Shy Red Fox

Shy Red Fox has moved to it's own domain

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 25 Feb 2017 00:20:00 +0000

We've moved to shyredfox.com. See you there! :)

Nalbinding Calendar Phone Wallpaper + Projects

noreply@blogger.com (Amy V.) — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 01:21:00 +0000

It's been a busy (in a very good way) couple of weeks!

An idea popped into my head that nalbinding should have a monthly wallpaper calendar. We'll see if I can keep up with the calendar part, or if I just end up doing wallpapers with nalbinding. But I think it will be a fun project to help promote nalbinding. (I often get asked what nalbinding is. If it's in an image on my phone background I can quickly point to it.)

Link to full size Sunday start version

Link to full size Monday start version

New colorways in the Nordic series: Reindeer and Blue Hour (on 4 ply Classic Fox worsted and Arctic Fox bulky singles) are available in the shop.

Had a blast making some custom orders for some amazing ladies. The calendar wallpaper has two of the needles (redheart and spalted ash). Here's a few more in acrylic. Custom orders for February are open.

Finally got to the more brainless work on my sweater now that I have arm holes! YAY!

And finally I've been catching up on the spinning challenge for the Facebook group "A Spinner's Study". The breed study for January was merino. And since I was dyeing I tossed the wool into the pot for the kettle dye challenge too. (Happened to be on "Blue Hour" dye day.) I'm late with the spinning, but I did get it done. Spinning fever over took me and I spun 8 oz of polwarth I'd dyed a while back as a sample to spin in "The Gloaming" colorway. Here's the dry skein. I was spinning pretty bulky so I can nalbind something thick and quick.

I'll leave you with a few questions. :)

What all have you been working on? I'd love to see!

Do you prefer a calendar or regular phone wallpaper?

Blizzards are great?

noreply@blogger.com (Amy V.) — Wed, 03 Feb 2016 00:54:00 +0000

My town isn't quite socked in from the blizzard today, but authorities are saying stay off the roads. So the kids and hubby and I spent a slower day at home. (And I got an extra hour back for the day since I wasn't driving kiddos to and fro. YAY!)

So I worked on custom order needles, made spelt caraway bread, and dyed some yarn today. And my blog followers get a the first peek at the new yarn colorway in my Nordic series. Any guesses at what it's called?

I hope you all are having a wonderful and safe week. May your projects go splendidly!

Nalbound Sweater Stitch Along + Notes on Working From the Bottom of Your Work

noreply@blogger.com (Amy V.) — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 01:07:00 +0000

The last month flew by so fast, I kind of wonder where it went!

The

Nalbinding Stitch Along Sweater project

sucked me in at the end of December and I have ok progress.

My hope is to have it done before

Green Camel Gathering

in early March.

The collar is complete.

I had to add an extra row from the shoulders and around the back of the neck so it didn't sit too low on my neck.

As I worked the shoulders I did most of my decreasing over the top of the shoulders.

The collar I connected rows to the back of the row at the bottom of the stitch to get a rolled edge look.

(I haven't figured out a ribbing for nalbinding and I thought this would help make the edge look more complete.

)

I found that just working a new Mammen stitch row on the bottom of your work has an unexpected effect.

It opens holes in weird places.

Here's what was left after I pulled out what I'd done.

Pulling the middle of the back of the stitches undid the weird holes thankfully.

(I'm pretty sure adding another row on the bottom worked nicely for Oslo and Finnish 2+2 stitches.

Is it because of the uneven pickup 1+2 in Mammen stitch that this didn't turn out nice?

)

So I debated what to do if I couldn't just work a row from where I left off. Working the row from the inside turned out to be the ticket. It looks like the other rows now. Whew! I was worried! Thankfully the solution was simple!

What projects are you all working on?

Ever tried connecting new rows to the bottom of your work?

Shop Update - but WHOOSH they're gone....

noreply@blogger.com (Amy V.) — Fri, 18 Dec 2015 01:24:00 +0000

I'd intended to share news that needles were posted in the shop today. (And they were!) As fast as I could list them, they disappeared. I was completely flabbergasted! This has never happened before. Yes, all my needles sell - but usually with in a couple weeks. (I'm still in shock...)

So I'll share the pretty picture of the needles all going to a new home.

But never fear! Hubby and I have been working hard and we have more cut - they just need finishing. I'll be working on shaping more as I can. But I won't likely have listings until after the new year. If anyone is interested in reserving a needle let me know. I have another of most of the ones above (minus the antler and blue). But we'll have other styles to post then too.

