How I got ply-twist on Sheringham & Jersey yarns so wrong

 I use  differential rotation speed (DRS) control of twist insertion as I spin. It is a well known technology - both Henry Clemes and Alden Amos made such systems - and had to take them all back because modern hand spinners could not figure out to use them.  Let just say that as powerful as it is, DRS technology makes demands on the user.

I  started my exploration of knitting fine yarns by prepping about 25 grams of wool and spinning a single at the desired twist (12 to 17 tpi) depending on the desired grist.  Then I would divide that single up on to 3 or 4 bobbins, and ply it into 125 to 150 yards of the desired yarn. I would block the yarn and knit swatches. 

When I found a yarn that I liked, I would spin hanks (560 yd) of singles, with each hank weighing 20 to 25 grams. When I plied these together the finished hank of yarn would weigh between 80 and 100 grams - that was half a spin bobbin  - it did not really look like much. However, it was enough to change the effective diameter of the spin bobbin and reduce the inserted twist in the outer layers of the yarn.  

I would wind it off, and the end that had been at the core of the spinning bobbin would be great, I would knit a swatch, think the hank was fine, and spin a couple more hanks - each of which would turn into a twisted mess after I had knitted about half of it.

The old spinners had a very good solution to this issue - they made and sold finished yarn in balls of  about an ounce - 30 grams.  That is about what a DRS technology can control with a standard sized spinning bobbin of with a length of 4" or a little less.  It is the product that would be produced by a professional hand spinner using traditional DRS technology. 

This tells us that professional hand spinners were using DRS technology to produce fine yarns for  Sheringham and Jersey ganseys.  I have seen 30 gram balls of yarn for sale in Brittany and Scotland. These 30 gram yarn packages are ghosts of a time when there were professional hand spinners making yarn on spinning wheels like mine (and as described in Alden Amos's Big Blue Book) and selling such yarns to hand knitters.

These were yarns called: Saxony Wool, Andalusian Wool, German Fingering, Berlin Wool, Peacock Fingering, Aurora Wool, Scotch Fingering . . . . .  Yes, in Victorian times they were produced in mills, but the packaging was based on the packaging from an earlier time when such yarns were hand spun. 

And, I have bowed to the practicality of the tradition, and I spin a hank (or so) of fine single, divide it on to plying bobbins, and ply 1 ounce balls of finished yarn.  My little yarn balls contain  between 100 and 150 meters of yarn.  

Yes, knitting from  a shoebox of little balls of yarn seems like a bother,  but if I was buying old stock of such fine yarns, they would come in 1 ounce balls.   I might as well make the yarn I want in 1 ounce balls, rather than just taking what is a available.

And, truth be told, if you are knitting on fine needles, every so often you need to get up and move about to restore circulation.  Getting up to get another ball of yarn is a good excuse to have another cup of tea.

Learning to knit, again

 

A swatch of worsted handspun 4-ply (about 2,500 ypp, singles at 17 tpi, plied at 17ptpi) knit on 6" by 1.3 mm needles (in photo). 

Fleece is Rambouillet from https://www.annagotwool.com/ .

Knitting gauge is about 12 spi by 19 rpi = ~250 stitch per square inch. As knit, not blocked. 

Angle of photo makes needles look "pointy", they have flat tips.

After fulling, the swatch has a small bias, that was easily removed by blocking. Result gauge similar to knit gauge, e.g., ~250 stitches per inch squared.

Fabric is weatherproof.

It is translucent- you can get a good sunburn through it, but it will keep your skin dry and warm in a light rain, as you can work, as water vapor from your skin will evaporate and the vapor move through the fabric.

This makes me think the folk in Norfolk, have forgotten the real practical virtues of a Sheringham gansey. They seem to think of them as "art", "a token of affection" or a fashion statement - not as a very practical and useful object. 

Old school sock fabric

 

It is not dry yet, so it still wants to curl. It is

under the needles used to knit it.

The inspiration is knitting done circa 1900 including Sheringham ganseys and patterns in Weldon's.

Yarn is 4-ply worsted with ~11,200 ypp singles spun at ~ 17 tpi. Ply twist is ~17 tpi.

 Grist of final yarn is ~2,500 ypp.

Swatch knit on 12" by 1.5 mm blunt needles using knitting sheath while sitting next to my wife watching an old black and white Clark Gable movie in a rather dark room - (so yes the knitting is crap.) Knitting gauge came out to ~11 spi by 15 rpi.

Dark streaks are from black fiber from previous singles spun for previous tests to help count twist - my combing bench is a mess right now. It will be cleaned before I start a real spinning project. 

Weight of swatch is 8 grams, area is ~ 83 cm^2, so a gram of yarn knits out to ~10 cm^2 of fabric. 

Knitting as adventure

I like adventure.  I was a good rock climber. I was a good skier.   I include solving problems and finding solutions as adventure - finding a working solution is surviving the adventure. Surviving a real adventure begins with knowing what the likely challenges are, and an open minded consideration of possible solutions. A successful adventure involves developing necessary skills. 

I find knitting to be an adventure. It is surprisingly physical. A good knitter's hands are as strong as a good rock climber's hands. And, finishing a large project in a reasonable time requires substantial endurance. 

I believe in "knit to fit"; meaning that the knitting pattern must be adapted to the size and shape of the person that will use the object - this requires a fair amount of skill and math.  The difference between knitting a pattern and knitting to fit is an adventure.  "Knitting to fit" transforms knitting from a pastime, into an adventure.

Knitting to fit also includes knitting an object that fits into the user's lifestyle. This may mean knitting objects well suited to display on the "Red Carpet", or knitting objects suited to sailing around Cape Horn, or being worn while pruning an orchard during an ice storm.  I have used H/H sailing gear, and at $1,500 a pop, it is not a warm, comfortable, or durable as a well knit wool gansey. However, I assure you that knitting a gansey that is better than H/H gear is an adventure.  I have worn the best Patagonia ice climbing gear while pruning an orchard in freezing rain, and I settled on my gardening gansey as being warmer, lighter, and more comfortable for the task. However, knitting that gansey was an adventure - from seeing the yarn in Nova Scotia, to finding the mill on Prince Edward Island, to making the knitting sheath and needles; then learning how to use them - and learning how different gansey knit objects can be from ordinary hand knit or frame knit or commercial machine knit. Remember, Sir Walter Raleigh, sent a pair of "gansey knit" stockings to a Princess of Poland, and Poland was one of the great powers of Europe at the time.  "Gansey knit" is different and better!

Such objects are completely outside of our modern experience. 

I am finding that exploring "sock fabrics" is an extension of the knitting adventure.  More and more, I find that I have to hand spin the yarns that I want. I find that bins of fiber that I have had for years can be coaxed into yarns that I did not dream of a few years ago.  And, rather ordinary yarns can be coaxed into fabrics that I did not dream of just a few years ago.

