Le Tissier Designs

Of Larks and Linnets and Flying Fingers

Tag: fulling

  • Starting My Granny Blanket: Excitement and Challenges

    Starting My Granny Blanket: Excitement and Challenges

    Firstly, I have finally updated the Granny Blanket pattern. So if you have been waiting to start, now is the time. I am starting the blanket itself today! The stitches will need to be doubled from the pillow cast-on and the yardage needed per wedge, tripled. This will be a lot of work. But so worthwhile in the end. It is a good accompaniment to the long term Blanket Squares Project that I have going on as well. It will break up the boring knitting with the blanket squares and fancies!

    I am so excited to be starting. I want to get a few wedges knit before it gets too hot! Who is starting with me?!

    Granny BlanketDownload

    Secondly, the main part of the house is completely done. I still need to do more organizing and it is an ongoing process. I change things around trying to find the best possible spot. The pictures are the hardest. I have so many. My mothers needlework, family pictures, and art I have collected over the years.

    I have put up pictures and then moved them. And then moved them again. I can see this may take a while. These few are in their final place. I hope!

    Thirdly, the yarn room is about to be started. It got delayed as it needed more work than expected. Which meant the plans had to change etc. But it sounds like it is going ahead, starting midweek.

    Getting the yarn room done will help with my organization project as well! More room available, but with more stuff coming out of storage. This will be the start of the final cull. I am sure that this will be both challenging and rewarding. I may be looking or some second opinions.

    Walking in the Canyon

    Last weekend we went for a walk on an absolutely glorious Sunday. We went to my favourite place on Nanaimo River. The canyon by Cassidy. It has great swimming in the Summer and great walking all year round. You can see that others enjoy the walk as well.

    Everything is starting to bud. The fawn (or curly) lilies are in full blown and carpeting the underbrush. Did you know it takes 7 years before even 1 flower comes from the root? Amazing. How long it must have taken to create this display.

    A few weeks ago I started with Odd Bunch vegetable delivery. A box is delivered once a week, or less. You decide how often you want the box. The box varies in price with the size. I get the small plus box. It is $26.00 per week plus delivery and it comes right to the door. Below is last weeks box.

    It has been very interesting and I think it has proven to be a good value. It has been challenging to cook some of things I wasn’t totally familiar with. I gave the butternut squash to my daughter. Maybe I need a new cookbook! LOL! The quality has been good. Only 1 item in one box was disappointing. Strawberries – just a little to close to the edge. I should have noticed and used them sooner.

    Happy Knitting and Happy Cooking!

    Lynette

  • Exciting April Knits: April Square and Mending Kit Designs

    Exciting April Knits: April Square and Mending Kit Designs

    It is April first and I was scrambling last night to finish the Fancy for this month! Where ever did March go? Though I am rather pleased with both the fancy and the square for this month.

    The Square

    The stitch pattern for the square was new to me. I found a picture on Pinterest and turned it into a pattern! As a bonus the stitch pattern is reversible. So I designed a shawl to be knit with the same pattern. Yarn and pattern went off to Jana (my test knitter) on Monday! I am very excited to see if my idea works out.

    The shawl will be a traditional top down triangle. It will be reversible and have a pointy edging. Stay tuned for updates. I haven’t had any feedback from Jana yet. So everything must be working out. Right!?

    April Shower1Download

    The Fancy

    I must admit that I had way too much fun designing and then knitting the fancy.

    This months Fancy is a mending kit, something that can travel with you. It holds all the necessary tools. It includes a pocket for scissors and mending threads. There is also a little yarn for darning. A sheet for various styles of needles is provided. On the back, a few buttons are sewn, ready for a “button” emergency.

    The fancy with knit with non-superwash wool. I embellished a couple of the pieces with small beaded and knit flowers. I also added just a little bit of embroidery for the leaves. Then I fulled the pieces for extra strenght and durability. It was fun because I used my hands to rough up the pieces in the hot water. It was also very therapeutic.

    April FancyDownload

    This month will most likely be just as busy. I am working on designs for the next series of classes. And I have this idea of how I want to put my blocks together… More on that later this month.

    Kitchen Reno

    The kitchen is done. The wool room has been delayed a couple of weeks. I will share before and after pictures this weekend. I will have three days and time to share all the kitchen wonders with you!

    Happy Knitting

    Lynette

  • A Granny Afghan Reimagined

    A Granny Afghan Reimagined

    Note – if you think you have read this before – you have! I somehow deleted the original post about this afghan. I am trying to replace the post and the basic start to the blanket that was included! It was truly an epic fail.

