Kay's Korner - A Knitters Notes

March 24, 2008

Every day, I see articles and hear interviews on the recessive trends of our economy. Fewer jobs, high interest rates, both companies and individuals turning to bankruptcy, are all indicators of lean times ahead for many Americans. Now we are all looking for more bang for our buck. Isn't it great that our craft is so practical?! You go play golf and come home with a scorecard. A model train won't keep you warm at night. Though usually hobbies choose us, rather than vice versa, I get great satisfaction that my craft has a very practical side.

Although needle arts as a hobby is a phenomenon that began primarily in the last 50 years, needle arts as a necessary skill for women prevailed throughout history, only becoming less important since the advent of ready to wear. In 1937, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) developed a standardized sizing for women's clothes, making ready to wear finally fit acceptably. This ushered in a huge change in how we clothed our families and needle arts for the homemaker became an unnecessary, though still admired, skill set. In my lifetime, I have witnessed this evolution. As a child, my mother, a fabulous seamstress, lovingly constructed beautiful clothes for my sister and I, primarily because it saved her a considerable sum. I interviewed my mother, affectionately known as "Mum", when developing this article. Mum did not purchase clothing, other than undergarments, until 1948, when she was 19 years old and started to work in the city. Even through the 60's, my mother at her Singer was a common sight in our house. She could sew superior garments for the women in our family at a reduced cost, while keeping them stylish, enjoying her craft in the process.

According to Mum, World War II was the turning point for home sewing. When so many women went to work, taking on traditionally males jobs to support the war effort, there was far less time in the average woman's day to knit, weave, or sew. Mass production accepted the challenge of developing ready to wear. It took years for ready to wear to be embraced by women, although there was early success in military uniforms, men's jackets and slacks which bolstered the young industry. Eventually women saw that they could buy ready made clothes cheaper than they could hire a seamstress, though still more than if made at home. They became used to the idea of mass produced fashion and having a wide variety of garments to choose from began to replace the women's taste for individual and unique designs.

The growing number of working women were now able to purchase their clothing, but many turned to women who remained in the home as laundresses. My grandmother worked long hours sewing in a mill and paid a local woman to wash, dry, fold, and press her families' clothing and linens. Mum remembers when she purchased her first automatic washer and dryer in the early 1960's, freeing up many hours in her busy week.

When the clothing industry collaborated with Toni, the home permanent company, in an effort to make permanent creases, especially in the very popular khaki pants or chinos, the chemical process so weakened the fabric, it would shred after 2-3 washings. In 1939, the development of nylon and polyester by a scientist named Carothers, working for DuPont Laboratories, made the new process called permanent press a success. By adding either nylon or polyester to fabric, it was strengthened enough to withstand the chemical treatment. In the following 10 years, there were many advancements in the permanent press process and in fabrics. When pleats and creases remained after washing and wrinkles were minimal, homemakers had extra hours every week to pursue other interests. Finally with ready to wear, automatic laundry appliances, and permanent press fabrics, the American housewife could claim some leisure time.

Today, many of us use leisure hours to return to traditional pursuits. Although sewing is not as popular an activity as 50 or even 25 years ago, knitting and crochet have recently had an upsurge in popularity. Needle arts allow us to be both creative and productive. Handmade gifts are cherished and women practicing needle arts are generally admired. While a well hand knit sweater will not usually save us money over a foreign mass produced machine knit, the difference in a quality and fit is noticeable. And while bowlers, golfers, and movie goers leave their leisure activities with little pieces of paper in hand, we knitters, crocheters, weavers, spinners, and seamstresses have a practical souvenir of our free time.

On Kay's Needles

After frogging my completed first attempt, I finished the "Go To" Pullover I designed, using Araucania's handpainted Limari, a merino/alpaca/silk blend, which knit up super quickly on size 17 needles. I designed the pullover to be knit sideways in one piece; from sleeve edge to sleeve edge, nipped in at the hip, tapering out to a modified batwing sleeve. For info on the "Go To" Pullover, please contact me at kmather@rarepurls.com. The Rare Purls Original Kit will be available on our website soon!

