Old Russian, new American, The kitchen talk :)

so here we were yesterday in the kitchen. Mama had a little of nice cold harvest reisling wine and some nice berries.. so basically after dinner desert. we have a chat about life, Obama and the debt and how Russian annalists think America is going to land in technical default in February... so basically typical Russian kitchen talk. I'm knitting and talking. Mama all the sudden wakes up out of the politics talk and goes
"what ARE you doing?"
I'm
'what am I doing?" (ok, that's translated from Russian, but you get the point).
she goes,
"you are making THAT from green 5 rubles yarn" and she points at that stole chart of mine, 2 page holes based chart for the reference.

Tada. Ok, that is OLD Russian outlook. folk in their 60-80-th just do not think of higher end of Orenburg lace be made from anything except of Orenburg hands spun, and certainly not out of 5 rubles yarn. Ok, that was yarn place graceful by the way. Speaking of how much similar these 2 yarns are. I get it, she wants me to make that stole from white hand spun, because that's the proper way. That's the old school. I think I have to explain...
"Mama, it's a scientific experiment"
'yeah, right..."
"Mama, have some more vine and berries :)"
" you are wasting your time with this, that's not the proper yarn for that, you should not be knitting such a shawl from that"

so, that's mama. the bottom line the chat was distracting for me enough to get couple more rows only and call it.
So, what am I doing now?

 looks like ok, I'm making 2-nd row of strawberry, right after my lace set up row. right?

nope :)
I'm knitting strawberry 2 rows at once.

yep

the point is lace is made as usually along with how the life goes. in between.
If I would not catch that in the morning I'd shift my lace , caught that at 3-rd tooth, would have said oh man... сон в руку , ad would have fixed it at the end to hide .
I caught it, so I'm making 2 rows of strawberry at once and it is slow.
I'll make that stole white, proper way so :)))
After all, mana never is going to change. For her like for many others there is only one proper way - the hand spun yarn period. Yarn makes that lace. and she told me, "why are you even making this, you'll never sell that because it's green 5 rubles yarn".  I'm not going to sell it :), it's an experiment.
But when it comes to spending time, I have to admit, she is right. I should not be doing it out of green yarn, I do not really have much time for that. But on the other hand...
What I'm doing is trying to figure out how to set up the hands for someone who is coming from yarns like that and wants to make a beaded shawl. What they struggle is the gauge. Their yarn does not promote tight knitting. for me yarn place graceful stabilized on 2mm needles for my speed. It's not optimum and I'm knitting it slower than my own hand spun. whoever is after the beaded shawl needs to drop eedle size twice, meaning to 1mm. and the thickness of the yarn trice+, meaning 3+ times finer just to begin on something like that. The width of such a stole would be in 130cm range top. My little green monster will hit close to 2m easily when blocked. will see how large will that be.

Old Russian ...new American. Or about 5 rubles yarns, teeth and pattern allignments

So, once I had a thing for gradient yarns and went shopping for these. Felt like it, mostly to see how these are spun and how that can be done, because I did not see a commercial yarn with long enough color changes in lace at the time. It turns out many shorter color changes exist in sock yarns, medium long once also exist, very long ones like I wanted - harder to find, but I found them.  In my search I did refresh my 'old Russian' stuff and  has discovered some new American yarn marketing ways and found some not quite expected connections and transformations.
I discovered very quickly that if I want gradient yarn that would be wool, all other fibers I'd have to spin or color. The first thing I found was LYS find: Daphne yarn. merino wool, medium gradient. I looked like for a smaller project that would be a nice yarn, on a budget too, $10 range. colorway 07 was to my liking. So that went to stash.
Next I  looked for longer color changes... I went by culture, where that was in the folk crafts. Scandinavian and Baltic countries and their color works. Kauni or aade long 8/1 artistic yarn was a well known gradient yarn in Russia. I found that (power of internet). Its American equivalents would run me above $30 per skein, aade long did not break the bank and to this time I like its color changes the best. Several projects came out of it. I did elongate the gradient sections. Like here for example.

Looks nice in triangle as well. It's not the softest yarn and there are ways to soften it, but for the color, you know, they got me there.

After that I was looking for a bit more and almost immediately found yarn place graceful in 50gr and 100gr.
Thhat gradient is more challenging to cut and elongate, but in the end it works nicely in medium size objects, say 50cm long on the side crescents for 50gr balls of yarn. How to work with aade long and yarn place and hand spun gradient yarns went into Song of the Cranes pattern description.

