R is a skier.

The Fuzzband and I have been blessed with wonderful friends. Sometimes these friends are glorious enablers! In the summer of 2012 we were at our friends' M and R's - delicious food, fun people, croquet in the back yard, the neighbors' kids had a party and ended up playing a game that involved running around with glo-sticks. It was fabulous!

One of the outcomes of the party was that R - a dashing gentleman with the most sincere kindness you could ever hope to meet (Fuzzband and I do not think he is capable of a negative thought) - got to talking about sweaters. Now, R is an AVID cross country skier. He told me it had been his dream since for ever to have a sweater with cross country skiers on it. Really? Well, let's Ravelry it! I'll knit a sweater if he pays for the yearn. Really? Really. We did some searching on Ravelry, and found little. In the end we decided to combine the pattern from a hat with a sweater I would make from scratch. Exciting! And R got a hat out of the bargain as well: 

The pattern is by Bea Ellis Knitwear, which can be found on Ravelry, Facebook, and e-Bay. It seems they are no longer in business. I caught them at a moment when there were a couple of items up on e-Bay, and after a few messages, I managed to get in touch and actually purchase the pattern. They only sell kits, so R and M decided which colors they wanted from the beautiful Falk yarns at Dale of Norway - that's the yarn the kit uses. It was very nice of Bea Ellis to accommodate the colors I requested, and the kit arrived nice and prompt. Score! The hat was very much appreciated:

After this, I did some serious measuring, knitter's math, and figuring things out based on Ann Bud's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns:

Much tea was consumed. I ordered the yarn from my Dale of Norway purveyor of choice, www.woolubaabaa.com - and service was cheerful, friendly, and prompt:

I don't like knitting to deadlines, and R was the perfect recipient - cheerful, grateful, excited, and always telling me to take my time. I cast on Dec. 9th. I ended up unraveling the ribbing and trying out the tubular cast-on (thank goodness I bought Nancie M. Wiseman's The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques all those years ago!) - it is cast-on love! Where has it been all my life? 

I copied the skier pattern and multiplied that until I had a ribbon on skiers. The lower band - I think of it as the snowbanks R skis over - also grows out of the ribbing. I am a little bit ridiculously proud of the back as well, and the collar is a Kitchener Stitch bind-off - again my first! I did the body in the US, and the sleeves while teaching in Germany.

I ended up finishing the sweater on August 4th, 2013. In other words it had dried from blocking, and I sewed my "handmade by Miti" tag into it. Apparently I did a marvelous job:

To add to the incredible excitement of this year has been M and R's little baby J! I had leftover yarn from daddy R's sweater, so of course a matching piece had to be produced, right? I settled on Valerie Wallis' Presto Chango which I'd also knit for another friend. I like the option of multiple panels so grandma can hold a kid without milk drool, should that be an issue. It also meant I could do two panels - duh!

Presto Chango calls for heavier weight yarn than the Falk I had, so after a bit of knitters' math, it was easy to cast on the number of stitches needed for a one year old, and do the measurements for 6 months, and with a bit of luck it will get cold enough in New England for J to actually, you know, wear it before he gets too big. I feel I have done the patterns as well s the yarn justice. Not much more I can eke out of that combo. 

Professionally Pink

Several years ago (fall 2007) a historian of medieval law visiting at the Yale Divinity School sat in on the seminar - are you ready for the name? - Medieval Law! It was being taught in the Yale Law School Lillian Goldman Library Rare Books and Manuscripts reading room and was one of those epic experiences professionally, recreationally, anecdotally, educationally, and socially. It was also the semester my Degenerative Disc Disease had a glorious relapse and I was on pain medications that sent me into hysterical giggles ca 30 mins after taking  a pill. Of course, in order to sit through a seminar I had to medicate myself right before class. I am deeply grateful to the Professor and my colleagues for their patience, support, and help. Minus points to the Law School for disabled access to the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, though. I could not take the stairs for months, so I had to take an elevator up to the modern library, trundle my wheely bag across the way, and take another elevator down to the basement... To figure this out required discussions with two librarians, two security guards, a call to the Disability Access office, and several friendly law students who carried my bag and let me lean on them. 

