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Beth  : )

I don’t usually talk about Chloë because I don’t want to make people feel uncomfortable, but the times I do, someone will come forward with their own story while thanking me for sharing this part of my life.  I remember giving a talk to a guild one time and mentioning Chloë’s Dress, which I made as my grief work for her.  Afterward, a young grief-stricken mother came up to tell me she had just lost her baby.  It was so healing for both of us to share that moment.

Chloë's Dress

The yin and yang of life and death is present for all of us.  We all have loss and joy in our lives.  I am so comforted by my knitting to bring me through all the times–good and bad.  It is always there, to keep my hands company.  When Chloë’s dress was designed, I felt so strongly that this dress came through me, not from me.  I cried while I knitted it, but when it was finished, a weight had lifted off me.  This was a great gift to me, from Knitting.

We are all so very blessed to have this handwork, this self-expression that is healing, comforting, fun, practical, even outrageous at times!  I think of the dear friends I now have and the places I have travelled because of knitting, and how I have developed as a person because of the challenges my knitting career has put on me.  Before losing Chloë, I was pretty timid.  After that, I knew that NOTHING in my life would be as terrible.  That loss gave me the foundational strength and courage to dare to make a career of knitting, to even think that I had something to contribute to others through this medium.  That was one of the great gifts from Chloë.

At the end of every day, I still miss her terribly.  But I know I am rich in my life beyond measure for what she did for me.

Chloë

My favorite foundation for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is the CJ Foundation for SIDS at The Don-Imus-WFAN Pediatric Center, Hackensack University Medical Center, 30 Prospect Avenue, Hackensack, NJ  07601; www.cjsids.org

Monday I barely rolled out of bed and had to get to the train station.  I went down to NYC to teach a class at New York’s beloved knitting shop, Knitty City.  Pearl Chin owns the shop and is a delight!   I taught my new class of Latvian Mitts.

Springtime Latvian Mitts

We all had a great time!

Working intently!

Too much fun!

Ilma has been in a couple of my classes elsewhere and she brought along this spectacular pair of mittens knitted in Latvia, which a cousin of hers sent her.  I measured the stitch gauge at 19 stitches /inch.  The yarn is a very fine single ply.  This mitten is a museum quality, exquisitely  executed mitten.  Some of the rounds in the cuff have at least five colors in a round. Look at the tip, how  the little zig-zags follow the decrease angles.  Just perfection!

A superlative example of Latvian knitting

AND…

I will admit that I learned something very valuable on this trip.  I realized that I have been so nervous, afraid even, of traveling to NYC.  (When I went to Vogue Knitting Live in January, my friend Josie met me at the station and made sure I got where I needed to go, so I never really ventured out on my own.) It made me think of my students who are paralyzed at the thought of cutting a steek.  Just as I have coaxed knitters into snipping away at those extra stitches in their knitting, I coaxed myself onto the train, found my way through Penn Station, got a taxi by myself, and arrived at my destination.  I feel so accomplished now!  Yeah, I know, I have traveled in Europe in lots of cities.  For some reason, Stockholm seemed so much more do-able than NYC–until now!  Now I OWN New York City!

Good thing too as Pearl and I are talking about the possibility of my return to Knitty City in the near future!

About 20 of us gathered in a room with our wheels in anticipation.  We were given a variety of cashmeres in different grades to spin as well as pygora and angora and cashgora.  I spun my little heiny off and by the end of the day had produced this ball of yarn…

My ball of spun goat yarn

It consists of several grades of cashmere, pygora, cashgora, and mohair (kid, yearling, and adult).  It was pretty fascinating to see samples of the different types of mohair, which is what the fleece of an angora goat is called:

Kid and adult mohair locks

The mohair taken from a goat that is 6 months old to a year old is considered “kid”.  It is shorter, curlier, and maybe not as shiny as more mature mohair.  Yearling mohair is a bit less curly, and longer because it has had a longer time to grow than a kid’s.  Adult mohair is so shiny and has much less curl.  It was used a lot in the earlier 1900s for upholstery fabric because it would wear so well.  I remember my Grandma’s couch….

