Circular Knitting Pin

I have in my hands a curious little envelope.  My mother found it when cleaning out her basement and my sister thought I should have it. Not to use, but just to own.  (click on any of the pictures for larger images)

It must have belonged to my grandmother, who would have learned how to knit in the first decade of the 20th century.  It’s clear, from a very little examination that it’s not in it’s original packaging, because this needle is about 15″ long, not the 24 -29″ indicated.    There’s nothing on it telling when it was made.  I’m guessing it was sometime before 1939 because that’s apparently when the patent for circulars with ‘flexible cables’ came out, and I wouldn’t call this a ‘flexible’ cable.

The cable is basically a fine coil of wire.  The text on the back which warns not to wind the needle into a circle is hardly necessary for this length, because it won’t really do that, but I’d imagine that if it were the length on the packet it might be tempting to try it. I’m a little bit afraid to cast on to these, I imagine that they would catch yarn pretty easily, but the joins between cable and needle seem smooth enough.  Still, my Addis and KnitPicks Interchangables are in no danger of being replaced by these classics any time soon.

There’s nothing on my package telling me who manufactured the needle or when.  I’ve found pictures of the 1934 Boye package.  The needle itself looks very similar to one sewmuchfrippery sold from her Etsy shop, labeled as “Vintage 1920′s 1930′s Circular Knitting Needle / Pin“.

I have a vague memory of reading about knitting needles like this, the ‘old style’ of cable which were basically unusable.  I believe it was in “No Idle Hands” by Anne MacDonald but it’s been ages since I’ve read it, so I can’t be sure.  It may have been a comment by Elizabeth Zimmerman, but I don’t think so.   I wasn’t able to find very much more about the actual history of circular needles than I’ve already linked to, which is mildly disappointing.  I’ll be keeping my eyes open in the future.

In Other Blogs

There’s a great series of posts on photography for yarn projects (and other objects) at Fresh Stitches: 5 Easy Photography Tips, How to Take Great Photos with White Backgrounds and Photography Resources.  Anita asks what to name the baby (always a fun topic).

Blog Contests and Giveaways

I didn’t even realize there was a drawing on the FaveFitzgerald tag at Craftlit, and I won it.   There’s a second drawing (enter by the 17th?) so you can win your own WWMDfK bracelet!

I didn’t win the Red Heart Yarn of the Month giveaway for March, and am not entering the April Soft Baby Steps giveaway.  No official word on BluetoothToaster’s Fandom Yarn giveaway, but I’m assuming I didn’t win.

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Because the Internet Obviously Needs Moar Cat Pictures

I took a few pictures of the family Easter celebration.  Here are the ones whose subjects did not object to being posted online.  These two were at M-i-L’s house

Poor Walter was traumatized by S-i-L and B-i-L's puppy Ernest Jackson (who didn't really pose for any pictures himself).

Adlai on the other hand, was totally at ease.

 

At home the situation was much more settled.

The holidays were very nice.  The oldest came home from college to get in on the baking and egg dying.  My mother declined to host the Sedar this year, but youngest and M-i-L went to B-i-L’s parents for theirs, and the girls went to M-i-L’s Easter service (hubby and I were supposed to go, but it didn’t work out that way – maybe next year).

In Other Blogs

Stacey reviewed the Knook (crochet hook for knitting), which I’ve been mildly curious about for a while.

I Love My Ott!

I got this little baby when I ordered my  Amigurumi Knits book.    It seems almost overpowering, doesn’t it? It’s not actually that bright (and I don’t set it down on what I’m working on anyway). It has a little bank of LEDs which give a great quality of light.  I really like how it brings out colors.  I like to bring it with me on yarn buying trips, so I can really see what I’m getting (the other option being to take the yarn up to the front of the store and look at it in actual daylight).

Blog Contests and Giveaways

I didn’t win Techno Hookers copy of  “Custom Crocheted Sweaters“, but I did enter Sandra Singh’s Spring Maple Shawl Kit giveaway (drawing 21 April), and the Yarn Exploder’s drawing for Vampire Stitch Markers from Decor Noir  (end of April)

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In Other Blogs…

I didn’t post here yesterday, because I spent the day running an RPG, something I haven’t done in a very long time. It’s not crafting, but it is one of my very favorite favorite creative outlets. There’s a shared, improvisational aspect to it which just works well for me. I’m also a sucker for world-building, and this particular format lets me do that as well. Follow the link (above) if you’re interested in an overview.

