Knitting With Granny LJ

Good morning:

Today is one week since opening of the show.  I am still in the after glow.

Many of the vendors are friends from the previous shows.  I have watched my work and theirs change over the years.  Take Pam, for instance.  She is an artist.  When I started doing the shows she was doing wood burnings of beach scenes on drift wood that the picked up on the beaches.  Several years ago she added little water color paintings in addition  to her wood burnings.  And since then she has developed a body of work in water color and mixed media that is breath taking.  I got one of her paintings several years ago.  It is a huge full moon with a wind-twisted tree and almost hidden in one of the lower branches is a tiny owl looking at the moon.  She did it in blues, black and white.  I really did not have the money for it, but gave up some grocery money and it is now in my bedroom. 

Also regular vendors and friends are Lyle and Arlene.  Lyle does scatter rugs in mill ends from the Pendleton Woolen Mill outlets.  Arlene spins  and I work in her yarns whenever I can get them.  Last fall, I had very good sales and kept running over to their space and buying more of her yarn.  She was worried that I was spending too much, but I assured her that I was buying with the money I made in sales.  It is always a treat to see what  kind of yarn she is spinning.

In the space next to us was Bill.  He works in metal design and makes wall hangings and garden art from metals and is raising his grandson, who used to come to the shows.  The boy is now old enough to stay at home while Bill is doing a show out of town.  But I think that may change.  Bill spend a great deal of time on his cordless phone over the weekend talking to both the boy and assorted adults.

One the other side of us was a man who writes about less known elements of Oregon history.  One of his recent books is on the building of the bridges over the estuaries along the Oregon coast to  create Highway 101. 

There were over 60 vendors at this spring’s market.  There had been some rumors that it was not going to be as good as in the past.  In fact, when we got done with set up and I looked around, I saw lots of spaces that had no one in them setting up.  With all the noise on the news and the intenet about the businesses failing and the economy going down the drain, I was a little nervous.  I mentioned it to Karen on the way home.  She assured me that the other vendors were probably from out of town and would set up in the morning.

Set up is the fun time of the show.  Everyone is excited and setting up this way and then that way and adjusting a little here and there.  And running around to see who is showing and what they are showing.  Greeting old friends and meeting new ones.  In a lot of ways, it is the best part of doing a show.

Best until the first sale, that is.

Happy knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning. 

It has been a pretty busy week what with market last Wednesday and then Crafts on the Coast and a few minutes to catch my breath and Wednesday Market again.

A week ago, I started getting my caps ready for the show.  Shorebirds did not need my big twirling cap rack any more, so I decided to use it for the show.  I call the rack Dougie because, at nearly 7 feet tall, it is as big as a Douglas Fir. 

i spent all of Friday going over the caps in the bin and making sure that all of them were neat and ready for the show.  You know — no loose threads of yarn, the cap tags were on and correct and then folding them carefully into the bin.  I had the most caps I have ever taken to Crafts on the Coast.   After all that was done I thought a bit on things and decided to stop by the Shorebirds and take the caps from there, too.  That meant taking along another cap rack.  So I got one of  the little table-top Dougies ready to go to the show too.

My total inventory for the show was 100 caps.  For me that is a record.  I have never had that many caps to take to Crafts on the Coast since I have been doing the shows.  Some of the caps are old timers, but not quite shop sisters.  And my collection of recent caps made me feel pleased with the work I have been doing.

Sales were good at the show and I’ll go into more detail a little later about that.   It was an excellent weekend, both in sales and meeting people. 

Then yesterday was the Wednesday market again. We had excellent weather and I got a sunburn.  I have also had an enlightenment, with respect to the rolled brim caps.  I will certainly be doing more of them in the near future.  Retired one from my inventory and it was just barely big enough to keep the sun out of my eyes, let alone off my face.  So today, I will be going through the stash and finding the yarn to make a really great rolled brim cap for me to use at market to keep the sun off.

Well, I have to get to the knitting.  Good knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning:

Yesterday was market day.  The weather cooperated until about 1 p.m. when a high wind came up and seemed determined to blow  tents and tables and product all over the parking lot.  So we  tore down rather than have tents and jewelry and heaven knows what  else blowing all over downtown Waldport.

