A new knitter to be?

Mrs. T. really hopes one of her four children will become a knitting addict. (There are worse addictions, aren't there?). Unfortunately the eldest three didn't show any interest in yarn at all. Now all her hopes are set on the youngest one. Months ago she gave the poor girl two needles, some yarn and teached her how to use them. Without results. Saterday she even took the girl with her to the Textiel Manifestatie. There it happend. She bought the girl a knitting fork or (Breivork in Dutch)

And who would have guessed, the little girl started forkknitting like crazy! In the picture you see the result of about a half day's work!



Now the girl may be ready for the real thing!
But first she gives this a try:

It’s an over 70 year old knitting board (1938). It used to belong to Mrs. T’s grandmother (another knitting addict). Mrs. T. kept it in the attic together with other old knitting-related stuff. A few days ago she saw a picture of it on Ravelry (thanks to another Dutch knitter). And alas suddenly she has use for the great ‘machine’ again.

B.t.w. The Spear’s Groote Breivlug (Speedknit) knits much faster than a normal knitting board, because of the shape of the ‘needles’.

Ruffles for a scarf

Next to the church in Doesburg is a shop where they sell almost everything, Staarink's Warenhuis (no website). Even yarn. Mrs. T. went there after the Textiel Manifestatie and found the shop had better choice than the fair. Mrs. T. was especiall very lucky to find this:

It's 'Cascade' from Scheepjeswol. The Dutch equivalent of Online Linie 194 Solo ruffle tape yarn. At home she started to knit Annie Modesitt's Ruffled Roses Scarf right away. Well, maybe not really right away. Like always when Mrs. T. finally found the yarn, the pattern was lost.... Luckily it's still here in Dutch.

Been yarnshopping in Doesburg

Mrs. T visited the Nationale Textiel Manifestatie last saterday september 26. in the monumental city of Doesburg. Every two year the old church is the center of everything 'textile art', mostly felting, weaving and knitting. Though mrs. T. loves to felt too, she especially hoped to buy some nice knitting yarn.
She was a bit disappointed by the offer. But she bought a few nice yarns anyway.

Like this one:

This is colorfull yarn made from old sari's fron India or Nepal. It's 100 % silk.

It is sold by Diversan . They also sell yarns made fron bambu and banana leaf.
Mrs. T. has since long wanted to give this Sari yarn try. But the scarf made of Sari shown at the fair was not really to her linking. It may be nicer to combine this silk yarn with something else.

At the same 'shop' she also bought this beautiful (sock)yarn:

It's Araucania Ranco from Chili. This yarn (75% wool, 25% polyamid) was handdyed.

Great yarn to turn into a nice pair of warm socks (for Mrs. T. herself, if nobody else takes it)

Last yarn shop at the fair were these markless and nameless yarns. Bought together with a knitting fork (more about that later). No idea what to make of this yet!

Nederlandse vertaling

Dead Fish Hat

Zit er een luchtje aan deze muts? Nee, natuurlijk niet! Je hoeft niet bang te zijn dat mensen voor je op de loop gaan, zelfs al draag je een dode vis op je hoofd. Op deze 100% stankvrije muts komen de mensen juist af.
De Dead Fish Hat is speciaal ontworpen voor een jongen genaamd Jonas, visliefhebber en toekomstig zeebioloog. Maar hij staat ook goed op elk ander hoofd. Zelfs als je geen 10 jaar oud meer bent.

De muts is een ideaal project om overgebleven bollen wol en restanten weg te werken. Varieer zoveel je wilt met kleuren en strepen!

Maat:
Eén maat (voor kinderen en volwassenen)

Afmetingen:
Omtrek: 50 cm (niet opgerekt);
Lengte: ong. 44 cm.

