Obsessed with Yarn

Yarns, Stories, Tales/Tails, Accounts, Musings.

Here’s the thing, this story is not really about yarn, it is about my inability to put down the hook. What I’m about to share is an observation, an accounting, a recurring ticker tape running through my brain (like those songs you hate but know all the words to and can’t stop hearing play). I feel I must wipe it out and am hoping if I vent for a few minutes by writing this post, I can stop the nonsense.

Understand that I am laughing at myself for this behavior but can’t make myself stop it. Please do not judge.

But before I continue with that, here are some pics of what I’ve been working on the last couple of months. And from my table where I am typing this post, I can see six WIPS (Works in Progress for those who don’t know): 2 sweaters, 2 blankets, a t-shirt and a scarf.

It might be possible that I need an intervention. I know I’ve said it (at least to myself) and may have written it in a post but I am finding I can’t crochet fast enough. There are soooo many truly awesome patterns to try, ideas in my head that I want to explore and yarns to touch. I do have other things to do that do not involve this passion; there just aren’t enough hours in the day or stamina in my hands.

I am super happy when I have a hook in my hand. Well, unless there’s a giant yarn snarl or I find out that I screwed something up 3 rows ago or pick up a project I started months ago, only to realize I have no idea what size hook I was using or – and here’s the real problem – my hand goes numb.

Yep, I’m mostly in denial but it’s very probable that a carpal tunnel procedure is in my future. It’s not too bad yet, my hand is a wee bit swollen; no one else would notice because I have skinny hands/fingers but I notice because it’s not as easy to bend my fingers and rings don’t fit.

So, what to do (except go have that aforementioned procedure). It has been suggested I not crochet for awhile. Ok, so, what else should I do with that time?

Amongst the many other things to do, I can garden, I can work on my torch, I can workout more, and I can read. I have been doing those but let’s be honest, all but the reading part are just as tough on my dominant hand/wrist. Why is it that almost everything I want to do involves my right hand?

The intervention is in the offing though, if I can make it to the airport without a project stashed in my carry-on. I’ll be in California for a few days attempting to sort through my sister’s belongings. My niece is going and my nephew (both of whom are my brother’s offspring) who lives out there is helping so that part will be nice. The sorting, not so much.

That’s the back story. Here’s the part I need to expunge.

During the last few days I have spent way too much time looking at my stash and sorting through my queue to decide what to take with me to work on while traveling. I mean, I have 3.5 hours each way in the plane! Of course I’ll crochet!

And then my brain says “Stop. No crochet for you on this trip. Take and read a book or two.”

“Ok,” I say to myself, “that’s a good idea. I’ll do that.”

Now, can I tell you just how many times I’ve had that conversation with myself during the last week after being distracted by some lovely yarn or a pattern from a newsletter? No I cannot. Had it again this morning with my first two cups of coffee. I’d be having it now except I’m writing about it instead. Does that count?

There is a yarn store close to where we are staying…my brain hasn’t tried to talk me out of going there…. What size hook should I take to use on the yarn I’ll buy?! And which project will it be for?

There, I’ve written it down, got it off my brain. Think I’ll go take some Motrin and finish my t-shirt.

Earlier this year I included in a post that I was entering a dye-my-own-yarn phase. If you want a refresher go back to the post from January 7th.

I participated in yet another dyeing class (I think that made 4 official classes), virtually, the weekend of the Super Bowl. And that of course was right before Ice-aggedon and Snow-pocolypse occurred. In fact, I had to depart the class a bit early so that I could drive to Fbg from Dallas and arrive in time for kick-off. Which I did. Yay!

The class was taught by a woman in Vermont, Tamara White, aka Farmer Tam, at Wing and a Prayer Farm. I learned many things over two days and probably the most important part was that there are soooo many variables, no two attempts may be the same and there are very few “rules” in regard to timing, amounts, or even plants choices. If you don’t like what you get on Monday, throw it in another dye bath on Tuesday. I was really taken with her relaxed manner of teaching as it made me feel comfortable and not afraid to experiment.

