At The End of My Yarn

This weekend for my mother’s birthday we went to the Yogaville ashram, in Buckingham County, Virginia. I’ve never been there, and wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. A community of people who are reallllly into yoga, and communal living, and a vegan diet, who follow the teachings of a swami who is buried on the grounds? I was fully prepared to have to bolt in the middle of the night. I was, of course, wrong. Once I was able to draw my mind away from the beginning of the second Ace Ventura movie (“Go, slinky, go!”), I really started to enjoy the experience. The grounds are beautiful, the people who live there are kind and helpful, for the most part. There are also the people who are so into the lifestyle and ‘find their path’ that other people really don’t register to them, but whatever works for them, you know?

The main area there is called the Light of Truth Universal Shrine, mainly called LOTUS (clever!) which is a multi-faith area for the ashram.

I took this photo from the back, because as per my usual, almost every interesting building I travel a while to see is covered with a tarp and scaffolding for renovation. The website, of course, has much better ones. There is a room with multiple displays of religious artifacts called the Hall of All Faiths. More like the hall of most faiths, but they gave it a shot and you get the main message of unity, etc. Never been much for religion myself, but I can appreciate it.

We stayed in a dormitory, which gave me the out-of-state college experience that I really wasn’t looking for, and ate with the people of the ashram in the cafeteria, which only serves vegan food. I’m a staunch omnivore, but you get used to it. No dreams of bacon. All-in-all a good experience that really exposes you to other walks of life. I did get a bit of knitting done during the drive, which brings me to my new socks! Sock. Sock in progress. Getting there.

The photo was taken in the car, so not ideal, but it will be a pair of Gold Diggers from New Directions in Sock Knitting. I’m using Alize superwash sock, which didn’t look like much in the skein but turns out to be a delightful coffee-and-chocolate self-striping yarn. Looking forward to how the stripes shift for the fleegle heel.

The holiday sale and show at the Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts starts today, and runs through the month of December. I arrived early for my docent shift and dropped off my bags, filled out the contract, and looked around to check out the other work for sale. Hanging on the wall not five feet away were two of my favorite local artist’s oil paintings, Marcia Chaves. For the life of me I can’t find a website for her, but she’s an older lady so she may not have one. The link I found is actually from the gallery’s archive.

The first time I was a docent at the gallery was back in January, and she had a piece in the show for that month. I was dumbstruck. I loved the way she captured the building she painted, her brushstrokes and smooth lines, and her brilliant colors. Neither of the work hanging on the wall had a price tag yet, but her work is usually in the 400 dollar range, which I think is way under-priced. I haven’t bought any of her work yet, partly because I’m not overburdened with discretionary income right now, and partly because hanging one of her works in my house would automatically cheapen everything else I have up on the walls.

I asked the downstairs docent if Marcia had said if she would be back that day to tag them, but she wasn’t sure. So I get back to work, try to move on with my life, and a few hours later a woman walks in. She tells me she’s stopping by real quick to tag her work. My heart skips a beat. I ask “Are you Marcia Chaves?” She says yes. I tell myself not to creep this woman out, do not throw yourself across the desk at a little white-haired old lady, don’t be trite… “OOOOOOhhhmigawd I love your work!” She seemed pleasantly surprised to hear that. “I love your brushstrokes, the colors…” She tells me a little about her process, I practically have stars in my eyes that my hero would deign to speak to me like an equal. She even thanked ME! I did let her go to complete her errand, but I was giggling like a loon at the idea that my work was in the same gallery as hers, even if it’s not curated or juried. I really am a loon. It’s the little things, isn’t it?

Ah, the venerable Barbara Walker. Writer of knitting pattern encyclopedias (four in total), among many other works. A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns, which is the only one I’ve stumbled upon so far is a thick, paperback tome pushing 400 pages. In her own words “Some of the patterns in this book are contemporary originals, representing the constant and continuous flow of creative ideas in knitting. There is literally no end to this flow; it goes on forever because new ideas are always possible.”

There is a basic glossary of knitting terms at the front, a brief section on decreases, increases, and “special knitting actions” such as cables, twisted stitches, and some general knitting related terms. Next up is a section on converting a pattern knit on straight needles to one knit on circulars. Then we move into the patterns themselves, beginning with knit-purl combinations. In this section we have multiple rib choices, seed and moss stitches, and what I consider to be gansey patterns, such as Thunderbird which is a striking set of triangles formed from alternating sections of knit and purl stitches to form triangles with a bold line of stockinette in the center. The next section is on slip-stitches. There are two separate chapters on slip-stitches, the first is single colored slip-stitch patterns and the second is on juggling multiple colors.

After that is mosaic knitting, that is “The basic principle is this: portions of each row are hidden behind slipped stitches carried up from a different-colored row below.” She moves on to what she calls Fancy Color patterns, which combine the slip-stitch patterns and other similar techniques with multiple shades of yarn to make a complex but striking look. After fancy colors comes fancy textures, such as drop-stitches, short rows, bobbles, etc. There is a whole chapter on cables, and another on lace patterns. The last section describes borders and edgings, with many different looks and styles.

