More projects have been finished

Liz and Kathy tried lace and made scarves. Ashley made thrummed mittens (have fiber knit in to create a fuzzy interior). Lindsay and Whitney both made the spiral hat pattern from the Tangled Skein. Haley knit an quilted baby hat using a slip stitch pattern. Michele used intarsia to create her pillow.













Almost done: Stephanie's Norwegian sock, a dog sweater for Cassie's dog Nick, and lace scarves by Amanda and Alyssa.

Final projects, part 1

A few students have finished their final projects. Mary made an Estonian inspired mitten, putting the pattern only on the cuff. Erin shows off her Estonian sock; the second one is currently on her needles. Jonas adapted a cabled hat pattern to create a headband. Katie models her spiral hat made from a pattern available from the Tangled Skein. Lynn made an eggplant using a pear pattern. Stephy has her first Estonian glove done.













The rest of the class continues knitting...

Online knitting communities

Traditionally, new knitters would sit down with friends and family to learn techniques and improve their skills, but many seem to lack opportunities for these face-to-face experiences and instead have created knitting communities in the online world. If you're reading this blog, you are probably well aware of the vast number of knitting blogs out there. Knitters are a major part of the blogosphere. There seems to be no end to the number of knitters who want to share their work with a wider audience than the local yarn store or are trying to reach out because they have no local community of knitters.

Although you might consider knitting blogs themselves to have a fairly limited audience, many of the knitting blogs have a more specific target audience. For example, there's a blog for Nordic knitters, born-again Christian knitters, and punk rock knitters. The rules for participating in each of these blogs are clearly established so you must live in a Nordic country, love Jesus as your Lord, or love rock music in order to be a member of each of these blogs respectively. You can also subscribe to knitting podcasts, like Secret Knitting in which you knit according to the instructions without seeing in advance what you will be creating. You can then share your pictures with the blog author and other secret knitters.

I've encouraged my students to explore these online options to find people who might share their particular interests in knitting. As for me, I haven't been able to find anyone else who has enjoyed forcing college students to knit for six hours each day.

Where are we?

In preparation for our discussion of online knitting communities, I created a few maps to visualize the geography of our class and its blog. Members of the community we created came from the United States, the United Kingdom, and China.
In the contiguous U.S., we find the cluster in Minnesota because that's where the majority of Gustavus students come from. We have students from other parts of the Midwest (Wisconsin & Nebraska), one from Minnesota who now lives in the South (Georgia), one from Alaska, and two who live in China, but these other dots are the people who have been reached through the blog.

We've also reached these lovely people in the U.K. from London, Cardiff, and Stockport (ok, that dot is really Manchester).

The final project

After our third and final quiz, students got to work on their fourth and final project. This is one they selected for themselves using a published pattern that can be modified to their liking. They must learn either a new shape like socks or a new technique like lace.

Here they are, hard at work.

Lace

Barb Kaiser provided us with some background on lace, showing us examples from Shetland, Orenburg, and the Faroe Islands, and gave us tips on techniques and materials. You can view her temporary website with links to lace websites.

She also showed the students how to block lace, demonstrating the use of her fancy blocking wires.

Arts vs. crafts

In preparation for today’s class, I had asked students to read two essays and one news article: Is it art? Is it craft? (Charles Lewton-Brain, Ganoskin), Craft versus art (Mary Sullivan Holdgrafer, exploringcreativity.com), and The fine art of crafts (April Austin, Christian Science Monitor).

We had a good bit of discussion in class about the difference between arts and crafts. There was quite a range of opinions – art is the high-class stuff like paintings and sculpture, crafts are the things you did as a little kid, art is unique, craft is when you make something by following a pattern, art is expensive and requires more education, craft produces useful items, etc. As we talked we looked at the work of Mary Sullivan Holdgrafer (or try this site), Marta McCall, Shane Waltener, and Karen Allen. We also looked at knitting in art, including William Sidney Mount’s Winding Up, Gerbrand van den Eeckhout’s Woman Doing Handwork, and art that shows knit fabric by Gail Rothschild.

