Technique: Stranded Knitting

I haven't started yet, but coming up, I will be doing blue detail work on the shawl with stranded knitting. It's been awhile since I used that particular technique, because I usually prefer my work to look good on both sides (and I hate the way stranded knitting looks on the back). But, this piece of the shawl will be sewed so the back doesn't show. Time to review tips!

While I was home for Thanksgiving, I hunted around for old pieces that I didn't have pictures of so that I could show you all some early attempts. It's always nice to see how far you have come. Actually, both things I found were hats with stranded knitting that was too tight. I made both in high school.

First up, a hat made from a vintage pattern, from before I had any style:

Pattern from Jill C. Weiner: Side view

Back view

I vaguely remember picking the pattern because it was one of the ones that the book listed as "hard" and I wanted to challenge myself. Except for being an ugly pattern, it came out mostly ok, and has improved over time as the yarn stretched. However, at the time, I did not know how to do stranded knitting at all, and the hat has very long floats on the pink squiggly in the middle (as well as being too tight in that section). First tip: be sure to carry the non-working yarn along with you by twisting it with the working yarn every 3 to 4 stitches. This ensures short floats on the back that won't snag so easily.

Ok, second example. In high school, I made a bunch of berets from a basic pattern I had. Once, I decided to make it fancy by adding stranded colorwork of my own design:

A beret of my own design, from high school

Well, the pattern came out ok, and I would do it again -- though that light blue really clashes with the other colors: what was I thinking? However, although I carried the non-working yarn this time, I made it far too tight, and the beret puckers up, and won't lie flat. The shape is really weird. So, second tip: Make your floats twice as loose as you think they should be. Better too loose than too tight. 

Well, getting into college, I tried again. This time, for a Valentine's Day gift swap:

Heart hat

 The knitting is plenty loose, but this time I made a different error: I assumed that knit stitches are square. I drew hearts on graph paper and transferred the pattern faithfully to the hat. But, since the stitches were rectangular, my hearts came out far too wide and ended up looking like bats. So, third tip: if making your own pattern, account for the fact that knit-stitches are rectangular. There are three different ways to account for this. The hardest is to knit a swatch and measure it. Use the number of stitches per inch both horizontally and vertically to see how your pattern will stretch, and compensate. The other options are to buy knitting pattern graph paper at a knitting store, or to use a program like I do now, which automatically stretches the pattern after you have sketched it.

Ok, final example. I really haven't used the technique much, so this is what I have:

A hat made on commission for a co-worker

This one came out looking great, actually (though I made a rolled-brim hat for a guy, for some reason). The only thing was that off was that, because I made the hat in the round, I had to float the red across the entire back of the hat. So, final tip: if you are only putting the pattern on one part of the piece, do flat knitting and do intarsia instead.

Alpaca Festival Report

Festival report time!

Alpaca

This year was my first time going to the Maryland Alpaca and Fleece festival. Maryland Sheep & Wool is much better known, but it is in the spring, and I missed it this year. I needed a bit of a break from the news, so I went with my mother-in-law. It is held in the same place as MD S&W, but it is a tenth the size. There were a few alpacas in pens scattered between the 5 buildings, and a bunch of people selling alpaca clothing, yarn, and fiber. There were also plenty of non-alpaca yarns and fibers.

There were also a ton of adorable alpaca dolls and ornaments

I swore going in that I would avoid buying any alpaca if I could avoid it, because I have 3 lbs of alpaca roving and 4 skeins of yarn already. Shockingly, despite the multitude of temptations, I kept  this, though I never promised not to touch it or rub it against my cheeks.

A lot of the vendors dyed their own yarns. Looking at all of it made me realize how much white fiber I have at home, and inspired me to buy some dyes. Look forward to reports about more fiber coming out of my dye pot in the future.

Braids of hand-dyed BFL and Superwash merino gradient top

Along with the dye (bought from Sheepish Creations) I also got some new unprocessed fiber. First, the good folks at The Spinning Loft talked me into getting a few ounces of  Ryeland wool.

