It’s time for a change.  Instead of telling you what classes you should take, I’m making myself available to work with you on the projects YOU want to do.  We can meet at a coffee shop to work on a project, or if there are a few of you interested in something specific, we can set up a class.

This change excites me because it means that I’ll be learning different things to help you along.  I’ve always said that I learn as much from you as you learn from me.

The website will stay up, and I’ll continue to blog over the summer on some of the projects I’ve put aside the last couple years.  I want to design a few sweaters/vests from the ground up, too, and I’ll share that process with you.

Friday Night Knitting will continue (4 pm to ?) at Espresso Cafe, in the brown buildings (where Sylvia’s Quilt Depot is), across from Walmart.  Let’s  meet there this coming Friday, May 11, and then the first Fridays of June, July, and August.  Once we’re done with our all-too-short summer, let’s set up a regular schedule for FNK.

There’s also a group of spinners and knitters from Northern Lights Valley Knitters who meet at Mocha Moose (corner of Lucille and Swanson) Tuesdays from noonish to 5ish.  I’ll be stopping in there as regularly as I can, too.

So, here we go!

Then we thought, how do you shape a soggy, wet felted hat?!  I’m sure not going to check out the size on MY head!!  To the rescue – a great article from Knitting Daily about how to make a ‘head’ to shape and dry your felted hat.

Here are a few highlights:

• Buy four pieces of inch think, circular sytrofoam, 7 inch diameter
• Glue them together, one on top of another, and let dry
• Use a serrated knife or craft knife to shave off the sides to make the block more like your head, and the same size as your head!
• Clean up the edges, then wrap it with plastic wrap to keep things tidy and dry

Your felted hat can be dried over this ‘head,’ and it should fit perfectly!  Great idea, huh!

Knitters are amazingly creative and practical people – don’t ya just love ‘em!

nylon fibers

which were melted, extruded, cooeld, and steamed.  The result was nylon as we know it.  The fiber actually looks like glass rods.  They are lustrous, soft, strong, and washable.

But, nylon doesn’t ‘breathe,’ it can pill, it can develop static cling and will melt when heated.

You’ll find nylon in lots of yarns – as a strengthener in sock yarns, as a core for mohairs and novelty yarns.

Acrylic arrived in 1950, coming from wartime development of synthetic rubber.  Acrylic is elastic, washable, and wears better than wool, but it doesn’t ‘breathe,’ it gets staticy, it pills, and it will melt.

Polyester came along in 1953.  It’s softer and warmer than nylon, but still pills, can be staticy, and melts.

Again, look for blends.  Get the strength of nylon or acrylic added to good wool, and you’ve got the best of all worlds!  Synthetic fibers added to cotton lighten and soften the fiber, too.

Many patterns ask you to decrease stitches evenly on a row between, say, a ribbed edge and the start of the sweater pattern.  This scares off many a newer knitter, but is really easy with a pencil, paper, caluclator, and some simple arithmetic (not even Math!).  Check out this great article from Berocco.

Next comes a great article from Lion Brand Yarns on considering substituting yarn of a different weight in a pattern.  Not an easy task, but doable with some serious swatching, some careful arithmetic, and a leap of faith.  Check out this site for a great article.

Consider subscribing to Lion Brand Yarn’s weekly email.  It’s full of great tips, free patterns, yarn sales, and more.

Another daily service comes from Knitting Daily, a division of Interweave Press.  The articles are informative, fun, and often have free patterns, links to great sites, and more.

You’ll learn a lot to make your knitting easier, help you gain confidence, and even a chuckle every now and again!

Today’s Rayon knitting yarn is mostly made from wood pulp.  The fiber is soft, takes dye wonderfully, and has a lustrous silk-like shine and drape.  The fibers are smooth and firm, but do not have much elasticity.

Modal is a brand name of rayon made from Beech trees.  Lyocell (trademark name Tencel) is another brand of rayon.

Acetate started out as an ircraft varnish in WWI, and as a naterial for motion-picture film.  Acetate comes from regenerated cotton or tree pulp, but is different than rayon in that it begins and ends as cellulose acetate, and is not processed further.

These fibers are now found blended with natural fibers to add their strength, shine and drape.  Yarns made of these blends have the best of all fibers.  Many cottons are blended with Tencel or Modal to lighten them so a sweater is not so heavy.

Blends, blends, blends!!

Linen is a hard fiber, but softens with use and washing.  It is strong, takes up dyes wonderfully, resists fading, and lasts forever!  Items knit with linen yarn don’t wrinkle like items woven from linen.

It wicks away moisture like cotton.  Linen has no elasticity, but boasts beautiful drape and strength.

