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Or therapy. Excuse #1 for spending time with knitting after many years away is that my hands get very sore from typing, and knitting is completely different in the way you use your hands. Excuse #2 is I wanted something that could be done indoors or out, and taken along when waiting somewhere (traveling, for instance.) Excuse #3 is that I’d been feeling the need to do something with my hands for others. Other than family, I mean.
Well before I started knitting again, knitting intruded into the book then being written (next year’s book.) I remembered enough of my prior knitting experience…but just writing it made my hands start to wiggle in knitting movements. (That’s when I realized it felt good to hands tight and sore from hours of typing.) I know I mentioned people knitting (background) in the first round of Paksworld books, but I was a lot closer to my knitting past then, and my mother (who knit, crocheted, needle-pointed, embroidered, and sewed beautifully–all of it) was still alive. Since then I’ve forgotten a lot she taught me.
So I’m knitting again. There’s a group in central Texas called The Linus Connection that distributes hand-made blankets for children in crisis situations. I’m working on a blanket. Blankets for this group must be machine washable/dryable, and synthetic yarn if knitted or crocheted. So I’m doing research, perforce, because in the old days (!!) I knit only with wool and only on straight needles (knitting round on four double-pointed needles.) And I never used variegated colors. Now I’m working with synthetic yarn, variegated colors, and a circular (cable) needle. My hands like the movements. My brain is fascinated with what I’ve forgotten, figuring out how to fix mistakes, and the new stuff–the yarn, the effect of different colored dyes on the same yarn (the blue stretches have one “feel” and behavior; the green, red, orange, gold have different feels and behaviors.)
I’ve picked up some knitting magazines, one of which has a couple of fascinating historical articles on knitting and nällbinding. Some historical details will creep into future books, I’m sure. The history of fabric–the different ways different cultures have approached “linear strands” and turned them into “surface”–is fascinating, and one of foundations of economic exchange from way back. So when I quit writing for half an hour to put another row on the project, it really is research, not just therapy.
The white rings mark where I’ll change from garter stitch when the border (all garter stitch) is done (except the 20 stitches marked off at each end–a garter stitch border will run down each side.
Comment by Betsy — April 27, 2011 @ 11:59 am
Naalbinding is great if you like sewing (it’s essentially an elaborate buttonhole stitch). Youtube has some great instructional videos, but the best I’ve seen are here:
http://www.vajanto.net/gradu/
The author was doing her master’s thesis (in Finnish) on naalbinding, and she created some excellent videos showing how to form the stitches — since I don’t understand Finnish, I just mute the sound.
Did I mention that I love your writing?
Comment by elizabeth — April 27, 2011 @ 12:15 pm
The article I read said that it used a flat needle (something that could easily have been made from wood or bone or horn, for instance) and the stitch size was determined by the size of your thumb, because the yarn wrapped around the thumb. I thought it looked remarkable like knitting (in the piece shown in that article.) But I’m not thrilled with sewing (unlike my talented mother–she did her best, but it just didn’t grab me.)
And thanks for loving my writing!
Comment by Rachel — April 27, 2011 @ 12:55 pm
The other good thing about knitting is that you can do it in the dark. I have a friend who is a theater tech and knits as a way to keep occupied during the downtime of the show. When she’s working backstage she has an apron where her ball of thread, needles and current project all have their own pockets. When she’s the light board operator or running spot lights she works on blankets for project Linus. I’m amazed at how well she can knit without looking, though she can’t do all patterns in the dark 🙂
Of course now I have a vision of Stammel learning how to knit…
Comment by Betsy — April 27, 2011 @ 12:58 pm
Here are some examples of needles:
http://www.mielkesfarm.com/naalbind.htm
http://www.finniwig.com/nalebinding.htm#Nalebinding%20Needles
http://www.spanishpeacock.com/naalbinding.htm
Or, you can carve one out of an old toothbrush:
http://www.auntphillys.com/html/needle.html
The technique was used to make socks, hats, mittens, etc., but it was also used to “toothbrush rugs”, using strips of recycled fabric. In addition, it was used for trim on garments — I think needle tatting is similar.
There is one naalbinding stitch that looks like knitting, but most stitches don’t when you examine them carefully.
Naalbinding makes a nice dense fabric, excellent for felting / fulling. It’s especially good for socks, because each stitch is a knot, so even when a hole gets worn in the fabric, there’s no run, and the hole doesn’t grow. You can even cut the fabric, and it doesn’t unravel or fray.
Comment by elizabeth — April 27, 2011 @ 1:24 pm
I can’t yet knit in the dark. That may come with more practice, or not. I’ll need to do a lot of fault-free knitting before I’ll trust myself with it.
Comment by elizabeth — April 27, 2011 @ 1:25 pm
Fascinating; thanks for the links.
Comment by rainycity1 — April 27, 2011 @ 7:19 pm
*Lovely* knitting needles, and lovely yarn. I enjoy how they match.
I’m also enjoying how contagious knitting seems to be. You and Robin McKinley will have us all traipsing off to the yarn store yet. 😉
Thanks for sharing!
