Category: Knitting

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One thing leads to another…

How did I get into embroidering things? How did I learn to spin yarn? How did I start knitting? Why do I have a big honking weaving loom all of a sudden? How did I get *here*?

So many creative people ask themselves that question. More of us now than ever, since the Pandemic has given so many of us more free time to explore activities we hadn’t had the time to consider before now. And there’s lots of us that have creative interests that slide into one another, or start out as one thing and surface as another. I feel like it’s the mark of a curious mind.  You toy with one art form, and think about how you could combine it with something else, or what to do to get an effect you want, and before you know it, you’re up to your eyebrows in yarn and embroidery floss and hot glue and gold foil.  One art form very easily bleeds into another, and sometimes you need those combinations to reach out to the vision in your head that demands to be a real thing.

Polymer clay and watch parts

For example, I started knitting as an extension of some beadwork I was doing, a very long time ago. I saw a knitted purse with beads strung onto the yarn, and loved it so much. But I didn’t know the first thing about knitting! So after a couple of library books and a quick tutorial or two from a coworker, I had begun to knit small, simple things. And it was better than fun, it was glorious! After exploring lots of beading and knitting possibilities, I tried stringing beads on a thread and knitting it along with a yarn. Which was fine, but lacked structure. What if…I made the yarn myself, spinning in the beads? So that means I’d have to learn to spin, shouldn’t I? Where’s that dowel I know I have, and that old CD I don’t listen to? I bet I could make myself a crude drop spindle with those…

And before I knew it? Boom! A spinning wheel in my living room that I learned to fix up from a book. Lots of possibilities for yarns I couldn’t afford or never knew existed before. New friendships with local fiber farmers, who were kind and generous to a new customer. An astounding flexibility when it came to knitting projects. Out of a yarn? I could make more, however I wanted! And knitting friends wanted some too. So…time for an Etsy shop and more fibers to play with. And, wasn’t that color of fleece just a little bit dull? And aren’t you craving a wonderful plum color? How about trying out dyeing fibers next?

Gory wool

What’s in that pot, Maus? What is it? Wool, you say? You sure? It looks…not good…

Dyeing fibers leads to playing with the concept of felting, if you agitate the dyewater too much.  And taking a knitted hat that’s waaaay too big and felting it made for a sturdy little hat with lots of structure for…embroidery? Why not? Hey, where’s that embroidery book you learned from when you were a kid? And it ends up being an excellent way to use up handspun odds and ends that aren’t enough to knit with but are too gorgeous to toss out. Also, weaving is good for things like that too. How about trying out that rigid-heddle loom for a big honking shawl?

And then…the Pandemic hit. And not only did I have my own art supplies to plow through,  but also supplies I inherited from my mother, who had loads of crafting stuff I hadn’t really explore before now, Woodburning tools, a really large and imposing hot glue gun, crochet hooks of every size and…whoa. Loads of embroidery floss. Now, where’s that old bamboo hoop I used to have?…

And that’s where I am these days, now that I’m home full-time. I just finished a pair of wristwarmers that I embroidered, and a felted hat, and some hooped embroideries with swearing in them, and I’m almost done with a green alpaca yarn that might need some beads. All of these things are complimentary to each other, and none can really crowd out my love of any of the others. And I’m hopeful that this winter more of us will have the opportunity to try out something they haven’t had a chance to do but always wanted to. Or reaquainting themselves with an art form, like meeting an old friend.  Winter’s good for exactly this sort of experimentation, and this yearning for a new way to express creativity is such a good way to work out problems and anxieties. It helps me stay away from my phone for a while, and stops the doomscrolling and the worrying for a little while…

What will you have by springtime that you didn’t have before, and never realized could be something you could do?

 

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Handspun Knitting Tips for New Knitters…

Hello, my dear friends! I hope you’re all staying safe and keeping out of harm’s way…So far we’re still keeping a quiet life here at the House of the Maus, and this winter’s shaping up to be more of the same.  But I’m thinking of fun quiet things to do in the future, which will keep me happily busy during the dark cold days.