On the dumb side of things (feel free to laugh at my stupidity), I knew I should get some hand protection one of these days. (When one pokes oneself often while quickly sanding a needle - one would think one would be smart enough to get kevlar gloves, right?) Well, lets just say I got smart enough after drawing blood a few days ago. (No stitches, lots of disinfectant and I'm up to date on my tetanus shot!) Note the offending needle isn't the one pictured. It was a brass one - those are so hard to sand!

But my spiffy new kevlar gloves arrived today, so I can continue working on metal needles.

So no dye updates. It's been needles, needles, needles. After Christmas there will be time for more dye adventures.

I'm frantically trying to finish a few ornaments for gifts. Are you all finishing anything before the holidays?

Projects! (Mostly nalbinding and a bit of knitting)

noreply@blogger.com (Amy V.) — Wed, 09 Dec 2015 22:44:00 +0000

Last month and this month I finished my hat and a pair of mittens. I found the mittens unfinished in my project pile and they were just the project to work on while hubby reads another Ranger's Apprentice book to the family. (I'll put the mittens up in the shop tomorrow.)

Last night I started a pair of mittens in a gradient yarn I dyed. (The 2 skeins were dyed at once so the mittens match.)

Another project pile item I'd forgotten about was a pair of socks where one was done. Evidently this is the week I work on old projects! At knitting group - since it was brainless knitting, I got almost to the instep. I love Zauberball yarn for socks. The socks will be a pair but each will be slightly different because of the "fractal gradient striping effect.

What are you working on?

Playing with Dyes and Colorways - The Dye Notebook Project

noreply@blogger.com (Amy V.) — Sun, 06 Dec 2015 23:41:00 +0000

Birth of the Project

"One thing I have struggled with as I’ve been dyeing yarn with acid dyes is how to achieve a particular color I have in my head.

" a

quote from Cari's article

that started my dye experiment tracking journey.

I too struggle with being able to make a specific color I want and I hope to help others expand the colors they use in an economical fashion.

In my last post you got a peek at my color card samples, using the template cards from Cari's site.

When I started

my box of color cards

, I wanted a way to be able to take color cards out and visualize them together.

As I've been exploring color more - I found I needed an easy to repeat way to create particular hues, tints and tones, and an easy way to organize them.

So back to a notebook for me.

There are a few books like "

Color by Number Basic Book

" by Sara Lamb and Deb Menz for specific brands of acid dyes.

They're pricey and for dyes I'm not using though.

(And for the amount of work it takes to create them, I totally see why!

If you're using those dyes - it may well be worth it for you.

)

I didn't want to order a whole set of dyes, because:

We should be able to create almost any color.
I need to be economical about my dyeing projects. Dyes get expensive.
There's only so much space in my little craft area. Few dyes is good space wise.
Dye stock only lasts so long. Fewer dyes mixed up on hand, means they'll get used up before they go bad.

Focusing on CMYK as my basis for creating colors with a minimal number of dyes has been an interesting little art and science experiment.

Some days I feel like a mad scientist as I'm surrounded by jars and bottles of brightly colored liquids standing there in my apron and gloves.

And I wear my dust mask as I mix more dye.

Though I try to resist any cackling.

*wink*

CMYK

If you're not familiar with CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and blacK) here's a super quick overview.

The primaries we were taught in grade school red, yellow and blue - aren't actually good primaries. They make muddy colors when mixed. They're from a much older color theory. Modern color theory uses cyan, magenta and yellow for pigments - ask any professional printer. This is for anything that light reflects off of (surfaces like clothes, houses, cars, yarn and fiber, etc). As you can see from the color wheel below - cyan and magenta make blue, magenta and yellow make red, and cyan and yellow make green.

Just for fun we'll talk about light for a moment. Red, Blue and Green are light primaries (for anything that emanates light - light bulbs, flashlights, lasers, computer screens, etc.).

PBS has a nice detailed interactive explanation on reflected/pigment vs emitted/light colors. (Click on launch and let the flash player run. Particularly good is video 3 the Mixing Primary Colors of Pigment section. This is better than the explanation I got in college physics!)

Color Wheel by SWPryor

Before I started this project, I tended to think of the color wheel as a static thing - almost like scientific law.

But it's a man made creation with different interpretations.

You'll see all sorts of variants on it depending on what the color wheel was representing and who created it.

The one above is my favorite so far because it uses CMYK and yellow has a bigger color spread than on many other representations.

Side Note: Skipping the CMYK Formulas

CYMK color example from colorhexa.com

I had started to play with looking at the CMYK formulas (showing percentages of each of the cyan, magenta, yellow and black colors) from Photoshop and other online programs for specific colors on my computer.

