Vereteno

What is sold as Russian spindle at antiques auctions... did little search today picked some pictures. so, here we are. what is sold... Ok I did filter things that look like spindles, and some I added because it was one lot
As a spindle a bobbin winder is often enough sold... why, that one I do not know...
So are these available at antiques auctions in Russian, yep.. plenty. conditions is as usual.. some did sit at an attic or a shed for quite some time according to the looks. Some look like they were stored inside thankfully. There are plenty of options, and even some big stashes... looking like the family was into linen-flax deal .
enjoy the photos. If some is after some Russian auction adventures, there is plenty of these types of things.

Winter comfort

Blizzard outside,severe weather blizzard alert on all cell phones etc.

and more coming, that just a beginning now we can get a whiteout. Inside... there is need for comfort food. Means good winter soup is mising and it has to be fixed :). Potatoes, dry mushroom, carrot, onions, beans, chicken stock... oh white miso.. that sounds like a plan to me. Were did my udon go? right, all the ingredients are here and I'm not sticking my nouse out because the roads are treacherous it makes it for a very bad driving weather.
so we start with good helping of white miso, and some chicken stock. Dry mushroom goes in there, and then cubed potatoes . Beans I had in cans, means time savings. Onion, small bell peppers (because I had those and red, yellow, orange make for a nice winter color addition) and carrots go into saute pan , because I like my vegetables this way. When the vegetables are almost there we put the udon in, vegetables and beans. and then I just let it do it's thing and go off the smell, if it smells right, it's done.

and then let it sit, copper makes it for nice energy savings also. Cast iron dutch oven would an excellent pot to make that soup also.

Spinning

Standard Matchless ST set up.



bobbin


 it is somewhat hard to photograph. I borrowed 3 hairs from my dog, sheds anyways :)

any better?

when I looked at filament I'm pairing this down single with I went, oh nuts, I did spin it too thin. what was I thinking in the morning... I'll have to re-do this or use that one for something else.
Fiber: Orenburg goat down.

Speaking of food

So... a trip to a Russian store... a bit of a drive in our neck of the woods. but...

Лосось aka steel head
 A bit of flower, salt, pepper, nice copper fish pan

fried on both sides. after that Russian meets Japan. unagi sauce and water. And here we have it, simple and

bit of citrus to cut the sweetness.

How can I get out of a Russian store without wild mushrooms... yeah... that would be tought

the only thing with frozen in winter.. they release good amount of water that needs to be removed and reduced

mushrooms, umame, umame, mushrooms...
Yea... that's Italy

and that's Japan: soba noodles. soba, buckwheat, Russian grain, Russian mushroom, sour cream... that does sound like an idea... here is green tea soba

not nessesary, because wild mushroom is strong, 4 of them even stronger, sourcream does cut it bit

 by the way, моховики are fragile, I do not thing I'll pair those with the rest again, fresh - yes, all gos into the mix, frozen in winter - no, too fragile. and маслята I'll cut to 1/2 or 1/3 of what I've used or just fry those and be done with it. they do not need someone go fancy on them :).

Diamonds part 1

Here is a swatch pattern for shawl or stole.
Это образец для платка или палантина

20 stitches x 42 rows. knit all even rows. slip first stitch of every row purlwise (Russian way)

Образец 20 петель на 21 ряд (42 иголки). первая петля всегда снимается, все изнаночные ряду вяжутся лицевыми

перевод обозначений

pattern repeat on chart B2 is highlighted if someone wants to do longer swatch.
повтор узора выделен жирным контуром


Holes based charts at times called Russian lace charts work as wisywig. here is previous KAL post to the same account where the wisiwig portion of this is illustrated.

We will also talk a little bit more about the rhythm of these pattern a bit later.

The swatch is one of the lace patterns used in the shawl/stole.
For ones who never have seeing Russian charts before, it's a different and shorter lace notation. It is geared to show the structure of the lace similar to blueprint drawing. If you look at holes based chart and detailed chart side by side the only difference is that k2tog/k3tog positioning is shown on the detailed chart, it is not shown on the holes based charts.
The question is, how does Orenburg knitter know where do they put k2tog and what does lead the lace pattern.
The answer is in the internal rhythm of the lace. In 90% of the cases the k2tog is after the YO. There are 2 exceptions - right diagonal and left beaded diagonal. Even then left diagonal does start with oy, k2tog.

