Climate change

I had some other things I was going to work on today.  However, there are a few things that I need to get out first so you get a blog post.

Dave MacDonald is running for the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PCPO) in Kitchener Centre.  Dave was a weather man for the local CTV station for a number of years. He is not a meterologist, but after talking about the weather for 40 years, you would expect him to have picked up a few things.

So it was surprising when at the debate on Wednesday night when he stated "There’s still a lot of controversy over what the cause of climate change is."  MacDonald then went on to state “If there is some component of it that is man-made, then I’m all in favour of trying to reduce carbon emissions and that sort of thing."  If I understand him correctly that even if a small part of the global climate change has to do with things being man made he wants something to be done about it.  However, MacDonald does not feel that anything needs to be done, and according to him there are 1000s scientists that deny global climate change.  I have phoned his campaign office and am waiting a response.

I put out a request on twitter for science papers that support MacDonald's belief.  I got two responses both linked to articles marked commentary in the National Post.

The first article, written by Lawerence Solomon, lists a bunch of scientists that have dismissed concerns about climate change.  If you look at the research of the named scientists, only one has done research in climate, Reid Bryson.  Bryson died at the age of 88 in 2008.  None of the other scientists researched weather or climate, and the youngest was born in 1937.  There is no linked papers or statements on what exactly these scientists believe. Some believe earth is not warming, some say it is but just natural forces, some say that poverty is a bigger concern than anthromorphogenic climate change.

The second article, again written by Lawerence Solomon is entitled "Science is now settled". Which implies the debate is over.  Solomon claims that due to a paper in Nature by CERN that the sun is responsible for cloud formation and the sole contributor to earth's warming.  I looked up that paper in Nature it is entitled "Role of sulphuric acid, ammonia and galactic cosmic rays in atmospheric aerosol nucleation" by Kirkby et al. (Kirkby, J. et al. Nature 476, 429-433 (2011). I don't have access to Nature on my home computer and am guessing most of my readers don't either (you can go to your local university library and read it if you want).  There is a discussion of the paper on Nature news which is accessible.  The gist of the paper is that cosmic rays can interact with aerosols in the atmosphere and enhance the formation of nano sized particles.  The particles are "way too small to seed clouds".  I find this quote by Kirkby to be very illuminating "At the moment, it actually says nothing about a possible cosmic-ray effect on clouds and climate, but it's a very important first step,"   This is preliminary research, and they are continuing to ask and attempt to answer questions.

These are the papers that Global warming deniers are clinging too.  They call themselves skeptics, but too me a skeptic looks at the facts and asks questions not just cling to beliefs.  The deniers are also fond of the moving the goalposts.  This is the logical fallacy in which evidence presented in response to a specific claim is dismissed and some other (often greater) evidence is demanded.

I am still looking for decent scientific papers (that have not been rescinded).  I also have a few other questions for Dave if he ever calls me back.

Caterpillars

There once was a boy who loved bugs and crawlies of all sorts.  He was always careful with animals, treating them gently.

His mother noticed this love of animals and asked him what animal he would like her to knit him.  He quickly chose a caterpillar, and the mother agreed to make one.  The caterpillar was given the name of Zoup.

The boy took great care of Zoup, taking him everywhere.  However, Zoup wanted more, he loved the look of the feel of the plants on his feet.

He enjoyed checking out the gardens, but it wasn't enough.

What Zoup really wanted was to be free.  Caterpillars are not meant to be caterpillars forever.  Zoup asked the boy to let him go.  The boy was unsure, he knew Zoup couldn't look after himself (being made of wool and such). Zoup assured him that it would be okay.

The boy decided to let Zoup go in the garden.  As Zoup crawled away, something happened.

He became a real caterpillar.












The boy was sad that his caterpillar was gone. A couple of weeks later, he went out to the garden and saw a butterfly. He got closer, there was something different about this butterfly. This butterfly allowed him to get real close.

It even landed on his shoulder

It was Zoup! Zoup had come back to visit his friend.  Zoup needed to turn into a butterfly, that is why he left. After his metamorphosis he came back and stayed with his friend.


