living in the woods and making stuff

I had two tiny balls of qiviut, from the arctic muskox. Delicate, fuzzy brown, and very special. My mom gave them to me for my birthday about 4 years ago, and I have been saving them in a little bag in my top drawer for the right project. A few weeks ago I found the perfect project. A stork’s nest lace pattern, in a new Piecework compilation magazine.

I began the scarf (a little wider than the pattern instructed) and loved knitting it! Every few rows I would look at what I had done, pet it, and then continue on. I find that lace is particularly magical to knit. I love to watch as the pattern develops, and the yarn overs and decreases come together.

If I were a stork, I think that I would have been particularly happy to make my nest out of this scarf. Or at least line my nest with it. After I weave in the ends I am going to sprinkle the scraps from the scarf in my yard so that little birds, building little nests will have some extra soft fuzz to add to their nests. (And I might even get around to blocking the scarf too…)

I love the process of knitting, trying on, knitting, trying on, to make the finished garment exactly to my size! It is nice to work with a pattern that allows for fit! Cat Bordhi’s new book, Personal Footprints, explains how to work just this way.

I started my first sock yesterday, and it was quite fun. I had to make a cardboard cutout of my foot (I did) and mark it with special lines for increasing and decreasing (I sort of did…). The cardboard foot is supposed to be the footprint that you use for making socks that fit! And the procedure is rather engaging. The sock is knit “toe up.” The toe is knit, there are increases for the instep, and then the heel is knit and closed off, mirroring the toe. Kind of fun.

The result is an elongated egg shape that has no holes. The ankle and leg stitches are then picked up and knit, with an easy snip of thread.

With a bit of measuring (on the first sock anyway) the whole thing works out rather well. The process might take some getting used to. My finished sock looked kind of funny, but when I put it on my foot, it gripped in all the right places, and the spiral increases/decreases at the toe and heel are really pretty! The hand painted yarn (Koigu KPPPM, knit on size 1.5 needles) is all over the place with the different shaping techniques, and I really like the effect.

When I was 8, my mom gave me a knit your own lamb kit. I remember carefully knitting the lamb, and painstakingly sewing the seams. It was quite an ordeal. I loved my lamb, and played with it for many years. I don’t know where it is anymore…somewhere in a box in storage I guess.

A few months ago, I came across the original pattern.  I wanted to make a new lamb, so I got started and knit to the end of the pattern, which ended up only giving me piece #1. It turns out that piece #1 is the body…no head. And that was it for the pattern. I realized that I must be missing page number 2…

Below is piece #1, with the addition of the head (stitches picked up and knit around the neck)…

I wanted to make a lamb in the style of the original, so I put the lamb piece #1 down and took to the internet. With no luck. I found one random posting for a kit being sold from 2001, and that was it. I called all friends that might have had the pattern, which was written in 1988. No luck there either. Then a few weeks ago, I was looking in a notebook full of recipes and other notes, and page number 2 fell out!

So I set to making lambs.

Attaching the top of the head to the chin.

Stuffing the legs by pushing wool batting to the tips with a thin pen.

Sewing up head and neck. The process of actually knitting these lambs is quite quick and easy. The time is spent in assembling the parts and sewing them all together.

Here is a lamb sewn up minus ears and tails…

…they look rather funny! Ears and tails are attached by threading a double length of wool through a stitch or two on the head and rump.

The yarn is then crocheted for a few chains, and the loops are reattached to the body, forming a little bubble for ears and tail! I was talking with my friend Jeanne, who used to raise sheep and lambs, and she said that the tails of lambs are actually rather long and floppy, but we agreed that the loopy tail looks quite sweet.

We have a beautiful undyed yarn from Rowan (Rowan Sheep Breeds) in our store,  and the variations in color and texture come from the different breeds of sheep. I have knit several sweaters out of this yarn, and just love it! I wanted to make a little field of lambs, to show some of the different colors of yarn for the store window.

Kathy made a beautiful wooden box, which we lined with plastic, and filled with pea gravel and potting soil. We sprinkled the soil with grass and clover seed (and a few poppy seeds!) and covered the top with straw. I am hoping that the grass will poke up soon through the straw field, so the lambs have something to frolic in and graze on!