Prolific author and knitter Donna Druchunas is visiting with the WCKG today as part of the blog tour for her newest book, Arctic Lace. Be sure to visit some of the other stops on the tour, and add any questions you have in the comments below, as Donna herself may respond!

Arctic Lace: Knitting Projects and Stories Inspired by Alaska’s Native Knitters

In addition to the projects and information about lace knitting and qiviut, Arctic Lace tells the story of the Oomingmak Musk Ox Producers’ Co-operative in Anchorage, Alaska. The book is organised into distinct but seamlessly integrated sections, and will fascinate those with no intention of picking up knitting needles as readily as it will knitters of all skill levels.

MK: Donna, thank you for including us in your virtual travels. Knitting and writing seem to share equal billing in your time and priorities. If that is true, do you feel that one sometimes takes away from the other, or does each activity allow you to be more productive and creative in both?

DD: Thanks for inviting me as part of my blog book tour. It is a pleasure to be here!

Actually, I consider myself a writer and I count knitting as a hobby. I decided to write a knitting book because I wanted to get out of corporate technical writing and stop working in a cubicle. I though, “If I can write instructions for installing a hard drive, why can’t I write instructions about how to knit something?”

I find knitting design to be very easy and fast, although I don’t usually think of myself a designer and I rarely design sweaters or fitted garments. I spend very little time coming up with my designs. When I have an idea, I sketch it and make a swatch and it either works or it doesn’t. I don’t spend any time tweaking designs that are just OK or that might work if I change the yarn or needles or stitch…. Once I have an idea that works, I usually draft up the pattern and get a test knitter to make the model item. When the projects has unusual shaping or techniques, I usually knit it myself to figure out the pattern as I go. If it doesn’t work on the first or second try, I ditch the idea and move on to something else.

Writing, on the other hand, is quite difficult and time consuming for me. I need a lot of time to think and to organize my material. I draft quickly, but then I spend a lot more time revising my work. It feels a lot like pottery to me. The draft is just the raw material for the piece, and I spend a lot of time molding it into the shape I’m after. I enjoy the process of improving my words over several drafts, and I enjoy using my writing to sort out my thoughts and ideas on different subjects. Writing also gives me an excuse to follow my obsessions. And, to boot, you can never get bored writing because there are so many different subjects to explore!

In the future, I want to write several books that are not about knitting and get back to having time to knit just for fun.

MK: The Oomingmak Co-operative’s goals, circumstances, and activities are distinctly different from those of a typical North American guild or knitting group. Would you explain some of the differences and share any similarities you have found?

DD: Most knitting guilds in North America are really hobby clubs. Those of us who are really passionate about our hobby like to get together with others, share ideas, and just spend time enjoying knitting. The Oomingmak Co-op is a business with the main goal of making money. Most of the knitters live in remote villages of Alaska, and they don’t have meetings like a hobby guild. They do sometimes have workshops to train new knitters or to teach new patterns to the knitters. Although the workshops are similar to the knitting classes we go to for fun, their main purpose is that of a business training class.

MK: Each region uses their own knitting motif in all of the pieces they work for the co-op. Can you tell us how these symbolic patterns came to be, how and why they are protected, and how you developed the patterns that are published in the book?

DD: The earliest designs of the Oomingmak Co-op were developed by the co-op’s founders and the newer designs have been developed by member knitters. Each of the lace patterns is inspired by a piece of Yup’ik or Inupiat Eskimo art or craft work. For example, the original design for the harpoon pattern used on scarves and nachaqs (hoods), was inspired by the carving on a 1200 year old ivory harpoon head found on Nunivak Island, where the pattern is knitted. The other designs have similar inspirations, and you can read about these in Arctic Lace or in the product descriptions on the Co-op website. Unfortunately, the Co-op no longer has the artifacts that inspired the designs.

Like all ready-to-wear items, the Co-op’s designs are copyrighted. Making knockoffs to sell would obviously be illegal, and I was not able to include the patterns for the Oomingmak designs in Arctic Lace because the Co-op does not want the patterns to be published. Although expert lace knitters could probably knit the patterns from a photograph of the lace stitches, that would be taking income away from the knitters who depend on the sales of their items for their livelihoods. After conferring with Sigrun Robertson, the director of Oomingmak, I decided that I would develop my own line of lace patterns for my book.

I wanted my designs to be in the same style as the Co-op’s patterns, so I also based my lace patterns on Inupiat and Yup’ik artwork. During my research, I bought and borrowed several books about Eskimo artwork, and I also visited museums in Alaska. At the Museum of the North in Fairbanks, I was allowed to go through the archives and photograph many items. In the book, I show photos of the items that inspired each of the projects. For example, the diamond lace pattern in this photo was inspired by the diamond trim on the bottom edge of many fur parkas. While I was at the Alaska Native Heritage Center on my trip, I saw men and women sewing the trim of these parkas. They cut tiny pieces of black and white fur and stitch them together by hand to form intricate diamonds patterns.

MK: If a guild wanted to develop a motif pattern of their own, do you have any advice?

DD: What a great idea! The first challenge would be to come up with a symbol that would have meaning to the guild members, and still be recognizable to others. What do the members have in common? Are there certain kinds of fibers or animals that are guild favorites? Is there a regional emblem that is popular to show the locale of the guild? The possibilities for choosing a design are endless, and several different motifs can be combined into one organic piece, the way I used multiple patterns in the Chevron Scarf and the North Star Scarf and Tam in Arctic Lace. The key is to find common shapes or elements in the different motifs, to tie the design together visually. Or, you can use very different motifs together if you frame them with a similar border to give a quilt or patchwork style to the design.

