Devotional Shawls: Frigg

[lwood]

I'm often seen with knitting needles in my hand: on the bus, at lunch, at the symphony hall (before it starts!), wherever. People ask, "Oh! What are you working on?"

The larger projects, easier to notice, tend to be shawls. "It's a shawl," I reply cheerily, and unfurl it for inspection and--I admit it--preening.

"Oh! Is it for yourself, or a friend?"

Now, that's an interesting question: the shawls are almost always devotional pieces. $bus_person doesn't want to hear about my religion any more than they want to hear streetcorner preachers.

"For a friend," I admit shyly, and then... a periphrastic exercise:

"See, white and pale blue are her favorite colors. She's fond of birch trees, so I used this pattern, which looks like birch leaves. Really, most of my shawls are on themes: a mountain, a falcon, a raven, the ocean lapping the shore, spiderwebs..."

"Wow...I hope your friend appreciates that!"

"I believe she will, yes." I smile.

"You know..." I've heard more than once, "that looks really meditative."

"It is," I allow.

I think this shawl has gotten the greatest number of drive-by comments, and I am quite proud of it. Over and above, "hey, I'm a decent knitter", however, I have to give a shout-out to the yarn. It's seventy percent silk, which gives strength, shimmer, and excellent drape and hand--weaver words for "it hangs well and it's pettable".

The other thirty percent is SeaCell, which itself is ninety-five percent lyocell, which is to say "tree-based rayon". The environmentally sustainable manufacturing process is drawing a lot of favorable attention in the EU, as well. Lyocell also has drape and hand going for it, and can shimmer like silk depending on the manufacturing process.

The other five percent of SeaCell is (essentially) seaweed-based rayon, which the German company who makes Sea Cell claims grants all kinds of crazy health benefits. I don't necessarily believe this...but in any case, to the American taste the yarn is 70% silk, 28.5% tree-based rayon, 1.5% seaweed-based rayon.

Silk and lyocell are well-known for their strength. This is good; after so many hours, one snapped thread can ruin a whole day. The resulting yarn is tightly-spun, light, and strong, but not terribly elastic.

Now, one and a half percent rayon isn't a whole lot by the light of SCIENCE™.

In devotional craftwork, though, that's worth a lot.

Frigg lives in Fensalir, translatable as "water falls" or "marsh halls", although in Hrafnar we tend to prefer the latter translation. As we map things, her hall is near the sea, in marshland. If--as the half-joked argument goes--we know that Freyja is a mighty goddess because she can gets two cats to pull her chariot in the same direction at the same time, then what you might similarly say about Frigg is that she can, somehow, pull off an immaculately clean hall while living in a swamp.

But I digress...

Knitting on the shawl was finally completed Friday night, whilst dpaxson and I were engaging in selfless promotion at a club in San Francisco.

Whenever one finishes work in lace, it won't look good until it's been washed and blocked--pinned out while wet and left to dry. This, then, was the best time to gather a little old-fashioned meginn (the Afro-Diasporan folks reading this may reasonably translate this as axé, while allowing for cultural context and so on). You know, aside from the yarn materials, the pattern, the motif, the meditations...because magic is like advertising and few things succeed like excess.

Yesterday, DLP, another lady, and I drove away to the hills--specifically Coyote Hills Regional Park near the eastern end of the Dumbarton Bridge. One threads along a mile and a half of access road from Paseo Padre, through shouting mustard fields, until one may park.

Then, more importantly, there are boardwalks that go quite a ways out into the sighing reeds. We wandered about a bit, and found a small birders' observation platform. The reeds were only dead if you didn't know to look at their bases for young shoots.

My companions perched on the benches.

I lay flat on the ground, and hooked my thumbs through a couple of the holes of the shawl.

The water, inches from my face, was a very lively shade of green, unmoved by any breeze.

I lowered the shawl into the water and held it there, swirling it back and forth while doing the second-last piece of Work, singing to it, shaping it, asking a blessing from the Nice Lady, until it was properly Done.

I hauled it out, pressing and wringing it against the observation deck to get most of the bogwater out, so it could be carried away in the plastic bag we'd brought along for the purpose.