Pygora is the type of goat that is a cross between a pygmy goat and an angora goat.  I never knew before that angora goats have only come in one color: white.  Once they were crossed with pygmy goats (which have lots of colors in their fleeces), more color is being produced in with this cross breed.

Here is my notebook of samples at the end of the day:

My notebook of samples that I spun in class

I was so impressed with myself when I cleaned up my office at the beginning of the year.  The issue is that if you don’t have the  right storage for all your stuff, the organization doesn’t last long.  In addition, there needs to be space in which to work.  I am so frustrated with the lack of space that I am contemplating renting some studio space.  However, I love staying at home to do my work, so it is a problem.  I keep eyeing that second bedroom that my daughter Chelsea is in, and imagining how I would organize it with my Stuff if she moved out.  (She has the only real closet in the whole apartment.)

Once I brought my basket making supplies into the house, chaos reared its ugly head once again.  Every bit of wall space already has either a book case or a cupboard on it housing my yarns, knitted samples, fibers, books, and tools.  Time for a road trip to Ikea, I think.

I wonder if any of you have found a great solution to housing your Stuff.  Wanna share?

“Charkha” means wheel in Hindi and was a tool as well as a symbol for the Indian Independence Movement.  Gandhi understood that the people of India could be self-sufficient if they spun their own cotton thread and made their own cloth for their clothing, rather than being dependent upon imported fabrics.  The resulting cloth is known as Khadi cloth, and I wrote about that a few blogs ago.

I have both a book-size Charkha and a briefcase-sized Charkha.

Book Charkha in foreground, Briefcase Charkha in background

You can see some non-skid cloth peeking out from underneath the Book Charkha.  That helps to keep it from sliding around as I spin.  Also, the weaving on the coffee table was made from a commercial cotton warp and handspun cotton weft in Crackle weave, in case any of you are interested.

I like to spin on both Charkhas, but prefer the book sized one for some unknown reason.  Mainly I have spun cotton on it.  Here is a skein I spun on the Charkha.

Charkha-spun Cotton

Here’s a detail shot.  I plied it on my spinning wheel in a corkscrew fashion for more texture.  I find it difficult to ply on the Charkha because the spindles don’t hold as much as a bobbin does on my regular wheel. I hope to weave cloth for a top someday from this.

Notice the corkscrew ply of this 2-ply yarn

The Process of Cotton to Yarn

When I lived in Maryland, I tried growing cotton with very little success.  Maryland has high humidity which promotes rot.  Cotton needs a long dry growing season, which is why the South is perfect for this crop.  I must admit though that a friend of mine, who was an avid gardener in Maryland, was very successful in her attempts to grow cotton, and the blooms are so fragile, delicate, and beautiful.  I wish I still had a photo of them.  If you Google “cotton bloom” you can see some photos, but they don’t do it justice.

Here is the product of the cotton plant, cotton bolls.  The fibers of the boll, or lint, are attached to the seeds.  It is quite tedious to remove the seeds by picking them out of the cotton.  No wonder the cotton gin was so important in revolutionizing the cotton industry. I learned an African technique of using a stick to roll the bolls, which makes the seeds pop out. Some people use pasta machines!

Brown and white cotton bolls

When cotton is almost mature, the plants are defoliated, to drop the leaves and force the boll to mature.  Most cotton crops are heavily doused with toxic herbicides.  These poisons will reside in the cotton oils, an unfortunately prevalent food additive in use these days.  I try to avoid any food that has cottonseed oil listed in the ingredients for this reason.  When spinning or knitting with cotton, it’s a good idea to buy organic whenever possible to reduce your exposure to those toxins.  One way organic cotton is defoliated is by withholding water.  What a simple, basic solution!

There are many natural colors of cotton.  Here are just a few of the possible shades of browns, beiges, and greens.  I know I have more hiding around the house…  If you are interested in spinning on a charkha, I recommend Eileen Hallman’s website New World Textiles for videos, organic cottons, and Indian Charkhas. On Jonathon and Sheila Bosworth’s website you can see their beautiful handmade Charkhas, in luscious woods and high quality spindles and workings.