Unfortunately, that didn’t mesh with my idea of “quickly” coming up with some acceptable almost matching yarn. Hmmm. I’m all for venturing into new territory but what I’d really been hoping for was a strict definition that would get me, my one. skein. of yarn.

This was turning out to be reminiscent of the $64 Tomato. That, my friends, is a very funny book about the author’s gardening adventures and misadventures. William Alexander is the author and you can find it, of course, on Amazon

Ok, so I found the bag that contained the project and took another look at it. And you know, with the new shawl accessory implements that I found at another virtual yarn event, the existing shawl is long enough. While throwing it around my body in a dramatic sweep is not really possible, it is definitely copious enough to wrap, pin, wear and keep my shoulders warm.

It’s a very pretty wrap, the yarn is very soft and the pattern was fun to work. It’s called The Diamond Love Scarf and was designed by Jennifer Matlock of little m Expressions. You can find her and the pattern on Ravelry and by clicking on the pattern name above.

Back to the whole yarn dyeing thing. Part of my thought process has been that it would be very cool to dye yarn using plants from my garden. Now that I’m not bent on a specific color, I might have more fun with the experimenting. There are some great books out there about this topic. You’ll see cover pics below of the ones that I ended up owning (after getting an armload from the library to peruse). All three are chock full of information. Wild Color has a section with tabs like you see on the cover that show you the colors possible for each part of each plant.

And so, while I would definitely rather by crocheting, I might still play with the dye pots. I still have raw yarn that needs a color and the flowers are beginning to wake up in my garden.

Happy gardening, play with your dog, hug your loved ones.

Usually, during a typical year, in Texas, we get about 12 hours of what the northern parts consider winter. Ok, maybe more…it might be 24 hours but you know where I’m going with that statement.

WE ARE NOT PREPARED FOR ANYTHING MORE THAN THAT.

There is no infrastructure here in our part of Texas to deal with what we experienced during the week surrounding Valentine’s Day this year.

However, what does this recent weather blip have in common with the past year of pandemic catastrophe? It rolled out the carpet for more crocheting time (or knitting if that’s your thing). In fact, yarn is a great insulator even when it is still in skein, cake or ball form.

We were in Fbg when it hit. Tom’s parents were there too but made it back to El Paso before things completely shut down. Ice came first, then snow, then the power went out.

On to the yarn part. I was working on a blanket of many colors that I finished during all this nonsense. I wrapped myself up in another blanket, surrounded myself with the various skeins of yarn and the project. Not too bad, all in all but I did have at least 4 layers on as well as various cowls, scarves, fingerless gloves and beanies.

We literally couldn’t leave. Tom tried to head back to Dallas, made it about a mile from the garage, slid three times off the road and turned around.

The pattern for my finished masterpiece comes from a book of blankets designed by Rachele Carmona. She was, and is, on a blanket binge in her own creative journey and at some point came up with the idea to design blankets based on art work. The book (The Art of Crochet Blankets: 18 Projects Inspired by Modern Makers) introduces the artists and their works that inspired each of the designs. Pretty cool. The blanket I chose to work on first (Layered Waves) was inspired by a paper collage piece by Maud Vantours. Although I didn’t find the particular piece on MV’s site (titled, Landscape) so that I could link you to it, you can get a feel for her medium by looking at her work. If you want to try your luck on finding that specific piece of inspiration , you can try Pinterest or Instagram. Below is a photo of my finished blanket. It is more afghan sized but you could always start by lengthening the beginning chain to make it longer or add more color transitions to make it wider.

It did make for a bundle of skeins of yarn. Even though the skeins were smaller (50g vs 100g), There were 29 colors. And of course the color names were not intuitive. Nope, green was not green. The color names were all artist names….Monet, Miró, Pollack, Kandinsky. Now, I suppose I could have just reached in to the project bag, grabbed one by chance and blown off the prescribed order, but as you can see from the photo, there is a reason to pay attention; the whole dark to light idea. And now I have all those leftover colors to make another blanket (aside from the white and black, only 14g of each of the other colors were used out of 50).