The Spinning Loft had a wonderful selection of fleece and roving from different breeds of sheep

It seems to be a completely different type of wool than I have ever processed before, so I am looking forward to playing around with it. Unfortunately, it currently has an incredibly overpowering smell of licorice. I'm hoping that will go away after I scour the stuff.

A lock of the unwashed ryeland. It seems to be quite corse and kinky, with a short staple.

I am soaking the ryeland fleece now to get out the dirt before scouring.

24 hour cold soak in a bucket before scouring

Finally, I got some raw angora. Spinaway Farm had two angora rabbits in their festival booth:

Not a great picture, but I promise: those are rabbits and not tribbles.

The fiber was incredibly soft. I hear that it is better to blend it with wool or other fibers, or it will be too warm, but I haven't decided what I will blend it with yet. I got 2 ounces in soft gray.

Soft and fluffy angora fiber

Material of the Month: Wool

Today, I am starting a new feature here on the blog: material of the month. Each month, I will try to talk about some of the features and advantages (as well as the downsides) of a different material I have worked with. I guess we'll see how long I can keep it up until I run out of materials.

So, to start: wool.

Wool is a natural fiber (naturally) and has been used since ancient times to make cloth and textiles. Traditionally, wool was a warm but rather rough material, good for outer-wear like sweaters and coats, or hard-wearing textiles like rugs and tapestries.

However, starting with Merino sheep in the 18th Century, breeds with softer wool have been developed that produce wool without that prickly feeling. When the breed was first developed by the Spanish, Merino sheep were highly prized and nearly impossible to get if you weren't royalty - historical novel writers take note: soft wool was not really a thing that average people had access to.

Today, of course, merino wool is quite common, and is usually the only breed that will be identified by name if you are buying wool yarn. It is very soft and squishy, but knitters beware: it lacks the strength of other types of wool, and should be avoided when making socks, pants, rugs, or anything else that will take a lot of wear.

I will try to talk about other specific breeds in later posts, but today we are talking about wool in general.

Unlike cotton or linen, wool has a natural elasticity. First, because the individual fibers will stretch, and second, because most wool is a bit kinky or curly, and that will translate into the yarn. This stretchiness makes it easy to knit or crochet with, and is easy on the wrists.

Two locks of fine wool

Wool also has a natural ability to "grip" other wool, due to its texture at the microscopic level. This ability is most obvious when you felt or full it: the fibers interlock so that they can't be easily separated. But it also comes into play when spinning, as it doesn't take much to make the wool adhere to the leader or to make a join. This also means that, unlike some other fibers (cotton, alpaca) wool fabric will not "grow" over time under its own weight. Instead, changes in temperature and humidity will gradually, lightly felt the wool so that it keeps its shape indefinitely.

I don't really do felting, but here is a lopi hat, lightly fulled in a dryer so that it loses stitch definition.

To summarize: warmth, elasticity, and ability to grip and felt are some of the reasons why wool is the go-to material for knitters and crocheters (I'm ignoring synthetics, for now). It also takes dye very well, and most modern sheep are white, making it particularly easy to get yarn in whatever shade you want. Wool is also pretty inexpensive (at least in the U.S.), rivaled only by acrylic yarns.

All that said, there are some well-known disadvantages to wool as well.  First, as I alluded to above, there is a trade-off between softness and strength. In order for wool to be strong and take a lot of wear, it needs to have thicker fibers, and those tend to be less soft and more prickly. Second, it is hard to wash. That amazing ability to felt means that hot water and agitation will cause your garments to... shrink and felt. You can buy "super-wash" wool that does not have this problem (due to chemical treatments of various kinds) but it will not have that gripping advantage, and won't block very well.

Finally, wool's warmth can be a disadvantage in the summer or in warmer climates. It does wick moisture well though, so you can sweat a lot in wool without it even feeling wet if you wanted to go hiking in wool socks. That wicking can also be a disadvantage though - wet wool can hold a lot of water, making it very heavy to wear in the rain, and it will take forever to dry.