Recently I’ve noticed an upswing of brand new knitters around me and my shop,, tiptoeing around shyly and asking questions about handspun yarns. So I thought I’d write some helpful advice for people that want to try out handspun but are afraid that their newfound skills aren’t good enough to rate them…

First off, handspun yarns tend to shine their best with simple stitches, especially the art yarns. So a really fun way to dress up some simple projects is with a handspun yarn. Try some for borders, for cuffs, for collars, for hat brims!

Also, it’s useful to have a handful of different sizes of knitting needles, so you can try out your yarns and see if you like the drape. . I often find that new knitters tend to knit somewhat tightly, but switching over to a larger needle size fixes the problem immediately. Don’t be afraid to play around and find what your hands like to knit with!

People also ask about how much yardage you need for various projects, which an be a tricky question. I find that it breaks down like this: Usually a skein of handspun bulky weight yarn, about 60 or 70 yards, is enough on it’s own for a hat. (Though you might need a little more for accents or tassels or pompoms. Pompoms eat up a *lot* of yardage.) It can also be enough for the body of a cowl, though I like my cowls extra long so that they double as a hood, which again means more yarn.  A skein of worsted weight yarn, about 80 to 100 yards, is enough for a hat or a skinny scarf on it’s own, but if you like really long scarves double the yardage, at least.  And both with bulky and worsted weight, one skein is enough for a set of mitts.  One skein of sport, dk or sock weight yarn (roughly 140 to 200 yards or more) is enough for a pair of mittens or socks, or a nice drapey mini-shawl.  Anything like a sweater, a poncho or a lap blanket is going to require at least 6 skeins of a yarn or more, depending on how big your project is. For the bigger stuff, talk to your handspinner, and they can buy their fleece in bulk so they have enough of what you want  for your project.

Some of this sounds pretty expensive, especially for a brand new knitter, huh? No worries. I collected most of my needles from thrift stores, or kind friends clearing out their stashes. There are excellent milled yarns out there that are a happy compliment to other yarns. (My favorites? Brown Sheep Company, and mohair yarns of all kinds.)   Other knitters also usually have a good stash of beginner’s yarn that they save for new people, as well as loaner books and patterns, so you don’t have to break the bank to try out something new.

So don’t be afraid of the handspun! For ages, handspun yarn was all there was, and everybody learned on it with whatever they happened to have. It’s okay to treat yourself to something pretty. And don’t be afraid to ask your spinners about what would work well for your projects. People like me are happy to help out and steer you to the right yarns for you…

Be safe, be well, and stay happily warm, everyone!

 

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The Voices in the Yarn…

It is a fact, universally acknowleged, that spinners that offer their wares do not sell off everything they make, at least not right away. Oh no. They keep a stash of the best stuff for themselves, or they think a yarn works out better as a finished knitting project, and sell that instead. Many of my knitwear offerings started as handspun yarn I wanted to sell, but just couldn’t let go of, at least not at that stage.

For example, I had a scrumptious bit of a yarn all ready to go up in the shop. Pretty pictures. Flowers, even. But just as I was going to list it, I heard a tiny, woolly voice, squeaking at me from where I’d put the skein to admire it. “Noooooo, not yet. I want to be mitts! Warm, fuzzy mitts!’

Seriously, it was all ready to go…*siiiiiigh*

And You know what? Yarn doesn’t lie. If this yarn needs to become it’s best self and become mitts before they go into the shop, then so be it. But when I got out a pair of knitting needles, the skein wasn’t finished with me yet.”How about some black yarn to go with me? I’m lonely, I don’t want to be mitts without some company. Make me a friend!”

All right, fine… But this was turning into some woolly version of, “If You Give A Mouse a Cookie.” I had some Shetland wool that I had spun up into a single. I plied it on itself with a drop spindle, so there was enough thickness to match the other yarn. And that was exactly what was needed.

Okay, so the yarn totally had a point there…

Sometimes you just can’t resist the feel of a brand-new skein of yarn, fresh from a spinning wheel and a soak. Especially when the season’s starting to turn, and autumn starts to insinuate itself into the world.  Sometimes it’s good to change a plan right in the middle of it’s execution, because something works out better.  And sometimes the yarn talks to you. It’s not necessarily Pandemic-induced craziness, but possibly inspiration…

 

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Guts…

Hello, my dears! I hope everyone is alright. I hope wherever you are you’re safe and comfortable.  And it can be okay if some days you just feel like a complete mess. I’m pretty sure that’s the new normal now. Recently I’ve been knitting up Gutmonsters again, because I knew so many people that seemed to need one. Gutmonsters, despite their monstery ways, are oddly soothing beasts, because there’s something completely delightful about pulling out a bunch of crocheted innards and stuffing them back in. They’ve become champions of being okay with messiness sometimes…

(It’s hard to keep a dignified facade when everybody can see your organs.)

