was talking to one of the owners of the cooperative, about twist and she produced a hank and a cone of some yarns they had created as an experiment in overspun–or energized–yarns.  The hank was a typical 2-ply, Z spun and S plied.  The cone had the same type and size of wool, but it was a singles yarn, spun S.  I was elated!  I took them home and plied up the cone (Z-wise) so it would be the exact opposite of the S plied hank.  It felt good to be on my spinning wheel again.  It is usually very, very lonely these days.

Then I washed the yarns, spun them in my washing machine to get rid of most of the water, and put them onto my yarn blocker from my swift.  They dried in a day and I balled them up.

Rinsing my yarn

Drying on the yarn blocker

Yarn: Ready to go!

Now to check my thesis.  I knitted up swatches of SSK and K2tog in both S plied and Z plied yarns.  (The swatches are worked with the K2tog on the right side of the center stitch and SSK on the left side.)  This is what I found:

S-plied yarn used in top swatch, Z-plied yarn used in bottom swatch

The effect was much more pronounced before I blocked the swatches, so now I am kicking  myself for not having taken before and after shots!   Still, to my naked eye, there was some improvement with the Z-plied yarn in the SSK lying flat.

Next, I wanted to work with some traveling stitches to see if I could make the left leaning twists look better using a Z plied yarn.  Looking at the diamonds below, the left leaning twists are on the left in the bottom halves, while they are on the right in the top halves.  Note: To make a right-leaning traveling stitch, I knit in the second stitch on the left needle, then the first stitch.  To make a left-leaning traveling stitch, I reached to the wrong side of the work, knit into the back of the second stitch, then into the front of the first stitch.

Z-plied yarn on the left, S-plied yarn on the right

In my opinion, the Z-plied yarn DID make the left-leaning traveling stitches sit more neatly, though still not as perfectly as the right leaning stitches did.

So what do these results mean for knitting these techniques?  We can’t use S and Z plied yarns in the same piece just so our decreases or traveling stitches will look good.  Definitely not!   I think the point is to recognize that small irregularities in our knitting are not necessarily our doing.  Instead of feeling annoyed or embarrassed by such minute details, we can know that this is a function of the yarn we are using and thereby get ourselves off the hook!

Still, I wanted to try one more thing…  I did one last swatch in a traveling stitch diamond pattern using a technique to compensate for the uneven tension.  This idea is inspired by Cat Bordhi who showed how to slip a stitch in the previous row of a SSK to keep the tension of the resulting stitch under control.  Could a variation of that work for traveling twists?

Slipped stitches of the traveling stitch

In this swatch I used the S-plied yarn.  In the bottom half of the diamond, I slipped the first stitch of the eventual twist on the wrong side rows.  This resulted in half the number of rows and enlarged traveling stitches.  Yes, I think they have a continuous flow, a smoother line, but they look much different from the right-leaning twists on the right side.

I was really pleased with the top half of the swatch.  Here I slipped the second stitch of the eventual traveling twist on the wrong side rows.  The left-leaning line still sits up a bit more than the right-leaning line of twists, but it is smooth and consistent looking.  The reason slipping the stitch works to minimize the looseness is that the one stitch is much tighter, having not been worked, and so it keeps its shape  even when stretched into a traveling stitch.  But it must be the second stitch of the twist, the one that lies below in the twist, that has to be slipped to tighten up the stitches.

So take what you want from this, knowing that the tension discrepancy is inherent in the yarn twist.  You can fiddle with it by slipping stitches, and at the very least, block carefully and thoroughly, but some days I just don’t want to work that hard.

Knittin’ Mittens

This month I wrote my newsletter before my blog and discussed the rotation of the thumb in mittens. I got several thoughtful comments and decided I would like to elaborate on the subject of making mittens fit.  (To sign up for my free sometimes-monthly newsletter, go to http://www.knittingtraditions.com/contact.htm )

Centering Mitten Motifs

While recently designing some fingerless mitts, I dealt again with the issue of centering the motif on the back of the hand.  When designing a mitten or glove that is made only of Stockinette stitch in one color, one never has to consider the challenges of centering.  But if you make a design that is clearly for the top of the mitten or glove, you must make allowances for the rotation that will occur when you put your thumb in.  This causes the  top of the hand garment to turn toward the thumb, and if there is no allowance made for that, the motif (and any top-of-the-mitten shaping) will be off-kilter.  I have found that by moving my thumb gusset or thumb hole over ½” from the side of the mitten towards the palm, the motif on top and the tip shaping will stay centered.  And the mitten will feel like it fits better…um, because it does!

