Wednesday, September 23, 2020

A Moment of Silence

 

Rest in Peace Cat Bordhi

When I heard that the fabulous Cat Bordhi had passed, it hit me pretty hard. 

Cat Bordhi was always a name I said with awe or maybe a bit of frustration at times since she was always challenging me.

The first time I worked on one of her patterns it was to learn the Moebius Cowl.  I had really just started to seriously knit when I tried this pattern.  It boggled my mind.  How could anyone come up with something so complicated and beautiful at the same time?

But, that was Cat in a nutshell.  She used math in a way that was unique and inspired to create new ways to form structures like her Sweet Coloriolis Socks that follow a curve instead of a straight line to form a beautiful sock.

She had no fear when it came to bringing her creations to life.  She would bend the rules or create new ones to suit her needs.  She taught me so much.

I might have never delved outside of the box without the week I spent learning to La Link and La Rink, which was a very special way to increase that Cat discovered.

Cat instilled in me that there are no rules if you want something to come into being enough.  She taught me ideas need to be fiddled with and reworked until they blossom into your vision.  

She was an amazing lady who changed my knitting in so many ways.

Thank you Cat for sharing your talents with us.  You will be sorely missed.  πŸ™

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 When designing I find that allowing your point of view to be open to new ideas and information is key.  

I wasn't always this way.   If I was told a pattern wouldn't work in the round then that was my truth.  I would never have thought of trying to fit a square peg in a round hole as it were.

Teaching constantly challenges me to think of knitting from a world view, not a personal one.  There isn't one right way to do anything.  

Everyone knits differently.  Some people are pickers (Continental) and some are throwers (English).  There are flickers as well.  There are all kinds of combinations of the three and there are also regional ways to knit that vary from country to county to town.  All of them are right and good ways to knit.

If you are trying to make something specific the visual result might vary a bit from the pattern but that doesn't make it wrong.  Uniqueness is beautiful.

Many times a student will come to me upset that they have messed up a stitch pattern.  I always ask them if they like it or if they want to rip it out.   

If they want me to rip it out then I oblige and happily rip it out and many times I will reknit the rows or cast-on or do anything to help with the frustration that the knitter is feeling.

But if they like what they have created, I will sit with them and make sure that they can recreate it.  Now instead of seeing a mistake, we have what I like to call a "design element".  The student has created something totally new and wonderful by coloring outside of the lines for a bit.

I feel this ability to be open that I have developed over the years really helps me as a teacher and as a designer.  Once you start playing outside of the box, you realize the box is just an illusion and this whole amazing world opens up.

Every time that we reach outside of our comfort zone and push a little further we open ourselves up to new possibilities.  Of course, that goes for everything in life, not just knitting.

I remember back to a time in 2004 when I was scared of double-pointed needles(dpns)...just terrified.  I couldn't imagine using something that didn't have end caps to keep the yarn from falling out.

But the day came when I wanted to make a blanket for someone in our group with a new baby and to start it you needed to use dpns.  This was probably the worst way to learn to use dpns because you started with two stitches on each needle and my worst fears came true as the stitches fell off over and over.

It didn't help that I was at the hospital with Mom when she first got cancer so my emotions were all over the place.  But I was determined and stubborn and when I finally got those eight stitches on those four dpns it was a triumph.

A year later, I tried socks and I found that dpns were the easiest to use for me.  A year after that I taught a class using big yarn and big dpns as an introduction to socks and double points.

Now, I reach for the dpns whenever I am doing something small or a swatch.  I love using them.

Something that vexes you today, may not tomorrow.  We are always growing and changing and as our view expands so do our possibilities.

I've known a lot of knitters over the years and one of the things that most of us have in common is the fact that we all have big dreams.  We find a certain pattern and it doesn't matter if is beyond our current level, or something we've never seen before...we just dive it with both hands.  This ability shows such courage and strength to reach out into the unknown and play in a sandbox that is usually unseen by our eyes.

And when you play in that sandbox, be kind to yourself.  If everything doesn't work out as planned, take a breath and tell yourself it is totally okay.  If you need to frog your work, do so without judgment, just allow it to be part of the process of opening up.  

Happy crafting!

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Safe socially-distanced hugs  πŸ€—

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Sending love and light to everyone being affected by this virus.  

May you be safe.  


May your loved ones be safe.  


πŸ™

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Sending love and light to everyone facing discrimination, hate, prejudice, inequality, or racism.

πŸ™πŸ™πŸ’–πŸ’–πŸ™πŸ™
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Thanks for reading!

