Sunday, February 27, 2011

How long did it take to make a Seaman's sweater?

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When I first asserted that knit "sweaters" were a regular part of a seaman's regular wear, I was told that they took too long ...
Friday, February 25, 2011

Cable needles and knitting sheaths

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Single point needles and cable needles do not work with knitting sheaths. At one point, I put a lot effort into thinking about ways it co...
5 comments:
Friday, January 14, 2011

Virtues of Scotch Tension

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Previously, I noted that Double Drive (DD) spinning wheels can go faster because they have two drive bands to transmit that power from the d...
9 comments:
Sunday, January 09, 2011

A New Twist on Lace Fliers

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I came to spinning not as a spinner, but as a person interested in yarns that I could not get from commercial sources. As a good student, I...
9 comments:
Monday, December 06, 2010

Modern Knitting as Art

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Back in art school, I learned that: Art is something that makes people think about their world. In general, art is a non-functional represen...
5 comments:

In the Begining

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I wore a very nice hand knit fisherman's sweater, and I about froze, so I asked the question, “How did the old fishermen stay warm?” As...
3 comments:
Monday, November 22, 2010

I got it wrong on spindles

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I looked at videos of Peruvian spinners, and thought they were using the Berber spiral groove on their bottom whorl spinners. They were not...
1 comment:
Sunday, November 07, 2010

The state of yarn

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Knitters talk about how warm a lace shawl is -- that is silly.  Lace shawls are only "warm" in the context of a very mild environ...
8 comments:
Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Drop spindles do gansey yarn

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Spindles for testing A friend, who is a very experienced spinner with a large collection of good spinning equipment, "demanded"...
7 comments:

Why 5-ply?

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Alden Amos says in his, Big Book of Handspinning, that there is no reason to spin 5-ply yarns. In fact, 5-ply yarns are more supple for th...
2 comments:
Thursday, July 22, 2010

Handspun gansey yarn

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I have not posted for a bit, because I was learning to spin my own gansey yarn. I had been told that NOBODY ever spun gansey yarn by hand ...
2 comments:
Sunday, July 11, 2010

An apology about waterproofing wool

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A couple of years ago, a yarn supplier told me that a drop of baby oil would oil ,and waterproof wool. I tried it, and it has worked very we...
2 comments:
Saturday, July 10, 2010

hand spun gansey yarn

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I just passed a milestone and had something of an epiphany. I am working with Cotswold, spinning and swatching for a gansey. I had been wor...
6 comments:

Two Ply, Three Ply, More Ply

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I have been hand spinning classic gansey yarn from traditional British long wool fleece. The extreme fineness of the singles that I had to s...
Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Adapters

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There were places I had to go, and things I had to say (in other places). Then, I had to learn to use my new spinning wheel. Then, I had to ...
4 comments:
Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Nothing in the mud?!

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How many knitted seaman’s frocks would YOU expect to find from the medieval period? We will not know that there were medieval ganseys unless...
6 comments:
Saturday, February 27, 2010

New technology needles

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I have been admiring and praising the Hya-Hya DPN for knitting softer spun yarns on the basis of some hand knitting at a show. These are ver...
3 comments:
Sunday, February 21, 2010

Citations

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I do not give many citations. Suppose I cite British customs taxes from the 14 th century? The few folks that would go to London and check t...
4 comments:
Friday, February 19, 2010

My View of Knitting History

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I am highly amused by the reaction that I get when I talk about knitting sheaths in history groups. Knitting sheaths are tools, like rocks a...
8 comments:
Wednesday, February 03, 2010

An approach to using different sized needles with the same knitting sheath

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Many Victorian knitting sheaths have adapters that allow several different sized needles to be used with the same knitting sheath.   Many of...
6 comments: