What is the most interesting thing you’ve ever hand-crafted?

I knit and crochet a lot, but by far, the most interesting thing I ever made was the Horseshoe Crab by Susan Burkhart/OohLookIt’saRabbit.  (photo above)
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In early 2012, my daughter was somewhat inexplicably obsessed with horseshoe crabs.  I say somewhat inexplicably because my daughter loves all kinds of creatures and I’m not sure what triggers the fascination.  This fascination leads us to the library and the internet.  We’ve researched jaguars and other big cats, hyenas, anacondas, king cobras, seahorses, sea otters, fennec foxes, bats (especially fruit bats), raptors, and songbirds.  One day, she became fascinated with horseshoe crabs and so, we started learning about them.  We learned there are several different kinds of horseshoe crabs and that they are called living fossils because they have changed little since the triassic period 230 million years ago.  They are mostly composed of a hard shell with a tail, and six pairs of legs.  They are genetically related to arachnids and the females are larger than the males.  The females lay eggs that are then fertilized by the males.  The eggs are laid in a certain depth of water and are often called “egg purses.” These eggs are an important part of the diet of multiple species of animals, especially turtles and shore birds.  Much of what we learned was from is beautifully illustrated and explained in Horseshoe Crabs and Shorebirds, The Story of a Food Web by Victoria Crenson and illustrated by Annie Cannon. 

Eventually, we went to the New York Aquarium so that she could meet Limulus polyphemus, the local horseshoe crab species.  We learned that our local Atlantic horseshoe crab was in peril.  While they aren’t technically endangered, their number have decreased.  Because horseshoe crabs and their eggs are an important part of the local food chain, this decrease negatively impacts the other species that rely on them as part of their diet, including the endangered Loggerhead turtle and the Red Knot.  Measures have been taken by New Jersey and Delaware to try to stabilize the population of the Atlantic Horseshoe Crab and they appear to be helping.  Here's a helpful resource for more information.  

This brings me back to Susan Burkhart’s amazing Horseshoe Crab pattern.  Towards the end of April, I was trying to figure out what to make for my daughter for her birthday.  I don’t know how I came upon her pattern, but as soon as I saw it, I knew this was exactly the right gift to make.  I still can’t believe how fantastic this pattern is.  The detail that Susan Burkhart has taken to make this horseshoe crab authentic is startling.  Not only did I make a fabulous horseshoe crab, but I also learned about its anatomy -- the carapace, the prosoma, the opisthosoma, the abdomen spines.  And the pattern is excellent.  The instructions are clear and explain how to perfectly assemble your horseshoe crab.  The pattern is so lovingly detailed -- it even includes how to make perfect “eye brows” for your horseshoe crab and shape the legs properly.  Despite the level of detail, the instructions are so clear and accurate, I was able to quickly crochet the horseshoe crab.  When I gave it to my daughter, she was thrilled!  She named it Xiu-xiu and it is often on her bed.

Thank you, Susan Burkhard.  I appreciate the amount of work and detail you've put into your patterns.  Susan Burkhard has an Etsy store called Oooh It’s A Rabbit where she sells wood toys, key chains, decor, jewelry, and many other incredible and detailed crochet patterns of amazing creatures!  Go check her out!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/OohLookItsARabbit?ref=l2-shopheader-name&section_id=7226562​

I'm a fast knitter so I always think I can knit way more than the actual number of hours in a day.  In prior years, I made a goal of too many knitted gifts and spent many nights trying to finish and just barely, barely finishing on time.  Since I really like sleeping (and to maintain family harmony,) I limit myself to a maximum of four knitted gifts.  This year, I started early and I limited myself to only two holiday gifts.  What could go wrong?  