So how do you know when it's art or craft? I like the idea that it’s not an either/or question, but that arts and crafts are on a continuum. However, we came to no conclusions; that wasn’t the point of the conversation – it was just to get us thinking about these things as we knit and progress as knitters.

Field trip #2

We visited the St. Peter Woolen Mill to learn about how wool is processed. I will let the students explain this to you in detail next week when they submit their papers, but for now here are the pictures. The mill is one of only three in the U.S. that will give you back the same wool you send in for processing. Customers drop off bags of wool like this:

The wool is washed in the metal tub with wool wash and hot water, put into the adjacent extractor to remove the water, and then tumbled in the dryer just visible in the left corner of this image:

The wool then goes through the picker and the carder, seen here:

We also stopped at Knit & Sew World, also in downtown St. Peter, for a demonstration of a knitting machine. I'll share a student's reaction paper with you next week.

Two students reflect on the trip to the Tangled Skein

Chris:

Our next trip was to The Tangled Skein, a local yarn store in St. Peter run by two moms who love to knit. It supplies the knitting enthusiast, or beginning student, with everything and anything needed for knitting such as needles, tiny silk yarn, jumbo size yarn, or patterns to make anything from a scarf to a sweatshirt. If you need some hands on help or someone to talk to while you knit then you can come to one of the classes they offer. For example, The Sox Pistols meet the second Sunday of every month right in the shop to work on their next sock knitting project. I was surprised to hear that the owners originally looked at Mankato as the location of their shop; it makes a lot of sense to open it in St. Peter. Of course there are more people in Mankato, but rent will be higher. For a privately owned hobby store it's best to be located where the interest is, and in this case it's St. Peter. First off, the store is in a historic building in downtown St. Peter and second, St. Peter is a retirement community. Two popular activities of retirees are golfing and knitting and since Minnesota only supplies three solid months of golfing, St. Peter should be full of knitters. The owners of the tangled skein also live in St. Peter and have friends in St. Peter, practically guaranteeing business. Finally, combine it with the growing popularity of knitting on college campuses, a class built entirely around knitting, and the stores convenient location nearby local college Gustavus Adolphus and you get the perfectly located hometown shop, The Tangled Skein.

Stephanie:

I thought it was useful to visit the Tangled Skein because it gave us the opportunity to learn about the store from one of the owners. I have been in the knitting shop before, but I was not versed in the reasoning behind the store or the products available for purchase. I now realize that the Tangled Skein is a store that caters to knitters who prefer to work with natural fibers rather than acrylic or nylon. Given this, they annually attend conventions to seek out new yarns from around the world. The layout of the store itself was also very logical with the yarns categorized by relative weights as well as by fiber used to create the yarn.

As a small, locally run store, I was impressed on the knowledge and friendliness of the owners as well as the helpers in the store. Not only were they able to tell us the name and background on any yarn available for purchase, but willingly gave advice on projects and suggestions on how to use different products. It is through this friendliness and openness to knitters, that they have become a valued member of the knitting community in St. Peter. Not only are classes offered, but groups will come in and knit at the table provided, demonstrating that this store has become fully accepted by the residents of the town.

A student's description of our visit to Cozy Acres Alpaca Farm

By Erin

Cozy Acres Alpacas is an alpaca farm in Le Sueur, Minnesota. Here, alpacas are bred, raised, and sheered in order to make yarn out of the alpaca fiber. This yarn is actually very different from the more common woolen yarns because the fiber from an alpaca is much finer than the fiber from a sheep. It creates a stronger, warmer, and softer yarn after it is processed.

Alpacas are a domesticated relation of llamas and they originated in the Andes. They are still raised there today but are also found in all fifty states. The animals are covered in hollow hairs which provide a great deal of insulation. Because of this insulation, alpacas are able to withstand relatively cold temperatures. They don't however, tolerate heat particularly well. In order to help the animals cope with the warm Minnesota summers, as well as to be able to produce yarn, the alpacas are sheered during May. This keeps them cool in the summer but also allows time for the alpacas to grow their coat before the cold fall weather. A few of the alpacas we saw today were also wearing coats in order to help them ward off the bitter cold winter weather.