Photos: Lying the mitt flat, the front motif seems a bit off-center, but when put on, it centers due to the pull of the thumb.  Below, you can more easily see the extra ½” I have added to the side of these Norwegian Mittens which shifts the thumb gusset and thumb hole from the exact side of the mitten to the palm.

Now hopefully, any pattern you buy should have all these issues resolved, so that all you have to do is read the instructions and knit.

Mitten Gender

OK.  I just made that term up.  Several issues are at hand here (tee hee) to create Mitten Gender.  You can knit a Left Mitten, a Right Mitten, and even an Ambidextrous Mitten that goes both ways (Bi-dextual?).   The patterning, the tip shaping, and the thumb all contribute to the gender of the mitten! I will focus on The Palm, or gussetless, Thumb for now and hope to add to this Mitten Discussion in other months.

The Palm Thumb

Mittens without gussets are the easiest to knit. The Latvians know all about this one!  They can put their energy into knitting the amazing patterning without being too concerned about working around the thumbs! This thumb is also called an afterthought thumb or waste yarn thumb.  The purpose of this thumb is to make a beautiful mitten, unfettered by the interruption of a thumb gusset.  The mitten must be designed with roominess in mind, as there is no increasing to accommodate the wider span of the hand.  The wrist area tends to be somewhat loose.

A Traditional Latvian Mitten

The thumb of a classic Latvian mitten is barely discernible as the patterning of the thumb mirrors the patterning of the hand beneath.  These thumbs make a left and a right mitten, unless the patterning is all-over and Round Tip Shaping is used. In Latvia, pointed tip shaping is common which further defines the Mitten Gender.  Interestingly, I noted that the Latvian mittens in my collection don’t exhibit thumb rotation and the thumb is situated right on the fold of the mitten. After counting lots of stitches, I realized that the thumbs are so roomy, there is enough space to counteract the torque–no ½” allowance is needed.

This beautiful traditional Latvian mitten, knitted by a Latvian, is comprised of 72 sts. One-fourth of that is 18 stitches.  The stitches allocated for the thumb numbered 17!  (Can you see the thumb there?)  It doesn’t look like one-fourth of the stitches are used for the thumb, but they are!  Generic (non-Latvian) mittens that are constructed this way utilize around 1/5 to 1/6 of the total stitches for the thumb.  It looks nice, it fits OK albeit a little snug, but the mitten will rotate once it’s put on, unless the thumb hole is moved in ½” from the side.  (No, I don’t have the pattern to this beauty.  Sorry!)

In this Fingerless Mitt, the patterning is the same all the way around and there’s no tip shaping, being fingerless, so there is no need to worry about  thumb rotation.  It has 1/6 of the stitches allocated for the thumb hole and I have moved the hole over a few stitches out of habit, thought I didn’t really need to.

Here I am taking the waste yarn out of the afterthought thumb hole so I can pick up the stitches to knit the thumb.  Since this is not a mitten, but a fingerless mitt, my thumb is not a full ¼ of the total stitches.  Because the top is open and won’t show any torque I can get away with fewer thumb stitches so the open thumb will fit snugly.

To create a Palm Thumb, knit the mitten until the length reaches the point where the thumb begins to branch off from the hand. If you are working with your stitches evenly divided on four needles, you can create the thumb hole from the stitches of the second needle for a left hand mitten, and the stitches of the third needle for a right hand mitten.

There are three ways to create the thumb hole.  One: A hole could be inserted by cutting one stitch after the mitten is knitted, raveling to the desired width, and picking up the resulting stitches (not for the faint of heart). Two: At the point where the hole is desired, slip the desired number of stitches onto a piece of yarn to hold for later.  New stitches are then cast on.  (Use Longtail utilizing all the attached yarns so they don’t have to strand across the hole.)

