A Bluestocking Knits

Crochet, Knitting for the Home

Thoughts on a T-shirt Rag Rug

Published by

Bluestocking

on

26th September 2018

This came together wonderfully quickly! I stupidly forgot to note how many t-shirts I used — at least six, I suspect. This rug weighs 2.5 lbs. — not quite 1.2 kilos! It's single crochet (UK double) on a row of foundation single crochet, using an 11.5mm hook, the largest I could find at the time. (I have to admit that I have tried and tried the FSC, using a number of different tutorials, and am still not sure I'm doing it right. But this attempt looked tidy and consistent, so I went with it!)

I was actually pretty careful to keep the edges as straight as possible, both by counting the number of stitches on a regular basis, and by sometimes working the last stitch into the side instead of the top (sshhh!), which pulled things in rather nicely — but the weight of the different shirts really made a big difference in the thickness of the various rows. It was also certainly a factor — but this I expected — that in cutting the shirts I found the picking-out of hems so laborious that after the first two or three shirts I didn't bother, and just cut the first strip a bit narrower to allow for the bulkiness of the hem. These lengths of the yarn didn't curl up in the same manner as the others, of course, so along with the stitching made those rows behave differently.

This is actually Version 2, as I misjudged my gauge on Version 1 and ended up with a piece that was a bit taller than I really wanted, and so I reworked it starting from the Version 1 end, ripping it out as I went and re-crocheting it in the other direction, a few stitches smaller. This took far less time than the first, because of course I had already connected the various pieces! I did take the opportunity to rearrange a grey-heavy stretch at the end of Version 1 — it is still, but more balanced than it had been!

I simply knotted the pieces of yarn at first, but this of course leaves a big lump in the fabric — it doesn't show as much as you'd think, but you can certainly feel it under your feet. Most of the joins in mine are the larks'-head version explained in method 3 at Dollar Store Crafts' tutorial. When I decided that for the remake I wanted to rearrange some of the colors, I couldn't just pick apart these joins, so I had to cut them apart and reattach, and I just sewed those by hand with some thread and back-stitching. I don't quite agree with DSC that the larks'-head is the least visible join, as the knot though small does make a lump in the fabric — less than a square knot does, certainly, but still a lump — and I found the stitched joins to be not only the least visible, but the easiest to work with, as there is less bulk to have to pull through the various loops of the crochet.

It does make a satisfyingly solid fabric, with, amusingly, here and there just a small reminder of its former life —

So the conclusions seem to be that the economical way of cutting the t-shirts, which will give you one considerable length of fairly-smooth yarn and a number of smaller lengths that zig-zag, with lots of pointy bits sticking out, doesn't look as sloppy as you'd think (!) once it's worked up. I thought that I would end up having to trim off a lot of the more rustic bits, but most of them slipped pretty easily under the next row of stitches (or were pushed!). It doesn't look as smooth as the purchased "t-shirt yarn" — and I have to put that in "scare quotes" because, really, I can hardly believe that you can buy this stuff ready-made instead of doing it yourself, where's the frugality and eco-friendliness in that?? — but although a number of the sticking-out bits will probably pop out in the first wash, it doesn't look sloppy, either.

And this was only about a third of the stash of old t-shirts I've accumulated. So I'm planning another rug, and since there are a lot of plain or mostly-plain white shirts and I still have a stash of powdered dye left from tie-dying at day camp some years ago — waste not, want not! —
Uncategorized

The Boring Part …

Published by

Bluestocking

on

21st September 2018

David wears a lot of t-shirts, plain white ones under dress shirts for work and colored ones for weekends, and since t-shirts are also one of the more popular giveaways in theater and tech companies, he also manages to acquire six or eight new ones a year. He also wears them out pretty quickly, and though they spend quite a lot of time in the "yard work/painting shirt" drawer, there is quite a lot of fabric in a "worn out" t-shirt that is still strong and fairly clean — so that it seems a shame to just throw it out.

Although I've seen around the internet a good half-dozen tutorials, at least, on how to make t-shirt yarn, it has taken me rather a long time to decide to try it myself. But since I've started crocheting recently, the idea has come up again, and because I not only have a stack of David's old t-shirts but just now a stack of old day-camp ones that the girls have grown out of, I thought, "well, now's my chance!"

I certainly have enough t-shirts to not need to be frugal about how to cut the shirt — many tutorials use only the body, below where the sleeve attaches — but since I just want to make a rag rug for inside the back door, I don't mind it looking like a rag rug, with some of the bits from the less-straight cuts sticking out. But one of the big points for me is the re-using/recycling aspect, so I decided on the whole-shirt method from Sustain My Craft Habit — which also has a helpful video to accompany the written instructions. This one discards only the collar and a few bits off of the most awkward angles, so that there is only a handful of fabric that gets thrown away.

That said, cutting up a dozen t-shirts is really boring. Really. Especially since over half of them are black! There are a lot of colored shirts in my stash, but since I've noticed that the black dye leaches out onto other colors with repeated washing, so that any back-door mat would become rather dingy after not many washes, I decided to use just black and grey for this one. Cutting up that many t-shirts is also quite hard on the hands, and so when a rather fantastic 60%-off coupon arrived from Jo-Ann's in my mailbox, I decided to splurge on a rotary cutter and cutting mat set, which I'd been dreaming about for a while anyway.

It's still pretty boring cutting the shirts, but at least my hand doesn't ache afterwards!

So now all of the black and grey shirts have been cut and balled up, and it's time to get out the gigantic crochet hook —
Books and Reading, Knitting in the Movies

Knitting in the Movies and Television: “Anne With an E”

Published by

Bluestocking

on

6th September 2018

On their way to Mrs. Lynde's house so that Anne can apologize for her temper, Marilla wears, here in the 2017 series based on Anne of Green Gables, the shawl that figures so largely in another scene from the book and the series. The one chosen by the costume designer here is rather decidedly untraditional for a late-Victorian lace shawl — but then, it is very plain and serviceable, much like Marilla herself. I couldn't find a better view of the shawl — there is one closer in another scene, when Anne is admiring the brooch, but that part wasn't included in the recap at the Netflix website. Perhaps the stitch is either "Falling Leaves" or "Shetland Leaves," from Martha Waterman's shawls book? or the one that FreeKnitStitches.com calls "Shrubs"?

But I confess that there will probably be no more here on this particular series, as I have decided that this was my second and last attempt to watch it. I had heard that it was coming, and was a little wary — how could anything hope to compare with the near-perfection of the 1985 "Anne of Green Gables"?! — but was delighted to find that Marilla and Matthew were to be played by Geraldine James and R.H. Thomson — oh, if anyone could come close to the standards set by Colleen Dewhurst and Richard Farnsworth, it would be James and Thomson! And the photos only increased my interest. I was a bit dismayed, then, upon the debut of the series here, to find such an emphasis, even in the first episode, even forewarned as I was, on cynicism and sordidness.

I cannot fault the production values, from photography to costumes to set design to casting, in the first episode, but this leaves only writing and direction to blame for the direction the series takes. I got as far as the beginning of the second episode — at about the 90 minute mark — where Anne alights from the train on her way back to the orphan asylum after being wrongly accused of stealing Marilla's brooch. It was difficult enough to watch this Anne's bitter and vicious encounter earlier with the hired boy, but after the child-snatcher (yes!) at the railroad station, I turned it off. I already knew from other reviews that this version not only emphasized the grimmer aspects of Montgomery's story but added in more than a few of its own, and so I had sort of steeled myself for things like Anne's flashbacks to the brutality of life in the asylum — but I just didn't want to watch it diverge so very much from the intentions of Montgomery's original novel.

(I understand the rationale behind that first scene with the hired boy because, clearly and understandably, Anne is afraid of being replaced — but Montgomery's Anne is not cruel. That's all. If Montgomery's Anne felt that she was in danger of being replaced, she would far more likely have intuitively "imagined herself" into the boy's own situation — which he tells her right at the beginning of the scene, that he needs the work to help support his family — than she would have shrieked at him like a harpy. What I don't understand is why screenwriters choose to adapt a story by throwing out much of what is essential to it, and adding things that the author never intended. The fact that this series is not called "Anne of Green Gables" is a warning, indeed. We don't need to be bashed over the head with how hard an orphan's life is — we get it! Anne's parents died when she was a baby, she's homely and skinny and she talks far too much, and nobody wants her — nobody. It's an awful life. Why does the series feel it necessary to exaggerate things to the point that fellow orphans are actually physically abusive and the bullying father of Anne's only foster family dies not from a violent outburst at work but from a violent outburst while beating Anne? or worse, add in 21st-century lectures on the evils of racism, sexism, and homophobia?)

