ELFIN: Is This a Pattern for You?

I have recently completed a sweater pattern known as ELFIN, by Kim Hargreaves. It is a cardigan knit in a very lightweight (DK) Rowan tweed wool spun from wool, rayon, and alpaca. The cardigan is knit entirely in stockinette stitch. While nice for watching television, the prospect of knitting that much stockinette suggests so many hours of boredom that many knitters will avoid this pattern like the plague. Following the tedium of a fully stockinette sweater, the pattern then calls for a border...a behemoth of lacy ruffles crafted from blindingly small and bogglingly fuzzy Kidsilk Haze. As mentioned in my previous blog (Not Getting Any Tail), I had my son add the number of cast-on stitches to complete the border and the tally came to 2840! This is a sweater I would characterize as a feast or famine sweater... long stretches of boredom followed by long stretches of tedious complexity. Until the product is complete, there is very little joy in the process of creating this sweater.

As your blogger, I feel somewhat obliged to either make recommendations....or help guide you to your own answers. So, if you are considering making ELFIN, I would recommend that you answer the following questions honestly:

1. Are you the type of reader who finishes every book you start, even when you dislike it?

2. Do you eat your vegetables/eggplant...do you clean your plate?

3. Do you fill out your own tax forms?
4. Are you a long-distance runner?

5. Have you ever decided to teach yourself Mandarin or Russian simply because you feel it would be a good language to know?

6. Are the Russian authors your favorites?

7. Do you pluck your own facial hair?

8. Were you the kid who used to sit on the bottom of the pool for as long as possible JUST to see how long you could hold your breath?

9. Do you take the stairs?

10. Are you raising children?

If you answered YES to any of these questions, you may consider undertaking ELFIN. What Elfin takes is an unwavering commitment to abide the boredom and the pain, and endure them for the duration of a LONG project, with the possibility (no assurance) that you may have a positive outcome/nice finished product.

Think about it.

Wizard Knits: The Harry Potter Exhibition

If you are anywhere near Boston and have an interest in Harry Potter (or a child with an interest), do whatever is necessary to make it to the Harry Potter travelling Exhibition at the Museum of Science. Showcasing items, props, and clothing from the movies, the immersion-style rooms are transporting... magical in displays such as the dining hall which is complete with floating candles. Even if you can't enjoy the masterful book binding techniques, or experience joy in pulling up a shrieking mandrake, as a knitter you will find plenty to amuse.

The Weasley knit afghan was a favorite. The blanket is made of 7" squares in all different non-matching colors (some unevenly striped, some solid) and then sewn together with random orientation and finally stitched on some seams with black thread...like a crazy quilt. Of course the house sweaters were there, knit with darker grey yarn in a finer gauge than the one featured in "Charmed Knits." Ron's Ragg Raglan (a pattern given in the same book) was almost spot on in it's design, although the R in reality is an applique made from a plaid tan fabric rather than the red pictured.

My favorite sweater was the sweater Ron is wearing in this shot. The neckline was funky...knit as a V which at its base is narrow, then suddenly widens it's angle midway up the neckline, and over-sewn with a worn red canvas ribbon. Love it.

My absolute favorite part of the exhibit was in Hagrid's Hut, pictured above top. Behind where the photographer stood (and so not pictured), was a bookshelf containing Hagrid's objects. Inside were his books, glasses, etc...and behind it all was......YARN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JK Rowling seems consistent in her desire to send a message to all knitters that Hagrid knits. The yarn is a rough and rugged dark brown bulky weight handspun single-ply wool rolled up with a yarn-baller...not dissimilar from this one. If you follow my blog you'll know I wrote a piece of fan fiction based on the one sentence in her first book which indicated that Hagrid Knits. You can read it in my archives HERE.

Not Getting Any Tail

No, this blog entry is not about my midlife crisis...it's about rethinking CASTING ON. For five years I have dutifully casting on the traditional "long-tail" way - estimating the spot on the yarn which would efficiently minimize the length of the tail once I had worked my way out from the spot toward the end casting on all my stitches. The method has the advantage of being the quickest, once one develops a rhythm...AND provided that one does not accidentally UNDERESTIMATE the yarn needed and have to frog the work and start again beginning at a different location on the yarn. No biggie for projects with, say, 36 stitches...even 88 I can rework with only a few cuss words...but when faced with casting on 305 stitches with
blindingly small and fuzzy kidsilk haze (pattern :Rowan Elfin) SIX TIMES for the collar and 233 stitches SIX TIMES for the sleeves, it's time to think of an easier way.

For years I had heard tale of a casting- on technique which did not involve the messy estimation necessitated by "long-tail." I had always figured it would be prohibitively complex...requiring a 6th finger I did not possess. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be, not only easy, but something I had already done before in a different context (buttonholes)!

So method #1 is called "Knitting On." All you do is tie a (slip) knot onto needle 1, knit a stitch, then place the new stitch back on needle 1. Repeat for as many stitches as you need. THAT's IT!

The limitations of this method are...1) it's slow, and 2) it looks better from one side than the other. Thus, one may want to consider the other method.

Method #2 is called, the "Cable Cast On." This is essentially the same idea. Begin just as with "Knitting On" until you have 2 stitches on needle 1. Then (rather than passing needle 2 as though to knit), pass needle 2 between the penultimate and the last stitches, wrap/pull through, and place this new stitch back onto needle 1. Repeat to make all stitches. Again, THAT's IT!

Cable Cast-On is also slower than Long-Tail, but looks equally good from both sides.

Method #3 (we'll call it the Ball-Cum-Tail technique) is my favorite and it not one found in texts. Simply cast on using the long-tail method with 2 balls of yarn (in other words, tie both ends together and onto the needle in a slip knot, then use one ball as the main yarn and the other ball as the tail). Fast, two sided, and logical...why didn't I think of that!!!

No magic, no mirrors...just sanity.

Jewelry with Jenn Mason

OK, OK...this is definitely NOT knitting, but I loved it so much I had to share. My friend (I am so proud to be able to say that), Jenn Mason, artist extraordinaire, is holding a series of workshops in which she shares with her sycophants (like me) the techniques she uses to create her many masterpieces. Last night I attended the first in this year's series focusing on creating Chandelier Jewelry. Each participant was given a vintage chandelier crystal and taught ways to titivate it with vintage papers/photos, ink, and luminescent powders in order to create a pendant of unique beauty.

If you like it, grab her book, "Altered Paper Jewelry: Artful Adornments from Beautiful Papers" HERE...and visit her online HERE
...or HERE.

Yarn Pumpkins

Check out my most recent blog on EverydayArtist Studio...where I discuss how to create AND finish a fiber-based project for October in 15 seconds! Drop Craftmaster, Jenn Mason, a note there and then come back to visit me soon.

Happy Crafting!