Tag Archives: Findley

Sarah and I fought over who convinced who to write about her next project. She insists that she bullied me into allowing her to write it; I’m convinced that I begged her to write about it. Whoever is right, I think you’ll enjoy hearing about her latest knit! – Lauria

It’s still winter in most of North America.* In many places, it’s been a particularly cold and brutal season this year. In some ways, I think, that’s good for knitters: there’s ample reason to use and wear our amazing handknits, friends and family don’t question our abundant knitting time, and we can glory in being clever, stylish, and warm people.

By this time of year, though, when winter has been dragging on for a while and the sparkle of the holiday season feels far behind us, even the most committed cold weather knitter might be harbouring some thoughts about springtime… and spring knits. Starting something springy while it’s still winter also helps me to actually have spring garments to wear in the spring: if I wait until June to start a shawl, it might not be finished until fall breezes are blowing.

When my knitterly mood starts to shift out of cold-weather mode, I usually reach for lace. The lightness and airiness of a lot of lace projects reminds me that warm weather is coming, even if it’s not here yet. It gives me a chance to think about the sundresses and shorts I might pair my lace projects with. And, it means spending some quality time with drapey, soft, shiny yarns and challenging, interesting patterns that make me feel like a knitting genius. Most of the time, my is-it-spring-yet lace projects are also in bright, pretty, cheerful colours.

With those things in mind, I’ve been knitting some come-on-spring lace! I’m knitting Kieran Foley’s (free!) Cold Mountain pattern in Juniper Moon’s gorgeous lace yarn, Findley, in just about the most perfect goldish green colourway – #29 Greengage. Greens are my absolute favourite colours, so it’s perfect for me. Plus, I think most people associate happy green with spring weather.

There are so many things that are happy-making and spring-beckoning about this yarn and this project: it’s shiny and drapey, soft but strong, all of the things I like in lace yarns. Combined with the colour, it almost has a glow to it.

I’m imagining wearing this stole on a sunny day, while sipping a cool drink on a patio near some water… just as soon as it stops raining!**

(*Technically it’s winter in all of North America, if you go by “astronomical winter” instead of meterological winter – or, what the calendar says instead of what the thermometer says. I know this because we have an argument a spirited and productive debate about this in my family ever year. This year, calendar winter goes until March 20^th.)

(**Where I live, winter is all about gray days and cold rain, instead of snow. I know that’s colossally unfair to everyone dealing with the jillionth month of snow everywhere else!)

Sarah hangs out with her cat, drinks a lot of tea, and knits as much as possible in beautiful Victoria, BC.

To me, learning how to “bind off loosely” was one of the most daunting things about becoming comfortable knitting, and knitting lace in particular.  I am a pretty tight knitter, and my biggest fear was ruining a beautiful project by binding it off too tightly.  I managed to train myself to bind off thicker yarns loosely, but when it came to lighter weight yarns, I never seemed to be able to get my hands to do what my brain was telling them to do.

I had a terrible experience with another shawl (Traveling Woman) that I knit using sock yarn that I thought I had bound off loosely, but once it came off the needles, the edge looked tight and caused the body of the shawl to seemingly ‘poof’ between the cast on edge and the cast off edge.  I was so devastated that I had ruined my shawl that I didn’t even bother to block the shawl….I tossed it in with my yarn stash for a time-out figuring at some point I could re-purpose the yarn for another project.

A few months later I was organizing my stash and came upon my shawl and felt like experimenting.  I figured it wouldn’t hurt the yarn any to give it a bath to see what happened, and if things didn’t loosen up, I could still go ahead with my plans to frog it.   As soon as I laid it out to pin it, I was so excited that the magic of blocking had fixed my problem.

I shared this experience with the rest of the Aunties on Ravelry, which ultimately led to my learning Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Sewn Bind Off.  I loved the results SO MUCH that I have pretty much used that technique for every project ever since.  I don’t know about you, but once I find a knitting technique I like and am comfortable with, I tend to stick with it.  So when I came upon the bind off instructions for my Kiwassa Shawl, I hesitated.  EZ’s Sewn Bind Off has worked flawlessly for me, did I DARE try something new??  After I looked over the instructions again, I decided I would go ahead and give it a try because the bind off includes a yarn over, which I thought would give me enough ‘extra’ yarn to keep the edge loose.  Plus….there was a whole lot of stitches to be bound off with a tapestry needle.

