look what my mother knit

She made this for my daughter ages ago, but I've only just got round to showing it off. That's a 3.5 x 7 ft blanket, on about 6mm needles out of mohair/wool/acrylic blends that I got for almost nothing at a charity shop.

My daughter loves it, even though it's a bit itchy and insists on dragging it about the house and sleeping under it and carrying it through mud puddles in the garden.

My mother doesn't care if it gets abused, as long as it's used and not put away as something precious. So they are both happy.

ooooops, I did it again......

I bought more rag. Well, at that price I can't really say no to it. There's about 60 balls in there altogether. enough for a few more bags.

Another pair finished.

Another nice, colourful pair of socks are done. I think I might have made them a little short, but doing much more rib was going to kill me.

I also think I need to stop photographing my hairy legs to show off my socks.









I've already chosen a yarn and a pattern for pair number 3. However, it has a short row toe and I'm about to start screaming at double wraps. i can't for the life of me work out how to pick up wraps without making a mess.

One nice thing today. A friend knocked on my door to give me a nessage and her kid was wearing the hat I knit him for chrimble. It fits him well, pulled right over his ears and he looked nice and warm.

My next non sock project will be caliometry. Possibly followed by hexed from the lovely woolly wormhead. She apparently gets lots of unkind comments about her designs, I've seen a few, she commented about others on the UK hand knitters yahoo group. Well, she won't get them from me. Lots of scrummy and weirdly shaped hat patterns. I can't see everyone wearing them, but there's a few I would like for myself.

Oh well

At least I know now that when my washing machine claims that it has a wool wash gentle enough to machine wash untreated wool, they are telling the truth.

I found my fuzzi feet under my daughter's bed, stuck themn in a pillow case and stuck them in the machine on the wool wash cycle, to see if I could get a start on felting them, try and predict how to get them toe right size. No felting at all. i probably still won't trust the machine with some of my more complex stuff, but now I know that a lot of my knit stuff can safely go in the machine.

I'ts now running on a 50c cycle to see what happens.

pattern: recycle

I knit this bag pattern out of the very cheap R2 rag that I bought, but it could almost as easily be knit out of bias cut strips of material that were sewn, glued or tied together onto one long, yarn like strip.

Although this bag was made out of bought yarn, I've got plans to use up some bits of charity shop and sale material that I've acquired over the last few years.

it also needs a very chunky set of needles, 18-20mm are about the right size as well as a more commonly found, 10mm set. Now these can be quite pricey and will rarely be used by most knitters, however, they can also be made relatively cheaply out of dowel rod, shaped into a point at one end with a drawer knob attached to the other.






You also need to either buy or make the bias strips necessary for knitting. To make these, you need to make repeated cuts along the diagonal of a strip of material. Cut strips about 12mm wide.


When these strips are cut, they need to be attached together into one long strip. About 160 yards of material is needed to make a bag of the size shown here. While these can be sewn, or knotted together. I prefer for the sake of complete laziness to use Copydex, a flexible latex glue. A dollop about the size of a split pea is enough to hold 2 strips together. Glue tem end to end with about a 1cm overlap.






so onto the pattern:


material: bias strips as described above.

needles:
1 set 10mm US 15,
1 set 20mm US 36.
1 sewing needle, blunt with a very wide eye.
a sharp pair of material scissors

Cost: hopefully nothing, the idea is to recycle what you already have

knitability level: beginner.


to knit body:

cast on 30 stitches onto the 10mm needle. Knit 5 rows in garter stitch.

change to 20mm needle, knit in stocking stitch until the bag measures about 2 foot in length

change to 10mm needles, knit 5 rows

cast off loosely

handles (make 2):

cast on 25 stitches onto 10mm needle
knit one row
cast off loosely

To finish:

sew up sides of bag. to secure the end of the strop used to sew, it should be knotted. Although this is not normally good knitting practice, it is necessary to ensure that the seam is held securely.

