Office Supplies

Office supplies for the HGA COE
and the TKGA MHK

I biked down to Staples and bought all of the office supplies I'm going to need for the handknitting and handweaving masters programs. It makes for quite an array.

The differences in the program instruction manuals are interesting. If I were to judge them based purely on the handbooks, the handweaving program seems a lot more organized and a lot more businesslike.

For one thing, every single item that you submit for the handweaving COE must only have your ID number on it; no names are allowed, so as not to bias the judges. They also give you a clear outline of the different sections and types of work you'll have to do for the program, and a list up front of all the materials you will need for the program.

The knitting program, on the other hand, requires you to put your name, address, email, and phone number on every single sample piece you submit. The instructions seem a bit hodgepodge; for example, the swatches themselves are described in one section and the information sheet you have to submit with your swatches is described in a different section. And the materials you need for your submission are sprinkled throughout the instructions, section by section, so you have to read through the entire thing to figure out all of what you need to gather.

A Great Leap Forward: Masters Programs

I did something rash a couple weeks ago. I bought the instruction packets for both the Master Hand Knitting Program from The Knitting Guild Association, and the Certificate of Excellence (Level I) from the Handweavers' Guild of America.

These are the two top master certificate programs in the national American guilds for these respective crafts. I realize it's a bit presumptuous of me to attempt to do both. I don't know if I'll be able to finish getting all the materials together for either or both programs in a timely manner, much less pass either one--but I'm very excited to try. My dream would be to finish the submissions for at least one of them by 2018.

Now I have to read through the packets and see what I need to get started.

Big Block Romney Mittens

Completed: Fall 2014
Dimensions: Women's Large or Men's Medium (8" around widest part of hand)

The finished mittens, palm side up

These mittens were a bold experiment for me, since I used a big ostentatious blocky pattern that was far outside my usual delicate and demure comfort zone. They're not one of my more successful products, but they went quickly and I know I benefited from the radical departure from my norm.

I made them using the Foxhill Farm yarn I had left over after finishing my Spartan Romney sweater. I had one skein of their natural Black Romney left, plus a skein of oatmeal-colored Romney in roughly the same gauge that I had bought from them at the same time.

The finished mittens, palm side down

I wound both skeins into two balls each, and then knitted the mittens by holding two strands of the same color together as one. The original wool was a heavy worsted weight, and the double strand ended up being roughly a super bulky gauge.

The pattern for the mittens--both the structure and the two-color design--came from The Mitten Book, which is a great little book chock-full of traditional Swedish mitten patterns.

Spartan Romney Pullover

Completed: Summer 2014

The finished sweater

Finished size: 41" chest diameter; 24" long;
                       18 1/2" sleeves (not set in)

The yarn for this sweater is a deep, rich, undyed, natural, 100% Black Romney 2-ply wool from Foxhill Farm in Lee, MA. What a pleasure it was to work with this wool. It is a bit scratchy, but the color is great and it is warm.

Note the fluid range of motion

There were only six skeins of it at the Massachusetts Sheep & Woolcraft Fair where I bought it, and the skeins added up to just over 1,100 yards. I was worried most of the time that I was making the sweater that I wouldn't have enough to finish it, but it ended up being almost a whole skein more than enough.

The sweater is patterned after the Spartan Pullover by Kristin Nicholas, with all stitch and row counts adjusted for my yarn's gauge (which was roughly a heavy worsted).

But, by request of the sweater's intended recipient, I gave it a regular crew neck instead of a v-neck. The crew neck is done in garter stitch, instead of ribbing, as are the cuffs and the bottom edge of the sweater.

Close-up of wool and garter stitch cuff

Happy Black Romney sheep