Nalbinding Calendar Phone Wallpaper + Projects

It's been a busy (in a very good way) couple of weeks!

An idea popped into my head that nalbinding should have a monthly wallpaper calendar. We'll see if I can keep up with the calendar part, or if I just end up doing wallpapers with nalbinding. But I think it will be a fun project to help promote nalbinding. (I often get asked what nalbinding is. If it's in an image on my phone background I can quickly point to it.)

Link to full size Sunday start version

Link to full size Monday start version

New colorways in the Nordic series: Reindeer and Blue Hour (on 4 ply Classic Fox worsted and Arctic Fox bulky singles) are available in the shop.



Had a blast making some custom orders for some amazing ladies. The calendar wallpaper has two of the needles (redheart and spalted ash). Here's a few more in acrylic. Custom orders for February are open.


Finally got to the more brainless work on my sweater now that I have arm holes! YAY!


And finally I've been catching up on the spinning challenge for the Facebook group "A Spinner's Study". The breed study for January was merino. And since I was dyeing I tossed the wool into the pot for the kettle dye challenge too. (Happened to be on "Blue Hour" dye day.)  I'm late with the spinning, but I did get it done.  Spinning fever over took me and I spun 8 oz of polwarth I'd dyed a while back as a sample to spin in "The Gloaming" colorway. Here's the dry skein. I was spinning pretty bulky so I can nalbind something thick and quick.


I'll leave you with a few questions. :)

What all have you been working on? I'd love to see!

Do you prefer a calendar or regular phone wallpaper?

Nalbound Sweater Stitch Along + Notes on Working From the Bottom of Your Work

The last month flew by so fast, I kind of wonder where it went! The Nalbinding Stitch Along Sweater project sucked me in at the end of December and I have ok progress. My hope is to have it done before Green Camel Gathering in early March.

The collar is complete. I had to add an extra row from the shoulders and around the back of the neck so it didn't sit too low on my neck. As I worked the shoulders I did most of my decreasing over the top of the shoulders. The collar I connected rows to the back of the row at the bottom of the stitch to get a rolled edge look. (I haven't figured out a ribbing for nalbinding and I thought this would help make the edge look more complete.)

I found that just working a new Mammen stitch row on the bottom of your work has an unexpected effect. It opens holes in weird places. Here's what was left after I pulled out what I'd done. Pulling the middle of the back of the stitches undid the weird holes thankfully. (I'm pretty sure adding another row on the bottom worked nicely for Oslo and Finnish 2+2 stitches. Is it because of the uneven pickup 1+2 in Mammen stitch that this didn't turn out nice?)

 

So I debated what to do if I couldn't just work a row from where I left off. Working the row from the inside turned out to be the ticket. It looks like the other rows now. Whew! I was worried! Thankfully the solution was simple!

What projects are you all working on? Ever tried connecting new rows to the bottom of your work?

Shop Update - but WHOOSH they're gone....

I'd intended to share news that needles were posted in the shop today. (And they were!) As fast as I could list them, they disappeared. I was completely flabbergasted! This has never happened before. Yes, all my needles sell - but usually with in a couple weeks. (I'm still in shock...)

So I'll share the pretty picture of the needles all going to a new home.
 

But never fear! Hubby and I have been working hard and we have more cut - they just need finishing. I'll be working on shaping more as I can. But I won't likely have listings until after the new year. If anyone is interested in reserving a needle let me know. I have another of most of the ones above (minus the antler and blue). But we'll have other styles to post then too.

On the dumb side of things (feel free to laugh at my stupidity), I knew I should get some hand protection one of these days. (When one pokes oneself often while quickly sanding a needle - one would think one would be smart enough to get kevlar gloves, right?) Well, lets just say I got smart enough after drawing blood a few days ago. (No stitches, lots of disinfectant and I'm up to date on my tetanus shot!) Note the offending needle isn't the one pictured. It was a brass one - those are so hard to sand!


But my spiffy new kevlar gloves arrived today, so I can continue working on metal needles.


So no dye updates. It's been needles, needles, needles. After Christmas there will be time for more dye adventures.

I'm frantically trying to finish a few ornaments for gifts. Are you all finishing anything before the holidays?

Small Circle Vest Complete!

Finishing went a little faster than I expected. YAY! My daughter loves it - so it’s worth all the work (even the hand sewing).

Vest was done in Finnish 2+2 stitch with Brown Sheep Nature Spun Worsted and Malabrigo Rios - Arco Iris.

Gross grain ribbon was added across the rows on the back to stabilize the clasps. (This stitch stretches across rows quite a bit.)

Detail of the back center, where I started the vest. Had fun playing with what shapes I could make from a nalbinding chain.

