Pattern: Filet Crochet Matzah Cover

To download a full-sze version of the chart, click the image above. On the Flickr page, right-click the image and choose Original. Click the Download link and save to your hard drive.

The matzah cover design is 11.5 inches high and 12.5 inches wide, at a gauge of 6 squares per inch. I don’t recall what thread or hook I used, but they must have been fairly fine. Mine was designed to cover a 3-compartment matzah holder for square machine-made matzah. Of course, a fabric backing or matzah holder is optional, but it gives the cover a nice finish.

The chart is 96 squares high and 85 squares wide.

Matzah Cover, 1873

And for a little visual inspiration, here’s an embroidered matzah cover, surreptitiously photographed at the Israel Museum. It is designed to cover large round matzahs. The triangular tabs at the bottom, labeled “Kohen,” “Levi,” and “Israel” for the three matzahs representing the three parts of the Jewish people, are attached to layers that divide three compartments. The name embroidered below the crown is Avraham Shtern-something. I can’t quite make out the last two letters after the resh. Probably polychrome silk on silk satin, although I can’t swear to it because I’m going by a photo, not the actual artifact (and they’re not likely to allow me to handle the fabric, in any case). It’s almost certainly professional work, judging by the materials, the gold bullion letters, and the stones set in the crown. The ruffled lace edging looks like chemical lace.

Tutorial: How to Make a Needlework Chart with Visio

This year I didn’t pack my filet crochet matzah cover away right after Pesach. Someone who saw my Flickr photo requested the pattern and I decided to make it available. The only problem was that I didn’t have any charting software.

Years ago, on my Windows95 machine, I had an old copy of PC Stitch, which was adequate for charting but not ideal. To be honest, it felt like an old DOS program that had been ported into Windows, which was probably what it was. I decided to use MS Visio 2007 (part of the Office suite) to see whether it would work. Voilà – A chart in one evening!

Note: I know that some people use Excel for charting. It is easier to use and more readily available than Visio. Visio’s main strength is that it is a graphics program with a built-in grid (you’re laying your grid lines on top of the background grid lines, which don’t show in the finished drawing). You can export your finished design as a PDF or JPEG. You can re-use the grid for other designs by hiding or deleting your current design layer.

How to Make a Needlework Chart with Visio

1. Launch Visio and open a blank block diagram, stretching the canvas until its large enough for your design by pressing Ctrl and dragging the edges.
2. Make sure your Drawing Tools toolbar is visible (right-click the toolbars and make sure the Drawing toolbar is checked).
3. The grid is visible by default. If it isn’t, click View > Grid.
4. Snap-to-Grid is enabled by default. If it isn’t, click Tools > Snap & Glue.
5. Click the Line tool on the Drawing Tools toolbar and draw horizontal and vertical red lines, 10 squares apart.
6. Select the red lines and save them to a layer called “grid_red” (Format > Layer).
7. Lock the “grid_red” layer (View > Layer Properties).
8. Draw a grid of black lines. This isn’t as tedious as it sounds: Draw one black line. Duplicate (Ctrl-drag or copy/paste) them until you have 9 parallel lines positioned correctly. Select all 9 lines and group them (Ctrl-G). Copy them (Ctrl-drag) them between each pair of red lines.
9. Save the black lines to a layer called “grid_black” and lock it.
10. Creat another layer called Design (View > Layer Properties. Click New). Check the Active checkbox so that all things you draw from now on will be saved to that layer (this should happen anyway because you have locked the grid layers).
11. Draw a black square, no line, to fill one of the squares. Using Ctrl-drag to duplicate the box, start filling in the letter shapes. If there are long horizontal or vertical lines, stretch the black square to fit. Copy and paste duplicate letter shapes.
12. Save file. You can export as JPG or PDF (File > Save as).

When I’ve laundered the cover, blocked it, and photographed it properly (the photo above really doesn’t do it justice), I’ll post the pattern.

Ruffle Mesh Scarves, or “We Are All Individuals”

I’m going through another lemming phase. Is there any corner of the world that hasn’t been hit by Ruffle Mesh Scarf Frenzy? I thought it was an isolated event, perhaps an English thing, because the first ruffle mesh scarf I encountered was knitted by the English mother of a coworker. Here’s Elana’s black and grey scarf worked in Samba yarn:

I thought I would have to order yarn from the UK, until I happened to see ruffle mesh yarn in Yetsirah in Talpiyot (HaUman Street) and bought a couple balls from their wide selection of Kartopu “Lace”, a Turkish yarn:

The next day, I walked into Ahuva’s room at work and … she was wearing a ruffle mesh scarf that she had made. She doesn’t even knit! The store owner in the shuk taught her how to “cast on” six stitches and work back and forth until the yarn was used up. She used an Israeli version of this yarn manufactured by Teddy. (Photo below: Ahuva, multimedia wiz and Gur hassid — not a combination you encounter every day):

Just for the record, Ahuva thought the Teddy yarn was too limp and fine. She ended up casting on 8 stitches and skipping meshes in order to get a fuller ruffle.

