lwood | Scholarly & Acquisitive Knitbabble

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Scholarly & Acquisitive Knitbabble

Covered:

Squooshy foam rubber mats in interlocking tiles for your floor, either to exercise, bounce babies, or...okay, block your knittin'.

Books for to purchase to do research for OT III--by which I mean, books on knittin'.

Ergo! If you do not knit, you might not want to have clicked.

Interlocking Foam Mats.

When one knits with natural fibers, one must then take the result, wash it with lovingkindness, s-t-r-e-t-c-h it out to the specified size, and then conspire to keep it that way 'til it dries, typically with some medieval-looking arrangement of pins and wires.

Heretofore, I've been doing this by the simple expedient of nicking all the large towels in the house, then pinning through them and into the carpet and pad below, but

countgeiger is less than fond of the part where he has no towels with which to dry himself after his shower--and I suppose I can't blame him. The Yarn Harlot may--in print!--but I may not, as lo, I like a bit of towelling-off myself.

So, once we determined that knitting is not just a sometime habit in my world, it was time to get some sort of dedicated arrangement together that didn't involve denuding the bathroom.

Speak not to me of your blocking boards, which are unwieldy and unitasking. Instead, the wide world of knitblogging comes, as it does now and again, to the rescue, with the idea of using interlocking foam rubber mats. At 2'x2' (4 ft²/0.37 m²), I can set out as many or as few as I need for a project, although I have to admit, I kinda wince at the fact that to get enough mats to lay out the 74" diameter Cap Shawl whose border nears completion, I'm going to have to get sixteen of the damn things: getting nine, for a square six feet on a side, falls short, and it's not like I can fudge as the damn thing, as a nonagon, is pretty darn round.

Well, at least they come in pretty colors, and at the end of it I can lend them to Greyhaven for lounging areas at parties, or emergency crash space or, um, something.

Research Materials for Our Troth III.

Scholarly Rearch
For the Nordic Knitting Conference in Seattle just after my birthday, I've got multiple motives: one, it's hands-on research for Our Troth III: ~~The Search for Shope~~ Heathen Crafts, and another, hey, I get to scratch scholarly, religious, social, and crafty itches all at once. Who could not love that sort of efficiency, I ask you?

Thus, I have Planning to do, starting with research materials:

History of Hand Knitting, A by Richard Rutt.

Annotated Bibliography on Hand Knitting with an Historical Introduction, An, by Virginia Snodgrass Gifford.

Sacred History of Knitting, The, by Heinz Edgar Kiewe.

At least, that's what shows up on a History--Knitting subject search on good old MELVYL, which means I can whistle them up here at work. Er. As soon as I pay up the overdue fines that accrued from misreading a few due dates. The Bibliography may turn up some more books as a follow-up, but the word is that the History does quite well at being what it says. Of these, only History is in print and available for purchase.

Practical Application
Then, of course, there's the other side: what to do with it once I've got it. As I suspected given the Dís of Knitting (and don't think I won't call her that in the book), the press she founded has several applicable books.

Including a whole Scandinavian Knitting section.

Thus, good little fangirl that I am, in this section I should start with books written by people whose classes I've signed up for at the conference:

Annemor Sundbø, teaching "Norwegian Traditional Design". Here's her bio, nicked fresh from her website:
Annemor Sundbø (born 1949) is a textile designer and teacher of weaving. She owns and operates a knitting workshop ”Ose Ullvare” in Setesdal, about 110 km from Kristiansand, Norway.

She ran the last remaining shoddy factory in Norway, Torridal Tweed og Ulldynefabrikk, from 1993 to 2006. The products were made of recycled wool. It all started in 1983 when Annemor wanted some experience in a small scale woollen mill. The owner agreed to train her on one condition … Annemor had to buy the factory first!

She has written these ~~two~~ three books:

Translated by Amy Lightfoot. Everyday Knitting: Treasures from a Ragpile. ISBN 82-994657-1-0.
This is the results of Annemor's plunge into the rag pile of her "new" factory, so it's going to be a good historical resource as well as source of inspiration for future projects.

Translated by Carol Huebscher Rhoades. Invisible Threads in Knitting. ISBN 82-994657-3-7.
Hint: By "Invisible Threads", here, she's not talking about nylon monofilament. More threads of association. Y'know, wyrd. ;) This one apparently connects knitting and folk culture, so I'd jolly well better buy this one too.

