* Pebbles & Sunshine *

I’m an avid crafter, and I’ve heard that there’s a lot of disdain in the art community for crafters. I admit that I have to laugh a little. See, I could be an artist but I don’t really want to. Why? There’s something in me that balks at creating something whose sole purpose is to be admired from afar. To me, something is so much more beautiful if it has a practical use. Let me explain a little.

First of all, it’s a fine line between the two. Certainly, when imbued with creative energy, crafting becomes an art. Similarly, every art can sink into routine mediocrity, making it a craft (Thomas Kinkade comes to mind, lol). However, there’s one one thing that distinguishes traditional crafts from arts: Crafts have been made into an exact science. So long as you follow the directions, you’ll come out with something acceptable, if not very unique. This lack of originality is what makes artists scoff at crafters. To them, art is something bigger, something containing a piece of the human spirit that created it. I absolutely respect this view — I love art and I think that on the whole it enhances human civilization (though some individual works really make you wonder).

But at heart, I’m a crafter and I think the case for crafting is rather more compelling. See, if you dig a little deeper, you’ll see that there’s a reason why some ancient pursuits were made into a science and others weren’t: They were useful. What does a painting or a steel-and-glass sculpture do for the basic human needs of food, shelter, and clothing? Not nearly as much as an afghan or sweater.

In other words, the crafts of today are the arts that our ancestors considered so important to their well-being, they formalized them for posterity. From that viewpoint, I think crafting is the more meritorious of the two, don’t you? :)

Yesterday, I sat down to learn short rows via Nona’s short row experiment. The idea is pretty simple: Knit the same short row swatch three times except using a different method for each; first the wrapped stitch method, second the yarn over method, and finally the Japanese method (or catch method as it’s called in Monste Stanley’s Knitter’s Handbook). Compare the results.

Around the knitting elite, it’s generally accepted that the less western and more foreign the technique, the better the results, so I wasn’t surprised when Nona ranked the Japanese method best, the yarn over next, and the wrapped stitch the worst for both ease of execution and smooth results. As a knitting geek who espouses top down sweaters, toe up socks, and seamless everythings, I’m no wallflower when it comes to flouting convention. So I snuggled up with a ball of yarn and happily looked forward to yet another esoteric technique and proof of its superiority.

What I got was not at all what I expected. After doing the experiment twice, I had a completely different ranking than Nona and the rest of the knitting world. The first time, I couldn’t believe my eyes. “Perhaps it’s because I’m not familiar with the yarn over and Japanese methods,” I thought. “Or maybe it’s the differing tension. The yarn over swatch is a bit looser.” I reknit them the next day, carefully keeping my tension on the tight side. To no avail. Finally in desperation, I submitted the swatches to my techie husband, thinking that perhaps my emotionality was biasing my judgment. After examining the swatches, my husband tossed back the yarn over swatch with “Well, this one’s easily the worst.” The other two were close, but after another moment, he handed me the Japanese swatch with “This one’s runner-up,” and finally the wrapped stitch, “And this one’s the best.” My conclusions exactly.

Wrapped stitch, Japanese, yarn over, in that order. Who would’ve thought? To shake things up even more, I found the wrapped stitch the easiest to execute — simply pop the wrap onto the needle and knit or purl it together with the next stitch; super simple, super straightforward. The yarn over was alright once you got the hang of it, though you had to perform a fancy little contortion on the purl side involving slipping knitwise and purling through the back loop. The Japanese was the most awkward, with pins hanging every which way. It required me to drop a needle to fiddle with the pins, which slowed me down considerably. (Now if you do it the way PGR describes in Knitting in the Old Way, you don’t use pins; but I wouldn’t recommend it for first-timers as it’s rather hard to see which loop you’re supposed to pick up — been there, done that, had ugly results to show for it.)

Not to say that there weren’t advantages to the losers. I liked that the pins on the Japanese method visually marked the gaps I needed to close; on the other methods I’d sometimes miss a wrap or a yarn over. As for the yarn over method, the advantage is purely emotional: I’m addicted to lace and therefore yarn overs. To think that they can be used in short rows too … well, that’s just peachy.

So, final conclusions? I’ll probably keep the wrapped stitch and Japanese methods around. The yarn over method, though fun, will probably be retired on account of its mediocre results.

One thing that I’d like to explore is which method works better when you have to turn twice in the same spot, such as a short row toe or heel. Does the wrapped stitch still trump? Or will one of the others win a dark horse victory?

Finally, here’s a photo of my swatches. Recall that we made our judgements based on both sight and touch.

Wrapped Stitch, Japanese, Yarn Over

As you can see, the yarn over swatch is a bit of a mess; it’s a clear last place. The wrapped stitch and Japanese are very close. The Japanese is a little nicer on the knit side (below the diagonal), but the wrapped stitch is smoother on the purl side (above the diagonal). What ultimately made the difference was the feel: The wrapped stitch felt smoother; the Japanese swatch had hard little bumps where the gaps were closed.

I think the Japanese method produced slightly better visual results, but considering the extra hassle and dubious benefits, I’ll probably just stick with the wrapped stitch for most things.

There are a one or two things in my life without which I get weirdly restless. One of these is musical instruments. The other is knitting. You think I would’ve learned by now not to deprive myself of either and especially not both. But that is exactly what I have done for the last few months. No wonder I found myself moody and depressed for two weeks straight recently. After some urging from my husband, I roused myself from my despondence and dug out the lace scarf I’d been working on. I picked up the needles and — voila! — felt better immediately!

I had started this scarf last spring as my first major undertaking in knitting lace. A tricky business, to be sure! but  beautiful enough that it’s worth the herculean effort. The pattern is a wide-bordered scarf from Victorian Lace Today — a beautiful collection! After a summer’s effort and one border, I put it away for several months.

It’s done in an inexpensive acrylic Red Heart yarn, the best attribute of which is its crisp white color, which is especially pleasing against my Asian skin tone. The sad thing about it is that since it’s acrylic, it won’t block when I’m done. Blocking is what gives lace its breathtaking beauty, so many would say that it’s a waste to knit lace with a yarn that won’t block. I’m a bit torn as to whether to start over with a wool yarn. It’ll be prettier that way. Then again, acrylic is indestructible, resulting in a lower-maintenance scarf that I’ll be more likely to wear. I’ll probably end up finishing it with what I have and doing future projects with better yarn. It’s good practice anyway.

So here it is so far:

Here’s a shot with back light, which always does lace favors:

Not bad for a first endeavor. If you’re wondering what it’s supposed to look like when it’s done (and blocked as, alas, this one shall never be), I scared up a few pictures. The left picture is from the book. The other two are finished projects by other knitters. I encourage you to click on them as they’re very impressive up close, especially the right-most picture.

(Disclaimer! I’m a very new blogger! I’m not sure what the rules/etiquette/copyright laws are on using other people’s pictures. This blog is a modest, mostly unread little thing and all I’m doing is offering praise, so hopefully I don’t upset anyone. Just in case, I’ll have it known that I grabbed the project pictures from the Victorian Lace Today Knitalong, so go visit them for me. There’s tons of beautiful projects there. It’ll be worth your while!)

By the way, in my search for pictures of the completed scarf, I came across several knitters who called this pattern a quick, easy knit! I’m amused and flabbergasted. It’s true that this is simple as lace goes — just peek into A Gathering of Lace and check out the multi-page charts (!) — but the vast majority of knitters I know are knit, purl, yarn-over sorts and would never even dream of doing lace. So to those who can whip up this scarf up in a jiffy, I’m impressed! You’re a much better knitter than I!