Buy Handmade! (VERY Handmade!)

Recently I have begun collaborating with a friend of mine who dyes and spins yarn. You may remember her - she was the same person who comissioned me to knit I don't know how many earflap hats from her handspun yarn one Christmas. We've taken it one step further and are selling things now at craft fairs and on etsy.

I know quite a few people make a living or augment their income with selling hand knit or crocheted goods. I am trying to be one of them! But what Wendy(for that is my cohort's name) and I are doing takes that a step beyond. Wendy does not buy her yarn, then dye it. She spins it herself on an actual spinning wheel, in an actual crowded and chaotic craft room, not very unlike my own craft room. She has a hand cranked wheel for carding wool that may some day give her tennis elbow. She stinks up her place soaking and washing and drying fleeces. When we say we are making these things by hand, we mean from the sheep to the shelf.

Wendy usually gets fleeces from Romeldale sheep, an American breed which is critically endangered. I even have the names of the sheep she gets the fleeces from SOMEWHERE in my craft area. They produce a very soft and springy wool that dyes up beautifully, as you can see in the image below.

I sometimes want to keep this hat for myself.

Some of the fleece Wendy uses is what we call Mystery Wool. A friend or an acquaintance says, "Oh? You spin? I have a fleece for you!" and then the next thing she knows, she has a fleece with an unknown provenance, with characteristics yet to be discovered. And other times she just happens on a good deal.

On my end, it's a bit of a challenge. I never know what yarn I will be working with next. The gauge changes, the texture changes, the style changes, according to Wendy's whim. This means everything is unique, and that I am really never knitting or crocheting the same thing twice. It keeps me on my toes, and I am constantly developing patterns which incorporate versatility to keep up with the yarn.

But what does this all mean for you, Gentle Reader? It means you can get handspun, hand knit/crocheted stuff from us! Stuff that will last! Stuff that is so removed from big box store yarn that it doesn't even know what a box is! Imagine!

Do check out our etsy shop.

The quest for thread

Yarn substitution can be a tricky process. If you are lucky, you will not find yourself substituting yarn for a project that calls out discontinued yarn. The more time passes, the higher the likelihood of this being the case. Fashions change, as well as resources, so what may have been considered a common yarn 20, 30, or even 80 years ago may not be as common now. It may be so uncommon that serious research is involved just to find out what it really is. (More on Victorian knitting later!)

 

The Daffodil Doilie project I have been crocheting calls for discontinued yarn. Specifically, either J. & P. Coats or Clark's O.N.T. Best Six Cord Mercerized Crochet, Size 30.

I consider myself fortunate that these brands at least ring a bell. J. & P. Coats and Clark's is now more commonly known under the name Coat's and Clark's. According to their website (which has a fairly entertaining timeline about their history, if thread history interests you) O.N.T  ("Our New Thread") is a special six cord, soft finished thread for sewing machines first marketed in 1860.

 

Now, I don't know about you, but I'm fairly certain this pattern from 1949 is not asking me to crochet this doilie out of sewing machine thread. I gather that O.N.T. has become a trademark, having made a big splash back in Victorian times. A straight Google of O.N.T. Best Six Cord Mercerized Crochet, Size 30 gets me more in the realm of what is typically thought of when we say "crochet thread" - that is, this discontinued thread. 1949 really wasn't very long ago, and if I was die-hard about it, I could probably set up an alert on eBay to purchase the exact thread this pattern calls for in vintage yarn.

 

I opted for something manufactured within the past decade instead, and for several reasons. I didn't really want to wait to find the thread and wait for it to be shipped. Who knows when it would turn up? Waiting during shipping is hard enough. But impatience aside, I've learned the hard way that cotton just doesn't hold up as well over the years as wool or other fibers. I've had many a strand of vintage embroidery or crocheting thread disintegrate on me as I worked it, but have never had it happen with wool. 

 

There are several big players in the modern market of crochet thread. Aunt Lydia by Red Heart (which is owned by Coat's and Clark's) and DMC come foremost to mind. However, in size 30 both brands come in a limited range of colors. (Think "50 Shades of White.") In the end, I went to a brand I'd never heard of, Omega Hilo Crochet in Pistachio and Bright Yellow. I still don't know much about them, but I do know something essential: they have Size 30 crochet thread in OVER 60 COLORS. And it's accessible. (More on my heart wrenching quest to get Brown Sheep Nature Spun Fingering balls in specific colors later.)