They also help remind me that perfection is not a thing, especially these days. Sometimes its okay to just be enough to get the job done. My best Gutmonsters have a lot of randomness in them. Their guts aren’t proper guts, though there’s usually at least a recognizable brain in there somewhere. They’re mysteriously unidentifiable for the most part. And that’s the best thing about them, in my humble opinion…

So if you’re feeling a little scattered, a little spread out and messy, that’s okay. I think we all need to be, There’s a lot going on.  And when you stuff your guts back in again, they don’t always end up in the same place they started. But they’re still useful, still doing the weirdo things they need doing.

Also, I make the worst analogies ever. And I’m totally okay with that…

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Knitting and Impostor Syndrome…

No matter how good you are, no matter how long you’ve been working on making your fiber art of choice the best it can be, no matter how much time you can spend or classes you take or knack you may have…for many of us there’s always That Whisper…You know the one. “You suck. That pattern is lame. Other people are so much better at this than you. Why can’t you pick something more challenging, or get a better yarn? Is that approach really the right choice, or are you just being lazy? Gawd, why THAT color? What’s wrong with you, really?”

Even with the insulation of the Pandemic as the perfect excuse to play Keep Away with the rest of society, there are times that criticisms can sink their sharp teeth into your brain and stay there for a while. They can make you put a project down for a while. sometimes for a really long while. Sometimes it’s just your own inner voice bringing the doubt. Sometimes its other knitters. I’ll say it: Most knitters are the warmest, kindest, most generous of people, gleefully offering help and supplies and books and advice, and revelling in other people who Understand. Then there are knitters that are spiteful, horrible gatekeepers that let you know it if you can’t afford the right yarn or have a pattern they think is too simple or gaudy. The fights can be epic, especially for people who never see that side of the fiber community. But knitters are people, and people are terribly imperfect, and they can hurt. Especially if you’re new or have had bad experiences down your particular lonely road. Sometimes That Whisper comes from those people. “Wait, you do cables like THAT? and what’s up with those yarn overs? Humph. Clearly your way is not my way. ”

Even though I’ve been doing fiber arts for a while, I’m not immune to the sting of That Whisper.  Not least since I really like handspun yarn, and use it all the time. Handspun yarn, especially the art yarns, tend to shine best when the stitching is fairly simple, as you can lose a lot of the more complex stitches in all those colors and textures. It also makes for gratifyingly fast projects that are fun and easy, so I tend to gravitate to them. Especially these days when there’s just so much to worry about…

Why oh why am I knitting winter wear in the summertime!

 

I had been hearing That Whisper while knitting up a red hood. It was supposed to be a Red Riding Hood sort of thing, with a little capelet, but I really wanted a scarf/hood combination instead. But the scarf would be warmer, and an easier fit for more people! And I didn’t have enough to make a capelet, not really. But doing a scarf instead? Cop out much? I can’t do better than that, huh? *siiiiiiiigh*

Hey Little Red Riding Hood, You sure are lookin’ good…you’re everything that a Big Bad Wolf could want…

It wasn’t until I talked to another knitterly friend of mine that I realized that the second guessing and running myself down wasn’t helping me or my project. I hadn’t worked on it for a few weeks since I kept looking at it and muttering to myself, “Capelet. Do a freaking capelet. A scarf is just cheating. You cheating knitter, you.” I realized that it was better to trust my instincts in the first place, and listen to what my hands wanted to knit. They wanted to knit a scarf. They wanted something snuggly that wrapped around a throat and kept a warm hood in place in really cold weather.