Happy crafting!
Ruinwen


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Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Meandering

 Not all who wander are lost.  - J.R.R. Tolkien

When my sister and I were kids we explored the woods behind our cabin.  We would lose ourselves in thickets and a sea of green leaves and forest plants.  We knew when we hit the road that was as far as we should go and we would turn around; easily finding our cabin again after trudging through the dense undergrowth.

Hidden out of sight was a stream that bordered our property.  We could hear it even when we couldn't see it and used the meandering water as a touchstone on our journeys.

I've been immersed in these memories today as I knit a new kind of pattern.  I'm calling it Thorny.  This isn't very original since the stitch pattern is called 'thorn" but it is meaningful to me.  I remember those thorns we walked through on our journeys through the woods.  I got caught in a thicket or two and wondered if I would ever get out.

As I knit this swatch, I can hear my sister laughing.  If I close my eyes I can see the leaves and hear the brook babbling through it all.

Much like those pricker bushes in my youth, Thorny has me caught in an intricate puzzle.

I always find translating stitches from straight knitting to the round very interesting.  Sometimes it is easy, and other times it is quite challenging.

Today, it was challenging.  I have a technique that I use that borrows stitches from the right-hand needle and moves them to the left-hand needle in some cases: I call this meandering.

This has allowed me to translate many straight knitting patterns into the round that might be overlooked.  It is my touchstone if you will for keeping my knitting on course.

Here is my swatch:



This is such a great stitch; I really enjoyed working with it.

Here is the chart and some notes:

ATTENTION:  There are two rounds that have additional steps because of the conversion into the round as well as the color sequence for each row.


Round #3 Meander:

  • When starting the round, remove the marker.
  • Slip the first unworked stitch of the new round to the right-hand needle.
  • Replace marker


Round #7 Meander:

  • When starting the round, remove the marker.  
  • Slip the last worked stitch to the left-hand needle.  
  • Replace marker.
Make sure to take the new color under the old color at the start of the round to avoid holes.


Color Sequence

Round 1: Color A

Round 2: Color B

Round 3: Color B

Round 4: Color A
Round 5: Color A

Round 6: Color B

Round 7: Color B

Round 8: Color A


CO -  in multiples of four loosely in the round - I used a cable cast-on.  Join your stitches without twisting and place a marker.  Follow the chart or the written pattern until the desired length.


BO - loosely - I used a bind-off where you knit two stitches, then take the first stitch and place the needle as if you are purling through the back thus turning the stitch around.  Pass the 2nd stitch over the 1st.  Repeat until all stitches are bound off.  This makes a nice BO that matches the cast-on IMHO.


Written Pattern


Round 1: Color A    Knit 3, (K1, YO, K1) in one stitch


Round 2: Color B    K3, slip 3 purlwise with the yarn in the back


Round 3: Color B    Meander, K1, K2tog, slip 1 purlwise with the yarn in the back, SSK


Round 4: Color A    slip 1 purlwise with the yarn in the back, K3


Round 5: Color A    (K1, YO, K1) in one stitch, K3


Round 6: Color B    slip 3 purlwise with the yarn in the back, K3


Round 7: Color B    Meander, K2tog, slip 1 purlwise with the yarn in the back, SSK, K1


Round 8: Color A    K3, slip 1 purlwise with the yarn in the back


I really want to make one of these with a color-changing yarn and a solid.  But for now, I am happy that the concept works and that I like the swatch.  It feels good to take my notes and chart them and write them up.  It is so easy to lose touch of things.  


I have a bunch of ideas to make this pattern more presentable, so I will play with those.  To me, a swatch is like a seed.  It contains the blueprint for my inspiration and if I give it enough love and attention it might grow into something amazing. πŸ˜€ 


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I did get to do something out of my sandbox and I had fun. It wasn't perfect but I had never done it before.  And...I am really proud of it.


Because of the pandemic, Knitter's Day Out has converted its event to an online format.  I made my first actual video.  I did some editing and it was really fun.  My son helped me film and I was ever so grateful to him.


So, you will be able to find that here, along with a bunch of amazing classes by some awesome teachers who all rose to the challenge this year.  The sign-up date for Zoom classes may have passed but the videos that I and my fellow crafters created this year will be put up on YouTube during the event on September 25th-26th.


I hope to get the link up as soon as it goes live.


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Safe socially-distanced hugs  πŸ€—

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Sending love and light to everyone being affected by this virus.  

May you be safe.  


May your loved ones be safe.  


πŸ™

************************

Sending love and light to everyone facing discrimination, hate, prejudice, inequality, or racism.

πŸ™πŸ™πŸ’–πŸ’–πŸ™πŸ™
************************

Thanks for reading!

If you have any questions regarding this or any of my other tutorials, please feel free to leave a question in the comments.

Happy crafting!
Ruinwen

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