 

Daffodils

Every now and then, such as when spring arrives, I get the overwhelming urge to make something crazy challenging. This spring, it's a doilie.

 

I've been spending a considerable amount of time researching vintage and antique patterns this past year. One of the fruits of my labor is a newfound appreciation of mid-century handicrafts. Handicrafts, like fine arts, sometimes require a person to become familiar with the genre they belong to before they can be understood, if not liked. In a fit of spring fever, I decided I liked floral doilies, such as the one featured below in "Floral Doilies, Book No. 258" (1949) from The Spool Cotton Company.

The pattern is also available here.

One of the first things I noticed about this pattern (aside from it using Size 30 yarn, which is not available at the corner drug store, let me tell you!) is that it uses a shade of green called "Nile Green," which is very similar to sage green. "Nile Green" was very popular during this era. I see it over and over again in household crochet patterns, and I'm very curious as to its origin and if it crossed over into knitting as well.  



Ignore the dirty nails!

Size 30 crochet thread is, admittedly, a tad wee. There were times when I thought I might go blind, or at least experience debilitating eye strain. I can't recommend a good task light highly enough, especially since I don't have one and had to rely on leaning toward the sunlight at a window like a desperate houseplant.

Daffodils deconstructed

The actual design is rather simple. You make the trumpet shape for the center, then make a loop with the petals that then gets sewn onto the trumpet. Easy, right?

 

The center of the doilie - the "Nile Green" portion - I got done in about 4 hours.

 

One daffodil took me all of a Saturday.

 

The first daffodil triumphantly adhered!

Strangely enough, there are supposed to be 11 daffodils. At one daffodil a weekend, I'll basically be done with this sometime this winter. This is about where I am now:

Mossy doll

This doll is the result of the confluence of crafting supplies. I made the body a while back, and embroidered the face, and then set it aside to mature as a UFO for about six months, as one does.

Nekkid as the day she was sewn

I have been trying to motivate myself to be more productive in doll making, so I dug her out last week and muddled over what hair would suit her. This hand-me-down mohair was the winner, since everything else I had would have required me to re-embroider the eyes, which is tedious to say the least. Everything else dominoed from there. The mossy green paisley fabric suited the hair and eyes, so it became a dress.

Before the hair "grew"

There's a "lace" detail at the neck and around the sleeves that seemed to coordinate well with the dress. The dress was a tremendous pain, actually, because my serger broke, and I decided in a moment of madness that I couldn't have raw edges. AT ALL. So the dress from the bodice up and in the sleeves is reversible. The skirt portion is one piece of fabric that I fastidiously hemmed and... my sewign terminology is failing me, but I did that thing you do on edges where you put down a strip of fabric, like hem facing. I did that, whatever it is. The results were not half bad.

I had some leftover Noro Sock that I knit into tights for the doll. The feet have touches of light pink in the green, so I pulled out some of my vintage pink wool fingering weight yarn and crocheted a cardigan. The edging and blanket stitch detailing are with the hot fuchsia yarn I used in the gray and pink reproduction Shetland tam. (One ball of fingering weight yarn - for good or bad - lasts forever. Or maybe it just feels like it?)

 

I also knit a tie-on bandana from the leftover Noro Sock. It sufficiently tamed the massive hair, which is actually one of the assets of the doll. It is finger-combing good!

Shoes also happened, but I'm not overly thrilled with them. I swear I remade them about five times. I have it in my head that I should make some baby booties out of repurposed sweaters, since that is such a plentiful resource to me, but trying to piece together these doll shoes was a bit of a reality check. Or perhaps a technique check. I like to just jump right into a project without much planning, but that isn't the best strategy with feet coverings. Or whole sweaters. Hey! I'm learning. 

And speaking of which, my funky sweater is done, and it is perfect! Although it is hybrid of Rowan and vintage fabulosity, I think it still qualifies as a vintage project. I have a skirt that kind of goes with it (I know - it boggles my mind, too, how that can happen.) that I need to touch up and have a photo session with, and then you will witness it in all it's glory.

Vintage Thursday: Hats, Hats, Hats!

It has been a while since I've done a Vintage Thursday, so here I go.

I have hats on my mind lately. Not just because I am knitting a quadrillion earflap hats. It's because I just like hats. I even got a book on millinery, and as soon as I order some buckram, there is going to be some serious hat madness around here. In the meantime, we'll have to settle for this kind of hat madness, the kind that stems from thrift stores and flea markets.

