patterns and spindles

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Orenburg inspired bactus story. Or can bactus scarf be done Orenburg way?

So, here comes the bactus. Or better to say Orenburg ethno-rock in the yarn world.
Bactus is a narrow triangle scarf  or a shawl if it's made wider and longer.

Orenburg yarns for gossamer are very fine. 60/2 silk like visually or finer. That's for holiday and celebrations in white, for ladies who are in Onore de Balzak age lovey gray color is used and they love it. Some do not and prefer white. I came to appreciate gray shades of lace as I grow older, I'd say the Balzak age 30-35 and up has something to do with it. It has being some time ago (yeah, we look as old as we look and who needs to know ID age :) ).
Can bactus be done in fine yarns? Oh yeah... I'm all over that one and spinning.
Can it be done in lace weight? Oh yeah! Same as crescent. And that's a modern shape. And the gauge is the exact gauge of Orenburg warm shawl. One stitch is changed in particular place and we have bactus shape. Literally. I'm so not joking about it. It's where I placed 'shaping lace' and that's it. 1 stitch and where it's placed.
Can it be done in fingering? Oh yeah! I had me lovely bison fiber and made art kind of a yarn that had a wave to it and thickness variation. I held 2 strands together and got me nice warm scarf that is just handy for out winter came back thing right now. I did show that thin at yarn store and I came in one made out of camel-wool fingering yarn. Another one that was sitting in my stash for some time, darn it got even discontinued colorway by now. That's how long I did not know what to do with that red color. Because I guess I'm not into red colorway and that color alone is outside of my personal lace colorways by far. And some totally love red and pink and beads and that's their comfort thing. I like white, earthy tones, coffee and milk, shades of autumn leaves, shades of spring grass, shades of winter whites, pale Easter colorways. Love colors of the water and sea. Colors of sunset sky...
Can I draw lace in color? Maybe I should...

Bactus KAL starts today on ravelry and I can not wait to see what colors will that bring.
I put there one pattern and I'm publishing more. Because I did like the cozy and practical feel of it.
Why did I use thicker yarns? Maybe it all started with that bison that was out of my box to spin. And maybe I did not feel like I'm making tweed like yoga blanket. Or maybe it's about cold coming back and forth this winter and one day +17C and next is -10C is kind of hard... I wonder if any of my plants are going to live through that winter I planted last autumn...
Long story short I could not select one pattern as usual, I did draw 6-7 and then more. Warm shawl borders and element of the frame simply work in it. And I kept the lace in the warm shawl realm. I placed my "shaping lace" in 2 places. And I went to fingering yarns, and then in sports weight. 2 bactus scarves are made for Shuttles Spindles and Skeins in Boulder out of sports weight local made in USA wool yarn Nature Spun. I used that for my Russian Northern color work and my kid loves the scarves, mittens and so on.
I came out of my box and took that yarn to lace. I probably would not think about it unless I was thinking how would I teach one to make lace who never has held lace yarn before short of all any gossamer, one who never made anything with any yo, k2tog at all and was making a worsted weigh scarf. How would I make them feel that they are not afraid of it, what would help them relax and let go. And that yarn should be on a budget so the knitter has room to make mistakes and not pressures of  'oh no, that's $45+ yarn per skein'.
What I'm after in here is not the lace making per say. What I'm after here is the fear of 'I can not do it' and how to overcome it. What I want to create is the feeling 'I can do it and I'm not afraid'. One that come out of 'hey, I can do it, I'm really doing it'.

So here is the bactus-hybrid shape. It's like a triangle with wings, but longer.
It has a pair shape and the size is adjustable. you see here size maxi in fingering. 900 yards in fingering.
below is it's Valentine pair in sports yarn, it's 2 skeins project. Another one is Blues, also 2 skein project. 368 yards in sports.







And here is bactus made of sports yarn nature spun.















And of course I'm spinning yarn to make that shape from Orenburg goat down. Bet Volgograd down will be good too :)

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