The knitted convenience

The Beginning!!!

My contribution to the knitted convenience
http://www.sydneydesign.com.au/sd09/exhibitions/the-knitted-convenience/
My little joke, the free-form crochet on a loo roll.
(Toilet roll inner)

A spare hour, a pot of tea on the patio and my little but all important contribution.

My quick crochet.....it's at least a couple of sheets, Crocheted today then straight into a jiffy envelope. next step the post office.

Project K C, NSW oz.

It's really not much, but hopefully a gap filler.

I just hope it cuts the mustard.

(no more yellow joke's, promise)

My knitted graffiti, gets signed. I added my signature;-)

VHS

This bug bear dress, is just getting more and more technical.
The weight is still an issue that's why if you look close you can see all my support ropes.
(Well odds and ends of yarn)

My handsome puppy, who seems to be terribly jinxed. Yesterday he got stung by a bee and his face swelled, the swelling went down.
Then.........Today his chin swelled. Poor boy!

The Usual Summer Knitting Funk

Every July I go through the same thing. I stop knitting and assume it is permanent and that I should quit blogging. I no longer even have the concentration for stranded work. Amazingly even the thought of buying yarn turns me off! Of course the problem is just the New Mexico desert heat and by the end of August I'm passionate about stranded color knitting again.

Until my knitting funk goes away I'll just knit the boring plain part of the first Dale of Norway Whistler sleeve. In case you feel the same way this time of year I have a few inspiring links for you:

Check out MariannAn's incredible colorwork on Ravelry! Especially the breathtaking socks based on the pattern from Tudor Roses - that may be my favorite Ravelry project of the year.

I am always a fan of Robyn's patterns at Red Bird Knits but the design of this Nordic sock inspired by Robert Frost turns me on even more than her other patterns. At Patternfish I also found the pattern for this incredible sweater To Knit for the Sun from Kristin Nicholas. I may make it for myself in Cascade 220 in neutrals. (I do prefer the original colors but I tend to look best in more subdued stuff.) I love, love, love that the sleeves are different.

Finally, Homespun Handknit is returning in October! Actually it looks like a completely different book with the same premise and lots of stranded projects. If I use it 10% as much as the original it will be worth the purchase. Also here is an upcoming book about Norwegian style knits with lots of small patterns.

If you have any colorwork inspiration to add, PLEASE post it in the comments! I need all the knitting inspiration I can find at this time of year.

Here's my final pair of red Easy Scrunchie socks done in Wool of the Andes in tomato red. I'm still sad they discontinued the color (I'd started my Great American Aran Afghan with it which will now be turned into pillows.)

A Crochet Outing

I took my crochet to lunch.
The crochet poem,gets a road trip.
Well a walking tour............

Walking and Crocheting

Here I am walking, walking ......it's me trust me.
(no car crashes caused)
But It must be a funny sight, some people listen to eye pods.........

I crochet and watch where I'm going (A multitasking feet!)

The Palace in sight

Drottningholm Slot

A Swedish palace not to far from my home.
And my favourite palace, the gardens are beautiful. And unlike the English monarchy, you can get really close to everything around the palace.

A beautiful day, you cant feel the warmth from the picture but the sun shone.

Lunch

New tea gardens/cafe, this was desperately needed.. The previous was very run down and not fit for a palace afternoon tea, In the Swedes case, cooooffffeeeee. I feel awfully Swinglish and quiet at home here. So coffee for me!/no decaf.

Lunch and my Poetry crochet, minty

The menu slightly difficult, seeing it is a tourist trap. But I managed and
My lunch lovely, my crochet well it didn't eat much, just a few rows.

Then my trip home.

All in all, I think my poetry square grew an inch, but a size 3 hook and 90 stitches I'm really not surprised, but at least we got a little exercise.

Sheepish

The Sheepish pattern is now available for purchase!

A sheep inspired sweater out of this really soft Organic Merino is something that just made sense to me. The yarn.. the buttons.. the concept just went together so perfectly and the finished result is exactly what I had in mind!

Sheepish is worked in one piece from the bottom up. The pockets are knitted into the sweater and secured with stitching on the wrong side of the fabric. The little sheep motifs offer a great introduction to intarsia work.

I think that this design is very versatile. Unlike my other designs, its not specific to a little girl's wardrobe. Sheepish can be worn by a boy as well!

My daughter was very excited about this sweater design in particular. I think it was the pockets that really won her over. She was so very pleased to wear it, and there is nothing more rewarding than that for a mother and knitter.

I'm sure the little one in your life would be happy to have their own sheep sweater as well!