When you hear That Whisper, don’t listen to the voice. Listen to your hands. What do they want to do? Sometimes your muscle memory is telling you the right thing to do, and it’s good to listen to it. And those other voices? They don’t have to wear what you make, or make the decisions you do. And often That Whisper is hiding their own whisper, the one saying, “You’d better BE better than everybody! Every day! All the time! No matter how weird or inappropriate it is!” And that’s it’s own unhappy hell, no matter how good you are.

So while I do try more complicated knits here and there, it’s the simple ones that give me the most joy. I ignore That Whisper, because it doesn’t know happiness the way I do when I knit that way. Also, sometimes it makes other people warmer than they were before they met me…

My sweet husband: Kind, tolerant, heavily insulated by alpaca…

Keep making fun things, my fellow knitterly friends. Whatever your project is, I’m proud of it, and of you…

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How to Knit, part 75: Knitting During a Pandemic…

So, you’re at home. The Pandemic is chugging along, and you’re trying really hard to not get it, or recover from it, and you’re in no mood to go out and do anything because there are people out there, and people are emphatically Not What You Want right now. You’ve binge-watched all the Netflix you can stand. You’re sick to death of baking bread, and your sourdough starter died. Again.  How are you going to pass your time in between Zoom meetings and grocery deliveries? Well, you can mail things to friends and hope like heck they actually get where they need to go…

(Good luck, pretty card. Please please get to where I’m actually sending you…)

Or You can do something really soothing and bust out something to knit. You can start something fun now, and *maybe* have something finished and pretty by the time the weather starts turning cold.  But first you must face…The Yarn Stash. Yes, that delicious mountain of fluffy potential you’ve been socking away for that special project or moment. And those moments have arrived with a vengeance. It’s been a few months into the Pandemic now, so many of us have already whittled down that mountain into more of a smaller-but-still-formidable hillock.  But that just means that the yarns that are left in The Yarn Stash are all the more precious. So my thought process ends up going something like this:

1st Step: Open the cedar chest that has all The Good Yarns.

2nd step: Gasp at their pretty colors and how good the cedar makes them all smell.

3rd Step: Snuggle them like fluffy, multihued kittens for a few minutes.

4th step: Realize an hour just went by like it was nothing, and that you still haven’t picked out anything to knit with.

5th step: Well, how about this skein? No, too precious. And too thin. Do I want a thicker yarn for a quicker project? What exactly am I going to be making anyway?

6th step :Snuggle the yarns a bit more. Let them tell you their secrets. What they want, what they *need* to be. Whisper back to them how much you love and appreciate them. Refuse to think this is weird.

7th Step: Lay on the floor surrounded by balls and skeins of yarn and take a huge nap.

8th Step: Wake up confused and with strands of mohair sticking to your clothes.

9th Step: Get online and loot Ravelry, Knitty.com and Pinterest for ideas about what you should be knitting, which you should have done before playing with all that soft, fuzzy, wonderful yarn.

10th Step: Finally! A pattern you think you can sink your teeth into that can use yarn you already have! Success!

11th Step: Open the chest and start looking for the yarns you need.

12th Step: Repeat Steps 1-11 until you get hungry or there’s something else that you need to get done…

Eventually the right yarns and the right project will end up in your lap after all, giving you something comforting, soft and soothing to do. It might just take a few tries. And a few naps. Maybe more than a few naps. And that’s okay. The New Normal is a weird place to lay your head, but at least all those yarns in your stash can make it a soft place too…

 

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Quarantine…

I’m at home, mostly. By mostly I mean that here and there I’m at the museum where I usually work, keeping the lights on and the doors locked. The rest of the time I’m here, trying to deal with my own brand of Covid-19 anxiety by attacking projects. I’m one sleeve away from finishing a sweater. I’ve been embroidering something for a coworker. and I’ve been making lots and lots and lots and LOTS of yarn. I moved my favorite spinning wheel, Hester Hestia, down to the living room, and I’ve been watching movies, Youtube tutorials, and various friends playing music live while I spin. It’s comforting to still have my friends, even at a distance.

A few pretty, pretty yarns to while away the hours…

Otherwise? Social distancing, baby. Delivered groceries, verrrrry cautious walks around the neighborhood. I’ve been trying my hand at fabric masks, with a bit of frustration.  And I won’t lie; the times I go in to work I have terrible panic attacks before and after I go there. I have asthma, so I have lots of worries about contracting the virus. I’m just really grateful the museum is trying really hard to take care of it’s employees in real, practical ways. And I’m grateful I live in Minnesota, with a lot of people trying really hard to do the right thing, whatever that needs to be.

