Waiting to be blocked

Easy steps

From

Photo, Unfilodi.com

to

in 3 easy steps (remove tag, pull out yarn tail from the center, start knitting), to

YarnTomato.com

in 12,653,908 extremely difficult steps.
I do not know why I don't have any problem knitting from international brands' yarn hanks, but when I have to knit from an Italian hank most times as soon as I start knitting the hank goes BOOOM!

Magic...

I love the magic of blocking. This swatch is knitted in Drops BabyAlpaca Silke on 4 mm needles and is both a test for a review of the yar and a swatch for a shawl I am developing.

I have a brand new knitting notebook

Just let me sleep

I should really be typing the handouts for my next lesson at Unfilodi on brioche knitting, but I am so sleepy that I write a sentence and have to stop because I feel faint. 

Il laboratorio su maglia inglese e maglia brioche si terrà sabato 17 dicembre, quind tra un paio di settimane, da Unfilodi di Carate Brianza. Il costo del laboratorio è di 20 euro e comprende lezione, filato e pranzo a buffet. Per ulteriori informazioni sul laboratorio vi rimando alla pagina relativa sul sito di Unfilodi.

A really BIG Cowl

The Italian version of this cowl was published on M-U.it. La versione italiana di questo collo è stata pubblicata su M-U.it.

Collo Big a colori

Two hanks of Bracco Big, big fat needles and in a little more than one hour here's a perfect and very warm accessory ready t be gifted. 

Materials

• Bracco Big, 35% baby alpaca, 28% acrylic, 22% polyammide, 15% merino wool, 100 g = 40 m, 1 hank each coll. 5 (a) e 6 (b)
• 15 mm 16 cm long circular needle
• one 6 mm needle or, if you are using an interchangeable circular kit,a 6 mm pit (optional)
• a crochet hook at least size 10 mm (optional)
• Scissors

Tension: 6 sts = 10 cm in g st
Measures: circ. = 63 cm, height = 22 cm.
Notes
In this pattern the short rows are knitted by simply turning the work with no need to wrap and turn: the garter stitch and the thickness of the yarn prevent holes and unevenness in texture.
The first stitch in each row should always be knitted, never slipped. This will make the sewing up easier.

Collo Big grigio su grigio (non cambia molto)

Esecuzione

C.o. 35 sts with the long tail method and col. a.
Knit 1 row, start working the hort row pattern.

First short row section

• Row 1: k 5, turn.
• Row 2 and all even rows: k all sts.
• Row 3: k 10, turn..
• Row 5: k 5, turn..

Continue knitting 5 sts more on each odd row until you will be knitting 30 sts. 

Central section


Turn and knit all sts, then knit 2 rows from end to end.
Join col. b, k 2 rows with col. b, k 2 more rows with col. a and cut leaving a 30 cm tail. Continue working with col b for 3 rows. 

Second short row section

• Row 1: k 30, turn.
• Row 2 and all even rows: k all sts.
  
• Row 3: k 25, turn..
• Row 5: k 20, turn..

Continue knitting 5 sts less on each odd row until you will be knitting 5 sts only.

Final border

K 2 rows.
B.o. all sts with EZ's sewn b.o. using your fingers to run the yarn tail through the stitches, if you like you may use a very big crochet hok to hel you sew the stitches. You may also substitute the needle (or just its tip) with a 6 mm needle to make things easier. 

Finishing

Seam the short sides together still using either your fingers or the crochet hook.
Wash the cowl in warm water and let it dry (veru slowly) on a flat surface.

A loud POP

Often enough the foreign knitters think that since so many gorgeous yarns are produced in italy, this country must be a sort of Mecca of good knitting. Sometimes I wonder how can be people who knit, out there, when the best instructions that Italian books can give about knitting are like this example.

Sorry, guys: I know, this is bad porn

Yes, the text explains exactly what you seem to understand frm the picture: to cast-on on a circular needle, cast-on on a straight and transfer all the stitches. That's the best circular cast-on you can work according to them. On reading this I heard a loud "POP" and it took me a few moments to understand that it wasm't from some outside sourche: it was my brain popping apart!

Blocking

Magic

Almost done

It only needs blocking.
And tucking in the ends.

Penguins are running wild

So it's calzino time!

Lots of goodies!