Translated by Amy Lightfoot: Setesdal Sweaters, The History of the Norwegian Lice Pattern. ISBN 82-994657-2-9
The "lice" pattern (no, not the world's most appealing name) is traditional, Norwegian, and is that one where you have a big field of one color (traditionally black) with occasional single-stitch ticks of a contrasting color (usually white). The two-yarn technique was done to make warmer sweaters, and being endlessly and elaborately decorative was a way to enrich the trousseau. I've yet to do an adult sweater, and this one isn't as directly related to the research angle as the other two; it'll come last.

Marilyn van Keppel--she doesn't have her own books, but she's translated several, and both the originals and translations are available via Schoolhouse Press, in their lace section. These are:
Bundanaurriklaedid aka Faroese Knitting Patterns: Knitted Shawls tr Marilyn van Keppel
Nineteen patterns, in the original Faroese, and an article about the history of the knitted shawl on the Faroe Islands.

Þríhyrnur og Langsjöl aka Three-Cornered and Long Shawls, by Sigridur Halldórsdóttir, trans Marilyn van Keppel
Another translation, this one of a "near-legendary" Icelandic book.

Now, this lady designs things I actually enjoy knitting...nom nom nom...

So that's what's entwining itself around my autumn; you?

-- Lorrie

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It's cold enough not to need to put the sticks and string down for a while yet! I am hugely excited about a knitting section in vol III. Have you considered including stuff for us blokes wot knit too? I am grinning muchly at your pleasure at this project scratching all of those itches simultaneously!

Just a thought, I've noticed on the Troth Forums there isn't really a crafty bit at present? I thought it might be cool for people involved in different kinds of crafty stuff to have a spot to discuss heathen-relevant projects, techniques, resources, ideas etc ...

It's cold enough not to need to put the sticks and string down for a while yet!

Hey! You can knit right through summer, even a wretchedly bletcherous one--just switch to lighter, smaller, projects. Which leads me to:

Have you considered including stuff for us blokes wot knit too?

Okay, perhaps I'm just coming at this from a narrowmindedly womanly perspective...but after obviously gender-specific garments (e.g. lace shawls), what would make a knitting section inherently womanly or manly? Mind you, I love making lace shawls, but they all wind up being given away and/or devotional garments...I like looking at it, I like working it, but the frothy stuff is not terribly me.

ANYway--the first time I ever knit at Trothmoot, it was to make bags for everyone on the Rede. Not big old handbags, more like rune/dice/Crown Royal bags: 20 cm tall, 15 cm wide, round bottom, drawstring, flat-bottomed so it could stand up straight. The thing that made them heathen was that I, having just bought Viking Patterns for Knitting reverse-engineered Lavold's Younger Futhark patterns into the Troth's bindrune.

'cos I could.

I was thinking of putting that pattern in my chapter, plus some discussion of the several stitch patterns and shaping techniques. But you, as a heathen knitter who also possesses the external plumbing: what would you like to see?

-- Lorrie

Summer in my home country of Australia gets too hot for me to knit anything, as heat plus yarn means my hands itch, but here in NZ it is a quite a bit cooler even at the height of summer so knitting will be eminently doable. Right now it is still cold, wet and windy so perfect knittin' weather!

As far as what blokes wot knit want - this has been a bit of a $64,000 question to some of the bloggers and podcasters I read and listen to who are blokes that knit. The question seems to divide into two sub-questions, what kinds of knitting do men want to wear and what kinds of knitting to men want to do. The two aren't co-extensive because I have heard of a lot of men who knit fantastic lace that they wouldn't wear in a million years. There's a couple of great podcasts on the topic here (shows 5 and 6 - what men want & what men want more). Most of all it is still really common for knitting to be stereotyped as a woman's activity and it would be really great for it to be positioned as a crafty pursuit engaged in by all!

Right now it is still cold, wet and windy so perfect knittin' weather!

Heh!

I am in California, and normally the weather is all right for knitting anything but the very heaviest things all year round. However, one doesn't much want anything heavier than a light cardigan much of that same year--assuming that one is near the coast and near sea level. If well-inland, then it's wretched hot, and if at high elevation, it gets both wretchedly hot and wretchedly cold.