I rose, and an egret winged by overhead. We returned to the lot, threading our way back among the dried reeds, to the sound of crying geese.

We left food behind, little pickles and green olives. They matched the water's color perfectly as they sank beneath the surface.

Near the trailhead, we saw a little brown fellow, swimming through the water and towards another bed of reeds. River otter and beaver were both once native here; we couldn't tell which this was, but those who know me will know what I want to think it was...

Then we rambled back north to Greyhaven, made a tape of a disk of Odin chants we'd made the week before, and when I got home, there was just enough time to wash the bogwater from the shawl and pin it out on towels to dry into shape.

I'll be showing it off at Hrafnar on Wednesday.

SOme day, I really should take pictures of these things...

-- Lorrie

Comments

[faeryl.livejournal.com]

Wow. Just....wow.

It must be gorgeous. That's a beautiful colorway, and it's hard to see why Frigga wouldn't love it.

>SOme day, I really should take pictures of these things...

Yes, please! I'd love to see how it blocks out. We want pictures!

[lwood.livejournal.com]

It must be gorgeous. That's a beautiful colorway, and it's hard to see why Frigga wouldn't love it.

Well, whenever I get it too near local Friggasgyðja wolfs_daugher, she moans that I am vean and micious for torturing her so.

This is one of those signs that tells me I am On to Something. ;)

Yes, please! I'd love to see how it blocks out. We want pictures!

It's a big pale triangle with lots of little holey diamonds in.

There, now you know... ;)

-- Lorrie

[bojojohn.livejournal.com]

yes, picture please!!!! I'd love to see it!

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Well, see, I have to be fair and do the whole set, and I can't because one of them has quite flown to walkyrja's house.

Sad, really.

8-P

Okay! Okay! I'll take pictures--someday soon. 8-)

-- Lorrie

[illuviel.livejournal.com]

Beautiful.

On very practical notes, how do you block? I've been askeered of blocking and have studiously avoid it, but I have some honeycomb lace to block and will have other knitted pieces soon (I plan on using knitty.com's Branching Out to distract me from my meninges long enough to get some writing done ... I owe you and DLP field notes, and others of our acquaintance acknowledgements and thanks.

On other notes, when you make devotional pieces, what do you do with them when done? Do you donate them to theme-appropriate causes, bog them, raffle them off for appropriate charities, display them on altars and shrines, wear them, burn them or some, none or all of the above? That's something that's kept me from some projects ... what to do with them when finished. If I had corporeal friends I made things for, when done, I'd present them and said friend would (hopefully) walk away with said object. Howso when gifting the gods and other worthy, wealful wights?, she asked, displaying great ignorance.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

On very practical notes, how do you block?

First, wash the thing by hand with Woolite or other gentle soap. Then rinse and squeeze out as much water as you can. Wringing may or may not be indicated depending on your chosen fiber--I usually do a bit, even on wool when you really shouldn't. The point is to have relaxed, clean, damp fabric which will then dry to shape.

Gather enough terrycloth towels or other absorbent cloths to cover the expected area of the thing (the raven-cloak was ten feet wide, so this can take some doing!). Having a layer of carpet or rug underneat will help anchor everything in place.

You will want a box of heavy T-headed pins, some wire (I have some braided picture wire so I can pin through instead of just to), and a yardstick. The wire will help you pin a straight line as opposed to a wobbly curve, and pinning the work to the wire will also aid in keeping the work from puckering.

Lay out the towels, center the work, and use the yardstick to work out how far apart to set the corners of one edge. Pin one corner to wire, fabric, and towel (through to carpet pad if you have one). Stretch the wire taut to the distance of the next corner, set a pin, then bring the fabric to the pin and do as the first: fabric, wire, towel, carpet.

Then find, and pin, the center of that edge--again, to the wire, the fabric, the towel, on down.

Bisect the two halves, setting pins halfway between existing pins, and, keeping the pins balanced between both sides of the work, keep at this until your pins are 2-3" apart. Remember to use the wire to help make straight lines instead of swoopy pointy scallops (unless that was what you wanted).

Now repeat for other sides, out to the dimensions indicated by the pattern.