The envelopes

This morning I found several envelopes awaiting me on my desk, all of them from the UK.
There was a used book (part of a fantasy series by Harry Turtledove of which the first three had been translated in italian while the other three were left untranslated. I got the second.hand books through Abebooks), 12 and 15 mm needle tips for my Denise set (I alteady have them for my KnitPro, but the Denise cords support much better the weight involved with bulky and extrabulky knitting so I decided to get these new tips) and a lovely spindle from Deborah Gray.

Books, needle tips and that lovely spindle

It's one of her Deluxe Spindles, individually turned by artisan Murray Dunan in Auchterarder, not very far north of Edinburgh. The spindle is made for bottom whorl spinning and sports an elegant thistle head finish on the shaft to anchor the yarn with a half-hitch for spinning bottom-whorl (thistle is Scottish national flower, which always makes me think about inviting some Scottish people to a bagna cauda dinner with lots of cardi gobbi stalks to dip in the garlic, oil and anchovy sauce). I requested a small personalization and Mr Dunan fixed a hook on the shorter end of the shaft for top-whorl spinning, since I am pretty good at using the half-hitch on the longer end of the shaft, but I suck at top-whorl half-hitching. Mr Dunan then offered me an extra treat by making my own spindle a very special one with a wonderfully patterned whorl made ith some special wood. And I love it. Really! I mean, check out how beautiful it is!
And, yes, it came padded in lots of wool...

Good evening

As Berlusconi was finally quitting I was happily and quickly purling on the stockinette section of this wool and silk shawl.

Shawlitis is back

70% wool, 30% silk fingering single ply from Gomitoli.com

Knitting Big

I adopted a couple of hanks of a new yarn called Big from an Italian spinnery, Bracco. It's an alpaca-wool-plastic blend in a really HUGE version. A 100 grams hank is only 40 meters long! Despite being 50% plastic it has a really nice feel, it's soft and very natural feeling, it even smells lightly of "animal", a slight odor that goes away with a light wash. Even the structure is interesting, since it looks like a single ply but instead it's made of 6 very lightly spun plies.
I knitted it into an easy short rowed cowl and a 15 mm (US 19) needle at 6 sts to 10 cm (4"); it's soft and plushy, like a cushion abd it takes a really short time to knit it up. "Fun" one would think...

Big, the cowl!

Nope. It took me just this one knit to make understand i full that I do not like in the least knitting with such huge needles and such low tension. It tires me out and makes my wrists hurt. Sorry, guys! The yarn is a treat despite the hight acrylic content, but knitting it for me is a bit of a threat.

Things I like about knitting top-down

Is no verdammt leftovers!

Knitted Envelope Hat

This is an envelope hat I knitted with an 80 gram of yarn dyed with 100% natural dyes by artisan Paola Della Pergola. I used Turkish cast-on and EZ's sewn bind-off (she calls it "casting-on casting-off"), both firsts. I will try to write down the pattern. The yarn costs 8 euro per 100 grams, each skein is separately weighted and priced. For more informations about Paola's yarns check out her blog.

Season Finale in italiano

per chi preferisse lavorare da schemi in italiano, segnalo che il mio collo Season Finale è stato pubblicato in italiano su Maglia-Uncinetto.it.

The ogival issue continues

Finding it totally impossible to knit with the ogival tipped needles on Saturday I decided to go hunting for a new set of dpns. Unfortunately it seems that in Milano it's nearly impossibe to lay hold of an half-decent set. After touring half of the shops I finally hit a paleozoic seller who had these alluminium needles dating probably to the 1950's. Something a knitter from the US or UK would probably regard as a vintage piece and which here are to be considered the state of the art. They are longer and heavier than I would have liked, but at least they have dull but acceptable conical tips with which I can even cable without a cable needle. Yet, when on Sunday I swatched some yarn on my knitpro set I almost cried at how unbelievably easier it is to knit with proper tools.

Tiered short-row triangles cowl

Done!

Fastest knit in Alice's history

And I love it to sillyness.

The mindless

I am currently knitting a few items that require attention, care, and planning. So I took out a ball of a shaded yarn to provide myself with some good old mindless knitting. I thought that a big stockinette cowl with a nicely colored yarn would do the trick.
Well, it seams that my brain is more at ease with some intricacy because the most mindless I could come up is this short-rowed piece. Please, somebody save me from My brain!

Ogival

Damn you, horrible ogival-tipped 4.5 mm dpns, that make it impossible to cable wihout cable needle and cause me to knit looser then I'd like. You will be substituted. I think I never hated knitting with anything as much as with you.

Nuooooh!