Here’s my first finished scarf. Subdued little critter, ain’t it? It makes my brightest sweaters look muted.

Ahuva passed on a useful hint. This yarn gets very twisted when it comes off the ball and you spend a lot of time untwisting the yarn and spreading the meshes. It’s much easier to work if you wrap the ball of yarn around a piece of cardboard.

You need 100 grams for one scarf. Prices vary between 24 and 26 NIS (and if you’re thinking of making a killing on Etsy, you’re about three months too late!). The technique is not true knitting. It’s a looping technique that uses knitting needles. I had no idea how these scarves were made when I bought a couple balls in Yetsirah on my way to a wedding at Yarok be’Ir in Talpiot. I asked the saleswoman what size needles I needed and she insisted on showing me when she realised that I had never knit it before. She cast on 6 stitches, knitted a row, watched me knit a row, and slipped the stitches onto a paper clip. Here’s a video that explains the process. One difference is that I was taught to tie a knot in the yarn at the beginning. The knot doesn’t show. After I cast off, I pulled the tail through the last loop, tied a knot, and cut the tail off. It seems to hold well and doesn’t require sewing.

Spiral Crochet Kippah

I always keep a few mindless projects going (for those times when I don’t have two brain cells to rub together). I’m doing this in double crochet, although it results in a softer kippah than usual, because the spiral shows up better with a wider stripe. I’m using perle 8 cotton (medium blue and variegated orange) and a 1 mm crochet hook. I could have used a smaller hook for a tighter stitch but I don’t enjoy embedding sharp objects in my fingers while riding in moving vehicles.

Spiral Crochet Directions

Spiral crochet is quite easy but my brief instructions presume that you already know know how to make spiral in a single colour, starting from a central ring.

First colour: Chain 5, slip stitch to form ring. Chain 2 and work 5 double crochet in ring. Drop this colour, leaving a large loop so that the stitches don’t unravel.
Second colour: Slip stitch into ring, chain 2 and work 5 double crochet in ring. Work 2 double crochet on the 2 chain of the first colour. Continue working in the tops of the stitches of the first colour until you reach the loop of the first colour. Drop this colour, leaving a large loop so that the stitches don’t unravel.
First colour: Using the loop you left, work 2 double crochet on the 2 chain of the second colour. Continue working in the tops of the stitches of the second colour.
Remember to increase so that the center lies flat. It’s difficult to give precise instructions for increasing.
When you want to finish, try to have the colours on opposite sides of the kippah. Taper off each colour by working successively shorter stitches (e.g., 3 half double crochet, 3 single crochet, 3 slip stitch, fasten off).

Other Kippot

Here are a few that I made for my son, back in the day when he would wear almost anything I made.

Intarsia Kippah

The bar mitzvah kippah was done in a type of crochet intarsia. I didn’t carry the colours all the way around. When I finished a few stitches of a single colour, I carried the colour back over to the right (i.e., to the point where it would be required on the next round). I crocheted over the loose strand on the back. It’s easier to show in a diagram than words, so that will have to be the topic of a future blog posting.

Fair Isle Kippot

I made these two Fair Isle kippot when I had a lot more time on my hands. I made up the patterns as I went along, choosing small repeats so that they would be easy to fit into the number of stitches. I don’t have patterns for these. In any case, crocheted kippot are very difficult to write patterns because the number of stitches in each row is so dependent on one’s tension. So if you really want to try this, pick up a book of Fair Isle patterns, choose some geometric designs with very short repeats (say, 3-5 stitches) and a couple colours and just have fun!

Romanian Point Lace

Today most of the world is celebrating Valentine’s day by making restaurateurs and chocolatiers rich, so I’m posting this small Romanian point lace heart. I made this sample in February 2008, when I was participating in a Thing-a-Day project. It’s always held in February, so if you’re interested, put a reminder in your calendar for next year.

Romanian point lace, also called Romanian braid lace and macrame lace, is one of the easiest needle laces to master. You crochet a flexible braid (seen around the outside of the heart in my motif), tack it down with a needle and thread to a cloth backing, and then work various lace fillings with a needle through the loops. It works up quickly because it’s such a coarse lace. My motif was worked in perle 8 crochet cotton. The only tedious aspect is crocheting miles of braid if you want to work a large doily.

Getting the braid started can be tricky. Once you’ve done a few stitches, you can work on automatic pilot for hours … days …. Here’s a YouTube video that explains the process quite well.

Joanne in Manitoba has posted a clear tutorial with photos. There is also a Flickr pool.

The best book on the subject is Angela Thompson’s and Kathleen Walker’s Romanian Point Lace. Clearly written and beautifully photographed, it will keep you busy for quite a while. Every time I open this book, I want to grab my crochet hook and start churning out yards of braid.

