Author: -N-

Knitting: Posture and Pain

Having had shoulder surgery a few weeks ago was a big relief – major pain gone.  Now, with some time on my hands before the next semester begins, I picked up my knitting needles and long-neglected projects, begun and unbegun.  A couple of days ago I started working on the Trout Season Socks, listening to an audio book, enjoying the peace and quiet.  The next day, my shoulder hurt and ached on the backside, where the clavicle and scapular articulate, just where the surgery was.  Needless to say, I was not happy, and given that, when I returned to physical therapy yesterday, I brought my knitting with me for the therapist and me to discuss.

One look at me when I showed her what I was doing and she said, “Sit up straight, bring your shoulders back, and down.”

I will be the first to admit – I have sloppy posture.  When I buy furniture, I have to be able to sprawl in it, legs over the chair arms, and if the back of a couch touches my knees when I sit in it, it is too shallow for comfort.

Of course, being sloppy is far easier than focusing on changing bad habits.  I looked up shoulder support devices on google – there are a lot out there which will pull your shoulders back for you.  Knitty has an article about posture and knitting, which is quite good.  In a nutshell, keep your arms parallel to you body, shoulder to the elbow, and knit close to your body.  Don’t bend your wrists, as that increases your risk of carpal tunnel problems.  Accidental Yarnover blog has a lot of suggestions, some of which are the classical “keep your feet flat on the floor,” to using shorter knitting needles, and letting the weight of the knitted object rest in your lap.  Rachel Knits blog links to this article, which is quite interesting in and of itself.  Carpal tunnel is also a risk of knitting, and you can read about it on Subversive Knitting.  The New Zealand Railways Magazine in 1931 shows “the correct posture for knitting and darning.”

Obviously. knitting and pain have been around for awhile – and who knows how people who earned their living by knitting fared.

There are a lot of websites which will give hints and ideas about how to improve posture, exercises to strengthen shoulder muscles to help keep them back and down, as well as ergonomic information to prevent carpal tunnel.  I have been given a number of exercises to do, from stretches to isometrics (not up to weights or stretchy bands yet).  If I don’t do them, I can tell.  If I do them, life is far more pleasant. 

Finding the time to do them is imperative, no matter what my schedule.  In other words, they have to be the primary focus of my day, and then the playtime can follow. My biggest resistance to doing them is boredom – and they are Boring with a Capital B! Thank goodness for the iPod and Pandora!

Online Knitting Resources – A Few Thoughts

Online knitting resources have been around for years, but as internet technology and hardware improves, they have become better than ever.

One of the most valuable tools, for me, is the video.  On youtube, there are all sorts of instructional videos.  These really help get points across, and show the viewer something which is really difficult to describe in words, even with sequenced photographs.  Just doing a search for “backward caston” results in numerous hits, and refining it with “knitting” breaks it down even more.  If it hadn’t been for youtube, I’d never have been able to purl using the continental method – the Norwegian Purl video was more than a little bit of a help!

Other favorite sites for patterns include Ravelry, Twist Collective, Knitting Pattern Central, and KnitNet.  On many of these, techniques can be found, groups, local yarn stores.  In some ways, the internet is like an ongoing treasure hunt – click here, click there, and something new and interesting pops up!

Still, despite the potentials found online, there are also limitations, although as time and technology move forward, that will  become less of an issue.  The low-tech book and magazine provide a portability not found online, and yes, you can take them with you!  I personally would rather look at these than spend hours online, sitting in a chair, at a desk, and be indoors.  Much nicer to wander outdoors to peruse.  Color illustrations still catch my eye, the smell of ink and paper, and the beauty of layout, design, type font as well.

And, in this high-tech world, isn’t it interesting that many of us still prefer to knit with fine knitting needles in our hand, rather than at a knitting machine?

Trout Season Socks, i

In the California Sierras, trout season begins around the last week of April, the first week of May.  Snow is possibly still on the ground.  Certainly, the weather can be chilly!

A very good friend of mine has been providing me with some of his catch every year.  One day he mentioned cold feet from a day of fishing.  That thought has been in the back of my mind for quite some time, and the other day while rummaging through the stash, I found some yarn that made me think of the beach.  From there, tropics and fish, and from there, fish and feet.  So, as a surprise thank you, I’ve begun some socks for him for his next trip.

Here is the pattern thus far, with the complete pattern posted online later on.

Trout Season Socks

Use two different shades of yarn, held together.   Here I am using Baby Ull, by Dale of Norway, which is machine washable, 100% merino.  The colors are a royal blue, and a bright turquoise.

Gauge: 5.5 st / inch on US 3 needles

CO 52 stitches; 1 x 1 ribbing for 1.5 inches.  Stitches are distributed over 3 needles.

Drop turquoise yarn, add second royal blue skein, k using doubled yarn 5 rounds.

Drop second royal blue, pick up turquoise.  K one round in doubled yarn, then 1 x 1 rib for 2 rounds.  Make sure to leave a loose strand where you knit the blue, so that the stripe is not puckered.  Repeat as necessary.

Cut turquoise yarn, pick up second royal blue skein.  K using doubled yarn 5 rounds.  Cut second royal blue skein, leaving a tail to weave in later.

Once more double up with the turquoise and royal blue yarn.  2 x 2 ribbing to desired sock length, beginning with k2, p2.  (I did 8 inches.)  Drop or cut turquoise yarn when ready to begin heel flap.

Heel Flap: 26 stitches.  Double up the two royal blue skeins.  K 25 st, end p1.  Turn.  Slip first stitich on heel needle purlwise, k3, purl to last four stitches of heel flap, k3, end p1.  Repeat these two rows till piece measures desired length (I did 2.5 inches).  End ready to purl.

