Bits n' Pieces

Small Christmas Gift Bag

Not a good photo, but this little bag is made in Step Stitch.

Close-up of the button.  I added a pearl to the centre

My Name is Gracie

Gracie is a 9" dolly

I got her in a car boot sale

And dressed her in a 1950s layette
and made a little pillow with lace edging for her head to rest on

All very silly, but I learned so much from doing these little bits of knitting.

It's All Very Dolly

Blocked and Ready to Sew

I've been knitting little bits.  It's all blocked out - I raced around yesterday morning early before work pinning and damping down because I have a day off today and can have a day of sewing up.  There are...

- Wrist warmers on behalf of my mum for  her great niece for Christmas.  Mum so badly wants to knit and has great ideas, but she struggles now, so a bit of it comes my way to finish.

- Dolly clothes from a 1950s (I think) pattern. 

Lots of Fun in a Sixpenny Pattern

 In my previous post I talked about reducing the needle size to get a better fit on the dolly.  This was a disaster - I now have a dress in a size for which I don't have a doll. So, went back to the original needle size and we'll see how that goes when all these little bits are put together.

Pretty, Pretty

There are also experimental Christmas bits in red green and white slip stitches - my favourite stitches.  I'm checking out how knitted gift bags might work.  Possibly a bit weird.  I enjoyed the knitting though.

Gift Bags? I Hope So

Sometimes, When it all gets Too Much

Dolly Pattern - Early Fifites?

I've not been feeling too well this last couple of weeks and I find that I go for comfort food (which is often a mistake), comfort reading and comfort knitting patterns.  Comfort reading usually involves cookery books.  Comfort knitting usually involves something very straight and uncomplicated.  But this time it's dolly patterns.  I'm having a try at this one.  The blue edging is done with a slip stitch - my favourite.  I've started the little dress in pink with cream edging.  The pattern proudly says 'THICK WOOL'.  I did a tension swatch and it's actually 4ply.  Those were the days.  Everyone knitted for themselves in 3ply and for the dolly and baby in 2ply.

The pattern is for a 10 inch dolly, but mine is 9 inches and much slimmer round the chest than the pattern has been made for.  So, I'm knitting on 3mm needles (old UK size 11) rather than 3.25 (old UK size 10).  Too weary to do another tension swatch to test it.

We'll see what happens.

Hallowe'en

Yvonne the Spider

This is Yvonne, especially designed and created for Hallowe'en along with the pumpkins.  I also managed to crochet Yvonne a web which is now in place at Beulah's, but quite difficult to photograph.  

Last week was one of those weeks when I had a sudden burst of creativity and saw how to make things.  Silly things admittedly, but very pleasing.  I now have loads more ideas.

Forgot to photograph them with their stalks 

Why do we do these things?

Why, oh Why, oh Why?

In the middle of everything else and the general knitting against the clock for Christmas, etc. I have suddenly taken it into my head to knit pumpkins.  Why do we do these things?  Now I'm planning a knitted bat.

Getting the 'carved' features right on the pumpkins is giving me a lot of trouble.  It was all going swimmingly up to that point.  I battled with them at the Upstairs Stitchers at Beulah's Vintage Attic on Thursday night while Jan gloated over her finished pair of socks, (first socks she has ever made) and the lovely Tina and Sarah made their small fabric goodies - flowery tea cosies, danglies for the Christmas tree and clip on flowers.

This is not my work

Lots of Loveliness - Part of Tina and Sarah's stand at Beulah's
Colours in this picture slightly washed out as it was late and lighting was tricky.
The stand is much brighter than this.

Autumnal

Knitted Flower

It's getting very autumnal round here, but flowers are still my thing.  This is a knitted flower in chenille, dark green and rust colours with a green and gold bead.  If I can find the time to source some brooch pins I might make a few of these.  So many ideas, the fingers don't move fast enough to deliver them all.  I just flit from one to another - it seems my attention span is diminishing.

Glamour Wear

Mmmm - very alluring

It's getting so autumnal and my joints are aching so much that this is beginning to look very attractive.

Beaker Button

When this is finished it will be called the Autumnale Scarf
and I will try to take a better picture of it

On Friday I went to Beaker Button at the Weyhill Craft Centre near Andover. I've blogged about it before, but I don't go often enough.  What a lovely shop with lots going on. There is something for everyone with locally sourced (and some exotic) yarn in natural fibres as well as some acrylic for those who can’t do wool. Lovely atmosphere and lots of fresh ideas.