Sheering the alpacas in May is only the first of three steps necessary for creating alpaca yarn. When the alpacas are sheered, the fiber is in its raw state. Typically, only the fiber from the blanket of the alpaca—from the base of the neck to the bottom of the tail and down the sides—is considered quality fiber. This fiber is crimped which creates a smooth yarn without fibers sticking out of the strand.

After the raw fiber has been sheered and sorted, the fiber is put into a carting machine for roving. Here, the fiber is wound around a wheel with spokes sticking out of it in order to align the hairs. After it has been turned in the carting machine, the fibers create a rope about an inch in width which is then ready for further processing.

When the fibers have gone through the roving process, they are spun on a spinning wheel in order to create the alpaca yarn. One of the women from another Minnesota alpaca farm actually spins her own yarn. Another option, which is utilized by Cozy Acres Alpacas, is to send the fiber to a mill. It can be difficult to find a mill able to produce alpaca yarn, however, because a special machine is needed to process the alpaca fibers. Larger mills will often combine alpaca fibers with other fibers, like wool, so that they are able to process it. The Shepherd's Mill in Phillipsburg, Kansas, which processes the fibers from Cozy Acres Alpacas, has the capability to create 100% alpaca yarn. The yarn is then sent back to Minnesota where it is wound into skeins for purchase.

Before visiting the alpaca farm, I was very interested to hear why this sort of farm would be in Minnesota. At first glance, it seems as though the climate would not be appropriate for these animals native to South America. While the extreme temperatures in Minnesota do present some challenges for the farmers, the open areas found in rural Minnesota are actually quite conducive for raising alpacas. The animals need plenty of space and, in order to produce soft yarn, also need dusty areas to roll in. The practically treeless farms found in this location provide this environment for the animals. Also, the alpacas on this farm eat hay and a grain mixture which is actually mixed at the local farmer's co-op. The appropriate nutrition for the animals is clearly available in this location making it a convenient place to raise them. Finally, as knitting has become more popular in recent years, the farmers have a large market in which to sell their high quality yarn.

Why we knit

I'm sure knitting is a relaxing hobby, but we've been feeling more like the cottage farmers who knit in every spare minute. In the past 2.5 weeks, we have completed three projects, a nice accomplishment for new knitters. Rather than knitting to clothe ourselves or to raise a bit of cash, the students are knitting for a grade and I am knitting for my full-time job. Today we look at some of the reasons why people knit.


The term craftivism combines the words craft and activism to describe the notion that engaging in crafting can be a way to make a difference in the world, whether it be charity knitting or political activist knitting. For some, it means making things that would otherwise be machine-made or come from a corporate sweatshop. Although craftivism is a fairly new word, it's not a new idea.


Knitting and charity work have a long association in the U.S. At least since the Revolutionary War, we have been knitting to clothe soldiers at war. The tradition continues today for soldiers in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. You can knit helmet liners, or knit hats and slippers for The Ships Project. Old soldiers are not forgotten; the Knit Your Bit campaign of the WWII Museum collects scarves for veterans.


If you prefer to knit for peace, you can choose from a variety of organizations that collect handknit items for children, orphans, homeless, elderly, or animals. Adoptions Together ships items to orphans in Eastern Europe. Afghans for Afghans collects items for children and adults in Afghanistan. Warm Woolies supplies orphanages in Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, China and South Dakota. You can knit or crochet for the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota. The Snuggles Project collects security blankets for shelter animals. College-bound foster kids can receive handknit scarves through the Red Scarf Project. Warm the World provides blankets, hats, and scarves to kids in need, and collects hats for soldiers. Warm Up America collects afghans or parts of afghans for distribution, but also encourages people to find agencies to which they can directly donate afghans. You can make a Christmas stocking for Navajo children or elders through the Adopt-An-Elder program. You can also support Peace Fleece.