At the moment we’re under Shelter-in-place, so I’ve put the website on vacation mode until I feel it’s safer for me to mail out yarns. I’m also closing down the Etsy site for a variety of reasons. But if you need yarns soon and want something special from me, just shoot me a message and I’ll see what I can manage for you. Just stay safe, and hang in there, and I will too…

 

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A Knitting Mercenary Project: The Krueger Sweater, part 1…

From time to time I take on a custom knitting project for someone. Maybe a friend, maybe someone online who needs something they just can’t get any other way. Recently a friend of a friend had a very interesting request for a project. He was a Freddy Krueger impersonator, and needed a custom sweater. A Freddy Krueger sweater?!? Really?!? How could I pass up a project like that?!

So we met at a coffeeshop, I took some basic measurements, as well as photos with a sweater he already had. There was a lady in Britain who made old-school Krueger sweaters in bright greens and reds, and it was a gorgeous bit of knitting. But this incarnation was from the TV series instead, and needed a more olive hue instead of the cheerful Christmas-y colors of the early films. So, ready with my measurements and the pattern I had written out in my notes, I was ready to tackle this thing…

But there was a snag, at first. The kind of colors I saw online for this particular project were, shall we say, kinda bright? Certainly not the slightly sinister tones I needed to make the sweater look right when it was finished. And the nice, dark olive I needed was unavailable in any of the online shops I checked until it occurred to me to try Amazon.  Even then, a tea rinse would probably be a smart idea to sadden those bright hues a touch.  I was using Plymouth Encore, an excellent acrylic/wool mix yarn that’s a decent pick for a sweater that may see a lot of wear and needed some easy washing. Did it have enough wool to pick up the tea? The answer, happily enough, was yes, and my samples had a slightly browner hue…

So, now that I had a strategy, it’s knitting time!

Freddy Krueger sweater
I am enjoying how the reverse stockingette for the red stripes adds extra dimension!

 

 

 

 

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A few pretty things…

Opal mist

Moving seems to take forever. And when you’re finished, there’s always More Stuff to Do. You’re never really done moving in. But I do feel like I’m settling in now. The new Craftroom makes spinning very easy, and painting is much easier with a table committed just to that.  So I’ve been making lots and lots of yarns…

 

Opal mist
Sparkly pretty yarn!
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Ms Mausi and the Inherited Stash…

Inheritance

Greetings, fellow knitty-fiends! I realize it’s been a while since I put something up in this space, but I’ve been busy, in ways I didn’t intend to be. Quite a few things happened over the summer, but what really took up a lot of head space for me was losing my mother. She died in June, and I spent (and spend) a lot of time processing her death.

The hardest part is going through all of her things. Like me, she was artistic, and I’ve been going through her paints and projects, many unfinished. It’s the unfinished ones that really hurt the most to find.  Some of it’s glorious, some of it’s awful, and it takes time to really sort everything out. There’s also huge tubs full of movies. so many movies. And mostly, except for the odd animated film, the kind of wonderfully grody, cheapy-budget horror films we both loved so much. I now have every Saw movie, however many they made so far.  And other great movies I’m looking forward to watching, like, “Doll Graveyard” and “My Mom Was a Werewolf.” There’s also loads of books, also mostly scary horror or weirdo mystery or funky things Nostradamus said.

But the unfinished projects are the saddest.

At one point I couldn’t look at the unfinished crocheted farmer couple she had been working on any more, and busted out some of her yarns to crochet tentacles for the lady’s unfinished legs. Oddly enough, not only did it make me feel a little better, but the couple looked much more…interesting…

And while I have a photo to share of the couple, It’s not loading right at the moment, and the dolls themselves are in a huge stack of boxes by the china hutch… Yes people, we’re moving! To a larger house with a very nice attic space that will become my new craftroom. It’s a very bright spot after some very dark times.

But there’s still lots of packing to get through first. Le siiiigh…

 

 

Inheritance
Crochet needles, Acrylic yarn and Bad, bad super-bad horror movies. That’s how my mom rolled…,