Three: (this is how I worked the fingerless mitt above) Knit with waste yarn for the desired number of stitches of the hole, slip those stitches back to the left needle and reknit them with the mitten yarn in pattern.  The bulkiness of the cast-on and pickup edge is avoided, and there is more flexibility in the knitting around the thumb.

Looking Back on 2009-Part 3 (Back in North America)

Coming home after a splendid trip, I slept for days.  Good thing too because my teaching schedule to come was full and I needed to rev up for it!

I was happy to return to Mountain Knits and Pearls in East Stroudsburg, PA, where I taught Gansey Techniques, Twined Knitting and Latvian Writers. In addition to being a great yarn shop, it is also a bead shop.

In October, I returned (after 14 years!) to Whitehorse in the Yukon, to teach the Northern Fibres Guild again.  I didn’t see the northern lights or take a dog sled ride like I did last time, but I got to see Real Live Musk Oxen.  Oh yes!  Another thing checked off the Bucket List!  My friend Wendy took me up to the Yukon Wildlife Preserve to look around.  This is the office, but there are other buildings on the property where they have classes in milder weather.

As Wendy and I approached the huge area where the Musk oxen were, she warned me not to get too close to the animals.  She showed me how the fencing was doubled!  If the oxen felt threatened, they could rip through one layer, and maybe two.  So I had to stay 15 feet away from the fencing and of course I didn’t have a zoom on my camera. (Yes, it’s my darn iPhone again, with my good camera safe at home!)

It was frustrating to only get this close, when I wanted to run up and hug them!  They are SO CUTE!  Not that they would have appreciated that.

The boys were in one pasture, and the girls and babies in another, far, far away.

The Preserve also has caribou (below), moose, and other animals….

This friendly little mountain goat was begging for me to take him home.  Sigh.

The trail that connects all the pasture lands is a couple miles long and Wendy and I didn’t go all the way around the loop.  It was cold!

Whitehorse has changed since I was there last time.  It seems to have “grown up” a bit, having more infrastructure than before, such as a stellar sports arena for the community.  I enjoyed my time in the Yukon and remembered many of my students from the last time I taught there.

Going home, I got an email from the Kalundborg Museum in Denmark where I had first visited in 1997 to study the amazing Skrå-trøje.  Some of you reading this may have taken my two-day workshop on this sweater.  This is the 100th anniversary of the museum and they were celebrating by putting the Skrå-trøje on display finally!  And they had requested my little sweater sampler to show alongside the original!  I was so proud!  But since the one I actually made had been stolen the year before, I sent along one from one of my great students who had kindly donated hers to me.  (Thanks Sabrina!) I wish I could have made it to the opening.

Then, what a rush of towns, guilds, and classes!  I returned to the Rochester Knitting Guild and saw old friends there, drove up to Montreal for another happy weekend, taught for three and a half days at Stitches East in Hartford–just a short drive from home!  Then I hopped on a plane to teach in California and Oregon.  I had never been to Ottawa before.  It is a grand city and the government buildings are beautiful!

Earlier this month, I drove to Northampton, Mass to teach at Webs–a most dangerous place to work if you are on a budget!  I remember the first time I went there, after hearing people rave about the yarns, I wandered around and thought it was indeed a very nice store, but I wasn’t feeling hysterical about it.  It was only on my second trip there that I found out that the huge back room that was the same size as their enormous sales floor, was open to the public and everything was discounted back there!

I made up for my lack of enthusiasm on the previous trip.

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So now I am home.  For the first time in probably ten years, I don’t have to fly somewhere for over two months.  I have lots of projects in mind to work on, but I am also taking some needed rest, baking bread, reading, and watching silly movies.  Tomorrow I am going to a friend’s house to learn how to make cheese.

I am looking forward to a new year full of promise.  Full of trips.  I’ll be in Italy in June and in the UK most of August.  Still pinching myself.

May you all be peaceful, happy, safe, self-aware, and free.  Enjoy your lives and treasure your family and friends, your own creativity.  Happy New Year!

Looking Back on 2009, Part 2-Across The Pond

August

I taught for over a week at Margaret Klein Wilson’s lovely annual retreat in nearby Dummerston, VT.  It is such a privilege to be there with all those great knitters, eating the best food (in part, thanks to Josie who treated us to Puerto Rican flan (twice!) and Pernil).  We laughed and knitted our way through several Maine mittens!