Translating designs into lace is not has hard as it seems. The kind of lace I designed for Arctic Lace is best suited to strong, geometric shapes, and these designs also adapt well to stranded colorwork. But soft, organic shapes can also be created in lace, and they often translate well into intarsia colorwork. The shape is first outlined in yarn overs. You can do this on the computer using software like Stitch and Motif Maker or Knit Visualizer, or you can put graph paper over a sketch of your motif and trace it. After the yarn overs are in place, you put in decreases and optional twisted stitches to further outline the design. I have a step-by-step outline of this process in Arctic Lace and I also teach classes on designing your own lace. Students have created lace stitches ranging from geometric Navajo blanket motifs, to strands of DNA, to vines and leaves from a Philodendron plant.

For those who want to go beyond what I’ve included in Arctic Lace, I suggest reading Hand-knitted Lace by Margaret Stove and Knitting Lace by Susanna Lewis. But you’d better be ready! While Arctic Lace provides a basic overview that will let you design lace patterns, these books have enough information to give you a PhD in knitted lace.

MK: The patterns in your book can be used for a variety of yarns, but are designed for and knit in qiviut. Please tell us what qiviut is and how knitters might use it.

DD: Qiviut (pronounced kiv’-ee-yoot) is the soft down of the musk ox. It is said to be 8 times warmer than sheep’s wool, and it is the softest fiber I have ever touched, except possibly for guanaco (they are very close!) I used qiviut for most of the projects in Arctic Lace because that is the fiber that the Oomingmak knitters use. However, I also included a detailed section on yarn substitution.

100% qiviut yarn is very warm, and it only comes in thin yarns, ranging from cobweb to sport weight. When spun loosely, as most of the commercial qiviut yarns are, it has very little elasticity or give. It works best for knitting stoles, shawls, and scarves, which drape beautifully when blocked. Because is is a down fiber, qiviut has very little luster. Qiviut yarns also come blended with wool and silk to add elasticity and sheen. These yarns can be used for fitted garments and well as pieces with ribbing, and will hold the shape much better than 100% qiviut yarns.

All qiviut yarn, however, is somewhat fragile before it’s knitted because it is spun so finely and without a lot of twist. It can be broken easily with your hands, but I have never had it break on its own while I was knitting. You can rip things out, but if you did so over and over again, the yarn would eventually fall apart. After it is knitted, however, qiviut is quite strong. While the fiber itself is not very elastic, when it is knitted into lace and wetted, it will stretch quite a bit for blocking without tearing.

Although the Oomingmak Co-op is in Alaska, most of the yarns on the market today originate in Canada. There are a few small captive and wild herds of musk ox in Alaska, but there are hundreds of thousands of musk oxen in Canada. They are hunted (under quotas) by the Inuvialuit in the Yukon and Northwest Territories, and the hides are often sold to yarn manufacturers to help subsidize the people’s subsistence lifestyle.

Canadian sources for qiviut yarn and fiber include: Folknits, Belfast Mini-Mills, and Jacques Cartier Clothier & Qiviuk Boutiques. Most of the yarns sold by US companies are also made of Canadian fiber.

MK: Rare or luxury yarns are often opportunity purchases rather than supplies for a particular project. Do you have any advice for the next time someone is in this type of situation, or for knitters who already have something their stash?

DD: I talk about purchasing qiviut in Arctic Lace. I hope you don’t mind if I quote myself here!
To make sure you have a wonderful experience knitting with qiviut and end up with a garment that you will treasure, take the time to select your yarn carefully:
· Consider both mill-spun and handspun yarns. Mill-spun yarns are available in large quantities from commercial processors. Handspun yarns may be more difficult to find, but they are unique and often preserve the characteristics of the raw fiber in a way that is not possible in mechanized processing.
· If possible, feel the yarn before you buy it. If you order by mail, be sure to check the return policy in case you are not satisfied with the product you receive.
· Buy one skein for swatching first. Why lay out a large sum of cash before you’ve tested the yarn and pattern and are certain you want to proceed?
· Balance quality against cost. Some less-expensive yarns may have guard hair. Do you have the patience to pick it out?
· Soft yarns made from short-staple fibers sometimes pill. Although qiviut seems less susceptible to pilling than merino or other fine fibers, it does form a fluffy halo that can pill if treated harshly. Will this bother you? If so, consider substituting another lace-weight yarn in your pattern.

Qiviut works well for both small projects, such as gloves or headbands, and larger projects such as shawls and vests. I think it would be a bit too warm for a sweater, unless you live in the arctic! One ball can make a small project, and two balls is usually enough for a scarf. So you don’t have to break the bank if you have the opportunity to buy qiviut and are not sure what you’d like to knit with it.

MK: Donna, thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge and experiences, not only with us today but through the enormous investment involved in creating and publishing this book.

Donna Druchunas has written four books (2 are available now and 2 more are due out in 2007) and has published numerous articles and designs in in magazines like Family Circle Easy Knitting, Knitter’s, PieceWork, Interweave Knits, Fibre Focus, and INKnitters.

Arctic Lace : Knitting Projects and Stories Inspired by Alaska’s Native Knitters

by Donna Druchunas

Nomad Press, Oct 25 2006; ISBN: 0966828976

Printed in Canada.

The Knitted Rug : 21 Fantastic Designs

by Donna Druchunas

Lark Books, Nov 1 2005; ISBN: 1579907474

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