Things I learned from this project:

1. I want to find a better way to start/end stripes.
2. I need to figure out how to measure around the edge of loopy work better so it doesn't puff out.  (Unless I want it to.)
3. Stripes of color seem to make the work go faster. I can see the progress in each row.
4. Plastic marker pins didn't work well for this - they pulled too much on the stitch loops. Maybe pinning them in the middle of the stitch would work better?

Spinning and Circle Vest

Last month I joined the Facebook group "A Spinner's Study". Truly a lovely group (enough to make me think twice about my general dislike of Facebook.) They have monthly challenges and breed studies and one that I'm participating in for October is The Cormo breed study.

Received my cormo top (from North Star Alpacas) this week. (Isn't the salmon color pretty? This is as close to pink as I get, folks.) I'd spun cormo before, but I'd forgotten how wonderful it is to spin! Easy to spin a nice fine yarn. Feels good in my hands.

I picked up precise spinner's control card and an angle of twist gauge from Hipstrings too. They arrived just in time for me to start spinning my cormo. 

Trying the pinch and pull type method for consistency. I can't do this method for hours on end like I can other methods (I'm a former programmer and it took a toll on my hands). But it's nice to know how to do.  So I spin for 1/2 an hour to an hour and do something else for a while.

Next month the challenges will focus on thin yarns and thick yarns. Really looking forward to that!

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I also participated in the Moonrover stash-along challenge with some superwash merino/bamboo blend. I'm not usually an SW fan. But this spun very nicely and it was fun to use up some of my fiber club stash from the beginning of the year.

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Coming along well on my daughter's circle vest. Decided to add some Malabrigo Rios "Arco Iris" (purples and greens) to the lilac-ish purple Brown Sheep yarn I'd been working with. It really seems to make it pop and the variance in colors helps make the stitching seem to go faster. Hopefully, I'll be done this week.  (Cross your fingers for me!)

What have you all been working on? Have you been feeling the autumn crafting bug?

Karman Vortex Scarf PDF Pattern for Nalbinding - now available!

Finally after the last revisions, I was able to list my pattern for my Karman Vortex Nalbound Scarf in my Etsy shop. Woot! 

23 pages of detailed instructions with images of each step. Here's a sneak peek.

Now to finish one of these as a gift for my friend's birthday. More crafting news to come. Are you all making nalbound gifts for Christmas and birthdays?

Von Karman Vortices Inspiration #1 + Green Camel Craft Retreat Report

This morning I finished my first project inspired by the beauty of the Von Karman vortices in nature. Who would have thought fluid dynamics could be so pretty! With the blues it made me think of river eddies so I present to you the Karman River Whirls Scarf.

Nalbound in Finnish 2+2 for a stable chain of Cascade Eco+ in Lake Chelan Heather colorway.

I hope to write up the pattern for this. I've not seen ANYTHING like it done in nalbinding yet and I'm just giddy about the possibility of having 'invented' something!

Background info for those who aren't familiar with Von Karman Vortices: They're swirls in a fluid when the fluid has to move around an object. When I worked at a satellite receiving station as a programmer for the Landsat 7 project, there were many images I saw that just blew me away. This was one of them - Von Karman vortices from the Juan Fernandez Islands sticking up into the clouds. I remember when this image made the front cover of ASPRS magazine in 1999.

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Green Camel Report
Last weekend my daughter, one of my dear friends - Johanna, and I drove to the delightful little town of Tyler, MN and attended the Green Camel Gathering crafting weekend at the old Danebod Folk School. It was wonderful to catch up with so many of my fiber arts friends from around the area. Though, feel free to laugh - just three of us filled my SUV to capacity with the crafts we brought to work on.

I hosted a group indigo dye experiment on Saturday. (I can't call it a class, it was just us having fun tossing stuff into the dye vat.) Sunday morning, I was able to take the "Reverse Knitting" class by my friend Miranda. Knitting left handed was doable. Perling - well I'm not sure I have my mind wrapped around that yet. Much chatting, spinning, and nalbinding were done. My daughter was able to try several new crafts including needle felting and kumihimo. Now, I think I have my daughter and Johanna hooked, and should be able to expect more Green Camel trips with them in the future. Yipee!

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What's your inspiration lately?

The Vest that Never Ends is Complete

Absolutely giddy. That's how I felt yesterday when I finished the border and reinforced the arm holes of my circular vest. The Finnish 2+2 stitch knotwork border sucked up yarn so fast! I had to go buy more of the blue yarn.  Much to do today, so I'll keep the post short.

Study of Knotwork vs Stitches

As I was about to start working on the knotwork edging for "the vest that never ends", it occurred to me to try the knot I wanted with a couple different stitches. I want the knotwork edge to be crisp and clear, yet only require a chain of stitches and the stitches quick and easy to create.

In my opinion, the Oslo stitch wasn't as sturdy and didn't provide as much definition for the single colored knot, even when I tried tightening up the stitches.