But before the wind started doing tap dances on us, we had about twice as many people come walking through the lot and buying things.  I was next to a husband and wife who grew rather unusual plants.  One of the plants was very small with an orchid-like blossom on it.  I got one for Karen because she loves plants.

I got to talk to a couple of knitters and one of them was a person who was a customer of Dodie’s when she had Yarn for All Seasons in Toledo.  It was nice to be able to talk yarns and knitting with someone who knew what I was talking about.  I gave her information on Nestucca Bay Yarns in Lincoln City and the shop just north of Florence, as well as talking to her about Yarn for All Seasons, which is now in South Beach.

I did not sell a cap, but it was good to  be out and talking to folks.

This weekend is the May show in Yachats — Crafts on the Coast.   Karen and I have a good space and I have more caps to show than I have had since I have been doing craft shows.  I have felt very lucky all these years to be included in Crafts on the Coast.  The organizers are pretty picky about who they invite to participate and work very hard to get the  best crafters and artists into the show.  Hopefully, the sunburn I got yesterday will be less conspicuous this weekend than it is today. 

Well, I have 3 caps to get the finish work done on and to get ready for Crafts on the Coast, in addition to the caps I have already in my sale bin.  I was telling Karen that this is the most caps that I have had to show since I have been doing Crafts on the Coast. If you are in the neighborhood of Yachats this weekend stop in and enjoy the handiwork of the vendors.  And say “Hello”  when you walk past the space Karen and I have this year.

Happy knitting.   Granny LJ

Good morning,

I was trying to straighten out my library of knitting books yesterday.  One of the books I ran across in the pile I was putting away was Knitted Tams by Mary Rowe. 

This was a book that was instrumental in getting me going on knitting my caps.  I already told you about the awful caps I made and gave away to the  Women’s Crisis Center.  Although I thought they were OK when I gave them away, I think that I did, down deep, know that they were not at all what they could or should  have been. 

A few weeks after the new year started, I was at the yarn shop in the plaza at the old woolen mill in Salem.  I found this book on tams.  I  had no idea that caps could be so lovely.  I looked and looked at the book and finally bought it along with some yarn and needles.  I wanted to make one of these gorgeous tams.

I got home with my book and needles and yarn and sat down to make a tam.  There were, however, several problems.  I only knew how to knit in one color.  I really did not know how to add a stitch.  The directions for the tams were not writting on the level of my first reader:  “Run Dick, run.  See funny Jane.”  It obviously presumed I had knowledge which, in fact, I did not have.

But I figured that I would master the basics of the tam before I worried about more colors.  So I did the ribbing.  I was still working on straight needles because I did not know about circular needles yet.  And I was working on size 8 needles.  I realized pretty quickly that I could not make the gorgeous tams of the book on straight needles.  So I went back and got circular needles size 8, about 30 inches from needle point to needle point.  So  off I went to the store again and looked around until I found a set of size 8 circular needles that were 20 inches. 

Carefully, I cast on and knit the ribbing.  Then the pattern told me to add stitches!  I knew how to cast off and decrease stitches but I had never learned to add stitches.  So I did the closest thing I could figure out:  I did what I now know as a yarn-over.  The only problem with that is that it left a big hole at the site of the yarn-over.  So — as I had no one to ask about the adding  stitches issue — I did the only reasonable thing for the time and  quit working on the project. Later I tore it out and moved the yarn to the Coast with me and eventually  used it to make another cap.  

After Dodie opened her shop, she taught me how to add a stitch without leaving a giant hole. 

I have never made one of those tams, though.  Since that time, I  have taught myself color work, adding stitches and mistake ribbing and a lot of other wonderful things.  I have also looked at the tams from a head’s point of view.  For my head, the body is too shallow.  I like a cap body that comes down and covers my ears against the coastal winds.  This is why I started making what I call “berams”  They have a deeper body and can keep the ears warm and if someone wants a tam instead, I tell them how to stretch my berams into more of a tam shape. 

But the book is still a standard for me and I spent about an hour this morning, looking at it and remembering the road I have knit from that book to this time in my life.  Knitted Tams by Mary Rowe. If you are interested in your own copy, it was published by Interweave Press in 1989.  Check with your local yarn shop, I think it is still in print. 