And then once I finished the blanket, I made a cowl and started a sweater. I think that’s all for Fbg. The blanket took most of the snowed in time. I’m in Dallas but heading back and am looking forward to working some more on the sweater I started. I have beaucoup WIPs here… a sweater for which I am designing the pattern (read that as, “making it up as I go along”), a giant wrap made with gradient yarn in earth tones and turquoise, still working on Sophie and a scarf made of lots of little pieces. I was working on the scarf during football games…may put it up until next season, we shall see. There are lots of ends to sew in on every little part.

Now, go rub your face in some nice soft warm yarn. Not quite as nice as dog fur but will still bring you comfort.

There will be yarn too, I promise. See, just look at the first picture. Already I’m keeping that promise.

Tidbit. Sabrina MCP (Mighty Cute Puppy). Dancing Dog. Bouncing Dog. Baby Girl. She kept the title of, “The Puppy” all her life. I spent a good bit of time this morning looking at pictures that ranged from the day before she left us to when she was truly tiny. It doesn’t seem possible that it’s been almost 18 years since we brought her (and her two brothers) home from Fredericksburg. She brought a lot of joy to our lives…and complications as well. I haven’t forgotten her persnickety-ness. She was definitely Queen Bee and the “ee” changed to different letters when she decided she didn’t like most other dogs.

So you can see she was the same size as Sam when she grew up but look at these pics of her when she first came to us.

It has been very quiet at our house since Tuesday afternoon. I keep thinking I need to go look and see where she’s sleeping. She slept most of the time these last few months. And I also realized that we have a lot of photos of her engaged in that strenuous activity that were made throughout her long life. I thought she slept with her tongue hanging out because she’d lost most of her teeth…and then I found a pic from her puppyhood that showed her little pink tongue hanging out. So cute.

And I could go on because I really did spend at least two hours sniffling over photos. But, I promised you yarn. And, I didn’t promise this but you get some costumes… well, different versions of more or less the same thing. She did also have to act as maker’s model for projects designed/being made for other furry critters .

And here’s where I digress because it occurred to me that since I’m calling this “Ode” to a spotted dog that somehow I should write some poetry. However, a true ode is a bit more than I want to tackle and you really don’t want me singing (an ode is usually a lyrical poem sung to honor someone or something). I can offer this:

Sabrina came from a litter of five,
For almost eighteen years she thrived,
Her ears didn't function,
Her smeller was awesome,
She had a pink tongue, one brown & one blue eye.

Or maybe this:

Sabrina sweet pup
many tricks and stinky breath
always in our hearts

And, now for more yarn. During one of the more recent virtual yarn events, I discovered Ancient Arts Yarns. The presentation the owner did, the stories she told about how she ended up dyeing and making yarn was interesting. You can read more about her by clicking on the link and going to her website. One of her passions is animal rescue. To help support groups in her area (Calgary), she has two collections that are mostly breed specific for dogs and also cats. I’m planning to make a sweater with her yarns that will represent (hopefully) all of our furry canine friends. I also have plans for a cat cardi. She has told me that if I don’t find the colorations I need, I can send her photos of our pups and she can add their color ways to the collection. Yay! I ordered some yarn from her for another project but it is still in the dyeing stage so I cannot show you a photo yet. Stay tuned!

One last group of pup pics…

And just about the cutest thing ever. This I made very recently; mind you, the tableau didn’t last very long but I’m glad I had my phone close by to capture the moment.

We’re headed to Fbg for a week and it will be very strange to not have a stinky dog in the car to keep me company and make me stop for a break.

All of you with beasties, please give them a hug or two from me.

I’ve told this story many times. I think it has remained mostly the same each time. Some details may get left out or remembered from one telling to the next. And it’s just possible that I’ve re-told it to folks that have already heard it. Sorry everyone but it’s a great story. It makes me smile and gives me such joy to tell. Sometimes it’s more than ok to repeat yourself. So. Here goes… maybe it I write it down I can stop repeating myself to my friends.