©Allison Guy

I had a great idea for a pair of mittens, I also swatched the cable pattern... Then I decided to check out the web for anythin similar, and out came these: DNA Armwarmers (She even used more or less the same yarn I was planning to use!). Ok, back to stage 1.

Blocking time

Capelet to be blocked

Always one of the very best moments of knitting. Blocking is a magic of sorts, it turns a slightly odd piece of knitting into a proportioned item. (Ok, maybe this capelet needs e few more pins at the shoulder at the moment...)

Howling shit!

No comment, just rip

Such delicate colors

A few days back I went to a very large yarn shop here in Milano to leave some flyers for the new Maglia-Uncinetto website. Actually I had to pay a visit to my commercialista, someone about every Italian needs to have while, for instance, in France there are only 6,000 such professionals because the tax system is easy enough that anyone can work out how much to pay for themselves. But her office is right above this yarn shop, so I took along the flyers and left them there. Obviously, I can't possibily enter a yarn shop and leave empty-handed! I bought three discounted yarns, one I had already used to knit socks twice, once again in green, because it's not so common to get a good 100% wool sock yarn in Italy, another yarn that may be fit for socks and two hanks of a really subdued baby merino yarn.

Mondial Extrafine, subdued,
really really subdued, tones

Yup. It's a baby merino, actually an extrafine merino but it's perfect for babies and I don't personally know many people who would be superglad to knit themselves an adult garment with 3 mm needles. Baby yarn. With these colors. I guess it's no surprise that it went unsold. I honestly fell in love with it, but... Geee! In a country where most moms will not dress their babies in any other color but light pink and very light blue, this yarn is bound to go unsold. While never stopping from complain the scarce courage of Italian yarn producers, always quite a bit backwards, I am honestly apalled that anyone could think that this yarn, so bright and so thin, could ever sell.

The dyslexic knitter at work (with a touch of Britishness)

Let's talk about serious stuff. In a woman's cardi, where do the bloody buttons go? On the bloody left front or on the bloody right front?

À propos de "Julie et Julia"

Meryl Streep portraying Julia Childs
and, on the right, Julia Childs herself

I was watching the first part of Julie & Julia and it started me thinking about obsessions' salvific power. Obsession can eat you out, but they offer you a place to go back to and something to hold on when things go bad. It occurred to both the main characters in the film. It occurred me several times in the eyars since I started crocheting first and then knitting: I strted crocheting because I needed something to hang from in times of trouble, and time after time I constantly find myself going back to crocheting, knitting and spinning when I start really feeling lost and empty. Obsessions can eat you out, but then they throw you up in a new shape and consistency, one more fitting to face the world. Maybe not as clean as before, though...

The "sponge" cowl

A very easy cowl for the almost.novice knitter: it just requires knitting and purling. The model was originally created for the Milan "Homeless Night". If you decide to make this cowl, plaase consider making two and mailing the second to Assieme nelle Terre di Mezzo – via Calatafimi, 10 – 20122 Milano.
The italian version of this pattern is available on the Maglia-Uncinetto.it website.



 Materials

• Dolly Maxi, 100% superwash merino wool, 50 g = 87 m, 2 balls
• 5 mm (US 8) straight or circolar needle (for knitting back and forth)
• Scissors and tapestry needle

Tensione: 15 sts × 25 rows = 10 cm (4")

Sizes: woman – 53 cm = 23" (man – 58 cm = 25") – for both the height of the cowl is 22 cm (21").

How to

C.o. 35 with long tail method; turn.

• Row 1: Sl 1st st pwise wyf, k to end; turn. 
• Row 2: Sl 1st st pwise wyf, k4, * p1, k1 *, rep from * to * to 6 sts bef end, p1, k5; turn.

Repeat these two rows throughout until the strip is 50 (55) cm long (20/22"). B.o. all sts.
Sew up the two ends in order tu obtain a ring, wash the cowl in warm water and mild detergent, dry flat.

Ambidexterous

Not very clear, is it?
Pardon me for being a lousy photographer.

I could not help it: once Knit One Knit All was in my hands I had to cast-on something, in specific the Ambidexterous Mittens. These are basically a strip of garter stitch with minimal shaping along the two ends and with a short-rowed section in the middle that turns almost maracolously into a mitten once folded and sewn, and a mitten that can be worn two ways! I am using a ball of single-ply wool-acrilyc blend fron Campolmi that my friend pm10 gifted me years ago (bless large stashes: I was already planning where I could buy the fitting yarn when this single hank fell into my hands) wich promises to blossom a little once washed. I had to tinker around with the pattern due to my extrathin hands: I opted to decrease one stitch each side soon after the thumb trick placement, which also meant that I slightly modified the short-row pattern. I am loving it anyhow!