 

Nonchalant in my Victorian bathroom, as usual.

This fuchsia hat is one of my favorites; it requires wearing at a jaunty angle and needs its elastic repaired so that it doesn't fly off in the wind. Not that I have worn it outside. I have yet to find an occasion that warrants wearing any of these hats, which is just sad.

Does this match my hair?

This hat is a bit more earthy and may not entirely go with my Dress of Mild Confusion, which is my photo op dress of choice. Unlike the hats, I have worn it outside, but only once. Back around 2005 I wore it when my then partner-boyfriend-whatnot took me out for dinner on my birthday to a restaurant in the North End of Boston. Only time he took me out for such an occasion, so it called for this dress, which I bought to coordinate with an accordion. (Because one does.)

Pseudo-flapper, but not earflap.

This hat is not so much vintage as vintage-ish. It's almost a cloche. With the brim down, I am in complete disguise because no one will see my face.

It has a little black velvet bow - here!

This pillbox-esque hat is actually one of my favorites. It's oddly provincial, and makes me feel I came of the farm to the big city in 1933 or something.

Ignore the hot pink bobby pin!

Another favorite. I can't resist a lone feather just sticking up at an odd angle.

Some feather love.

I consider this my formal hat, and the dress' natural accessory. When I found it ($5 at a flea market) I said to myself (silently), "At last! A hat to go with the Dress of Mild Confusion!"

Relax, it's synthetic.

I'm not 100% about how to wear this hat, but I gave it a shot. It makes me feel like I'm way more Eastern European than I am. Someone loved this hat, because they even relined (amateurishly) half of the inside lining. I'll probably fix that later - something like an exquisite lilac sateen that no one will ever see - but for now, V. uses it as a "nest" for her stuffed animal birds. 

Yes, that's weird eye shadow. Because I can.

This hat is difficult to photograph, and not just because it's that dingy black that vintage things become in time. It's sort of a lopsided, tiny tam, with a bow.

 

 

Vintage UFO's

I have several vintage UFO's that I need to address for next Thursday, since I can't just go about buying hats, alas. At the end of this post I have created a poll so that you may help me decide which torment project I'll undertake. You know, when I'm not knitting earflap hats.

 

Men's Argyle Stockings, Circa 1920



Progress since ripping them part.

As you may well know, I've been revisiting these stockings for a while now. They were much further along than you currently see them. But I am still under the impression that my housemate wants to wear them someday, and really, if you don't consider my anal retentive habit of unraveling about 6" of it every now and then, they're easy.

 

1920's Fillet Crochet Dress 

I bought the book for this pattern.

I began this dress some time ago. I stopped working on it because I had my doubts about the sizing of the head opening, and I was not advanced enough in the arena of clothing modification and construction to deal with it sensibly. (Really, all I could really do was hem pants. Figuring out a head circumference and comparing it to a crocheted dress neck would have exploded my head.) It is something I would really like to finish, however. The substitution for synthetic silk I used (tencel weaving yarn) is wonderful - it is light weight and drapes beautifully. (You know it's nice stuff when you take the project out occasionally just to run it between your fingers.)

 

You can see where I stopped.

This project, spool and all, has traveled with me from Boston to California and then back here to Philly.

1970's Knee-Highs

Grandma knit it, I seamed it.

My grandma started knitting these knee-highs for my oldest aunt when she was in high school. That was about forty years ago. (And you thought you had UFO's, eh?) When she cleaned out her attic, she gave it to me. I've tried them on - they fit me. (Sorry, Aunt Susie!)

 

And now for the poll:

 

Which vintage UFO should I complete first?

• 1920's fillet crochet dress
• 1920's men's argyle stockings
• Grandma's 40 yr. old knee highs

Freeblogpolls

More polls: Free poll

 



My First Plarn

Are you familiar with plarn? Living this modern life, I find I am inundated with plastic bags, whether it be from the grocery store or the local thrift store. There a re some practical household uses for them, but trash can lining doesn't eat them nearly as fast as making plarn.

This is my first plarn project - a small (about 6 inches across at the base) crocheted basket. I find plarn (at least the kind I was using with this) is not unlike working with stretchy raffia. The texture and visual effect is similar. There's a certain amount of rigidity - because it's crochet - but it's also very pliable. (I don't know what kind of tensile strength it has, but I hope to find out in the future.) Despite its pliability, it is a bit hard on the hands, like cotton yarn. I have more projects in the works - coming soon!