In January of 2019, Tom and I were in NYC for our annual pilgrimage during the week surrounding our anniversary (2021 marks 30 years for us). I had planned to “pop in” to various yarn stores for a look-see but only if our path took us close by (and no, I hadn’t shared my secret agenda with Tom). Our first stop on my secret list brought us the joyous news that there was a yarn-a-palooza happening that weekend. This link will take you to Vogue Knitting Live if you are interested. These days everything is held virtually but in January, 2019 it was live and in-person.

We attended. I don’t think Tom had any idea into what adventure I was leading him. It was jammed. I wrote about the whole thing in an earlier post so I won’t repeat that part of the story again. However, little did I know that during that trip, Tom’s brain starting thinking in a more yarn-like manner.

Fast forward to Christmas of 2019. We were opening presents at our house. Just us and the dog. Tom handed me a package. It was wrapped in pretty xmas paper with a bow.

He said, “You must open this one last.”

Hmmmm. Ok, so we opened some packages, went for more coffee, opened a few more, broke for food, came back, opened some more until there was one package left. At which point, I picked it up and asked, “Now?” The answer was yes. I will add that he had a rather strange, expectant look on his face.

Alrighty, off came the pretty Christmas wrap and this is what I found:

As you can tell, I made this photo after I opened the package. How strange to be given a gift that when unwrapped instructed me to give it back to the one who gave it to me. Ok, I thought, I’ll play along. What could it be? It felt like a book. That was odd. Why would he give me a book to give him? Hmmm. Did I forget something I was supposed to have gotten for him and he found out?

Anyway, I dutifully handed it over and it was my turn to look expectantly at him. He pretended surprise…”What? For me? Whatever could it be?” And then he opened it. And this is what it was:

Delight! Amazement! Dumbfoundedness (I know, not a word)! Lots of sputtering on my part: Really? “Yes, really”. Knitting? “Yes, knitting”. And then at some point I had to ask ( because my brain was really having to work to wrap around this event), “Why knitting and not crocheting?”

My brain was thinking: I have all the toys for crocheting – I can teach him how to do it – I could share all the accoutrement for that but knitting is foreign territory. Well there is still the yarn. And since I have so many skeins, cakes and balls of yarn, they can be shared but really, “Why knitting and not crocheting?”

He did give me an answer. He wanted to join me in my obsession but didn’t want to copy me. He wanted to try something similar but different. And I suspect he thought me teaching him wouldn’t go well.

Bottom line? It doesn’t matter one way or the other. Maybe he also figured if I was going to drag him to yarn stores and yarn-a-paloozas that he needed to have a vested interest. And, yes, I do share my stash but he has also been tempted by his own yarn store visits to buy yarn I would probably not have picked up and brought home. And that means that I have had to work diligently to clear space in the stash bins into which he can put his yarn and projects.

And now you know why I have been spending more time than I will admit to with hook in hand for the last year. I have managed to give him three bins (aiming for a fourth) for yarns/projects and shared one drawer for the needle collection (and no, I won’t tell you how many bins there are in total).

So my friends, we are busy playing with yarn at our house. Tom’s home early today. He’s tinking a shawl he started but doesn’t like and I need to go finish a baby blanket so I can start on a sweater I want to make.

Stay warm!

Did you know that if you use your knife to chop garlic before you peel and section a grapefruit, the resulting juice smells (but not tastes) like garlic? Well it does. I poured juice into my glass to sit down and begin this post and thought there was something wrong…my nose, the glass, the juice…but when I took a sip, it was fine. Thinking about the timeline last night as I was cooking dinner brought me the answer (the resulting comestibles from those actions were quite yummy).

And I digressed. Again. Not surprising really given the last several months. I looked at my last post for a refresher and discovered it has been almost 19 months since I have written down a story. What have I been doing? I have no idea. Well, that’s not really true but it hasn’t been anything momentous.

I have been doing lots of crocheting. How much you ask? This is a blog about yarn after all. Hold on, I’ll see if I can get a tally.