lay bag flat, measure points at 1/3 and 2/3 along the top edges and attach handles at these points using the yarn tails from the handles. weave the yarn tail through a complete stitch on 2 different rows, then tie securely in a knot.

the yarn tails can then be woven in for a few stitches, cut off level with the fabric of the bag and the ends held in lace with a bit more of that fabric glue.


you can make bags of different sizes by altering the number of stitches cast on, and the length you knit before switching back to 10mm needles to do the second edge. The body of this bag gives is about 32 cm long, by 45cm wide at the top (the base is wider) the handle is about 50cm long once the bad has been used and it has stretched.

nero investigates

Nero investigates a large pile of R2 rag that was on sale at Hobbycraft. I know I've bitched a lot about how strange R2 was, but I can't resist a bargain and this should make some nice shopping bags. I may pop back and get some more tomorrow, if the dear other half will cough up more yarn money.

I'm just going to do a very basic stocking stitch bag, on 15mm needles with a garter stitch edge and handle. As long as it can hold apples and a few other bits without collapsing, it will do, and I think shopping bags are a fitting end for a 'designer' yarn.

wtf

what happens when you let a 3 year old near unfelted fuzzi feet?

My second socks in progress

I saw this yarn at Ally pally from getknitted and just fell in love with it. So it is in the process of becoming modified widdershins from knitty. Modified because I didn't think my second pair was quite the place to start tiny cables and the cable itself was really weird. So I left out the cable and just did it as ribbing. I also skipped the slip stitch on the heel flap because I didn't like the way it looked in the pictures.

I should be able to finish them this evening. Started them on Saturday, not bad for a complete project, and I now know why people who knit on breaks and commutes like socks, they are very, very easy to shove in a pocket. I think I shall endeavour to keep at least one sock project on the go all the time so I've got a transportable project.

I've also been a naughty girl and ordered more yarn, this time from elann. Even adding the shipping costs, it is still half the price of the cheapest sock yarn that is easily available in the UK. And dammit, if they can ship, why can't Knitpicks. it doesn't look like the nicest self patterning yarn I've ever looked at, but ti is a very good price and is definitely tradable when it gets here if i realy don't like it.

Legwarmers

Well, I had to find a gift that would suit a friend who insists she cannot ever wear trousers, even when we are camping. I got fed up with her complaining that she has cold legs and constantly trying to pull her socks up further than they actually go.

They look ghastly, don't they. I figure if you are going to knit an item as deadly to fashionability as legwarmers, then you need to do it in some sort of style and bas taste is about the best you can get at that point.

So now I have to finish them off, then you will get a pattern for them.

Knitty yankee swap

I got my package through from the lovely cpurl17 today. A scrummy red silk bag, some really cute stitch markers and not the one skein i was expecting, but two skeins of Socks that Rock. Thast is definitely going into my stash until I'm a bit better at sock knitting. I think I'll stick to under £20 per pair on wool until after I've made more than one pair.

Himself also found the docking port for my camera, it means I can just sit the camera in it's port and recharge it while I load photos onto the computer. However, I now need to find the cable that attaches it to the computer. Since he took the card reader I was using, I now need to wait until we find this cable to post more photos. So photos of this scrummy package, the yarn I've dyed, and my fuzzi feet in progress will just have to wait.

Found the cable, it was plugged in behind the computer and all I had to do was move it 2 feet.

more bags

Well, these are more of the knit sections of the Ceron bag. I've just used up whatever i had sitting in the stash. On average, I'm reckoning it's taking about 2/3 of a 50g ball of wool to make each bag.

The orange looks a lot better up there on the screen than it does sitting next to me. It's a real headache inducer, however, I'm always told kids like bright colours, so I thought I'd use it up for a kid's pattern.

Apart from near mindless knitting on too small needles that has made my hands really ache, I've dyed some yarn, gone through one of my stash boxes looking for bright coloured chunky yarn and tidied it up a bit and thought quite a lot about the idea of making a boys bag pattern.