Another quick knit is "Aspa" from the book Araucanian Moments by Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton for Araucania Yarns. Requiring only two (2) 50 gram balls of Araucania's Atacama, a yummy 100% handpainted alpaca yarn, the front tie shoulder wrap is worked in garter stitch on large needles, for a sure to please weekend project.

My final effort was a felted tray to hold all of the various remote controls for our home theater. I chose both a solid and handpaint yarn from the Cascade 220 line, to match our rosewood table, and began with a knitted rectangle. Despite my knowledge that felting shrinks stockinette more per row than per stitch, when my tray came out of the washer I saw that my estimates were faulty and ended up with sides that gaped. They are obviously not a design feature, so I plan to tack and clip a dart on the two misshapen sides and chalk this project up to a learning experiment. Perhaps a needle felted design on the inside of the tray will draw attention away from my repair. Either way, I now have a tray to protect our table from marring by clunky remotes.

Happy knitting!

Copyright 2008 Karen Mather

March 8, 2008

When shopping for yarn, we may first choose a pattern and then ask for the recommended yarn or we may fall in love with a yarn, then go in search of a pattern. In either scenario, the information on the yarn label, or ball band, is important. Although labels vary greatly in the data they supply, they all are there to help us in choosing a satisfactory yarn for our project.

The most obvious information on the label is the yarn line and the name of the yarn. My first example below shows that the yarn is from the designer line by Louisa Harding and the yarn name is Impression. We are told the suggested needle size in both the US number, US6, and in metric, 4 mm. In giving the recommended tension, or gauge as it is commonly called in the US, we are told it is 22 sts x 30 rows. Here is where manufacturers vary and novice knitters can get a bit confused. Most gauge swatches are 10 x 10 cm, or 4 x 4 inches, but occasionally labels will give the number of stitches and rows per 1 inch square, for example .

Also on the label is the weight. Our example shows 50 grams, but many yarns come in 100 gram hanks and some are measured in ounces rather than grams. A 50 gram ball is approximately 1.75 ounces. Usually, the yardage is also on the label, either in yards or meters, and on our label, both. Other important numbers are the color and dye lot. It is always a good idea to buy sufficient yearn for your project in the same dye lot, to avoid subtle changes in color. Personally, I always buy at least on extra skein, knowing that at my local yarn shop, an unused skein in new condition is returnable within 60 days, if I keep my sales receipt. A frequent exception to this policy is when purchasing yarn that has been discontinued or for some other reason reduced in price.

Washing instructions either written out or given in standard symbols are very helpful, prompting me to include a yarn label in any handknit I gift. When there are no instructions for laundering, check the fiber content and clean accordingly.

Increasingly product identification numbers and bar codes are being included on all products, including yarn. These make keeping up with inventory much easier for the shops who have the equipment and software to take advantage of this system.

The final item on our label is "Made in Italy." This is the country where the yarn was manufactured, not necessarily the country where the fiber originated. Sometimes the distributor of the yarn line will also be included on the label. Many distributors have websites where they list the yarns they carry, the colors of these yarns, and listings of the yarn shops, by area, that supply their merchandise to the public. Pattern books using their yarn are usually listed and often there are photos of each design. Free patterns are often offered, as well.

If you cannot find the information you need on a yarn label, at times labels are printed both on front and back. The labels that are tucked inside balls must gently be pulled out of the yarn to see all of the specifications. There are times when very little information is given on yarn labels. I purchased a large amount of yarn from Turkey a few years ago and the only information given was a brand name that I had never heard of before. Some foreign yarns have labels in Italian, French, or other languages. A real challenge is presented when the label uses a foreign alphabet, such as with the Russian and Japanese languages. This is rarely seen in the US, but part of the fun of travel is perusing foreign yarn shops.

Copyright 2008 Karen Mather