inspiration

knitting history

A woman wearing a light blue cablesd sweater

It is quite possible that you are not the only one in your immediate family, who knits or crochets. Perhaps a mother who likes to click the needles. Or maybe a grandmother who regularly made you a sweater when you were little. In this blog I want to share a bit of my personal knitting history with you.

My grandmother was a good knitter. Unfortunately I haven’t experienced this first hand, because she died very young, only a couple of weeks after I was born. All these years my mother had been saving a big pile of sweaters made by my grandmother. Then, about 35 years later my mom visited me and brought along all these sweaters with the question if I would like some. The rest she would finally let go.

One of the sweaters really does suit me, is very much my style and one I have since worn every winter. That’s the sweater you see pictured above. One of the other sweaters was not wearable for me, but so beautifully made that I could not find it in my heart to throw it out. A gorgeous fair isle sweater made ​in several shades of blue.

A felted fair-isle sweater in shades of blue and white

And suddenly I had the wonderful idea to use this sweater to make something for my mother, so she would still have a tangible reminder of her mother’s knitting. My mother did keep these sweaters for all these years for a reason after all. My thoughts went out to making cushions, with the front of each cushion consisting of a panel of this sweater.

In preparation I had undone all the seams and felted the sweater panels. However, once it came down to cutting the cushion pieces and sewing them I got cold feet… I have absolutely no experience with sewing and was terrified to ruin this irreplaceable piece of felt. After some thinking I put a note about it with a plea for help in the”DutchKarma Swap Group” on Ravelry. A very sweet lady came to my rescue and transformed my grandmother’s sweater into these lovely pillow covers:

The sweater turned into pillow cases

And my mother? She did not expect this gift at all and was extremely happy with this piece of our shared knitting history!

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inspiration: workshop Stephen West

Once in a while I very much enjoy following a workshop. To learn new techniques or to find out how other people do certain things. Recently I followed the “Colorplay the Westknits way!” workshop with Stephen West at Ja, Wol in Rotterdam. This is by the way a really lovely yarn store with a great assortment of natural fibers, handmade or hand-dyed yarns and fair trade yarns. Absolutely worth a visit!

If you are familiar with Stephens work, you know that he is a true master in combining color and texture into eccentric but wearable pieces. Gorgeous examples include Exploration Station, Color Craving, Esjan and the Askews Me Sweater. During this 4 hours workshop he explained us his philosophy and guided us in experimentation involving lots of color, lots of texture and combining yarns.

Stephen remarked very accurately that everybody has his own color preferences, colors that are often reached for first when planning or starting a project. In the same vein there are also lots of colors, textures etc. we often don’t even consider using and walk past quickly: “Not my color”, “to busy” etcetera. It is his goal to no longer say “no”, but to become a “yes” knitter.
A too bright color? Use it as an accent. Too wild texture? Use it sparingly for that something extra in your project. Something not “your” color? Double it up with another yarn to give a whole new effect!

Various techniques like knitting an i-cord / slipped stitch edge (striped!) and short rows were also reviewed.

What I personally find so interesting, is that this working from color and material is so much different from how I usually work. I get the idea about a design, work it out on paper and then knit my sample from this pattern. Stephen Wests approach is start with a whole selection of varying yarns, a general idea for a shape and then he starts knitting. Only during the project he decides what the item wants to be.

Not only subject makes this workshop so interesting. Stephen west is a very charismatic person, easily engrossing his public with the stories of his knitting adventures. Add the pleasant surroundings of Ja, wol, the lovely tea and brownies the owner of the yarn shop Saskia served and you have a wonderful recipe for a well spend Sunday morning.

One thing is sure: I now have plenty inspiration for many new designs!

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tutorial: dyeing wool

Dyeing wool

Being a spinner, I not only have lots of lovely top and roving in my fiber stash, but also quite a few whole fleeces. A whole sheep worth of wool can get a bit boring color-wise. So, now with Easter all done, it is time to put that leftover Easter egg dye to good use and start dyeing wool!

Easter egg dye and other food coloring are perfectly suited to dye protein-based fibers and yarns. Wool, alpaca, and silk are lovely to dye yourself. These dyes, however, can’t be used to permanently dye acrylics and plant-based fibers like cotton.

Supplies needed

  • Wool or yarn: I’m using some lovely Lleyn wool, that I already scoured last year. If dyeing or over-dyeing yarn, make sure to skein the yarn if you have it in a ball put-up. Remember to tie the skein with some pieces of cotton or acrylic to make sure your wool won’t tangle beyond rescue.
  • Easter egg dye or other food colorings
  • Vinegar to change pH value and improve the dye take up by the wool
  • Non-aluminum pot and spoon

Let’s get started!

1. Fill the pot with hot water from the tap, add some glugs of vinegar (I know, very scientific this way) and put in the wool to pre-soak. Leave it like that for 10 to 15 minutes.

Dyeing wool - a tutorial by La Visch Designs

2. While waiting I made myself a cappuccino and pondered what colors to use. I decided to use red and blue to hopefully end up with purple.

Dyeing wool

3. Added the dye to the pot and put it on the stove until the water had reached a slow simmer. Then I put the fire out and let it be. Do not let it come to a rolling boil and don’t stir a lot or vigorously, we don’t want to felt our wool!

Dyeing wool

4. Checking the progress, you can see that the red dye has disappeared completely from the water. There is however still a lot of blue in the water and not in the wool.

Dyeing wool

5. A couple of hours later I’m satisfied with how much dye has been taken up by the wool. Other colors may need less time. Now it is time for a rinse. I have filled the sink with hot water and gently swooshed the wool around int it, to rinse out any leftover dye. Only use cold water, if your wool is also completely cooled down. Rapid cool-down can also cause felting. Therefore I always use hot water for rinsing, just to be sure I don’t accidentally felt my wool.

Dyeing wool

6. Then it is time to remove all the excess water from the wool. After a gentle squeeze, I use my dedicated salad spinner for this. You can, of course, also use a stand-alone spin dryer. When using the one in your washing machine, make sure it does not automatically involve rinsing as well, because that may again cause felting.

Dyeing wool

And there you have it: a nice crate full of purple wool! Dyeing wool is pretty fun, isn’t it? When completely dry I had even more fun carding the wool into batts for spinning, read all about it here.

Dyeing wool

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