heylucy

linen

First, you might enjoy watching this: 

BE LINEN MOVIE from Benoit MILLOT on Vimeo.

 

I might have mentioned before that I really love linen, it is by far my favorite fabric. I would be happy if my entire summer wardrobe was linen. I'd also love to have linen sheets and drapes and furniture. I love the way it drapes and the way it's wrinkly and crisp and smooth. I love the color of natural linen, and I love the way it smells. Is that weird? 

So, Quince and Co. just introduced a linen yarn and some really lovely patterns to go with it, and before I knew it, I had ordered a couple skeins and the pattern for Le Petit Sac. The yarn arrived on Saturday, and it's just as lovely as I imagined. It's very smooth and has a tight twist, so it's not as splity or nubby as other linen yarns I've worked with in the past. It is not the easiest yarn to knit with, since linen has no give at all, but I knew that before I even ordered the yarn. So it's a little bit of a challenge to work with, especially since the pattern is full of twist stitches. But it's small, and I am just moving along slowly and steadily, and I will be done just as soon as I can. 

I know it's just a simple little bag, but I'm pretty sure I will be using it all the time. The fabric is quite sturdy, and while the pattern doesn't call for it, I think I will probably line it (with linen, of course). I love the little loop in the strap right at the base of the bag for holding a single flower (or whatever else you might think of). Sweet little details like that are important, don't you think?

While I was waiting for my yarn to arrive, I happened upon this clever cowl/hat on Ravelry. I love vintage lace just as much as I love linen, so when I saw how the designer had used a pretty scrap of lace to tie up the hat, well, I had to make myself one too. I used a skein of Savannah, by The Fibre Company, which I had in my stash (coincidentally, a blend of merino, linen, cotton and soy!), and it was just the perfect rustic, soft, drapey yarn for a squishy cowl and a slouchy hat.

Cowl:

And hat:

I have more knitting to share, but I just love the soothing colors of this post, so I think I will end here for now. Oh, and I'm also working on the next iPhoneography post, so that should be up later this week! 

how to block stuff

Oh hai! I sort of forgot I had a blog, I have been doing things like working and cooking and reading and being lazy. I don't think anyone is reading any more, but I'll try to get back in the swing of posting again, and maybe people will come back? 

I know this info is out there on the internet, but I was recently having a Ravelry conversation with another knitter working on her own Juneberry shawl, and she asked about my preferred method for blocking, so I thought I'd share my response here, just in case anyone reading is working on their first lacy project and wondering what to do when they finish knitting. 

First of all, I am obviously still pretty new to lace, and I'm sure there are many ways to do this. This is just what I have been doing, and it's worked well for me. If you have any suggestions, please add them in the comments, I'm always ready to learn better ways of doing things. Also, I waited to post this until I had a project finished that needed blocking, so I could take pictures. It turns out that my Daybreak shawl was much more challenging to block than any of the lace shawls I've done, so at the end I'll tell you everything I did with that, and what I learned from all my struggles. It also turns out that I am not too crazy about the finished project, I love the pattern, and I love the yarn, but they just don't belong together, I think. I'll probably frog the whole thing and make some crazy bright socks instead. 

Here's what I like to do: 

• Fill a sink with tepid water and some wool wash if you have it (I like Soak, Eucalan is another nice one. They are a little pricey, but I have been using a tiny bottle of Soak and have blocked 7 or 8 things and still have half a bottle left). 

• Just drop your finished item in the sink and walk away for a long time. Let the weight of the wool pull it down under the water. I’ve left things for a couple hours, no problem, but I would say at least one hour. 

Daybreak, just settling in for a soak

• After that, pull the plug and let the water drain. You can walk away again and just let gravity get a lot of the water out for you. If you’re impatient, you can go on to the next step :o) 

• Get a big towel and carefully lift your knitting out of the sink and lay it on the towel. Wrap it up like a burrito. 

• Take the burrito to your washing machine, and lay it inside. If what you are blocking is large, place another towel opposite for balance. 

• Run the spin cycle for just a minute or two. It sounds dangerous, but it really won’t hurt anything and it will get so much water out, you won’t believe it. 

Here I am inserting blocking wires along the edge. They didn't really work out in this case.

• Now for the fun part! Find a spot where you can pin it all out. I use a couple big towels on the floor in my little studio (the only pet-free zone at my house), so you don’t need anything fancy. One day I’d like to have a blocking board, but this works just fine for me. Blocking wires are really handy for lace, but you can get by with just some pins. You just have to be careful about getting everything straight and even. Either way, you want to really pull it into shape. It’s pretty amazing how much bigger a piece of lace will become, and how strong the yarn can be, so don’t be scared to give it a good tug. The pattern will give you some measurements to aim for, I think of them as a guideline and don’t worry too much if I’m a little off.

Then you just have to wait impatiently for it to dry!

So I thought that with my Daybreak shawl I could use blocking wires in the outer edge and gently curve and pin them out. The problem was that it took two wires for each half of that edge, and I couldn't get a smooth curve, there was a big jog where the wires intersected. I did get it mostly pulled into shape with the wires, however, so I just eased them out and carefully fine-tuned the edge and just used a few pins to hold it in place. 

I was a little worried, because I didn't want the pins to pull the edge out into little points, but it came out nice and smooth, so it all worked out just fine. 

So there you have it. Blocking makes the difference between something being ho-hum or incredibly beautiful. It's also one of my favorite parts of knitting. I don't have anything lacy on my needles at the moment, so I think I should remedy that ASAP!