linen & flax – Page 3

Yarn Tasting: Shibui Twig

Published on May 19, 2015March 11, 2019 by Jen6 Comments

If ‘rascally’ could be a word to describe yarn, I would say linen yarn is very much so. Crisp, unyielding, stubborn, and relentlessly tough stuff, linen has a great appeal to me… oh such like rusty found things, or uncushioned old benches, or crackled old earthenware. I love this stuff, and wear it constantly, year round.

Even winding it off the swift, into a ball , it has a mind of it’s own…rather messy in appearance, not laying in unison with other strands, wrestling it into a ball, as it tried to be a cube, was a task in and of it’s own!

I will tame it. It may take ten cycles in the washer & dryer along with a load of white towels, but it will soften and be every bit as wonderful as my favorite linen shirts.

This yarn however, is only 46% linen. I bought it to dip my toes into the feel of linen, for I do have 3 skeins of navy colored 100% wet spun linen waiting to be knit up. It is also 42% recycled silk, and 12% wool. It is Shibui “Twig” , and there is 190 yards of it. I am going to be sampling this lovely summery linen blend with my Una Cosettina pattern , as I have gone quite on a tangent today.

I am putting down Snowmelt gaiters for a short while, let them sit on a table for a few days. What is the rush anyway? I am my own competition , I feel suddenly today like having a little play time, so here I am yarn tasting again, going to pour myself a tall one of what I consider the perfect Northern California yarn!

Refashioned

Published on May 29, 2014June 13, 2014 by Jen8 Comments

I took a big men’s blue check linen shirt I found at Goodwill Thrift shop a few months ago, for a couple of dollars, and this morning reconstructed it into a pretty shirt with details I have done so much I call them ‘signature’. I took my time before I cut with scissors because I really put a lot of thought into the details I wanted.

Such as the cut off cuff hemmed with sleeve placket and then a button for show.

This time I took some of the length cut off from the shirt and made a little detail sewn over pleats. (oops, I forgot to photograph the before photo), then added buttons. I love it !

I also separated the felled seam at the bottom edge and rather hurriedly made a make-shift after-thought side seam placket, and decided to make the front shorter.

Also I sewed the button placket down because I hate gaping button plackets on shirts. Voila ! Refashioned 100% linen summer shirt ! For two dollars !!! Did I already mention that I love it?

Linen

Published on January 20, 2014March 11, 2019 by Jen10 Comments

Recently I stopped in on my Local Yarn Shop and bought these scrumptious sapphire gems of Louet Euroflax Wet-Spun Linen yarn. There were three x 270 yard skeins of fine sport weight yarn that screamed ‘take me home with you!’ all in unison, and so I did. Actually, had I not had a colossal store credit from a very generous gift, I would never have splurged on these, it was just one of those rare situations.

The honest truth is, I’ve been hankering to try the Euroflax yarn forever, and to try a simple lace stole too, so why not make this my starting point? Knowing full well that I am soon to be knitting up something for Spring Sweaters for my nieces, it will have to be something I can put down for a good long rest and just pick up whenever . . . a ‘take along in my knit-walking bag’ sort of thing, for the months ahead in spring and summer. In fact, I can’t imagine anything nicer to knit in hot weather than deep blue cool tones of linen, in the color of cold mountain lakes, or new jeans.

That’s right, I don’t expect to finish anytime soon, but I can hardly wait to begin those yarn-overs, just wading through row after row of crisp linen. Just something about linen which tickles a spot for me, and I feel though it was a bit of a stash-quest, it will be ready when I decide to cast on.

Good Things

Published on August 30, 2013August 24, 2020 by Jen10 Comments

Wholesome and necessary are words that describe two materials known to humankind for thousands of years; linen & shell. I shouldn’t crave these things, these essential objects as I do, but I do love the little unworldly things in life… like ice cream, linen, and shell buttons.

Let me begin with my love of linen. This is not just a fondness, but an intimate part of me, and the way I dress. I could happily wear a fine white linen blouse every day of the year. I hardly can begin to describe why, or when this became so.

So in my limited & dwindling number of linen shirts, there have been more given up to the linen shirt graveyard than I care to face. I am a thrift shopper, and take the time to sleuth out fine linen shirts for dollars, alter when I must, and have cause to celebrate when I find one perfect just as is. I have come to face another fact, that I’ve been long overdue in learning to use this odd wooden thing . . .

. . . a darning egg.

In above photo is my first attempt at darning, and I am so pleased with myself I can’t even tell you ! After two darned ‘holes’ , and switching from off-white to white thread, I started to get the knack. I managed to close up and fill in the underarm disaster areas which my favorite shirts began to show, after near constant wear, and the final darning jobs were alright by me.

Satisfied that my work is pretty much unnoticeable when not back-lit, I decided to try the small holes which happened to riddle my favorite shirt, one with a label that reads the beautiful words “100% Irish Linen”. I managed to darn all the wee holes in it, ‘it’ which is my favorite linen gig shirt which has not been worn, but hanging in the closet for a couple of years now. I was floating for a whole day from this darning epiphany !

But sometimes one must surrender a great linen shirt , in the end, to the scizzors (as I had in this post ), for it becomes too thread-bare. I made a fine linen hand kerchief, and I even got to collect the lovely shell buttons from it. Those pearly surfaced little treasures are put in a little jar , a present-place destination, an artful limbo, for buttons of linen shirts past and future.

My Good Things,

unworldly, and essential.

New From Old

Published on September 13, 2012June 13, 2018 by Jen3 Comments

I took a short break from knitting, and made something fresh and new from something old and tatter’d. Like the saying goes ” a silk purse from a sow’s ear”.

Well, not exactly a sow’s ear. But a dearly beloved shirt I’ve worn to threads, bought ages ago from a thift-shop. Twice used !