Montana Made Trading Post ~Fiber Fanatics Unite

The Age of Homespun

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:49:30 -0700

My cruise with Nancy Bush and Beth Brown Reisel really re awakened a long term interest of mine about historical textiles and fibers and history in general. I bought a book in Berlin about the history of the wall which my father-in-law borrowed. But when I came home, I joined the Textile Texts read along on Ravelry. The latest book I'm reading for this group is the Age of Homespun by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. I checked it out from the Parmly Billings Library.

Using objects that Americans have saved through the centuries and stories they have passed along, as well as histories teased from documents, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich chronicles the production of cloth--and of history--in early America.

Ulrich uses ordinary household goods-- Indian baskets, spinning wheels, a chimneypiece, a cupboard, a niddy-noddy, bed coverings, silk embroidery, a pocketbook, a linen tablecloth, a coverlet and a rose blanket, and an unfinished stocking-- toprovide the key to a transformed understanding of cultural encounter, frontier war, Revolutionary politics, international commerce, and early industrialization in America. We discover how ideas about cloth and clothing affected relations between English settlers and their Algonquian neighbors. We see how an English production system based on a clear division of labor--men doing the weaving and women the spinning--broke down in the colonial setting, becoming first marginalized, then feminized, then politicized, and how the new system both prepared the way for and was sustained by machine-powered spinning. Pulling these divergent threads together into a rich and revealing tapestry of "the age of homespun," Ulrich demonstrates how ordinary objects reveal
larger economic and social structures, and, in particular, how early Americans and their descendants made, used, sold, and saved textiles in order to assert identities, shape relationships, and create history.

Many things in this book have been eye openers for me. Right now I'm reading about an effort in Boston in 1753 to open a linen factory to provide employment for poor people. Boston was going through a major recession and had many poor people. City philanthorpists bought spinning wheels, looms etc. to put poor people to work. The spinners in particular were the unemployed women and children. The weavers were more skilled, many from Ireland. Eventually this effort failed because their didn't appear to be a market and other issues. All of this strikes me as the old saying "the more things change, the more they stay the same."

I have just finished reading the Rape of Europa about the Nazi's and the pillaging of Jewish art and also art from museums of the conquered nations and the purging of decadent art from their own museums. This also struck me has familiar ground.

I read Woman's Work and the History of Knitting earlier with the Textile Text read along and feel so glad I did. It makes me treasure my own fiber time as I connect to earlier spinners, weavers, and knitters. PLUS it doesn't add to my STASH or UFO list. Yeah.

I keep knitting and spinning away during December. I stayed with my Dad a few days at his house and started a new shawlette. Then he was in the hospital for a week which slowed down everything. He is recovering well and I'm trying to catch up Christmas shopping. I almost went crazy and started a new pair of small wool socks for my toddler grandson last night.

Commonsense and weariness intervened and said stick with the shawlette. Linda

MAWS signature yarn

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:56:27 -0700

I'm back from a trip to Vancouver, WA to see my son run in National Cross Country finals. We enjoyed a very nice day at the Portland Art Museum. My knitting has focused on hats recently and I have completed a new design. I have several other hat designs in progress. The first thing I saw when I walked into the museum were the Native American basket style hats. It almost seemed fateful. I'd love to make a knitted hat that reminds me of the styles I saw there.

I promised I'd show the MAWS yarn we are dyeing for our conference. This yarn is available in 2 weights--a fingering weight yarn 2/8 which has 430 yards in a skein. We also have a 3/8 weight which has 280 yards in a skein. These are $16 a skein.

I also have dyed roving in all 3 colors which is $16 for 6 ounces. You can email me at lindas5252@yahoo.com if you want to purchase some of these from MAWS. All the profits from these yarns and roving will go to reduce to the cost of the conference. The colorways will be available up to and during the conference. But then they are gone and retired.

I learned so much dyeing these yarns and roving and doing it in quantity. Most of my dyeing to date has been one off projects with no need to recreate.

I loved custom mixing these colors and coming up with a colorway that didn't create mud when dyeing. I also gained a lot of respect for people who do this all the time as a job.

This upcoming week, we have company for 7 days. I'm glad I got rested up on my trip. Linda

What am I doing with my time

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:53:30 -0700

I have a bit of a cold and hoping it is nothing more. On Monday I went to doctor's office for a routine blood test. It was swamped with people with masks on trying to figure out if they had the swine flu, regular flu, or a cold. I put on a mask because I was paranoid to be around all these people. Then I went home and took care of twin grandbabies that have colds. Today I took a 4 hour nap and right now my aspirin has kicked in and I have a little bit of energy. Enough whining.