If you didn't work from a pattern, then your task is to stretch the work as far as it will easily and evenly go in all directions, to open out the holes in the lace and display the pattern. You should still work in halves/quarters/eighths/etc so as to spread the tension across the entire work.

It is okay to move pins--equal tension across an entire work is more important than sticking to the holy pattern, which I think you don't do anyway. ;)

-- Lorrie

[lwood.livejournal.com]

On other notes, when you make devotional pieces, what do you do with them when done? Do you donate them to theme-appropriate causes, bog them, raffle them off for appropriate charities, display them on altars and shrines, wear them, burn them or some, none or all of the above? That's something that's kept me from some projects ... what to do with them when finished. If I had corporeal friends I made things for, when done, I'd present them and said friend would (hopefully) walk away with said object. Howso when gifting the gods and other worthy, wealful wights?, she asked, displaying great ignorance.

On other notes, when you make devotional pieces, what do you do with them when done?At

Usually, they are intended for some invocatory purpose--to call an ally, as a cue for possession. The raven-cloak is just about the liveliest one of those I've done, but that's a whole other post.

This is actually the second Frigg shawl I've done. The first was this a pie-wedge pattern from the back of a skein of Lorna's Laces Helen's Lace (http://www.lornaslaces.net/), a light laceweight 50/50 wool silk. It's a half-circle that taught me about short rows, although the directions are poorly written. I did it in their "Jeans" colorway (it goes from faded denim to overcast dove and has been discontinued). There are good pictures of the shawl in these two (http://sequink.typepad.com/photos/knitting/helenslaceshawl.html) places (http://www.fickleknitter.com/archives/2005/05/i_changed_my_mi.htm), and the second one is actually in the exact colorway.

I thought about dunking it in the fens, but I didn't, and then I lost it, so I thought I had jolly well better listen this time...

On this one, I made two scale models to see whether I liked it better in garter or stockinette. I may wind up killing and bogging one of the scales at some future point, should it become needful to do so--but one of the reasons to bog a food offering was to, hopefully, avoid that whole sort of thing.

West Coasties tend to be softhearted about sacrifice. It's a soft climate...

what to do with them when finished.

Wear it when meditating on the entity in question.

Give it to a friend who you know has a strong relationship with the deity in question (full disclosure is critical).

Give it to someone who needs a helping hand from the entity in question, to help set up a connection (full disclosure still smart).

Hang onto it until the little light goes "ding!" and you know who gets it because it was obviously theirs all along.

I once spent a zillion hours on a falcon-cloak: all reds, rusts, browns, and tans. Double-knit, with the occasional glittery gold row.

When I finished it, I knew it wasn't mine. It was short, and too warm, and...not mine.

Right around the time I finished it, I read that walkyrja had dedicated herself to Freyja.

...oh. That's who I made it for!

I gave it to her at the next Trothmoot, only to find she was allergic to wool, but she loves it, Freyja, and I enough to wear it anyway with a longsleeve shirt underneath so she doesn't break out.

This is because Miz Walkyrja is an awesomely cool person, but she knows that.

Then I went home and did it all over again, only in black, with more black, and then the sparkly accent yarn had black eyelashes with black metallic sparkly and black puffybits: a raven-cloak.

Just as I was learning how to knit beads onto the thing without stringing them all on at the start, we lost one of the local bards. Some of her jewelry was sold at a con, and among these were a pair of strings of shiny black faceted beads--so my raven cloak is trimmed with a dead bard's beads, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Last Pantheacon, Miz Walkyrja and I wore our complementary plumage, and it rocked.

Howso when gifting the gods and other worthy, wealful wights?

I hope I helped! My defaults would be to give it to someone else on that wight's behalf, but if the need was great enough, kill it and bog it--in the case of something made to be bogged, if possible, try to make it out of something that won't release narsty dyes into the marsh.

That help?

-- Lorrie

[emberleo.livejournal.com]

When I make devotional craftwork, I usually either keep them on the altar I have for that power, or give them to appropriate humans on behalf of that power.

I don't tend to make clothes, but jewelry and other accessories, yes. And other non-wearable objects and props.