Gebruikte materialen:
Je kunt er elk breigaren voor gebruiken dat gebreid kan worden in ongeveer dezelfde stekenproef. Bij voorbeeld Lana Grossa Cool Wool [176 yd/m per 50g skein]; Je hebt afhankelijk van het gebruikte garen zo’n 85 tot 115 gram nodig.
Verder nodig:
- een klein beetje zwart garen (om de ogen te borduren);
- restje wit vilt
- naaigaren

Een set van 4 breinaalden zonder knop, nummer 3 (of groter, als dat nodig is voor de stekenproef. Knitty gaat uit van 4,5)
Twee breinaalden met knop, nummer 3 (of 4,5)
Veiligheidsspeld of stekenhouder
Maasnaald om eindjes weg te werken
Scherpe naald met groot oog (voor borduurwerk)
Scherpe naald met klein oog (om de ogen vast te naaien)

Stekenproef:
18 steken = 10 cm
(de lengte doet er niet zoveel toe, maar bij voorkeur: 28 tot 30 toeren = 10 cm)

Opmerkingen:
De Dead Fish Hat wordt in het rond gebreid in tricotsteek. De vinnen worden gebreid in boordsteek 1 (1r, 1av). De bek wordt gevormd met een rolboord en verkorte toeren Gebruikte kleuren zijn in het patroon niet aangegeven. Die mag je zelf bedenken terwijl je breit.

Patroon

Vissenbek (rolboord en verkorte toeren)
Zet 90 steken op met nld. Nr 3 zonder knop. Verdeel de steken gelijkmatig over de 3 naalden (30 per naald) en verbind ze tot een cirkel. Brei vervolgens 4 centimeter recht in het rond.
Begin nu aan de verkorte toeren:
8r, keer
9av, keer
10r, keer
11av, keer
12r keer
13av keer
14r, keer
16av (!!) keer
18r keer
20av keer
22r, keer
24av, keer
26r, keer
28av, keer
30r, keer
32av, keer

17. 66r (32 + 26 + 8) om het andere verkorte toeren gedeelte te beginnen:
18. 9av, keer enzovoorts

Volgende toer: 90recht, verdeel al breiend de steken weer gelijkmatig over de pennen.

Vissenlijf
Brei nog 12 cm in het rond.
Minder één toer als volgt:
8r, 2st.samenbr. herhaal tot eind van de pen, (81 stk)

Brei 6 cm in het rond.
Minder:
7r 2st. samenbr, herhaal tot eind (72 stk)

Brei 4 cm in het rond
Minder:
6r, 2st.samenbr. herhaal tot eind (63 sts)

Brei 4 cm in the round
Minder:
5r, 2st. samenbr. Herhaal tot eind (54 sts)

Brei 2 cm in het rond
Minder:
4r, 2 st. samenbr. Herhaal tot eind (45 sts)

Brei met deze 45 steken nog 4 centimeter.
Minderen: 2 st. samenbr. tot de laatste 3 st, deze 3 samenbr. (22 stk).
Brei hiermee nog 4 naalden.

Vissenstaart (dit is de versie uit Knitty - bijna geen naaiwerk, maar valt iets minder mooi)
Brei 17 steken. Plaatst de laatste 11 steken daarvan na het breien een veiligheidsspeld. Brei met de overige 5 steken plus de 6 steken op de andere naald (= 11 st.) de eerste helft van de vissenstaart. Brei heen en weergaande toeren en stap desgewenst over op naalden met knop.
Brei als volgt:
(Voorkant werk) 1 r, meerder 1 st. r. uit de volgende steek, herhaal dit tot eind (16 stk.)
Brei alle oneven naalden (achterkant werk) averecht
1 r, meerder 1 st. r. uit de volgende, herhaal tot eind (24 sts);

1 r, meerder 1 st. r. uit de volgende, (3 r, meerder 1 st. uit volgende steek) herhaal tot eind (30 st.)

6 – 12 even toeren av., oneven toeren r. (tricotsteek)
13. 1 r. , 2st. samenbr. , r tot laatste 3 st, enkele overhaling, 1 r (28 st)
14. averecht
15 – 21 Herhaal toer 13 en 14 tot 20 st. over zijn
hecht alle steken af. Brei de steken van de veiligheidsspeld op dezelfde manier voor de andere helft van de staart.