I'm the conference chair for the Association of Montana and Weaver's conference June 4-6 in Billings. This is a big undertaking that our local guilds do every 12 years. We have been busy and here is an update.

Billings Weavers Guild and Prairie Handspinners invite you to our conference Under the Rims, June 4-6. 2010. We have booked Montana State University—Billings www.msubillings.edu as in our previous two conferences. We love that housing, food, and classes are all in one building. Plus with dorm rooms at $26.50 for singles and $21.50 and affordable nearby motel housing, this makes MSU-B a great option for our out-of-town guests. Our instructor list looks great. We plan to run 11 classes simultaneously during the conference with preconference workshops and postconference workshops as well. We have 4 internationally known presenters. Nancy Bush, author of Folk Socks, Folk Knitting in Estonia, Knitting on the Road, Knitting Vintage Socks and Knitted Lace of Estonia will teach 3 different knitting classes: She will share her vast knowledge of historical knitting in Traditional Estonian Socks, Swedish Twined Knitting, and Estonian Triangular Lace Shawl. Jane Fournier is the author of In Sheeps Clothing and holds her COE in spinning. She has written many articles for Piecework and Spinoff. She regularly leads Interweave Press fiber trips to her native New Zealand. Yarn Design: Spinning by Choice not by Chance, Plying, Blending Fibers, Spinning Flax, Spinning Short-Stapled Fibres. Robyn Spady www.spadystudios.com holds her COE in weaving and has written many articles for Shuttle, Spindle, and Dyepot, Handwoven and Weavezine. In her post-conference workshop Robyn will teach There’s Two Sides to Every Cloth. From three shafts on up, weave weave versatile fabric that possesses a completely different appearance on each side. During the conference she’ll teach 4 half-day workshops The Fab Four, Jewelry from Thrums and “Weftovers, Less is More using inkle looms in distinctive ways, and Putting Together a Novelty Act to learn to use those special yarns in your weaving. Kathryn Alexander www.kathrynalexander.net is a spinning, weaving, and knitting innovator and has been featured in Knitting in America and Interweave Knits and Spinoff. Best known for her colorful wearable art, Kathryn will teach spinning and knitting classes. She’ll teach Understanding The Energy In Singles Spinning, Energized Knit Surface with Commercial Yarns, Knit Surface with Entrelac’s Shapes, knitting embellishments in Doo Dads and Finishing in Knitting. The list doesn’t end with these great classes. We have other talented instructors teaching Bookmaking, Dyeing, Knitting, Tatting, Bobbin Lace, Tailspun Yarns, Beaded Fringes, Embroidery, Crochet, Felting, basketmaking, Handwoven garments with Minimum Cutting, 10 Different Treadlings on your Original Threading, Surface Design, Identifying Superior Fleeces for Spinning, and other fun classes. On Thursday June 3, in addition to preconference classes and children activities, we’ll open the vendors both at 4 p.m. and hold a Spin-In. Classes run all day Friday, June 4. On Friday night we’ll head to the Yellowstone Art Museum for a dessert party and to see Polly Apfelbaum’s Show www.pollyapfelbaum.com. More classes on Saturday June 5 and then our Awards Banquet and keynote speaker. Sunday morning June 6 we’ll hold the Fashion Show Brunch. Sunday afternoon we’ll see the start of some post conference classes for those lucky enough to stay over. Post conference classes end June 8. Of course we’ll have guild booths, cool goody bags with guild and other gifts, and a beautiful display of fiber art in our show. And vendors, vendors, vendors! Join us for fiber, friends and fun in 2010!

On top of that a bunch of local dyers and I have created Under the Rims Signature Yarns and Roving for sale. Stay tuned for the next installment when a perfectly well Linda unveils these to the world wide web.

Linda

How much of art /design is process?

Tue, 6 Oct 2009 08:56:52 -0700

I try to watch trends a bit now that I'm dyeing more. Not because I give a darn about what I wear. But it takes me a long time to get from design to yarn to finished item and I don't always want to be years behind the trends. I watched a Quilting Arts show on PBS while babysitting and the guest talked about being on a national color advisory board that is 3 years out. She showed how colors had evolved over the last few years. Very interesting. Pokey asked her if there were any quick hints for us regular people since she is sworn to secrecy about any details. She said greens and currently purple.

I taught a knitting class at Wild Purls this weekend to people younger than me. I found it very interesting the colors they picked out. Most were some version of pink (and not because it was October either). One in particular color I loved was pink with a bit of lilac. I saw the same color in ads this weekend.