Happy knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning:

I was talking with Karen this morning before she took off to open Shorebirds.  She said I use words that  nobody knows but me. 

The example she cited was “the weather was mizzling.”  I have to confess I did not think I made the word up. Here on the Oregon Coast, we get a lot of mizzling weather.  That is weather that is a little more than a mist and less than a drizzle.  Mizzle.  Of course, maybe the Oregon Coast is the only place where mizzling exists.

That conversation plus some questions on this site got me to thinking.  What about “tinking.’”  It is a word my friend and knitting instructor, Dodie, taught me. 

When I first started knitting, I lived in terror of making a knitting error.  That meant taking out the whole body of the work I had done and starting over at casting on.  For reasons that I really do not understand, “starting all over again”  is something I hate doing.  One of my early projects was a white turtle neck sweater for my brother, John.  I did Ok.  Got the front and the back done and was well into the first sleeve when I moved to LaGrande for my first post-college job.  So the sweater was buried in the middle of the things I moved. 

My brother was then working in eastern  Washington.  He called and asked how the sweater was coming along. 

I smiled and said, “Just fine.” 

Then he asked the fatal quesion:  “When will it be done?” 

“Soon.”  I answered. 

The next weekend, I hauled the sweater and the pattern out of its box and drove a hasty trip to Milton-Freewater to ask a knitting aunt to get me figured out.  It took her about 10 minutes of some sort of counting and she knew what I needed to know.  I, of course, thought she was brilliant and went back to LaGrande  to finish the sweater.

What I did not know then — but do now — is tinking.  Dodie taught me tinking.  It is knitting backward.   You place the left needle point into the body of the stitch that is just below the stitch on the  right needle.  Then slip the top loop off the right hand needle, and you have tinked one stitch. 

This technique works just as well for purling.  I tried to call it lrup, but that doesn’t work too well.  So I call it all tinking.  I am sure Dodie would agree with me.

Why is tinking important?  You can back up several stitches or even several rows, and correct a dropped stitch or a color mistake or whatever needs correcting and all WITHOUT taking out the whole project and beginning again. 

I was very grateful to my knitting aunt to get me straightened out on that sleeve.  But, if either she or I had known about tinking,  all I would have had to do was to tink down to the place where the decreases for the shoulder began and restart the shoulder. 

Hope you never have to tink.   But if you do, it sure beats tearing the project out and starting again. 

Happy knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning,

The Wednesday Market day was interesting.  And, I think, very good for a first day of the first month of the first market we have had in Waldport for several years.

We had 12 vendors and we had customers.  Not the teeming hoards we had all hoped for, but a goodly number for a new market.  Our orgainzer, Lou, had done good advertising — both for vendors for the market and keeping the folks aware that the market was starting. 

Karen got me all set up with her car and showed me how to set up her car’s magic table.  I bustled about getting it covered and the little cap tree set up and caps on it.  I was a good kid and ignored the mizzling drops of rain that soon made an appearance on the lot surface. 

About 10 or so minutes the rain started getting serious and so I tore down and put the table back into the car and put the caps on the floor in  the wayback of her car.   Then a little later the rain started coming down in real rain.  So I left the caps in the wayback and closed the lower door.  And sat in the car and knit and enticed people as they walked by to come and look at the wonderful caps that were available to them.

No sales, but that is OK.  I met all the vendors and wandered around the market talking to them and admiring their work.  Had a cup of coffee from the coffee man.  He sells wonderful coffee grown in all parts of the world.  Very tasty and warming.

About 2 p.m. or so — and by this time the rain was pretty focused on putting as much water on the ground as possible in the shortest time possible — we started tear down.  One vendor, a woman who makes jewelry had to tear down early.  She did not have a tent and by 11 a.m. or so we all knew that the weather was not going to blow through that day.

I met three really nice potential customers and talked knitting and caps  with them.  The wife of  the photographer is a crocheter so we talked about string things for a while, too.  Would have loved to had a sale, but I have been doing this sort of thing long enough to know sometimes you make sales, and some times you don’t.  So I go to a market to meet other people and talk about knitting and/or crocheting with other folks,  maybe to sell a cap, and have a good time.  And that’s what I did Wednesday.  Am looking forward to next week.