But I ran into problems with this tactic:

Having too rely on my computer and Photoshop for every color was getting pretty tedious and too random for my needs. I needed a system that I could run with, instead of trying to create colors here and there.
I also wanted a good feel for how the dyes work together. Random colors here and there would not help me with this understanding.

I only bring it up, because I'd mentioned it in the last article.

It was a fun idea, but looking at the color wheel and going from there is proving to be a much more logical approach.

The Dye Notebook Project and Choosing Dyes

Starting with my primary colors of cyan, magenta and yellow - I started to build my dye color book from the color wheel.

After the primaries I went to the secondaries.

These are the colors you can mix with the primaries. For example: cyan and yellow make green.

So green is a secondary color.

And from there I mix colors in between the primaries and secondaries.

That being said, I find browns and other complex colors (where you're mixing more than 2 dye colors together) to be the most tricky with just cyan, magenta, yellow and black because some dyes strike faster than others.

My yellow and black dye strikes very fast and my red and cyan take much longer.

If I am not extremely patient for the slower dyes to strike, I get some very ugly browns.

When I saw Pantone just came out with a

CYMK + OGV (Orange Green and Violet) palette set

, it made me think.

Adding 3 extra colors to my set of dyes wouldn't be a big deal and it would help with the long processing time issue with browns being mixed from more than 2 dyes.

I could get browns with variations on an orange and have a faster processing time.

So after comparing colors, I ordered 3 more dyes.

Now I have 7 base dyes to play with (+ a few others I had before the project began).

My seven dyes are cyan, magenta, yellow, black, orange, green and violet.

Sample Pages - The Project Begins

For my samples I dye a set of variations of 1 or 2 colors to see how they react - in sets of 7 (because that's how many little jars I can fit in my dye pot).

I created a dye sheet with repeatable measurements and ratios so I can create the colors again easily.

To explore a single dye color I mix light to dark with that color (middle row below), mix the color with gray (left below), and mix the color with it's complement or a color close to the complement (right below).

While that covers many colors, 21 at a time - it doesn't help me find out how mixing say magenta and yellow together gets the best red.

So I made two gradient exploration pages.

One is where vary I the two dye colors.

If both are strong colors (i.e. not a light color like yellow) this works well.

The other is where I leave the first color at full strength and vary the second.

This is good for light colors like yellow or pink.

Starting by adding a drop of a dark strong color to a light color helps see more variation in the change of the lighter color.

(In the above image with the green column - the yellow I explored was quickly over powered by cyan. In the image below, the green column has much more variation because I started with full strength yellow and slowly added green.)

So there you have my process for color mixing and exploration for my dye notebook. I hope it's of help to my fellow dyers in expanding your color choices for dyes and being able to do so on a budget.

Next post I'll share the nalbinding projects I've been working on. As much as I love playing with dyes, I'm working on other crafts - really!

Have you put together a dye notebook? What kind of notes do you keep? Do you use a formulaic way to explore color or is it more random?

Playing with Dyes (CMYK) - Preview

noreply@blogger.com (Amy V.) — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 15:53:00 +0000

I'm studying using Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black to make dye colors. Think CMYK color printing percentages.

Some of my samples as I work on particular colorways. The oranges and blue were from a different colorway.

If you're not familiar with CMYK its from modern color theory (using cyan, magenta, yellow and black - instead of red, green and yellow) and I'll get into that more in a later post.

Using this color below for an example: (info from colorhexa.com) It has 0% cyan, 71% magenta, 100% yellow and 12% black. Not totaling the percentages for the color, but how much of each color you'd use out of a possible 100%. Say 1 teaspoon dye stock is 100%. Then for this color 71% would be about 3/4 of a teaspoon of dye stock.

Some of the obstacles I'm finding to creating my colors are:

Some colors are "stronger" than others in dye brands. Take yellow for instance with the dyes I have (a mix of Jaquard and Dharma acid dyes): magenta is ~2 times as strong as it is and cyan is ~3-4 times as strong. So I have to adjust recipes. This is giving me successes with purples, oranges and greens. (Above you can tell I was working on greens for a color way.)
Figuring out how to measure very small amounts of dye stock so I don't waste it. (I found some very cool measuring spoons with a drop, dash, smidgen, etc. Who knew these were real measurements? I had to measure them against a teaspoon because I'd seen differing opinions on the measurements of the really small ones.) Helpful for reproducibility.
Figuring out how to quickly adjust the color of a sample mix. Having 5-6 samples to tinker with at a time and a paper to note what you added each time is helpful.
Color conversion is very much an art and not an exact science. Photoshop and say colorhexa.com have different "recipes" for CMYK. I think this has to do with "color spaces" (adobe rgb, vs srgb, etc.) which are a heavy graphics topic. Not sure how much I want to dive into graphics terminology when I'd rather be playing with dyes.
Some dye heating methods may change the over all dye effect. (I've read that some fast heating methods like the microwave may not let some dyes attach as well and I may need to heat longer or try steaming or putting my samples in a crockpot. Which makes me sad - because I liked the quick fix of seeing the color in a few minutes.)
Some colors bond more quickly to the wool. So when playing with more than 2 dyes at a time I don't always get the colors I want. Browns are really a challenge and may require a 2 step dye process. (I'll report back when I figure out what works and what doesn't. So far mixing all 4 dyes colors makes a yucky colored mess, not a pretty chocolate brown.)