For an inkling of what can be, we have to go to books like  Archaeological Textile Review no 62 online at 

 http://atnfriends.com/download/ATR_62_complete_for_homepage.pdf.  

Why do modern books on how to make textiles not tell us how to make such objects?

Actually, I am grateful that nobody does tell us how to make those lovely textile objects the old timers turned out by the bale.  Learning how to make such objects is an adventure. No! You are not going to get there with "Weldon's Practical Knitter". Weldon was a fraud. If you want to knit the patterns in Gladys Thompson at the gauges indicated, you will have remember that the originals were knitted using knitting sheaths, which are barely mentioned in the text.  Likewise, mentions of knitting sheaths by Mary Thomas, Mary Wright, and June Hemmons Hiatt should have included how to use a knitting sheath and discussion of appropriate knitting needles. But NO! They want using a knitting sheath and its needles be a bold step into the unknown, an extreme adventure.

Sheringham

 I have known this day was coming since I bought Gladys Thompson's book on Patterns. (and I spilled red wine on page 82.)

I have cleaned the white fluff off the combing bench, and moved a kilo of that Romney that I dyed navy blue years ago to the bench. It has been languishing in the stash.

I am going to knit a Sheringham - from handspun 4-ply fingering. Not the "tight one" knit on 1mm needles, but the fluffy one knit on 1.3 mm needles. (I like the motion of the stiffer needles. I intend to knit it on 5- 12" needles using a knitting sheath that hangs below my belt.)  All needles except 1.3 mm have been banished to the needle chest. 

Here in sunny California, I like to spin on the patio in the cool of the morning. I figure 2 or 3 weeks to get the spinning done. (Actual spinning/ply time under 55 hours.) (There is a real chance that with a new drive band, actual spin time will be closer to 30 hours.  I come from a world where we plan increment, baseline, and decrement budgets. )  

Then, 10 or 12 weeks of knitting - not all the time but 4 to 6 hours per day.  (Actual knitting time, 200 to 300 hours.)

A Rabbit Hole

As I started knitting,  yarns seemed to be based on singles of 5,600 ypp.  Gansey yarn was 5-ply (1,000 ypp, allowing for contraction as a result of twist).  The "worsted weight" of  Paton's and Lion Brand was 840 ypp  (e.g., 6-ply grist produced as a 3 or 4 ply yarn requiring  much less  twist and much cheaper to produce).

Paton also produced BeeHive  wool  which has a grist equivalent of  2 singles of 5,600 ypp, but was produced as a 4-ply yarn. It was based on singles of  11,200 ypp. Such singles have a lot of twist and are durable. One must pay for that extra twist and durability, but it was worth it. 

"Jumper yarn" was traditionally a 4-ply yarn with a grist of ~ 2,500 ypp. It was very good stuff. It was/is the basis of the sock fabric I want to knit. Most of the commercial lines of this yarn have been discontinued. Some of it is on ESTY. Over the years, I have bought samples of it from discount bins, but I never learned the technical knitting skills to use it to its highest use, and I did not understand how wonderful fabrics knit from these yarns could be. Now, these brands of wool seem to have been replaced with synthetics.  I still like campfires, so I am not looking for synthetics.

Few hand spinners spin 5-ply gansey yarn because it requires a lot of twist and is thus slow to produce.  The 4-ply, 2,500 ypp needs more than twice as much twist as gansey yarn.  It takes me 3 days to spin yarn for a gansey that takes me 9 days to knit so I should not feel too bad if it takes me more than a week to spin yarn for a sweater that takes me more than a month to knit.  

Spinning yarns based on finer singles is a real rabbit hole. If singles of 11,200 ypp are better, perhaps singles of  33,600 ypp would be much better? That is not a very deep rabbit hole - I spun some 10,000 ypp, 3-ply lace yarn a while back and decided I did not like knitting lace. For now, I am focused on "sock fabric".

As I study sock fabric, I am learning some technical skills - but mostly it is about the value of knitting good stuff. I thought I learned some of that knitting weatherproof ganseys.  No, I just scratched the surface.  The more we have cheap synthetic mass produced clothing, the more precious good clothing becomes. 

Good knit objects are some effort to produce, but if they are really good then you realize that they are worth much more than the effort put into producing them.   I want real value from my textile efforts.

My wife's mother was a very good, fast knitter - and her needles clicked. As I said, there are other reports of knitting needles clicking. As I have gotten more proficient with 1.3 mm needles, they have stopped clicking.  If my needles are clicking, that means that energy is being transferred to the other needle, instead of to the yarn. The needles are levers for moving loops of yarn. Energy that does not go into the yarn is wasted. And, clicking needles mean that one hand is transmitting stress and trauma to the other hand via the needles.  Why should I let one hand bang-up the other hand?

Knitting needle tips

 I have been moving toward blunter/flatter knitting needle/ knitting pins/knitting pricks for several years now. For a long while, I thought flat tips were better for knitting and domed or rounded tips were better for ribbing.

Today, I recognize that as a lack of skill.  Now, I like flat tips for knitting and purling. I like flat tips for ribbing. With skill from real practice, they are faster.  Perhaps, if I sit down and practice, I will be able to knit bobbles with flat tipped needles. (There might be 10 cakes of real 10-ply Aran yarn, in the stash.) However, from here I think pointy needles/ knitting pouch is a better toolkit for panels of brioche stitch.

Flat tipped (needles) do not  work well as hand held needles - they really do need a knitting sheath.  

And, knitting  sheaths work better with flat ended needles/pins/pricks. 

If  I need pointy needles for a substantial bit of knitting,  I likely use a knitting pouch. If it is just a few stitches, I will use them in a knitting sheath, or just hand hold them.

If you are going to FINISH a good stream of  fine socks (30,000 stitches per sock) per year, a knitting sheath and flat tipped needles are the easy path.

Sock Fabric

 I was going to spin the yarn, and knit a fine gansey this summer. 

Then, I realized that the fabric I wanted was actually "sock fabric".  

Thus, when I was out sailing with guys that had gotten many pairs of handknit ski and hiking socks from from me over the years, and I told them that my plans for the summer was to learn to knit socks, they were surprised.  However, there are socks and there are "socks"!