I know you wanted that back story.

Anyway, the medieval law historian. Let us call her Ms. Law Mentor.

 Ms. Law Mentor took me under her wing, and has been extremely helpful and supportive in my career. Plus, she is bucketloads of plain, pure, fun and has fabulous common sense. And as my adored sister-in-law would say: Common sense - not that common. But Ms. Law Mentor has it. Part of this common sense is realizing when to let go of things. So she let go of 14 skeins of Cotton Classic yarn by Tahki Yarns, and gave them to me! We are talking beautiful mercerized cotton any knitter would kill for. Unless they hate knitting in cotton, but we are ignoring that possibility in this utterly common sensical blog posting. The color was black. Now, I almost never wore black at the time, and even now only if I can pair it with bright colors. Preferably bright oranges or pinks. At the time, I did not do pink. There is a follow-up to that statement.

So, what should a non-black wearing girl do with such a treasure? Well, the answer came browsing Ravelry, of course. Hilary Engebretson's design Emerald Seas was the perfect solution! It is a top, knitted with a series of eylet rows down one side through which one threads ribbons of potentially very bright, contrasting colors. See where I am going, eh? So I knit the top, with some modifications: I reduced the ribbing at the hips, and shaped the top quite dramatically by decreasing needle sizes twice. As I had about half of the yarn left over, I knit myself a skirt, too! And had just enough  to finish the piece! I actually had to use left over needlepoint floss to stitch the waist elastic in...

Then the question was: what color ribbons do I use? I settled on burnt orange, red and pink. But Jo-Ann's Crafts and Fabrics did not have the perfect colors! So I did two shades of pink and a red:

Niece, eh? Here's a full frontal view:

I particularly like the decapitated look. And the pink. It was my first foray into pink, and since then I have become increasingly excited about the color. Preferably in combination with orange (this is me, after all), but I now own several items that are unequivocally: pink! 

And notice the shoes? My Fuzzband convinced me to get those once upon a time, and they are amazing! The ensemble from the back: 

This photo really should have been taken with stockings that have seams in the back, I know.

I have since mainly worn the ensemble at conferences! With a read suede jacket I bought at the Amsterdam Airport back in the early 2000s, or with a burnt orange cardigan, or with a lavender top... It is surprisingly versatile, and incredibly comfortable. This past five weeks I had three conferences in Europe, and I wore it at all of them. In fact I presented two of my papers in it, at separate conferences, of course. I wore sensible black Clarks Wave.Run walking shoes in Huddersfield, and cute little Söft kitten heels in Leeds. As Söft does not have an image online of them, here they are via my smartphone:

All in all, the ensemble is fabulous for conferences. It is comfortable, travels well, is unique, and flattering. I felt great! Oh, and the papers went well, too. Is there anything like presenting your research in an outfit you have hand made from yarn given by an academic mentor, I ask? The answer must be "No". Thank you Ms. Law Mentor!

Archeology and knitting meet at Dura Europos

In graduate school one is bound to bump into other craftspeople in general, and knitters in particular. One especially distinguished contact is our former Western European Subject Librarian (a medievalist, no less!), who not only has helped me with research and navigating Yale, but is a wonderful person to get together with and talk about knitting and books and all kinds of things.

Obviously my librarian friend came to mind when reading Nancy Bush's Folk Socks. The History & Techniques of Handknitted Socks. (Loveland, Colorado: Interweave Press, 1994) I came across the following texts: "The oldest surviving examples of what has been identified as knitted textile fraghments date from A.D. 256. They were discovered at the site of the ancient Syrian fortress city of Dura Europos ... Three wool fragments found there, now in the collection of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, are made of what appear to be knitted stitches." (p.11) There is an image on p. 12, but here is a better one:

Source: Yale University Art Gallery e-catalogue (accessed March 21st, 2012).