Right now, I'm thinking of something that will be threaded onto a belt, can't be lost without taking off the belt, with a oblong pouch and a flap over the top with a big chunky button on the front. however, this means either more knitting of a very tight fabric, lining with a stiff material or felting the pouch. I'm thinking about using the latter option because felting gives me the chance to use nice, loose knitting . I can reinforce the loop with some leather if it's looking loose.

What do you think of that idea?

Thankyou

Thankyou very much to everyone who has told me, on the message boards I use, how much they like the bag pattern. Yes, I am working on some ideas that I will eventually submit to an online magazine, but not until I've got the whole process of pattern writing sorted in my head, and not until I have an idea I feel confident to produce.

I doubt I will ever be able to produce patterns for lovely jumpers such as the ones Elizabeth makes, you can see pictures of them on her blog, on the right as SABLE. However, i don't intend to start submitting something until I am comfortable that it feels right. I am only a beginner at this.

I've spent the day working on another of the bags, this time in white Sirdar Nova. Maybe look at a different embellishment for it.

i'm also planning a visit to the V&A at the end of this week. Himself finally has some time off work, so he can look after the kids for a day, while I go wandering through the museum, examine the textile exhibits and seek inspiration. if you've never looked at their site before, check it out. They like knitting. There are links here to other sites, but you can see some of their collection of vintage patterns and images from the museum's knitwear collections

Pattern: Ceron

Ceron is a child's bracelet bag, the sort of thing a lass can wear to keep her important things in when she's running about, but can be worn over the wrist so she can have her hands free to play and climb and do all those things girls want to do. it is named after the girl who was was the inspiration for this bag, and received one for her birthday last year.



I've found that because of the way the bag is made, quite deep, with bracelets that will naturally fall together on the child's wrist, it doesn't need any extra closures to hold a few small bits inside. if you're worried, then adding a magnetic purse clasp onto the inside would probably be the best idea, a popper/snap fastener could also be used.

I've used a leftover part ball of Rowan Cork. However, this is a discontinued yarn, and would anyway, have been quite expensive for a child's whimsy. I would suggest that you choose a bulky weight yarn, any acrylic or wool blend, This is probably a good chance to use up a part ball of something leftover from another project.

Yarn: Bulky weight acrylic or wool blend

other materials:

scraps of acrylic felt
some embroidery floss
3 plastic child's bracelets
1 half inch button
sewing thread
optional magnetic purse clasp

cost: £0-2, depending on materials used.

Knitability level: beginner

Needles: 4.5mm (US 7)

gauge:


Pattern:

Cast on 5 stitches.

next 12 rows: k to end

Begin increases, (the second increase is done 1 stitch from the end, to give a neater edge)

row 1: kfb, k to last 2 stitches, kfb, K1. (7 st)
row 2: k to end.

repeat these 2 rows 5 times more (17 st)


Knit straight until the piece measures 13 inches.

begin decreases, again, done in from the edge for neatness

row 1: k1, k2tog, k to last 3 st, k2tog, k1
row 2: k to end

repeat these 2 rows 5 times more (5 st)

knit 12 rows

cast off.

finishing:

Fold ends of bag over bracelets and sew in place to attach the bracelet handles to the bag. Hold both handles in place and pin the 2 sides of the bag together. Sew the sides from the fold at the bottom, up to the end of the straight sides. Sew in ends.

make embellishment:



Cut 2 pieces of acrylic felt, one with a 3cm the other with a 4cn diameter. Place the smaller piece centred on the larger and sew together with a running stitch around the edge of the smaller circle with 3 strands of contrasting embroidery thread. Sew the button on to the centre of the smaller circle to create a 'flower'.

cut a leaf shape of approximately 6cm length, 4 cm width in green felt. using 2 strands of green embroidery thread, stitch veins on the leaf, as you can see in the photos.