I cabled up some 6-ply, 1,680 worsted yarn, and started looking for needles to knit it. I was not impressed by 2 mm, 1.9 mm, 1.8 mm, 1.5 mm, . . .  . but ahh! the yarn comes alive with 1.3 mm needles. Stitches are easier to  knit and easier to see than with the thicker needles that I had tried.  Actually the 1.3 mm needle got mixed in to a set of 1.5 mm needles Iwas working with, an the difference was such an epiphany, that I frogged the 20,000 stitches that I had already knit with the 1.5 mm needles, and am reknitting it with 1.3 mm needles. (I have not frogged the first sock of the pair, and I may keep it because it is a good sock, just not a great sock. ) 

That yarn, knit with 1.3 mm needles is a lovely fabric, and just as importantly, it is as fast to knit as coarser fabrics knit on thicker needles. The stitches pop and are easy to see, and it is easy to feel when the stitch is correct. And, it is suddenly a smooth fabric, that will not chafe.  It is the same explosion of understanding as when I first knit 1,000 ypp gansey yarn with "gansey needles".  It convinces me that the magic of  gansey knitting is the ratio of the yarn grist to the diameter of the knitting needle. Now, I believe there are other such wonderful convergences between grist and needle size, with spinning factors such as twist per inch also important.

I also think "that magic" only appears when using a knitting sheath.  Now, I am using blunt tipped knitting "pins" or knitting "pricks", which do not work well with a leather knitting pouch.  More and more, I am convinced that knitting tools were rather specialized. A leather knitting pouch with pointy needles is a much better tool kit for lace, Fair Isle, and perhaps Aran sweaters with bobbles.  I no longer use my knitting pouch for socks.  If I needed a pair of lace socks, I would be buckling that  leather knitting pouch around my waist as I read the pattern.  More likely,  I would knit a fine pair of socks and then use the pouch to knit lace cuffs to stitch onto the socks. 

For a fine sock fabric, I want a knitting sheath, and fine needles. 

I do not care how long the needles are - I use whichever knitting sheath that brings the knitting into an ergonomic knitting zone.  The knitting bag now has 3 lengths of fine sock needles in it - and a different knitting sheath for each needle length. If I was a professional - knitting a ship cargos of one kind of sock, I would need only one set of needles and one knitting sheath. My personal knitting would just be done with that one tool kit. I have the 3 tool kits not because I do so much knitting, but because I want to know how those different tool kits work, and I do not have a teacher to ask.

Yes, this summer, I am learning how to knit a sweater of fine sock fabric. It may be blue or white or dyed, but my wife tells me it will not be any of the natural browns in the fiber stash. Oh Well! That frees up those brown fleece to be fine socks.

Craftsmanship

All objects are some compromise of: quality, schedule, available resources, and  budget,

Quality may be "pretty " for personal decoration, then the object  may need to be "warm" when worn outside or "cool" when worn under the lights on a movie set.  Or, quality may be "warm" to protect under Arctic conditions or under sustained cold rain or sustained wind.  Or, quality maybe durability.  Or, quality may be uniqueness or collectability. These are all valid measures of the quality of knit wear.

Schedule is how long the craftsman has to work on the object.  Does it need to be done tonight, in which case quality  and/or budget may suffer.  Or, is it a 30 years project, where quality and available resources may be maximized?

Available resources include all of the skills, tools and materials that are available within the schedule and budget.

Budget is the total cost of the project.  It may be financial as in you do not want to pay that much for some exotic yarn or take the time to learn the required skills; or,  you are knitting for enjoyment and want instant gratification.

Then the job of the craftsman is to produce the best compromise, within the project's constraints and the client's needs.  And, it is very possible that the craftsman is the client.

I am my own best client in that I make many things for myself.  I am also my own worst customer in that I am very demanding, and I tend to demand that objects get made over and over and until it meets very high quality standards.

Getting to such standards requires development of skills and tools.  If one does not have a teacher development of skills and tools, requires a series of studies.  People laugh at the thousands of swatches I have knit and tested.  The testing of many swatches is the systematic accumulation and organization of information.  It is science. The people who laugh at it,  do not understand science.  And, they do not understand that science is essential to real craftsmanship which relies on the accumulation of resources in the form of skills and tools.

If you assume that craftsmanship can be derived from received conventional wisdom, you miss the point that every communication results in lost information, so to retain a certain level of  craftsmanship, one must refresh, renew, and extend skills and tools.  That takes studies.  That takes science.

 As knitters with any pretension to craftsmanship we need to understand and practice good science.  If we are to be craftspeople, we need to avoid bad science.  We need to avoid studies and reports that cannot repeated.  

We need to call a "spade" a spade, and we need to call yarn by its correct name.  We need better labels and better yarn bands.

A Pile of lies

My last post was a pile of lies.

People often come after me, when I tell the truth, so I thought I would tell a pile of lies and see if anyone noticed.

They seem not to have noticed.

 First: "Ouvre", she said coyly. 
 (Gladys Thompson on page 5 of Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys, and Arans, third edition, copyright 1979 by Dover Publications.) is true.  Note well, that she does not mention "Spain or Portugal".  What authors do not say is often as important as what they do say.  Experts often know what their audience wants to hear, and make a point of not saying what their their audience does not want to hear, but they got to be "experts" by by being careful not to lie.  They dance around the truth, and the astute reader must learn to recognize the dances.

Gladys Thompson, seems to define "jersey" as having a warmer and usually denser fabric than a guernsey, but the rest of the post contained nonsense.  Nobody seems to have noticed much, but I am sure that now MANY will come out of the woodwork saying "Oh, I saw the error of Aaron's ways, but Aaron makes so many mistakes that I did not bother to enumerate these!"

With hand-held needles, one way to get a denser fabric is Eastern Stitch Mount which is perhaps best handled with Portuguese knitting.  (Most of the time it is really Portuguese purling.)  If you must make traditional Eastern Crossed Stitch fabric (ECS) with hand held needles, then Portuguese knitting is the way to go. At this time, you should review the discussions in Knitting in the Old Way and Mary Thomas's Knitting Book.  However, better is https://abundantyarn.wordpress.com/2010/03/22/ways-of-knitting-part-1-introduction-to-stitch-mount/ and http://petitevie.net/?p=1206.

If you need a lot of ECS fabric in a hurry, then stop; and - well the best use of Eastern Crossed Stitch fabric is socks, and the best way to make small tubular objects such as socks or gloves is swaving - using a knitting sheath with bent needles called "pricks".  In the past, I had trouble with pricks longer than 6" jamming and not turning easily in their knitting sheath. Now, pricks as long as 8" are working well for me. With a knitting sheath and pricks, Portuguese knitting will just slow you down.  With the high leverage of a knitting sheath, there are smaller motions that will do the job much faster   The virtues of practice.

If you do not need Eastern Crossed Stitch fabric, but only a denser fabric, then any stitch mount can be used with a KNITTING SHEATH and finer needles. Stitch mount ceases to be an issue.