Knitting details on Ravelry: Zoup, Flutterby

What makes something functional? or The Tale of the Two Hats

Last night at the December meeting of the KWKG, Sally Melville spoke about "Why we knit".  It was a great talk for a number of reasons, but what kept ruminating in my mind is her saying "Honour the craft".  That got tied into some other knitting thoughts that have been tumbling around in my head.

There was a thread on Ravelry that discussed knitting being functional.  There was one poster who felt that most of today's knitting is not functional but merely for personal adornment since it doesn't keep us warm [enough if we were on a fishing boat].  Of course discussion followed.   Since I have read that thread, everytime that I have put on a piece of knitted wool, I say to myself "This ____ is not functional, it is only art" in a very sarcastic tone.

This of course brings us to the question of what is function?  More specifically what makes knitware functional?

Before I answer that let me start with the "Tale of the Two Hats".

Four years ago, I knit myself a colourwork hat, it was my first colourwork project, I used 5 skeins of Misti Alpaca sport.  It is an awarding winning hat, and it keeps my head toasty warm.

However, 2 years ago, I  needed another hat.  This time I made it in a lace pattern with a wool/acrylic blend yarn.  This hat suits the requirements that I set for it.  I actually wear it more than the first hat, as the hat is out in public more, it gets more compliments and I get to talk about the craft of knitting more. 

Why don't I wear the first hat more often? For the simple reason is that it keeps my head toasty warm.  Which is great when it is below zero, and the wind is blowing and I am walking my dog.  However, if the sun is shining, with the temperature around freezing the hat is just too warm.  If I am going to the store even in the middle of February, I am taking the second hat.

Is the functional hat the one that keeps my head warmer or the one that gets the most wear?

I don't think one hat being functional makes the other one less functional.  Both hats are functional, they just serve different functions.  The first hat is designed to block out the wind, and keep all of the warmth from my head next to my head.  If I am stranded on Hwy 402 for an evening I want this hat with me.  If I want to feel some of that nice cool air on my head this hat does not work, it doesn't mean the hat is not functional it is just not suited for the job.

I could knit myself a windproof super warm sweater that will keep me toasty in the below -10C temperatures.  It would be functional. However, how often would I wear this sweater?  Is it functional if it is sitting in a drawer 360 days of the year?  What about a less warm sweater that is worn 100 days of the year.  What about a sweater that I don't wear at all since it doesn't fit right or fits but makes me look 50 lbs heavier?

If I own a sweater/ socks/ shawl and it doesn't get used I would argue that it is not functional.  I don't care how great it may perform under certain conditions, if it doesn't get used it is not functional.

This brings us back to Sally Melville and "honouring the craft", another of her sayings is "knit what you wear and wear what you knit".  Creating sweaters that look great on a wall, but are never worn due to item being ill fitting is not honouring the craft (This is different than creating something for art).  Honouring knitting, is creating items that are used for their intended purpose, that gets people saying  "Wow, I want that/be able to do that."  I love the feeling when people admire my knitting, when it looks great and they want to learn more.  Talking about knitting honours it.  Expanding your techniques and knowledge honours it, using your items honours them and the craft.  Creating functional items is honouring knitting.

It is important to remember that something being functional and being beautiful are not mutually exclusive.  These two items go very well together.

There is nothing wrong with knitting as art. There are lots of great examples (including Knit CamBridge,) and in my mind they can do more for the discussion of knitting amongst non fibre enthusiasts than a sweater stuck in the back of the closet.  The Knit CamBridge project had a function and it served its purpose "I want this work to make you smile, shake your head and laugh. Whatever you do, do it because you love to knit! ".  It created discussion, made people think about knitting, and in my opinion it honoured the craft.

In my mind honouring the craft of knitting is more important than debating about how functional something is or how warm you can make something.

What do you think?

Still alive

Who it was March since my last post.  Whoops, time did fly this summer.

I finished the Honeybee Stole - designed by Anne Hanson

This was a great knit, and it did fly along when I was actually knitting it - it got put aside for other projects quite often.  The yarn has a story behind it which starts with my first (and only) foray into natural dyeing, followed by overdyeing with green acid dye.  I loved the affect that the gold undertones had on the resulting yarn.  As the yarn was mordanted with copper, the feel of the yarn is not as soft as when I first purchased it.  However, I think I will use this stole this coming fall and winter.