On the coast, if it gets even to 30° C, everyone wilts and becomes useless. Inland, 40° C is a typical summer day, and an excuse to hustle to the nearest bit of conditioned air.

At sea level, the winter temperatures do not often dip below 10° C, and at that point people have out their ski jackets and anyone fresh in from places that actually have weather are mildly croggled by this. In the mountains, above, say, a thousand meters, it'll be inland-hot in summer, but winter will be long and well-snowed.

In California, one might be in any of these, and they're all a few hours' drive from each other, although I, by preference, live near the coast. I wouldn't think of knitting anything heavier than that aforementioned light cardigan, even in the middle of winter, unless strongly motivated by someone who lived where there is an expectation of snow.

Men who knit whom I have known have shown a fondness for thick pullovers (he's a programmer, it gave him summat to do during compiles). Men who have asked me to knit things have wanted any number of Harry Potter scarves--but so did the girls.

*reads link*

Well, yeah, that's about what I expected from my own thoughts and research.

But as to "men who knit"--obviously, I will have to linger in loving detail over the medieval knitting guilds, which as I'm sure you know were strictly boys' clubs.

Back to "I'd make it, but not be caught dead in it": I should think that the pleasant mathematical grace of a well-wrought lace pattern would appeal to men as well as women, but a man might be cagey about being seen with it as a work in progress on the bus. That about right?

-- Lorrie

Heh yeah I've caught up with that little bit of history. I still find it amusing how surprised many women are that I am not only capable of knitting but enjoy it and actively pursue it. I thought it might be an idea to pipe up if for no other reason than I know that the heathen environment has been historically full of much machismo and it's be great to have a wider view than the hoary old gender stereotypes that have pervaded so much for too long.

The mathematical and technical I think definitely has an appeal, as well as the creative and crafty. There seem to be a fair few men around who knit lace! I figure the more men are visible with such things the less stigmatised it becomes for men to be seen engaged in such projects. I will be embarking on baby knits soon as my sister and brother-in-law have impending offspring due in October.

And as something of an aside, I really appreciate your reflections on knitting as devotional work. It's something I've thought about and that's all so far (I'd say I'm still at 'learning craft' stage and not quite at the point where the craft becomes art as well). Perhaps something on this would be good for the article too, along with the historical and academic detail.

I still find it amusing how surprised many women are that I am not only capable of knitting but enjoy it and actively pursue it.

Well, I'm not surprised that that shy, aloof creature known as "He of One Stick and Two Balls" exists--but it is always a pleasant surprise to find another, a little more of a surprise than seeing a knitter in public in the first place.

The gender distribution seems to move closer to parity among younger knitters, or so the Yarn Harlot catalogues on her book tours.

The mathematical and technical I think definitely has an appeal, as well as the creative and crafty. There seem to be a fair few men around who knit lace! I figure the more men are visible with such things the less stigmatised it becomes for men to be seen engaged in such projects.

Well, sure!

And you'd think I'd see more of it here in San Francisco: can't you just imagine a flaming queen^* on a bus, clicking his way with full forward momentum through a scarf in Shetland lace?

I will be embarking on baby knits soon as my sister and brother-in-law have impending offspring due in October.

Did I ever post about the great fun it is to knit the Baby Surprise Jacket (http://www.knitting-and.com/wiki/Baby_Surprise_Jacket)? "Look, gang, a moonbat amoeba!" *flip flop hey presto* "I mean baby jacket! The way the paired double decreases make nicely mitered corners is a wonder of engineering. Should you get this pattern through buying The Opinionated Knitter, which is a newsletter anthology, the very next pattern will give you a hood, booties, and blanket, all constructed similarly. As written, it wants about 129 m sportweight and a 3.5 mm needle, or as-needed to achieve 24 st/10 cm. Two hundredish-meter skeins will get you a whole ensemble with a bit left over.

(continued next comment)

-- Lorrie

^* - In case the idiom doesn't survive the trans-Pacific crossing: a flamboyant, homosexual man. The flaming queen does not, as a rule, transvest, unlike his near cousin, the drag queen. I work in San Francisco, We Get That a Lot.