I even have pictures to prove that I actually did it!

The bind off instructions were pretty simple.  First, Knit 1…

Then do a yarn over and K1…

Then pass the first K1 and the yarn over over the second K1

And VOILA!!

What do you think?  It looks nice and loose to me.  I have to say that this bind off is pretty quick and easy, and seems to be as loose as EZ’s Sewn Bind Off.  I think it is a great alternative to the sewn bind off, especially when you’re talking hundreds and hundreds of stitches.

So tell me , what is your favorite loose bind off when knitting?  I know there must be other techniques out there that I haven’t tried or even heard of, so please share your knowledge!

I spent these last few weeks of summer squeezing in as much fun time with my kids as humanly possible, which means I wasn’t able to give my shawl a nice bath and block it out like I had planned.  Next time, be prepared for a post chock full of finished shawl photos!

Helen is the next of the wonderful women to post her WIP project here. She was an absolute life-saver at the photo shoot. I knew that a dancer mom would be the perfect “wardrobe mistress.” With incredible grace and good-humor she steamed all the clothes and made sure that each model was ready and waiting for the next shot. It made everything very smooth!

She was knitting this at the photo shoot (although not in the above picture with Alison left and Nancy right) in between getting models ready. I loved seeing her shawl progress and I think you will, too! – Lauria

Hi everyone! Up here in New England, we (or at least I) have been knocked on our behinds with crazy amounts of hot, humid weather. Growing up I remember there being about a week of it in late July or August, but this year it started early and has being going on FOR-EV-ER. And the afternoon thunderstorms (and tornadoes!!) are clearly not doing their job and cooling things off.

When it’s this hot, I start searching through lace shawl patterns to see what strikes me. This time, I picked a pattern that I’ve had in my faves for a while now, the beautiful Kiwassa Shawl.  After reading the back story, I knew I wanted to knit it in a woodsy color.   I thought I was going to knit it in a shade of brown, but then I remembered JMF’s Findley in the Malachite colorway. Isn’t it beautiful?? Isn’t it perfect??

The Kiwassa Shawl is a triangular shawl with a lace pattern that is mirrored on each side of a center “spine” stitch. I love the construction of these kinds of shawls because once you get the flow of the pattern, you really don’t have to look at the chart. That means I can take my shawl with me when I go to work and pop off a row on the shuttle ride and a few more on break. I love knitting lace so much that I get a little addicted to it, and am really happy when it’s just complicated enough to be interesting, but not so much that I can’t knit it wherever I am.

When working with Findley, take my advice. Resist the urge to pull from the center. I know it seems like it should be a center pull ball, but in the interest of your sanity, RESIST. They are NOT center pull balls, confirmed by the distributor. I learned this the hard way. Thankfully, my friend Nancy was kind enough to detangle my mess while I was working at the photo shoot and when I got home, I promptly cut my yarn and wound that baby into a ball. Sanity intact!

Since Findley comes in at a generous 798 yards per ball, and the pattern calls for at least 700 yards, I’m NOT knitting a swatch (gasp!) and am just going to see how many repeats I can get before I need to bind off. The pattern gives me a few options on where to bind off, so I have a lot of wiggle room when I get there.

Look! It’s lace!! You can see the center spine has been established, as well as the garter stitch edge. Isn’t it exciting when you can see the pattern starting to emerge? This is when I have a really hard time putting my lace projects down…I just want to keep knitting and knitting so I can see more and more of the pattern. Before I know it, one more row turns into 20, it’s after midnight, and I have to get up in the morning for work.

Next up for me is the main repeat section of the shawl, which I will knit until I go crazy (well, crazier anyway) or run out of yarn. I can’t wait to show you how far I get!

Helen lives in Western Massachusetts and longs for the day when she can knit while at work.  When she’s not knitting or spinning, she enjoys running, hiking, and hanging on Rav with the rest of the Aunties as realhelen.