I have several colors of yarn place graceful, just like I have in kauni yarn. And yarn place graceful made 'deja vu' appearance exactly like Treenway yarns did before surprisingly under the same re-branding label.
So here is one 100gr ball already cut and one uncut

teeth in here are rather large and 'lacey'.

The corners of my shawl are not turned with Galina's short rows. That method is not recognized in Orenburg as their method to be exact. And here is deja vu in orange-yellow colorway

 

How close one can get? re-labeled Treenway yarns match color to the notch just as well with Treenway silk yarns. Yarn place turned out much better price for me.

So my point here is that here I am making me my test project in the traditional technique like I always did from an 'approved' substitute yarn cause the label well, it's still on it, right, and the 'underwriter' has mentioned in her Orenburg knitting dvd that one would totally tear up corners of the shawl, make a major disaster and so on if they do not follow her technique. So here is the re-branded yarn, the second uncut green ball in the picture above with the lace teeth I'm making was from her show boot in fact, was not re-labeled that time so. I used it, but the lace disaster never happened. I never put extra teeth at the corners of the shawls on mine, never do any short rows, and whoever have seeing the dvd in Orenburg say they same - did not see that short row method before, do not recognize it, do not make it the same way.

So where the extra teeth would come from? I wonder. Thick aran yarn used in dvd - granted  - that yarn has different properties compared to lace or gossamer yarns. On the other hand no one in Russian teaches to lake lace on those thick yarns, they behave to differently. Sweaters and rugs - 'yes', lace - that's a 'no'.

I turn my corners at the narrowest point, by the book if such a term can be used :), I do not do short rows in my Orenburg goat down handspun yarn shawls, never did.
So, here is my turning the bottom corners step by step in pictures: first of all I do not start it here like dvd suggests, at the widest point.

 I do it here, at the narrowest

, then I do not bunch teeth ribbon in my hand 'all 27 of them' (teeth), I let the ribbon be and pick and knit every stitch, for all 57 of them in my case either from right to left (granny's method) or from left to right (traditional Orenburg gossamer method in my published patterns).

Do every stitch on the side to the bottom of it

pick up stitches from the bottom with my other needle like so

turn my work, knit to the end , finishing teeth pattern for my last tooth.
That easy and that simple. I do it like everyone else in Orenburg does it, no need to reinvent a bike for thin yarns, for nice not fragile yarns.

Pick the side stitches, pick the bottom stitches, turn the work around, knit to the end. Done

Here it is, all ready and we knit bottom up.

Yes it all sits on straight needles, I like it better this way, faster to knit for me.

It looks like so and all corners are turned. The famous warning, oh no, never do it other than short rows, you'l get that sock heel effect if you do it differently. I do not know, maybe I'm lucky or knit differently or tension yarn differently. The sock thin does not seem to happen to me. Just the same as it does not happen to Orenburg lace knitters. why does not it happen... I guess we just knit differently than Galina's students do who encounter that sock thing in their work. 

When I make a wider object because yarn place graceful has a particular mirrored repeat of colors I stop just about the change of the color, always when my color is still a solid shade not a transitional shade of the gradient.

So where is old Russian refresher  stuff? Gossamer knitting technique is old. And it turns out merino lace yarns have a Russian sister - 5 rubles yarn. yep, that one is from my late granny's stash

What is it many folk who were born in USSR know exactly. It was quite common yarn. There was plenty warm leggings made out of such yarn, nice and warm 'gamashi' we called them. And also warm winter undergarments. Hey, Orenshal factory makes those too. They are quite useful in the cold climate to keen once bottom warn and promote good heals in cold climates to keep the body warm.
And new marketing way for  merino lace yarns is to up sell these yarns into upscale yarns. Winter undergarments yarn does not sound that glam, not much to glamorize about. And indeed that's is exactly like cheap USSR yarn, 5 rub :). USSR has quite nice textile industry. not all was poorly made there as some may think.

Will I tear the teeth at the corner like Galina's dvd warns? Well, never has happen before with this type of yarn, and never with hand spun. But where did extra 2 teeth come from?
Olga Fedorova did not make shawls like that, Orenburg shawl makers say so.