Sew on the flower and leaf using a sewing thread that is a close match to the colours of the leaf and the larger circle of the flower.



terms:

k: knit
st: stitch(es)
kfb: knit into the front and back of the stitch
k2tog: knit 2 stitches together

socks are done

I realised what a lot of my problems were in the finishing and chose to look for another site explaining kitchiner stitch to me. Found one. Got my toes done and we finally have 2 completed socks.

Sock it to me....

This is my first real attempt at knitting socks. I've tried a couple of times before, but just never seemed to get anywhere. A lovely person recommended Silver's Sock Class to me, step by step instructions, with photos, to show me exactly how to create my own socks. So knowing that I knit at about average tension, but have rather fat legs and very wide feet, I selected the largest needles they advise to use, and a ball of scrummy opal sock yarn and away I went.

After trying to tie myself in knots several times over the first few rows, I realised that it was getting easier. I've used dpn's before, so it wasn't that hard to adapt. I think it would be a lot harder to be using such small needles and fine yarn if I didn't have that previous experience though.

I decided to adapt the pattern to use only 2 inches of rib, then move onto stocking stitch. Rib takes ages and I wanted a pair of socks that would be complete before I lost interest. Although this will make the socks wider, this won't be a problem with the tree trunks I have for legs.

I found the instructions on the site very easy to follow. I've made some basic beginner errors, laddering on the gusset, holes at the top of the heel flap, made it too short and ghastly kitchiner stitch. However, it is undeniably produced a sock shape item and as such can be called a success.

I'm intending on ripping it back a bit to fix the length. I could go back and fix the gusset as well, but they are only socks for me and as such will do fine as they are. They can remain in my collection as a comparison and will, I hope, show me that I've made considerable improvement by the time I've knitted more socks. I think the lovely colour does help to hide any mistakes as well.

While I'm working on finishing off the second and re finishing the first. I will need to choose another sock pattern. Something fairly sock beginner friendly, but either not quite as basic or a toe up pattern would be great.

Any recommendations?

What a great expereince

I find I'm often all too ready to talk about bad experiences with yarns or shops, but we expect good service and ignore completely those who give it. So I think I need to take some time out from complaining about yarns and move on to saying that I had a great experience with an online bead shop this week.

http://www.thebeadcellar.co.uk/

They have a good range of beads on an easy to navigate web site. I found exactly what I wanted and ordered on the 30th December. The order process was pretty easy to complete as well, no feeling like a performing seal. However, having been told that the associated retail outlet was closed for Christmas, I expected a week's delay. Imagine my delight when the order arrived on the 2nd January, well packaged, with a handwritten thank you on the order form.

Their prices are a considerable improvement on trying to get beads in Hobbycraft, their postage charges are just about enough to cover postage and packaging instead of the large mark-up that some outlets charge.

In short, I offer the recommendation of a happy customer and will not hesitate to use this supplier again when I want more beads for another project. I'm already starting on my venezia, a knitty pattern involving knitting beads onto wire to create napkin rings. I'm hoping to give the set as a gift to a friend as a house-warming present.

My good intentions

Having spent the last few years adding my resolve to actually keep my resolutions, to my New Year resolutions list and failing miserably, I have decided to make a good intentions list this year.

I always have good intentions on New Year's eve, but it is rare that they last beyond the arrival of my stinking New Year hangover. I am wondering whether labelling them as good intentions, something that it's good to aim for, but not a strict rule, will help.

So I hereby intend to:

1. loose some weight

2. finish some WIP

3. Avoid buying more yarn until I knit what I have

4. Clean the house and finish the decorating

5. fix the garden and start to grow some food.

6. submit several designs to online mags for publication

7. avoid hangovers

8. teach my daughter to read before she starts nursery in September. hopefully this can then be used as evidence that both my kids are really bright and the older child could achieve this if the school gave him the help he needs.

9. sort through my book collection and get rid of a lot of the books I will never read again

10. Sell a lot of the books and other assorted crap in my house at a car boot sale. the money can be used to cover camp fees and yarn buying