I cut a bunch of ads out of the last couple papers and tried to create color boards from the garments shown on younger woman. Interesting and time consuming. I plan to use them today to come up with at least one new color way for sock blanks I'm dyeing for Wild Purls. Daryl in Great Falls showed me a great way she uses to create color ways. I hope we can have her to Billings to teach the class. It intrigued me for sure. I've decided to limit myself to the color ways from this series of design boards for the new color ways and explore it a couple of ways.

I learned so much designing colorways for MAWS 2010 Signature Yarns and Roving that I feel I must focus on other colorways more intensely rather than flitting here and there. Very hard for me since I'm a natural dabbler. I hope to have some new colorway from this process soon.

I subscribe to Knitting Daily's newsletter. In today's they were discussing Cheryl Oberle's jacket book. For each section of the book they had the title and a related quote from a biggie--all of this spoke to me as I'm designing today. So here are the quotes thanks to Knitting Daily.

Section 1: Explore the Sophistication of Simplicity.

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication"
- Leonardo Da Vinci

Section 2: Master the Use of Contrast.

"Every moment of light and dark is a miracle."
- Walt Whitman

Section 3: Discover the Versatility of Texture.

"The path becomes a texture, an ambience to our present."
- Paul Scott, author of the Raj Quarter

Off to the dye kitchen to wash up the mess, so I can start again. Linda

Knitting--where has the time gone

Fri, 2 Oct 2009 12:50:09 -0700

How can 3 weeks go so fast? I have had plenty of fiber things going on. All I have time to tell you about today is my latest scarf pattern called Faux-hard Two-fer scarves. I'm teaching a class tomorrow at Wild Purls in Billings and then heading off to my Prairie Handspinners meeting. I need to check how many students in my class and then load up two drum carders. Our guild dyed a bunch of fleece at our last meeting in the MAWS 2010 conference colors Under the Rims Rust and Under the Rims Teal. Tomorrow we are carding and creating blends. Then each of us will spin up some yarn and use it for projects in our guild booth we plan for the conference.

My newest pattern includes two easy to knit patterns with options for different size yarns. Reversibility! Scarf looks almost the same on both sides although each row is different. I hand-dyed this DK weight wool yarn.

Seed Stripes combines seed and stockinette stitch in a very easy pattern. Both sides of Seed Stripe are attractive, but not the same. This yarn is a DK weight alpaca and feels so good. It matches a hat, I haven't gotten around to photo yet which is another story and another design process to blog about. I knit this is June, but no time to finalize the pattern yet.

The pattern includes some ideas about striping patterns in scarves to use with either scarf. I have just a few rows left (and lots of ends to work end) version of Reversibility which uses Pagewood sock bites. All for now. I have to take some mohair out the dyepot and put it out to dry in time for the guild blending session. Linda

Classes from Beth Brown Reinsel

Tue, 8 Sep 2009 09:43:43 -0700

I have so much to tell everyone I learned about knitting, the knitting tradition, history of knitting, etc. from my trip that I don't know where to start. I took two 6 hour classes from Beth Brown Reinsel. http://www.knittingtraditions.com/ Beth's first book, Knitting Ganseys is a step by step guide to learning the traditional techniques of creating ganseys, the British fishermen's working garment. By knitting a small scale sweater which features these many techniques, the reader can acquire the necessary skills in a short time. Beth's second book, Knitting Scandinavian Sweaters, is being published by Nomad Press.

In my two classes Beth taught us a mini red and black Swedish pullover called the North Haaland Men's sweater. The next class was a classic Norwegian Mitten. Beth is steeped in the tradition of this knitting and the classic designs. Her hand outs were great and she spent a lot of time explaining yarn dominance in stranded knitting. By keeping your hands consistent in the way you use your main color and other color you avoid those distinctive change in look half way through a garment. She also explained that in North Haaland they didn't use steeks much because they were always thinking about the next use of the yarn. I learned to effectively purl in stranded knitting without going crazy (a first for me).

She also taught a style of continental purling that keeps the yarn at the back all the time which is ideal for seed and ribbing. She calls this Norwegian purling. This is the style she was taught as a youngster. I had several projects half done to knit on the trip, so I couldn't change to this version of purling in these projects because of change of guage. I did use it in both of Beth's classes and I really liked it. Can't wait to cast on something new to really get this technique in my head.

Neither my mini-sweater or my mitten are done yet, but I will post them when I have made more progress. When I signed up for these classes months ago, I wasn't sure how interested I was but knew I'd learn a lot from Beth. In the meantime, I've started working on designing Fair Isle patterns and this two color knitting primer couldn't have been better timing.