Olga was fond of honeycomb based patterns. And these are it's own thing when it comes to their lace alignment, it's not a 45 degrees lace like diamonds made of diagonals. I have a gray shawl with one of her signature wide borders in this post

So the pattern I'm making in this gradient experiment is actually a white stole or shawl. It can be black  too. Looks like so.

It is geared to train knitter to get to the large shawl making (close to 60 and more teeth).

I did talk to Fedorova Valentina recently a she has mentioned something I've forgotten to think about. A lace misalignment misstate happens at times with honeycomb based patterns.  Here one goes and knits without a pattern and sets up lace by the teeth aligning it to the top point (max width at 5-th hole or narrowest width at the 5-th hole) in the beginning of wide border making, and at the end, oh-oh we landed on the mid tooth at at's widest point and we are done with our lace. Oh-oh, not good, because making the tooth would lead to extra 9 rows of garter right after wide border before the top teeth. The leading diamond for the pattern like that aligns at 3-rd tooth not at 1-st side tooth. That's the thing about the honeycombs  4 way symmetry and how this lace 'counts'.

So, the shawl is made basically, but it has a bug in it, well happens. The bug gotta go, it needs some 'hide me' thing. Some would cut to the chase, make this tooth 'to stick out' at the corner using something similar to a short row, not exactly like Galina shows so. In the lace that mistake in the alignment that was propagated from the beginning of the lace is hidden now. What a knitter should have being doing with honeycomb's like that is to put set up row 2 stitches above the tooth point. See the picture below

If one starts strawberry a the middle point of the tooth they will land on the middle of the tooth  at top right-left corners.
Someone who was making a shawl made a mistake and covered it up - extra tooth appeared instead of 9 extra rows between wide border and top teeth. If I'd mess up and shift my lace down like that and then fixed it adding extra toot at the top by the shawl corner, no one would be able to tell 57 teeth from 59 at the top unless they counted each one. Is it a reason to represent a possible quick bug fix as the regional technique according to the Galina's knitting dvd - well, you decide.

Knitting needles out of bike spokes - myth or true?

So, was is done or no bikes parts were ever refurbished for knitting needles?
First of all, what is knitting needle Russian folk have used for lace warm shawls?
Straight stainless steel light and not fragile rod, 2mm or lesser diameter. Bead or some kind of a stopper on one side, sharpened and polished on another side.

What is is a bike spoke? short of more advanced ones with variable diameter (like DT alpine III) for example these are simply 2mm or 1.8mm stainless steel rods.
In very useful sizes from 180 mm to 300 mm .
The bottom line is these are light for stainless steel and very durable rods. and these have nice weight distribution as bike wheel parts.
Knitting needles made out of that kind of stainless steel rod do balance well. Because these rods are made this way so the bike wheels do not wobble. It is simple physics and nothing more.
When one can buy bike spokes (and there are plenty stores that sell these) as is there is no actual need to disassemble any bicycles. These spokes are simply parts. One sharpens one end, cuts off the bend tiny bit of the other end , they will loose a bit of the length, that's why spokes were bought a bit larger. And it is quite budget friendly.
Were any beat up bicycles ever dissembled for knitting needles in Russian or Orenburg per say? Well... some were, ones that kind of broke but had nice not damaged spokes. However if one can simple buy this type of stainless steel rod - here you go. Needles were made out of 2mm stainless steel rods. And bike spokes are quite common thing one can buy. They are simply bike repair shop parts. Sold in packs. It's not like one would buy whole bike  for that or something...

1.8mm, 2mm, 2.34mm is common diameter. sharpen, polish. tada.
many other stainless steel rods were re purposed like that.
oh, here you go

Where one finds themselves 1mm-2mm stainless steel rod that behaves like what is called spring steel , does not break, does not bend, is balanced is right length or a bit bigger does not really matter.
It's a stainless steel rod. Makes a nice knitting needle. And very inexpensive one.
If I had me 30cm+ dpn's easily available in under 2mm, that would be super great. I can find 20cm easy enough. 30cm - that's a lot harder.

Pst :), Orenburg folk by the way say, yeah, there was such a thing like knitting needle made out of bike spoke, no big deal. and not only them. Hey, we were not that fancy with all the knitting boutiques and trade shows, fine cool looking wood, carbon and what else. We did not have that. It's all really cool, but we have managed to make our knits with what was there. nothing wrong wit that. Humans have amazing ability to adapt and find uses to the available materials. That's international thing and that's where it boils down to.

