The Basics of Knitting - Video

Trying to be my own camera operator for a video like this was a bit challenging. I hope you can see well enough!

There will be other videos to show more techniques, knitting, spinning and more...

Here is the YouTube:

Link to Spinster Lois Swale's YouTube Channel

I promised a link to spindle expert Lois Swale's channel.

Here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/user/missingspindle/videos

I appreciate her style, and hope you will as well.

I plan to be posting my own spinning videos shortly, but you can get some good information from hers.

Ameda's Favorite Slippers

These have been my own version of Mary-Jane slippers for some time. They are fast and easy to make, accommodate a wide variety of feet, and are practically guaranteed to to turn the recipient into a jelly of gratitude when given as a gift.

These are a great project to use up the small bits of yarn that accumulate in any knitter's stash. I will use whatever I have, be it acrylic, superwash wool, or even my own handspun, but not mixing types. Making these large in non-superwash wool and then felting them to fit makes for a sturdy slipper.

Size is dependent on the yarn used, and you'll be making these often enough that you'll work out for yourself the appropriate needed needle size for the yarn for your most comfortable knitting. As a general guide, bulky yarn and size 9 needles will make a men's, Worsted weight and size 6 needles will make a woman's size, and fingering yarn and size 2 needles will make a child's size.

This project is a good beginner project, as the very basics of knitting - Cast On, Knit, Purl, Increase, Decrease, and Bind Off - are used.

CAST ON

CO 6

STARTING TAB

Knit 6 rows in garter st (knit every row)
Continuing in garter stitch, Inc 1 stitch at each edge until you have 19 stitches on your needles.

INCREASE ROW

K1, YO to last stitch, K1 (you should have 36 stitches)

BODY

Knit 40 rows in Stockinette stitch (knit 1 row, purl 1 row

DECREASE ROW

Knit 2 together across row - 18 stitches

ENDING TAB

In garter stitch, Dec 1 stitch each edge until you are back to 6 stitches
Knit 6 rows

BIND OFF

Bind off the 6 stitches

FINISHING

Fold your rather funky-looking piece of knitting right sides together and the beginning and ending tabs together. Using the tails from your cast on & bind off, sew the beginning 6 stitches to the last 6 stitches. Match the ends of the increase and decrease rows, and sew up the sides of the body.

A SHORT DISCUSSION OF GAUGE

Since I'm not making a specific yarn recommendation and these slippers stretch to fit a wide variety of feet, I'm not being very specific on gauge for this project.

Gauge can be defined as the number of stitches and rows per inch for the specific combination of knitter, needle size, stitch used, and yarn. It can vary quite a bit.

The swatches in the following photos all have 23 stitches and 23 rows. One swatch of each pair is in stockinette stitch, and the other is in mistake stitch rib.


The swatches in the above image have not been blocked. They show how mis-shaped pieces of knitting right off the needles can be.


This pair of swatches are done in a rather slubby "art yarn". The yarn might not be the best choice for slippers unless the slippers were made large and then was firmly felted.


These swatches also show that some yarns are less than effective at showing the details of a stitch pattern. This is something to think of in projects.

"New" Home, New Year

This little house has a nice yard for a garden. The soil is in better shape than I thought, but still needs a deal of work to set up garden beds and amending the soil.

While I injured my knee during the move to this house, and it is still not healed, I was able to do far more in terms of physical work than when I started this blog. I do use a cane because of the banged up knee, and I still use the electric wheelchair at the grocery store, but I'm able to stand a good deal longer and walk much further than only a year ago. My weight continues to drop to the point where I now need to replace or alter all of my clothing. 

Building a garden large and varied enough to improve how I eat is key to my plans to continue to improve my health.

For the last few days, I've been working out how much to plant to feed us both fresh and preserved produce for the year. From there, I can work out how much square footage of garden needs to be built.

Part of my research involved old agricultural extension bulletins, and I compiled this list of quantities of foods needed per person over a year. 

Milk – 75 gallons – 5 ounces of cheese counts as 1 quart

Meat / Poultry / Fish -100 lbs broken up as: 40 lbs fresh, 30 lbs cured, 30 lbs canned (5 quarts)

Eggs – 30 dozen

Fats – 60 lbs as butter, bacon, oils

Sugars – 50 lbs (includes 5 lbs honey and 15 lbs molasses)

Vegetables – 300 lbs Tomatoes 2.5 bushels, can 30 to 40 quarts. Green vegetables 60 lbs fresh, 125 lbs stored (includes cabbage) 25 lbs canned (about 10 quarts)

Potatoes – 180 lbs sweet and white potatoes

Fruit and juices – 100 lbs fresh, 20 lbs dried (which is about 5 pounds after drying), 100 lbs canned (50 quarts)

Flour & Cereal – 160 lbs wheat (for bread and cereals)

Dry beans – 15 lbs dry peas & beans

Nuts – 10 lbs – 5 lbs each of peanuts and tree nuts

When I started looking at these numbers, I realized that when broken down to a weekly amount, I was not eating sensibly in far too many categories. I have been doing much better than I was only two years ago, but there is a lot more to be done.