Ok, that took some time. Here’s what I’ve done (according to Ravelry) during the last 19 months:

27 hats, 25 amigurumi, 13 shawls/wraps, 11 cowls, 7 clothing pieces, 6 scarves, 4 blankets/throws, and 3 accessories/house things.

And I’m sure there some random items that never made it to my Ravelry file.

Yes, I just scrolled through Photos and without going back to the beginning of the span, I found over a dozen more…mostly hats and amigurumi and a sweater and I have to stop looking through Photos…

Here’s a few of the things I’ve made. If you have a Ravelry account you are welcome to look me up by clicking on the link in parentheses to see more (Dancingdogstudio). I’m not sure the site will let you look if you don’t have an account.

It doesn’t stop there though. I currently have 6 WIPS (works in progress) and 40 projects in my queue (according to Ravelry). My excuse (one of them anyway) is that we have two homes and I need projects in both places…and then a project for the car when I’m not driving. And of course different projects for different activities…mindless ones for drinking with friends and watching football, slightly more complicated ones for listening to audible books, and one skein at a time ones for traveling. Of course there are the “Don’t talk to me, I’m counting” ones as well that are best done alone in the quiet.

The newest diversion, albeit a small one so far, is some yarn dyeing. I have been saying since I began crocheting that I have no desire to dye yarn. There are sooo many wonderful, talented people out there doing so. I want to support their efforts. That being said, I found myself in a quandary with a project.

One of my afore-mentioned WIPS is a shawl that I started in September of 2019 while on a trip with my BFFs from High School. It’s a lovely shawl, with a fun pattern and oh-so-pretty yarn. Unfortunately, I got 2/3 of the way done and ran out of yarn (my math skills apparently failed me). Not a problem you think, just order some more. Well, not so easy. The yarn was a gift given to me by a friend, who discovered it at a craft market while on vacay in Colorado. I was able to track the dyer down but it had been too long and she wasn’t able to help me out with another skein. Hmmm, I thought, what to do? I thought about using a contrasting color, trying to fade it to a neutral, adding on to the beginning side using one or all of those ideas to make things more proportional, etc. I wasn’t feeling the love with any of that. It has been bagged, tagged and stashed in a drawer ever since. Then, I said, “Self, why don’t you try dyeing some more yarn in the same colors.”

That of course is a completely different quest. First, find the yarn base. Check. Took me a while but I have it. Second, learn how to dye yarn. How difficult can it be to make green? I took some classes/watched some lectures and demos where both acid dyes and natural dyes were used. Below are the yarns I dyed. Pretty cool. Tom has promised to make me something with the yellows (spoiler); I have not decided what to do with the acid colors. However, does anyone see any green in the below photos that approaches the colors in the above photos?

Ok, let’s make it even more complicated. Wouldn’t it be great to dye my yarn using plants from my garden. I have lots of green in the garden. And that’s where I am now. I have made a lot of brown, using plants that I am told will make green. I do not have any photos of these attempts since, well, brown not green. I will get back to it sometime this Spring.

And that my friends will bring me to the end of this post. Honestly, it’s not the story I intended to tell. that will be the next Post. It’s approaching cocktail and dog dinner hour and the natives are getting restless.

Here’s looking forward to 2021!

I could also write “Yarn, Travels”. Both would be correct and each would mean something slightly different. “Yarn Travels” indicates that yarn is an adjective modifying travels. I have been on many trips that could be labelled that way. In “Yarn, Travels” yarn is a noun and travels a verb that defines what yarn does.

I’ll tell you a story that requires both of the versions. Last May, Tom and I travelled from Dallas to California to El Paso and then back to Dallas. While in California we spent the night in the San Francisco area visiting friends, had lunch in Berkeley and I found a yarn shop. Big surprise to no one with me. We had to walk through a bunch of construction to find The Black Squirrel but it was worth the walk. A place for folks to gather, lots of windows and the walls lined with yarn. I actually had a pattern in mind, thank goodness, so the gal who was there helped me find what I can now confirm is the perfect yarn since I just finished the project. The pattern I used is called The Sidewalk Shawl by designer Kimberly K. McAlindin. She has many patterns on Ravelry.