Barely had the boxes been moved into my new place, when it was time to fly to The Netherlands for the cruise!  Nancy Marchant, who lives in Amsterdam, met me and Nancy Bush at the airport.  We played for 3 days, eating out as much as possible!   Be on the lookout for Nancy Marchant’s new book on knitting Brioche (no, not the bread, silly!):  Knitting Brioche: The Essential Guide to The Brioche Stitch.  Published by North Light Books, it is now available on Amazon!

Here we are eating delightful Dutch pancakes.  Mmm, very fattening…

Nancy M. had let a few knitters know that Nancy B. and I would be in town, and what started out as an intimate get-together turned into a formal presentation of our respective knitting interests.  I was amazed that over 40 knitters showed up!  It was gratifying to see that our work is known and appreciated beyond the US border.

Looking Back On 2009-Part 1

Last time I wrote here, it was actually April!  I think it’s really true that as you get older, time starts flying by faster and faster.  Or maybe I was just REALLY busy this year.  I was so surprised to see that this is only the third post of the year!  Geez!  Well, I’ll bring you all up to date on a year that surpassed MY expectations.

June

To finish up about Squam, that fabulous fiber event in New Hampshire, it was wonderful.  I wanted to share some of my photos.  I can’t tell you how great it was sitting on the porch every night on the lake listening to the loons make their lovely, mournful calls.

Then, up in the morning to walk through the woods to my class room and enthusiastic students! The food was even good! I mean it!  Here is one of my classes in front of the cute building where we worked.

One evening there was a bonfire, a singer, and….

Jess from Ravelry!

The best news yet is that I am going back this coming year (June 2-6) teaching two new workshops:

Latvian Fingerless Mitts:

Learn the scalloped edge, Herringbone Braid, and knitting with two, three, and four yarns in a round!

Twined Knitted Fingerless Mitts:

Learn a Twined Knitting Cast-on in two colors, all the basic stitches, reading the charts,  plus a cool (“Crooked”) thumb gusset.

You can go to the Squam website to register for classes.  Full information and details for the 2010 sessions will be posted there on January 4th.  I hope to see some of you in class!

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July

The bad news is that in July, I had to move.  My landlord wanted to move home, and who could blame her for wanting to be back in her charming cabin on the side of a mountain?  But I cried for two months, especially when I had to sell my beloved wood cookstove–no room at the new place for it.

Still, I am blessed that I found a cute little apartment in town with very little maintenance and a whole lot easier to heat.  I am warm this winter!!!  YAY!

Stay tuned for Part 2.

Squam-On Golden Pond, and The Mud

I remember watching the movie On Golden Pond many years ago–hmmm, too many years ago: 1981–and thinking how much I would love to visit that area of New Hampshire.   The lake was so pristine, the pines adding a texture and color to the picture that was so perfect.  It seemed so close to wilderness to me at the time, living in Maryland, and I felt a longing.

Imagine my surprise when I realized that the workshops I am teaching at Squam Lake,  June 3-7, are not only on Golden Pond (aka Squam Lake), but I will be up close and personal with the areas in which the movie was shot!  I promise there will be photos of THAT gig!  I am so thrilled to finally meet that amazing body of water.   Down in Maryland, a pond is a bitty thing you can throw a stone across to the other side.  But Squam LAKE (as it should be called) is this graceful, stunning jewel, 7 miles by 4.6 miles large.  I am looking forward to teaching there with Sally Melville and Annie Modesitt, as well as many others.  If you are interested in checking out the classes, visit Squam.  A fun time will be had by all, I assure you!

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I am breathing a sigh of relief.  Mud season is over.  I hear you out there, saying “Mud?  What’s a little mud in the spring?”  Yes, up here in Vermont we have five seasons.  Well, last year Putney was blessed with an easy mud season. Though I never got stuck, it was a little hairy traversing the 3 miles of wet-dirt road out to the macadam.  I was, thusly, able to perpetuate my personal myth that mud is not a big deal.  This myth has now been officially dashed, cremated, and gone forever.  I have been through the fire of Mud Season.  It is Something to Reckon With.