Here is the pattern information for those of you who are interested in knitting this:


SIZE
6 months [12mos, 2 years] (shown in size 2)

FINISHED MEASUREMENTS
Chest: 20 [23, 25] inches

Length: approx 10.5 [13, 15] inches after blocking

MATERIALS
[MC] Sublime Organic Merino Wool dk [100% Organic Merino Wool; 113 yd/105m per 50g skein; color: #113; 4 [5, 5] skeins. Or 420 [460, 500] yards of dk weight wool or wool blend.
[CC1] Cascade Yarns Lana D’Oro [50% Super Fine Alpaca, 50% Wool; 110 yd/101m per 50g skein; color: #1049; 1[1, 1] skein. Or 55 [55, 60] yards of light worsted weight alpaca or alpaca blend.

[CC2] Cascade Yarns “Cloud 9” [50% Merino Wool, 50% Angora; 109 yd/100m per 50g skein; color: #101; 1[1, 1] skein. Or 20 yards of light worsted weight angora or angora blend.

2# 32-inch US #6/4mm circular needles
1# 24-inch US #5/3.75mm circular needle
1 set of US #5/3.75mm double pointed needles

4 pieces of scrap yarn to hold underarm stitches
Stitch holders
Stitch markers
(4 st markers in a contrasting color to mark intarsia sections)
Bobbins wound with CC and CC2 for intarsia work

5 medium to large buttons and matching sewing thread
Tapestry needle

GAUGE
22 sts/32 rows = 4" in Stockinette stitch on size 6 needles

So of course I had to take my daughter to a local farm to feed some "real sheep" while wearing her new sheep sweater.

Of course! :)

I think the sheep liked it.

keeping busy

We seem to be alternating between hot sunny days and rain. The garden is doing great--we are picking lettuce, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans, peppers, and loads of blueberries, which are finding their way into smoothies, pies, pancakes, and homemade yogurt w/granola.

I put on my tall boots and waded through the tall grass to check the wild blackberries earlier in the week, and they are just becoming ready to pick...

I am only finding a handful at a time so I am popping them into the freezer til they start to accumulate.

Last year I made jam; this year I can't wait to try a pie as I've never made one with blackberries before.
While I was picking berries, I had to stop to admire the scenery...

...a beautiful patch of black-eyed Susans.

Besides lots of gardening, I made some time for a little sewing and put together a couple clothespin bags...
...this one, from that vintage table runner I found at the flea market, and this one ...

from some Alexander Henry fabric I have been hoarding for just the right project. I think it will make someone's laundry day a bit more pleasant!

**Thanks for the crocheted blanket appreciation from the last post!!**

Knitted Graffiti and other projects

I have nearly completed my crocheted Graffiti for the kulturfestivalen. I ran out of beads and then I got bored of strips, so I have just really being playing with the stitches. My favourite type of crochet.

Vhs

I have been using the red cotton to create the imaginary zipper. The place that you can pull the dress tight(to skinny) to fit and that of course you have a little give (if larger) the access point.
(I just cant think of the right word;-()
Hook size 8, 5 then 3

Crocheted letters

(My E)

E for Eat me, Drink me.........Part of my Alice collection.

Tuesday at Hurtigs
Carin and Gunilla
A lovely cup of Earl gray tea, we got to sit outside and chat.
We really laughed, it was a very funny knit cafe.
Whom ever thought of the knit and stitch a very skilled multi tasking women,
Because when you chat and stitch add laughter, inevitably this happens

I had to unpick a few free-form rows(go figure), Gunilla lost count of her stitches.

I learnt something new

Carin show me how to crochet the 2ND yarn in, as if the back of a fare isle knit all thready was how my 1st attempt looked, but on explanation a little twist and stitch the tread was neatly in.

(My best explanation)

I'm making letter again and I'm trying it the make a crochet square way using the two colours at once.

Before I made the shape of the letter, then I crocheted around it.

Yarn for poetry

4ply

Not acrylic and a light colour, all that was required.
I had to ask around about 4 ply and wool, not anything that I have used before.
4 strands it was all quiet simple, really I guess.
But with a little advice........(That what experienced knitters are for)
I found this at 23krs a ball, I think a pretty good deal
Soft and minty

Work began

12 by 12 inch square
size 3 hook
59 chain? this was more like 8 cm. A little math reqiured (kim star)

90 and that made the 12 inch required.

Then I began, I didn't get far with such teeny tiny stitches, but it's all in the name of poetry so I won't complain.
www.poetrysociety.org.uk

A Knitted Experiment .

Not a lot of knitting but a lot of photography.