YAY! It arrived

And it arrived pretty fast too. More EZ designs to be inspired by and learn from.

B sides and outtakes

Look at this: it's perfently double-sided! Ooow...
You work on an even number of sts, k1, slip next stitch pwise with yarn in front on all rows. I just love it. Add garter borders on the sides and a garter border on botom and top. For the garter border c.o. half the number of sts you will be working on plus the sts for the border, in the first row of the double-sided stockinette work increases instead of slipped sts and in the last row on top k2tog throughout. Lovely, as Jamie Oliver would say.

I will need, I feel the absolute need, to test it out on single rib: single rib borders all around and this double-sided stockinette. Or maybe I ought to combine it with some stitch from Barr's book.

(The full pattern in Italian will appear sometime in the future on Maglia-Uncinetto.it: it's a baby blanket from the 1870's.)

A new knitblog

And quite a knitblog. Maglia-Uncinetto.it is not a personal knitblog like this one, it's meant to become an authoritative resource on knitting and crocheting (and for all of the crafts that revolve around them) in Italy, with frequent connections to what's happening outside the "boot"'s borders and maybe a little variety and attention to other bits of life: environment, health, gender politics. Not too much, just about enough to show we don't just knit. Check it out!

On gauge and needle material

I have been involved with knitting some item for this event where I will be teaching knitting basics. I decided on a cowl and started working at it with sime unknown very gray yarn I had in my stash (looks like an undyed, so it's probabily an old ball of organic yarn from Silke by Arvier) and 5 mm needles. I started out with an Addi Turbo short circ, but I quickly grew bored by the short tips and this morning I switched to a 5 mm Denise interchangeable.
WOW! The gauge immediately changed. I am not sure if you can see it from the crappy pic (click to espand it), but after thechange, despite the fact that I knit much faster and more comfortably, the gauge must have dropped one or two sts lower (on 10 cm/4"). Not a bad thing: the cowl is now distinctly softer and the wafer texture much more pronounced, but I did not expect such important difference knitting in the same stitch pattern and in the same yarn with the same needle size, just in a diferent material.
(To learn more on the October 15 even for the homeless, check out this post.)

A new yarn

Say "hi" to my new spin. This is wool and silk by the Natural Dye Company. The amount is really tiny, I haven't bothered yet with weighing and measuring it but it 's a really tiny ball, and it was part of a mixed bag I got at KnitNation 2010. I have two more colors of the same blend, blue and orangey-pinkish. Overall the three colors may still be below or just around 50 grams.
This was worsted-spun on my lightest spindle and then Andean plied. The silk in the bled was just lovely, but unfortunately the wool was a bit matted so it came out a bit iregular in spots. Since I also have wool in the same hues, I considered if I ought to blend in the silk in with carders, but overall I preferred to have a silk-rich small amount of dense and shiny yarn. It probably will work better in weaving than knitting or crochet, but I will decide what to do with it once I have spun also the other two colors.

New Toys

Pippa has finally returned fron the USA and she brought me a couple of new babies.
The red whorls and the hooked rod belong to a Babe's spindle: the two whorls can be adjusted to make the spindle in about each and every style that was ever created (top, bottom, middle, balkan...) and you can also use one or both whorls to modify the weight and soin speed of the spindle. I expected, though, that they would have to be worked on the shaft, instead they slide on and off very easily. I will have to add a bit of yarn to keep them in place, once I decide how I want to use it.

The smaller spindle, instead, is a takhli spindle for spinning cotton and other short-stapled (and smooth) fibers, like this. This specific takhli has a one dollar coin as a whorl, and this specific dollar depicts a Native American woman (likely from one of the eastern tribes). It looks like a sign to me!

Senape one!

The first of the senape socks is done. I am quite satisfied with it: I almost grafted it right (only the first two sttiches are badly done) and I like the very reinforced heel. Although they are very lacy, the slightly thicker than usual yarn makes for very warm and sturdy socks, while the lace reaching the toe and constituting all of the tall cuff makes them look quite dainty. Also the lace is nice, it would have been hell if knitted back and forth, but in the round it was really easy-peasy.
Now, I am supposed to start working on the second Pulque sock. Point is... Where did I put the pattern? +_+

Never, never, never

Never start working on a toe first thing in the morning. Toes take more time than you'd expect. Dammit!