Happy knitting. and Merry Russian Orthodox Christmas!
Yes I know, in old days folk could not quite agree on time and calendar, I say, it's a very good holiday, well worth celebrating with Western folk in December and  with Russian folk in January, twice the holiday, twice twice celebration, twice good company, twice good food... That sounds very good to me.

A Russian shawl kitting. American dvd

I did a review of a warm shawl description once in an american magazine here 
 It looks like when things end up in the video it is more interesting.
I did watch dvd by Galina Khmeleva about what she presents as Orenburg lace shawl knitting technique.
It was nice to see Olga Fedorova gossamers in background once again, it was very nice to see the close ups of Olga's lace while the presenter was talking about stitch definition and when I got past English language mistakes and heavy accent it did become a bit better for me to listen to it.
It's a good idea to make a DVD about once personal knitting method. It's not necessary that that method supposed to have name Orenburg gossamer method on it. The presenter references Olga Fedorova as her teacher and the fact that her presentation is by the Olga's teachings. These particular statements, very heavy aran yarn and thick knitting needles did pick my interest.
So, let's take a closer look at what Olga did and what other lace makers do and if there is that short row turning corners anywhere in Olga's book or on her shawls, or on any Orenburg museum catalog shawls for example.
In my own work and in my own rather humble by Orenburg museum measure (not more then 1\3 when it comes to items count) collection I did not see anything like what Galina shows - short rows. There is no extra tooth at the corner.

It turn out Olga Fedorova did not teach that kind of a thing as short rows at school of arts according to her successor. Her book teaches it differently. It's how her students I personally know knit - no short rows, no extra teeth. Olga has passed, her book is printed, her students knit as many other women in Orenburg region, and that region is not very far from civilization as that dvd presenter states in the very beginning of the part 1. Not too far to not have internet and such.
Let's take a look. here is the short rows and extra teeth at the bottom.

and the dvd teaches to do same complicated short row thing at the top.

what's interesting is that her other samples and all the shawl she bought in Orenburg region she has in the background do not have short rows and extra teeth either. Here is a sampler that has no short rows.

 and in fact it can not...

that bit of lace under double diagonals prevents that. and indeed that would be quite common for this lace for the complex teeth. Orenburg lace is a folk art form, they do not have a habit to develop multiple tricks and features to handle this and that. It if's teeth it's one method, no matter how complex they are. Think about it as about technology, well tested  one.

Let's take a look at Olga's book how is it done there. Here is my copy.

please take a look at the picture that show general template for a gossamer and please pay attention how the teeth are positioned. this way is in her charts as well

Now let's go to the pages with the sample shawl

Please take a look at the picture. it's 4x4 teeth square. there is no extra 5-th and 6-th tooth at the bottom, neither at the top. no short rows were there. what was there? Same thing as on many many shawls from that region and same thing that is on my own shawls. Knit that last tooth to the narrowest point of it and pick up the bottom and flat side of the ribbon stitches, knit to left tooth, turn work around, knit back to the end of the row. Done. That's it. And it works and worked for many many shawls with simple and complex teeth. It does not work on aran yarns. Because no one makes gossamers from aran yarns to begin with. This is what in Olga's book and on the gray shawl (one would recognize very particular wide border on the gray shawl and very particular 5-circle pattern from Fedorova house hold, it's her sister's own shawl. My mother owns it now, and I take care of it.)
The book pages: teeth ribbon start

bottom teeth turning

the page and the next ones

even if one can not read Russian the pictures tell the story. there is simply no extra 2 teeth in them.

Neither there is any additional teeth ad the top.

Gray shawl.

Fedorova signature pattern close up

it's corners counter clockwise 1,2,3,4 from bottom left, right, top right, left

Here is another shawl that has traveled many exhibitions around the world . all 4 it's corners

Where are short rows and extra teeth on these? they do not exist. the corners are turned at their narrowest points. Here is mine, I do not have short rows either.

no short rows, take a look how is it blocked

there is a video as well to prove there is no short rows on this one and it has wide complex teeth and as you can see it's not broken or deformed etc, no described in dvd potential 'corner disaster'.

In this particular dvd the corners of the shawl are simply turned at a widest point. In Orenburg lace the teeth are turned at the narrow point.
Why one would invent something like that or present it as a common regional technique? There is a small statement in the dvd that suggests that the idea was rejected by the knitting professional community in the region. I suspect it's because simple teeth could be turned that way, not complex ones so, the lace would be shifted by short rows plus and minus stitches and create not desirable holes and pull the yo where they not supposed to be going. Only a tooth that has solid garter triangle and enough of it (4 stitches garter area to be exact) can survive short rows method without making undesirable holes in the lace.

