Cable me up

Probably one of the most iconic types of knitting is Aran knitting. Beautiful, less complicated than it looks and memorable. The term Aran itself denotes the three Aran Islands in Galway Bay, Inishmore (once known as Aranmor), Inishmaan and Inisheer but also the beautiful knitted cable worked sweaters that have become so iconic to time. However as far as knitting techniques go it is rather new. Developed with in the last 100 years it has become a very iconic knitting idea very quickly.

Sweater I made last year with Celtic knot cables on the wrist and front.

By simple twisting of the stitches beautiful cables can be formed. Using a small double pointed and often curved needle you move the stiches behind or in front of the knitted stiches. By doing this you create an amazing cabled stitch and what we today call Aran knitting. Each design could be combined with others to create amazing art that you can wear.

Socks J made last year with simple cables on the top.

It is because of these beautiful combinations a piece can be like no other piece. Hand knitting is always defined because each piece is different, beyond the needles and the yarn, just by moving the needles every piece made is different from the last one, even by using doing it exactly the same from project to project. How knitting works is as you work you make something unique to you with mistakes, messed up tensions, ladders. Some of those things will fix themselves over time but even if they don’t that is ok. Knitting is for life, and Aran I think proves that. Created to make one of a kind pieces that unfortunately may sometimes have been used to identify fisherman lost at sea. Some had flaws but what are flaws when you are venturing out to some new.

Y cable ear warmers audible for sale or my etsy page: GrandmasTools.

I was afraid to try cabling the first few times I did it. It was an adventure but by learning it I would eventually be able to create beautiful pieces that are one of a kind to me. Still working on trying to create one that is just by me but I will get there.

Celtic knot Cable hat going up for sale on my etsy page November 1st. GrandmasTools

High Cotton

We have all seen the commercials, and we all know the jingle. “The touch, the feel of cotton, the fabric of our lives.” A pretty common material today thanks to the invention of the Cotton Gin in the 1793 by Eli Whitney, it wasn’t always cheap or available. Been cultivated for at least the last 7,000 years it has helped shape cultures, save and ruin lives and cloth the backs of men.

In 3,000 B.C it was being cultivated in Pakistan and being spun and woven into cloth. By 800 A.D. it was brought into Europe by Arab Merchants.  By the time of Columbus’s adventure to the new World in 1492 where he found it on islands in the Bahama’s it was well known through most of the world. The Industrial Revolution, the Cotton Gin and sadly the building of the slave trade made the south the King of Cotton by the 1800s. It became more available to the masses, and came in a variety of colors and eventually would be dyed with little flowers on them. Something that was extremely expensive in the 1700s soon would become extremely cheap and the most common cloth in a just a few years. Within 10 years it grew from a $150,000 industry to $8 million.

This fluffy little seed is what everyone wanted, once cleaned of the actual seeds the fluff, could be spun and woven. Between the fact it is hard to clean it of the seed by hand, has a very short staple length which makes it very hard to spin by hand and easy to break, which is probably why it took so long to become the common cloth of the world. The cotton gin made it easier to clean but back fired from making the slaves lives easier to harder as the cotton industry to grew. That and the demand for cheap cloth, and the mechanized world of the cloth industry made the south the King of Cotton.

Eli Whitney's cotton gin

So the touch and the feel of cotton has come with its price. Whether it is the expense of coin or the expense of man, history has made it a lasting and renewable cloth. The world of natural fiber, older than anything we can ever imagine.

What is the point?

I am often asked why, what is the point? I am always asked these questions when I am sewing, knitting, and spinning. I have been asked why I do “old people” hobbies? (A question I find insulting and to you I say phewy). Yes I know I can buy clothing at Walmart (I refuse to even step in that store if I can help it). Yes I know it would be easier if I just bought the clothing but I like creating something for myself. Also I find it away to spend my time wisely I have stated before I keep knitting in my bag so I can work on things when I am in other places, my space in my living room is surrounded by the tools of my trades and it is wonderful seeing the art take shape and become something no one else can make.

Most recently I was spinning in public and a little boy and his mother stopped to watch and I explained how the tuff of wool I was holding was becoming a think yarn. He watched for a minute and then asked “What is the point?” I stopped my spinning wheel and looked at him, and after repeating his question, I smiled and said “You are wearing the point. Everything you are wearing was spun, by machine but before those machines all material was spun by hand on a spinning wheel or drop spindle. It was then taken and woven into cloth. That cloth can be made into your pants, your sweatshirt, or it was knitted like your t-shirt, your socks and the cuffs of your sweatshirt. Today it is all done by massive machines in factories but before the 1800s Industrial Revolution it all had to be done by hand.” I showed him spinning on the drop spindle, knitting a sock I was working on and showed him my sewing basket.

Women in Ireland carrying 30 kilos of peat on their back while knitting. Multi tasking at it's finest.

You see everyone is wearing the past, present and the future. I know it odd to think about but the magic that is making something from scratch can be fascinating. The number of people who just sit and watch whenever I am working, who ask me questions and who say it is like magic. That is our history, everyday life to someone hundreds of years ago. What comes out can be complete magic as a tuff of wool becomes yarn and that ball of yarn becomes a hat, socks or a sweater. Or it gets woven and becomes shirts, handkerchiefs, pants and so much more. So what is the point? I guess it depends on the Artisian you are asking.  Plus what else am I going to do at the doctor's office or while watching documentaries on vikings or the Big Bang Theory.

from http://blog.redheart.com/donnas-dozen-hats-off/