As the layers of frozen snow and ice beneath the surface begin to thaw, and the snow on the hills to either side melt, the road becomes this organic morass of changing, moving strips of mud, sometimes the entire width of the road.  At first, it’s just a bit muddy, but as the days goes on and more people drive over it, it deepens until it can get up to (and in some cases above) the axles of your car. Mud season lasted almost two months.

It actually became a game as I would approach the next mud-patch-du-jour.  I would stop 30 feet away, peer at it, make my calculations as to which side would be the least threatening, and then rev through the mess, hoping my momentum would get me to the other side.  Thank goodness my cell phone worked on the worst part of the hill.  AAA became my friend.  One night, the tow truck almost got stuck.  The last time my son got stuck, the tow truck driver was so fed up he refused to come out, so AAA had to find another company to come.  Three hours of waiting in the wet cold night.  SOB!

It was really stressful, especially at night when I would be coming home from a workshop, not sure if I could get through.  How would I haul my 50 lb. suitcase over 3 miles of mud to get home at 11pm? And what would my neighbors do, who have 4 wheel drive, if they found they were trapped by my stuck car?  Finally, I parked the car three miles away from the house (on the macadam), caught a ride with a 4 wheel drive neighbor,  and stayed home.  For a week.

Now the road is dry. The deep ruts formed by all this sculpted mud have dried into dramatic peaks and valleys and big ol’ holes.  Still, no one comes to visit me.  Soon the heroic town road maintenence crew will smooth it all over, throw some dirt and rocks on it, and the mud memories will vanish as the mountain bursts forth with flowers and leaves and bears and glorious summer.  Until next year.

Part Two: January and February lead into March…

On the tenth of February, I took my first of three cross-country flights within the next four weeks.  (I can hear those frequent flyer miles adding up!)  It was an honor to teach for the Madrona Fiber Arts Retreat once again on the tenth anniversary of that event.  It was a real bash!  When not in class, there were presentations by Cat Bordhi, Elsebeth Lavold and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.  Here is Elsebeth speaking, always gracious and elegant, courtesy of my iPhone.  (Why is it I never have my real camera with me when I need it?)

The atmosphere of this amazing retreat is so different from many others.  There is a rich comradery, a personalness to it, that makes me want to return year after year.  It is now held in the Hotel Murano in Tacoma a few doors down from the Glass museum.  But each floor of the hotel features a different glass artist–its own museum!  If you have a chance to experience this retreat, I heartily recommend it.

After a week at home, I flew back to the Left Coast for Stitches West.  Another fun time was had by all, I assure you!  The faculty seems to grow and grow each year.  In April I will go to Atlanta for the brand new Stitches South.  It was going around that there is no recession in the fiber world–or at least at Stitches!

So I am home again, putting the finishing touches on a new class I’ll be teaching (The Danish Nattrøjer over one day) in Portland, Oregon for Knit-Purl next week (as well as Norwegian Mittens).  I’ll fly to Seattle again to participate in the Nordic Knitting Conference held by the Nordic Heritage Museum.  I’m looking forward to viewing Elsebeth Lavold’s exhibit there of her beautiful Viking Knits in between classes.

The month of March will be complete as I make my way to Woodstock, Virginia to teach my two-day gansey class at Fibersmyth.  This is the 20th year I am teaching gansey workshops.  That sounds so amazing and unbelievable to me that this wonderful gig I have, of traveling and teaching knitters, has lasted this long!  I remember soon after my book came out in 1993, I was telling my aunt about my teaching.  I said, “I really love it.  It won’t last more than a year or two, but I am going to enjoy it while it lasts…”  And I am!

Part One: January and February lead into March…

A lovely way to glide into the new year’s teaching schedule was NOT having to fly all of January!  Trekking down to Connecticut, I  taught Aran Design at Knitting Central in Westport.  This shop is so delightful with its rich array of yarns on the walls and the leopard carpeting.  From there, I  summoned my courage to take a train into *The City*, meaning NYC, to visit my beloved first born who lives in Brooklyn.  I am totally aware of how intimidating the city is to me.  But I really wanted to see Jorn and I was this close!  Rural America is so much more my speed, but I did survive and had a good time to boot!