So there's your preview. I'll have more pictures, details, and hopefully more success with browns next time I report in.

I've only seen two other bloggers attempting this but not in as much detail as I'm trying. Have you played with using CMYK for mixing your colors? If so, would you care to care to share your results?

Gradient Bulky Yarn Spinning

noreply@blogger.com (Amy V.) — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 17:24:00 +0000

I did a gradient bulky test as prep for the November "A Spinner's Study" Bulky challenge. It worked out in a way I liked, so here's my notes if you'd like to try it too.

This method involves plying from a center pull ball (because I hate yarn waste).

How to spin a gradient yarn from a center pull ball

1. Gradient dye the top. (I had 4 oz of lovely Polwarth top to play with. Will play with more of this wool.)

2. Before spinning, divide in half length wise. Spin the color progression on 1/2 of the wool. Then spin the color progression backwards on the other half of the wool. For example I spun - green, blue, black (first half), then kept going on same bobbin with the other half of the wool - black, blue, green. My bobbin was VERY full, but it all fit.

3. Wind singles into center pull ball. Keep tension on your yarn at all times when winding.

4. Ply from both ends of skein. (So I pulled both green ends and plied from image above.)

Keep tension on your yarn at all times when plying - especially where you're pulling from the ball. This helps reduce twisties and knots as you ply.

I over plied a little and it was the most amazingly balanced skein. (<- From a tip in the A Spinner's Study group.)

4. Final yarn prep - as you see fit. (I soaked it, thwacked skein to fluff it, laid it out to try on rack and dried with a fan.)

Here's the final skein in various forms. I ended up with about 6-8 wpi. I want thicker yarn - so more practice for me!

Ta -da!

Small Circle Vest Complete!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy V.) — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 01:26:00 +0000

Finishing went a little faster than I expected. YAY! My daughter loves it - so it’s worth all the work (even the hand sewing).

Vest was done in Finnish 2+2 stitch with Brown Sheep Nature Spun Worsted and Malabrigo Rios - Arco Iris.

Gross grain ribbon was added across the rows on the back to stabilize the clasps. (This stitch stretches across rows quite a bit.)

Detail of the back center, where I started the vest. Had fun playing with what shapes I could make from a nalbinding chain.

Things I learned from this project:

I want to find a better way to start/end stripes.
I need to figure out how to measure around the edge of loopy work better so it doesn't puff out. (Unless I want it to.)
Stripes of color seem to make the work go faster. I can see the progress in each row.
Plastic marker pins didn't work well for this - they pulled too much on the stitch loops. Maybe pinning them in the middle of the stitch would work better?

Spinning and Circle Vest

noreply@blogger.com (Amy V.) — Sat, 10 Oct 2015 21:38:00 +0000

Last month I joined the Facebook group "A Spinner's Study". Truly a lovely group (enough to make me think twice about my general dislike of Facebook.) They have monthly challenges and breed studies and one that I'm participating in for October is The Cormo breed study.

Received my cormo top (from North Star Alpacas) this week. (Isn't the salmon color pretty? This is as close to pink as I get, folks.) I'd spun cormo before, but I'd forgotten how wonderful it is to spin! Easy to spin a nice fine yarn. Feels good in my hands.

I picked up precise spinner's control card and an angle of twist gauge from Hipstrings too. They arrived just in time for me to start spinning my cormo.

Trying the pinch and pull type method for consistency. I can't do this method for hours on end like I can other methods (I'm a former programmer and it took a toll on my hands). But it's nice to know how to do. So I spin for 1/2 an hour to an hour and do something else for a while.

Next month the challenges will focus on thin yarns and thick yarns. Really looking forward to that!

I also participated in the Moonrover stash-along challenge with some superwash merino/bamboo blend. I'm not usually an SW fan. But this spun very nicely and it was fun to use up some of my fiber club stash from the beginning of the year.

Coming along well on my daughter's circle vest. Decided to add some Malabrigo Rios "Arco Iris" (purples and greens) to the lilac-ish purple Brown Sheep yarn I'd been working with. It really seems to make it pop and the variance in colors helps make the stitching seem to go faster. Hopefully, I'll be done this week. (Cross your fingers for me!)