I decided to knit a pair of socks for Beloved.  I absolutely loved the An American in China socks by Gryphon Perkins on Knitty.  The socks are straightforward, but have a fantastic sole knit in a linen stitch.  The result is a simple, but very comfortable sock with a durable, extra-cushiony sole.  I started November 15 and knit leisurely, completing one sock in a little over one week.  I started the second sock and when I was almost done, around December 17, I went to compare it to my first sock to ensure they were the same size.  I COULDN'T FIND THE COMPLETED SOCK!  I searched and searched and searched, but the sock was MIA.  Normally, I would have had time to knit the first sock (again), but I was still working on my daughter's gift (details below).  I ended up giving Beloved one sock and a promise for the next sock as soon as I could.  If I were one to look at the bright side (which I'm not), I'd be pleased that the one sock fit him perfectly and he liked it.  

For my muse, I decided to knit/design/write the pattern for a drawing she made of a knit skirt. I spent a lot of time thinking about the pattern before I even cast on. I had it planned out, did my math and even drafted a schematic. Because everything for the muse must be indestructible and the skirt must be long but still allow her to run and climb, I decided to add side panels in a different color. And this is where I got a little stupid. I was knitting the skirt top-down in the round and I didn't factor in the effect of stranding the main color across the panel. I spent a number of hours making sure the pleat was shaped correctly and finally found a solution for the pleat. (Thanks, for your help, Heather Madrone!) I didn't really like the way the skirt looked from the inside, but no one would see it, so I kept going. After quite a few inches of knitting, it dawned on me that stranding the main color across the side panels defeated the point of the side panels.  Stranding makes knit fabric less stretchy, especially when you are using cotton.  (Sigh.)  I undid all my work and started again knitting back and forth.  As you might imagine, I didn't finish on time.   Fortunately, Beloved and my muse were very understanding.  

It was late, but they both wear their hand knit items with pride.  And that made all the frustrations (mostly) vanish.  So much so, that I'll probably increase the number of handmade items I make this year . . . 

What are you going to make for holiday gifts this year?

I have really enjoyed knitting Intoxicating by Kristi Porter.  Mosaic knitting requires your attention, but isn’t difficult and it is so much fun to watch your progress.  The lace sleeves also required some attention, but were also not too difficult and knit up quickly.  Kristi Porter also added helpful details on knitting the parts and how much they should measure before and after blocking.  This is really a great detail because pre-blocking, the sweater pieces looked very small, but I trusted the pattern and the pieces blocked just as Kristi Porter had detailed.  Sewing the pieces together was not easy.  I had to take the stitches out a few times, but I am very happy with my seams!  (see my prior blog on sweater construction)

So, now to my very least favorite part of the sweater construction -- picking up stitches for the neckline.  Like sewing up sweater parts, you have to be willing to undo your work until you are happy with the results.  This can be very, very time consuming.  I used to just pick up the stitches “intuitively”, but it turns out my stitch pick-up intuition is not good at all.  I’d end up with wavy necklines and button bands because I’d picked up too many stitches.  Other times, I’d find gaps in my work because I hadn’t spaced the stitches properly.  It was terribly frustrating, but I’d keep taking the stitches out and starting over as many times as needed.  You have to commit to this, really.  If you're not happy with it when you've done it, you will never be happy with it so, work on it until you're happy with it.  

​I don’t remember where I read it, but eventually I learned to measure the area of stitches to be picked up and divide it in half and then quarters and then eighths in order to figure out how many stitches to pick up in each section.  This works great when the number of stitches to be picked up are on even sides -- like a button band or a boatneck top.  This method doesn’t work so well on  scoop necks or v-necks, but it still can be done.  In order to use this method where the front and the back of the neckline are not the same, measure from the center of the neckline (not at the neck edge).  This way, you can divide by half to make sure you pick up the same number of stitches around evenly.  Then you have to use the intuition method to pick up the stitches evenly.  There’s a great article on knitty.com about this which helps clarify how to be better at being intuitive here.  At the end of the day, the only way to do this well is to commit the time and patience and continuing to practice.

​So, what's your least favorite part of sweater construction?