It's a real shame that the writer didn't love Anne herself and Montgomery's book enough, that she didn't trust the original story enough to film the the real Anne, the one who brings joy and love to Green Gables and in the process finds the joy and love and family that she herself craves.
Crochet, Knitting for the Home, Miniature Needlework

Playing Around

Published by

Bluestocking

on

4th September 2018

I'm still laughing at myself not a little, looking down my nose at crochet for so long and now here I am rather fascinated. There it is. My first and deepest love is for knitting, but crochet does have a few things going for it, not least being the speed with which you can finish a project!

Here is a knitted Hurdle Stitch dishcloth from Tricots et Créations Isabelle on the left, in Lily Sugar 'N Cream "Swimming Pool," and a crocheted cloth in Suzette stitch in "Rose" pink. The latter took some fussing, as the first version I came across gave instructions that never did come out quite right for me, and so I found a different one that worked quite well — it's a very pretty stitch, and the same on both sides, which is handy.

I crocheted a 1:12-ish afghan to the "Open Squares" free pattern by Butterfly Dreams Miniatures. It's a good beginner pattern — beginner to crochet and/or miniature needlework, I mean! — as it is fairly simple and repetitive. I know my scale is off, but I'm still practicing! this was was a US9 hook, what is recommended for the thread. I added two rounds of single crochet for an edging all around — actually, twice all around except for the very last quarter, which was I think the top edge, as that looked too wide with the second round! This is in no.8 perle cotton, which now I'm pretty sure isn't the best for something you will want to drape nicely — for amigurumi or other projects where you want a lot of body to the fabric it would be ideal, but it is fairly stiff at anything other than a loose gauge, and doesn't soften up much at all with blocking, so for dollhouse items perhaps it would best suit things like bedspreads meant to lie flat — or carpets! I might try this pattern later with embroidery floss, as I think the drapability would improve.

When we were on the narrowboat last summer, being me I couldn't help noticing the charming crocheted doilies serving as curtains-of-sorts on the portholes of many of the privately-owned boats. This is a "traditional" craft for narrowboaters, though I qualify it a little not having found out yet if it is older than, say, the Victorians — but then, I suppose a hundred and thirty years or so is certainly still "traditional"! Much like Romany caravans, the boatwives would decorate sometimes every inch of their living spaces, and because of the cramped quarters in a narrowboat, it is said now that crochet — taking up less space than most needlecrafts! — was the medium of choice. I don't know if porthole covers are a newer invention, but certainly photos can be found of wartime barges with lace hung along the edges of shelves — most of these look like filet crochet to my inexperienced eye.

I recently found some some of the history behind the craft at Crochet and Cabin Lace, as well as porthole cover patterns and some booklets with traditional cabin lace patterns available for purchase. Mine is the Cobweb Lace one from the website, in Aunt Lydia's no.10 cotton —

The finished piece is only a smidge bigger than it is supposed to be (7 1/2 in.) but looks a bit more open than the original, not sure why, unless it's just because I really biffed the UK-to-US-crochet-terms translation! Maybe the no.10 is actually finer than the Lesur Empress cotton (which I have never seen)?

Clearly I have no need for porthole covers at this point — a narrowboat is still only a when-we-win-the-lottery fantasy! — but of course I'm fascinated by traditional handcrafts of many kinds, and it is very pleasing to combine two interests, as it were. I might starch this one and just hang it in the window!
Socks

Thoughts on Hermione’s Everyday Socks

Published by

Bluestocking

on

3rd September 2018

These are the popular "Hermione's Everyday Socks" by Erica Lueder. I worked mine toe-up, as I had no idea how far the yarn would go, though as it turned out this was not an issue at all.

