[Nfb-krafters-korner] Kitchner Stitch and other Techniques

[Susan Roe]

Thanks Henrietta, my family mean so much to me and since I am the "head of 
the family" even though I am not the oldest, managing the farm and three 
households, being one of the major contributers to our local NFB chapter, I 
need my crafts to bind me together.  Lord help us all if I start to unravel. 
LOL

Susan
dogwoodfarm at verizon.net
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Henrietta Brewer" <gary.brewer at comcast.net>
To: "List for blind crafters and artists" <nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2011 11:51 AM
Subject: Re: [Nfb-krafters-korner] Kitchner Stitch and other Techniques


> Hi Susan,
> Your discriptions of your knitting are way beyond me. But your stories of 
> you family warm my heart. I am so glad to hear such lovely stories of 
> family.
> Henrietta
> On Jan 24, 2011, at 1:18 PM, Susan Roe wrote:
>
>> Hi Ninn,
>>
>> A Liberty Cap, also called Foresters or Voyagers Cap, is a style of wool 
>> cap from France that was worn in the 1700's and 1800's by the French, 
>> Brits and Colonials in the Americas at that time.  The Liberty Cap was 
>> usually dark blue, the Foresters Cap was green and the Voyagers Cap was 
>> dark red.  I have also been told that French trappers also wore their 
>> caps red.
>>
>> They are smoothly knit with no ribbing, just stockenet in the round. 
>> Often along the front of the fused brim there would be a line of just X's 
>> all around or even slogans like "Don't tred on me".  The caps are also 
>> long and tapered, not quite to a point with a tassel dangling at the end. 
>> Men would often take a fancy pin or even a broach and fasten it just 
>> above the tassel and secure the cap's slouched top to one side of the 
>> cap.  Picture a Santa hat all in dark blue, cut the top 3 inches off, 
>> fasten a tassel instead of a pompom and secure the floppy top with a pin. 
>> My sister says she has seen pictures of caps with a feather attached 
>> where the pin would be.
>>
>> It does call for a thin yarn, but not as thin as sock yarn.  I am using a 
>> worsted because I couldn't see myself trying to use a light sports weight 
>> on such small needles.  The pattern notes called for a zero, but I had 
>> only worked with a 2, so I compromised and went with a one.  For the 
>> conversion in size, I didn't trust any kind of recalculations on what it 
>> could probably look like.  I took the time to use their initial 
>> instructions of casting on 130 stitches and knitting about 10 rows.  I 
>> took that straight off the needles and pinched it up to where it should 
>> fit and decided to take off 26 stitches and went with 104 stitches 
>> instead.  I went back to the directions on how to work a provisional cast 
>> on and hoped I was doing it correctly and went on from there.
>>
>> I can say with a smile on my face, I have successfully knit the 
>> provisional cast on, knit the first flap of the brim, put in the brim 
>> welp, knit the front half of the 3 inch brim, put in a trapeze line, and 
>> fused the brim together.  I am already about one inch up from the brim.I 
>> stayed up past 10 o'clock Saturday night because once I started fusing 
>> the brim, I was afraid to stop until all 104 of those tiny little 
>> stitches were locked forever in their place.  LOL
>>
>> I haven't herd of the site you mentioned "knitter's math".  My gauges 
>> never fit what is called for, that is why I do so much modifying and 
>> running trapeze lines as I go.  It is my way of sculpting in yarn.
>>
>> Fusing a brim is first shaping your brim to be folded flat and then 
>> locked in place almost like the kitchner stitch, but not quite.  For this 
>> pattern, a fused brim has three important parts, the provisional cast on, 
>> the brim welp and "fusing" the stitches you picked up from un raveling 
>> the provisional cast on onto a second kneedle, and then looping them one 
>> by one up and over the corresponding stitches on your working kneedle.
>>
>> A trapeze line is the same thing as a life-line.  It has saved my sanity 
>> more than once and has definitely kept me from tossing several attempts 
>> at complicated stitch patterns in the trash.  LOL
>> I am very blessed to have my sister next door.  She is sighted, however, 
>> she is not a knitter and does very little crochetting, however, she is 
>> outstanding in reading and comprehending diagrams and pictures.  If she 
>> can read it and describe it to me, then I have no problems doing it.  Her 
>> talent is painting/drawing and when she started having some sight 
>> problems, she shifted to wood carving and has done nothing but excelled. 
>> No surprise there.  My husband paints/draws as well, does functional wood 
>> work,and Native American style leather work.  He grew up with a mother 
>> and two grandmothers who knitted and crochetted.  He has the patients of 
>> Jobe looking through my pattern books when I'm trying to find something 
>> specific in mind and will read the pattern for me.  I can't help but 
>> smile and thank God for him when he is down on his knees in front of me 
>> looking over something I've knitted, trying to find something visually 
>> where I just know something dosen't"feel" right to me.  He also
> can't stand to see me ripping something out after I've spent days or even 
> weeks working on because he knows when I say it doesn't feel right to me, 
> he can tell me 100 times it looks fine, but I won't be happy until it 
> does.
>>
>> Susan
>> dogwoodfarm at verizon.net
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Nfb-krafters-korner mailing list
>> Nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-krafters-korner_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
>> Nfb-krafters-korner:
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfb-krafters-korner_nfbnet.org/gary.brewer%40comcast.net
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Nfb-krafters-korner mailing list
> Nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-krafters-korner_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> Nfb-krafters-korner:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfb-krafters-korner_nfbnet.org/dogwoodfarm%40verizon.net