Точечные схемы работают по принципу визивиг (тт же что истользуют програмы верстки или текстовые редакторы- что пишу то вижу). Блог на ту же тему в предыдущем совместнике
Для тех кто не видел еще точечные схемы - это более компактный способ записи узора по сравнению со схемами каздый ряд-каждая петля, вдвое более компактный. Такой способ описания кружева привязан к самому усполнению кружева , разница между точечной схемой и деталировкой в том что не деталировке показано где 2 или 3 вместе расположены относительно накида, в точечной схеме показано место положения накида.
возникает вопрос как кружвница знает где 2 месте вязать?. В более 905 случаев 2 вместе вяжутся после накида. исключения - правая косорядка и левая бисерная дорожка, причем косорядка начинается с накид, 2 вместе.

Начинаем ритм узора с ервого накида И раз, 2,3, И раз,2,3 И раз, 2,3, И раз,2,3 И раз, 2,3
это ритм первого ряда узора начиная с первого накида.
накид - И
2 вместе - раз
лиц, лиц - 2,3
попробуйте этот принцин на послудющих рядах узора.
в скором времени кто-то пойдет по ритму, кто-то пойдет по относительному расположению накидов. Кто-то может быть по средине. В конечном итоге часто вязальщиц проверяют себя по количеству петель глади между ажурами.

Lace rythm:
AND one,2,3 AND one,2,3 AND one,2,3 AND one,2,3 AND one,2,3
where
AND - yo
one - k2tog
knit, knit - 2,3

this is the rhythm of the first row of the lace starting from the first YO.

Can you see the rhythm of other rows using the same principle? In a little bit some will use mainly the rythm of the lace to go, some will use the relative positioning of the YO one to another (prev odd row) and some may use both/ In the end lots of knitters start chechkin the lace using the amount of garer stitches between YO's.

Orenburg lace teeth layout

In Orenburg lace teeth are counted as 8 stitches of length/width of the body == 1 tooth plus 2 additional stitches for the sides. Often enough these 2 are not counted, or picked to even the lace, or 1 stitch is picked to even the lace.
The teeth and the middle of the center main pattern of the body are aligned. either with the top (5-th hole) or the bottom (between 2 teeth).
An example of alignment for Russian Empire sampler

1 tooth has 16 rows. Holes-based chart shows only odd rows for the tooth. In Russian knitting when one works a simple garter or any other stitch the first stitch of the row is slipped purl-wise. That's why when one would pick up the stitches from the shawl bottom teeth border they end up with a count 8 stitches=1 tooth. 8 'laying' stitches will be used to pick up from the wide flat side of the ribbon side.
The top stitches of the ribbon  become the beginning of the right teeth of the shawl. and from the bottom side the stitches picked (basically as many as one has on the top at the moment when the corners are turned) from the bottom of the ribbon.
"Granny's" method would use additional yarn piece to 'knit' that bottom edge. And produce as many open stitches as the pot of the ribbon has. This method id good for the folk who have tighter cast one. Or they can cast one using 3-4 needles that will make the edge looser and will allow to pick up stitches in a traditional way.

I did see some descriptions of casting on with different yarn the beginning of the teeth ribbon, knitting some rows, unraveling the bottom end, putting the stitches on a stitch holder... To be honest stitch holders I did see in American craft stores that are shown in pictures corresponding to these descriptions is not something I did see back in Russia. I guess tools were just simpler - I mean 2 straight steel needles, a bead glued at the end, or a "fuzz ball" :). And off we go, knit some lace.

At times it's challenging to explain to an English speaking knitter who is accustomed to their own ways that Russian lace is first and foremost is a mindset. Like Russian knitting is a mindset when a knitter does not think about stitch positioning, tension/gauge control and many of other things that seem to be of great interest some very detail oriented English speaking knitters (and it's a good thing also, people become interested in all kinds of things). Russian folk do not think much of it and simply knit. How is it so? It's like .... does one think how exactly do they chew the food how do the jaws move and how exactly do they swallow when they happen to eat and read a magazine in the morning at the same time, or how exactly do they sip that coffee and which exact minuscules do move and how and which ones do not move? Kind of like that. Russian knitting is an activity that is learned by the boy and mind. Like writing, walking and many others a human body has learned to do. It's not a different super complex thing. It's all same kind of a thing - one of fine motor skills. Human bodies are pretty good at these fine motor skills. It may take some time and patience to learn and each learning curve can be an individual thing.
What does it have to do with lace?
The base stitches get hardwired to the point that they become similar to writing letters, on the same level. Practice makes it perfect. After that one puts those base patterns together. Like a puzzle if you wish. That's where fine motor skill and visual tracking skills (same that are used while writing) come together.
Knitting lace is a kind of activity that your body already knows how to do, I mean you are reading this writing, right? Lace is same, it's writing in a different alphabet. The skills that body-mind uses are same.
Think of Russian lace like about a language that writes with holes on garter "paper".
Those shawls one can read and one can write their own shawl after some practice of making simple stories. Making your own story is the goal. For some they may be simple, for some - more complex. It's is the reflection of "you".