I'm also planning to start setting up at the Saturday farmer's market when it re-opens for 2015 at the end of March. I will be able to sell my artwork and crafts there as well as produce from the garden. This figures into how I will plan amounts to plant. 

Here are the plants & numbers:

Beans – Broken across several varieties for both eating fresh and drying for storage. 45 plants total. Kentucky Wonder, Pole Lima, Speckled Calico, and Jacob’s Cattle Gold.

Beets – Succession planting for beet greens, baby beets, and beets for storage. 100 plants (or more) Using a beet mixture that has a wide variety of colors, sizes and days to maturity.

Cabbage – I like Gonzales Mini Cabbage, but I am also getting a mix packet for other sizes and days to maturity. I will likely have 10 plants.

Cucumber – I have experience with Lemon Cucumber, and the Poona Keera variety has some of the same qualities that I particularly enjoy. Both are never bitter, even if heat-stressed. 6 plants.

Eggplant – I’m growing a variety called Turkish Orange. They resemble orange tomatoes on tall, productive plants. 7 plants

Lettuce – I’m using a mixture of leaf lettuces that will be used in succession plantings. Per medical advice, I should be eating a salad a day, so I’ll be growing at least 70 plants.

Melon & Cantaloupe - I’ll be growing 2 plants in each of 4 varieties for 8 plants total. American Melon, Green Nutmeg, Minnesota Midget, and Hale’s Best

Onion – I’ll need to get sets locally – 100 sets. I’ll also plant a packet each of chives and bunching onions.

Pea - 70 to 100 plants in succession planting for both fresh eating and drying.

Peppers, HOT - This is Texas. I’m just not interested in bell peppers. 2 plants of Bhut Jolokia (Ghost Pepper) 5 plants of Chinese 5 Color, 5 plants of Black Hungarian, and 10 plants from the hot pepper mix packet. Ghost pepper is a mega-hot pepper in the million+ Scoville rating area. The house mate is growing them mainly for bragging rights, not for eating. Chinese 5 Color & Black Hungarian are both jalapeno-level peppers that have nice color and flavor.

Potatoes – Medical advice tells me to cut back on the white potatoes, so I am planning on having several sweet potato plants.

Radish – I really like radishes. A little butter, some sea salt… Radishes are so quick to grow, I’m not even going to put a number on these. I’m using a mix of colors, sizes, & days to maturity.

Spinach - I’m ordering a mixed packet. Again, I’ll be sowing these in succession for fresh eating and freezing. 180 plants overall.

Squash – I’ll be growing 2 plants each of Butternut, Acorn, Yellow summer squash, and Eightball zucchini.

Swiss Chard – I like a variety called Bright Lights. The different colors are interesting, and the ability to harvest repeatedly from the same plant is great. 20 plants total.

Tomato – I expect to end up with at least two dozen tomato plants. Rio Grande is a small paste tomato that tolerates a fair bit of heat. Aunt Ruby’s German Green and Kellogg’s Breakfast are two of my favorites. Both are great producers with fantastic flavor.

Herbs – Cutting celery is my answer to the difficulty of growing celery in this climate. I’ll have a couple plants of it, and will try to keep one plant in a container so as to keep it growing over next winter. The other edible herbs I’ll be growing are dill, oat grass, nasturtium, rosemary and several varieties of basil.

I’ll also have several varieties of sunflower, Hopi Red Dye Amaranth, Elcampane, Golden Marguerite, Indigo, Henna, Woad, and Black Hollyhock for use as dye plants.


A multiflora petunia mix and some marigolds will add to the appeal of the front yard, and I’ll be growing three varieties of gourds for crafts. Bushel gourd is used to make storage containers, Luffa gourds can be eaten like a summer squash when young, but the main use is as vegetable sponges / scrubbers. Spinner gourds are tiny bottle-shaped gourds that are useful for a number of crafts.

The house mate will be doing the heavy lifting of building the garden, but I do plan to do most of the planting and tending. This will also add to the total amount of exercise I do!

The Self-Induced Disaster Of Packing And Moving

There is a quote from Benjamin Franklin - "Two removes equals one fire" 

I believe that he was understating the situation. Packing, storing my belongings, finding a new residence, moving everything, getting services arranged for, getting unpacked and reorganized has been a nightmare. It seemed that every aspect of this move has taken at least three times as much effort, funds, and time as necessary.