The yarn is from some folks in Montana about 200 miles from where my friend Nancy lives. The Farmer’s Daughter is in Great Falls. They have a lovely “who we are” story on the site. I’m unclear whether their wool comes from their own herd or is sourced but the yarn is scrumptious. You can find their yarn in many places but in order for me to buy in a LYS I would need to travel as no-one carries it in Dallas.

The color name is Castle Rock…you GOT fans could use it for something if you could find it 🙂 Their yarn travels all over the country and internationally as well. You could say they are well travelled…

In one of my other lives, I was a potter. I loved getting my hands in the clay. As a child I loved playing in the mud. After I started throwing on the wheel, I would sometimes get lost in thought while centering the clay and forget I was actually supposed to make something. It was so soothing.

I say that but in the beginning it was frustrating because I felt I could never get it right…I remember being so proud on one day because I thought I had it. When I took it to my teacher, he took it from me to look at, popped the batt on another wheel and proceeded to play with the clay. I was devastated. My OCD brain thought “being centered” was a static state that would be ruined if tampered with. I didn’t realize then that the way to tell if it was centered properly would be to “push it down and pull it up”. It’s a “feel” thing more than a “see” thing.

Sorry, I digressed. The point is that it became almost a meditative activity at times. I experience that effect when gardening and even when melting glass. The activity is more important than the finished product or project. Tom sent me a link to an article in the WSJ a couple of days ago that talks about crocheting and knitting being meditative. They even do team building classes where they get folks around the table to learn how and get them to hand in their iPhones for the duration of the event. Here’s the link to it. Mindful Knitting, It’s the Journey, Not the Scarf. Who knew it’s a thing?

My friends and I engaged in this activity on vacay without anyone telling us! Although we didn’t call it team building and apparently we mostly put up our phones since I can’t find a good pic of us all huddled over our crochet hooks. I will say that there might have been wine involved.

I may not always respond to the comments you guys post but I love reading them and learning what my ramblings have triggered in your memories and thoughts. Thank you for sharing them with me.

I hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.

In my house, that could be a description of a really fun motorcycle route. However, today I’m talking about yarn. Of course. Although the weather outside is pretty awesome. My favorite time of year here. The iris, the fruit trees, some late daffodils, the blue bells are all starting to bloom. The red bud trees are gorgeous; the spirea and the kerria are flowering. But I digress. It is hard to ignore as the view from my work space is full of color.

Ok, back to the yarn. This post is part of the rabbit warren from last week. This particular pathway began with an email from Furl’s. This company, based in Austin, makes really awesome ergonomically wonderful crochet hooks. They are now also venturing into yarn. The email was promoting said yarn as “better for crocheting” and talked about spinning it with a z twist rather than an s twist. Hmmm. I had no idea what they meant and, wow, why hadn’t anybody figured this out before.

Ok, I know, I’m still a novice in many ways. It’s not a revolutionary idea just now surfacing. What great marketing on their part for those of us who have never thought about such stuff though.

What they are talking about is that depending on the direction the yarn is wound and the direction the crafter twists the yarn (or not) around their hook or needles, the yarn may or may not unravel/separate. This is why some yarns tend towards splitting.

Turns out, from my research, single ply yarns are usually twisted in a clockwise direction – the z twist (so looking at the yarn the twist points down to the left) and multi-ply yarns are twisted the opposite way – the s twist. That is not a hard a fast rule however. Here’s a link to an article on Yarnsub.com if you want to learn more…no sense me repeating all that here (and a side note is if you don’t know about this site, you should explore….it can help you find alternatives for those pesky yarns that patterns call for that are unavailable).