Socking again

Seems like I am back in the sock mood. I knitted a sock to prepare a class, then I completed a pair of socks (they took me ages, the most boring pair I ever knitted!) then I knitted the first of a new pair and new design and then I strarted the first of another new pair-new design. The Black Death Socks will likely not go anywhere because they were so boring to make that I would not invite anyone to the same deadly attempt. But it seems that the Pulque and the spicier Senape may turn out interesting. Besides, they are done in the same yarn and therefore may be a nice couple to include in a series. Maybe I should plan two more socks to go with them: something really very plain (think of ribs on the leg and boring stockinette) and something with cables, all in the same yarn. Uhm... May be interesting! Meanwhile, I will have to finish the first Senape, then work the second Pulque and revies the pattern (and have it tested!).

Pulque

Senape

Corsi 2011

Per una volta un post in italiano, dato che è di puro interesse milanese.
Sono pronta per tre nuovi corsi, il primo in ordine di tempo si terrà il 24 settembre a Carate Brianza presso Unfilodi. Si trtterà di un laboratorio in uan giornata sul tema "Elizabeth Zimmermann e l'I-cord", durante il quale tratterò gli usi specialistici fatti da EZ del cordoncino a maglia (bordure, avvio, intreccio, occhielli e alamari, decorazioni ecc.). Conoscere già la lavorazione dell'I-cord semplice sarà gradito ma non strettamente indispensabile. Il corso costa 30 euro a persona e il prezzo comprende dispensa, filato e due brek ristoro. Per iscriversi basta visitare questa pagina, si ricorda che il corso si terrà solo al raggiungimento del numero minimo di iscritti, per cui se siete interessate, iscrivetevi al più presto.
Altri due corsi si terranno invece presso Lanar, in via Nino Bixio a Milano, il primo (tutti i mercoledì dal 28 settembre, in lezioni da due ore, 120 euro per persona) si occuperà dei calzini, nel corso infatti verrà lavorato collettivamente un paio di calzini a maglia rasata e coste con tecniche. Il secondo (5 lezioni da giovedì 29 settembre, 150 euro) è orientato alla lavorazione delle trecce, dalle più semplici fino agli intrecci Aran e alle trecce reversibili. Per informazioni e iscrizioni è possibile visitare questa pagina.

Stranding for the English-impaired

Yes, I am doing some stranded work It's a baby hat in very unbabylike colors ’cause I hate baby colors and ’cause I don't know if it's a boy or a girl (actually, could have done it in pink and blue, but did I say that I hate pink and light blue?). I am not very good at stranding, I have worked a couple of hats with this technique and that's about all, but it's fun to learn a new skill.

Well, I am not able to knit English style fullstop, so the "hold one yarn in the left and the other in the right" thing would not work for me. I have tried several types of thimbles for stranded knitting but they don't work for me either, especially with this type of very thin yarn (and my type of very thin fingers). In previous occasions I fought terribly to keep the two yarns separate and moving smoothly along, but it always ended up in horrible tangles.
But this time something new occurred.I usually knit with my own brand of Eastern Uncrossed style, but I started knitting the red yarn, sitting closer to the needles, in the regular Continental style. It works nice, the tip of the needle always goes in through the center, helping to keep the yarns separate and untangled, and the method is turning out to be faster and smoother that anything I tried before. On the next row I know that the stitches in one color will be oriented differently from the stitches in the other color, but that's fine: it's not so much different from working in Combination style! I think I could have found my own stranding style.

An old new pattern

This supereasy tam was created for a beginners' class last year, and I never got around doing some editing and translating. I finally decided to make it available in both Italian and English as a Ravelry download. It's knitted flat and seamed and uses only the simplest stitches, increases and decreases. bead decoration is enterely optional. Download it now.

It's one of those times again

When having a spindle full of singles cheers you up for the whole day.

But here I have a problem. This is all of the yarn I could get from that smallish roving, this amount I plan to ply with the andean techniquye, but there's enough to really tire me out as I set up for plying this way. I seriusly risk ending up like Bumbiling Bees in this rather pornographic situation. I'd really need one of these, just maybe not so cristian-shaped

Planning ahead

I have taken a decision. This summer will be 4-5 days in Edinburgh and a handful more in London for KnitNation.