Particularly with knitting in the round, I can switch from eastern stitch mount to western or vice-versa, and a hour later, I cannot tell which stitches were knit with which stitch mount. I can only tell by looking at the transition row. If it is a finished object, then I must look at the cast-on row to determine stitch mount. And, if it is finely knit, I need my linen tester.  I do not think that GT always got a chance to examine the cast-on row with her linen tester and thus often made her guernsey/jersey classification by the geometry of the patterns and the density of the fabric.

The fact that finely knit stitches become change shape as the fabric is knit more finely is the reason that I moved from "stitches per inch" to "stitches per square inch".  In finely knit fabrics, the stitches per inch does not convey the density of the fabric.  That is,  there are different fabrics that can be knit from the same yarn that will have the same number of stitches per inch, but have very different densities, warmth, durability, and hand/drape. Defining both spi and rpi does define the fabric, and stitches per square inch does define both spi and rpi.

Inspection of of the patterns in Patterns  tells us that Gladys Thompson considered fabrics with moderate density to be  "guernsey".  If we then take "gansey" to mean knit from fine yarns, (e.g., more than 2,000 ypp), then a sweater knit from ~1,650 ypp for Dunraven 3-ply could be a guernsey.  Guernseys knit from finer yarns  (e.g.,  ~2,500 ypp for Paton's 4-ply Behive used on pg 85),  would  also be considered ganseys. Thus, it  would be possible to have a "gansey guernsey". Note that modern Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift also has a grist of ~2,500 ypp, but being only 2 plies, produces a stiffer fabric than the old Beehive 4-ply when knit at 12 spi by 20 rpi. See  Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys and Arans, 3d ed. pages 83, 84 and 85.  

Note also that Weldon's also provides patterns for both seamen's guernseys and jerseys, allowing additional refining of the definitions.   Weldon's does not use the term "ganseys" 

This concept of finer plies producing finer fabric is why I bother to make my own 6-ply yarn at 1,650 ypp instead of just using commercial 3-ply sock yarn.  And, with all due respect to Alden Amos, more plies means a better hand/drape when knit fine. They used 5-ply for seaman's sweaters because it was warmer AND because it gave a better hand, AND because it was more durable. Real 10-ply Aran yarn makes a nice fabric when knit tight, 2 or 3-ply  Aran yarn makes less pleasant fabric when knit tight.  One can knit a very warm jumper from Jamieson's 2-ply Shetland Spindrift , but  4-ply Behive is about the same grist and will produce a warmer fabric with better hand when knit to the same gauge.  However, good luck finding commercial 2,500 ypp, 4-ply knitting yarns these days.  Good luck finding hand spinners that can produce 2,500 ypp 4-ply yarns these days.  You will likely have to order such a yarn from a mini-mill.  That is the difference between a skilled professional spinner, and a hobby hand spinner.  I am somewhere in between.  I am a hand spinner with a DRS wheel that makes spinning 2,500 ypp, 4-ply yarns easy.  I wish we had such spinning wheels for more hand spinners. with such a wheel, one can learn to spin such yarns in a few days.

I do think, the Channel Islands got knitting from the Islamic world very early, and started buying wool from England by the time of Henry Beauclerc, and knit/ sold sweaters to English seamen fishing the Icelandic waters in the 14th century, Portuguese fishermen taking cod in the North Atlantic in the 15th century, and the seamen that explored for Henry the Navigator.  I think it would be VERY odd if the origins of guernseys and jerseys were not knit eastern stitch mount. However, that was 70 generations ago.  Since then, knitters on the shores of the North Sea, the Baltic, the Finnish Sea, the Irish Sea, the English Channel, the Mediterranean, the China Sea, the Atlantic, and the Pacific have all been linked by sea commerce.  In the way of commerce, they have sought to produce better products faster and cheaper. Improvements include knitting pouches, and at least 3 rather specialized forms of knitting sheaths. 

With a proper knitting sheath, very fine fabrics can be knit at a practical pace using any stitch mount.

Hobby knitters like to pretend that they are knitting as fine and as fast as the knitters of old, and they have told each other this since the days of Queen Victoria.  Hobby knitting is an echo chamber. Experts dance around the truth and do not say differently.  They take traditional finely knit patterns and revise them to be less finely knit. (e.g., Nancy Bush and  Alice Starmore take patterns for utilitarian objects and convert them to make very pretty, but fragile objects.) Thereby, hobby level knitters can pretend they are knitting "ganseys".  I certainly took part in this echo chamber, and knit what everyone else was calling "ganseys". They are very good sweaters, but I no longer consider those sweaters to be "ganseys".   P. A Gibson-Roberts,  D. Robson, and E. Zimmerman have  likewise been careful not to tell some truths.  One such truth is that long DPN ("gansey needles") are not useful without a knitting belt or knitting sheath to help control the long needles.  These experts set-up generations of knitters to fail by telling them that guernseys and jerseys were mostly knit on long needles, and failing to mention that using a knitting sheath was more important than the length of needles.  For example, the commercial pattern, A Channel Islands' Guernsey / Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys, and Arans specifies 11 DPN. I usually knit this pattern on 6 +1 DPN  that are 12" long because that knitting sheath works well in the stuffed chair in front of the TV.  However, when I am in a hurry I use 18" gansey needles because they are faster. (Piece work knitters always wanted more speed.) However, with the 18" needles,  I need to sit in the wooden chair by the kitchen window where that knitting sheath works. (It rubs on my overstuffed chair.)  Nevertheless,  I can make good progress on  "A Channel Islands' Guernsey", in a doctor's office, or in the car or on an airplane using 8" DPN and (another) knitting sheath, or even just a leather knitting belt. The 8" needles provides less leverage, so there is more stress on my hands, but not enough extra stress to be a problem in less than a few weeks. (I noticed again this morning that the 12" needles used Friday evening, produce a more uniform fabric than the 8" needles used for KIP yesterday.  This was not a surprise.  The 8" needles with sheath produce a better fabric than I can knit with hand-held needles, but the 12" needles produce an excellent fabric.)

The main thing that a knitting belt or knitting sheath provides is stability that facilitates  the use of very fine needles. And, a steel needle with a knitting sheath allows knitting faster, so that the greater number of stitches that a fine fabric requires can be accomplished in a reasonable time. Knitting sheaths allow knitting a higher quality fabric. 

The best fabrics I have ever knit

Worsted spun 5-ply knit on 2 mm needles.

Gauge is 35 stitches per 4" and 50 rows per 4" for ~109 stitches per square inch. It is a nice jersey fabric.

The fabric is about the same weight, hand, and drape as your favorite knit sweat shirt from Nordstrom, but it is wool, so it is warmer in the wet than cotton, and less flammable than polyester. It is long wool, so it is very durable.  However, the wool is fine enough to be skin soft.  And unlike many of the synthetic fibers, it does not stink.

