Adhesives for Glass from Streuter Technologies

At the beginning of the year I blogged about Streuter Technologies products after encountering them at both CHA, The Craft and Hobby Association Show and then in Las Vegas at Glasscraft . My good friend and glass goddess, Leigh Adams has always raved about their adhesives. She uses the No Days sheet and mesh adhesives for mosaic work and the fusing adhesive for, let me guess…fusing. The sheet and mesh, as well as a number of their products are heat activated. A heat gun or an oven or even a kiln at low temperature will activate the glue and the hold is amazing. But more importantly is that if you’re creating mosaic work it’s ready to grout immediately. You don’t have to wait overnight for the glue to dry. Once the piece has cooled down, you’re ready to go. And as an instructor, that allows a mosaic class in a day…even just a couple of hours. Fabulous!

And the fusing adhesive is just as cool. Sometimes you need to tack everything down and then walk it to the kiln. Any false move and there’s glass or frit everywhere without some glue to assist. Not cool. And some glues, whether you like it or not can leave a residue. Yuck. The No Days fusing adhesive leaves no residue and it dries quickly and completely. Nice…and also handy if you teach. Nobody wants to wait around for their glue to dry. And no one wants residue…

Not too long ago I did a test knit for another designer that was for a cabled cardigan. It’s really cozy and nice but it just about broke me in a ton of different ways. I couldn’t get gauge, which I suppose is my own problem, but mainly I was somehow both bored and forced to pay attention at the same time.

Because it used the same cable all over, I always had to know what row I was on, but nine out of ten of those rows, nothing in particular was going on. So I couldn’t stop paying attention, but what I needed to attend to was boring.

It may have ruined me for knitting cabled sweaters, but maybe I just need something that’s more engaging. Like this Modern Aran Cardigan pattern from Lion Brand Yarn.

This is a reworking of an old pattern from their archives, and you can tell that form the classic look of the cables and the oversized feel (nothing cropped about this one!). It has allover cables, but like a classic Aran sweater it’s not the same cable, so you’ll have to pay attention to what row you’re on and what cable turns happen for which cables on that row.

Because of this, it’s considered an intermediate knitting pattern, but if you’re comfortable working from multiple charts at once it shouldn’t be a problem for you. There are three different charts and seven different cable moves.

Also because the pattern is so big and boxy there are only two sizes available, with a finished chest measurement of either 49 or 63 inches (that’s 124.5 or 160 cm). It’s up to you to decide how much ease you would like and whether that will work for your body.

The pattern uses worsted weight yarn (and calls for another classic, Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool). It calls for six buttons and includes pockets to make it extra cozy.

This one looks like a great winter project to make and to wear if you’re up for a bit of a challenge. You can grab the free pattern or buy a kit with the yarn needed direct from Lion Brand Yarn.

[Photo: Lion Brand Yarn]

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