Check out the website for events and classes
Beaker Button

I am currently knitting a sort of jabot scarf thing with a fluffy end.  I bought the main yarn at Beaker Button last time I went and I'm knitting it up in double moss stitch.  It's Patons Colourworks and it goes through fiery red to plum.  The photo doesn't do it justice.  The fluffy bit is half a ball of Patons Softy that I found at the back of the cupboard and it picks up all the rusts and plums - amazing - two things in my stash actually work together.

Styling Knitwear in the 1950s

Nice cardigan - shame about the bird's nest

I'm thinking about writing something on how changing social attitudes and mores are reflected in knitting patterns.  This lady has obviously been 'bird nesting' and is about to blow out this egg to put in her collection.  Now an illegal practice.

The RSPB says,

'It has been illegal to take the eggs of most wild birds since the Protection of Birds Act 1954 and it is illegal to possess or control any wild birds' eggs taken since that time under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

It is illegal to sell any wild bird's egg, irrespective of its age'.

What defeats me is that Jaeger ever thought this was an appropriate image, even in the early 1950s.  

My Feathered Friend

Just Deciding Whether to Jump onto That Branch

I'm always thinking about things that can be done just in garter stitch so that I can use them to teach people, especially children, to knit.  This is Morgan the Owl.  Morgan is afraid of heights.

On the Branch, but A Bit Panicky

Rather pleased with this one

Pretty in Pink

Although it caused me some anguish and I was up until 10pm trying to get the lining to fit properly I am rather pleased with this one.  It is cable fabric embellished with pearls.  Now that I have actually completed a couple of my own designs my head is full of different ideas.

The next thing I must do is build a light box so that I can photograph them more effectively.

I have called it The 'Alicia' Bag

How to Handle it

The Finishing Touch

I like making bags and I like to design them myself.  Quite often I sit with paper and pencil and work out all the detail and never actually start knitting. This time I just picked up the needles and problem solved as I went along.  

The thing with bags is - handles.  There was much experimentation with wire and strips of plastic.  In the end I crocheted a cord and covered it.

Cable Fabric

The stitch is called cable fabric and comes from my old Arco Guide to Knitting Stitches.  Just for once, it's not a slip stitch. 

I was aiming for a vintage look

It wasn't my original intention to have the lining as a cuff at the top, but it sort of went that way.  I usually line my knitted bags, although I always make a very firm knitted fabric by using a much smaller needle size than would usually be used for the yarn so that lining isn't absolutely necessary.  


When I have run bag-making workshops I've found people like long shoulder straps.  I really much prefer a little handbag and it definitely has a more vintage look.  This one is a prototype.  There are things I would do differently next time, but I now have a pattern written down for further testing.  


I'm still learning to write things down properly.  Had awful difficulty getting the second side to work the same as the first.  And I really have to learn to light  my photographs properly.  

Brian the Builder is here

Granny's Bonnet

My garden has become a disaster area.  The builders have definitely arrived. Scaffolding plonked on borders. Honeysuckle chopped down - I had just managed to get it to grow over the garden wall and down the other side.

They are dealing with a chalk wall and since it has rained for nearly a week now, there is a grey trail of trodden in chalk pretty much everywhere. Bless their hearts, they are trying so hard to minimise the mess.  And hey, it can all be cleaned up and re-planted.  Right now I'm trying to focus on the survivors.  Granny's bonnet.  Doesn't come up true from seed, so you don't know what you'll get.

A while ago I had a try at replicating it in knit.  Strange, but interesting.

Obsessed with the Stash

Detail from a 19th century child's jacket - Ukrainian.  Torchon lace at the cuffs
Seen in the embroidery collection at the V&A - posted randomly here because I like it

I have become obsessed with the stash.  I have an embargo on buying and so have spent hours trawling through my patterns, (I won't allow myself to trawl Ravelry right now - that way madness lies).  Trying to match inappropriate old patterns to equally inappropriate yarns in the stash.  Extremely frustrating.  Not quite enough yarn for this, right colour for that but in the wrong weight. 

I had in my mind's eye a little vintage looking cardigan (for which I thought I had a pattern that would fit, but can't find it) in an early summery colour - not a lot of that in stash.    So, the things I have managed to find are none of the above, but might help use something up.  They are :

• A rather nice mohair cardigan that should swatch up ok in some dark blue Sublime Kid Mohair.  I have masses of it and can't remember why.
• A favourite sleeveless top pattern which miraculously will work for some dusky pink Silky Look DK given to me by my sister when she ran out of inspiration.  Colour is on trend this year and although I am not a pink person, I can get away with a dusky one.
• A couple of cotton tops to use up the remains of my disastrous cotton buying phase.  One of these - a two colour pattern will need to be seriously adulterated to get the look I want without running out of the colours.