Knitting lace - some notes about tentioning and posture

When one knits Russian lace of Orenburg most of gossamers start with bottom teeth ribbon
When about 5-10 teeth are done at this length the ribbon can be tensioned and the 'tail' can be held between the knees
Bottom pictures that show hands positioning for Russian knitting. Russian are "pickers".
The gray ribbon is tensioned between my knees, open stitches == speed increase
Angled at ~45degrees needles do same, so the close hand positioning to the needle point and minimum finger movements. In my case left needle is stable English knitters (throwers) would be mirroring, the have right needle stable.
The tensioned bottom teeth ribbon for Russian knitter would be slightly leaning to the left repeating the angle of the stable needle relative to the knitter's body. Shoulders are dropped so the tension in the neck is minimum, the body center of gravity is shifted above the pelvis, back has slight curve, naval to the spine.
If one does not know how... do the shoulder roll front to back and stop when the body comes to balance and shoulders are dropped, leave it there. At this point the elbows will come to close to 90 degrees angl and hands should relax. The posture will promote the human body to "hold the core". One holds themselves by the core muscles. Fingers are relaxed. Hunching the back would promote shoulder stress and tension, please avoid that. That's why holding yourself with the core lifting slightly up is a benefit - that back can not hunch in this position, it is against of rules of the gravity, however the tired body would tend to do the 'hunch' thing. If yours does that, it's time to call it quits and do some exercises and rest and maybe consider to re-train the body. For some it's important to re-learn the posture and how to sit without stressing the back, neck and hands. One may choose  to consult a specialist for that and it's a well spent money.
Why is it important or even is mentioned... Human hand and small knitting motions == risk of repetitive motion stress. The nerve that gets stressed in some jobs and ends up as carpal tunnel or relead issue is the same nerve that goes from the back inside the shoulder throuhg the elbow and through the wrist. Everything in the human body is connected. That notorious neck stres when folk type long hours at computer and sit not correctly has the same root cause that a lace knitter who has positioned the body in not a beneficial way can create. Stress causes inflammation and the nerves get affected in the end. This can build up in the body. The goal here is to find the own body balance that will promote the shoulder, elbow and wrist to relation while knitting and function with the minimum stress and body tension.
This kind of technique does reduce body stress during longer knitting hours. If the shoulders become stresses please take it as a signal to do some stretching and helping the body to regain it's strength and relax. The long hours of lace knitting are acomplished through proper relaxation of the body and mind and through light hands, not the 'bear grip', stress and fighting that lace to the end :), please do not fight the lace, please listen to it and to your own body.

Tension lace later in the process when the corners are turned:
Rock :)  . The weight is placed on your knees. A small rock from outside wrapped in  a stretchy fabric and tied with a crochet thread will do just fine. Inside of mine is a small piece of granite. I mean do not look for a boulder :). Ok, joke it's over, but I did see once a knitter to pick up quite a heavy thing as a lace weigh... No holding that weight by the hands, the purpose of it to open the stitches enough to promote the speed of the knitting and more even stitches, nothing more. Lace knitters pros put longer hours. The use techniques to minimize the body stress.
The lace is tensioned using crochet thread and 5-th hole of the tooth. Large needle or a hook to pull the thread through, bobbin pit also works fine for that purpose. Crochet thread will not break most of the yarns if one does not pull hard on it (that's why rock does rest on the knees and not more tension than that)

Good luck and happy lace knitting.