The rain?  Oh yes, the rain came down in buckets from about 2 p.m.  on and continued all night  with many gusts of high wind.  Thursday morning, the sun was back and without the wind. 

It  reminded me of when I was a kid and we would go strawberry picking each spring.  It was axiomatic that if it rained the first week of berry season, the rest would be sunny and warm (usually hot).  So I am expecting great things from the weather for this market season. 

Happy knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning:

Yesterday was the market and it went pretty well, all things considered, and I will write more about it tomorrow.  I have some odds and ends of things that I need to get clarified before I launch into the details of the market.

I noticed today, though,  that someone reading this Blog had asked about Mistake Ribbing.  

Mistake Ribbing is one of those things that looked like an error and became part of the knitter’s tool kit.

I found out about Mistake Ribbing from a magazine article.  I forget which magazine or which article.  I liked the look of it.  When I told Dodie about Mistake Ribbing, she said, “Yes, I invented it.”  Then I told her about the magazine article, but assured her that all great minds sometimes think the same great thought. We both got a laugh out of it.

But since that time, Mistake Ribbing has been part of my cap making tools.  It is exceptionally easy and makes the ribbing of the cap look rather like it is ripples in a tide pool.  It does  well with a cap that is going to have a  busy pattern in the body, or to dress up an otherwise plain cap.

How hard is it?  Not at all. 

I do a K2P2 ribbing on my caps.  For Mistake Ribbing, do the first row  in K2/P2 as it is  usually done.  But on the next row, start with P1, then K2/P2.  The row will end up on a P1 stitch.  Then the next row go back to K2P2, the 4th row is started with a P1, again.  And so on through the depth of the ribbing. 

Mistake Ribbing is easy to do and it makes the  base of the cap lovely.  When I was doing the cap for the contest, I did the base in the Mistake Ribbing and then the body in sets of K4/P4 in a diagonal motif.  It worked very well.  The cap turned out looking like ripples in a tide pool.  I was pleased with it and showed it yesterday at the market.

It does not matter, ultimately, who “invented”  Mistake Ribbing.  The truth is that it was probably  first invented back several hundreds of years ago when families and neighbors would gather around the fire in winter and knit socks to sell.  And yes, the guys knit, too.  My guess is that a young couple were a bit far away from the fireplace and got to talking and giggling and Mistake Ribbing came into being. 

I think that is one of the reasons that knitting appeals to me.  It is so very old and yet so very new.  Well, speaking of new,  I started a cap yesterday at the market and I want to spend the day working on it.  And now is the time.

Happy knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning.

Tomorrow the summer market starts.  I have been watching out my door and looking at the weather.  Right after I got up this morning, there was a bit of a high wind and cloudburst.  But it blew on through before the sun came up.  According to all the savants of weather prediction, we are to have rain tomorrow.  I really hope not.

It is the first day of the market and I don’t want to get rained out or have the customers not show because of the weather.  I don’t really expect a tsunami of customers.  This is the first market in several years here in Waldport.  So probably this year will be more of a get acquainted time than having hundreds of eager buyers showing up ready to spend money on carefully hand crafted caps — oh yes, other things, too.

To get ready for tomorrow, I am going to spend my work day doing the finish work on all the new caps and getting them tagged and ready to show.  I expect that will take me a most of my normal work-day — or 5 hours.

Am excited about the caps I have to show.  Since the market closed at Christmas time, I have been knitting forth and have about 12 caps that are brand new and  have not been shown at Shorebirds, or anywhere.  I am also very excited to get back out and meet people again. 

Well, this is not a long entry, but I have 6 caps to do the finish work on and get ready to go. 

Hope you all have a great day.  Happy knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning,

I recently was asked how to top off a cap.  I guess I have not written about topping off a cap because I have not really considered the question in a long time.

My method of knitting a cap has evolved over the years so that much I do does not require alot of thinking or decision making.  And like most knitters I have developed my own way to do things, with a little help from outside sources. 

Since I have been knitting the caps, I have gotten acquainted with assorted knitting magazines and books and pamphlets telling me how to make a cap.  For topping off, I have to thank Interweave Knits magazine.  In the spring 2002 issue there was an article by Priscilla-Gibson-Roberts on the creation of tams.  She included a section on topping off the tam, including top-to-bottom as well as bottom-to-top.  Additionally, she included directions for concentric circle topping, and a swirl pattern.  I tried all the top offs she had listed and opted for what I call a 7-point top-off. 

