Lemele Knits

Yarn from Sheep and Pickle Farm!

2013-09-18T23:45:00.003-07:00

Last weekend I finished my first project made from yarn from Sheep and Pickle Farm.

I used most of a skein of their natural gray yarn to make Jared Flood's Koolhaas. I really loved working with the yarn--it was soft and fuzzy, making for a much more subtle take on the pattern than the last time I used it. It's three-ply, spun relatively loosely, and it blends together well. I bet it would felt beautifully. And I can't wait to try out the white wool I've still got waiting for me.

I've worked with highland wool before, but I'd never worked with virgin wool from sheep bred for softness. It's a very different experience. It wasn't nearly as processed as most of the yarn I'm used to, but it also didn't cover my hands with lanolin while I worked with it. I did have to pick out the occasional bit of grass while I worked, but that was kind of cool--I've never thought this concretely about the sheep my yarn comes from.

My friend Katie, the master of the sheep at Sheep and Pickle Farm, also has a really cool blog about raising and breeding sheep.

What the cool kids do on Saturday night

2009-10-04T01:38:00.000-07:00

I started working on Nikol Lohr's cabled balaclava pattern from Craftzine last night and it turns out to be the Red Slippers of knitting patterns. I just cannot put it down for some reason. When I'm knitting a cable row, I want to knit at least one more regular row to "lock it in," when I knit a regular pattern row I want to get to the next cable row so I'll have an even number of rows to end with. I've been telling myself that I'd stop when I got to do the face opening, but now I kind of want to... get to the next cable row. Or maybe the crown. Or maybe just the end of the hat.

I really do need to go to bed, don't I?

Here, have another creepy photo of me posing with a partially-finished balaclava. At this rate I will have to change my epithet from "tulle ninja" to "yarn ninja."

I suspect that this will be done by sometime tomorrow, and also that I'll have less wakefulness-crazed photos at that time.

Good mail week

2009-09-23T08:22:00.000-07:00

I've gotten so much exciting mail this week!

On Monday, I got the t-shirts I ordered from Topatoco and the first mail art I've received since joining the International Union of Mail Artists.

Last night I got the free Qu'ran I ordered by calling 1-800-WHY-ISLAM (yes, people do call that number, it seems. And I am one of them).

So now I have a massive postal-karma debt that needs repaying. I'm looking forward to figuring out how to proceed.

Tying up loose ends

2009-09-07T17:29:00.001-07:00

It's been an interesting week. I was sick with a head cold for a good chunk of it, which meant that I got a whole lot of knitting done. I finished a scarf I've been working on for a couple of weeks, I finally faced up to my first blocking project ever, and I finished off the plarn shopping bag.

So far I'm really enjoying using the bag. It hangs well over my shoulder, and it's comfortable and lightweight. I am definitely going to have to make the handle wider in future bags, as I have been getting paranoid about its ability to hold weight (it actually seems to be fine, it's just that I'm paranoid.

Today I'm finally feeling completely well again, so I payed a visit to Dearborn Garden and took some photos of what I've gotten done in the last week.

And, for those interested, the final pattern for the plarn bag is available below the photos.

Posing with my beloved bike Pippa, the bag looks so very trendy.

This scarf has been a fun alternate project for when my wrists were sore from handling the plarn on a gauge that was probably a bit small for it. The Malabrigo sock yarn is incredibly lush and delicate, all at once. And I love the complexity of their colorways. I'm definitely going to work more with their wool in the future.

I finished this lace shawl a few weeks ago and finally compelled myself to work in the ends and block it. See, I even do the less fun parts when I'm sick and have nothing else to do.

Plarn shopping bag

Needles: I used a size 9 24-inch circular, using a magic loop for the first parts of the bag and working up to using the full needle. You could use DPs for bottom of the bag.

Yarn: Plastic yarn, made in this case from Safeway bags. You can find many sets of instructions on how to make plarn by searching the internet; I commented on a few methods in a previous post.

I started by knitting a flat circle for the bottom of the bag:

CO 8 stitches, join together to knit in the round.
Row 1: k8
Row 2: k1, m1 8 times
Row 3: k16
Row 4: k2, m1 8 times
Row 5: k24
Continue like this, with a total of 8 increases every 2 rounds, until your bottom is at a size you like. Then switch to wall stitch:
Row 1: knit all
Row 2: k2, yo until end. It winds up being easiest if you move your row marker one over each time, making the last stitch of each even row the k1. You’ll slowly wind up rotating your marker around the top of your bag as you go.

Continue following this pattern to make your bag as tall as you like. A word of advice: once you start filling your bag, this will stretch to be about 25%-50% longer than you started.

Bind off. Halfway around the circle, leave 7-9 loose stitches on a dp needle or cable needle. When you get to the last 7-9 stitches (the same number you used on the other side of the bag), switch to stockinette to knit the handle. I only used 5 stitches here, and will definitely make the handle wider the next time I go this. When your handle is long enough (again, remember that it will wind up stretching with use), knit it into your remaining loose stitches on the opposite side of the bag. You want to do this on the purl side (aka the inside of the bag), purling each of your working stitches onto a loose stitch. Tie off and work in the loose plarn.

By the end of the bag, I had run out of my existing plarn and so was slowly adding loops as I worked across the handle. This actually turned out to be really handy because it meant I was able to time the end of my bag exactly with the end of my yarn. I had about half a loop left when I finished binding off, which was the perfect amount to work into the bag.

Notation:
m1: Make a stitch by picking up the yarn between the loops on your needle onto your left-hand needle, knit it.

Plarn preview

2009-08-30T19:12:00.000-07:00

I'm busy at work finishing up my plarn shopping bag, which will be my first full post, but here are some photos to whet your appetite.

A ball of the "plarn" I'm working with. I'm making it out of Safeway bags and other plastic bags using the same colorway, which I could blend seamlessly in. San Francisco has banned most stores in the city from using plastic bags, which leaves me begging my friends and family for their used bag stashes.

Here's the bag that I have in progress.

All the other plarn bags I've seen out there are crocheted rather than knitted, but here are some more resources:
The loop method for creating plarn: This is the method I used to create two-ply plarn. I like it because the multiple strips hold together very solidly
The zig-zag method for creating plarn: This looks appealing because you wind up with twice as much yarn for your bag, and can use a smaller gauge needle. But I'm wary of the fact that it uses square knots, which seem a lot less stable than interlocking loops.
Crochet pattern for plarn: A sweet flowered purse.

Testing out the waters

2009-08-30T13:30:00.001-07:00

Welcome to Lemele Knits, a new craft blog.

I'm excited to test out the waters and record some of my projects. I'm a knitter, a beginning printmaker, and an aspiring mail artist. You can expect to find here some of my experiments with color, fiber, and upcycling.

I've got several projects in progress right now:

I'm finishing up a mohair lace shawl which will be my first-ever blocking project.
I'm working on an autumny scarf in sock yarn.
I'm working on a shopping bag made of plastic yarn made of shopping bags (a nicely recursive project, if you ask me)

And here's some more of what you can expect in this space:

How to create plarn.
How to take apart sweaters for the yarn.
An ode to the circular needle.

Ultimately, I'll cover some of my non-knitting projects, but it's the craft where I'm most mature, and also where I have the most ongoing right now.