So, back to the Furl’s email. Since sometimes even multi-ply yarns can be finished with a z twist and since I couldn’t quite tell from the pictures on their website and since I really wanted to see this yarn in person and since another email came with a bundle offer where you get yarn and a crochet hook for less $ than usual, I succumbed (how’s that for a run-on sentence? Impressive no?!). Today, via the postal service, I should be receiving a skein of (wait for it) purple yarn and a new crochet hook (because just like bowls, you can never have too much or too many). I just want to see if their yarn has anything to say for itself besides what I have learned is not so unusual.

And here’s another link that explains ply, yarn weights and other cool stuff. The Knitting Authority is for knitters only but has useful information for the rest of us too :).

So here’s the answer (the postman came, yay!). The Furl’s yarn is a 4 ply that is z twisted and if my reading glasses aren’t deceiving me, so are each of the 4 singles (a z-on-z). So on the minority side of what is normal but not revolutionary, at least at this point. Searching for z twist yarns on the Yarnsub website brings up several things to look for, if that’s important to you. Depends on how you throw your yarn around your implement. And of course if the yarn is wound tightly enough (like some of us peeps) then it might not make a huge difference. Or, maybe working with looser yarns will enforce the “it’s the process not the product” idea.

By now you can tell that I had trouble staying on task. Most of these fleurs pics were taken this morning. Then I went and sorted through my stash for the accompanying yarns. So much fun. I was waiting for the postal service to arrive though so not really wasting time.

Happy Spring everyone!

Here’s your other twisty windy. This was in Italy…one of my other lives. Whoop!

Why is it that as we grow older, some of us stop being all consumed by curiosity? When I was a kid, two of my favorite words were “why” and “what”. Well, and “howcome” is another but that’s sort of a form of “why”. I find that now when I learn new terms, I focus on the relevant definition without asking for the back story. And/or, if I can’t Google and immediately answer the “w” questions, I let it go.

So it has been with learning the crochet and yarn terms. Some of them are obvious; others not so much. I have been searching/researching/googling for the past two days trying to find out definitively from whence a couple of terms/names came. Shouldn’t be that hard to discover, I mean, instant knowledge should be mine via the internet. Right?!

Yarn comes in all sizes. Some are “single”, meaning they are just one spun strand. Others are more complex; 2 ply, 3 ply, and over various thicknesses. You might have single strands that are very thick and multi-ply yarns wound so tightly they are the same diameter as a thin single ply.

Fortunately for all of us, there is a standard yarn weight classification chart that is easily found and used. It starts at 0 (which is very tiny) and goes all the way up to 7 (jumbo size). Here’s where the rabbit hole appeared. All the numbers also have common usage names. Size 3 is also called DK weight and size 4 is called worsted, Aran or Afghan. I had never seen an explanation for these terms and have been struggling to remember what they mean in context to size. Couldn’t wrap my head around terms that had blank space behind them in my brain. But, life goes on and I just pulled out the chart every time I needed to know whether Worsted was bigger than Fingering or were Worsted and Aran the same size. The latter is not intuitive. But then again the others aren’t really either.

Turns out that DK stands for double knitting. Double knitting can be a fabric, aka the double knit pants men wore decades ago. It can also be a way of knitting where you knit two things at the same time (and that, my friends started me down another path that I had to abandon ). Never did find the true etymology of that term but my guess is that this size yarn was used way back when for the double knitting process (with needles not for gross men’s slacks).

Moving up in size to #4 Worsted. I have been able to root out the origin of this term. Back in the 1200’s, there was a huge region of craft folks who raised sheep, spun fibers, etc., in an area called Worstead that was part of Norfolk in England. The method of spinning these yarns called for processing the fibers so that they were all parallel to each other. These yarns made a fabric that was and is also called worsted. Over time, it became the term for the size of these yarns as well as those produced without attention to the fiber direction but of the same size.

Still considered a #4 but slightly bigger in diameter and heavier than Worsted, is Aran. This term came from the sweaters made specifically on the Aran islands that are located off the west coast of Ireland.

There are a couple more of these terms that aren’t exactly intuitive but I haven’t been able to come up with any explanations. I will continue to look. Hopefully, I can find a good reference book.