Variant vissenstaart (dit is de oorspronkelijke versie, zoals te zien op de foto's en door Thelma bedacht)
Zet 11 steken in de wacht op een veiligheidsspeld. Let op, dat de steken tegenover de vissenbek liggen! (zie tekening en foto’s) Brei de andere 11 steken verder met nld. 3 met knop.
(Voorkant werk) 1 r, meerder 1 st. r. uit de volgende steek, herhaal dit tot eind (16 stk.)
16 av.
1 r, meerder 1 st. r. uit de volgende, herhaal tot eind (24 sts);
24 av
1 r, meerder 1 st. r. uit de volgende, (3 r, meerder 1 st. uit volgende steek) herhaal tot eind (30 st.)
6 – 12 even toeren av., oneven toeren r. (tricotsteek)

13. 15r, keer
14. 2st.samenbr, av. Tot eind
15. recht
Herhaal toer 14 en 15 tot er nog 10 steken over zijn. Hecht af.
Brei de andere 15 steken op de naald op dezelfde manier.

Zet de 11 steken van de veiligheidsspeld terug op de naald. Brei de andere kant van de vissenstaart op dezelfde manier.

Rugvin
Neem met nld. 3 vertikaal 15 steken op uit het midden van de muts, ongeveer 15 cm. van de rand van de bek. Brei 1 toer recht. Meerder in de volgende toer 1 steek uit elke steek (30 steken). Brei met deze 30 steken 10 toeren in boordsteek 1. Hecht af.

Zijvinnen
Neem 10 steken vertikaal op uit de zijkant van de muts, ongeveer op dezelfde hoogte als de rugvin. Brei 1 toer recht. Meerder in de volgende toer 1 steek uit elke steek. Brei met deze 20 steken 10 toeren in boordsteek 1. Hecht af. Brei aan de andere kant nog een fin.

Afwerking
Hecht alle draadeindjes af.
Knip uit wit vilt twee rondjes van ongeveer 4,5 cm. doorsnede. Naai deze op de kop van de vis. Borduur op elk oog een zwart kruis. (zie tekening). Keer de muts naar de verkeerde kant en naai de vissenstaartdelen aan elkaar. Keren en klaar!

Just some pictures

Knitting is better than blogging. That's why mrs. T. hasn't thought about blogging for a while. Now it's time to upload some pictures (although they are on RAvelry already, so what's the point?). Knitting is also better than taking pictures. Or maybe some projects are camera-shy. At least the pictures of some kntting projects are lost in space...

Baby Chicken Viking hat. Knit in cotton for baby of sort-of-collegue. Last name of baby is 'Chicken' !

Half Fish hat (pattern on Tales) knit from odds and ends. Cavia is Chip.

Woolly Wormheads bulky baret. Knit to go with mittens. Made of handdyed yarn, combined with some raspberry yarn. (Probably also handdyed, but by someone else).

Vortex (Knitty Winter 2008) Weird and funny pattern. Great trick with short rows. Sort of Tychus (also Knitty) knit by a knitter on LSD. This project was supposed to be child size, but turned out to fit only a large doll (the size of a 6 month old baby).

Hallowig (Knitty again, of course) in very bright pink - cheap acrylic - turned out great. A pattern mrs. T. had on her wishlist for a long time.

Another weird Fishy

No, of course mrs. T. 's 13-year old son will never wear a Fish hat in public! He's a teenager, don't you know? But still he likes the hat and is proud of his mothers 'knitvention'. So yes, he would really like a fish hat of his own - to wear in the secrecy of his home (or just to have laying around). Grey and black are his colors, but it is okay that his mother added blue and white to it. And the eyes? Not dead, not groggy, but just very odd: a big and a small pupil, looking in opposite directions. "Okay son, your wish is my command!"

Tropical Fish

After blueish and greyish fishes, mrs. T was in the mood to catch a very colorfull one. This tropical fish is knitted from acrylic left overs.

This time mrs. T. crocheted the eyes instead of using pieces of felt. She is not a very skillful crocheter, so they didn't turn out very flat. No problem, these popping eyes look very funny!

Do you notice something strange about this fish? Yes, you're right, the dorsal fin is placed too much in front! After knitting 9 fishes already, mrs. T. can't blame her mistake on unexperiencedness. It's just stupid! The fin is easy to frog and to reknit, but right now mrs. T is not in the mood for frogging.

There is other knitwork to be finished, like Hallowig and Baby Chicken Viking Hat.

Groggy fish for Raphael

Did this fish get a bang on the head ? Or did it smoke some pot? At least it looks very groggy!
Mrs. T. knitted this fish hat for her nephew Raphael, who likes to catch fish in the river Seine. In France, cause that's where he lives.


This is the seventh Fishy mrs. T catched on her 4 needles, with the best fishing rope there is: knitting yarn!!!!