I think I’ve got a handle on the color balance of the camera now.

The picture’s not bad, and it’s nice seeing them be friendly with each other once in a while.

I did not win the Kama Suutra sock yarn, but they have two more giveaways for fiber. Since I have a lot of unspun fiber already I’m not entering, but you might want to hop over to Phat Fiber and check them out.

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Reflections on the Color Red

I’m really pleased with how this picture came out.  First of all, I think I’ve got the color right this time (yes, her hair is really that red).  I managed to capture the personalities of all three of them.  I’m even happy with my own reflection (well, half reflection) in the glass door.  The only thing I could do without is the reflection of the white car.

It’s too early to have results from the previous blog giveaways and contests I entered, but I did find another pattern and yarn giveaway at Knitting Pipeline (one of the many podcasts I’m catching up with).  Once I’m up to date on all of the ones I’m following I’ll subscribe to another book or two on Podiobooks, because it’s nice to have a guaranteed podcast download every day.  I’m still waiting for the sequel to The Crown Conspiracy.  I’ll have to be patient, though, the author hasn’t even updated his website since October (hope everything is OK there…)

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Getting the Hang of This Camera

First of all, I’d like to thank Sunsetseasanity (of the artismysanity blog) for the advice on the camera.  I had to play around with it (and turn off the ‘idiot proof settings’) but I think I can find the right light level now.  Next step will be to replace my tripod (lost with the last camera).

Here’s the beginning of the square for the Chosen One project.  I’m using this to knit down stash, so it’s a hodgepodge of yarns.  I’ve got some old Lion Jiffy for the square, a little Cascade 220, Lion Trellis and some ‘mystery yarn’ held together for the letter.  I’m working a garter stitch border around the square, and a moss stitch border around the letter.  I’m knitting across the letter rather than bottom to top, so that I won’t have to break the yarn for the multiple parts of the H.  We’ll see if I’ve overcomplicated things, but so far, so good.  I’m half tempted to frog back and make the letter a bit bigger.  I’d better think on it a bit and keep working on something else  in the meantime.  I expect to be spending a chunk of time in a waiting room today, so I should get a fair amount done.

Current WIPS include the mini wrist warmers, the tea cozy and a cat bed made from recycled plastic bags.  The tea cozy is the most portable, so that’s probably what I’ll take with me.

Speaking of the Chosen One project, I just realized that I’d never posted the link to the KnitNotWar 10o0 project.  Check out the installation, it’s lovely.  My ten were all tan and brown.

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Sad Stories and a Picture

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I got a new mp3 player for my birthday.  I’ve been listening to the backlog of podcasts I’d built up (and there are a lot of them).  Yesterday I got to episode 193 of Craftlit, in which Heather Ordover talks about the Tucson shooting (her son played little league with the 9 year old girl who was shot).  Very touching, very upsetting stuff.  I found it even more troubling, because my elder daughter touched base with her seasonal after school job this week, and learned that a co-worker died last week.   It’s a small family business, and a very personal loss for everyone involved.

Here's the cat I had to save the knitting from

Still, this is my craft blog, and I’m not going to more than touch on the sad stuff.  So here is something from playing with the other birthday gift I mentioned, my camera.  You can see the tea cozy sticking in the foreground, and a bit of the teapot it is being made to fit.  It seems to pick up and brighten colors, and I haven’t found any way to filter that.  I think it’s time to break out the manual.

 

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Had a Really Lovely Birthday!

I celebrated my (mumble-mumble) birthday this past week, and I had a lovely time. I went out to lunch with a friend, dinner with the DH and DDs, was taken drinking with other friends, given a surprise cake at our bi-weekly gaming session, and finally a party with my mom, sister, b-i-l, niece and our own crew. Very lovely! Three (remotely) craft related gifts.

First of all, I bought myself some wool to make Grannie’s Traditional Tea Cozie.  It’s for a Ravelry knit-along.  Then I was given a new mp3 player (so I can catch up on all those knitting podcasts!)  Finally, my sister gave me a beautiful new digital camera.

