FO – Large beaded Brangian

This is the large version of Brangian, knitted to the pattern but with added beads (‘cos I do love the sparklies!) I finished it during the week, but it took me a few days to organise myself to block her, and then another day or two to get some photos outside. It’s not the best photo – the sun was bright – but it gives an idea of her, anyway!

Pattern: Brangian Shawl. Yarn: Bendigo Luxury 4ply

I added beads to Charts 2 & 3 – I didn’t have a close match in colour, so I used the Dark Amethyst AB mix from Empire Beads – I think it gives the colour an extra lift!
Brangian shawl Beadiing detail

This is the fourth Brangian I’ve knitted this year – I think I can say the pattern is well-tested now! I’ve got another one in laceweight on the needles, but it hasn’t progressed very far yet. I’m going away for a week or two on Tuesday, so I’ll take that one with me and aim to make more progress. And in the meantime, just for a change, I’ve been trying to finish a Shetland Triangle that I started on January 1st – only one or two more pattern repeats to go on it, and the edging, and then I will have liberated an Addi circular, and can cast something else on to it!

Dyeing an autumn day

I’ve had some undyed yarns in the stash for a while, and in the past week or so I’ve got out the dyepots and transformed them. I used to be a haphazard dyer, but I’m aiming for a little more discipline and stretching my skills, for planned results rather than happy accidents!

I don’t (yet) have a proper dyeing space set up. I’ve been dyeing outside, on a plastic-covered fold-up table, with my camping stove on an old milk-crate; this works, except I’ve discovered that breezy days are not the best days to dye, especially with limited working surfaces – sudden gusts can blow dye powder just where you don’t want it, and therefore two skeins have some tiny spots of darker colour.

I’m not usually very ‘arty’ about dyeing, but I got inspired in this last batch to aim for the colours of an early-autumn day. And this is the result, before reskeining:
Hand painted yarns

And here they are, after reskeining:

Hand painted yarns after reskeining

From left to right: First Light; Warm Sun; River Picnic; Sunset; Night Sky.

I plan to do a lot more dyeing, but need to have a better and more efficient set-up. I bought a second camp-stove the other day, so now I can have two pots going at once. And perhaps another fold-up table might be in my near future… I do fantasize about a textile studio, with space for looms, and stash, and a long bench, sinks, stove etc for dyeing, but if that ever happens, it’s a way off yet.

Racing the clock

When I was researching in the UK a few years ago for my Honours thesis (on 18th century British worsted textiles), I came across a newspaper article about a coat made entirely in one day, from raw fleece to finished product. I can’t at present find my notes, but I think that one was earlier than the similar event, described in the following article, which originally appeared in the Leeds Mercury, and was reprinted in the Maitland Mercury & Hunter River General Advertiser in it’s first edition on January 7, 1843.( Courtesy of the National Library’s Historic Australian Newspapers site.)

MOST EXTRAORDINARY PERFORMANCE IN THE MANUFACTURE OF A COAT.- The somewhat surprising statement which we published on the 2nd instant, of a beautiful brown dress coat having been manu- factured and made in Leeds in the space of 19 hours, can scarcely equal the following as a feat of expedition, one we should think, unparalleled ín the history of coat-making. The late Sir John Trockmorton, Bart., a noble minded gentleman, and one ardently devoted to improvements in agriculture, with a view to encourage the growth of British wool, at five o’clock in the morning of the 25th June, 1811, presented two sheep to Mr. Coxeter, of Greenham Mills, Newbury, Berks, for the purpose of proving that a coat could be made of the wool before night. The sheep were immediately shorn, and the wool sorted, &c., it passed through the usual process of scouring, dyeing, scribbling, spinning (on the jenny,) weaving (by hand,) and a fine kersey cloth was manufactured before four o’clock in the afternoon. The cloth was then put into the hands of tailors, who completed the coat at twenty minutes past six, and Sir John had the pleasure and satisfaction of appearing in it at a public dinner at seven ? Some thousands of persons were present, who at the appearance of Sir John, rent the air with their acclamations. The said coat is now in possession of the nephew of Sir John late member for Berks. We have seen a large painting in the inn at Newbery, representing a view of Mr. Coxeter’s manufactory on the morning of the day, when this extraordinary performance took place at the above mills, also representing Sir John in his celebrated coat, and portraits of the most distinguished persons present at the dinner.-Leeds Mercury.