I think the only thing that keeps me from using this book more often is the lack of charts. I love charts in knitting patterns, so you can know at a glance where you are in a pattern and get a good idea of what a pattern will look like at the end. However, there is a photograph of each pattern so that helps to make up for it. You have consider the fact that it was written in 1970, though, and I’m not sure if charts were popular back then.

All told, a wonderful addition to any knitter’s library. I think the next socks I start may come from here.

As an aside, I’ve been busy recently playing Pokemon Sword. How about the female protagonist’s cabled sweater? An adaption of that may have to be my next big project.

Pick up a copy of A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns (and take a look at the first, third, and fourth, here!

Now that the season is turning and it’s getting colder, I’ve picked up an afghan that I started back in March and haven’t touched since. Sometimes I get in the mood for big, epic projects and once the craving fades they languish in a pile for months. Recently, I’ve swung the other way and made quite a stack of quick washcloths but since I’ve been finally finishing some other WIPS, I picked up this guy again. The pattern is Sophie’s Universe from Look At What I Made (this is not a paid advertisement, I just love her work so much). If you happen to follow along on Facebook I’ve talked about her patterns a little already. I remember when I first stumbled upon Sophie’s Universe through Ravelry and I was astonished that such a through, fascinating, challenging pattern could possibly be free but it is. She also sells the pattern in a book form, which would make a great gift for a crocheter. The afghan starts in the center with a mandala that shifts to a square, then the edges rotate to a larger square and a border is added to complete it. I’ve made this afghan twice before. The blue, black, and yellow one in the right corner was my first, and when I went to make another I chose colors that I thought would work better together, hence the tonal brown to the left. When I started the center one, I actually chose the colors to make her Ubuntu (I always think of the opensource operating system) afghan but ended up with another Sophie instead.

All the afghans in my house come from her site using one pattern or another. The newest afghan is the fifth one so far. At this point I think my house is 40 percent afghan per square yard! It’s addicting, warm, and keeps me off the streets. Can’t lose!

Back before I learned how to knit in high school, I never would have pictured my life would come to this. I never thought I would put so much time, and effort into knitting socks. Certainly never thought I’d be so interested in sock-pattern architecture, (sockitecture?) and construction. Never thought I’d choose to spend a Saturday night knitting on a very intricate sock, and never thought I would consider a sock to be intricate. I’ve turned into a serious nerd. Enter Ann Budd, and New Directions in Sock Knitting.

“In this book, you’ll find an array of socks that deviate from a little to a lot from the traditional top-down or toe-up construction.” Taken from the introduction written by Ann, which I think sums the book up perfectly. Before I got this book I had only ever considered socks that were knit from the toe-up, or top-down, but this book opens your eyes to a magnificent variety of construction and pattern. To be fair, the first two sections use the traditional methods, but the patterns are detailed and distinctive. For instance, the very first pattern called Mirror Socks by Kate Atherley, who is also currently Knitty’s techical editor, and are double-knit, alternating yarns and stitches so that both socks are knit at the very same time, one inside the other so when you are finished, you pull one sock out of the other and have a completed pair. To be honest, I haven’t tried double-knitting yet, but this would be an excellent place to start. I’m currently knitting a pair of Crossfade by Marjan Hammink otherwise known as Yarnissima. High-schooler me would have never considered a knitter to be famous, either. Even if only in certain yarny circles.

The yarn is a bit busy for the pattern (the book uses a mostly-solid tonal yarn), but I saw the gorgeous, twining cables and knew I wanted them in a warm, sunset-ish gold-to-brown variegated. They start from the toe up, and are so addictive I spent the majority of last Saturday knitting on them. There is something about patterns where every row is different that hooks you. You can’t wait to see where each new cable row will take you, and you have to really summon some willpower to take a break. After those sections are where things start to get really innovative.

For instance, there are socks started from the back of the leg, others at the instep and knit outwards, and others started at the sole of the foot. New Directions is also where I first heard about standards like the Fleegle heel pattern by Susan Glinert Stevens, which is a blend of short row and heel flap construction, and the Sweet Tomato heel by Cat Bordhi, who also provides the Enduring Stripes pattern that showcases a heel that is knit in wedges for a clean look. Here’s a fascinating article I found on Alpaca Direct’s website about heel construction. Again with the things I never thought I’d think about, finding a comparison on sock heel construction informative is a big one.

To me, this book is a instant classic, and a valuable addition to any fiber library. I’ll let you all know when my Crossfades are done. Right now the other sock is barely more than a heel (my day job does get in the way, but without it there would be no money to buy more books to write new posts, and yarn to knit new socks).

Check out New Directions in Sock Knitting on Amazon here...