Blinov uzor

I pulled one of the shawls from my chest.
This is Blinov uzor, also can be described as samovar. it's in the center of the shawl

Shawl made in Zhieltoe, Orenburg region. This one comes from Gumerova household. Rosa teaches this art form for years and somewhat a purist when it comes to it. She will not put neither mushki (think nups) or bazarnaya dorozhka on her shawls, she does not like bazar patterns.
Blinov usor is a combination of particular shape honeycomb pattern that does look like large "соты" and diamond of strawberry. It's not uncommon to hear Blinov uzor just to be honeycomb and slightly different pattern for the diamond.
It is not uncommon to hear another name for the same - samovar, usually this one references honeycomb part alone, but also depends on whom is one talking to...
The author of the pattern has passed a while ago, the pattern itself is knit in Zhieltoe often enough and rather popular as all over shawl. There are variations as it usually is in the folk art form.
Variations of Blinov uzor can be seeing depending on the village and the maker. IT also may appear visually different depending on how the shawl was blocked, was it photographed on the wrong or right side.
In a way this pattern can appear in more than one form on a photograph... Which reminds me... maybe I should of used tripod versus hand hold. Oh well, I'll eave the photo as it is

The true cost of lace

Recently I was looking at some stuff on internet about new development in UK monarchy history. And some of the searches did pull the wedding dress Kate Middleton did wear at the wedding.
Lace. Hand made laces. They still exist and made. The cost of the gown is incredible. Because that's the true cost of the lace. The fabric however expensive it is on it's own, it is the lace many articles mention as the most complex part of it, Hand-cut English lace and French Chantilly lace, the lace was hand made at Royal School of Needlework, based at Hampton Court Palace.
The dress has generated significant amount of tourists attention, it is an attraction on it's own.

Lace of Shetland I can not find anywhere to buy. And I know what would it cost to make one of these. And I know why in UK unless I know the right person I can not buy hand made hand spun Shetland lace except of antique auction or something.
White gold of Russia, lace or Orenburg... Same thing. Queens shawls have gone to the shadows of the past to never be seeing again with the Russian monarchy. New Russians can afford this type of the lace and probably would, if there would know who to asks. The human made lace requires the human to be alive to transfer the knowledge and another human to take it, not only be willing to , but be able to, and be able to afford to.

The true cost of lace is high. The true cost of hand made is high. The true cost of the human labor is high period, humans cost more than machines.
In lace there are things machines can not do, they can not process the material sophisticated enough however odd may it sound, they can not reproduce what the human brain and body do together. It takes time to train that body and mind. Every baby has a potential as the potential of the human brain is limitless. It's the training of the human brain is what makes it. Machine can not reproduce the same yarn. Manybe it can, it is too expensive to make such a machine to justify it's existence, it will have to scan the fiber and follow it not to damage it like the human hands can, the skilled hands, the trained hands and brain. The world of true AI is the future, not now, machines do not think yet, but it has already begun.

Probably in the modern world the Zars' shawl can exist only in a museum, like a princess wedding dress. It's too high price for the human labor that goes into the lace. Hours and hours.
That is the true cost of the lace. Not speaking of the human who has the skill set to make one of these,
Due to such a amount of time invested  even at minimum wage the price of the hand made lace is very high.
Ask a hand spinner how long will it take to spin 4000-5000m of yarn alone. Add to it the fiber processing time. over 90% of the labor in Russian lace sits in the yarn that can not be reproduced by a machine (I know, there were many tries and some has gotten close, there was no match in over 300 years).

I will not put the break down costs of the human labor in time involved into 1 shawl production. There were many debates on internet about the true cost of hand made and yes I did hear 'love it, everything is overpriced' blah-blah-blah on a polite side, to the heated discussions about why one will not pay more than $20 for a shawl professionally photographed and then will pull the arm and leg as a demanding customer. Those comments every lace maker did hear. Many have left it and applied their skills some place else because they do not want to hear how their work is diminished by another block for have felt it was the day to be nasty. They remember these, they get under your skin, they get into your head and it is hard to get these out. "The next thing you know, you’re a walking rage zombie!" is a quote from one of the hand made good makes I did read... Modern customer can really do it, till they can... The understanding of the value comes... when it's lost.
Queens lace they can not buy, no one will sell that for pennies an hour, no one will make it, or should I say kopekken an hour.

Should these Zar's shawls come back, or will they. It there a human who can bare the labor ....

Looking for the name - design preview

СI'm looking for the name for this shawl. ravelry folk voted for 5-circle gossamer. the modern crescent came down to second.
Here it is
Name is needed in English.

Planned January release.

Here is some inspiration for you...
Don Cossack chorus
Очи Черные

Снегурочка.

Spinning comfort zone

Spinning comfort zone for a wheel... does it exist...

left small ball  -  Shetland supreme, right small skein - regular cobweb.
Looking for a portable wheel that would help spinning this in a comfort zone, meaning in here neither wheel or fiber are pushed to their limits, they are placed in a comfort zone spinning.

