Finished the Pink Pullover

      I have finished knitting the pink pullover.  I had a bit of trouble finding information on how to sew up the pieces.  I looked at Deborah Newton's book Finishing School and Knit Pick's YouTube video "Sweater Finishing Part 1: How to Set in Sleeves," and then I found some more information in the book that the sweater pattern came from, Amy Herzog's Knit Wear Love.  

     I am fairly happy with the result.  I regret adding four stitches to the front and decreasing them above the bust to give extra room in the chest because each decrease looks like a mistake in the stockinette.

     As I tried it on, I wondered if I would be happier with a sweater made from a different type of wool such as a down breed wool rather than the merino I used for this one.  At least the merino wool is not scratchy like the stuff I used for my first two sweaters.

Finding Ready-made Clothing with Fiber Arts Attributes

      Last week I got to hear Cindy Conner speak about her new book, Homegrown Flax and Cotton.  One of the questions she got from the audience was, can I buy garments from you.  The answer was no.  People have no idea how much time it takes to breed cotton for colour and good spinning qualities, grow flax and cotton, process it, spin it, weave it, and sew it into garments. 

     It got me thinking about places where you can buy ready-made garments or lengths of fabric that have one or more qualities that are like the qualities of homegrown, handspun, hand-dyed or naturally-coloured handwoven clothes. 

     As I post this, Maiwa in Vancouver carries some yardage that is handspun, naturally-dyed, and/or handwoven.  Some of their scarves are handwoven.  Their website lists some scarves and shawls in the clothing section and others in the fiber arts supplies section.  There is some clothing suitable to eco-print or dye.  Some of their regular clothing is handspun, naturally-dyed, naturally-coloured, un-dyed, and/or handwoven.  They carry linen and wild silk, along with cotton and wool.  I own an un-dyed, naturally grey woven wool scarf from Maiwa. 

     J.Crew had some items about five to eight years ago that were dyed with real indigo.  Sometimes you can find these in good second hand condition or new with tags on resale sites like eBay and Poshmark.

     Rawganique sells some un-dyed clothing.

     I recently found Poetry.  Haven't bought anything from them but as I write this, they have some clothes dyed with real indigo.  They are based in England and ship to other countries.  The website is showing the Summer collection, which has a lot of linen. 

     Some Etsy sellers sell yardage or clothing that is un-dyed, naturally-dyed, eco-printed, handwoven, or handknit.

     Of course, all of these clothes cost more than most people think of spending.  The styles are limited and are often made of woven fabric cut with a lot of ease in a boxy shape.  That is, there is a lot of extra fabric.  To my eye this makes the models look shapeless and larger than they are.  The colour selection is limited and tends to be mostly colours that flatter redheads.  Some of the sizes can be out of stock, which makes it tough to shop.  On the bright side, the items tend to have better pockets than most women's clothing does.

Bought a little yarn for a good cause

      One day this week out of nowhere after 141 days of my 2023 cold sheep resolution not to buy yarn, I felt like getting some sock dpns and 60 grams of sock yarn, to make some tiny sweater holiday ornaments that I promised to a charity craft sale, so I could knit on an upcoming trip.  And I did get them.
     I have sock needles but they are ridiculously expensive to replace now that the company that makes them is so popular.  I am thinking risk management.  I don't care so much if I lose new, inexpensive needles from another company while travelling. 
     I have yarn on hand earmarked for other projects that I could knit on my trip, and I even have some sock yarn scraps for tiny sweaters.  I could have stayed with the cold sheep slash stash reduction resolution and not bought yarn.  

     I decided to treat myself to new sock yarn anyway.  The colours, red and white, are more suitable to the holidays than the indigo, dark red, and black that I have.  The tiny sweater project is one of the only two projects in my WIPs or queue that have both a deadline and somebody expecting the finished object.  The other such project is the sweater I posted about last month.  If you are wondering how that's going, the sweater is in pieces with half the pieces blocked.
     I rarely let people know I'm working on a fiber arts gift for them or have a gift planned.  That way it's all inner expectations of my own to meet and not outer expectations from other people.
     Now, back to cold sheep.  While I was shopping some other balls of sock yarn called to me because the shop came out with new colours but I can resist for now.
     My cold sheep resolution this year was actually to go cold sheep except for some dish cloth cotton yarn for the charity craft sale.  It turned out that while they needed dish cloths for the Spring craft sale, they didn't need dish cloths for the holiday craft sale and that's why I offered to make tiny sweater ornaments instead.  I'm rationalizing that I'm substituting the sock yarn for half the cotton yarn I'd planned on.

