Stranded Knitting

Day 135: This is what happens when Crow is housebound: pink knitting. I'm going slightly stir-crazy, and I have to get rid of the leftovers from the pussy hats...I have to! I don't want to see them when I dive into the stash. Even so, this has been good practice in the technique of stranded knitting which, when all is said and done, is almost as pretty on the back as it is on the front. However, there's only so much pink I can take at a time. Even though I wasn't looking at my reflection in a mirror when I head-tested the hat on the left for fit, I could feel my gorge rising at the very thought. Seriously, I charge $2 more per pair of socks if somebody wants pink. I need green, people. I need trees and lichens and the smell of the forest and my boots pounding a trail. Lemme out of here before I go totally nuts!

Joppa Flats Hats 25-42

Day 125: I mailed off another box containing hats #25-42 to Joppa Flats Education Center yesterday: six ladybug cloches, six bees, two Fair Isle (two-colour) and four other stocking caps of assorted fibers and weights. Joppa sells them for $25 apiece, so for a few hours of my time and a relatively minor expenditure for yarn above and beyond what has been given to me by friends for the project, I will have contributed over $1000 to their bird-banding program. Y'know, that makes me feel very proud. It would have been totally out of the question for me to donate that amount in cash, and yet I've been able to support their good work in a way which was also very enjoyable for me. With summer coming (yes, it really is!), I will be suspending hat production until they tell me they need more, but I suspect that in particular, the ladybugs are going to sell like hotcakes regardless of the season. Maybe I'd better knit a few more to get ahead of the game.

Joppa Flats Hat 40

Day 122: This marks the 40th hat I have created for Mass Audubon's Joppa Flats Education Center. I haven't posted many of the rest because...well, because my readers have seen the basic styles (stocking cap, ladybug and bee), but this one is something special. It is the first full piece I've made in the "woven knitting" style where no float longer than two stitches is carried on the reverse of the work. I practiced with a swatch until I could manage fairly even tension with two strands held in my left hand, Continental-style. Being Fair Isle, the work needed minor blocking, something you don't really worry about when you're knitting k2, p2 rib. I could still use more practice in managing the strands, but overall, I'm pleased with the way it turned out. I completed the Fair Isle section on a second hat this morning. Joppa box number 3 will be on its way as soon as hats 41 and 42 are in it, and then I can get to a pair of socks to fill a paying order. Gotta sell something every now and then so I can feed my yarn habit!

Infestation!

Day 112: "Ladybug, ladybug...The most commonly seen ladybugs (ladybird beetles) were introduced to the United States to control aphids. As cute as they may be, these red and black insects may outcompete native species in some areas." So reads the interpretive tag I am including with the ladybug hats bound for Mass Audubon Joppa Flats Education Center's gift shop. As you can see, they've taken over my front flower bed and are wreaking havoc with the junipers. Oh dear! Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home!

I can vouch for these critters as competitors. They very nearly won over the rights to my house about twenty years ago. For about two weeks, I kept finding them everywhere, but the capping climax was the morning I removed 38 of them from my shower! And did you know that some species bite? I learned that the hard way, too. But all that aside, there has never been a more adorable "bug" despite the fact that they need to be accompanied by warning labels.

Knittive Species

Day 107: My "Bee-Wear" hat design brought lots of favourable comments from friends, along with a number of requests for a ladybug version. I was somewhat reluctant. After all, the little red critter with black spots we call "ladybug" is an introduced species, brought here from Europe to control aphids. Our native species do not have the red and black colouration. My immediate reaction was that it would be inappropriate for a nature center, but who doesn't love ladybugs? I decided to give the idea a whirl. However, I was faced with the problem of being able to produce the hats quickly and easily as knitwear, and dismissed the options of using felt patches or big black buttons for the spots.

Although it's been many moons since I took up bobbins/butterflies to do multiple colours, I decided that the best way to attack ladybugs was with intarsia coupled with Fair Isle. Here, I carried the red yarn around the row, performing a wrap-and-turn at the end of the round so that I could work on circular needles in a back-and-forth manner, knitting one row and purling back, a technique which allowed me to pick up the black butterflies where I had dropped them at the left edge of each spot. This worked very well, although my execution of the carryovers was a little too snug on this prototype. Developing the head and antennae required a bit more thought. I finally decided to knit the piece in the round on only seven stitches. Cute? Yes, and although this "knittive species" of ladybug may require a bit more time to produce, I suspect they'll be popular in Joppa Flats' gift shop.

Bee-Wear

Day 103: The United States is on the fast track for achieving the unenviable status as the world's most environmentally insensitive country, and that's a shameful drop from being one of the leaders in environmental technologies and protections. You can thank the current administration for the decline. Stupid, wrong-headed and greedy, the Trumpskyites and their chief are out to grab money with no mind to the fact that they and their children are not going to have air to breathe or food on their tables if they continue on their current course. It's going to be up to us, the little people, to save the world. To that end, I beg you to support the environmental causes nearest to your heart whether they're on behalf of birds, bats, bees or bison. DO something! If you can't find it in your budget to contribute financially, give them some of your time by volunteering.

"Bee-wear" (the next installment in my Joppa Flats Hats Project) has been designed to promote pollinator awareness. Many of our pollinators are in decline, but none quite so dramatically as bees. Native bees need native plants in order to survive and be healthy. Find out what native species your local bees need and plan your landscaping accordingly.

Another Dozen

Day 100: Even while I've been knocked flat by the combination of flu and pneumonia, my fingers have not been idle. Okay, there were times when getting through a single row felt like climbing a mountain, but the same principle applies: just put one foot/finger in front of the other and keep moving forward. You'll get there eventually. My sincere thanks go to Kelli (wife of my good friend Kevin) for her generous gift of yarns. Five of the hats shown here were made from her donation. Thanks are also due Jean, our former campground host for her contribution to my "Joppa Flats Hats" project. Much of the yarn used in previous dozen came from her stash, as did the material for three or four of these. Proceeds from the sale of these hats (to be sold in Mass Audubon's Joppa Flats Education Center in Newburyport MA) go exclusively to support their bird-banding program. I am thrilled to be able to contribute...long-distance!

Ship's Hawser And Telephone Poles

Day 90: I am six hats into a second dozen I'll be sending to the Joppa Flats Audubon Education Center, and I am grateful to the friends who have donated a variety of yarns for the project. That said, I don't ordinarily work with needles larger than size 5 and never with yarn heavier than worsted. My hands are small and I prefer to work with finer gauge materials. However, the last batch of yarn to come into my hands included a couple of skeins of bulky. I moved up to size 7 needles in one instance and to size 9 for the white/almond fleck shown here. I felt like I was knitting ship's hawser with a pair of telephone poles!

The Joppa Flats Chorale

Day 64: The Joppa Flats Chorale is all kitted out in their new hats, ready to sing "Whence Comes This Rush of Wings Afar" and "Noel of Small Birds" (the latter written by me). The Bird Gang normally gets to come out of storage for an annual portrait, so it seemed fitting to invite the larger members to model the dozen hats I've created to be sold in the Joppa Flats Education Center's gift shop. This program is supported by volunteer knitters, and all proceeds go to benefit Joppa's bird-banding station. It was a way I could contribute to them without stressing my personal budget; "sweat-equity," if you will, if only the finger muscles get exercised. Joppa's team does good work. I had the privilege of visiting the center when I was visiting a friend in New Hampshire several years ago and was immediately impressed by their work with young people. I suspect quite a few future scientists will have found their beginnings at Joppa, and that, dear readers, is something to sing...or Crow about!