What have you all been working on? Have you been feeling the autumn crafting bug?

Karman Vortex Scarf PDF Pattern for Nalbinding - now available!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy V.) — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 18:33:00 +0000

Finally after the last revisions, I was able to list my pattern for my Karman Vortex Nalbound Scarf in my Etsy shop. Woot!

23 pages of detailed instructions with images of each step. Here's a sneak peek.

Now to finish one of these as a gift for my friend's birthday. More crafting news to come. Are you all making nalbound gifts for Christmas and birthdays?

Catchup, Post NCFF Event, Needles in the Shop Again!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy V.) — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 15:57:00 +0000

This summer was a crazy but good one. The kids went back to school before I really felt like I was ready and we had two extra weeks of summer vacation this time. Where did the time go?

My craft focus was developing one of the classes I'd planned for NCFF.

One of the big highlights of the summer was camping with my parents in Custer State Park (in South Dakota). Seriously one of the best places on earth. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Rainbow after heavy rainstorm at Stockade Lake

Mickelson Trail just outside of Custer, SD

View from observation tower Custer State Park

Night sky at our campsite - super clear that night.

Sunflower field on I-90. We saw more of these then we'd ever seen before. Usually you just see corn and soybeans.

Sunday my daughter and I got back from North Country Fiber Fair (NCFF) and it was a blast! This was my first NCFF being on the board and wow - teaching, running the website, helping, demoing, and being one of the tech peeps kept me on my toes.

I taught Beginning Nalbinding again. Wish I could have taught two sessions. My students were awesome as always and very patient with themselves as they learned a new craft. For the first time, I was able to teach a lady with arthritic hands how to work flat and it seemed to help her. (Thank you Egon Hanson for your Us and Os or I would have never figured out to how to help her!)

The new class this time was my Karman Vortex scarf and it took us all 4 hours to get through the material. But the students should have some lovely scarves. I hope they'll share a picture or two when they are done. (Crossing fingers for pictures.)

I wasn't the only one teaching nalbinding this year. Wish I could have taken Judy Gobel's all day nalbound sock class!

My daughter took 2 classes (Bengala dye and Saori weaving) and played with needle felting. So many people actually took a 10 year old's crafting seriously. She was so excited that at night I had to give her a massage to calm her down. She has found her "tribe" and can't wait to go back next year.

Oh! And my red scarf won the Fall Colors craft along.

Nalbinding got quite a bit of recognition this year - between multiple teachers for classes, being in the fashion show and competitions, and even some of the vendors were nalbinders!

It seems like forever and a day since I've been able to list needles in the shop. I'm listing one or two each day as I get back into the swing of things. Needle making is slow - but at least it's happening. (Hubby's job was SOOOO busy for quite a while. Still busy but we're getting a better balance now.)

I've also been working on the Karman Vortex Scarves and have one listed in the shop. Pattern will be listed in the shop soon.

How have you all been and how was your summer? Have you been working on any interesting projects? I'd love to see them!

Von Karman Vortices Inspiration #1 + Green Camel Craft Retreat Report

noreply@blogger.com (Amy V.) — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 15:27:00 +0000

This morning I finished my first project inspired by the beauty of the Von Karman vortices in nature. Who would have thought fluid dynamics could be so pretty! With the blues it made me think of river eddies so I present to you the Karman River Whirls Scarf.

Nalbound in Finnish 2+2 for a stable chain of Cascade Eco+ in Lake Chelan Heather colorway.

I hope to write up the pattern for this. I've not seen ANYTHING like it done in nalbinding yet and I'm just giddy about the possibility of having 'invented' something!

Background info for those who aren't familiar with Von Karman Vortices: They're swirls in a fluid when the fluid has to move around an object. When I worked at a satellite receiving station as a programmer for the Landsat 7 project, there were many images I saw that just blew me away. This was one of them - Von Karman vortices from the Juan Fernandez Islands sticking up into the clouds. I remember when this image made the front cover of ASPRS magazine in 1999.

Green Camel Report
Last weekend my daughter, one of my dear friends - Johanna, and I drove to the delightful little town of Tyler, MN and attended the Green Camel Gathering crafting weekend at the old Danebod Folk School. It was wonderful to catch up with so many of my fiber arts friends from around the area. Though, feel free to laugh - just three of us filled my SUV to capacity with the crafts we brought to work on.

