Solstice — means more knitting time

admin June 20, 2024

It should be quite evident that the longest daylight day of the year should provide additional knitting time. After spending so much time outside in the garden this last week, I need to be inside out of the heat. That plus the humidity is very oppressive. Even Bruce, who generally is quite happy working outside on a day like today has decided it’s too much.

There is almost nothing better than reaching the point in the pattern that says, “break yarn, thread in tapestry needle and bring to the back. Weave in the tail.”

I got there this morning with this child’s sock, and surprisingly, it only took me a week to get it done. There are a ton of mistakes resulting from miscounts, etc., but it will be very easy now to write it up.

I used a square heel — something very common in the 19th century, and a round toe.

The sock above is my Gairloch stocking modern interpretation. Since I can’t possibly know what was meant by “honeycomb pattern” in the 1898 Scottish Home Companion, I felt quite free to use my imagination. Taking off from the idea of a honey bee as a clan symbol isn’t as far off as you might think. The bee represents efficiency and hard work, and can be found on crests for Ferguson, Crozier and Burnley-Campbell clans. This idea also is a play on the concept of the Staghead Gairloch socks.

I was able to locate more of the lopi yarn to finish off my blue bonnet. Since I only had about an hours-worth of knitting left to do; all in decreases to the top, it went smoothly. I took this photo of the top to “show” the decreases. Unlike most hats, this pattern has you avoid making decreases evenly and regularly spaced so that there is no obvious line.

Above is an example of evenly spaced decreases that form a series of “spines” around the top of the beret.

After fulling and brushing, those decreases that do show should become less distinct. The final step will be adding a toorie (pompom) in red to match the hat band.

This photo to the left shows what just a very small amount of brushing has done to obscure the stitching.

Even after a thorough fulling, this didn’t shrink quite as much as I had hoped. The brim is too big, and I’ll need to add some elastic thread to get it to the right size. I do have plans to give the pattern another test with a different yarn to compare results and be able to make better recommendations.

Backing off of the knitting inspirations from my book about Scotland, I’m taking a break to do more yarn evaluations from my spring purchases from the Showcase of Scottish Yarns. I’ve just finished the ribbing for a hat from the Culross Yarn Co. I had a lovely chat with Tim Collins at the Showcase, and was taken both by the lovely natural dyes and the inspirations for dyeing. Veronica is a natural dye enthusiast, and says of them, ” 

“The property of plant dyes that stands out for me is the complexity of the dyes which often contain more than one hue. This is the factor that really distinguishes plant dyes from chemical dyes in my opinion.”

Another fun project in the offing includes a review of a book on short-row colorwork by designer Woolly Wormhead.

To introduce the style and give you some practice there are numerous swatches recommended to get you started. I thought this would be a good use for some of the small lots of yarn from the Showcase, like these from Chocflock. The base yarn is a Castlemilk Moorit/Shetland mix, and I’m smitten. The woman behind the company, Rebecca, is a multi-talented fiber artist. Take a look at the needlepoint tapestry design, woven yardage, and range of beautiful yarn colors in her shop. You already know I’m a sucker for anything Castlemilk. They are such beautiful sheep, even if they were only bred originally to be lawn ornaments.

I mean look at that face!

I’m determined to get this to all of you before the solstice day ends. So do keep calm and craft on. Do something for yourself today!

And absolutely, dance for the sun.

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