  This stole has lace patterning on both sides, which did slow me done some until I got the hang of it.  - Pointy needles are needed.

Damson

I know the Olympics were on a month ago and that is when everyone was talking about the Ravelympics, well I have been busy and I haven't been posting much. ( That is my story and I am sticking with it.)  One of my ravelympics project was the Damson shawl.

(Seen here checking out our Olympic inukshuk)

This is from Ysolda Tegue's Whimisical Little Knits 2 book that I discussed back in January - (you know 3 blog posts ago).  It was a relatively fast knit - except for the fact that I didn't check gauge and ran out of yarn and knit the second half twice.  I ended up switching needles and making the scallops slightly smaller.

The yarn I dyed myself and had a quite a bit of fun doing so.  I have had so much fun in fact that I have decided to sell my yarns on Etsy.  This is part of what has been keeping me busy.  I am still playing with colourways and dyeing technique and looking for good source of base yarn.  However the Keeper's Dyepots store is up and running. 

Weaving - A scarf

I last left this blog with a mention (okay maybe it was a post) on how I was taking a weaving class.  Well that class ended a month ago, so maybe it is time I showed you some pics.

We had warped the loom with enough yarn for samples and a 60" scarf.  The first classes were trying different samples and techniques and the last 3 classes (which I missed one) was to weave the scarf.

After doing trying several different patterns I decided on weaving a mix twill (done in orange on the left).  I liked how it showed texture in two colours.  We were given the option of changing some of our warp threads, and I decided to change 6 threads along the one side.  I wanted to change it to the wool (Cascade 220)  that I was using but the instructor said since the rest of the warp was in acrylic I should change it to acrylic as well.  I wasn't keen on this but took some mulitcoloured yarn and made the switch.

To tie in those six threads I did a couple of pattern repeats on each end in the multicoloured.  The variagated in the warp is lost, but it was a learning experience.

The scarf is in need of a good blocking, and is ready to wear.  If you want a rectangle for a scarf, weaving is the way to go.  I am thinking of getting a rigid heddle loom which would be good for scarves and table runners but not for wide things like blankets.  We will have to see what the year brings me.

A new hobby

As some of you may know I have started taking a weaving class at the KW Weavers and Spinners Guild.  I have wanted to learn to weave for awhile now, and I finally took this opportunity to take the class - Weaving 1.
We are weaving on Leclerc table top looms - well that should be will be weaving.  Last nights class brought us to having threaded the warp.

We will be doing some samples of different twill patterns and then be weaving a scarf with our choice of patterns.  There is some beautiful work being done in the guild.

Whimsical Little Knits

For Christmas I received signed copies of Whimsical Little Knits and WLK Two. My sister went to Scotland and a knit and chat, solely to get me a great Christmas present.  What, .. that was not her only reason?  Please let me live in my land of denial.
Ysolda Teague self published these books and they are of high quality. The lay out is superb.  The index has thumbnails of the projects. Charts are of high quality and when necessary have additional information in other colours that does not make the cluttered or confusing but helpful.   If you prefer to have digital copies - to help blow up or resize images, you have the option on purchasing of receiving pdf's of the files as well as the book. 

The Scroll Lace Scarf had recently been added to my Ravelry queue, and I had suitable yarn.  So there was only one thing to do in the New Year.
Cast on and complete the scarf

 

Some modeled shots

This was a fast and enjoyable knit.  It will be coming to guild with me tonight (the model will stay at home and go to bed).

Christmas 2

I went to the Woodstock Fleece Festival back in October, and I got a beautiful Hand Maiden sock kit.  The vendors, Grand River Yarns, had demo knit up into a couple of scarves.  I loved it, and decided to get a kit to the do the same.