January was so snowy and cold (hovering around zero for most of the month).  I got really attached to this humongo icicle that hung down from the roof in front of my office window.  It got larger than my arm and was inching towards the ground.  Damacles’ Sword, aiming for the clothes dryer vent outside…  But down it went as the roof was raked of its snow—a common practice here up North to avoid roof collapse and ice jams.

Woodstock, Vermont is a lovely jewel of a town, where I taught ganseys at the local library, an architectural feast for the eyes in itself.  MLK’s Birthday is a big weekend for skiers and tourists there, and I was thrilled to be staying at the Most Classy B&B there: The Farmhouse Inn.  I have been going to bed with cocoa every night since visiting there because I purchased some home made marshmallows there and they are divine!

In February, I was in Philadelphia, teaching at Loop.  Four and a half hours from home door to hotel door—a record for any travel I do.  So, OK, I only went from Hartford to Philadelphia, but it’s a pleasure to still see daylight and have some time to work in my room  before dinner and an early bedtime.

It’s culture shock for me to be in a noisy city, riding in a taxi, horns blowing, buildings closing in, and people hurrying everywhere.  Back in Putney I have been practicing walking meditation, and that causes me to slow down enough to notice the exquisite details of life.  Here I found myself numbing out to avoid sensory overload.  But hey, that’s Philadelphia!  Here are some photos of this wonderful shop and its owner, Craig Rosenfeld.  Such a warm and welcoming shop!  And now there’s a new shop next door for the sewing population: Spool!

A New Year with Thanks

Christmas has passed.  I really like the time between Christmas and the New Year.  It’s sort of a lame duck, to use a political term, the origins of which I can hardly imagine.  I have no plans, so I allow myself some lazy time before the inevitable crazy schedule jumps back in gear.

I will be making my way down to northern Maryland again to teach a two-day Norwegian Mittens class at my mother’s B and B, complete with luscious food made by the best cook in the world (my mom).  We will be knitting my Nordic Mitts pattern while learning the theory behind these awesome hand garments.  If you are interested in this intimate (10 people or less) fun weekend (January 24 and 25), please email me (beth@knittingtraditions.com).
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For many people, including myself, this has been a very trying year in many ways.  I think more than in past years, I am looking forward to a fresh start as January rolls around.  Sometimes it’s hard to keep from whining about what we don’t like and instead to focus on what is right and good in our lives.   So, armed with the knowledge that I am the one who chooses how I respond to my life events, I am ready to take on 2009!

I want to begin the New Year keeping in mind how much kindness and generosity there is, especially among knitters.  Throughout November and December, I opened package after package of little sampler sweaters that former students sent me to replace those that were stolen.  With each new box and bag, I was so filled with gratitude.  My heartfelt thanks goes out to each one of you who sent me good wishes, little sweaters or mittens, and sympathetic emails.  And huge thanks to Barb Osler in Montreal.  If ever there is a calamity, you’d want Barbie on your side, working so very hard to rectify the situation.

My wish for each of you in this coming year is that you will experience the love and kindness of others, recognize it and be very grateful for it.  It is the best gift indeed.

Stolen Goods

I am putting out the word that on October 27th, 2008, my suitcase was stolen in Montreal out of the trunk of a friend’s car. I am hoping that if anyone sees any of these pieces, you will contact the Montreal police at (514) 280-0120. I would love to have them back and there is a reward being offered for their return.  I was even interviewed on the CBC about this very sad loss.

The suitcase contained six ganseys: Grace’s Cardigan, the White Gansey, Chelsea’s Heart Gansey, Snakes and Ladders, Poppleton, and At Sea, as well as my Fair Isle Bag. You can view these on this page of my website.

All 24 of the little class samplers which I use to teach my classes were also in the bag and are shown here. (Some of the photos are older version of the actual samplers stolen, but look very similar.) In addition, two pairs of Latvian mittens which were gifts from friends, five single Latvian mittens which I had knitted for classes, and two out-of-print Latvian mitten books were in the case as well as other minor swatches used in my teaching.  I appreciate any and all help in the retrieval of this huge body of work. Many thanks!