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

Colonial dresses

So, these dolls patterns appear to be 1/4 of human patterns. and thicker at the middle due to the body style. This is original AG Felicity x-mass dress. made of 'bolonia' like material (we used to have rain coats made from it when I was a kid. When I've seen this AG fabric application for the first time... wow I was not expecting these fabric selection, looks good in photos and quite durable for a kid to play with.). We took evening dress fabric, crepe. Laces ad here we are.

The dresses are put over AG shift - undergarment of the period.
Mother-daughter project. We 2 may as well have some good old fun sewing. And I get to design the dresses :) just like in good old days making stuff back in Russia, yeah... we did make a gown or two :).... lot's more than that to be honest... and dolls are always there to try-fit :)
  Here we go

under-petticoat on. 

gown on.

petticoat on

details

and more detail

So how did we do compared to the original? fine print cotton and crepe dresses.

The custom purple dresses are for sale. e-mail me.

Edit to add the outside photo with the shawl so you can see it now with light purple travel dress, blue holiday dress and custom deep purple dress.

Small shawl 1 is done and a little bit of the yarn talk

In this blog post small doll shawl yarn and the outfit was shown.
Since then I visited the vendor's store for the first time and found some useful hair care techniques. So couple dolls were set up like so. Water, shaping=synthetic material memory.

And the shawl was done. And I caved and picked a doll in rather nice condition out of a consignment store. I think I just happen to like the look of this particular one.
So, this is the gradient yarn on blue. The shawl is 2 piece, 3 looks.
Shawl alone pinned way

Hooded. the shawl top has small loops enough to put the ribbon through and the shawl can be styled as a cape in several ways, this is one of them

Now... The hair talks and the yarn talk.
Hair after several days in the shaping

I probably will do more curls on Samantha doll hair to have as it looked originally, maybe, I like this styling somewhat better, will see...


Other doll talk...

more little things storage that can go on a shelf... which is not done yet.

 
The yarn talk... Gossamer yarns versus lace weight. How do they look like.
Let's see in doll's hands, easier to take a picture of, does not require jumping around bogen tripod as something less havy I can just trip over and make a nasty equipment mess.

Here we have Felicity doll in the cape lilac-pink gradient wool plied with silk spun as a lace weight yarn. The small chest is used to keep some shoes and other small easy to loose and hard to keep the track of doll size things. The underskirt in the making will go under Victorian Samantha dress to have it shaped better (Felicity lilac dress has an underskirt).
And the dolls are holding yarns of Orenburg, the gossamer yarns. Can you see it?
Not yet. The yarns are 2-ply yarns. Maybe now it's better?

somewhat... how about closer

I do not know if I can get in my ligh in the middle of the night the actual 2-ply. more close up

here is gray 2-ply yarn next to lilac-pink gradient wool yarn. See the difference between gossamer Orenburg yarn and the lace weight?
The gray yarn is a wheel spun.
This wheel.

that has some of the single I'm spinning on it.
the white yarn is spindle spun Orenburg yarn

it has tighter ply than I do and I'm quite impatient to see how this will be in the shawl. This is more about the experience exchange among Orenburg yarn spinners. This is from the lady taught by Olga Fedorova who is her successor at the school where she has taught. I'm now quite far from my home land, but we can do yarn talk. the yarns speak.
This is how the wheel spun yarn looks in the shawl

these are the yarns side by side

they are plied with same silk

What else did come from back home? 4-th Irina's book

And spindles

next to what is called here abroad student lace spindle size (10gr range student spindle i not quite common thing here.. all spindles are made in Russia, Orenburg region). Smaller spindle is not a maker's joke and not a shawl pin. It's a spinning spindle. something not quite common these days as this kind of work is not done these days on routine bases.

this photo is from Irina Bushuhina book

I'll show these things of old during my 2012 fall classes in Boulder, CO at Shuttles Spindles and Skeins.
They did exist, they are not quite lost, They are hard to restore, not impossible so. Did the shawl come from back home? Yes they did, just takes time to come buy with the funds :).
 Architect salary helps (nope I'm not a housewife :) , I'd love to be, but I'm not ).