 

I taught myself to knit from a book in 2002.  My very first project was a sweater.  I realize it was ambitious to learn to knit by starting with a sweater, but I really wanted to knit myself an alpaca sweater.  I’m stubborn and I won’t let the actual difficulty deter me from my goal.  This continues to lead me into problems, but in this case, my stubborn-ness ensured that I was committed to learning to knit that sweater.  I was also lucky that nobody told me I should start with something else.  So, I have my alpaca sweater, knit on size 11 needles.  It is bulky and mis-shaped, but I love it and I still wear it.  It’s super warm and even if it’s ugly, I love it.  

Despite my love for my sweater, I realized I could do better.  Since I’d learned everything from a book (2002 is pre-Ravelry and YouTube), I decided to take a finishing class at my LYS (local yarn store).  Petra worked at The Yarn Company when it was owned by The Yarn Girls.  She was an amazing teacher and was always ready to help with a smile and practical wisdom.  (Petra, if you happen to see this or if you happen to know Petra, I’d love to get in touch!)  Petra taught me how to seam garments so that the sides matched perfectly and how to fudge a little when necessary to get excellent results.  Probably, the most important thing she taught me was to pull out the seams if I wasn't happy with it.  It took a long time, but a beautiful result makes it all worthwhile.  

​The finishing class with Petra was worth every penny.  If you’re going to take the time to knit up a garment, then you should take the time to learn to finish it properly.  A beautifully finished garment will make you happy when you wear it.  Take the time to do it right, even if it means undoing some of your seaming work and restarting.  It is time well-spent and you’ll enjoy your handmade item even more.  Check out my flawless work below!  Thank you, Petra!

​I finished the knitting and blocking of Kristi Porter’s Intoxicating pullover.  I think it looks great!  I used the three-needle bind-off to seem the shoulders together and now I’m just waiting for the sweater to finish drying so I can put it all together and make the neckline.

​Gente, mosaic knitting is so much fun.  It’s what the Knitmore Girls would call “potato-chippy” (“betcha can’t eat [knit] just one” -- courtesy of Lays).  Mosaic knitting is done with two colors in rows of two.  I’m going to describe how to do it, but it reads a lot more difficult than it is to do it.  You only need to knit, slip, and purl and you need two colors.  With one color you knit the row and purl back.  On the third row, you start it in a different color.  In order to create the pattern, you slip certain stitches from the row below and knit some stitches in the second color.  You purl back in the same knit and slip pattern as the row knit below.  On the fifth row, you go back to the first color and knit some stitches and slip the stitches in the second color.  The pattern becomes visible and it’s so much fun to knit two rows and it becomes harder to knit just one.  Here's are a couple of photos closer and what it looks like from the right and wrong sides.

And here's Tiki who came to sit on my work as soon as I broke out the camera.

When Amy Singer wrote No Sheep For You (a wonderful reference and pattern book for people who want to knit with fibers other than wool), she included a section on bamboo fibers.  She wrote that bamboo was “environmentally sustainable.”  This was the prevailing opinion in 2007.  Even today, if you search bamboo yarn, one of the first things you’ll see is the eco-friendly label.  The “sustainable” label certainly fit given the information we had.  Bamboo grows quickly with little need for fertilizers so there is less deforestation and chemical intervention needed.  Bamboo can be used for many purposes from paper to furniture to flooring to yarn so there is less waste, and bamboo is biodegradable.  These are all great properties, but in the process of making bamboo, many producers use toxic chemicals to process the fibers.  It turns out, that unless you are working with bamboo that is organically certified, bamboo is far from eco-friendly.  
To make bamboo fibers, the bamboo undergoes a process that uses carbon disulfide and sodium hydroxide.  (I'm no chemist so I had to look these up.)  Carbon disulfide, which is used to break down bamboo and many forms of viscose and rayon, has been linked to nerve damage and Parkinsonism.  Sodium hydroxide is the chemical name for lye.  Lye can cause burns and is classified as a hazardous, corrosive material. And, just for fun, Wikipedia defines corrosive material as:  a liquid or solid that causes full thickness destruction of human skin at the site of contact within a specified period of time.  Gross, right?  

