Clara's Organic Cotton Blanket

Where's Clara? Clara will be three in August and sometimes still plays peek a boo. Here she is hiding under the blanket I knit for her before she was born. I used Pakucho Certified Organic Cotton. The blanket is one of her favorites. It's been slept with, played with, picnicked on. Clara's mother throws it in the washer and dryer and the blanket is only softer and prettier than it was when it was new.

You don't need a pattern. Those of you who knit dishcloths will recognize this:

Row 1: Cast on 3 stitches

Row 2: Knit
Row 3: Knit 2, yarn over, knit to end
Row 4: Knit 2, yarn over, knit to end
Continue repeating row 3 until you have a triangle big enough for half of your blanket (or think you are close to having used half your yarn) then start decreasing:
Row X: Knit 1, knit 2 together, yarn over, knit 2 together, knit to end.
Continue repeating Row X until you have three stitches on the needle. Cast off.

The yarn overs created an eyelet edge. I threaded a ribbon through the eyelet holes and tied it in a corner. And I added a simple crochetted picot border. Something like: double crochet all around, with three stitches in each corner stitch. Next row: single crochet in first stitch, single crochet, chain 3, single crochet in next stitch, single crochet. repeat around.

Here is a similiar pattern. The border is more complicated than what I did but it doesn't look too difficult.

Linen Ponchette - This one is for me!

“What are you going to do with all those shawls?” my friend, Nancy asks me. She would like to see me knit pieces to include in my quilts and wall hangings. Nancy's quilts were always works of art. Now after years of perfecting her piecing and quilting skills, she is flourishing as a fiber artist making art quilts.

Yes, I’ve knitted a lot of shawls, scarves and ponchettes. And I’m knitting more. But I really don’t have too many because after I knit them, I give them away. When a daughter, sister, or friend admires something I’ve made, I might give it to her right then. Or I might wait until her birthday. I am happy when my work is admired, when I know it will be worn. It is what an artist feels when her work is hung in a gallery. As a knitter, having my work worn, is having it displayed. Isn't that what every artist wants?

And giving one away gives me reason to knit another. So, when my daughter admired the Cool Hemp Ponchette knit in Allhemp6, it was hers. I had another planned.

This time I knit the pattern in Euroflax sport weight linen. It was the color, willow, that first drew me to the yarn. This was my first experience knitting with linen and I found it behaved very much like the hemp although the linen wasn’t quite as rough and itchy on my hand. Once again this was a quick, easy to knit pattern. After knitting the basic rectangle that forms the ponchette, I tossed it in the washing machine with a load of whites (no bleach!), then into the dryer. I took it out while still damp, blocked it to the size recommended in the pattern as I would any lace project, stretching out the points as much as I could. When it was dry I seamed it. The linen and the hemp both biased quite a bit but the pattern seemed designed for that and the ponchette hangs with a bit of swing and a casual elegance to dress up a warm day.

I’m going to wear it.

A Week In the Pines with Friends and Fiber

Sunday after dinner we covered the dining room table with felt and plastic table cloths. Nancy and Kay set up their machines at each end of the table and I laid out my appliqué supplies in the middle. We set up an ironing board in the kitchen.

Monday morning we got right to work. Nancy is the most disciplined of the three of us. She finished three traditional two colored quilts from blocks she had pieced at home and had ready to sew together.

Kay sewed the blocks of what will be a beautiful batik quilt and I started work on my appliqué. Kay and I took frequent knitting breaks.

My appliqué was not a success. Although I thought I had started it 10 years ago, Nancy corrected me. I started it 5 years ago when she and I went to Asilomar together. In any event, my skills have declined and my fingers have stiffened since the last time I picked it up. The first day went well. I stitched the long smooth lines of the trunk and branches of the tree of life and remembered how much I enjoyed appliqué and had ideas for lots of applique in my future. But the second day I worked on one of the flowers and couldn’t get the petals or the leaves to point, the v’s between the half circles in my scallops turned into curved u’s. I wasn’t at all happy with my work. The third day I ripped out what I had done.

I have two choices: give it up and never finish or find another way. I’ve decided to try the machine. I’ll free motion stitch around the edges of each floral piece. This will give them a slight frayed edge when the quilt is washed. After the pieces are all down I’ll free motion quilt with colored thread, silk or sulky, repeating the shapes of the appliquéd motifs. It should work. And, this way there is a good chance it will be finished someday and it won’t ever be finished if I stick to what I started.