Years ago a woman used to sell Romanian point lace doilies in front of the Mashbir department store in Jerusalem. Romanian immigrants in Israel made simple doilies and clusters of grapes and leaves (very similar to Irish crochet). I found a Hebrew book on Romanian point lace, published in 1987, in a used bookstore.

Orenburg Square Medallion Shawl – Approaching the Halfway Mark

Update (Feb. 16): As Isabelle and others have noticed, there are mistakes in the pattern. Fortunately, Mairi has written corrections on her Ravelry page.

I just realised that I’m long overdue for an update on this project. The pattern is the Square Medallion Shawl from The Gossamer Webs Design Collection: Three Orenburg Shawls to Knit. I was starting to despair of this shawl ever being finished.

I started knitting this shawl in linen and realised that linen isn’ t stretchy enough for Orenburg shawl construction, although it would have been fine for a Niebling doily. So I ripped it out and started over, using a lace-weight off-white wool (Botany Bay, probably a knitting machine yarn).

Then I found a hole:

It was too large to ignore, so I ripped back 60 rows. That was painful. The wool was so springy that picking up yarn-overs proved tricky. In the photo below I ran a 1.5 mm circular needle through the stitches. Even working under a magnifying glass I still ended up with half the stitches from one row and the other half on another row.

After ripping out thousands of stitches (60×200 rows or so), I put away the project for a while. I resumed it after the pain of ripping out all those stitches had faded.

Have you tired of my knitting posts yet? I was housebound for two weeks, so there wasn’t a lot to photograph. Now I’m back at work, with less time to knit.

Channeling My Inner Hobbit (Finished Cowl)

I wanted a really fast knitting project to use up some of my yarn. I was very surprised to find this bulky roving-type yarn in my closet because I almost never knit on needles larger than 4 mm. It must have been someone’s stash cull. It’s not the sort of thing I would buy. I have no idea of the yardage because there’s so little information on the label (Tsemer haHasidah “Berber”) but the entire piece took 430 gms of yarn. The pattern is called GAP-tastic Cowl, a free download on Ravelry.

I haven’t purchased yarn for years, unless you count the small quantities to make kippot (yarmulkes) for the menfolk in my family. Someone told me about Esse, a site that sells Estonian yarn, so I bought 150 gms of Aade Löng Natural 8/2 in grey and Aade Löng Artistic 8/2 in “Rainbow,” along with some circular needles. The order was shipped within two days and arrived two days later by registered mail. I’m very pleased with the service so far. It seems to be located in Haifa.

The stock seems to vary from week to week (I couldn’t find the same grey yarn when I checked the site today) and is limited to Aade Löng wool in 3 weights, various Grignasco cottons, and a large selection of Addi needles and crochet hooks. Wow. When I came to Israel in 1989 it was nearly impossible to find lace needles, circulars in different lengths (other than 100 cm), and very thick or thin needles. It’s unbelievable to see how much is available nowadays.

Today is my last day of sick leave. The stitches were taken out this morning and I’m wearing normal shoes again. I had hoped to run a few errands but the country is in the midst of a severe dust storm. A strong, bone-chilling wind is blowing sand and dust everywhere. The sky looks yellow. Normally you can see buildings on the hillside across the wadi. I took this photo from my balcony.

Bullion Crochet Flower: Success At Last

This small accomplishment makes me absurdly happy. I tried crocheting the bullion (aka roll) stitch last night in this variegated cotton yarn and ended up with some impressive sculptural effects but nothing that could be identified as bullions. So I went to YouTube for tutorials and found a number of workarounds developed by clever crocheters. This video had the most elegant solution and it worked very well for me. The video is in Russian, but you don’t need the commentary. Just pick up a tapestry needle.

Orenburg Honeycomb Scarf

I need another knitting project, right? Actually, I had a problem — I have two balls of lace-weight yarn (blue Jaggerspun Zephyr and a ball of purple machine-knitting yarn), not enough to make a scarf individually, but together they will be sufficient. I’ve alternated two rows of blue with two rows of purple. I wanted another lace project, one that I could carry around and wouldn’t require a chart.

I found the gauge to be a little “off” from my own. I am using size 2 (2.75 mm) needles and cast on 106 stitches for a 19″ wide scarf or shawl. The original pattern called for 130 stitches, which produced much too wide a shawl. If I had access to more of this yarn I might have knitted it as a stole, but I was concerned that I wouldn’t have enough yarn to complete the project.

The “Orenburg Honeycomb Lace Scarf to Knit,” by Galina A. Khmeleva, is published in PieceWork magazine (May/June 2010). At the moment, this back issue is still in stock. It’s their third annual lace issue, with an article on Herbert Niebling and a pattern for the lovely bag on the cover.

Doodling with a Knife

I haven’t done a papercut for quite a while. This is a small (5″x7″) freeform papercut that I made this afternoon. Basically, I drew a bunch of leaves and cut them out.