Flower Necklace

I designed a flower necklace for my Etsy shop, The Concept Cat.
It looks fairly basic, but I had to come up with the shaping for the leaves and flowers based on my crocheting experience, rather than on existing patterns, because everything sold at Etsy must be original.
The neat detail to this project is that there are buttonholes all the way down the length of the necklace, so the flower can be buttoned at any point.

I've considered writing this pattern up, but there are some jiggly things I do with the leaves that I am not sure how to explain - they're non-standard moves, so I'd have to make my own abbreviation for each of them, and try to clearly explain them. While I think I am rather good at writing up clear patterns (knock on wood) this kind of thing isn't what I would like to attempt on only one cup of coffee. Or even with the baby in the house. Maybe if I locked myself in a closet with a flashlight, and nobody was home, or knew where to find me?

Well, you get the idea.

Mother-Baby Beanie Set

I got my first Etsy sale, and it was (of all things!) a request for a custom made mother and baby beanie set. It needed to match a striped baby carrier. This is what I came up with:

It's crocheted. Stripes of varying thicknesses were requested, and not being one to turn away from a challenge (recall me saying I learned to knit on varnished and filed shishkabob sticks...?) , I chose to use single, half double, and double crochet stitch rows rather than just making the rows appear wider by doing two or three rows of single crochet in the same color. I did this because I wanted the hats to not be as stiff as they would have been had they been entirely in single crochet. I needed to pay close attention to when it was right to put in increases because it wouldn't just be every two rows, etc. I also needed to have the baby beanie mimmick the mother's beanie enough so that it was obvious they were a set, but not exactly match because the baby beanie used less rows but still needed all the colors represented. I think it turned out well, and fortunately, so did my customer. :)

I included this flower broach to match the beanies as a thank you gift:

Hex Scrap Afghan

This is an afghan I have been working on using vintage yarn oddballs I got from my grandmother and grand aunt. I noticed there was a bit of interest in it over at Ravelry, so I've decided to post my recipe here. I apologize beforehand on my garbled instructions!

Hex Scrap Afghan


Yarn and equipment
I used worsted and aran weight yarn for this project on an H/5 mm hook, and sometimes doubled sports weight yarns. It’s all a matter of preference – whatever works for you!

A NOTE ON COLOR: I had a loose color strategy with this afghan that you might find useful. It was based on two points: #1 was to use no white or cream. #2 was to use one color that really popped in each hex, and mixing it with colors similar but not as obnoxious as it to make it blend. For example, neon pink went between orange or red sometimes, or brown, etc. This meant that I could use all the CalTrans Orange and chartreuse 1970's yarn I had without being blinded by the end result. :)

Abbreviations:
Ch = chain
Sl = slip stitch
Dc = double crochet
St = stitch

Basic Hex:

Set-up: Chain 6, join with sl to make circle, careful not to twist.

Row 1: Chain 4 (3 ch = 1 dc, + ch1), *dc in next st, ch 1, repeat from* 11 times, sl into the 3rd ch st of the chain 4 made to begin the row. This should look like a wagon wheel. Cut yarn and change color.

Row 2: Join new yarn at a “ch 1” in preferred method. (I like to do a sl where I pull the yarn end through the stitch so that I can secure it by crocheting over it with the next couple stitches.) After joining yarn, ch 3, dc into same space (makes 2 dc), 2 dc into following st, chain 2, *2 dc into next st, 2 dc into next stitch, ch 2, repeat from * until you have six ch 2 spaces, sl into the top of the ch 3 you began the row with. Cut yarn and change color.

Row 3: Join yarn at a “ch 2” space, ch 3, then work 3 dc’s between it and the next “ch 2” space, 1 dc into “ch 2” space, ch 2, *1 dc into “ch 2” space, work 3 dc’s between it and the next “ch 2” space, 1 dc into “ch 2” space, ch 2, repeat from * until you have six “ch 2” spaces. Cut yarn and change color again.

And from there its basically Row 3 over and over again with 2 dc’s added between the “ch 2” spaces for each following row. For instance, Row 4 has 5 dc’s, Row 5 has 7 dc’s, etc. I stop alternating colors at Row 4 and make Row 5 my background color (black). Then I mattress stitch it all together.

I hope this isn’t too confusing - I've just tossed these instructions together. Let me know if you need clarification.