I feel that I’ve ignored my written duties in the last few weeks – not updating my blog regularly, not writing chapters in the book I’m working on, not writing to friends aside from a brief, “Hey!” Even when I see friends in person, like Rose who came out on Friday for a nice visit with her sweet husband, I feel very distracted, as if I had several minds all competing to be the top dog.

We had a nice visit, knit a bit together and then had dinner, but I just felt as if I were floating above the room and someone else were sitting in my place. And now I’m leaving for another 10 days…

Tomorrow morning I leave very early for Cleveland, where I’ll stay with a good friend and do a little knitting, then on Tuesday on to Allegan, MI for the fiber festival. I’ll teach on Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sunday – I’ll stay overnight and then drive home, where I will stay for 2-1/2 weeks before I leave again.

I’ve been looking into some kind of online books-on-tape to take with me while I travel. I’m still using OS9.whatever on my mac, and some of the book clubs require OSX (I’m not quite ready to move up, some of my software is old and creaky and doesn’t travel to new operating systems very well…) If anyone has a suggestion for one, I’d love to hear it!

Steamed Up

Jane asked in my commets: I haven’t used my steamer for my clothes or knitted projects. Are they not to strong for fabrics? I really would love to use it if it wouldn’t harm the fabrics.

A steamer is actually not too strong for most fabrics – I use it on silks, cottons, woolens & blends. I got in the habit of steaming instead of pressing when I was in grad school (costume design) and find it refreshes garments when I hang them up and give them a good steam!

When blocking with my steamer I hold it farther away from the delicate fabrics (tiny gauge or sensitive fibers) – and do a swatch test with my steaming on any fiber that has a man-made component to make sure it won’t melt!

When steaming a piece my first step is to get the piece damp and warm. Then I pull it back and forth with my hands to even out the stitches, and lay it flat and smooth it with my hands so that it can cool flat. It’s not really how to steam something that does the work of blocking, but how it cools! It’s like when you blowdry your hair – you need to hold it on the brush or pin it in place until it’s cool.

It’s the same with the fibers in knitting – I use my steamer to cajole the fibers to lay the way I’d like them to lay, then I allow them to cool and dry thoroughly before I move them again.

But you do need to be sensible and test a swatch to see if your fabric is too heat sensitive for a steamer. As far as affecting dyes, the only problem I’ve had with that are with dyes that aren’t set very well (it happens!) and by the time I’ve knit a garment I have an inkling that this might be a problem because of the dye on my hands. If the fabric can take it, I find that steaming can actually help set a color (I’ve also been known to microwave my yarn that is bleeding dye to set it!)