Now, why do I fiddle about like this?  It's very odd, but I think it's like a puzzle for me.  I just like to sit and figure it out.  It's noon on my day off and I'm still in my jammies.  I have been puzzling away at the stash for nearly five hours.

First completed WIP of 2012

Doesn't show the true colour, but shows the 4x4 rib

I've completed my first WIP of 2012 and have been wearing it all week.  A beret, 4ft scarf and arm warmers.  It's in Sirdar Persia in a deep dark blue green.  It's a boucle and not necessarily a really enjoyable knit, but I'm pleased with the result.  I've used it to brighten up long coat I've had for some time.  The scarf drapes rather elegantly at back and front.  When I arrived at work on Monday I was told I looked glamorous.  That's bouyed me up all week.


Coat, scarf and arm warmers on tailor's dummy



Beret modelled on planter in the garden

I tried making a head for my tailor's dummy out of knitting needles and bubble wrap so I could photograph the whole ensemble.  It looked like something Captain Kirk might have discovered during the voyages of the Star Ship Enterprise.  So I gave up and found a planter from the garden.

This is the first of my six WIPs to complete in 2012.

Six Works in Progress

Referred to as 'the pink thing'

The Pink Thing is a crocheted circular shawl where I make it up as I go along.  Been doing it for about three years now.

A Smock top baby jacket

Intended as a Christmas present, it was never really going to make it.  I've got a doll it might fit and I want to finish it to see how it turns out.  Right now it doesn't exactly look like a work of art.

A 'stained glass' throw made up of lots of knitted oblongs passed on to me by a friend.  Known as 'Sarah's thing'.

Plus

Number 4

 a hat, scarf and arm warmers in Sirdar Persia.  Hat and wrist warmers done.  Scarf half way through.

Number 5

A tunic in Sirdar Indie which mum has started, but it got a bit overwhelming.  Great big chunky knitted on great big needles.  I cannot express how much I hate knitting this.

Number 6

A peach coloured top for mum with lace at sleeves and bottom edge.  Neither Mum nor my sister could master the lace.  I was a smartass and was given the whole thing to do.  That'll teach me.  Yarn is Wendy Peter Pan and mum insists on using plastic needles.  Ghastly.  The needles will have to go and I'll live with the yarn.

Smaller Items to Knit

Dad's arm rest tidy - it's pale blue, not grey

It's always been my 'thing' to take on larger projects, because I feel somehow that I should, that I enjoy knitting, but must make sure that I make something really worthwhile.  This strange approach is something to do with my obsession that time spent must be productive in some way and it often leads to disappointment.
I'm starting to learn that it's ok to just enjoy stuff and that not every piece of knitting has to be something to wear. 

Now I've learned that, I'm starting to find that smaller, quicker knits can be really useful too and that I actually finish them and they work.  The arm rest tidies knitted for my parents are already in use and much appreciated.  I used some aran from the stash, three strands knitted together to make a super chunky and Voila!  Such a worthwhile knit on so many levels :
- a gift
- a useful gift
- I enjoyed making them (I love cable knitting)
- they were quick
- they used up some stash
- they got  me into the notion of using more stash by knitting several strands at once

More Inspiration from Nature

Lichen on the farm gate

I like to get inspiration from nature.  I'm not a clever enough artist or designer to have any great success, but there is a buzz when it comes close.

Decided to have a go at a small ruffle

The gate is richer in browns and blue greys than appears in the first photo, so I chose a colour rich yarn for my first shot. 

The instructions attached to my swatch

Deeper ruffle

Lichen seen on Hawthorn - now there's a challenge

Still Christmas Knitting

This is the inner pocket

I'm still managing to progress with a bit of Christmas knitting.  This week I've been focusing on an armchair tidy for Mum who, because she has very little mobility, tends to gather all her bits around her.  Lots of stuff goes down the side of the chair.  Regular excavation is required.

I'm now thinking of making one for Dad, but it would have to  be a darker colour.  This cream colour would not survive his mucky little mitts.


The outer pocket waiting to be sewn up - I do so love a bit of cable

This pattern was one I had cut out of a knitting magazine and was for some kind of super chunky.  One of the few things I don't have in my stash as I don't enjoy knitting with it.  I had some vintage chunky which I used double to get the right tension. 

The second photo is in bright sunshine and looks like a completely different colour than the first.  The first is a truer representation of the colour.  Interesting.
 I'm now getting obsessed with the different ways I could stashbust by doubling up yarns.  Hmmm

Food for thought.