Can it be spun finer - the answer is yes. did you have a case When you choose not to spin finer?
Because the other yarn feels more right. Fiber is white goat down for ones who is curious what is it.

About design once more

Orenburg shawls... a ravelry member asked a question about a rather simple pattern from a wester designer. The pattern name http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/russian-lace-scarf-to-knit is Russian Lace Scarf to Knit.
The pattern itself follows it's own path. Not Orenburg lace tradition. It's not done in traditions of Russian lace construction when it comes to it. The pattern does it's own lace implementation and the method of construction. However the question of the ravelry member was to me as she has started her very first Orenburg style lace scarf. The question was about
"Row 2 and all even-numbered rows” knit, working k1,p1, into each YO twice wherever there is a yo twice in the previous row."
That somewhat picked up my interest to look at that pattern closer. Later more details in the quotes from the pattern was provided, at first I thought the designer used a look of a Russian snowflake and made it using some of Shetland elements that can look similar to Orenburg lace (both are geared for gossamer threads) and executed differently when it comes the the lace elements themselves, some of shetlan lace elements do have double yo in them from some of the books I've seeing about this kind of the lace.
It the follows it's own path in the lace execution, neither Shetland or Orenburg it seems. The lace resembles Orenburg snowflake and the peas, however, it's neither of them to be honest. Orenburg lace does not have double yo, nor it has pearl stitches.

How this look would be done in Orenburg lace. Let's take a  снежинка на горохе - 'snowflake on peas' example...
The layout and the alignment of the lace vertically and horizontally would be 6 teeth scarf, the 3.5 teeth tall lace element. That's if I'd make that kind of a look like the scarf pictured has.

Snowflake is constructed of rite and left diagonals leaning into the center and strawbery element in 4 corners. I put a single diagonal element in the center for the balance.
Now, the corners - those are filled with peas. What the pattern in question has are not peas if one looks at it carefully

these are peas in thick lace yarn, so one can see what is happening in the wrong row when these are made, no pear stitches is happening

larger hole is not done with double yarn over as one can see from this.

the full layout chart of Orenburg snowflake with peas corners (wide border)  turned into a scarf scarf  will look like so

overlap middle snowflake with  this one

for some reason snipping tool is not cooperating today.

White down

It's time to get back to fibers. white down... tubs...

and the fiber animal, yea, I've got helper

needs to be done to produce this

there is more to Russian empire then one may think. as some figured, it;s a series on things. A bit more that that. It's back in time and forward. It's my heritage. Through time, wars, revolution, Red terror, Gulag.
And I've got helpers. Of different kinds. It was not one person deal in the past. It will not be this time.
Some of them I miss dearly as they have past, some left memries.

Настало время вернуться к уху. Контейнеры сортировки, чтобы получить нужное каество пуха.
Как наверное некоторые догадались в Российской Империи больше чем одна работа. Это шак в прошлое и в будущее. Это мое наследие. Сквозь врекмя, войны и революции, Красный терор и Гулаг.
У меня есть помошники. Разные помошники... Это не соло в прошлом, это не будет соло в этот раз. Некоторых уже нет, только память осталась.

It's being a while

It's being a while since I've posted. High workload and such...
This is a little bit of the addition to the previous post. A better photo of a custom AG doll and the embroidered dress

Lace garment for this... undecided, first the color has an ego, second the type of golden elements in teh hand embroidery has a tendency to snug of added garment/veil. Do I like working with natural stones, yes, I like that, jewelry making is fun :) so is clothing making, and 1/4 of human size sure helps....

Here is another one in gold, mama and me enjoyed some sewing time.

Photos a credited to my good friend Lena, man I wish I had 1000+ pro light, that is cool set up.

Sister dress for another time period  http://www.etsy.com/listing/116814692/american-girl-mid-1800-th-style-golden?ref=pr_shop

On the fibers side of things... yes there was another package from Russia, when I'll have more time I'll blog about how does Orenshal yarn lands on a local market and things of that nature; how different the fiber is that comes from 2 places in the same region or about cross breeding of 2 well known goat lines in Russia in Stalin's time. Stay tuned.

Turquoise.Regency and Med-evil

An interesting fabric, quite challenging. Chiffon, embroidery. Turquoise beads (it turns out another stone can be used and imitate turquoise, who knew :) ). I'll be modifying Guinevere outfit. will get more embroidery... if I'll get there where I want it with the hoop, otherwise... that will be interesting. Mother-daughter project