I brought up the possibility of going to see these fragments with her, and another knitting Yale library friend of mine, Missknitter, and brainstormed a bit where these fragments may be kept. I was thinking the Peabody Museum of Natural History, but my librarian friend floated the idea of the Yale University Art Gallery. We agreed that I would scan the relevant pages for her and we would get on to locating the pieces. But lo and behold! Before I could even get to my computer, she had sent out queries, and located the fragments: indeed The Yale University Art Gallery! The super helpful associate curator informed us that "The knitting fragment will be on view in our new Dura-Europos gallery, which we are just about to install. The official opening date for our renovated galleries is Dec. 12, 2012, but the Dura gallery and ancient Mediterranean may well be open sooner, by late summer or early fall." (e-mail correspondence on March 21st, 2012).

Field trip! I am so excited, and amazed at the efficiency of the librarians and curators involved. Amazing people!

The excavations of Dura Europos were conducted by a French-American team of archaeologists (Yale University and the French Academy of Inscriptions and Letters) in the 1920s and 1930s. For an informative tour of the excavations, see the Yale University Art Gallery website on the project.


Maybe I should try to reproduce the stitches in the fragment? It looks like textured knitting with button loops in crochet, no? However, Julie Theaker at Knitty has written an article arguing that the Dura Europos "knitting" is in fact nålebinding! See her delightful 2006 article among Knitty's featured articles here, complete with visual evidence of a pair of socks that very much look like they are knit, but are, in fact nålebinding. I cannot wait to see the pieces in person, and maybe look up some more information on the textile while I am at it...

So, look for updates on Circia Fortuita meets Archaeology!

Svale BSJ and the Ducky Sweater

Back in 2010 I decided to venture on the famous Elizabeth Zimmermann Baby Surprise Jacket (aka BSJ on Ravelry). I made one for Johanna, the daughter of Grad school friends, and for Elmer, the son of dear friends back in Finland. I used some lovely yarn left over from other projects. For Johanna's I used Dalegarn Svale left over from some dresses I had made:

The cotton/rayon/silk blend is lovely to knit with, and I had so much fun! The buttons were from my LYS (Local Yarn Store), when Yarn LLC still had a branch on Whitney Avenue, within walking distance of both home and campus. I did not know if Johanna was going to be a girl or a boy when I made this, but decided that if I loved the colors for the Hillmans, then chances were they would appreciate them, girl or boy. Besides, Mum and Dad Hillman are not very gender hysterical at all, and especially not with colors I imagine... I finished Johanna's Svale BSJ in May, according to my Ravelry archive, and apparently knit it in seven days! It was fun and fast, I remember that!



In fact, only a few months later I knit Elmer's BSJ from more leftover yarn, this time a gift from Laura of Lankadontti fame: Novita Nalle. Hence the Ducky Sweater came to be:

I of course love, love, love the colors here (wild!), and the hood with the I-cord. For the buttons I had duckies in mind - rubber duckies being the cultural emblem of us Swedish-Speaking-Finns, and the family this went to are part of the Duck Pond, just like me. OMG: there is a Wikipedia article on the pondishness!!!

Anyways. My friend Missknitter and I went to Stitches East just about the time I was ready to think about buttons, and found these AMAZING ducky buttons:

I wish I had grabbed a card from the merchant - or put it in a logical place to find later - so I could a) give credit here, b) get more! These are so much more articulated than the duckies from JoAnn, my usual button haunt. I love buttons here in the US! Not something you see listed as one of the benefits to immigrating to the US, that: "Upon moving to the US, a marvelous plethora of over-the-top and often sickly cute and utterly desirable buttons will become available to you at ubiquitous stores like JoAnn crafts and Michael's..." Too bad, really. The crafting culture, wildly different from Back Home (I sense a future post in this...), in North America is really fascinating. A big part of it is the commercialization of crafting, which has produced such magical things as the ducky button.

I mailed Mummy and Daddy Johanna and Mamma and Pappa Elmer the sweaters, and of course they very much appreciated them. Johanna's Mum showed it to a knitting friend, who commented on the interesting design. Yay! It made me, and still makes me even though the kids have outgrown the sweaters ages ago, so happy to think of them wearing them.