The subspecies regia flamens is well known and fairly well visible in Antipdean climes, and also known by the same common name *g*

Oh, now, I figured you had 'em, just, y'know, didn't know if they had a different common name in those parts. ;)

-- Lorrie

I've heard reference to Elizabeth Zimmerman's work and haven't had the opportunity to track down one of her books yet - having looked at the link I now get what you mean about the moonbat amoeba! This may be as good a reason as any to give it a go, and baby clothes are so much quicker to knit up (and less mortifying a scale if it has to be ripped back and started again, or to me they are at least).

This may be as good a reason as any to give it a go, and baby clothes are so much quicker to knit up (and less mortifying a scale if it has to be ripped back and started again, or to me they are at least).

And in this sentiment, you and Elizabeth Zimmerman the Knit-Dís would be in complete accord--she says as much in the original newsletter where she introduces the pattern for the BSJ.

I can wholly recommend, if you can get it and/or afford the shipping, The Opinionated Knitter--several of her first circulated newsletters interspersed with essays about her life.

-- Lorrie

And as something of an aside, I really appreciate your reflections on knitting as devotional work.

*half-grin* It's not an aside to me...besides, in my own person I'm not one to wear shawls. Making them as devotional projects lets me make them, look at them, and waft them about without having to recoil from the way-too-girlyness to which I might otherwise succumb.

It's something I've thought about and that's all so far (I'd say I'm still at 'learning craft' stage and not quite at the point where the craft becomes art as well).

When trying to broach this to a skeptical crowd, I start by explaining that this isn't wholly unlike advertising.

No, wait, stay with me.

If a devotional object is for a particular wight, that wight will have likes and dislikes and, in some cases, whole lists from which one might pick and choose. Take, for example, Freyja. I could make things that call to mind sunlight-dappled forest paths, dark tangled thickets, golden abundance, war-lust and seið-magic, on and on.

But, of course, most obvious of these would be a falcon-cloak.

For Freyja, I would want to go with a palette reminiscent of many raptors, but when I made that, I had in mind specifically the red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Buteo_jamaicensis), especially when I found an ombre colorway named red tail hawk.

I found two good colors in DK weight and doubled them while knitting a simple feather-and-fan pattern I nicked out of Folk Shawls because it seemed to me to look like outspread wings: a broadening isoceles triangle.

For a very occasional accent, I would knit a row tripled with an eyelash yarn that was gold with gold metallic.

I knit that shawl all across our Southwest, which is desert of many ways and means. I knit it, and, if not with every stitch certainly with most of them, I thought about Freyja, and falcons, and everything connected with them, and sang little songs, and all of that.

Advertising. I sought out things that reminded me and others of Freyja, and while putting them together I did so mindfully, thinking Freyja thoughts and doing Freyja things, and sure enough I came out with a fairly well-haunted falcon cloak, which I then gave to

walkyrja on the occasion of her dedication.

(I had knitted it for me, but found out it wasn't for me halfway through. Bah! However, I know what the Freyja shawl I get to keep is, so that is all right.)

That's all it is. Picking projects and materials aforethought, working mindfully, and going on.

Perhaps something on this would be good for the article too, along with the historical and academic detail.

I daresay I will--but nothing too loud, that sort of thing can startle folks. ;)

(As a sidebar, Frigga also has a falcon-cloak, but as her home is on a marsh (Fensalir, "Fen hall"), I would go with an osprey theme instead if making one for her: white, pale cream, and dark brown, with the occasional flicker of pale blue.)

Hm, now, have I overrun my space yet? Let's press the button and find out:

-- Lorrie

I grok the advertising analogy! And I really like the fact that the devotional work is wearable (even better when you have a someone to gift it to).

And a bit of a further aside, it amuses me that some people get twitchy/startled about inclusion of devotional activities in the context of other discussions. It is about religious practice as well as belief and historical/literary criticism isn't it? *best pot-stirring grin*

Direct spiritual contact has the delightful effect of simultaneously comforting the disturbed and disturbing the comfortable, and doing so quite efficiently.

;)

Also?

http://www.shawlministry.com/

-- Lorrie

Or I could, you know, follow up on my own thought:

"Smaller, lighter projects" in my world means small projects and/or lightweight yarn. This summer's project has been a 2-meter diameter nonagonal shawl, for example, although occasionally I work on a hacked-together pattern I call hrafnsocken.

That's what I mean. Whyever should you put down the sticks just because it's hot?

-- Lorrie

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