If you are still curious, these are links to some of the information I have found:

• Merriam-Websters list of interesting knitting terms
• Wise Geek’s information on Aran yarn
• my go-to yarn weight chart from the Craft Yarn Council – lots of great information on their website.
• And of course, if you are a Wikipedia fan, you can find some of the information there.

My next couple of posts are going to be about some other aspects of yarn and method that jumped onto my screen while I was looking for these answers. S/Z, English/Continental and warp/weft all factor in. Until then, happy yarning!

And just in case you’re wondering…the saying “down the rabbit hole” comes from Alice in Wonderland 🙂

Maybe? Kind of? Mom always had a book. It didn’t matter in what room of the house she found herself, she always had something to read. I’ve followed that tradition most of my life. Now-a-days that necessitates have reading glasses in every room as well. That does mean that sometimes I get the characters mixed up between books…. Mom used to keep cheat sheets in the front of the really long and involved books, sort of a cast of characters, in case she didn’t get back to the story in a timely manner.

So what does this have to do with yarn you are asking. Well. This last week in particular I have found myself at home more than usual. I have become a serial crocheter (as well as reader). I have had somewhat of a stay-cay that involves napping, crocheting, reading, puzzle working, napping, crocheting, reading, puzzle working…repeat.

My goal has been to finish up on some WIPS (works in progress for you non-yarners), and reduce the height of my “books to read” stack. So, along with a book in every room, I have a WIP in every room.

I finished the CAL afghan that I have been working on since last May! Yay! Did that first, so I could wrap up in it when I was working on other things. And in that room, I have an audio book that I’ve been listening to: In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. Love his books. Bottom line: eat your fruits and veg!

Also in that room, I have been working on another afghan/throw call Blooming Crocuses. I am actually making it using the yarn that’s suggested in the pattern and that is not typical for me at all. But, I picked the pattern because of the colors in the yarn. I like working on this project spread out on a table rather that in my lap. The pattern looks like rows of shells so I’m not sure why the flower reference in the title except for the colors of course. I’m about 1/2 done with it at this point. Each repeat is 3 rows and takes about 50 minutes to crochet so, this might not get finished during my stay-cay.

The reading hours of my days have been most productive. I have so far moved four books from the “want to read” pile to the bookshelf and am well into the fifth. Where the Crawdads Sing, Half Broke Horses, Washington Black, City of Endless Night, and City of Thieves. And there are always beach reads…but I won’t list those.

Back to the yarn. Months ago I saw a booklet that had patterns for fidget mats. Useful they say for folks with dementia, who fidget a lot. I have had the idea of using the leftovers from the CAL afghan above to make some of these to take down to Fbg and offer to the folks in the memory care facility that is associated with the retirement center where Dad lived. I’ve made some parts and some mats so the next stage of the project is joining them together. If it works out, I plan to make some to take on each trip. The idea is that they have them on their laps and can fiddle with all the different bits as a calming activity.

The kitchen table is always a good place to work. Tuesday I started a shawl that has been calling to me for awhile. You make a series of motifs that are joined as you make them. I’m liking the table to lay them out as I hook each one to the others. The pattern is called The Lorelei Shawl and the designer is Kimberly McAlindin. Again, I am using the suggested yarn. It’s a Red Heart, so not pricy and it’s acrylic. Oh so soft.

And the last WIP is a cowl crocheted in the round using 5 different Tunisian stitches and a double ended hook. Whoop! This is another pattern I’ve been itching to make. And, it lends itself to recliner/sofa lounging. I like the fabric the Tunisian stitches make and the yarn I’m using is way cool. The pattern is called Strata Cowl and the designer is Esther Chandler. The yarn is 100% bamboo and comes from Theodora’s Pearls. It will be perfect for cool spring days.

And for the puzzle part of the stay-cay, this is what I’ve been working. It’s one of our Stave collection. So much fun!

I hope the weather gods are kind to everyone this weekend. In hope that we’ve had our last freeze of the season, I’ll be putting tomato plants in the ground. Stay warm and dry everyone!