Pink
Green

Pink, Blue and Green
Or Hot Pink

Chartreuse , Electric blue
you decide;-)

A Knitted experiment
Apparatus

One chocolate spread Jar(empty)

A few balls Ecuadoran yarn in bright colours(Karin)

A good camera

Acrylic paint lazily left to dry out, in the jar. Then soaked in water.

Then a quick thinking, what a good idea (on my behalf) camera shoot. My camera always close at hand.......

And what result do you get.....
ART

A Bad Case of The Uglies

Lately... variegated yarns have not treated me kindly.

First there was the "Featherweight Cardigan Fiasco".

The variegated lace weight I chose for that project knitted up to be so ugly that a picture couldn't even be posted of it.

But I had high hopes for this yarn. Lovely, lovely Koigu.

And yes, one is variegated! But I wasn't worried. I had this all planned out.

I bought these two skeins to make my very own

Chevron Scarf. I mean...with two luscious colors of Koigu, how could anything go wrong?

Well my two Koigu beauties morphed into the ugliest scarf ever.

Ever.

I tried to like it. Really I did.

Hmm...Maybe If I turn it around....

Aahh.. it's really quite revolting isn't it?

I think I'll stick with solid colors for awhile.

I know that this doesn't look like much of anything yet, but this is my newest cast on.

Rose Red by Ysolda.

I've been wanting to knit this up for such a long time now, and I am certain that this one will turn out to be quite lovely.

Spanish Market in Santa Fe

Yesterday we went to Spanish Market in Santa Fe and I thought you'd like to see some examples of New Mexican Colcha embroidery from the young people's section of the market. The colcha stitch is kind of a long stitch with a diagonal stitch running through it and it is done in wool (usually churro) on wool, often hand-dyed.


Here are a few links to learn more:

Spanish Colonial Embroidery: An Endangered Art Form
Las Colchas de New Mexico
Spanish Colonial Arts Society: Colcha



I realized that although I've had a zillion photos of the outside of St. Francis Cathedral in SF over the years, I've never shown the inside. Isn't it beautiful?

Abel Morrall's Areo knitting Needles

Almost perfect condition in original packaging
Abel Morrall's
(It's a cool name)
Vintage packet

10kr in a charity shop. That's around £1..........sitting at the bottom of a little bucket. Perfect packaging and very traditional English brand for sale in a Stockholm charity shop, perfect!. They must have been lost and forgotten to sit in such good condition for all these years. The paper packet is very flimsy.

I will love and cherish them.;-)

History lesson time!

The oldest known knitting needles, still very much in use, are double-pointed needles.
They are generally used to form tubular fabrics such as socks and the bodies or sleeves of sweaters. As the name implies, double-pointed needles are tapered at both ends nearly to points.

They are normally used in sets of four or five as depicted in a number of 14th century oil paintings, by a flexible strand (usually nylon) that allows the two ends to be brought together.

Dpn's are typically used for circular knitting, especially smaller tube-shaped pieces.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knitting_needle

Knitting needle history

Brief facts taken from Wiki above.

1st

There are three basic types of knitting needles (also called "knitting pins").
The first and most common type consists of two slender, straight sticks tapered
to a point at one end, and with a knob at the other end to prevent stitches from
slipping off.

2nd

The second type of knitting needles are straight, double-pointed knitting needles
(also called "dpns"). Double-pointed needles are tapered at both ends, which allows
them to be knit from either end.

3rd

The third needle type consists of circular needles, which are long, flexible
double-pointed needles. The two tapered ends (typically 5 inches (130 mm) long)
are rigid and straight, allowing for easy knitting; however, the two ends are
connected.

Flora MacDonald

Fact
The packaging mentions ,Flora Macdonald needles this is all I could find.
Flora MacDonald (Gaelic: Fionnghal NicDhòmhnaill) (1722 – March 4, 1790), Jacobite heroine,
was the daughter of Ranald MacDonald of Milton on the island of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, and his wife Marion, the daughter of Angus MacDonald.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flora_MacDonald_(Scottish_Jacobite
I'm not sure of the link, but I researched her as best I could.
(let me know if you know)

On closer inspection the packet reads, with specially tapered point that will not injure your fingers. To Cute
Below she is Tilted "Catholic girl knitting" how this is known I'm unsure, but she was as close to 14th century as I could get.
History lesson over;-)

Graffiti knit up-date
Stripy crochet for project kulturfestivalen.

Late night crochet
Here is my Beaded-Graffiti so far, all eyes on me last night as I KIP'ed
Pub, Train, Tram and even the cinema before the darkness and the scary film set in, Drag you to hell! aptly named and what you get if you leave it all up to your husband to book. Luckily for me I had my denim jacket to cover my eyes as it was VERY SCARY.