So now I can show you the Raglan hat I mentioned in the last post:

Only the color balance is off, the hat actually looks more like this:

Only that’s still not right. I’ll have to play around with the settings. In any case, I tried to scale up the hat for DH’s monster-sized head, and over did it. So I tried to felt it back, and ended up with the kicky little number I showed you above, instead of the manly cap he asked for.  So now it’s mine, and I’ll have to pick up more yarn for his.

I’ve cast on for the tea cozy I mentioned above.  The picture is a little strange – every time I laid the piece  out it became a target for my cat, Comet.  I tried discouraging him in several ways, but the one which worked best was to put it on top of Captain, the other cat.  This meant I had to work fast, and get all the pictures taken before Captain became too interested himself… In any case, the colors are a little better in this shot, and I didn’t play with any of the settings, so I’m a little confused.

I did not win any of the blog giveaways I entered last month.  But never fear!  There are plenty more.

Vegan Craftastic has a pattern giveaway from Ohdessa Knits.  There’s also a nice giveaway at Copperends, but I could not get the Captcha to work , so I’m out of that one, but there’s no reason you shouldn’t check it out.

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Fuzzy Grass, Fuzzy Yarn

Got some more pictures taken.

Here’s  some nice grass gone to seed by the Dorsey Train Station.  I think it’s beautiful myself.  I also took pictures from the train station itself, from the front and the back. I particularly like the Maryland flag on the front and the sunlight through the window on the back.

Entered Knit-A-While’s Vampire Knits giveaway (end date 9 September). I didn’t enter the contest at You Just Gotta Keep Knitting, because I just couldn’t beat one of those names, but if you think you might the deadline is 27 September.

I’ve recovered the five rows I frogged on Haruni, putting it in the freezer did the trick nicely.  I talked a little bit about the recovering/lifeline process in today’s episode of  the Ramblin Ambler, mostly because I’d never heard anyone else addressing the issue I’ve been having with it (i.e. the lifeline is there, but it doesn’t hold the stitches ‘nicely’ as a needle would, even if you tug on it, when you’re working with really grabby yarn like, say, mohair).  Took it to the first Labor Day foodfest an showed off how pretty it is even on the needles (can’t wait to see what it looks like blocked…).  Will take more pictures once I have enough of the border that the change of pattern is clear.

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Rainy Day

Rainy Day

Originally uploaded by efbq

Pretty dramatic drive this morning. Nearly took a swim.  Still, it’s a break from the crazy heat we’ve been having.

More from the “It’s Got to Go Somewhere” category,  got to watch the replacement of my daughter’s windshield.  It was pretty wild.

The guy from Metro Auto Glass was polite, efficient, and did good work.  (I couldn’t find an actual MAG website, and the review I linked to was not positive, but, honestly, I recommend these guys).

I’ve put Haruni aside for a little while.  But rather than picking up Calla I zipped through a stash reduction bag with a Fibonacci stripe sequence.  Ended up jiggling the base size a bit, because my shortest Harmony cable was a bit stressed, so it’s a bit more substantial than I’d originally planned, but I think it will work fine once I’ve lined it.

I actually like the crossways garter stitch which I ended up with on the bottom of the bag.  Once I’ve got better pictures than the ones on Ravelry I’ll post some here.

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It’s Got to Go Somewhere

Well, there was a *lot* of rambling which hasn’t made it into the last two weeks worth of podcasting, and some of that actually involved pictures.   Not that they weren’t good rambles, or good pictures, but I wanted to get something resembling a coherent ‘cast, so a lot of bits and pieces which didn’t fit in just ended up ‘on the cutting room floor’ (read: bit-bucket).  Yet, I couldn’t bring myself to actually empty that trash, so pictures have been uploaded to Flickr, and will now be shared with you.

She's totally awesome

Didn’t get her name, but this public servant was a little bit concerned when I asked to take her picture.   Her concern evaporated when I told her I wanted to blog about her.  As you can see, she does a terrific job of keeping the woods paths clear, despite repeated nightly drinking binges (and broken bottles) and poison ivy infestations.  I was so happy to meet her.

Not the squirrel who dissed me...

This isn’t the squirrel I mentioned in Crafting, Critters and Cthulhu.  I took this picture the week before, very near the spot where I saw the Leaf Warrior.  Yes, I used Zoom.  Think this turned out pretty well.

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