This is the fabric that I set out to knit 16 years ago, hand knit, but warm enough to keep a fisherman warm on the North Atlantic.  It is,in fact, the fabric seen in some of the patterns in Gladys Thompson.  This is the yarn and gauge that makes Pattern 1, A Channel Island's Guernsey fit the size given.   Moreover, with long needles and a knitting sheath the pattern and the knitting is easy. 

It is not easy on circular needles.

To get here, I had to learn about long needles and knitting sheaths that provide the leverage and speed to make such knitting practical.  You are not going to knit like this with circular needles.  I know, I tried for years and years.  I moved to long needles and knitting sheaths only after it was clear that circular needles are not practical for such knitting.  I am not saying such knitting cannot be done on circular needles, I am saying circular needles are not practical for such knitting.  Think about it, do you know anybody that produces such objects on a regular basis using circular needles?

It is too warm?  Not if one is determined to do interesting things in interesting places, regardless of the weather.

It is too much bother to knit?  One must be somewhere,  while you are there, you can be knitting.

Related fabrics include:

 This is based on woolen spun, 2-ply yarn of about the same grist and also knit on 2 mm needles to produce a lovely Guernsey fabric.  Again, about 110 spi^2.   Knit on finer needles, the surface becomes much  smoother and the fabric more water repellent.

These are my answers to the question: "How did the old seamen manage to stay warm?" They used long needles and knitting sheaths to knit the kind fabrics noted above. Given the warmth and durability of the fabric, it was worth the effort, because with long needles and knitting sheaths, it is not really that much effort.

These both happen to be commercial yarns. Am I sorry that I put the effort into learning to spin?  Not at all.  I had to learn about yarn to become a better knitter.  

Good Knitting

I get asked if I consider myself a"good knitter" on a fairly regular basis.  Usually, it is as a snide, "Do you think you are an expert knitter?"

That is a hard question to answer, because what is an "expert knitter"?

Is it someone that has been through the Master's Knitting Program?  No, I have not been through the any MKP.

I think being a good knitter is being able to knit the required fabric to size and finish the object appropriately.  For example, boot socks need to be durable; and, socks knit for winter wear should be warm, while boot socks knit for summer wear should be cool.  Objects knit to be decorative should be beautiful, and stay beautiful for an extended life span.  Knit sportswear, should have appropriate warmth for the activity, be attractive, and stay attractive for many seasons of  wear.  Objects knit to be worn during work should be very suited to the nature of the work.  In any case, the knit object can be no better than the fabric. At the core of being a good knitter is being able to knit, not just a good fabric, but the right fabric for the object. And, the object can be no better than its fit. Thus, at a minimum, I think that a good knitter can produce excellent fabrics with near perfect fit and finish in a reasonable time period. And, an expert knitter can produce exceptional fabrics with perfect fit, and finish, very quickly.

Traditionally, British seaman's sweaters were considered masterpieces of  knitting. A catalog of  such objects is  Gladys Thompson's, Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys, and Arans (PGJA).

However, most modern knitters do not knit the fabrics as described in the PGJA. The first sweater in the book is A Channel Island's Guernsey as knit on a commercial basis for working seamen. The suggested yarn is 5-ply worsted spun, at ~ 1,000 ypp, and the pattern says that 416 stitches give a chest of 44 inches in pattern. That is 9.5 spi or  37 stitches per 10 cm in pattern.  Total number of stitches per square inch is around 150.  I expect a good knitter to have knit such objects at the stated gauge, and had them fit very well. That yarn, knit at that gauge, has virtues, which do not appear when the yarn is knit more loosely. Knitting "tightly" is a misnomer, as the virtues are achieved by knitting with finer needles to produce more stitches per square inch, rather than knitting "tighter".   A good knitter knows how to work with these virtues because the knitter has made and tested a variety of such objects.  Such knitters have worked with fine needles before, and climbed the substantial experience curve. One does not knit such objects on a first try. (cf: Rae Compton's patterns)

Another set of examples in PGJA are the Sheringham Guernseys and ganseys that are knit with finer yarns, resulting in as many as 240 stitches per square inch. Again, the path to the finer fabric leads through finer needles, not tighter knitting.  The needles used for Sheringham ganseys, are so thin e.g., (1.5 mm) and flexible, that "knitting tighter" is simply not an option. Yarn tension is absolutely limited by the spring constant of the needles.

Finer fabrics require finer needles.  And, more stitches per square inch requires faster knitting to finish objects in a reasonable period of time. It can be done.  It is a matter of knowing the craft, and having the right tools.

For years, I worked almost exclusively with US1 needles, but over the last several months, I have converted to needles in the 1.5 mm range. The full transition took a couple of years. The first part of that transition was leaning that blunt needles allowed knitting fast enough to finish finely knit objects in a reasonable time. It required understanding the physics, visualizing the skills, making the tools, and then actually developing the skills. Again, the bottom line is that both tools and skills matter.  The skills without the tools are nothing.  The tools without the skills are just junk. However, I do not see instructions in modern knitting text on how to practically produce such fabrics, and such fabrics are ignored in modern master's knitting courses.

The bottom line is that I think Gladys Thompson's, Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys, and Arans, as written, sets an enduring standard of knitting excellence. A careful reading of  Weldon's Practical Knitter, tells us that, yes people did knit like this, but the gauges are not as clearly stated. In fact, the Woolen Guernsey Frock in Weldon's Twenty-First Series, is similar in gauge the first Guernsey in PGJA  but includes some additional finishing detail that the expert knitter may wish to use. If one can knit the objects in PGJA ( or Weldon's)  as written, then that is a much sterner test than any modern master knitting program. What master knitting programs teach -- is how to knit in the fashion of our time.  Such knitting is not an enduring standard of excellence.

Current contents of  my knitting project box including a leather apron,

2+ hanks of 5-ply worsted spun LONG WOOL,

knitting journal, PGJA, knitting sheath,

 crochet hook, tapestry needle, and stitch markers. 

There are ~10,000 stitches on the (6 x 1.5 mm x 12") needles at this point. If I was knitting an Elizabeth Zimmerman sweater (e.g., 5 spi), it would be ~ 1/4th done.

Close-up of  needle tips.

 A gauge swatch, knit in the round, on gansey needles for the current set of projects.

Gauge is ~150 stitches per square inch with the 5-ply, ~1,000 ypp worsted spun yarn.

That is a gauge that one is NOT going to get with larger needles, regardless of how strong their  hands are.

This is absolutely one of the best fabrics that I have ever knit as outer wear in foul weather.  It is very much on a par with the Aran weight MacAusland (the great gardening gansey) knit on the 1/8th inch steel needles, but is a great deal less work to knit.  And, while just as warm, it is much lighter in weight and more comfortable to wear. 