That is always one of the highlights of knitting stuff for Finns - they all automatically appreciate handmade items. It is just such an ingrained part of our culture. Not to say peeps here in the Americas don't. Many do, and I dare to claim ALL my friends and relatives very much appreciate handmade gifts and items in general - Johanna's parents are great examples! But there is an amazing amount of individuals who actually prefer store bought to hand made in the Americas. I know, shocking. I should have given warning before making such a terrible disclosure. I don't think I actually associate with such people, but I have met them. I should have taken photographs and done interviews...

OK. Enough cultural analysis!

What did I like about the BSJ and making it, I hear you ask?

I should have taken WIP (Work in Progress) photos to illustrate this: I love how the sweater is knit in one piece and then origamied into a sweater!  The only seams are across the shoulders. I, of course, love colors, and I love the way the striping emphasizes the structural design of the sweater. You can see in Johanna's Svale BSJ how the stripes go straight across the back, and then come and "turn a corner" on the sleeves and the front.

I also love the ease with which one can use up leftover yarn for it in fun and creative ways. Many BSJs are knit in self-striping or self-patterning yarn, according to a quick Ravelry browse of the 16908 projects, in 3891 queues, and while the results are marvelous, I really like the opportunity to use stash yarn and be all creative with it. In fact, I might have to start a new BSJ pretty soon, just so I can revel in the origaminess and destashiness of it all!

Japanese Wedding Socks

In the summer of 2010 two of our fabulous friends got married. It was an amazing wedding - on a ranch in Colorado! All (well, most) the guests stayed, cooked, hiked, rode horses, hung out at the ranch for a weekend. These are two dear friends, so unsurprisingly their families and friends are also wonderful, and we really enjoyed to get to know some of them, and other better than before. We also, of course, pitched in to help cook the delicious wedding feast - designed by the groom and bride.This included four vegetarians following with fascination as my Fuzzband cut up the lamb for the lamb and flower stew while I sat around the fire singing American folk songs...

As a wedding gift we gave them hand knit socks in IOU form.

The bride and groom headed to Yokohama/Tokyo Japan for a year in the fall for her research on select modern Japanese female poets, and so we decided to go visit them for American Thanksgiving later that same year! It was an amazing trip filled with food, friends, and exploring. Combining wedding gift with Japan, I decided to use Japanese knit patterns and give the happy couple the option of tabi or ordinary socks. The plan was to have enough knit when we got to Tokyo so I could at least complete one sock per spouse for sizing purposes. I, of course, finished the socks on the flight home... But that way we could send them a little package of toe-warming love from The Have.

Here you can see Hers and His socks in action - photo kindly provided by the happy couple who shall remain anonymous.

I wanted bamboo yarn - the whole Japan theme, and who would not want an excuse to knit with bamboo yarn? I searched high and lo, even recruiting the patient Miss Knitter to look for it. Finally, at Stitches East 2010,  we found it! The divine Bamboo Baby hand dyed yarn by Miss Babs: 60% Wool, 30% Bamboo, and 10% Nylon which makes it sockable, so to say. The yarn was one of my all-time favorite yarns to knit with. 

  

  Her Socks:

The pattern is Véronik Avery's "Tabi Socks" from Knitting Classic Style: 35 Modern Designs Inspired by Fashion's Archives (New York, NY; Stewart, Tabori and Chang (ABRAMS), 2007), 81-85.

The leafy pattern, according to the pattern notes "echo the lacy knitting patterns favored in contemporary Japan" (p. 82). While the socks are specifically tabis in the pattern, the bride asked for non-tabis, which is what she got. A great fun knit, and it of course made me even happier to make them for a unique and dear friend who - and I hope you are sitting down - had never had hand-knit socks before

  I really like the lace line that separates the lace panel of the instep from the sole of the foot and traces up the sock to the cuff lace

His socks:

This pattern is  Ann Budd's "Undulating Rib Socks" from Favorite Socks. 25 Timeless Designs from Interweave (Loveland, CO; Interweave Press, 2007), 92-95. This pattern is also Japanese in influence: 

"Inspired by a stitch pattern found in a Japanese knitting book, these socks feature an easily memorized pattern that alternates increases and decreases to create columns that widen and narrow."