I hosted a group indigo dye experiment on Saturday. (I can't call it a class, it was just us having fun tossing stuff into the dye vat.) Sunday morning, I was able to take the "Reverse Knitting" class by my friend Miranda. Knitting left handed was doable. Perling - well I'm not sure I have my mind wrapped around that yet. Much chatting, spinning, and nalbinding were done. My daughter was able to try several new crafts including needle felting and kumihimo. Now, I think I have my daughter and Johanna hooked, and should be able to expect more Green Camel trips with them in the future. Yipee!

What's your inspiration lately?

The Vest that Never Ends is Complete

noreply@blogger.com (Amy V.) — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 16:09:00 +0000

Absolutely giddy. That's how I felt yesterday when I finished the border and reinforced the arm holes of my circular vest. The Finnish 2+2 stitch knotwork border sucked up yarn so fast! I had to go buy more of the blue yarn. Much to do today, so I'll keep the post short.

Study of Knotwork vs Stitches

noreply@blogger.com (Amy V.) — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 15:19:00 +0000

As I was about to start working on the knotwork edging for "the vest that never ends", it occurred to me to try the knot I wanted with a couple different stitches. I want the knotwork edge to be crisp and clear, yet only require a chain of stitches and the stitches quick and easy to create.

In my opinion, the Oslo stitch wasn't as sturdy and didn't provide as much definition for the single colored knot, even when I tried tightening up the stitches.

Oslo Stitch

Oslo Stitch tightened around needle

The Finnish stitches with 4 loops all had a crisper clearer knot that was easier to see. I think the Finnish 2+2 and Finnish 3+1 stitches gave the nicest effect. (Finnish 3+1 isn't listed as an official stitch, that I can find. But it's a logical variant of the Finnish stitches.)

Finnish 2+2 Stitch

Finnish 1+3 (Broden) Stitch

Finnish 3+1

So I chose Finnish 2+2 for my stitch and started off on the edging with gusto. I realized half way around the vest (which is a HUGE circle), that I was going to run out of blue yarn for the edge. Blah! This edging style eats up yarn at an alarming rate! So I bought another skein of Cascade Eco+ Yarn (478 yards) of the Lake Chelan Heather blue and was lucky it's the same dye lot. There will be quite a bit of the yarn left over. What to do with that? Socks? Mini vest for my youngest? Hmm...

More Tinkering with Knotwork - Study in Which Knots Work Well with Nalbinding

noreply@blogger.com (Amy V.) — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 15:50:00 +0000

Yesterday I found my Danish friend Maria is working with knotwork too for the Nalbinding Festival in Denmark. So there's 3 of us now, that I know of. Oh I wish I could go to the festival! Maybe next year...

Last night I attempted 3 more knots as I work through my old knotwork book. Two of which were good.

The first one was my "fail" for the evening. But it was worth trying. I learned I'll have to tack down the looser shapes like the "s" or "z" so they stay put. I won't just be able to make a chain of stitches and make this knot. It will have to be more planned and after so many stitches I'll have to attach it to the other chain of stitches. Otherwise, it won't hold together well.

This knot was tricky to "tie". But once completed and tightened, it was so pleasing. (I may have to make a photocopy of the knots I work on and highlight each strand in a different color. My eyes kept getting lost when tying this one.)

And this one really surprised me, I thought it wouldn't work with the longer loops to the next knot. But when tightened it worked out well.

In project news, the "vest that never ends" might actually be nearing completion. It was very close last Sunday when I took it to coffee with friends. (No the vest did not get to drink coffee. I suspect it wanted to though. It kept being difficult to work on, as if it was trying to tell me something.)

What in your projects and experiments has surprised you?

Knitting with Nalbound Edge - Take 1

noreply@blogger.com (Amy V.) — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 22:24:00 +0000

The other day I tinkered with nalbinding the edge of my knitting. I'm not particularly happy with the results.

When binding off my knitting with nalbinding, I got twisted stitches. When I went over the cast on edge, I got ridges. I have ideas about how to deal with these problems: for the twisted stitches - I could turn the stitch or go in the other direction, for the ridges - just pick up the cast on edge differently and check after a few stitches. I had also hoped the work wouldn't curl, but it does. So my experiment, needs more work.

Experiments: Nalbinding as an Edge on Crochet

noreply@blogger.com (Amy V.) — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 22:57:00 +0000

During thoughts on planning for fall classes, I had one of those ideas that wouldn't let me go until I tried it. One of the classes I'm thinking about submitting is on pretty nalbound edgings and it occurred to me that nalbinding would make a lovely solid edge on other crafts.

So a sample whipped itself up while dinner was in the oven. I eyeballed the number of stitches of nalbinding I'd need per double crochet stitch - 2 nalbinding stitches to 1 crochet stitch. So far I'm really liking the effect.

Crossing my fingers for more time to experiment tomorrow, for edging knitting with nalbinding.