I suspect that this type of racing-against-the clock challenge was not entirely uncommon at the time, in the days of entrepreneurial gentleman clothiers and manufacturers, prior to the wide-spread introduction of steam-powered machinery. It’s quite an amazing feat though, when you consider all the process that had to take place, and only the spinning done by machine, everything else done by hand. I can only assume that it was a dry day, given that the processes included scouring, dyeing, and presumably at least some wet-finishing of the kersey cloth. I hope Sir John didn’t catch a cold over dinner, if his coat was still slightly damp 🙂

Art, craft, and yarnosophy

Having been involved in textile crafts in various ways for many years, I’m very aware that ‘Craft’ is rarely valued as much as ‘Art’, sometimes to the extent that the very notion of ‘craft’ is often derided – especially if it relates to women’s activities. When I was writing the new ‘About’ page for this blog, I included a quote from Japanese philosopher Yanagi Soetsu that I’d come across some years ago, and always loved. It really captures for me the essence of craft and its importance, and I think it makes an effective differentiation between the arts and the crafts, while placing value on both:

“The special quality of beauty in crafts is that it is a beauty of intimacy…. The beauty of such objects is not so much of the noble, the huge or the lofty, as a beauty of the warm and familiar. Here one may detect a striking difference between the crafts and the arts. People hang their pictures high upon the wall, but they place their objects for everyday use close to them, and take them in their hands”.

The beauty of intimacy… of the warm and familiar… I was contemplating this morning how art could, in a general sense, be regarded as being a public practice. While the creation may be a solitary process, it is often with the goal of a statement, a performance,  a display, aimed to challenge and provoke thought, a reaction, or to provide a perspective on an idea. Whereas with craft, the creation is generally more personal, indeed more intimate, the item usually crafted to be used by individuals in daily life.

Perhaps art has the potential to take us beyond ourselves – the catch in our breath as we see an idea in a new light; the awe of something so beautiful we cannot help, for a long moment, simply being still and admiring it. I remember, at age 20, sitting in a small, dim room in London’s National Gallery for half an hour, just gazing at Leonardo Da Vinci’s cartoon of The Virgin and Child with St Anne & St John the Baptist:
Leonardo da Vinci: Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist

It’s a beautiful work; what caught me most, and what still captures me every time I see the image, is the expressions on the faces of the two women; the young mother, absorbed in maternal wonder, watching her child, and the other mother, watching her, her expression full of shared understanding and empathy with that maternal wonder.

I don’t know the name of the potter who made the mugs, sugar bowl and milk jug I bought in New Zealand, on my first trip overseas, back in December, 1980. But almost every morning for 29 years, when I wrap my hands around my mug of morning tea, and in the evening when I drink a mug of chamomile tea, I appreciate the work of the unknown potter, the perfect shape of the mugs for my hands, the smooth texture, the beauty of the deep blue glaze against the dark brown base.
Pottery mug, made in New Zealand, 1980

But the value of crafts often goes beyond that of a beautiful, functional item.

When my DH wears his hand-knitted cap in winter, with his name knitted in binary code into the cable pattern, he knows it is a practical expression of love and commitment.

When my niece, then a toddler, insisted on putting on her Christmas gift dress immediately, she already had some concept of handmade gifts.
Lauren in her Christmas dress

And as she and her brother grew up, the various items that Mum and Aunts and Grandma knitted, embroidered and sewed for them were worn with pride, the kids’ self-esteem boosted by the knowledge that they mattered enough for us to spend time making special gifts.
Cross-stitched kite waistcoat Cross-stitched zoo waistcoat
Cross-stitched butterfly pinafore

And each time my sister wears the beaded Aeolian shawl I gave her for Christmas, she knows I spent weeks knitting it, thinking of her, and feels wrapped in love.
Beaded Aeolian Shawl

All around the world, millions of people every day hand craft items for daily use; some to earn a living, some out of necessity, some for pleasure, some to give as gifts. While an attempt could be made to estimate the value of those crafts in simple economic terms – cost of materials, cost of production, cost of distribution, value at sale – no economic measures can ever hope to convey the personal and social value, and the richness and beauty that crafts can bring to our lives.

Welcome to Yarnosophy!

Welcome to my new textile blog!

After four years of the Twisted and Warped blog, I felt it was time for a change, a slight refocus, a more accurate representation of myself and my approach to yarn and textile creativity. And I’d been thinking for a while about moving from wordpress.com to an installation on my web space, and today things have all come together to create Yarnosophy.