The groom wanted his as tabis, so I used the instructions from Avery, and I am pretty pleased with the result.

Both have reportedly been happy with their socks, here shown snuggling in Yokohama. This is also a photo courtesy of the happy couple.

Lankadontti Tea Sock

I love tea. I can wake up and lie in bed just tickled all shades of pink, red and purple - knowing that there is tea in my near future. Tea is, contrary to common belief, the drink of the gods. Nectar? Pah! Wine? Whatever... Tea? Oh, YES! I have myself quite a collection of tea. In fact, it may be taking over my kitchen. The only actual item on our wedding registry was a Samovar (well, an option to donate funds towards purchasing one).

To prove my point about loving tea, here is an old photo of our tea shelves. The cupboard filled with tea to the right is not visible. And this photo is from late summer, early fall 2010 - there is more tea today...

But wait! What is that white thing hanging among the tea strainers from the custom-made-by-Fuzzband tea paraphernalia hanging spot? (Note second shelf, also custom made by Fuzzband.) It is a tea sieve!

Here is a vaguely fuzzy closeup.

In addition to loving tea, I love my friends. And as luck would have it, I have many very crafty friends and relatives. One of these crafty friends is Laura of Lankadontti-fame. Lankdadontti is a wonderful online artisnal boutique that specializes in crafts based on Finnish traditional textile, and some other, crafts. The company has a crafts-blog, Sanavyyhti, with a monthly pattern, or tutorial. The tea sieve is the April 2009 tutorial. (Och samma på finska.)

This was great fun to knit - I used some left-over cotton yarn that emigrated with me from Finland. The problem was that I did not find, or did not have the energy to do so, food-grade metal wire strong enough to make the ring at the top. Laura and her husband gave me one in the summer of 2010 - and there was much rejoicing, believe your me! The best thing about returning to New Haven, CT, was that now I could use it to make tea!

The sieve fits perfectly into my Danish white ceramic tea pot, and is now pretty much the color you would expect cotton dipper into strong tea several times a week for a few years would. Some day I will make more of these, but for now it is my favorite tea accessory, and every time I use it I am reminded of how much fun it was to knit it; how great a friend and teacher Laura is; and that soon, very soon, there is ready steeped tea. What could possibly be better - except having tea with Laura while crafting! Too bad there is a pesky puddle called the Atlantic between us...

Expect to see more from Lankadontti and Sanavyyhti among Random Thistles!

Awaited Baby

As the first installation of my project to get my craft images off Facebook, I chose this very dear project.

I had seen this beautiful christening gown kit at The Yarn Barn, and thought to myself, "Some day there will be a baby I can knit this for!" My nephews had already been born, as well as one niece - and my niece's mom knits.

At my wedding a dear friend told me she was pregnant! This was greater news than normal as I was personally really invested in her becoming a mom. I know - it is all about me. I offered to make the family a christening gown, and Voila!

The pattern is "Loving Hearts" Heirloom Christening Set from Louet. The yarn is their Euroflax 100% linen yarn - a pure pleasure to knit with! The kit also included the buttons, ribbon, satin fabric for petticoat (silk - I burnt a bit to test it), and elastic. The first photo here is my fabulously artistic photograph of the kit cover image overlaid with the first ten or so centimeters of knitting. Very artsy, fartsy, no? The pattern can be purchased here.

Here, the basic form of the top, and you can see the variation of laces: sleeve lace, top heart panel, and the two laces of the skirt....

In comparison: the completed top - love those buttons!












This work-in-progress shot shows off the sleeve with the heart panel running down the center. I am particularly impressed with the way I captured the camera cord...

A closeup of the skirt section's central panel both before and after lining. The skirt portion of the lining has a knit lace trim that peeps out from beneath the knit top layer. Very fetching - just what the well dressed infant will wear!

The completed gown - along with the knit cap that goes with it.

Knitting something for someone you care for is a wonderful thing. Every stitch is a meditation on friendship, and this gown was that more than most projects. My wonderful friend had a beautiful baby daughter in 2009. A few years later the little cousin wore the gown as well.

As I type this she has chicken pox - krya på dej lilla vän!