The kit consisted of Merino 2/6 sock (325m 115g) and Angel Hair (70%Kid Mohair 30% nylon, 400m / 50g) dyed together. 
One of those scarves is another Christmas gift.
Pattern: Variation on Feather and Fan
Row 1: Knit
Row 2&4: Knit 3, P to last 3 stitches, Knit 3
Row 3: Knit 3, *YO, K, YO, K, SKP, Center Double Decrease, K2Tog, K, YO, K, YO,K,* K2
I did 3 repeats across so 41 sts

Knit rows 1-4 with yarn A, then knit rows 1-4 with yarn B. 

Center Double Decrease: Slip two stiches together as if to knit, knit 1, pass slipped stitches over

Christmas knitting

Before all the Christmas knitting gets given away, and I forget all those little details, I really should write some blog posts.
First up - a pair of socks
I don't think I would use this yarn Louet Gems sport again for socks although it is beautiful, and the colours are rich.  I just think it it as tad to heavy for normal socks.
That being said let me present to you the Whitby Socks

Yarn: Louet Gems Sport - 100 g
Needles:2.25mm
Pattern: Whitby Socks - Knitting on the Road by Nancy Bush
Changes: I added 4 more stitches - a purl on each side of the cable - as it was too narrow before

This was an enjoyable pattern, the knit/purl diamond between the two cables makes it so no counting is needed for the cable.  The pattern is difficult to  photograph though.

Crusoe socks

Just a quick post about a pair of socks that I have finished
I had some rainbow sock yarn that was purchased in the summer, and I needed a pattern that would do those colours justice.  I remembered that I had sock pattern designed for this - Crusoe Socks.  I looked over the pattern, it called for KPPPM with a cast on of 44 stitches.  I read again, and a second time.  There is no way I am knitting a sock on 44 sts with sock yarn and a) have it fit an adult foot and b) not have so loose a gauge that it wears out quickly.  I decided to size up to 56 sts.  I used the not so scientific method  of "sounds like a good number".

I didn't try the socks on or measure them in any way.  I knit on.
When I was getting near the toes - I tried them on.  Could barely get them past my ankle, and seeing as the intended recipient has larger feet than me this was not going to work.  Surgery was performed above the heel flap, the stitches were picked up and then 4 was added - and the cuff was re knit at 60 sts. 

Lessons learn - if you pick numbers out of the air - check the fit with a foot or tape measure.

Final info
Yarn: Shelridge Farms Handpaint
Needles : 2.25 mm
Cuff: 60 sts, foot 56 sts
Pattern: Crusoe socks

Pooling and a method to fix it

Some people like how multicoloured yarn pools (or stacks), other people detest it and avoid yarns that would tend to do this. I am in the middle - a little bit of pooling on a garment is fine but when it gets too much it drives me crazy.


So when I started the MinO jacket and had knit a couple of inches, I noticed the pooling and decided that I would do something to minimize this. The most common method (and one that Fleece Artist recommends on other patterns of theirs) is to knit from two balls (or opposite ends of the same ball) at once. Knit one row, slide stitches to other end knit a second row with the second ball, turn and purl two rows back. Requires swing needles or circulars.

I decided to utilize this method, I joined the second ball, and knit away. However I didn't pay attention to where I joined the second end. Unfortunately, I had lined up the colours, so I continued to get pooling. I denied the problem figuring that since the colours should be coming in opposite order it would fix it self. I knit on. It soon became apparent that it wasn't going to resolve itself. I didn't want to rip out what I had already knitted.

1. I had two yarns attached to the sweater
2. I didn't want to cut the yarn but I wanted to alter how the yarns were placed
3. I thought of intarsia and fixed the problem
   

What I did:
Green and blue represent the different yarns and the arrows is the direction of knitting.

1. Knit all the way across the sweater in yarn A
2. Knit across until there was about 20 stitches left with B
3. Slipped those 20 stitches to the other needle
4. Purl with A, 20 stitches
5. Twist A and B together and knit with A to end
6. Slip first 20 stitches to left needle
   
7. Purl with B back to beginning
8. Purl entire length of sweater with A
9. Knit as normal

A couple of further thoughts on this method:

1. It is a secondary method - you have to have two balls of yarn on the go (unless you join a second just for this)
2. There is nothing magic about 20 stitches. You don't want 1/2 of stitches and you do have to slide the stitches twice. With this sweater I wouldn't go less than 20 stitches, but sliding 30 or 40 would have worked as well. My cast on was 140 sts, YMMV.
3. You have no extra ends to weave in
4. If pooling develops again, you can repeat this process
   

I was happy with how this technique stopped the pooling in the sweater, and wished I had figured it out sooner. The red arrow shows where I did the maneuvering.