The project box contents for a Sheringhan gansey differs by the kind of yarn, and a few more stitch markers.  These days, I knit the Sheringham fabrics very much in the style of the sock fabric below. For a pair of downhill ski socks, I use the 5-ply yarn, and the same needles, but sometimes I swave the feet. For a pair of sport socks, I use 6-strand, worsted spun, 1,650 ypp yarns with 1.5 mm swaving needles.

Swaved sock in progress on 1.5 mm needles.

6-strand, worsted spun, 1,650 ypp yarn

This cabled yarn is cool and the fabric breathes very well.

They are all nice fabrics, each with its own virtues.

Return from a Memorial Day climb in Yosemite. 

The previous day and night, our camp, (4,000 feet higher, and on the west side of the ridge) got several feet of snow that promptly blew into drifts many feet deep. We were equipped for an early summer climb, not for a descent in deep snow. Getting out was quite a slog. We said some unkind things about weathermen.  On the other hand, Bishop and Lone Pine did get only a trace of  rain that week,  

These are the kind of guys that get the gear I knit.  We go, we look, we touch, we feel.  In those days, we wore poly-pro, and we smelled.  Wool is better!

Size 12 or 13 needles

The first pattern in Gladys Thompson is A Channel Islands' Guernsey.

The pattern was provided to GT by de Cararte and le Patourel of Guernsey. They owned a very old commercial firm that produced hand knit objects for export for sale to sailors at ports from Gibraltar to Reykjavik and St Petersburg.  De Cararte and le Patourel were only one of several firms in the Channel Islands that exported knitwear for seamen and fishermen.  Shiploads of fine knitwear was produced and shipped from the Channel Islands. Thus, we can be sure that there was a lot of knit wear worn by seamen, all knit to a similar level of fineness.

Some say, they do not find it in the museums.

Where did it all go?  Good husbands/ sons/ brothers, discarded it, and took a bath as soon as they got to shore.  Bad  husbands/ sons/ brothers wore them home, so their wife/mother/sister had to cut it off them, and burn it while the seaman took a bath with lye soap. Real seaman's knit wear was not likely to end up in a museum.

In the Guernsey pattern, 334 stitches are used for a chest size of 38 inches.  That means there were ~8.8 spi or 35 stitches per 4" or 10 cm.  The Guernseys were knit very tight. Since it  was a competitive industry, we can assume that the other firms knitting for seamen knit similarly tightly.  Why?  Because it is a warm, weatherproof fabric.  I know, I have knit a lot of it for myself and my friends. I knit it because it is our favorite fabric for foul weather wear.

A doodle in the round on "A Channel Islands' Guernsey" patterns.

The stockinette has a gauge of just over 9 spi and the

pattern variations are at just under 9 spi.

The needles are size 12. 

The yarn is a commercial 5-ply worsted spun

with a grist of ~950 ypp

However, there is a group that claims such fine tight knitting was never common or useful.  That is because they do not know how to knit such fabrics.  They have not knit such fabrics.  And, they have not tested such fabrics in serious foul weather.

However, knitting such objects is easy - if you know how.  First you use long needles called "gansey" needles. If you have gotten this far, you know I have been working with gansey needles for 10 years. With gansey needles you need a fulcrum so you can apply leverage for fast and powerful knitting.  You can use a knitting belt as your fulcrum, but a real knitting sheath is a more controlled fulcrum and  allows much faster knitting.

On page 7,  GT tells us to use Size 12 or 13 needles for knitting the Guernsey. Because of the group that claims 8 spi is as tight as necessary for gansey yarn, we assume the "Size 12 or 13" refers to the  UK sizes in the range of 2.25 - 2.75 mm. Such needles do produce the 7 to 8 spi the the group likes to think is as tight as such yarn can be knit.

However, The Channel Islands are not the UK. The 12 or 13 does not refer to UK needle sizes. Once one drops the assumption that the 12 or 13 is UK sizing, then one does what one always does, and one swatches until one gets to 8.8 spi.  I have knit a lot of  5-ply gansey yarn at 8.8 spi, so I know that it happens on 1.5 mm gansey needles with a knitting sheath.   I have a great number of such needles, because I like the fabric that results from knitting this yarn at this gauge. If I was knitting objects for sale to seamen, 8.8 spi is the gauge I would choose, because seamen would appreciate the warmth of the fabric.  Remember, this is the gauge that I knit for the guys that have saved my life.

If you flip thorough the various standards for wire sizing, it turns out the the needles I use are in fact Size 13 in AWG.  So, yes I get 8.8 spi from gansey yarn using Size 13 needles, just not UK13!

Thinner needles

When I started using long steel needles some 12 years ago, I thought they would last forever.

When new, my US1 needles were 2.38 mm in diameter.  Now, having been buffed to a shine every few months,  I notice that some of the needles are down in the range of 2.2 to 2.25 mm. (And in the last couple of years, most have had their pointy tips ground off and are now blunt.)

A swatch being knit from Romney handspun 5-ply gansey yarn on 1.95 mm needles.

Gauge is ~ 90 stitches per square inch.

As you can see, they are blunt and there is plenty of wiggle room in the US 0

needle size hole

.  

Nevertheless, I like them in their new slimmer format and I keep on using them. (However, now that I have discovered blunt needles, I tend to use needles in the US 0 to US 000 range.)

If they were commercial plated needles they would be long, long gone.

One truth is that knitting needles wear out, and are recycled.  This would be particularly true for copper, brass and bronze needles.  (Brass needles are wonderful to knit with, but most brass alloys leave toxic residue on both the hands and the wool.)

A corollary is that most archaeologists think that knitting needles are pointy. This is not necessarily true.  Today, I do not think that most archaeologists would recognize the objects that I do my best knitting on, as knitting tools. And yet, we have historical descriptions of such objects used for knitting. As metal objects, as they wore out or broke, and the pieces would be recycled.  As pieces of rod with rounded ends, archaeologists would not recognize them as knitting needles.  Old wooden knitting needles would become kindling. No, I am not at all surprised that archaeologists have not found knitting needles.

In particular, how many archaeologists would recognize pricks as knitting tools?  And, yet they are the tool of choice for fine socks and gloves, just as gansey needles are the tool of choice for large objects. However, over the last year,  my idea of  best gansey needles has changed from long pointy 2.38 mm needles to long, blunt 1.95 mm (and thinner) needles.

Some of the current generation of "gansey needles".

The table at the bottom of the rabbit hole

I have been knitting socks from 1650 ypp sock yarn on 1.75 mm needles, and liked the fabric - a lot.