Have you ever edged another yarn craft with nalbinding?

Knotwork Tutorial II

noreply@blogger.com (Amy V.) — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 01:38:00 +0000

Several bits and pieces on how to do the scarf were scattered in my blog posts. But it wasn't a real tutorial and a few important tidbits were missing. So I'll write down the process for those who would like to make their own nalbound knotwork items with more complicated knots. For my examples, I use the Finnish 2+2 stitch.

This is the knot style we'll be working with. (Page 33 of Celtic Art: The Methods of Construction.) I highlighted one part of the knot in the diagram, so we can easily see the construction.

To make the knots:
Make to chains of stitches. One or two colors of yarn can be used.

Make a loop with one chain of stitches. I try not to let mine twist - so my knots are more uniform.

Then I place the other chain of stitches under the loop that I just made.

Now we'll start working over and under, over and under until we've completed the knot.

Now make as many knots as you want. The knots do stretch out a bit. So just know that if you decide to edge the knots, for final item won't be as long. Here are the knots I made for my scarf.

To do a row of edging:

I picked up the knot tail and did a stitch or two on it.

A) Then I picked up and made 4 stitches in the top loop of the knot. (Depending on your knots, you may need fewer or more stitches in the loop. Experiment on a few knots to find out.)

B) Next, I did 3 stitches in the chain that is between knots.

Repeat A and B until you reach the end of the knots.

Do a stitch in the tail of the knot.

Then in the end of the tail, make 4 or 5 stitches (for the corner of your work).

Continue working on the edge of your knots. I did about 3 stitches in each part of the loop on the side.

Continue turning corners and edging until you reach where you started. Pull your stich loops a little tighter so they blend in. Finally, weave in your ends. (I had to use the ends to cover where I started and ended.)

Enjoy!

"Knots of Insanity" completed...and now I promise to be good

noreply@blogger.com (Amy V.) — Sun, 25 Jan 2015 22:21:00 +0000

Whew! Just finished up this little "I just had to try it" experimental scarf last night so it could some with me to knitting Sunday at my local yarn shop. The knotwork went pretty quickly because I wasn't counting it and the edging even more quickly (even though I had to count that). Just had to figure out how many stitches to attach for each knot to make it look even.

And so I give the girl scout salute and solemnly vow to finish my circle vest.

What insanity projects have snagged you lately?

More Knotwork Experiments and Progress on "The Vest that Never Ends"

noreply@blogger.com (Amy V.) — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 16:39:00 +0000

The nalbinding knotwork bug is still biting. Just after the cowl was finished, I dug out my trusty old (20+ years old) copy of Celtic Art: The Methods of Construction. I tried several different knots. The ones with large gaps do not seem to work nicely with my attempts. But tight close together knots like the ones below seem to look good after they are created.

The second one is the one that caught my interest for a fashion scarf (too many holes to be a practical scarf) done in Finnish 2+2 stitch. With these knots I haven't been counting stitches obsessively like I did with the pretzel knot cowl. I just work long chains of the yarns and make the knots. I'll keep going with the knots (below) until I run out of green. I suspect these knots could be done in rows and be a fabric by themselves. But I don't have enough green to test that theory. So I'll edge it in blue to make the scarf a tad wider.

The circle vest I've been working on officially has been given the nickname "The Vest that Never Ends". It's taking quite a while to finish the project, but I also thought it fit because the colors spiral out from the center into what looks like infinity and they get lost in the stripe effect.

Only 2-4 more inches? Maybe there is an end after all...

Nalbound Knot Work Cowl + Knotwork Pretzels Tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (Amy V.) — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 23:20:00 +0000

Yes, yes. I should be working on my circle vest to have it done before the end of February for the Green Camel Gathering fiber arts event. But I got distracted, you see.

A spiffy knotwork headband post from one of the Facebook groups inspired me this week to start to learn how to do knotwork in nalbinding, beyond braids. I've always loved Celtic and Viking knotwork, thus I was dragged (not unwillingly) into another project. Thankfully this one went quickly!

It’s been wicked cold out (windchill -20°F/-28°C to -30°F/-34°C) this week, so a cowl was the perfect project.

Nalbound cowl with knotwork - done in Finnish 2+2 stitch. A Celtic looking clasp was the pefect closure for this, to help tighten it against my face. I couldn't resist putting the needle in the picture too. Hubby made it from red heart wood and gave it to me for Valentine's Day a few years ago.

The cowl with the clasp undone.

I'm trying not to giggle as my son snaps the picture of me in this cowl indoors.