Mismatch

I was going to write a post about the new sweater I am knitting for NB - MinO- which I have been loving. However, last night as I was working on another project I ran into a problem. So my dear readers you get some of my musings.
First the players:
The Yarn : Louet Gems Sport. 2 skeins of 100g/225 yrds merino, ball band gauge 22-24 sts/4"
The Intended: Christmas present for my SIL
Some background

1. When I first bought the yarn I was thinking socks
2. The yarn has been wound in balls for awhile now, since I was always going to cast on for socks with it
3. My SIL saw the yarn and remarked how lovely the colour is, (I love colour as well)
4. I cruised Ravelry and decided on Embossed Leaves - people have knit these socks with this yarn
   
5. I don't know how the above was accomplished. I need size 2.0 mm(US 0) to get gauge and that hurts my hands. With a 16 st repeat I can't cut out a pattern repeat.

The delimina

1. The yarn now is saying scarf/shawl to me - do I listen?
2. Will the recipient wear the red scarf/shawllette? I know she would have worn the socks
3. Do I knit her socks out of another yarn?
4. Do I want to knit another red scarf after I just finished Sugared Pompa?
   

The ideas - feel free to toss others out there (all are Rav links)

1. Boneyard shawl
2. Red Skies at Night
3. Drop Stitch Scarf
4. Flower Basket Shawl
5. Herbivore

Sugared Pompa

I am not done all of my catching up yet, but thought I would pause here to post about a recent FO.
Pompa by Ann Hanson
This is a quick lace knit. The pattern is very intuitive and is easy to memorize. The result though is lovely. The columns of bars are created with YOs, instead of dropped stitches as in Clapotis, so if your yarn is sticky(mohair anyone) it won't be a problem.

The yarn I used is Sugar Rush by Queensland collection. This yarn is made from sugar cane and has a sheen to it. At 125m/50g it is a dense yarn for a sport weight yarn. I wanted a pattern that would be able to handle the weight and I think this project does it. I used most of two skeins (knots near the edges and wanted to finish a pattern repeat). This gave me a scarf that is 15cm x 134 cm. I thought that 4 repeats across would be too wide and I was happy with the size this gave me.


I also got some blocking wires which I will be using more of in the future. Lace blocking is much easier - especially if you want those straight edges.
Complete Rav details here

Update

Just a quick post to show a recent picture of NB in his Tomten jacket.





He was not in the mood to stay still.

Charts.

It is hard to write a dishcloth project up into a blog post but here it goes. Evelyn Clark, the designer of the Flower Basket shawl, designed a dishcloth pattern with a greyhound on it, a few days after seeing the pattern, a request went out for donations for a Greyhound raffle fundraiser. I of course put the two together and volunteered to knit some for charity.

I downloaded the pattern, looked at it and there was no chart. It was written out line by line. I thought about it and went, this isn't going to work I need a chart - isn't that funny how we get set in our ways. However, thanks to Ravelry I had come across a link to a chart generator, I went and dug up the post and checked out the links, created my chart.

After making the chart I proceeded to make 6 dishcloths, not being a big dishcloth knitter I didn't realize how little time it takes to knit these, and ran out of yarn while I was on vacation - so what is a knitter to do but to make an intarsia dish cloth with some of the leftovers.

If you ever need to generate a chart, this is the one I used
Chart Gen.
However, I have also found these tools but have not fully tested them out: Jacqui's Knitting Chart Maker, Chart-A-Rama, and Knit Pro 2.0. Chart Gen, Chart Maker and Chart-A-Rama all translate written instructions into a chart - each one has a slightly different input mechanism and format that it wants. Knit Pro takes a jpg or gif and turns it into a chart (I have not used this site). However I may in the future.

When I was working on the Serenity socks, I went back to Chart Gen and charted the instructions for the leaf on the heel.