I have some OLD commercial 3-ply spun from LONG wool (1650 ypp), and:

Knit on 1.5 mm needles it comes out at about 140 or 150 stitches per square inch.  It is a lovely skin soft fabric with good drape.  It is not weatherproof, but it is very warm. It breathes and is feather light.  If I was living in a thatched  stone hut heated only by a peat fire, it is what I would want next to my skin. Heck, I might want it here in California and just switch off the heat.  I like this fabric more than any modern hand knit fabric that I have seen in the last 30 years.

A sweater would be about 500 grams. I do not have that much of the old, long-wool, sock yarn.  I do have some Meridian Jacob that looks and acts just like good Shetland fiber,  I might have to re-purpose it.

I figure it would take about 200 hours to knit a Jersey of this fabric or about 300 hours to knit a Gansey from this yarn.

Note that the Norfolk II gansey on pg 85 of  Gladys Thompson is knit form Paton's 4-ply Beehive at 240 stitches per square inch.  Paton's 4-ply Beehive had a grist of 2,700 ypp. There are traditions of knitting fine yarns on fine needles.

GW 2

These days, I do not keep a great wheel.  I do have 2 motor driven spindles and 2 spindles that fit onto my treadle wheel.  None of these are as impressive to look at as a GW, but they are faster. And, they all allow me more use of both hands for drafting true worsted.

The motor driven spindles are easy to pause or stop, but hard to reverse.  Therefore, I had to learn how to wind-on with the spindle going in the same direction as when spinning.  It can be done, the answer is "out there", and I have no interest in teaching driven spindle technique.

If one does not have to reverse the spindle, then one does not have to stop, or pause the spindle, and the spindle can rotate continuously in the same direction.  One CAN spin a entire hank of single on a great wheel without ever reversing the wheel to wind on.  This can be much faster/easier than reversing rotation to wind-on depending on the inertia of the rotating system.

Nevertheless, the spindle must be slowed at various points in the spinning/drafting/wind-on process. Even though the spindle/wheel always rotates in the same direction, the slowdown/speedup cycle wastes energy. And, the wind-on cycle slows production of yarn. 

A spindle on my treadle wheel can insert twist many times faster than the flyer/bobbin assembly,  but the DD flyer bobbin assembly will spin and wind-on much more yarn in a minute or an hour or a day.  One of the motor driven spindles can insert twist many times faster than either spindle on my treadle wheel, but net production of single is not much different. Net production of spun yarn by a spindle is limited by the nature of its cycle, rather than by its peak speed.

A DRS flyer/bobbin assembly is the fastest hand spinning device for most natural fibers. Ring spinning can be faster for silk, but that is a specialized application.  Yes, those old double drive spinning wheels were the fastest way to spin.  They used the two loops of the drive band to synchronize the rotation of the bobbin and flyer to insert just the right amount of twist as the yarn was wound in at just the correct rate for the inserted twist. They did not have the drive band slip that is built into modern double drive wheels.  The result is that a double drive wheel without drive band slip that can produce singles much faster than a great wheel.  This is a truth that you have heard before.  It is just that all  modern DD wheels do have drive band slip and thus, spin more slowly than a GW.   In fact, a DRS flyer/bobbin assembly can produce true worsted spun yarn 5 times faster than a great wheel.  Every sock knitter should think about that.

And, since DRS is faster, sock yarns of more and finer (true worsted spun)  plies are possible.  These are very nice yarns that are simply out of reach of even the best spinners using a GW.  The use of DRS opens up spinning true worsted 5-ply gansey or even 10-ply Aran yarns.  And, it makes spinning true worsted warp for the loom much more feasible.

 On the other hand, a DRS flyer/bobbin assembly requires real skill to setup and maintain. I have seen two old DRS double drive wheels where the original DRS ratios had been "repaired", and the wheel converted to  modern standards.   As a result of the repairs, they could spin lower grist yarns, but could only do so --- slowly. These had been true collector's items and the owners were very proud of how fast they could spin -- if they only know how fast those wheels had been originally designed to spin, they would have been agast!   The difference between these wheels as designed and these wheels as "repaired" was only millimeters, and yet it made a huge difference in their performance. If one can teach the basics of using a GW in a 4-day workshop, then I would say that one could teach the basics of using DRS in a 4-week workshop.

Yes, Holin, my old Ashford can spin/ply a 500 yd hank of sport weight, worsted spun, 5-ply (gansey yarn) in an easy day.  How long does it take your GW?  In less than 14 hours, I can spin/ply a 500 yd hank of  worsted spun, 3x2-ply cabled, 1,600 ypp "sock yarn".  How long does that take your GW?  Shall we set up a demonstration in front of a judge and jury?  I want spinners like Judith MacKenzie and Stephenie Gaustad who know, and appreciate,  worsted spun yarns involved.

I have only been spinning for 6 years. (And, I was sick with Lyme Disease for much of that time!)  How long have you been spinning?  What will I be spinning when I have spun as long as you have been spinning?

My Knitting Pins

In the last couple of years I have made myself a full set of blunt ended knitting pins.   At this point, I have decided that I do not need the "pointies" any more and have packed them up and  . . . . .

At this juncture, I knit with steel knitting pins that flex and  curved steel "pricks" that rotate in the knitting sheath.  The pricks are better for small objects such as gloves and socks, while the pins are better for large objects.


This is everything that I think I need to knit anything I want to knit from any yarn I want to knit:

 The whole kit

  18 " long Gansey needles in 2 mm and 2.3 mm

(not shown are 8 more in WIP)

A few favorite knitting sheaths and a crochet hook

B--> T; 1.3 mm pins and pricks, 1 mm pins, 1.5 mm pins and swaving pricks

 B--> T; 2 mm swaving pricks & clew, 2 mm pins, 2.3 mm swaving pricks and notions, 2.3 mm pins

Many of these needles/pricks have been used for 300,000 stitches. Prototypes were used here in the house, and prototype needles got trips to the shop until I had needles that worked the way I wanted them to work.  Mostly the pins cost me between $0.10 and $0.60 each to make.  I have the tools and skills to make them quickly and accurately. So I can afford to have what I think is just the right needles for the project.  My knitting tool selection is not limited to what is available at LYS, Stitches, TNNA or even the internet. Thus,  the problem is deciding what IS the right needle or pin.  

The criteria are:

1. Must work for yarn between 850 and 2,000 ypp.
2. Must allow fast knitting with minimum stress on hands/wrists.
3. Must produce very uniform fabric.
4. Must allow production of dense fabric.
5. Must be very durable.

The needles and knitting sheaths that I use are the best compromise on the above criteria that I have ever seen, heard about, or read about. It took me about 2 years to switch from circular needles to DPN/ knitting sheaths.  It has taken me about 2 years to switch from pointy needles to blunt pins. When I find something better, I will move to something better.