So, what to do?  I really enjoy knitting with bamboo yarn and bamboo yarn blends.  I appreciate the feel of it -- it is smooth, soft, and kind of fluffy.  I also enjoy wearing the sweater I knit with bamboo and soy yarn.  But I enjoy this material a lot less if my yarn is toxic to people and the environment.  Until I can locate organic bamboo yarn, I won't be buying any new skeins.  For now, I will be using the bamboo yarn in my stash.  

My sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAZMAT_Class_8_Corrosive_substances


http://thegreenb.com.au/greenwash-bamboo-fabric/


http://www.cbc.ca/news/bamboo-textiles-no-more-natural-than-rayon-1.938759


http://www.emmyandlien.com/blog/yarn-review-sirdar-snuggly-baby-bamboo


http://fashion-incubator.com/how-to-avoid-trouble-if-using-bamboo-fabrics/


http://ecosalon.com/bamboo-eco-friendly-or-greenwash/

I’m knitting up Intoxicating by Kristi Porter.  It’s a fantastic pullover which features mosaic knitting.  I rarely follow a pattern, especially the color choices, but this pullover . . . stunning.  It’s green and purple and orange and perfect!  I wanted it exactly as it was.  When I went to my local yarn store, alas, they did not carry the Curious Creek Fibers Isalo 100% silk yarn suggested in the pattern.  Fortunately, almost identical color combinations were available in Ella Rae Bamboo Silk.  My only change was to use purple instead of green as the main color because my LYS did not have enough green.  I was so excited to knit this, but somehow (probably to hide this from my spouse) I stashed it away and forgot about it.  This year, while organizing my yarn, I came across this kit and realized that I need to make this -- especially since I purchased the yarn in 2011!

​The pattern comes from a great book called No Sheep for You which features patterns by multiple designers specifically for people seeking to knit without wool.  The book is written by Amy R. Singer, a founder of www.Knitty.com.  Amy Singer happens to be allergic to wool (pobrecita -- no shade to Amy, I just really love wool).  

I had to do a gauge swatch.  I especially needed a gauge swatch because the Ella Rae Bamboo Silk yarn is 70% bamboo and 30% silk and I didn't know if it would knit up the same as the yarn called for in the pattern.  Gauge swatches are NECESSARY to figure this out.  You really can’t get away with not making one unless you’re making a scarf, but even then, if you don’t know the yarn, it could stretch and you will end up with a VERY LONG scarf.  That said, I still just can’t bring myself to make a swatch and then have it sit around with no function.  One of the many reasons I knit is because I’ll have something useful as a result (pretty, soft square = not useful).  Clara Parkes would be horrified (you can hear her gently and lovingly chide Helen Stewart on podcast #72 of the Curious Handmade podcast), but I live in NYC where I do not have space for pretty, not useful things.  (All spare space is being used to stash yarn, of course.)  Elizabeth Zimmerman -- practical knitting goddess that she was --  understood the need for every knit stitch to be useful and suggested making a gauge swatch hat.  Since I always worry that I won’t have enough yarn for the project (a real concern when the yarn is discontinued) I decided to knit a gauge sleeve.  My thinking is that I’m willing to undo a sleeve since I can knit one up pretty quickly.

After I posted a picture of the beginnings of the gauge sleeve on Instagram, Meadow from The Woven Road (another fabulous podcast -- go subscribe now) asked me how I liked the bamboo yarn.  Ella Rae has discontinued Bamboo Silk but there are other similar bamboo silk combinations out there so I thought it might be helpful to someone to write about it.
 
Bamboo Silk is very smooth and shiny.  I compared it with some Debbie Bliss Pure Silk yarn (100% silk) and they are practically indistinguishable in feel except that the Pure Silk yarn is just a touch softer and more elastic than Bamboo Silk.  The Pure Silk also has a greater luster, but Bamboo Silk has a great shimmer.  For appearance and feel, the Bamboo Silk is a good option to replace the 100% silk called for in Intoxicating.  