The stripes are the the same as those on the Kiki Mariko rug (Knitpicks). For the smaller stripes pattern mrs. T changed colors after 3 rows i.s.o. 5.

Quicky

Quick knit rib hat (c.o. 56, k2,p2, 35 rows, start decreasing) from left over yarns. (Red from two Capitáns, multicolor yarn from 'recycled' hats.).

Some reading is allowed

Of course, reading is too time consuming and shouldn't be encouraged amongst knitters. But what if the book is about knitting? In that case the occasional reading is allowed. Especially when the book was a gift from Sinterklaas! So mrs. T ignored her knitting needles and read 'De vrijdagavond vriendinnenclub' (a.k.a. The Friday Night Knitting Club) by Kate Jacobs.

In the Dutch translation the word 'knitting' is left out the title. The publisher must have thought the word would scare away readers under 75... This tells a lot about the way knitting sometimes still is regarded in this country.

Mrs. T. 's opinion about the book: "Quite nice, but somehow the characters didn't come to live...Still I would love to see the movie too. Then I can knit while watching!"

Another Capitán

Knitted on special request : a Capitán hat for Luca's little sister. Mrs. T. made it a bit longer than the pattern calls for, so the girl will keep her ears warm. It's the third Capitán on her F.O. list and she still wouldn't mind knitting it again. (But of course, there are so many other items to knit too!).

Hand dyed, hand knit mittens!

From the orange yarn mrs. T recently dyed, she knitted these warm mittens. There is enough orange yarn left over to knit a matching hat, which will follow soon (she hopes).

"It's the first time I knitted mittens in a grown up size, wíth thump. I loved to knit them and think I might knit a lot more mittens. But I'm afraid of the Second Mitten Syndrome...."

Mrs. T. used a pattern from an old craft book (simply titled 'craft book') written by Jutta Lammers, ánd a free pattern found on Ravelry somewhere, telling how to make mittens exactly fitting. (Yes, yes, she'll give the link when she finds it back again....).

Vintage yarn and pattern books

Mrs. T has been exploring her attic. She didn't only trace back her grandmothers (vintage) yarn but also a lot of vintage knitting pattern books.

This one (above) is great. It's a mail order leaflet for 3 suisess from 1959. (As grandmother lived on an island, she mostly ordered yarn by mail). The funny thing is, Mrs'T has got some of the yarns which are mentioned in this book!

Like these ball's of Cosy yarn. Not really a left over, cause there are 12 balls of it! "I think my grandmother must have been shocked by the bright yellow color. That must be the reason she never used it." say Mrs. T.

This packet was never even opened!

This page features the baby yarn mrs. T has dyed yesterday. No more baby yellow.

Not only sweet little babies show of in this leaflet, but elderly people too! It's mr. Sipkes from Eindhoven and his wife. Not the kind of 'young looking happy rich senior' that you see in modern advertisments. Mr. Sipkes has been a waiter for 45 years, and it shows. But fortunately his wife knits his socks with Suizanyl yarn - wool with a bit of nylon and therefor indistructable.

In one of the pictures we see mrs. Sipkes reading a magazine in front of the radio. The text tell's us she has lots of extra spare time now she doesn't have to darn mr. Sipkes socks anymore!

That's must have encouraged mrs. T's grandmother to buy a bunch of Suisanyl balls. Indeed, it still looks indistructable...even after 50 years on the attic!

Fifty years ago it was common to knit ones own underwear. This bont-jaeger was especially meant for it.

Classic sweaters were supposed to be knit from this fine Prestige yarn. Maybe mr. Sipkes would have liked it too...

"I love this Solaria yarn. My grandmother left me a few of these yellow balls. There are also some red ones, which look the same but have no wraps anymore. I don't know what to knit of it. The two colours don't combine very well." says mrs. T.

Knitters in the fifties and sixties must have loved Solaria too, because 3Suisses had this yarn for a long time. The wraps and the colours have changes a bit through the years:

Some more vintage knitting books and magazines:

Some very old knitting books and one crochet book (up).

"I love looking into these books. They must be from the thirties of forties. It's lovely to look at the clothes people wore in those days, but also at their hairdo, toys and furniture." says mrs. T about the books below.