When the body of the cap is deep enough, I count all the stitches (I may have added stitches at the bottom) and then divide by 7.  That gives me a base number for each decrease.  If I come up with a number  of stitches that does not divide evenly by 7,  I either add stitches or decrease stitches until I have the number of stitches that CAN be divided by 7.

Then out come the double point needles.  A set of 4.

Now, you have to be careful with double point needles.  They don’t always obey like they should and I have had several caps ruined because the stitches would not stay on the double points.  What I have done about this is to put those little plastic rubbery gizmos on the ends of each needle.   Otherwise, I discovered much to my chagrin that the stitches fall off the ends. 

I am using bamboo double points.  The yarn does not slip as much as on the metal or plastic needles, but I still use the stitch guard gizmos. 

Ok.  Now all the math is done.  I knit, using the double points, to the stitch of the first decrease and set a marker.  Then go to the next decrease and set another marker.  For markers I use loops of yarn. I discovered that the manufactured stitch markers irritate my focus so I  started using the yarn loops.  I make them out of left over yarn and use them both for knitting with several colors, as well as topping off.

I put 2 sets of top off sites on one double point, then block the needle end so that the stitches cannot slip off — that is 1 gizmo at each end of the needle.  Then the same on the second needle.  On the third needle I put 3 sets of top off sites.  So now there are 3 needles each with top off sites. 

Then I start kntting around.  When I come to the marker or the end of the stitches on the needle, I K2tog.  And the repeat until there are 2 stitches on two of the needles and 3 on the other needle.  I work those stitches into an I-cord and when the I-cord is about 4 stitches long I cut the yarn and pull the tail through the stitches of the I-cord with a crochet hook.  And voila!!! the cap is topped and ready for finish work.

There is one problem to watch out for.  If you are not careful, the area where the yarn changes needles can end up looking a lot floppier then the others and for sure a lot floppier than you want it to look.  So when you work the first stitch on the new needle — make sure the yarn  is pulled pretty tight and closes  the seam.

For more detailed information, I recommend the article on tams in Interweave Knits Spring 2002.  Also, Ann Budd has written a series of books for Interweave Knits on this sort of detail for knitters who want to do  other projects besides caps. 

Now then — all of the above is the way I top off caps.  There are as many ways to do it as there are knitters and yarns and needles.  If you want to do a cap, do it and top it off however YOU, as the knitter,  want to top it off.  Make the cap one that is distinctively yours. 

Happy knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning. 

Thursday, Karen and I went to downtown Waldport because I had scheduled haircuts for us  at 11:30 a.m.  When we got the shop, though,  the lady who does our hair looked surprised.  Not only was the appointment for another day, it was at 12:30 p.m. and not 11:30 a.m.  And I was so careful to write it on my calendar, too.

But it was not an entirely lost morning.  We had lunch at the local burger cafe.  They do a wonderful burger.  Then we stopped at the Flea Market to have a look around.  While we were there, I found a great jacket to wear at the  Wednesday market.  It is a glorious mix of dusty blue, royal purple, black and an olive green.  It is a patchwork jacket for parties and special occasions, so all the various fabrics also have patterns. 

It is not  rainy weather sort of jacket,  but, even in sunshine, we generally have a wind and so this will be perfect for sunny, windy days. And indoor markets, as well.

It was love at first sight for me.  So I bought it.  But I did not think things through.  I have no cap to go with this jacket.  I did a silent whine about it for nearly 10 minutes after I got home.  Then I decided I’d root around in my stash and see if I have — and I probably do — some yarn to make a cap for myself that will go with this jacket.

It has been years since I made a cap for myself.  The ones I usually wear are things I have taken out of inventory because I needed a cap and did not have a personal one immediately available.  

This morning is designated  for selecting the yarn for the cap to go with the jacket.  It is sunny today and so it will be easy to check to make sure the yarn is the correct color to use in my market ensemble.  And now is the time  to start the yarn hunt.

Have a great day.  Happy knitting.  Granny LJ