    Do you find learning a new bit of technology a challenge? I certainly do. Anything I have learned I usually do fine with. New things can cause me grief.

    How did this happen? I received a message that said I had two versions of the same post in two different locations. I needed to delete one. I chose “poorly”! And lost the good post! The other post was an incomplete draft! So I am finishing the draft to recreate match the post!

    So Here we go Again.

    Remember the Granny Afghan? Well, after writing about it, I realized how much it means to me. Surprisingly, I had never made an afghan for my grandson Logan. I haven’t even knitted him a baby blanket (a story for another time). I have knit him quite a few things over the years, but not “keeping” or “memory” things!

    I felt that needed to change. I needed to create something that Logan to have to remember his Granny.

    I have made copies of the crocheted blanket, a few times, for friends or family. Copying it carefully, counting every stitch and crocheting painfully from start to finish. I am not much of a crocheter, but I can work a chain st and a single crochet. This is not me, I am a knitter, not a crocheter. Crochet has never resonated with me in the same way as knitting has. This project had to come from my love of the craft, but…

    I wanted to do something similar for Logan. I aimed for something fun and not the squares. The squares are my other blanket project for this year. I wanted to knit him something fun like the Granny Blanket.

    Ray, a co-worker, pointed out to me that I could knit a version of it. In fact, I had already done so. ‘What was I thinking about’! Sometimes it just takes someone else to point out the obvious.

    I few years ago I knit the Shetland Wheel. It is a laceweight Shetland style lace shawl, with a center of wedges, just like the Granny Afghan. This shawl is soft and fine and I love it, but it is way to delicate for a growing boy.

    I want to make the blanket out of wool. It shouldn’t be too heavy. It needs to be strong enough to endure the “careful” handling of a boy to teenager and then to man. Maybe he will keep this blanket as long as I have kept my Grandmothers.

    I am going to full (felt) the blanket so that it will be washable. So my swatch is much larger than average and in all the colours. Why?

    Not all wools felt evenly. Sometimes the dyes themselves affect the rate of the fulling process. And I like to use my swatches. In fact many of my hat designs were the product of a swatch. Sometimes the best way to know how a yarn will work is to knit it into something.

    So lets have a pillow to go with the blanket.

    Sequence of events for this project:

    • Pick your colours – I picked blue
    • Pick a needle size – in this case 5.0mm – I don’t want a hard felt, just a soft fulling
    • Second make a swatch – make a large swatch
    • Third felt the swatch
    • Fourth figure out how big to make the blanket from the swatch
    • Fifth cast on the first wedge for the blanket
    • Sixth turn the swatch into a pillow
    • Seventh figure how to finish the blanket – right now I am thinking about a knitted fringe

    So I have started.

    I picked my yarn, Estelle Yarns, Eco Shetland Worsted, in eight colours. Most of them in shades of Blue – Logans current favourite colour. Which has something to do with his favourite teams. The Edmonton Oilers and the Toronto Blue Jays!

    I picked my needles, a 5mm US #8.

    And I cast-on. The journey needs to begin with a cast-on. The knitting will take a little time, but we have that. This is easy knitting, all garter st, with rows that shrink down and then start all over.

    Pick your colours
    Choose your needle size – 5.0mm in this case
    AI finished sketch from my poor attempt at sketching.
    Knitting has started. This may take awhile. Maybe a gift for his birthday – say September!
    The knitting is progressing.

    So what is the difference between felting and fulling.

    1.) Felting traditionally is worked from the fibre itself

    2.) Fulling is created when you take a fabric, woven or knitted, and felt it.

    Felting is what happens when you take hot water, soap and agitation and ruin your favourite sweater. That is our usual experience, but when you felt with intent, different things can happen.

    Fulling occurs when wool has been worked into a woven or knitted fabric. You achieve this when you take hot water, soap, and agitation, and you felt with intent. The resulting fabric is denser, and is often softer and easier to work with. It can be cut without unravelling and will keep its shape much longer.

    If you want to join me on the journey, download the instructions below. They provide some “pithy” guidance to work from.

    Granny BlanketDownload

    This year is turning into the Year of Blankets, not just the Year of Blanket Squares. These are big projects so nothing is happening in a hurry. There will lots of time for experimentation. These are fun projects, nothing is heavy lifting. So lets just have fun and play a little.

    Happy Knitting

    Lynette