Note: At this point, I redistribute all my stitches so that one half are on the heel flap needle (26), and the remaining 26 are divided over 2 needles, 13 stitches on each needle.

Turning the Heel: P 14, p 2 tog, p 1.  Turn work.  Slip first stitich purlwise, k 3, k 2 tog, k 1.  Turn work.  Work back and forth until all stitches worked up, with 14 stitches remaining on needle, ready to begin next row knitting.  Cut second royal blue and attach turquoise.

Note: If you don’t know too much about turning the heel, this is a good site for some instruction.

Gusset: Using double stranded turquoise and royal blue yarn, pick up 10 stitches along heel flap, and one more in the turquoise-royal blue yarn by instep, 11 stitches total.  At this point you can choose to knit across the 2 x 2 rib, or continue in its pattern until you reach the toe.  I am continuing in the rib, which across the instep is p2, k2 rib, ending p2 before the third needle, which holds heel stitches.  Pick up 1 stitch in the turquoise-royal blue yarn, then 10 more along heel flap, for a total of 11 stitches.  Knit 7 more stitches (1/2 of the remaining heel flap stitches).  From this point forward until the toe is reached, the doubled yarn is the turquoise-royal blue.

Note: At this point, I redistribute needle stitches.  I have 18 stitches on needle 1 (heel) , 26 for the instep on needle 2, and 18 on needle 3 (heel).

Gusset Shaping: First Round: On needle one, k 15, k2 tog., k1.  Knit or follow ribbing across instep needle 2.  On needle 3, k 1, ssk, k 15.  Second Round: K all stitches on needle 1 (17 sts), follow pattern decided for needle 2 (26 sts), k all stitches on needle 3 (17 sts).  Continue these two rounds until there are 13 sts on needles 1 and 3, and 26 on needle 2, for a total of 52 stitches.

Foot: Continue in established pattern until 1.5 inches short of desired foot length.

Inside out, these socks look the Space Needle in Seattle, but the design idea is to allow a muscular calf to have some comfort, while the 2 x 2 ribbing helps keep the socks up.  Also, these socks are not reinforced with any nylon, so the owner will be told to wear them with care, not to go hiking down the driveway in them, and so on.  Hopefully he will get many years of good use out of them.  And we will continue to get fish!

I’ll follow up with more later on.  In the interim, the Buttoned Cardigan is moving along nicely, as well as several other pairs of socks!

Buttoned Cardigan, i

A week or so ago I dug around in my stash and found some “Second Time Around” cotton.  I knew what I wanted to make out of it, but I needed to modify the pattern because my gauge was going to be very different than that of the pattern.  I ended up changing some elements of the Buttoned Cardigan, by Eva Weichmann.

The pattern calls for 6 st/inch. My gauge appears to be about 4.5-5 st/inch.

The simplicity of the pattern is one of its most appealing qualities. Knit in the round – really, back and forth – on a circular needle, from the bottom up, is something I prefer in sweaters, just because I hate sewing.  The sleeves and sweater are connected with minimal sewing – no setting in of a sleeve.

The garter stitch accents, especially placed between stockinette at the edges of the sleeves and at the bottom of the sweater, are really elegant. This creates a slightly more formal quality to the sweater, giving it a more finished appearance than a 2×2 rib. The same for the sleeves. Also, if you look closely at the buttonholes, you will see that the garter stitch surrounds the buttons, but changes to the finished edge of stockinette, which makes for an interesting and attractive buttonhole band.

The yarn I am using is rather “busy” but it shows up the garter stitch very nicely between the stockinette. The photo, unfortunately, doesn’t really do justice to the yarn, but hopefully will give you an idea of what it will look like.

The green buttons bring out the lighter thread running through the yarn, and I think will really add interest to the sweater itself.

The Four Treasures: Paper, ii

The old expression “a picture is worth a thousand words” can be modified for modern times to “a video is worth 10,o00 words”!

In an earlier post, I embedded a video about the process of making paper by hand, as done by Japanese artisans.  This next video, while long, provides a very nice history of paper making in China.  From China, the process moved to other Asian countries.

The process of making paper developed in various areas throughout the world.  While technically not paper, papyrus, in Egypt, was the first plant-based writing surface widely produced and used in the west.  The pith of the plant was used, and long scrolls could be created.  The dry climate of Egypt prevented the growth of mold, which in more damp areas would attack and destroy the papyrus.

In Asia, paper making developed in China around 105 AD during the Han Dynasty.  A court official, Cai Lun, created paper using a variety of plant fibers, rags, and fishnets.  This paper was thinner and more transparent than western paper.  As time passed, the making of paper moved west, and in the Middle East, the world’s first paper mill began production in Baghdad, with a paper factory being developed there by 800 AD.

In the Americas, prior to Columbus, the Mayans by 500 AD had created a parchment called “amatl” from the inner bark of trees. Europe and Africa never developed an abundant plant-based material for writing.  Instead, vellum and parchment were used.  In 1221 AD, a decree from Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II declared all official documents written on paper to be invalid, but once the Gutenberg’s press came into use, paper was needed as it was cheaper to create, and more abundant than vellum or parchment.  In Europe, the first paper mill was built in Italy by Muslim engineers.  Even with this, paper continued to be an expensive commodity until its mechanization in the 19th century.

Today, paper is everywhere, at least in the world I know.  Paper towels, toilet paper, printer and copier paper, wrapping paper, paper bags, waxed paper, watercolor paper, newspaper, books and magazines.

I love paper!