"This magazine is a lot more modern. I guess it's from the sixties. Some patterns in it I like very much. One sweater for sure is on my To Do List. Some other are really hilarious!" says mrs. T.

This magazine (up) for sure is from the seventies. But like most others there is no exact year printed on it.

"Maandblad voor handwerken" and "Ariadne"

Very exciting too are these very old handicraft magazines. There are lots and lots of them in the attic. The oldest ones date from the fourties, the oldest are from the ninties. The magazine still excists in the Netherlands, but changed its name several times. From 'maandblad voor handwerken' to 'Ariadne' (195something) to "At Home" in the nineties. Unfortunatly it's not a real handicraft magazine anymore, but mostly about interior decorating.

How steam dyeing is done

Steam dyeing is not as easy as microwave dyeing. But it isn’t hard either. It is fun to do and you can influence the colours while steaming, by sprinkling more dye at the spot where you want it. Another good thing is that you’ll need only very little dye. It doesn’t get flushed away with the water. You put the dye directly on the yarn/wool which never touches the water. The colours just steams into it. After dyeing there is hardly any dirty water left, so it’s a clean way too.

How the dyeing is done:

You'll need:
- Yarn (or unspun wool)
- Dye (powder) like Colortex
- Enamel rice cooking pot or…
- large enamel pot and a cake tray that fits in it plus 4 small twist-off jars
- Spray bottle
- Vinegar
- Liquid wool wash
- Disposable plastic ice spoons (one for each colour)

Pour approx. 2 cm water into the pot. Add a cup of vinegar and a cup of liquid wash;
Fill jars with water. Put them in pot and place tray upon them, so the tray doesn’t reach the water. (Or hang inner pot in rice pot)
Spread about 100 gr. wool/yarn out on tray /bottom;
Sprinkle a half or whole spoon of dye over yarn of each colour you want.
Spray yarn and dye with the spray bottle and divide colour over and trough the yarn;
Put pot on stove. Let it steam;
Spray the yarn again every 10 minutes;
Turn yarn/wool after about 20 min. to see if dye has reached all the yarn. If not, add a bit of dye.
After 30 min. you can add a second layer of yarn/wool. Add as much dye as for first layer;
Let it steam for 30, 40 more minutes, spraying every 10 minutes. (Turn second layer once too).
Take care you spray enough water so the pot doesn’t run dry.
Put yarn on rack to cool;
After it’s totally cold, rinse it in water three times. Add vinegar in last rinse
Leave yarn to dry.

Dyeing yarns too

There was more yarn in the attic, begging to be dyed. Especially this baby yarn had been yellow for long enough!

It had probably been yellow for over fourty years. Mrs. T. guesses her grandmother bought it in the sixties, because in that decade all her grandchildren were born.

Yarnsellers really should put dates on their wraps!

Of course this time Mrs. T. checked the quality of the yarn first. (She had to wind it on skeins anyway) No yarn breaks this time.

This time Mrs. T. only used blue and yellow dye, in order to get a blue-green-yellowish result.

Dyeing yarns

About 10 years ago mrs. T. dyed her first and her last skeins of yarn. This week she cleared up a cupboard and discovered three little pots of Colortex dye. In a now-or-never mood she decided to start dying yarn right that minute. All it took was one skein of very old white yarn (her grandmothers, so 50, 60 or more years old). An enamel rice cooker. (Also her grandmothers so also very old). Wool wash liquid, vinegar and water.

With The Eagles playing Witchy Woman on the radio Mrs. T. really felt like making magic!

This white yarn is dyed with only three colors Colortex: a bit red, a bit blue and 2 bits of yellow.

Great autumn colors! What a pity this yarn is so old that it's broken into a lot of quit small pieces of string... The only thing it's good for now is knitting a project and felting it later.

This is what it looks like knitted. Below: single string yarn on size 2,5 mm; middle: 1 string combined with fine red yarn knitted on 3 mm needles; above: two strings, knitted on 3,5 mm needles.

Second shot

The yarn may be bad, but the colors are great and dyeing is fun to do. So mrs. T. took another shot at it. This time she used a skein of not too old yarn, some beige tweed of about 150 g. It has a nice natural look, but it's also a bit boring.

After dying (using only red and yellow dye) it's got a warm, passionate orange color! Pure witchcraft!