Comment by elizabeth — April 27, 2011 @ 7:27 pm
There is a slight problem with variegated yarn and variegated needles in the same color range. If you’re knitting in not-really-bright-light, you can mistake yarn for a color stripe on the needle. (Yes, you can. If you’re me, and it hits the line between the two parts of your bifocals. And you feel really silly when you’ve jabbed at the needle itself trying to stick the other needle into the stitch.)
But yes, the needles are lovely and I’m happy with them.
Comment by Chris — April 27, 2011 @ 7:59 pm
Delighted to hear there will be more knitting in next year’s book 😉
I must admit, I’ve been knitting for more than 50 years and I can do plain knitting just fine in the dark….. UNTIL I make a mistake. Then I have to be able to stop so I can see to fix it.
BTW, if Knitting Traditions is one of the magazines you bought, you might recognize an author’s name 😉
Comment by Freya — April 27, 2011 @ 8:25 pm
My Mum does the same thing, except she adds staving off arthritis to her reasons for knitting.
What I’ve seen her do is knit squares, lots and lots of squares, so she can use a crochet hook and the tails to bind the squares together in whatever size and colour combination is needed.
Her blankets go to hospitals for newborns from disadvantaged homes and to homeless shelters for whoever needs them. She also knits baby clothes for when she wants a change of pace, also to go to disadvantaged newborns.
Comment by Jenn — April 28, 2011 @ 7:03 am
Welcome back to the wonderful world of knitting.
Being a yarn-a-holic (I am not able to be in yarn store with out losing a lot of money!!) I am very excited to soon read more knitting in your books.
If you would like a great selection of patterns for just about anything (I am into toys at the moment)I would suggest
http://www.knittingpatterncentral.com
I have to agree with Betsy about youtube’s instructional videos. It is better than trying to figure things out from pictures in your knitting books.
Happy Knitting
Comment by elizabeth — April 28, 2011 @ 10:17 am
I am definitely using videos on YouTube but also pictures on static sites. Sometimes it takes both!
Comment by Tkil — May 6, 2011 @ 1:24 pm
I took up juggling for about the same reason (hands and wrists starting to hurt from typing too much). Well, and for the “geek cred”, too.
Regarding sore wrists, however, have you ever investigated ergonomic keyboards? I’m a huge fan of the Kinesis Contoured keyboards:
http://kinesis-ergo.com/contoured.htm
They look a little weird, but they are absolutely fantastic for writing prose (human-readable text, as opposed to programming code; the latter is doable, but the punctuation is moved around more than the letters are). The overall layout is still QWERTY, but is switchable to Dvorak or any custom keyboard you like.
You might also see if you can get a full ergo evaluation, where someone comes in and looks at your workstation to help you set up angles and distances to minimize strain.
Comment by elizabeth — May 6, 2011 @ 10:01 pm
I have an ergonomic keyboard–have had for years–and would be in worse shape if I didn’t have it. I hate typing on my husband’s “straight” keyboard, and it’s the only real drawback to my travel machine, the netbook. (What I also really hate is hotel desks, which are too high and the chairs too low for me.)
Comment by Tkil — May 7, 2011 @ 2:52 am
Glad to hear that you already have an ergo keyboard: the longer you can type, the more stories we get to read. 🙂
I’ll just point out that not all ergo keyboards are created equal; I had an MS Natural Keyboard about 10 years ago, the wireless MS Natural 4000 about 4 years ago, and the Logitech Wireless Wave most recently. Also around 2000, I had a chance to use a variety of more extreme ergo keyboards while working at HP in Fort Collins.
None of them hold a candle to the Kinesis, to the point where I spent 400$ to get a second one (my first one is a 2000-vintage model that is PS/2 connector only, and I needed USB for use on my Mac). They actually start at 270$; I splurged for the increased macro memory and the triple-action foot switch.
If you get a chance to try one of the Kinesis keyboards in real life (maybe an ergo store in Austin?), it might just make your typing life quite a bit nicer. 🙂
It looks like these folks are local to you:
http://www.thehumansolution.com/kinesis-advantage.html
Either way, thanks for letting me lecture a bit, and thanks *very* much for the continuing Paksworld adventures.
Comment by Keenan — May 12, 2011 @ 12:39 am
I was noticing how nice those knitting needles looked. It’s a nice effect having the different colored wood laminates and on a slight bias to show off the variegated pattern. I noticed the needles because a while back I got started making crochet hooks because my wife needed something that wouldn’t snag or split the yarn like the plastic ones and also didn’t make her hands ache like the metal ones did.
We searched all over for decent wooden hooks and found nothing she liked. There were neat looking ones with fancy turned handles, but nothing but a notch cut in for the business end. I took up the challenge and after nearly six months of experimenting, I managed to create the ideal hook that fit her needs. I made her a wide range of sizes and all from different exotic hard woods. They immediately became her favorite hooks to use.
The only downside is that they are quite labor intensive to make and I have had no luck finding any way to speed up the process of of carving them. It’s hard work to carve and sand hardwood. I tried to ususe a Dremel, but all that did was speed up the rate at which I made irreversible mistakes. So a thin, sharp blade, a set of tiny files, and lots of sanding has been the only way to get them to turn out. Since each hook can easily take about four to six hours to complete, I’ll do small batches and use them as gifts.
I still have yet to learn to crochet, though…