I’ve imported all the old content from the Twisted and Warped blog, and I’ll gradually beautify and polish this site. For now, the only thing I’ve really changed is the About page – and that still needs some work!

There will be some more patterns eventually! I’m currently experimenting with some Brangian mittens, and also playing with ideas for a new shawl pattern. But they’re not at a shareable stage, yet.

Dark red beaded Brangian

Last weekend I finished my third Brangian, in a deliciously rich dark red sock wool from Saffron Dyeworks. It was a bit of an experiment – I’ve put the yarn requirements for the small size in the pattern as 440yds (400m) but I wanted to see if the revised small size could be knitted with just 400yds (365m) of yarn. The answer? It can’t! I ran out of yarn two rows from the end, so had to cast off early without doing the picot row.

However, the other experiment with this one was to bead it, and I used dark red clear glass beads – and I’m very happy with the result!

Pattern: Brangian Shawl Yarn: Wasabi from Saffron Dyeworks

Pattern: Brangian Shawl (bead detail)

Beading instructions:
Use the crochet hook method to place beads.
Chart 2:
On rows 3, 11, & 19: Add a bead on to the K1 between the K2tog and ssk (ie at the beginning of each bud.)
On rows 5, 13 & 21: Add a bead on the 2 & 4 stitches of the k5 section. (ie on ether side of the bead in the previous row).

Chart 3:
On row 3: Add a bead on to the K1 between the K2tog and ssk (ie at the beginning of each bud.)
On row 5: Add a bead on the 2 & 4 stitches of the K5 section. (ie on ether side of the bead in the previous row).
On rows 7, 9, 11 & 13: Where there is a yo, K1, yo to form the columns, add a bead on the K1. Also add a bead to the centre K1!

Beading Brangian

Brangian wasn’t actually designed for beads, but I do love them, and I’m always looking for ways to incorporate them. Last night I knitted a sample swatch to see how beading might work on Brangian. I inserted beads in chart 2 – the alternating buds section – putting three beads at the top of each bud, with the idea that it might emphasise the way the buds alternate in this section. Then I also added beads in the same place in chart 3, and also in the yo, k1, yo columns in the last rows of chart 3. I’m quite happy with how it turned out:

Brangian shawl beaded swatch

I’ll be beading my next Brangian!

(ETA: Instructions for beading in this manner are now given on the Brangian page. )

However, in the process of swatch knitting, I did discover, to my horror, an oops! in the pattern. Prior to publication, I’d altered Chart 2, starting it with an non-column (‘B’) bud and reducing it by 8 rows so that there were only 3 ‘rows’ of buds – B, A, B. I did check that Chart 3 still fitted – but I overlooked that, because I’d reduced the design by the 8 rows, and this impacts on the placement of the buds relative to the edge, while Chart 3 fitted fine, it didn’t alternate with the last bud row in Chart 2. Not many people would actually notice at all, but I knew it wasn’t perfect.

Sigh. Cue panicked re-do of Chart 3, working out how to do the edging correctly, fixing up charts, uncharts, updating pattern files, proof-reading…. I uploaded the revised pattern to Rav this morning, and sent out a notice to those who’ve bought it so far, and to my test-knitters. Fingers crossed that everything is now fixed, and that no other errors have crept in!

Brangian now available

My shawl pattern, Brangian, has been knitted up by several test-knitters, the pattern tweaked on the basis of their feedback, and it’s now available in the Ravelry store. It’s been a lot of work – but an enjoyable challenge! – getting charts right, creating ‘uncharts’ and checking them, playing with the layout, making sure the instructions are clear.

I incredibly grateful to my wonderful test-knitters, most of them from the Aussie Shawl Knitters Hangout on Ravelry, who have, in a few short weeks, knitted shawls and provided feedback on their experience – along with enthusiasm and encouragement! Thanks, Sue, the other Sue, Rachel, Tara, Kelly, Margaret, Bel and Ellie!

Extra special thanks to Tara, who lent her photography skills to the project and took some great photos, and to her friend buyambienmed.com Bella, who modelled the shawl.

Brangian Shawl detail

Photo copyright Tara Mitchell

I’ve created a page with more info on Brangian, a link to the Ravelry pattern store (you don’t need to be a member to purchase it) and answers to what might be Frequently Asked Questions. There’ll be a few more bits of info added to support knitting the pattern in the next week or two.