A few of the natural shades of cotton

When working with raw cotton (not prepared as a sliver for spinning) the cotton can be carded to make punis or poonis (an Indian term) that are little rolags that make spinning on a Charkha easy.

Multi-colored cotton sliver and a bundle of punis from India. Look at the newspaper used to wrap them!

When preparing wool, the desired result of the fiber preparation is to make a rolag that is light and airy.  For easy spinning of cotton on a Charkha, the punis must be dense and rolled tightly.  Here is how I make mine.

I start by charging my cotton cards with cotton lint.

Carder charged with lint

Then I card the cotton and then strip the carders.  Here is what came off my carder:

Carded cotton lint

Now, I roll it tightly on a dowel I sanded smooth for this purpose.

Puni on a stick!

Then I push it off the stick.

Puni partway off the stick

Completed puni

Here’s a one-minute low-quality movie of me spinning on my Charkha.  I couldn’t find my Flip camera, so I used my regular camera and the quality isn’t the same, but you get the idea.

My throat went into full-fledged laryngitis, but I had enough energy to not only teach my classes but to enjoy them as well.  If I wasn’t doing something I was supposed to be doing, like being at the banquet or signing my books and DVDs, I was in bed and I am sure that’s how I managed to get through the weekend.

On Thursday, the teachers got together at 11am for an early lunch.  Here is my table:

Deanna Van Assche, Laura Farson, Lily Chin, Merike Saarnit, and Laura Bryant were at my table. Edie Eckman is in the background at another table.

It was a delicious lunch!  Then we went in to a big ballroom where the students were having lunch.  We each sat at a table for five minutes and gave a schpiel about ourselves, our classes, and what we love to knit.  I was so pleased how well this was received.  Some of the students had never considered traditional knitting and they were amazed at the little sweaters I brought along to show (you can see them in the foreground).  Here is a photo of my first table I sat at:

Students at the a la carte luncheon--sorry Amy, you got cut off!

Then I taught my Norwegian Purl class, signed books and DVDs, and went to bed.

Friday, I taught Color Twined Mitts.  Everyone worked so hard and did a fabulous job!

Look at all those lovely mitts!

I went to bed instead of going to the Fashion Show where I had entered two of my designs (Susan’s Eriskay Gansey form my DVD and the Classic Gansey Cardigan).  My friend Karen went though and told me they were well received, so that made me happy.

Saturday was my Tam class.  Again, my students worked so hard and several finished their tams, including sewing in the ends!  Aren’t the colorways they chose just wonderful?

Beautiful tams!

Sunday my class on Latvian Fingerless Mitts ran.  We worked on scalloped cuffs,  half-braids and the Herringbone Braid as well as working with two, three, and four yarns in a round, as the fearless Latvians do!

All those lovely mitts! The color combinations were inspiring!

Sunday evening, I had a lovely dinner (my appetite came back with a vengeance) with Janel Laidman and Gail Roehm.  What a terrific time we had.  Then it was time for The Dreaded Red Eye.  Foolishly I succumbed to buying a mystery book at the airport and stayed up most of the night reading on my flights.  By the time I got home, I was delirious with exhaustion and I slept for two days, dreaming of the good time I had had.

Fast forward to VK Live in NYC this past January.  I have just come out of the market and am waiting for an up elevator.  A long time.  Fortunately.  Because there is a lovely young Japanese woman waiting for a down elevator. She is wearing a soft grey mohair dress of indescribable beauty.  It looks knitted, or crocheted, but not really.  In fact I can’t quite figure it out.  She tells me that it is a Japanese technique where you knit up and you knit down.  In other words, in opposite directions.  I am fascinated and my stupid elevator decides to arrive at that moment.  Can you believe I got on it?

Now I am haunted.  I write to a Japanese knitting friend of mine and ask her about it.  She asks about the young woman and asks if the dress she was wearing is grey mohair….