I used Judy's Magic Cast-On, which is brilliant though a bit of a pain at first, and I broke one of my lovely rosewood sock needles in attempt 2 or 3 at the really-fiddly bit at the beginning — sniff. (I recommend metal dpns if you're going the dpn route, at least until the toe gets going.)

For the heel, I used Wendy Johnson's toe-up heel instructions, modified to include the Hermione's eye-of-partridge heel with the garter stitch edge, and finally Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off (the Interweave instructions).

I enjoyed knitting these — the pattern is easily memorizable and the yarn suits it beautifully — and I even enjoyed the toe-up process, although I confess that since it has been so hot here, I finished them almost a month ago, set them down, and forgot all about them until just now when I was tidying up. But I'm sure they will quickly become a favorite come autumn and winter!
Mending, Sewing

Strike Up the Band!

Published by

Bluestocking

on

26th August 2018

I've been spending rather a lot of time the past few weeks in helping assign and fit uniforms for Julia's marching band at high school. There is surprisingly little about mending band uniforms on the internet — I suppose that means that either the people who do mend uniforms aren't hanging around on the internet much, or that, which I fear might be the case, people don't bother to mend uniforms any more, either because they can't or because it isn't worth their time to do so.

But I will happily say that our school's uniforms, while older than most of our students, are still going strong in their 100%-nylon near-indestructibility! — aside from a few hiccups, that is. And so for those who Google "mend band uniforms" or "alter band uniforms" and come up empty, here are two of our solutions.

This particular jacket had a dark grey spot on the outside of a sleeve, which has resulted in it being passed over for a number of years, even though it would otherwise have been a perfect fit for someone. I had thought I would just sew a patch over the spot, but this ended up being too thick, and therefore quite obvious. (Yes, an iron-on patch would have been a simple matter, but in my experience iron-on patches come off, leaving a bigger mess than they were originally hiding.) An old-fashioned darn might have worked, but while I understand the principle behind darns, mine don't even come close to looking neat. I decided then to simply cover the spot with satin stitch, using the method called encroaching satin stitch or long-and-short satin stitch. I'm not much of an embroiderer, and so I found the tutorials here and here to be helpful — essentially, working the padding as here without that one's finishing layer. I used plain white embroidery floss, partly because the color was a better match than white sewing thread, and partly because I had the feeling — which proved to be the case — that floss would lie flatter in the end, and look smoother. The spot is still obviously mended, but is much less visible from even a short distance, let alone from the 50-yard line, than it was!

Many newer band uniforms have a snap system for altering the length of legs and sleeves, but ours don't, and so we have to do this by hand, in order to have the alterations as invisible as possible on the legs, and for the jackets because there really is no other way, since they have angled trim — in two colors and gold braid! — which means that you can only turn up the hem until you come to the braid, and no further. We discovered this enormously helpful video a few years ago —

I have found since then that you can actually do the hem in one go, instead of stopping at the creases as the lady in the video does, if you begin at one of the seams, stop hemming an inch or so before the crease and simply run the thread through the folded hem (inside the trouser leg!) to about an inch after the crease, then hem around, again skipping a short section at the other crease, back around to where you started. This method also seems to suit us well for hemming jacket sleeves too, just being careful that the stitches don't show — which usually means tacking the hem onto the lining in places, if the hem is really deep.

You have to do this, i.e. not attach the turned-up hem the entire circumference of the leg, because the leg is not a perfectly straight tube; since it narrows as it goes downward, the circumference at the very bottom is smaller than the circumference even an inch or so higher, and the ratio only increases the more you have to shorten the leg. If you stitch it down all of the way around, you will end up with ugly puckers in the fabric. Leaving an unsewn "gap" lets the turned-up hem "float" on the inside of the pants leg, and the best place to leave it is at the two creases, so that they stay nice and sharp. You just can't leave too big of a gap or the wearer will catch his or her toe on it when dressing!