Not much to say, except a course

I haven't been posting essentially because I don't have much to say: I am mainly working on finishig some stuff (some long-due stuff too!) and some stuf I am planning for publication.
The opnly erelvant thing to say is that on May 14, starting at 10 am, I will be teaching reversible cables at Unfilodi... in Carate Brianza. Check out the link for further informations.

Am I a blogstar now?

In the Italian bologosphere, there was a moment when everyone was suddenly publishing books and therefore becoming a "blogstar" (whatever the heck a blogstar is). Well, is this my turn to become a blogstar of sorts? Because I am appearing in a book, a knittiiong book obviously, of the Fresh Designs series published by Cooperative Press. The shawl I designed (a shawlette for taller than me americans, but I am a tiny Italian and that was, for me, a full-sized shawl) will be included in the upcoming shawls and wraps vollume of the series and here is the sneek preview of it. (For a more complete preview of the series go to this Facebook page.)

Fresh designs also has launched a fundraiser through Kickstarter. See here for more informations and to contribute.

Little Nubs

How comes that I have fallen in love with the look of something so utterly boring to knit as moss stitch?

At the Biella The Wool Company

On March 22 I went to Miagliano to visit the Biella The Wool Company. I will have more to say about it in the future, by now I have posted the photos. They are not the best quality because... Uhm, because I was taking them and because I forgot the camera so I used the cellphone.

Rakestroke

A few days ago I gifted myself a new toy: a rakestraw spinner. It's a sort of paddle that you can rotate to produce yarn: a sort of a spindle substitute. I am toying around with it, I probably chose the wrong project to start with: I have a packet of 7 rainbow minitops that I wanted to spin for a lace project, probably for the Rome Gay Pride. But spinning thin yarn with the rakestraw is not all that easy, since all twist must be added by hand. Yet, I have worsted-spun two colors already (blue and indigo) to about sportweight and plied them the Andean way to a rather lofty (for a worsted) sportweight. I like the resulting yarn, but it does indeed take longer and more effort, although I must admit that plying on the paddle allows more control than spindle plying (though you can't ply the same amount of yarn).

At the same time I finished the multicolor merino I bought in London this summer. it still needs soaking and a bit of blocking, but that will come in due time (I want to also finish the rainbow and another yarn I have on the make to do it all at once). I am satisfied with the result, but I also itch for some woolen spinning: I have been worsted spinning only for a few months, so as soon as I have either of the current yarns off a spindle I will start with some more of the Shetland from Deborah at last year's spinning workshop in Florence.

To help Japan

Purchase Olgajazzy's patterns. Until the end of the month Olga will donate the 85% iof the price for each of her patterns to relief organizations dealing with the earthquake and tsunami survivors.

May the cyanoacrilate be blessed

And blessed be the fact that drop spindles are such simple devices because a couple of days ago the hook in my Turkish spindle came off yesterday I grabbed a cyanoacrilate glue and this morning a drop of it fixed my spindle. Yet, in the worst case, I could have just picked the hook totally off and filed the top into a notch.
Spindle, such wonderful, simple and yet effective design, how I love thee!

Oops, I did it again

Sometimes you get a yarn and plan to just swatch and see how it works and in just one second a pattern emerges.

These are my new Fontana Mitts, called after the Fontana Sisters, the famous Italian coutouriers if the mid XX century and famous for their wedding gowns. Sunday night I was watching the TV movie that RAI produced on the (largely made-up) story of the three Fontana sisters and at the same time I was toying with the BTWC yarn I got for testing and almost of its own volition the two-ply (Oropa) started turning into this, and the accompanying pattern. I am now working for the second mitten and at the same time editing the small size version (The ine I am knitting). Next I will have to size them up (keeping track of everything) for M and L sizes, find testers... Geee!

Lace rocks

So, what's got this White Stripes song to do with lace? IMHO lots of things. Hear how the song starts: just the bass describing a sinous but rithmic line, then the drums intervene with a steady staccato beat and finally voice, guitar and a more complex drumming fill the space before going bak to bare essentials. Yet, everything lies over that initial bass line that sets the rhythm of everything, and everything else is built on it.

Gifts?

I have just received this: three samples of the brand-new knitting yarns from Biella The Wool Company. 100% certified and traceable Italian wool. Like!

Merino for breakfast

This morning for breakfast I had some of my last spinning adventure. I finished plying and rolled up half of the merino I bought in London this summer. It's spindle spun and plied Navajo style holding the four colors toghether. I am going to spin and ply the rest of it before finishing it with a good soak and some blocking..