Oh, and I’ve knitted a second Brangian, this time in Handmaiden SeaSilk, and in the medium size. It’s currently blocking, and taking an age to finish drying, as we have wonderful rain today:
Brangian Shawl blocking

I’ll take some better photos when it’s dry, and the sun is shining!
ETA:

Pattern: Brangian (medium). Yarn: Handmaiden SeaSilk

Introducing: Brangian Shawl

Brangian Shawl Pattern

I’ve designed a shawl 🙂

In the old tales of Tristan and Iseult, Brangian was Iseult’s faithful companion, who travelled far from her own land to serve her Princess. This shawl, with its textured lace columns, subtly shifting to form a border flowing into the scalloped edging, is not as stunning as some lace shawls, but like Brangian the handmaiden, she is quietly beautiful.

I’m very happy with the shawl, and have written up the pattern – it’s now being test-knitted by a few friends. Once that’s been done, and their feedback incorporated into the pattern, I’ll be making the pattern available through Ravelry (and possibly through this site).

Brangian Shawl - detail

I’ve thought long and hard about whether to make it available for free, or to sell it for a small cost… and I’ve decided not to give it away. One of my concerns over the years in the textile/fibre arts is that traditional ‘women’s’ crafts such as knitting, spinning, weaving, etc are constantly devalued – and that often, we are party to that devaluing. It’s for this reason that I don’t sell what I make, because the going prices for hand-made items do not reflect anywhere near the expertise and time that goes in to the making of them. I’m always saddened and frustrated when I see a pair of handmade socks selling for $20, or a beautiful woven scarf for $60. Subtract the cost of materials, and divide by the number of hours of (trained and skilled) work that goes in to the making, and you come out with a very low number. Try telling anyone else in an independent business – a plumber, or a computer technician, or your hairdresser – that they should work for $1 per hour!

I do give things away as gifts some times, to people who appreciate the value of the making and the giving. I’ve designed my own patterns before for various items, and there’s a lot of work and experience involved in making things work – and even more in doing it and writing it up in such a way that the pattern is repeatable by others. I don’t mind paying a few dollars for a pattern in recognition of that work, and I hope others don’t either. I don’t think anyone’s getting rich selling knitting patterns 🙂  (Okay, maybe Kaffe Fassett…)

Don’t get me wrong – I think it’s great that there are free patterns available, too. But I think that the choice to give away a pattern is each designer’s to make, for whatever reasons they choose to make it, and should not be an expectation. A design does have considerable value, whether bought or received for ‘free’, and that should be appreciated.  If ever I design more patterns, maybe some will be free, as a gift to a community that I enjoy being part of.

Anyway, the Brangian pattern will be available, probably in a couple of weeks, in both charted and ‘unchart’ form. It’s designed for fingering-weight yarn, and will be in two sizes, a small shawl, and a larger shawl. Now, I’d best get knitting and finish the larger version!

An heirloom gift

As I mentioned in my last post, we had our family Christmas celebration early as I was visiting Canberra last week. My family doesn’t go overboard at Christmas, and handmade gifts aren’t uncommon. This year I made a few – shawls for my mother and my sisters, socks for my Dad, and my brother-in-law got 1.5 socks! (He laughed when he opened the parcel 🙂 And I will have them finished by the time he and my sister call in here in a few days, on their way to Queensland.) My niece made beaded jewellry for several gifts, including a lovely red necklace for me.

My parents gave me a beautiful gift, which means a lot to me:

Embroidery by Martha Rudge

My maternal grandmother, Martha Rudge (1900-1963), like many women of her generation, sewed and knitted out of necessity, but also embroidered many items to decorate her home. She passed away not long after I was born, but my mother still used various tray cloths and aprons that Grandma had made. After fifty-plus years of use, they were getting well-worn, so, rather than just tossing them out, my mother ‘rescued’ the embroidery from several pieces and had them framed as gifts for various family members. Mine is from one end of a tray-cloth; I love it for many reasons – its simple beauty, the connection with my grandmother, and the reminder of seeing it and other pieces of handwork made by her and my mother while I was growing up.  I couldn’t carry a glass-framed item on the (small) planes I travelled home on, but my sister will be driving past here in a few days, and she will bring it with her. I’m not sure where I’ll hang it yet, but I’ll decide before she arrives!

For those interested in the stitches, here’s a close-up:

Embroidery detail (Martha Rudge 1900-1963)