The softness of the Bamboo Silk yarn makes it slippery and wooden needles help keep the yarn from slipping too much.  Even though the sleeves are knit flat, I knit the gauge-sleeve on wooden size 7 double pointed needles so that I wouldn't have to sew up the sleeve length later.  Kristi Porter so helpfully gives you gauge pre- and post-blocking and I love her dearly for this.  As I matched gauge pre-blocking, I was able to make the entire sleeve.  

Many people don’t think you should ever wet-block silk (including Amy Singer), but I know I’m going to wash this pullover eventually so I’d rather know the damage before I commit to a full sweater.  I washed the gauge-sleeve in my favorite delicates detergent and set it down to block.  Wet, the gauge-sleeve grew a lot and fit the dimensions specified by Kristi Porter post-block.  After it dried, the sleeve retained the new dimensions perfectly.  The Bamboo Silk highlights the lace pattern as beautifully as 100% silk would.  So, in sum, the Bamboo Silk yarn can replace the 100% silk in this pattern and a sweater will be knit!

I can honestly say I’m a fan of Bamboo Silk.  It knits smoothly and blocks beautifully.  It also feels great against your skin.  The only negative thing I noticed is that this yarn makes my hands hurt after knitting a while.  This does not happen when I’m knitting with sheep or alpaca wool, but does happen when I knit with linen.  I suspect the lesser elasticity is somehow taxing to my hands, but that’s just my theory.  

Here you can really see how much the sleeve grew in length and width after blocking.  The top sleeve is not blocked.  The bottom sleeve is the blocked sleeve.  The blocked sleeve also looks neater and gives structure to the lace pattern.  

I have had this pattern in my Ravelry queue since 2008.  I started a gauge swatch and never touched it.  This year, thanks to the inspiration provided by The Knit Girllls’ Stash Dash 2016 and the guidance from Helen Stewart of Curious Handmade podcast, Jo Milmine of Shiny Bees podcast and Gigi and Jasmin of the Knitmore Girls podcast, the sweater will be made!  I thought it might be helpful to someone to see the process by which I make this sweater, so I’m writing about it.  

The pattern is called the Butterfly Pullover by Mel Clark.  It’s in a book called Knit 2 Together, Patterns and Stories for Serious Knitting Fun co-written by Tracey Ullman and Mel Clark.  I actually read this book cover to cover and recommend it.  The patterns are all very interesting yet classic and many of them are just straight up fun!  (I'm hoping to one day make the witch's britches and the gym slip dress.)  There are also little Ullman tales sprinkled about the book that add charm and humor.  There’s one story, “A Close Call” that is a must-read and probably experienced in some capacity by most yarn-crafters.  (Tracey with knitting project got out of car.  Ball of yarn that is being used to knit sweater remained in car.   😱  Something similar happened to me on the subway and on a plane and maybe on the Staten Island ferry and then I learned my lesson.)  

The Butterfly Pullover is a henley pullover knit in four parts -- the front, the back, and two sleeves.  These parts are then sewn together.  I just don’t like sewing pieces together.  I’m actually really good at it, but I prefer to knit things together as much as possible.  I will usually only sew things together if they are striped or the garment needs side seams to fit better.  I read through the instructions and the only challenge I see to knitting both sides at the same time together is the intarsia portion (intarsia in the round is no fun).  The intarsia at the top of the sweater will be knit back and forth because they have to be separate in order to create armholes.  The intarsia butterfly on the lower right front section will have to be done in the round.  Do I really want that intarsia detail?  I could easily eliminate it.  After seeing how many stitches I’d need to carry backwards to bring the yarn back for the next row, I’ve decided to skip the intarsia butterfly and will knit the sweater in the round and keeping the intarsia flowers for the portions where I will be knitting the sweater back and forth.  If I have extra yarn, I will add a kangaroo pocket to the front.  


Now I can start knitting the project!