Political activists can find an outlet in knitting as well. microRevolt is collecting knit or crochet squares of the Nike blanket to serve as a petition for fair labor standards. You can send a message with your testimony about the Iraq war to your senator along with a helmet liner through the Stitch for Senate campaign. Graffiti artists can switch from spray paint to knitting and join Knitta with members who tag utility poles and more with knit objects.


Many knitters today knit for the satisfaction in creating the object and to promote our ability to make things for ourselves rather than just buy them. This is reminiscent of the Arts and Crafts Movement of the late 19th century and early 20th century, which was a reaction to the Industrial Revolution. Believing that a healthy society needed skilled craftsmen and creative people, supporters preferred handmade objects to those made entirely on soul-less machines. This movement has never entirely died out.


Even if you can't knit, you can support knitters through the donation of materials or the purchase of handmade objects. You can donate yarn and needles to the Hennepin County Home School, which is teaching non-violent juvenile offenders to knit to make amends. You can buy yarn for Navajo weavers through the Adopt-An-Elder program. Buy handmade products from around the world through Economic Development Imports, Lantern Moon, Rosie's Place, Snow Cabin Goods, Kenana Knitters, and Etsy.


What are your reasons for knitting or buying handknit items?

Show and tell mittens

Hard work pays off in a great set of mittens:
Michele, Stephy, Whitney, Alyssa, Amanda, Lynn, Ashley, Cassie, and Chris give you a closer look:

Knitting in Estonia

We had a lively discussion of Bush’s Folk Knitting in Estonia (see inside), a book that is well suited to our geography of knitting class. Estonia was variously conquered and controlled by Denmark, Germany, Russia, Poland, and Sweden, came under Soviet Control in 1940, and declared final independence in 1991. The oldest knitting in Estonia was found in a grave dating to the 13-14th century, placing it within the range of the oldest knit materials found anywhere in Europe. It may have been introduced to Estonia by the servants of Crusaders brought back from Palestine with knitting skills intact. The patterns in Estonian knitting must have been influenced by all these cultures and we tried to identify some of these influences in the samples seen in the book. Like many of the other regional designs we’ve seen, the knitting patterns, which are often linked to specific places in Estonia, likely evolved from or were inspired by other textiles, plants, and animals.

Knit items appear in Estonian culture in many ways – as practical clothing, gifts, or talismans. Again, people in a cold climate benefit from two-color designs that create a thicker fabric, but the designs incorporated into the items often had another purpose – to ward off the evil eye, to avoid corporal punishment for a crime, to ensure the birth of a son. A woman who accepted an offer of courtship from a man would return a pair of mittens tied to an empty bottle of liquor (the full bottle being a gift from the man to the woman and her family). A bride might need fifty pairs of mittens in addition to stockings and belts to give to various members of the bridal party and the groom’s family, many of these mittens being laid on the thresholds that she crossed as her mother-in-law gave her a tour of her new home.

We talked through one of the patterns so that students could learn the important aspects of pattern reading such as how to decode abbreviations, substitute yarns, and adjust patterns or needle sizes to their own gauge

Finishing the mitten

The last step in the mitten is the thumb. Put the stitches that are currently on the piece of yarn back onto your needles - either the two circulars or 3 double pointeds. Join a new piece of yarn at the joint between the thumb and hand and knit the first round.
At the end of this first round pick up a stitch in the corner.











Continue knitting rounds until the thumb section reaches to the middle of your thumbnail and begin a 3 point decrease
(total number of stitches / 3) - 2 = X
knit X stitches, knit 2 together around then
knit X-1 stitches, knit 2 together and continue with one less stitch before the decrease until you have between 6 and 10 stitches depending on the weight of your yarn. Cut the yarn and thread through the remaining stiches, pull tight and fasten.












You can use the end of the joined thumb yarn to sew close any holes at the thumb-hand joint.