Hemp is another cellulose fiber we use in knitting.   The current plants used for fiber have had all the ‘medicinal’ qualities bread out.

Hemp has the same qualities as linen.  Most people think of rope when they hear hemp.

Blends of other fibers with linen or hemp added get the benefit of the strength of this fiber.  These are great fibers for knitting shopping bags!

Cellulose is the structural part of the cell walls of green plants.  Cotton fibers are 95% cellulose, making them thick and srong, even stronger than wool.  The fibers absorb more than 20% of their weight in water, and release it through evaporation, wicking the moisture away from you.

When the cotton fibers are picked, they dry, collapse, and twist around themselves, like a vanilla bean twists.  The fibers are then carded, and sometimes combed, before they’re spun into yarn.

Cotton fibers are heavy and dense, and make for heavy garments that can droop out of shape.  They also have little elasticity, so they don’t rebound like wool.

Mercerized cotton has undergone a chemical process that strengthens the fiber, makes it shiny and more receptive to dye.

Blends of cotton with wool, silk, or manmade viscose “rayons’ can lighten the fiber.  These blends knit up into garments not so heavy and prone to drooping.  A little wool will add elasticity as well.

Can you believe a little worm (more like a caterpillar, actually) is responsible for one of the most gorgerous fibers out there?  Silkworms make a cocoon after they’ve eaten all they can, and as they’re ready to turn into a moth.  This cocoon is our silk fiber.  Amazing.

Making a fiber  and then fabric from the silkworm cocoon started, it is believed, in China about 2600 BC. 

As the silkworm begins to prepare its cocoon, it secretes fibroin and rotates as it goes, creating a continuous fiber of about 800 yards.  The finished cocoon is about the size of a peanut shell.

The cocoons are gathered, and then stifled (exposed to heat to kill the worm), then soaked to soften the fiber, and unreeled, or unwound, into one long thread.

The most common silkworm is the Bombys Mori, which feeds only on Mulberry leaves.  The fiber from their cocoons is Bombyx silk, and is a brilliant white as Mulberry leaves have no tannins which could color the silk.

Silk is not a true fiber, in that it isn’t ‘grown.’  It is a protein fluid created by the silkworm, and looks a lot like a long glass rod under the microscope.

There are three types of silk.  Reeled silk is the finest.  It’s make of continuous silk threads twisted together, but is reserved mostly for industrial uses.    Spun silk is the most common type in hand knitting yarns.  The thread is cut, carded, and then spun.  Noil silk is made of shorter fibers that are left over after the combing and carding.  They tend to be irregular, adding texture to the fiber.

Silk is warm, absorbs moisture and releases heat like wool, and is one of the strongest fibers around. Silk takes up dye readily, producing a lustrous, intense color.  But, silk has little elasticity and can stretch, and won’t hold its shape well, so would not hold the elasticity in a ribbing.  It’s slippery to work with, too.  Consider 100% silk for an amazingly fluid and shimmery shawl.

Again, blends are your friends.  Add wool and you get the elasticity and memory, plus a gorgeous drape and shine.  What about alpaca and silk?

As you can imagine, with not a lot of bunnies and not a lot of fiber per bunny, it’s an expensive fiber.  It is also not a very strong fiber, so, again, blends are the way to go.

Check out KnitPicks again for a great angora/wool blend.

If you love the softest, warmest fiber around, then save up your money for some Quviut (ki-vee-ute).  This fiber is amazing – so warm and delicate.  It has no lanolin, so those with issues can safely knit with Quviut.  Again, there aren’t a lot of musk ox, and they don’t make a lot of fiber, so it’s very expensive.  Repeat with me – blends are your friends.

Check out the Windy Valley Musk Ox site for the fiber and for blends.  Whatever you knit with this fiber, even lovely lacey items, will be warm and toasty!

Getting out of this snow and heading south to rain this coming Sunday.  Spending a week with  family in both Seattle and then Portland.  Will be shopping for yarn, of course, too!  So, there will be no Friday Night Knitting Friday, February 24. I’m back that weekend, and we’ll be back to normal.  We’ve got the Top Down Baby Sweater class coming up Saturday morning, March 3, and I’ve added an Entrelac class Sunday morning (9:30 to 12:30), March 4.  Also have added a Hat on DPNs class for Sunday, March 25.  Don’t forget Shadow, or Illusion, knitting scheduled for Saturday afternoon, March 24. This is a fun technique to learn, and there are some great patterns out there.

See you this Friday for FNK, and don’t forget the Northern Lights Valley Knitter’s Stash Sale Saturday morning, and then their monthly meeting following at 1 pm.