Beth also taught a class on twined knitting which I couldn't take because I was in a Nancy Bush class (poor me). I did hear from others and confirmed with Beth that yarn for twined knitting often should be spun s and plyed z. Normally yarn is spun z and plyed s. Twined knitting adds more and more ply twist and gets the yarn quite tight. Beth says she uses regular yarn as well. I'm not very knowledgable about twined knitting, but if you are interested keep that in mind.

Beth and Sally Melville are teaching on a cruise that goes to Scotland, Ireland next year. I almost signed up while on the boat to get their discounts. But reality set in. I'd definitely go cruising again and I'd definitely take more classes from Beth but might have to wait awhile for all that.

Linda

Back from Knitting Cruise and name dropping--Linda

Sat, 5 Sep 2009 17:32:29 -0700

Hi all--I'm back from the knitting cruise dh and I took to Norway, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Russia, Finland, Sweden. Now if that isn't enough name dropping--guess who were the teachers and leaders--Nancy Bush, Beth Brown Reisel, and Lily Chin. Myrna Stahlman, author of one of my favorite lace knitting books, was also on board as a participant although she will teach on a cruise to Iceland and the Faroe Islands next year.

Nancy and Beth taught classes and Lily who teaches on other Craft Cruises was a leader too. I'll have lots of details about the classes I took and all the fantastic knitting I saw and purchased along the way. I would have blogged from the ship but I was way too cheap and way too jealous of my moments in the Baltic Sea area. I did keep a journal and will include the highlights of the trip.

We're pretty tired out as it took about 24 hours to get back from when we left the ship until we flew into Billings. I could have stayed on board the ship for a few more days, but also glad to see my home in Montana. We missed 2 extra hot weeks here and had 2 extra warm weather in the normally rainy Baltic Sea area. How good is that. Linda

Vintage Baby Knits Book Review by Linda

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:28:34 -0700

What do young mothers want for their babies? I feel state of the art on this topic with 3 daughters with 6 grandchildren under age 4 that see regularly. All you other grandmas out there eat your heart out. Plus I listened to a couple of knitting podcasts by young knitters about what their babies really use. Certainly that qualifies me as an expert. Right?

A new book Vintage Baby Knits by Kristen Rengren seems to be the answer. This book includes almost everything my daughters discuss and enough cute items to thrill any baby knitter’s heart. Kristen has taken old patterns from books and magazines and reworked them in contemporary yarns with schematics and sometimes charts. Patterns include a shrug, cardigan, hoodies, cape, kimono, socks, bonnet, christening gown, nursing shawl, a baby blanket, 2 soakers, several sacques, several toys, hats and more.

The patterns are very doable (no Cookie A’s here) and are shown in smooth, washable yarns from cotton, superwash wool, and others that you can see a baby really wearing. They also address most of the practical considerations of the podcasts moms. For instance the podcast moms say cardigans or sacques (not pullovers) and bonnet style hats. The podcast mothers and my daughters too can actually get on a baby and keep them on them.

Did you know that parents don’t use snow suits or coats any more? No, the current safety standards for car seats don’t want that much bunchy fabric between the baby and the safety restraints. Rule breaker that I like to think I am, when it comes to children’s car safety I follow the latest recommendations. So how do these parent’s keep the poor little kids warm on the way to the car and in the car. Handknit superwash wool blankets, bonnets, leg warmers, socks etc. Knitters to the rescue!

When you look at old knitting magazines carefully you see wonderful innovative designs and they aren’t all Elizabeth Zimmerman’s. I even found one from the 40’s a few weeks ago that showed you how to create self-striping patterns with a variegated yarn. I love old knitting patterns to look at, but I don’t love trying to figure out the schematics of a design and reading those tiny directions and trying to find a picture of the item that is big enough for me to see what is going on. Vintage Baby Knits solves this.

My oldest daughter has the most opinions about the “appropriate things” for babies to wear and eat because she belongs to LaLeche League and to many mothering groups on-line. She and my second daughter cloth diaper. Vintage Baby Knits addresses most of the issues of the very particular group including lanolizing the wool soakers for water resistance. As a former sheep breeder and long-time spinner, I wonder if this common requirement of the wool soaker advocates is accurate. But if this is what the mother wants, give it to her. Feels good anyway. The soakers in Kristen’s book are cute and have show row shaping so they would actually fit a baby. I tried to knit a wool soaker for my daughter in worsted weight yarn. I checked out many of the half-baked patterns on the internet and know they wouldn’t fit right. I did design my own soaker and got it ¾ done before I lost interest. My siblings raise their eyebrows when I complain about my daughter’s absolutes when it comes to child rearing. They insist that this sounds just like young mother Linda so I should not be complaining. I know they are right, but…

On top of lots of cool patterns Vintage Baby Knits, includes lots of history both of pattern making and knitting from the early 20^th century. All in all I think this book is one of the coolest baby knitting books to come out in many years. Of course I’d change a few things, but not that many.