Nothing wrong with describing a personal method in a DVD. Nothing wrong with teaching something on heavy yarns. If one really feels strongly that's how they want to teach more power to them. It's not necessary that this kind of educational material should have Orenburg lace making label on it. It's is quite... innovative... to try to stick gossamer pattern on aran yarn ... by Orenburg measure. Orenburg lace knitting students or children or adults are not taught on yarns heavier than iris cotton yarn, think your average crochet 20/2 yarn basically. It's quite a lot thinner than aran. Why would one teach like that I can not quite understand. We have digital cameras these days, they have no issues with resolution to handle fine yarns and show that clearly. It's being that way for over 10 years in professional film makers world.
I do not teach personally on heavy yarns what applies to gossamer yarns.
Orenburg knitters do not knit by looking at it, they do not struggle with contrast yarn-needles selection. They watch tv and knit at the same time, well that folk have seeing on news several times. When they see that a pro knits and reads at the same time some observers do freak out so, kind of 'blow ones mind effect' is happening. It's not really much different then when folk eat their breakfast and read a morning news paper. humans multitask quite well. Orenbureg lace knitting for a pro is more tactile than visual. That's why they learn on particular yarns. They train hands. Aran would feel different, a lot different.

Regarding the needles. I'm not sure why one would suggest to make gossamer lace on us size 0-3 needles. Orenburg lace warm shawls are made on 1.75-2 mm needles or finer 1.5 mm ; 2 mm is US size 0. Gossamers are done on 1.5 mm and finer. beaded shawl of 1000 stitches and up - 1 mm needles, 1.25 top.
I did make a gossamer item on 2 mm needles. It does come out with less fine gauge than I personally like, and I put it when I want over simplified almost rustic-military feel to it, it's an exception for me more than a rule. gossamer average needles are 1.5mm. Why? Because that's how Russian dpn's come. they are 1.5mm. That simple.

So where are these short rows in Olga's work.
Does anyone have a shawl that belongs to her hand that has extra teeth on it?.. Anyone?
Are these as difficult to locate as Galina's own shawl made by her from fiber to hand spun yarn to finished object? Items made from commercial yarn and simple lace patterns - I've seeing plenty. Expert level hand spun shawls - that I never came across, neither came across someone who have seeing one of them. Meaning not the shawls she bough in Russia and shows in her classes or videos. Ones that she made herself.
I keep reading from Interveawe and affiliated sources that she is an expert in this lace. They have published plenty nice looking marketing articles. Lot's of promotional effort.
Orenburg lace makers measure that simple - show your shawl. Done.
Did anyone see her shawl? Something above common pattern from Orenburg or Saractash bazar (her 3 pattern book), something above writing up another pro lace maker shawl (Eastern star pattern description).
Orenburg pro's usually do not count simple scarves, the train children like that.
Did anyone see her shawl or has a picture? I'd love to see one of those.

Cranes - Журавли

Song of the Cranes is a part of the Russian empire series. 1/4 of one of the shawls in there.
Beaded shawl. I did not make the yarn very fine, better to say I did spin about twice finer at first and the bottom f it still remains as such... and did thicker yarn.
65 teeth 145m square. 1.25mm needles.
handspoun Orenburg goat down, filament silk
Журавлиная песня. Это часть Русской империи, это 1\4 одного из платков, из больших на больше 1000 петель. 65 зубцов бисерная паутинка медальон 145см. я ее на максимум растянула на столько, так она поменьше обычно, потому как 1000-ка разгонять на 3.5 метра, рама есть, но для меня 3.5 малость великовато по размеру, хотя носить на манер 18-го века конечно можно но редко такое. пряжа делалась не сильно тонкая, порядка вдвое оньше я ее спряла, связала низ да так и оставила и сделала поплотнее. само изделие 80 грам, ну чтоб мясо на ней было и чтоб грела.

фотографировать на просвет ее сложно, ее просто плохо видно. тонкая.
небо в кружевах это конечно хорошо. только когда ветер  это плохо. ветер раму дернул, ну и репьев пособрала она местных. репьи то вычистила, но с небом того... вот что есть то есть.