After I put the appliqué away, I spent the last days knitting. More on that later.

Getting To Not Getting Away

I’m off to join two friends for a week of sewing in the mountains.

In the past the three of us attended Empty Spools seminars at Asilomar together. The location, right on the Pacific Ocean, the activity, working with fabric, the company, other quilters, was wonderful. The Asilomar Conference Grounds, part of the California State Park system, with buildings designed by Julia Morgan, sits directly across from the beach in Pacific Grove. The rooms range from cozy and rustic with a fireplace to dorm like. The food was plentiful and good. And five days with no work other than that I chose to do with fabric was wonderful.

But when the Empty Spools schedule came out this year we couldn’t find a session that worked for all of us. We’ve decided to try a private retreat instead. We are going to my sister’s mountain home, snuggled in the Sierras between Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks, surrounded by pines, away from traffic and internet service. Only the squawking blue jays will interrupt the silence. We’ll take our fabric, machines and notions and get to work.

We’ll eat well too! We are all good cooks who enjoy cooking. Nancy is making her special triple ginger cookies, Kay promised oatmeal cookies. I just finished baking a dozen vanilla cupcakes, put together premeasured packages of ingredients for baking a cherry upside down cake and chocolate chip cookies. Three nights we are having main dish salads. Tri tip and curried tuna are two on the menu. One night we will have chicken curry. We’ll be driving south through farm country and intend to stop for fresh fruit and vegetables on the way. We’ve also packed nine bags of microwave popcorn.

I used to look forward to going to Asilomar to get away. To get away from the long hours and responsibilities of a demanding job and all that went with it, a commute that had me in stop and go traffic for an hour in the morning and again in the evening, an inflexible schedule. I looked forward to getting away from those things that stifled the inner artist I wanted to nurture.

I don’t look forward to getting away anymore. I don’t look forward to getting way from what I do everyday because today I do those things I choose to do, knitting lace shawls, baking cupcakes for 2 year old Clara, meeting a friend for lunch and volunteering that fits me so much better than the work I used to do. I don’t look forward to getting away from the husband who supports and encourages me. And I don’t look forward to getting away from the pleasant community where I live.

Instead, I look forward to getting to. Getting to the mountains, the pine trees, the quiet. I look forward to getting to the hand appliqué wall hanging I started in an Empty Spools class taught by Pat Campbell 10 years ago. I worked on it for 5 restful days with Pat's help, sitting with other women, talking quietly as we worked. I was pleased with my piece, the colors and fabrics I had chosen. I was happy with my stitching. But I brought it home, set it aside and in the distractions and busyness of life, never picked it up again. It still sits with my hand traced pattern basted to the front, many pieces are only pinned in place. Others haven't even been started. I’m looking forward to getting to it.

I’m not looking forward to getting away, I’m looking forward to time spent with friends, with nature and fiber. I’m taking my knitting too!

4th of July Heartland Shawl

Mine was a quiet 4th of July. I cleaned the house, prepared food for family arriving the next day, and cast on Evelyn Clark’s Heartland Lace Shawl.

The Ravelry Knit Along for Evelyn Clark’s Heartland Lace Shawl started in mid June but I had too many projects on my plate and, after selecting sport weight Misti Alpaca in a brick heather, knitting a gauge swatch and selecting a size 6 needle, I set the project aside. When one of the other knitters said her goal was to cast on July 4th, that worked for me.

Honoring the buffalo who once roamed strong and free seemed a fitting celebration of all that is good about my country. The bulk of the shawl is done in Clark’s Bison Tracks Lace depicting "the buffalo’s heart-shaped hoof prints alternating with small diamonds that point to the four directions on earth.” The shawl’s edging is called the River of Life. The shawl is a celebration of the buffalo’s return, she says.

I hope the buffalo are returning. Five were born this spring on a small ranch near my house. The herd of 12 graze on a hill cheering commuters on their way home from work in Sacramento. Twenty-five years ago there were only two.

My husband hung out our flag as he does every Independence Day. I hunted for the marches of John Philip Sousa on the radio to cheer my work. Instead I found myself singing “We Shall Overcome” with Bruce Springsteen.

Deep in my heart
I do believe
We shall live in peace someday.

The Cool Hemp Ponchette and Learning to Take Better Pictures

After I posted the picture of my Cool Hemp Ponchette, I found this comment,

“I really like this one, Mom!”