Oslo Stitch 

Oslo Stitch tightened around needle

The Finnish stitches with 4 loops all had a crisper clearer knot that was easier to see. I think the Finnish 2+2 and Finnish 3+1 stitches gave the nicest effect. (Finnish 3+1 isn't listed as an official stitch, that I can find. But it's a logical variant of the Finnish stitches.)

Finnish 2+2 Stitch

Finnish 1+3 (Broden) Stitch

Finnish 3+1

So I chose Finnish 2+2 for my stitch and started off on the edging with gusto. I realized half way around the vest (which is a HUGE circle), that I was going to run out of blue yarn for the edge.  Blah! This edging style eats up yarn at an alarming rate! So I bought another skein of Cascade Eco+ Yarn (478 yards) of the Lake Chelan Heather blue and was lucky it's the same dye lot. There will be quite a bit of the yarn left over.  What to do with that? Socks? Mini vest for my youngest? Hmm...

More Tinkering with Knotwork - Study in Which Knots Work Well with Nalbinding

Yesterday I found my Danish friend Maria is working with knotwork too for the Nalbinding Festival in Denmark. So there's 3 of us now, that I know of.  Oh I wish I could go to the festival!  Maybe next year...

Last night I attempted 3 more knots as I work through my old knotwork book. Two of which were good.

The first one was my "fail" for the evening. But it was worth trying. I learned I'll have to tack down the looser shapes like the "s" or "z" so they stay put. I won't just be able to make a chain of stitches and make this knot. It will have to be more planned and after so many stitches I'll have to attach it to the other chain of stitches. Otherwise, it won't hold together well.

This knot was tricky to "tie". But once completed and tightened, it was so pleasing. (I may have to make a photocopy of the knots I work on and highlight each strand in a different color. My eyes kept getting lost when tying this one.)

And this one really surprised me, I thought it wouldn't work with the longer loops to the next knot. But when tightened it worked out well.

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In project news, the "vest that never ends" might actually be nearing completion. It was very close last Sunday when I took it to coffee with friends. (No the vest did not get to drink coffee.  I suspect it wanted to though. It kept being difficult to work on, as if it was trying to tell me something.)

What in your projects and experiments has surprised you?

Knitting with Nalbound Edge - Take 1

The other day I tinkered with nalbinding the edge of my knitting. I'm not particularly happy with the results.

When binding off my knitting with nalbinding, I got twisted stitches.  When I went over the cast on edge, I got ridges.  I have ideas about how to deal with these problems: for the twisted stitches - I could turn the stitch or go in the other direction, for the ridges - just pick up the cast on edge differently and check after a few stitches.  I had also hoped the work wouldn't curl, but it does.  So my experiment, needs more work.

Experiments: Nalbinding as an Edge on Crochet

During thoughts on planning for fall classes, I had one of those ideas that wouldn't let me go until I tried it. One of the classes I'm thinking about submitting is on pretty nalbound edgings and it occurred to me that nalbinding would make a lovely solid edge on other crafts.

So a sample whipped itself up while dinner was in the oven. I eyeballed the number of stitches of nalbinding I'd need per double crochet stitch - 2 nalbinding stitches to 1 crochet stitch. So far I'm really liking the effect.

Crossing my fingers for more time to experiment tomorrow, for edging knitting with nalbinding.

Have you ever edged another yarn craft with nalbinding?

Knotwork Tutorial II

Several bits and pieces on how to do the scarf were scattered in my blog posts. But it wasn't a real tutorial and a few important tidbits were missing.  So I'll write down the process for those who would like to make their own nalbound knotwork items with more complicated knots. For my examples, I use the Finnish 2+2 stitch.

This is the knot style we'll be working with. (Page 33 of Celtic Art: The Methods of Construction.) I highlighted one part of the knot in the diagram, so we can easily see the construction.

To make the knots:
Make to chains of stitches.  One or two colors of yarn can be used.

Make a loop with one chain of stitches. I try not to let mine twist - so my knots are more uniform.

Then I place the other chain of stitches under the loop that I just made.

Now we'll start working over and under, over and under until we've completed the knot.

Now make as many knots as you want. The knots do stretch out a bit. So just know that if you decide to edge the knots, for final item won't be as long. Here are the knots I made for my scarf.

To do a row of edging:

I picked up the knot tail and did a stitch or two on it.

A) Then I picked up and made 4 stitches in the top loop of the knot. (Depending on your knots, you may need fewer or more stitches in the loop. Experiment on a few knots to find out.)

B) Next, I did 3 stitches in the chain that is between knots.

Repeat A and B until you reach the end of the knots. 

Do a stitch in the tail of the knot.

Then in the end of the tail, make 4 or 5 stitches (for the corner of your work).

Continue working on the edge of your knots. I did about 3 stitches in each part of the loop on the side.

Continue turning corners and edging until you reach where you started.  Pull your stich loops a little tighter so they blend in.  Finally, weave in your ends. (I had to use the ends to cover where I started and ended.)

Enjoy!