Sunday, March 30, 2008
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Update on my book and all things related to qiviut
I'm excited to say that Arctic Lace is written and delivered to my publisher. Now the fun continues, as my writing and Dom's photos get turned into a beautiful book by Deborah Robson and Rebekah Robson-May at Nomad Press.
I was very surprised the other day while visiting a museum at Rocky Mountain National Park, to see tiny musk oxen looking out at me from a display case. I was looking at miniature mammoth, and next to it stood two small animals that seemed very familiar to me. It took a couple of minutes for me to realize I was looking at musk oxen. It turns out that an ancient species of musk oxen, Bootherium cavifrons once roamed my home state of Colorado. What a surprise!
Colorado is also home to JConklinDesigns, the distributor for qiviut yarn from Wind Valley Musk Ox Farm. The farm, owned by John and Diane Nash is in Palmer, Alaska. I didn't get to visit them last year because they had just had triplets and I didn't want to invade on their privacy during this important time of their lives.
Lastly, I've recently discovered a qiviut knit-along. If you want to get started knitting with qiviut, and are too excited to wait until 2006 for <i>Arctic Lace</i> to come out, check it out here:
Monday, April 19, 2004
Saturday, April 17, 2004
Last Blog Entry - We are Home!!!!
Alaska. I thought I would love it. To be honest, I was afraid that I'd want to move there. The last two places I lived -- CA & CO -- were both places I visited first. Visited and stayed in California. Visited and moved to Colorado within six months. I was afraid I would fall in love with Alaska and not want to come home. But that did not happen.
Alaska is a beautiful place. And charming. The people are the friendliest I've encountered anywhere. They seem to have the public friendliness of Southerners without the aftertaste of phoniness or pretention. (I lived in the South for 10 years, so I feel like I can make this comparison honestly and without over-generalizing.)
There are a lot of benefits to living in Alaska:
It's off the beaten path -- even in the biggest city
Every resident gets a $300-1000 check each year from the "<a href="http://www.pfd.state.ak.us/">Permanent Fund</a>"
No State income tax or sales tax
Nature, nature, nature...
The drivers don't tailgate
Lots of snow
Real winters
But with all of that, Alaska doesn't stir my soul.
The lack of state taxes shows. The roads are full of potholes and there are no visible lines to separate lanes. There is absolutely no evidence of city planning anywhere. Buildings are run down. Architecture is boring. There is litter <i>everywhere</i> -- from Anchorage to Unalakleet -- and more appears each day as the snow melts.
Nature has its downsides, too. On the way out of Faribanks, we passed a stray dog on the road. Still wearing his collar, he looked like he'd been lost for quite some time. His ribs were showing and his right ear had been torn to shreds -- probably by some wild foe or a feral dog living in the woods. Not something you'd see in any of the tamer parts of the U.S.
Maybe it's not that Alaska has let me down. Maybe it's just that I am finally starting to feel at home in Colorado and I don't want to uproot myself again. At forty-two am I starting to grow up? Don't get me wrong, we had a <b>great</b> trip that was fun, educational, and entertaining. But maybe the grass is greenest in my own back yard.
Dorothy Reade's Lace Knitting Tips
As promised, here are some highlights and tips from the Lace Knitting workshop that Dorothy Reade taught to Ann Shell and Helen Howard in July of 1968. The workshop was customized specifically to cover topics and techniques for the Musk Ox Project. After talking with Helen Howard about this workshop the other day, I found a written report on the workshop by Ann Shell in the Oomingmak Co-op's archives.
Spinning qiviut--After guard hair and debris (hay, etc.) is removed, qiviut can be spun without carding (I've confirmed this myself.) Pre-carded merino or silk can be blended with qiviut by lightly carding them together two or three times. If you can possibly think of being able to afford a sweater made from qiviut, blending in wool or silk is a good idea because it adds strength to the yarn.
Knitting symbols--Dorothy Reade was an early proponent of using knitting charts instead of line-by-line instructions to illustrate cable and lace patterns. She only used a few stitches and symbols for her lace designs:
X knit
O yarn over
/ k2tog
\ k2tog through back loop
/\ s1, k2tog, psso
B knit in back loop
P purl
Needle suggestions--Dorothy Reade had some interesting recommendations about knitting needles, the like of which I have not seen mentioned anywhere else. I'm not sure if I agree with this, but here's what she said:
Metal needles give the tightest, firmest texture. (I imagine she means Boyd type needles, not Addi-Turbos!!!)
Wooden neeldes give a medium texture.
Plastic needles result in a soft, flowing fabric.
Dorothy said that straight needles (10-inches recommended length), give a different texture than circular needles even if they are the same size and made out of the same materials. I can't envision how this could be true, but I am interested enough that I will do some testing on my own.
Designing lace patterns--The basic lace design is "drawn" on a background of stockinette stitch with yarn-overs.
On the right side row following each purl row, the stitches above yarn-overs are knit through the back loop. This creates a very strong outline and accentuates the "drawing" much more than using a standard knit stitch.
K2tog is used for a right slanting decrease and k2tog-tbl for a left slanting decrease. This is <i>much</i> easier than the old-style sl1-k1-psso decrease.
I also found in doing my own swatches that k2tog-tbl maintains the knitting rhythm and makes it easier to keep track of the charted pattern than using the ssk decrease. (Ms. Reade says that k2tog-tbl is the "true" opposite of "k2tog", but I disagree. The ssk decrease is technically more of a mirror of k2tog, but the difference is negligble. I prefer to have the ease and speed of using Ms. Reade's suggestion.)