It turns out my friend Mari knows Izumi, the young woman I saw at the elevator, and gave me her web address.  I tried to email her from her blog, not sure if I was clicking on the right button (in Japanese) and she graciously emailed me back and even suggested some Japanese books on the subject:

Japan Amazon- basic books

Japan Amazon- more advanced book

Izumi said, “The stitches you saw on my mohair dress, is not on any of those books because that was created by my Ipponbari teacher pretty recently.  With this needle you can combine stitches of knitting, crochetting (Tunisian as well) and other unique stitches, so we are exploring more and more possiblity of new stitches right now. I’d love that someday Ipponbari books will be published in English though.”

Here is a photo of the fabric of the mohair dress.

Here is Izumi’s blog of her past projects. What a variety of knitting techniques: mitered squares, gloves, lace, you name it!  Here is a blog about it from Rhonda, an American, where this technique is called “Knooking”.  She has a 15 page PDF download on her Etsy shop that will get you started. There is even a Ravelry group devoted to Knooking.  Who knew?

I have started a little project, a cotton bag, from a pattern in some of the papers included with my book I received so long ago.  I will post more photos as I progress so you can check back!

Bag made by Ipponbari

You can see two shoe strings in the “knooked” fabric.  I am about to take out the light pink one, having just finished a round with the dark pink one.  I have worked garter stitch, columns of purls and knits, and cables.  It’s time for the beads.  Don’t look TOO closely, there are mistakes.  Now I am off to Stitches.  More later!

Interweave Press is joining in too!  They will be holding their first knitting event, Knitting Lab, at the San Mateo Marriott (outside San Francisco) November 3-6.

Madrona is one of the finest shows around, held in February in Tacoma, Washington every year on President’s Weekend.  It is a smaller scale show, and maybe that’s a big part of why I like it.  It has a more intimate feel and is held in a beautiful hotel, decorated with handblown glass by a different artist on each floor.  It is a block or two away from the Glass Museum, which is a not-to-be-missed adventure!

Knitters Magazine puts on four shows every year around the country!  Stitches West is next week (Santa Clara, February 17-20),  Stitches South is April 14-17 in Atlanta, Stitches Mid-west is August 25-28 in Chicago, and Stitches East is October 20-23 in Hartford.

TKGA (The Knitting Guild Association) is the oldest knitting show in the US, starting in 1985.  This year, TKGA shows will be held in Minneapolis, MN July 28-31 and in Greensboro, NC September 21-25.

If you have never been to a knitting event, consider it.  It is so amazing to be in a hotel where everywhere you look, there are knitters and crocheters, lovers of yarn, teachers and students, classes and the market, where you can do some hefty stash enhancement.

Then there are the cruises and tours sponsored by CraftCruises.com (the cruises I teach on are through them), Joyce James Tours (highly regarded!) and more!  Vogue and Interweave have sponsored trips in the past, but I couldn’t find anything on the web about them for this year.

Of course I will be teaching in Normandy France in May and in Italy  for Alpine Adventure Agency in September.  Click on the heading above “Teaching Trips Abroad” for more information.  Any one know of other trips to mention?

For a good idea of other fiber-related events, Clara Parkes of Knitters Review fame has a fabulous listing of knitting events here and abroad.

Aren’t we lucky to have so much to choose from?  There is no reason to feel like a solitary knitter all the time!  Get thee to a show!

I am working on another design for the next issue, since this magazine happens to be right up my alley…

And I have decided to move my blog.  That seems scary, but I want more functionality than I have right now.  So for those of you who have subscribed to the blog, you will probably have to re-subscribe.  (Sorry!)  And for those of you who have bookmarked my blog, you’ll have to do that all over again. I hate to cause this upheaval, and I hope it will be worth it in the end.  Where am I moving it?  To my website. Not too hard to find! When am I moving?  Not sure yet.  Most likely this month sometime…

It has been the snowiest winter yet since I moved to Vermont.  Here is what I see when I look out my kitchen window:

Almost up to the middle of the window!

I am beginning to get ready for Stitches West.  That means packing the suitcase, dumping it out to be sure I packed everything, and packing it all over again, printing handouts, getting bills paid  and groceries bought (for my daughter) before I leave.  I am looking forward to a fun time there.  I hope to see a bunch of you!  And, honestly, it will be an awesome break from the Vermont winter being in the California sunshine!