Now what size should you knit. I personally like to knit 18 or 24 months and the podcast mothers agree. Anything smaller than that although cute as can be, has a 50-50 chance of being in season when the baby should wear it. Fortunately babies stick around 18-24 month sizes for a while and with the flexibility of knitting these sizes will actually get worn. The podcast mothers agree. The only exception I’d make to that would be bonnets for winter babies who definitely need them and perhaps leg warmers or socks. So get out your washable yarn and knit a baby a pattern from Vintage Baby Knits published in 2009 by Stewart, Tabori, & Chang. Knit on Linda

Dyeing sock blanks--Linda

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:29:18 -0700

I have started dyeing sock blanks for sale at Wild Purls. I took the first 4 there a few days ago. I have dyed sock blanks off and on for several years since taking a class by Nancy Roberts at SOAR (Spinoff’s Annual Retreat) and even knitted some items with them. I find the machine knitting of the sock blanks was my big stumbling block. But Julia found a nice superwash 90%merino/10% nylon preknitted sock blanks for me to dye. These are very fun to dye and each blank is 384 yards enough for 2 socks, 1 scarf, 1 shawlette, or 2 hats. The blanks come complete with directions for socks and other items. Each colorway I dye is unique and depends a lot upon my mood that week. They are labor intensive, but oh is it fun to play with color.

You knit directly from the sock blanks and although the blanks look quite intense colors, they always blend a bit more in the knitting. I feel you have to start with intense color or it will be too grayed out. I LOVE DYEING Linda

New Version of new patterns Two-fer scarves and Steup up Stripes--Linda

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:21:09 -0700

As I have finalized patterns to send off to pattern testers, I have had a set of issues with this one Seed Stripes. The pattern is dead simple and I have used it before in my circular sampler bag. What caused me the problems was which yarn. Last year I had bought some Baby Twist, a sport weight alpaca from WP at a sale. I didn't have enough of any one color to make a scarf. I decide to make a color block pattern with purple, several greens, and a goldy yellow. I had the scarf half knit and I just didn't like it. At WP a young girl suggested that she liked the green parts. I always knit my patterns twice in 2 different weights of yarn. I came home and cast on some fingering weight yarn semi-solid yarn I dyed in a green blue. This yarn was varied enough that it didn't show the seed stitch stripes. So it turned into a swatch. I finally decided to start over again in the Baby Twist, this time only using green. It worked. Most of the scarf will be one green, but I have 2 other greens at each end also. Yeah I'm happy.

Seed Stripes and Reversibility! will be one pattern I call Two-fer scarves. Both patterns are quite easy. I had shown you my first Reversibility! in a handdyed dk weight yarn. Can I resist little bits of color--no. Pagewood has a very pretty handdyed Yukon sock yarn that is partially bamboo which gives it a sheen. They market leftovers as Sock Bites and I just couldn't resist a package. I started a multicolor version in the sock bites which after fussing with picking out the colors I like. It will lay flat after I wash the finished scarf. The scarf is about half done. I will have it on display after Labor Day at Wild Purls.

I also started a handdyed fingering version of Stepup Stripes, a lace pattern, I had previously knitted in a handdyed variegated pink. I had also started a different version of this scarf in a Canadian yarn that is an unusual blend of alpaca, cotton, and silk in a natural beige color. The yarn is pretty but kind of blah for me. I also worried that it would also block as well as I liked. I am happy with this version. Because I like this color and this yarn, I perceive that the pattern is much nicer than I thought when I used yarns before that didn't please me as much. It is a cool pattern and it is an easy lace and reversible.

So what did I learn in my patterns recently. Just don't settle for any old yarn. Make a good sized try at your design before you give up. But if it is not working and you give yourself a week or two to determine this, bite the bullet and start again. Don't forget blocking properties when knitting lace. And yes it is a good idea to swatch (just like it is a good idea to exercise and floss your teeth) and I should do more of it. At least scarves are so narrow that what starts out as a scarf can soon turn into a swatch.

I'm still looking for pattern testers for these three scarves. I like to have at least 3 people knit each one. Let me know if you are interested at lindas5252@yahoo.com