Well, that's enough of a teaser. I will be covering these topics in detail, with my own refinements, in the book. So you'll have to wait to find out more!
Friday, April 16, 2004
Knitting...but not with qiviut
Today we took a side track to visit Charilyn Cardwell's studio "Woofer Wearables". Charilyn knits custom garments from dog hair. You can save the fur when you brush your dog, and send it to her. She will handspin it and knit it into a beautiful garment, accessory, or home decor item for you.
Charilyn also is working on another fascinating project. The Alaska Zoo gives her the down that their two Bactrian Camels shed every spring. She cleans it, spins it, and knits up beautiful purses and other items that the zoo sells in their gift shop.
Woofer Wearables doesn't have a web site, but you can phone Charilyn at 907-745-4618 or send email to woofer@alaska.net.
More about MuskOx
Musk oxen--dead and alive-- are everywhere in Alaska...
Musk Ox at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art.
The Large Animal Research Station (LARS) in Fairbanks stands at the exact site where the Musk Ox Farm was born in 1964. Originally owned by the Yankovich family, the farm was left by Mike Yankovitch to the university for the study of musk ox. The farm remained in Fairbanks for ten years before moving to Unalakleet.
John Teal, an anthropologist and founder of the Musk Ox Development Corporation, had a dream to have indigenous peoples raising indigenous animals to create cash flow which would assist them in moving more fully into the cash economy. With the musk ox herd near a large village in Unalakleet, Alaska Natives could manage the herd that provided their qiviut for knitting. But the logistics of having a farm in such a remote area proved to be a nightmare. First, the farm was situated in a prime berry-picking location, making half of the population of Unalakleet unhappy with the newcomers from the start. Then, getting enough feed to the location in the winter turned out to be almost imposssible -- and outrageously expensive.
After Teal's death, the herd was moved again, this time to Palmer where it still operates today.
LARS, with musk ox, caribou, and reindeer, ended up on the original site in College in 1980 when 16 musk oxen were transplanted from Nunivak Island. (College is part of Fairbanks. It was originally separate, but when the two were given the same zip code by the Post Office, College became a part of Fairbanks.)
Whereas the Palmer farm is a commercial endeavor and an experiment in the domestication of musk oxen, the farm at LARS is primarily a research faciilty studying the biology of large arctic mammals with a focus on nutritional, physiological and behavioral research. These studies are designed to give insights into the management of wild populations to ensure their continued survival.
LARS is also a community outreach center, providing an opportunity for grade-school and high-school students to study at the site, and providing tours to the general public to help supplement the operating budget.
The two farms complement each other in practice, and conflict in philosophy.
---
Both farms provide qiviut to the Oomingmak Knitter's Co-op. LARS also sells raw qiviut for handspinners, and commercially spun lace-weight yarn:
<ul>
<li>One pound raw qiviut, $150</li>
<li>Half pound raw qiviut, $60</li>
<li>One ounce raw qiviut, $20</li>
<li>One ounce yarn (approx 320 yards), $50</li>
</ul>
They don't have an order form on their web site yet, for more info call 907-474-7945 or email fylars@uaf.edu.
Thursday, April 15, 2004
About Native Alaskan Cultures
Yesterday was a full day. We spent most of the day at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks photographing musk ox bones and hides and many Eskimo artifacts.
We also had lunch with Helen Howard, who has been involved with the Musk Ox Farm and Oomingmak Co-op since they were first started in the 60s. She told us a lot of fun stories, and showed us notes on lace knitting from a workshop she attended with Dorothy Reade.
Looking through the baskets, ivory carvings, and household tools from the various Native Alsakan groups was very interesting. You can clearly tell which items come from each culture and time period because the styles of construction and decoration are so unique.
Native Alaskans are very diverse, with many different cultural and geographic groups and about twenty different languages. There are three main groups:
Eskimo -- Most of the knitters in the co-op are Eskimos from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta area on the western coast of Alaska. The people towards the south are known as Yup'ik. The nothern groups are known as Inupiat. While their cultures have many similarities, these two groups speak separate languages, with many different dialects. Unlike the Eskimos in the far-north, the Yup'ik and Inupiaq people who live near the Bering Sea did not live in ice igloos. Fish are more prominent in their diets than sea mammals (especially to the south and inland), and they also eat many of the plants and berries that grow wild in Alaska. Today, many of the coastal villages are also filled with backyard gardens in the summer months.
Aleut -- The co-op has had a few Aleutian knitters in the past, but they are not actively involved today. The Inupiat peoples live on the Aleutian Archipelago at the southwest tip of Alaska.
Indian -- The Native Alaskans who live in the southeast parts of the state include the Eyak, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian Indians. The Athabascans live in the interior of the state. There are many sub groups of Athabascan including the Gwinich'in and Koyukon.
A map showing where different languages are spoken is very helpful.
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
To much to do in one day
Today was too full, and I am too exhausted to post anything. We'll be driving back to Anchorage tomorrow, so I should be able to rest my brain enough to post a long entry tomorrow.
I am starting to feel ready to come home.....
Sled Dogs...
I forgot, yesterday I found this neat headband made from a blend of Husky fur and wool.
This is from:
Subarctic Spinners Cooperative
An Alaskan Cabin Industry
PO Box 194
Cantwell, Alaska 99729
Click here for an interesting article about them.
If you're interested in dogs but not knitting, Mary Shields, the first woman to finish the Iditarod, has a neat web site. She has a lodge where you can get a tour, see her dogs, and visit with her personally. While you are there, you can also watch a PBS video featuring Mary and get autographed copies of her books. If you can't make it to Alaska right now, visit vicariously on her web site: http://www.maryshields.com