There is a good introduction on the Colette blog here about different methods of hand-hemming. I usually use a variation of the blind hem, instead of the herringbone-like catch stitch in the video — I don't think it matters, whatever is easiest for the sewer and shows the least from the right side!
Shawls and Scarves

Thoughts on the Storm Scarf

Published by

Bluestocking

on

20th August 2018

It has been so hot lately that although I managed to finish knitting this, I didn't really want to put it on despite the yumminess of the late and much-lamented RYC Cashsoft. But here it is, in some quick snaps this evening — the Storm Scarf by Iris G., a free pattern available from Jimmy Beans. The pattern is kind of far off of the radar, if the number of projects in Ravelry queues is anything to go by, but it's a pleasing little neck scarf that works up without much fuss.

Mine stalled for a few weeks as I was knitting it while staying with my mom post-hip-replacement and the ball of grey turned out to be considerably smaller than the ball of white —

so I had to wait until I got home to get another ball. The yardage is supposed to be the same for the regular DK (the grey) and Baby DK (the white), but I had issues all along with this batch of grey, which had clearly suffered in the quality control department — but there it is.

Having said it's a simple pattern, I did decide that I would rather have the cables all going in the same direction than alternating as the pattern has it, and the end bit isn't really a match for the beginning bit, so I made them symmetrical — a simple matter.

A ball of Cashsoft Baby DK in "Snowman" (800) and a ball (and a smidge, in my case) of Cashsoft "Thunder" (518) make a "tuckable" short scarf. It isn't reversible, of course —

but because it's short, it lies nicely across the chest so that the one-sidedness isn't a problem.

The Cashsoft is, as Mary Berry would say, truly scrummy, so I'm very sorry to find that it has been discontinued. But I do look forward to wearing the scarf, if we ever have anything like winter!
“Knitting with D.E. Stevenson”, Books and Reading, Historical Knitting

“Mrs. Tim of the Regiment”

Published by

Bluestocking

on

13th August 2018

"Second June. Spend the morning lying in a deck chair in the garden pretending to knit. How glorious to have nothing to do!"

Mrs. Tim of the Regiment always seems to me like the "first" D.E. Stevenson novel, though it was neither the first one she published nor the first one I read. But it is so indelibly and characteristically Stevenson that it is difficult not to think of it as such. As it happens, this "diary of a officer's wife" was actually based on Stevenson's own, so that I'm sure we can take much of Hester Christie's character and sense of humor as very like Stevenson's own as well. Mrs. Tim's diary — there are four books, spanning the early 1930s to the early 1950s — are rather like the Provincial Lady's, whom Jilly Cooper calls "gentle, disaster-prone, yet curiously dry-witted," though probably less of the last two than the Provincial Lady's, especially if you read the P.L.'s humor as more often than not verging on the satirical. Mrs. Tim, though an army wife and therefore subject to the whims of the Service, has many of the same things to deal with as the Provincial Lady, being of a similar age and situation — running a household, raising children, managing servants and an occasionally obtuse husband, and observing the quirks of those around her — which last Mrs. Tim for the most part enjoys, I think in a warmer manner than Delafield's heroine. That, I think, is one of Stevenson's salient characteristics, and Mrs. Tim's humor and good-nature I think keep her from seeming to us as caustic and near to the razor's edge as the Provincial Lady occasionally can. Mrs. Tim seems to enjoy life much more than her contemporary. One of the chief delights of both, however, is that wonderfully English — British, I must say, for Stevenson was a Scot — understated self-deprecation.

"I've heard a lot about Mrs. Christie from some friends of hers staying at the hotel — Mr. and Mrs. McTurk," [says Mr. Baker to Mrs. Loudon.]
     I try to explain that I don't know them very well, but Mr. Baker does not listen. "Very nice friends to have, Mrs. Christie, especially the lady. She's always saying how sorry she is at you leaving Kiltwinkle. It must be a bit trying for a lady like you not to have a settled home of your own, isn't it now?"
     This statement is often made to me, and it always annoys me, chiefly, I think, because it is true. But some time ago I found a quotation which seemed to meet the case, and I always make use of it on these occasions.
     "'To a resolved mind his home is everywhere,'" I reply sententiously.