So, of course, it was hers. But before she was allowed to take it home, I needed a picture of her modeling the ponchette. So here it is. This picture is better than the one I posted earlier and not just because the model is 33 years younger than her mother!

Nor can the difference be attributed to the skill of the photographer. Both were taken by my husband, a professional videographer who knows how to take good pictures.

The white tee shirt I wore in the earlier picture was not a good idea. Despite having been repeatedly told not to wear white in photographs, I thought I needed contrast to show the stitch definition and I didn't think the white would be too harsh under the ponchette. I was wrong. The stitch definition is clear in the pictures of my daughter while the color of the tee shirt she happened to have on is neither jarring nor unattractive.

I've decided to spend some time learning to take better pictures of my work and hopefully you'll see improvements in those I post. I’ll share the lessons as I learn them.

Cotton - Not Organic

Our northern California skies have been grey and heavy from the thousands of wildfires burning since the third week in June. There wasn't any breeze for days and the air itself felt dead. My friend’s husband called it “nuclear winter”. Another said it felt like the end of the world.

On television we watch horrific news about flooding in the Midwest while we pay more and more for a tank of gas. Every night the evening news shows us people turning to smaller cars and even bicycles, cutting back on travel and luxuries, while car dealerships and automobile manufacturers are in financial trouble.

Are we finally going to realize that the earth’s resources are finite and that we cannot continue to consume a hugely disproportionate share without hurting ourselves as well as others? Or will we look for a temporary fix and then go blithely on, ignoring the disastrous consequences for the world’s poor as well as for our own children?

I certainly wasn’t focused on the consequences of my buying decisions when I bought the cotton yesterday. Pleased with my hemp ponchette, I wanted to try other vegetable fibers. I already had some Euroflax sport weight linen but when I stopped by my LYS to show my new ponchette I came out with some Classic Elite Provence, a mercerized cotton in a lovely blue.

It wasn’t that I didn’t know cotton production requires large amounts of petroleum based products for herbicides and defoliants. I certainly knew environmental standards are not always either sufficient or enforced and these toxic chemicals are allowed to run over workers and into the water supply. I didn’t know much about mercerization but I looked it up after I got home and learned it requires large amounts of sodium hydroxide, another very toxic chemical. And what about those dyes?

Three years ago I knit a baby blanket for granddaughter. It was a simple garter stitch square in Pakucho organic cotton, knit on the diagonal with an eyelet border. The naturally pigmented cotton is grown and harvested in Peru using pre-Columbian, 100% organic, farming techniques. Three years later, the blanket I made has provided many hours of both comfort and play for Clara. She takes it to bed for nap time and night time and during play puts her stuffed animals to sleep under it. Her mother washes it in the washer and dries it in the drier. The blanket is softer, cuddlier and just as pretty now as when it was new.

No, I wasn’t thinking when I bought that cotton.

Cool Hemp Ponchette

I’m wearing my new Cool Hemp Ponchette made without deviation from the Lanaknits pattern. And I like it! The design in the lace shows up clearly, the opening folds into a slight cowl and the hemp has a lovely drape. It is a fun little cover up to add just a touch of style to my tee shirts. Later I’ll be meeting a friend for lunch and the ponchette will dress me up just a bit. And it's always nice to have a wrap in a restaurant with the air conditioner running on high.

I’m very impressed with the way the ponchette drapes. You can see this on many of the project pictures other knitters have posted on Ravelry. After knitting, I washed it in the washer and dried it in the dryer until almost dry. Then I laid it out on the blocking mats and blocked it to size, stretching out each of the points in the lace border.

This was the first time I’d knit with hemp and I’m curious to see how it wears. I know it will be both soft and strong. I know it will be soft because after I redid the seam three times to get it to meet my standards, that little bit of yarn was soft as silk. And I know it’s strong because as soon as I put it on this morning I caught a bit of the lace on the sharp edge of a house fan and pulled out a big loop of yarn. I gave it a good tug and all the strands were nicely back in place.

Knitting with hemp was like knitting with kitchen twine. It seemed to make my fingers itch and its resistance to being manipulated exacerbated my early arthritis. After I was done I read on the Lanaknits website a suggestion to soak the hemp in hot water and hair conditioner before knitting. I’ll try that next time. The end product is so nice I don’t want the stiffness of the yarn to keep me from using it.