Whether I keep the object or find it another home depends on whether I am prepared for the responsibility of maintaining that connection once the work is done.

I've made a few things for Orixa that I had no desire to keep on my own altars, because I didn't accept the responsibility for the relationship beyond the project. For major work this remains true - I keep only small altar items and necklaces for Them. Big stuff goes to the Umbanda House, or whoever it's for.

For the Vanir I tend to hold onto it along with the rest of Their temple stuff, unless I know it's for somebody else, because I work directly for Them, and keeping Their things on behalf of the community is part of my job.

For the Aesir I keep it if I need it, and otherwise I give it away.

I have yet to sell things, destroy things that were designed to last, or pass them on to a thrift store. I have, however, given them spontaneously to total strangers because it was what I was pulled to do. I usually try to explain what the object represents or "symbolizes" on whatever level seems appropriate to the recipient, but I don't always worry about explaining that a god is attached.

There's obvious overlap with what lwood said here, but I thought maybe confirmation/elaboration was helpful...

--Ember--

[estaratshirai.livejournal.com]

SOme day, I really should take pictures of these things...

Um, YEAH...we don't all live in the Bay Area to come look at these things in person, you know....

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Yeah, yeah, I will. Soon. Really... ;)

-- Lorrie

[lysana.livejournal.com]

First, thank you for sharing that.

Now for the self-centered reaction...

*blink*

Now I know what I need to do next with that fishing net stole I've been working on. Unless seawater would be a bad thing on wool...

[ardaniel]

I'd assume that since most fishermen's sweaters are made of wool, sea water isn't going to hurt it any. See also http://www.getwool.com/seacolors/ , whose creators dye the roving in sea water.

[mephron]

....But I wouldn't put it in the dryer.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Yeah, really not, unless she wanted to dress a Barbie...

-- Lorrie

[lwood.livejournal.com]

sea water isn't going to hurt it any

On the flip side...

One time I made a necklace on waxed linen. I brought home a jar of seawater in which to marinate my necklace for seven days.

Then I forgot to take it out; it was more like seven weeks.

The string had pretty much disintegrated. 8-)

So, that tells me: ok for short jaunts, but eventually you will have a breakdown.

I mean, wool was originally made soft by treading it around in ammonia (read: stale urine where the urea has broken down some). If you know someone named "Fuller", then their umpty-great grandparent made their living by stomping wool in old pee back in Ye Olde Countrye. It's tough...but not invincible.

-- Lorrie, who has seen too many episodes of "Worst Jobs in History (http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/W/worstjobs/)", a BBC Production that, every episode, managed to find some way to put the host in close contact with human by-products. Fun!

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Unless seawater would be a bad thing on wool...

I wouldn't, say, "marinate for nine days" or anything--seawater is a mighty solvent.

However, soaking it long enough to get back from the seashore, then washing it in a gentle soap, then blocking it out, that would be all right. But avoid warm water and touch not the dryer, lest ye create felt.

-- Lorrie

[knittingwoman.livejournal.com]

I don't know what LJ did with the comment I posted last night but it doesn't seem to be there so I am trying again.
Thank you for sharing. I need to do more devotional knitting.
I have met the woman who started The Fleece Artist many times since I also live in Nova Scotia. I have been hearing a lot about this yarn but haven't seen it yet. The Fleece Artist used to be open for retail and she also used to do all her own dyeing out there. It was always so amazing to see all the dyed yarn drying in the sun.
I hope you will post some pictures.
b*b

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing. I need to do more devotional knitting.

*laugh!* The problem for me isn't starting, it's stopping...

I have been hearing a lot about this yarn but haven't seen it yet.

It can be a right pain in the arse to find; the nearest supplier to me is an hour's drive away, and what with a yarn store's usual hours it pretty much means that it's going to be a weekend job. >.<

I have been wafting the finished shawl at some more local yarn stores to see if the clue can happen closer to home!

The Fleece Artist used to be open for retail and she also used to do all her own dyeing out there. It was always so amazing to see all the dyed yarn drying in the sun.

Neat!

I hope you will post some pictures.

At some point, I will.

-- Lorrie