I'm still working on the unpacked and reorganized steps. Living in this swamp of boxes is leaving me somewhat unsettled and disgruntled.

The future garden site

I injured my knee during the move and I'm still not walking very well three weeks later. The fact that today is my 57th birthday is leaving me with the reminder that I don't heal as well or as quickly as I did twenty years ago.

There is some good news in the midst of this. My new neighbors have been very helpful. One young man came over when we were unloading, and gave some much needed assistance. Another neighbor has offered his help in getting a washing machine set up in the house.

I am truly looking forward to building a productive garden in both the front and back yards. The dappled shade here will help keep a garden productive even in the north Texas summer heat.

One of my favorite seed catalogs arrived this week, and I've been enjoying reading the descriptions and dreaming of tomatoes, peppers, and summer squash.

Creating A Studio Space In My Heart As Well As With My Hands

Humm...what?

My workspace (s) have shifted many times over the past few years. From plein air painting, to knitting in public, to using the bedroom, to the front room, to the whole apartment, to combinations of all of these and more.

My bed as a table for fiber tools

I haven't had a lot of trouble getting into the frame of mind to create for lack of a specific space. I create the space first by intending to create. The decision makes the space.

I won't argue that having a dedicated, organized space would make putting that intention into practice much more efficient!

My large loom has not been set up in several years since I was never able to give it enough space in this small apartment to do so. Small weaving projects were the order of things.

In the next few weeks, this small household will be relocating from a small one bedroom apartment to a two or three bedroom house. A dedicated space for all the technology in use - be it digital or art or fiber - will be part of the deal.

The challenge is in creating a space that welcomes all the varied media I enjoy working with.

I designed a table apron for plein air painting

Drawing and painting area - this will be far more modest in square footage than many I have seen, but I will have storage for all my pencils, pastels, paints, drawing pads, sketching board, brushes, easel, canvas board & stretched canvas.

Carving and pyrography - right next to the drawing and painting, this will include a selection of dried gourds, wood panels and blocks, rotary carving tools, carving blades, as well as sanding, polishing and staining supplies.

Next is the reference library. I have an old laptop that is still functional enough to store all the digital references in knitting, weaving, sewing, vintage sewing machines, wood working, and other topics that I have collected. The physical books I have collected on these topics is far greater than the collection in the area library. My sewing pattern library is also quite extensive.

That brings us to the sewing area. My cutting table is the heart of the workspace, sharing fabric duties with nearly every other activity. My small herd of vintage sewing machines, ironing board, irons, and several racks of sewing fabric require a fair amount of square footage.

My wheel does require a fair amount of space

Finally, we come around to the fiber heart and soul of my studio. My spinning wheel, spindles, fiber, yarn, knitting projects, knitting needles, weaving tools, supplies, knitting chair, loom, tables for knitting and weaving tools handy to either part of the space will probably require the largest amount of square footage.

My aim is to create a workspace that allows for the widest possible creativity and production.

This will make me feel good!

Financial Health Impacting Physical Health

I've been getting stressed over my bills.

I don't have a lot of margin between income and outgo, and it seems that there are so many more things that require more outgo. In the past few months the bills for the electric service, the water bill, my cellphone bill and the inevitable car repairs have been hitting hard.

My blood pressure has gone up.

So, I'm now trying to handle this in an intelligent manner.

I'm trying to get more (and better) sleep.

I'm drinking chamomile tea before bedtime, and using more vitamins.

What I suspect will be the real handling is that I'm trying to create more income to answer the shrinking margin.

I spent a good deal of time yesterday taking pictures of my original hand knit designs and art work. Later today I'll be editing my website to add them to the store section. Then, the work will be directed towards promotion. 

Rule changes and/or rising fees for sales websites like Etsy, eBay and Amazon have given me reason to decide to avoid using these sites.

For instance, the nature of eBay is that used - pennies-on-the-dollar - items will sell far faster than new items.

Etsy recently changed their rules to allow art manufacturers from China access to the marketplace. This tends to snow under the individual artist, and lessens my willingness to offer my work there.

Amazon has a monthly plan that my sales would not yet cover, so that is not a good business decision.

Instead of sales websites, I'll be listing my items on my own website and doing consistent promotion over my social media sites.

The one exception to this will be listing my original knit design patterns on Ravelry. Since Rav is both a social media forum as well as a sales site, this makes sense.

Future plans include getting a good video camera so I can make knitting instruction videos for YouTube, doing more demonstrations of spinning technique at festivals, and getting more of my artwork into galleries.