A needle for every yarn

I started with pointed needles because EVERYONE said that is how one knits.  I started with hand hand-held needles because that was how everyone knit.

Then, there was this hint that old knitters used long needles, and I tried that, and it did not work

Except there was this hint in Mary Thomas that in the old days, when everyone did knit, they used knitting sheaths. and it turned out that yes, a knitting sheath did tame the long needles.

Much experimentation resulted in the discovery that long (pointy) steel  needles with diameter of ~2.25 mm really did produce lovely fabrics from soft worsted weight and firm sport weight yarns.  And the spring constant of that size of music wire allowed a spring action that allowed fast knitting.

I experimented with finer needles, right down to 0.5 mm, but never got that nice combination of  wonderful fabric and fast knitting. Thus, I spent several years knitting mostly with pointy US 1 size needles and sport weight to worsted weight yarns ( 1,000 ypp to 850 ypp).  It was not so bad, the combination produced a class of fabrics very well  suited to many of the outdoor activities that I like.

A couple of years ago, I had some splitty sport weight yarn and tried knitting it with blunt size UK 13 needles.  It worked very well. Then, I made blunt ~2 mm needles for knitting softer spun sport weight. The result was better than I expected.  First, it was clear that the knitting motion was smaller, so even the reduced spring constant of the thinner needle could produce more stitches per minute.  So while the stitches were smaller, the actual area of fabric knit per unit time was similar.  I had found a way to knit fabrics that I liked on finer needles at a reasonable rate.

More recently, have been making and experimenting with blunt needles in the sizes of  1.3 mm and 1.5 mm.  These produce nice warm, firm fabrics from 3-ply and 6-strand "sock yarns" in the 1700 ypp range.  And, the knitting motion is so small that it can be performed very fast, resulting in reasonable production rates.  Counter intuitively, I can knit much faster with flat tipped needles than with pointy needles. Adopting flat ended needles seems to be the last technical requirement to knitting Jerseys and Sheringham ganseys.  I had produced samples of the fabric before, but it was always as a tour de force, and it was never as a convenient and practical fabric. The effort of making such fabrics on pointy needles was too high to make such fabrics practical.

Flat tipped, flexible steel needles allows me to knit large objects from the same fine, dense fabric that I had previously only been able to reasonably produce in smaller objects such as gloves and socks by swaving.

Belaying "pin" for sail boats. 

Shear  "pin"

Taper "pin"

Yes, "knitting pins" included blunt rods and wires.  These days I have knitting pins with blunt or flat ends in sizes from 1.3 mm to 2.38 mm and in lengths from 10 to 18 inches.  They are an old school tool for making old school fabrics.  I make them all of spring steel from the local hardware store.  I find that a knitting sheath works better than a Shetland knitting pouch for blunt tipped knitting pins.

Blunt points work well on cable crosses and  bobbles. If it works for nice bobbles, it will work for nupps etc. It is a different technique, but the equipment works.

Speculation from Ignorance

Recently, I have been seeing a lot of Speculation from Ignorance about my knitting. It is derogatory. What drives them to slander and libel me?

Do they really think that when somebody spends 15 years working out how to make knit objects that are just the way he likes them, that he is going to come up with crap?  No, in 15 years one can learn how to make the best possible objects.

Are the sexist? Who cares? This is likely a deeper emotion. They are lazy, and they want fast gratification.

They do not want folks talking about fine needles producing fine knitting.

If they want to produce knitting as good as mine, they need to use needles as fine as mine. They do not want to put in the effort required by fine needles. They want to be elite knitters, but they do not want to put in the effort required for fine knitting. Thus, they want to shut me up as fast as possible.

 
I was in the LYS today, and a lady was talking (with awe) about the fine hand knitting produced on 3 mm needles during the 1920s. As she was speaking, I was knitting 2,000 ypp, 3x2 cabled yarn on 1.75 mm (flat ended) needles at 14 spi. It is a nice fabric.  In is a finer fabric than can be produced on most of the needles that most modern knitters use.  I am not saying anything against those fabrics knit quickly on fat needles, I am saying that the fabrics that I produce on finer needles have particular virtues. Once you get into the rhythm of the process, it goes pretty fast.  After 15 years, I can say that I am approaching fine knitting.

Look at the old Izod polo shirts.  They were finely knit wool.  I can remember when there were finely knit wool rugby shirts.  The term "shirt" traditionally included finely knit wool.

Back to needles with flat ends

A few pairs of socks later, I have worked out how to do decreases with a (knitting sheath) and needles with flat ends.

Flat ends are not for hand held knitting. but they can make knitting with a knitting sheath much faster and produce a higher quality fabric.

The difference is particularly noticeable using needles in the 9" to 12" range. While the shorter (than long gansey needles) were always very convenient (to carry), the actual knitting (with a knitting sheath) was a bit awkward, and  I resorted to texturing the taper of the needle tips to keep the yarn from falling off.  Flat  needle ends greatly changes my perspective on the Scotch and Dutch use of short needles with knitting sheaths.  Flat needle tips turn these  methods in to much more powerful techniques. I should have known they would have a better technology.

With flat needle ends  the tendency for the wrap of yarn to fall off the needle tip disappears and the arc of the needle squarely pulls the wrap though the working stitch.  I do not know why I did not see this before.  ( I must have thought that modern long needles called "gansey needles" must be like the old gansey needles.)

Careful review of old photos professional knitters convinces me that they did in fact use very blunt or flat ended needles with their knitting sheaths.

On the other hand, the technique of knitting with a knitting sheath and flat ended needles is more different from knitting with  pointed hand held needles than knitting with a knitting sheath and pointed needles  is different from knitting with knitting with pointed hand held needles.  I am not at all sure that if I had put flat ended needles into my first knitting sheath, I would ever have been able to make knitting sheaths work at all.  If I had started with blunt ended needles, I would likely have given up before I understood the glory of  knitting sheaths,

And certainly, the objects that I knit with knitting sheaths and pointed needles were knit much better and much faster than I would ever have been able to knit them with only hand held needles.  I do not regret the use of pointed needles to learn the concepts of knitting sheaths.  Pointed needles were my training wheels.

I knit about 20 hours per week, (most of a very good boot sock yesterday) and it has been weeks since I knit  with  pointed needles.  Knitting sheaths are better then hand held needles, and flat ended needles work better with knitting sheaths. I still keep a pair of fine pointed needles handy for picking up stitches ( or crossing cables) and a crochet hook handy for fixing mistakes. Otherwise, I am done with pointed knitting needles.  I might pick them up again for lace (there are still lace WIP), but for knitting gansey style fabric (sweaters, boot socks, hats, and  etc), I am done with pointed needles.