For my virtual D.E Stevenson Knitalong, I couldn't decide between two patterns from "Patons Specialty Knitting Book No.33" by Patons Australia, the "Faith" jumper, above, originally in blue bouclé with one of the ties in a contrasting grey, or

the "Amy" originally in Paton's Rose wool (a fingering weight) in "Kenya Red" — I wonder what shade that is?! Interesting that we would certainly call that a cardigan now, where in the early 1930s or so when this came out it was a "coat" — there are three other front-buttoning garments in this particular book, two of which are called coats and one which is, strangely, called a "jumper-cardigan" though it clearly has two front pieces buttoning up in the middle. They both seem very "Mrs. Tim" to me — sensible, not too frivolous or youthful but still not at all dowdy (the frivolity would come with the hat, no doubt!), practical yet appealing.

(This Paton's book is indexed at Ravelry, though the patterns are not available there; the entire booklet has been scanned and is available here courtesy Bex of Subversive Femme.)

Actually, I'm strongly tempted to knit one or both of these!
Miniatures, Miniatures – Street of Shops

Assembling the Carpet Shop, Step 1: Dry Fitting

Published by

Bluestocking

on

13th August 2018

Here is the carpet-shop-to-be — Houseworks' "Two-Window Shop" from their "Street of Shops" series — dry-fitted with masking tape to make sure that everything goes neatly where it should. To be honest, there is really very little to do with this kit building-wise, as each of the four walls is already assembled and all I need to do is slide the edge of one into the slot on another, and it's done.

The plexiglass for the windows is separate, so that you can paint the frame and mullions first, then glue in the "glass" — the door is already mostly assembled, with the top of the frame held only by cellophane tape (long-dried in this case), so that again the plexiglass can be removed before painting the door frame. No need for masking, hurrah!

The kit interior is also nicely done

There is a very pleasing attention to detail here — the door frame has a neatly-mitered edge around the "glass", and there are fine reveals around the door and windows.

The interior door does not come with the kit — I had picked it up from the giveaways table at one of the meetings months ago, as it happens, thinking it would be good to have on hand.

The millwork is very handsome. The door angles look odd only because it is slightly ajar in this photo! — the plaque on the false front is, however, noticeably crooked and glued down tight. But this is really the only flaw I see in this particular kit.

(I'm not really wild about the false front, as it happens, so am not sure yet what I'm going to do with it.)

The plexiglass roof/ceiling fits snugly into the wall assembly — a nice touch. The glue is a bit loose on the wall trim here, after some 30+ years in a box.

This door really wants one of those brass letter slots at the bottom, doesn't it!

I didn't know it until now, but there is a place in Pennsylvania called "Street of Shops," a collection of "Victorian" store fronts into a sort of indoor mall — Houseworks is an American company, I find, so I suppose these particular builds could be American or English to suit the particular owner. They looked immediately English to my eye, sort of Portobello Road, possibly because there isn't nearly as much Georgian/early-Victorian left in America as there is in Britain! Well, perhaps I'll be a bit more ambiguous about the location of my shops than I first expected …
Needlework, Socks

Some Fibery Goodness from the County Fair

Published by

Bluestocking

on

2nd August 2018

Here is an eclectic selection of things from the Fiber Arts division at the County Fair this year — things that caught my eye, mostly, out of quite a lot of interesting items, from all classes and of every type of fiber. The above was, obviously, a bit of a show-stopper!

The first-place winner in the socks class. Nice design, and beautifully worked — I might hesitate to suggest to the fair staff, though, that the charming little elephant belongs on the outside of one's ankle.

I had thought that these would appeal to the judges and I was not far wrong, though in view of the competition, I can see why they chose the ones they did for first place!

I thought this was really stunning — not only beautiful woodworking, but with a wild and gorgeous needlepoint back! and here is a closer view of that —

This is really charming! I'm not sure what it's for — billets-doux, perhaps! — but charming. I really like the silver-grey on cream color choice.

Of course this caught my eye very quickly!

I have always loved the William Morris acanthus designs, with their subtle shading.

And this I have mentioned before, but here it is again full-sized, so that you can see some of the detail. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of the whole thing — it is probably twice this size. It is a sampler in cross-stitch of past OC Fair logos, and quite incredible to behold! —

The Fair runs through August 12th, so if you're in town, stop by!