Working on each of the little pretzel like knots was addictive and the work went quickly. Yarn details are on the project page. I suspect this will lead to more knotwork projects…

To help my fellow nalbinders with knotwork of their own (since it took me a couple tries to be able to make them consistently), I took pictures of each step for making the little pretzel knots. (They're actually overhand knots - but they look so much like pretzels!) Hopefully this will also help me remember how to do the knots too.

How to Make Knotwork "Pretzels": (Or at least it's how I made them. There are probably several ways to make them.)

To start, I'll recommend making a pretzel\overhand knot and measuring it against a flat row of stitches, so you can get the width in stitches of your knots and how many stitches for each section.

Attach your work to row. Make a chain of stitches.

Turn your work over. Count over from your attached work half the width of your test pretzel knot.

Work with F2 connection (for strength of the join) back to last joined work.

Create another chain, same length as the last one.

Turn your work, then put your chain end (with the working yarn and needle) through the loop you created.

Now you have a pretzel/overhand knot.

Attach it to the previous row with the F2 connection for stitches that equal half the width of your pretzel knot.

There you have it. Go forth and make pretzel knots to your heart's content! (I had to do 3 rows of them before I wanted to do something different.)

Now I need to get back to my circle vest...

Nalbinding Stitch Connections - What are F1, B1, etc?

noreply@blogger.com (Amy V.) — Tue, 30 Dec 2014 20:37:00 +0000

A few days ago, I saw a nalbound sock on one of the Facebook nalbinding groups, and wasn't sure how the creator did that effect. She didn't answer (and I wasn't surprised - the group isn't in English and that's all I speak).

So I worked on a set of samples, so I could figure out that ridged effect and so I could more clearly see the difference between different types of connections for nalbinding. Here are my samples and what I learned.

(-- Updated 2/4/2015 to show the needle in position for the connections. Samples done in Oslo stitch.)

Nalbinding Stitch Connection - F1 - You put the needle through the front of the top loop of next stitch in the previous row. A very flexible join to the row. The Oslo stitch has nice drape with this connection.

Nalbinding Stitch Connection - F2 - You put the needle in the front of the loop for the next stitch in the previous row, and also the previous stitch in that row (aka the loop that has a stitch in it already). A denser fabric, solid join.

Nalbinding Stitch Connection - B1 - You put the needle through the back of the top loop of next stitch in the previous row. Tighter than the F1 connection and it gives an interesting texture between the rows - almost like weaving.

Nalbinding Stitch Connection - M1 - You put the needle through the front of the middle of next stitch (the part of the stitch that lays in the opposite direction) in the previous row. Dense fabric with ridges on the back.

M1 (back side)

Nalbinding Stitch Connection - M1 in back - You put the needle through the middle of next stitch (the part of the stitch that lays in the opposite direction) on the back side of your work in the previous row. Dense fabric with ridges on the front. I'm pretty sure this is how the ridged socks were done.

M1 F1

Nalbinding Stitch Connection - M1+F1 - You put the needle through the front of the middle of next stitch (the part of the stitch that lays in the opposite direction) and the top loop of that stitch in the previous row. Dense fabric with no ridges.

*Note: There is another connection I've seen B1+F1 for the Asle stitch. But "B1" means "bottom loop" here. Just so you know.

So, there you have it. I'd like to encourage you to make your own samples like this so you can see the difference for yourself. Even different stitch samples are helpful to see what you may want to use for a project. I'd love to see your samples and hear what you learned from them!

Nalbinding Projects since September

noreply@blogger.com (Amy V.) — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 22:18:00 +0000

The last few months (since September) I've done quite a bit of nalbinding and finishing old projects.

Finnish Stitch 3+3 pouch from Imperial Tracie Too sport weight yarn. (My Ravelry project page for the pouch has general instructions for making your own.)

Finnish Stitch 3+3 mittens from handspun yarn - mixed batts from Moonrover and SD Natural Colored Wool

Rådmansö Stitch hat from Valley Yarns Berkshire Bulky yarn

Hand Warmers from Finnish Stitch 3+3 Stitch done with Imperial Yarns Tracie Too sport weight.

Currently I'm working on a circular vest, inspired by the crochet pattern for the Pinwheel Sweater. Simply doing Oslo stitch to have more drape than the thicker stitches that use more loops.

General crochet conversion instructions and tips for this vest are in my Ravelry project page.

Has it really been that long since I posted last? Eghads! Well, to make up for that, I've updated the site quite a bit - new look, added a calendar of classes that I'm teaching, and a list of classes I have ready to go (I've had several inquiries lately and I thought this might help).

(Update 12/28 - added in links to the project pages for the pouch and vest, since I'd has questions on them. The project pages have general directions for these projects, if you'd like to try to make them too.)

What projects are you working on lately?