Spinner's Chair, Curb-side

     I happened to pass a garage sale that was selling a spinner's chair, a wooden chair that has a very narrow back.  The design allows a person who is spinning yarn to move her arm freely as she draws the fiber back.  A while later I passed the same place.  They had packed up the sale and left the chair at the curb.  I resisted and did not bring it home.

Hello From Sleeve Island

      Today is Palm Sunday, a week before Easter.  I have just cast on for the second sleeve of a sweater I had originally hoped to finished knitting for Valentine's Day.  

     I suppose the main thing is to finish eventually. 

Using My Ravelry Queue

     The following is an excerpt from a couple of emails I sent a friend.  It's mostly about how I use my queue on Ravelry.  Thought you might like to read it. 

     My favourites on Ravelry have patterns or projects that I like, whether or not I'd actually wear them or make them.  If I can get a free pattern for a favourite, usually I download the pdf right after I favourite it and I add it to my library.  Then I decide whether I'm likely to make it in the foreseeable future.  I also think about whether I really want to be reminded that the pattern exists or if it's okay if it's buried in the library.  If I am really interested in it, I add the pattern to the queue.  Then I change the order of the queue if needed.

     I think of my queue as having two parts.  The patterns at the front of the queue have stash yarn assigned to them.  They are patterns that I am probably going to make.  The queue is not a firm commitment or firm plan.  Perhaps I would consider it a placeholder.  I make a firm commitment when I make a project page.  

     The patterns at the end of the queue don't have stash yarns assigned.  They are patterns that I'd like to make, possibly.  I might later reject them if I think they'd turn out to be too difficult technically or too expensive or too difficult for sourcing materials or too ill-suited to the recipient or not terribly functional or too way out there in looks or whatever.  Right now, this section includes a cluster of patterns for selfish crafting.  That is, crafting items for myself, not to give away.  Some patterns in the queue have notes on them about possible directions I could take the finished objects I envision.  I don't expect get to this section of the queue for a year.  I may not get to some of the patterns ever.  For a few of them, I don't even own the pattern yet.

     The order of my queue in the first section is subject to change, frequently.  Right now I am torn between making specific gifts versus using up all I have of one kind of yarn and thereby getting rid of a storage box. 

     The first section of my queue, the stuff assigned to stash yarn, is in an order that has patterns for gifts mixed with some patterns for myself.  I can tell which pattern is meant for a gift and which is meant for me because I have tagged each accordingly.  When I queue a pattern, I often write the intended recipient's name in the notes section as well as the regular field for recipient.  This is because the regular field entry doesn't show in the queue overview but the notes do. 

     One fun analytical thing you can do is go to your favourites or your queue or your library and then click on advanced search.  After that you can select only sweaters or only a certain weight of yarn or some other criteria.  Even if you don't drill down in search, just seeing the patterns in a different format can be helpful. 

     One way to increase your library is to search designers, select knitting, select a popular designer, do an advanced search on their patterns, and select "free."  

     Or search patterns, arrange the order by "hot right now" or "most popular," and select "free."  

     When searching patterns, it is possible to bring up a search field for the pattern notes.  This often turns up more results than a regular search for key words like Christmas or geeky.  This option is on the left at the bottom.  

     To have a pattern in the queue multiple times, I went to the queue page and selected "add to queue."  I filled in the field for the pattern name, clicked the link symbol, then selected the pattern from the search results.  I find it helps to know the designer in case multiple patterns with similar names turn up.  Then it's just a matter of filling in the rest of the form. 

     Sometimes I will type in something generic for the pattern name, like "cardigan," hit the link symbol, but choose "none of the above."  This creates a queue entry for a future project done with a pattern I make up or a project for which I haven't yet determined the exact pattern.

     I believe bundles are available for favourites only.  But you can temporarily bring up something kind of like a bundle in the queue with the search function.  On the queue page, you can search the queue for a particular tag.  This lets you see a subset of all patterns in the queue with that tag.  If you have a certain name for a bundle in favourites, you can carry that over to the queue by tagging patterns in your queue with the same name.  

     You can enter a search word on the queue page and use the pulldown menu beside it to search by pattern instead of tag.  This lets you see all cardigans, for example, or all hats. 

     Alternatively, you can do the advanced search on your queue and then filter it a number of ways.  For example, it is possible to do an advanced search on your queue and see if a friend has one or more of the patterns in her favourites.  You can search for lace by selecting the characteristic of lace or by typing lace into the project notes field.  This would not be as idiosyncratic as a bundle name but it could help you slice and dice.  You can see at a glance whether your queue is mostly accessories or not, for example.  You can also look at the difficulty rating and select only easy patterns.