Knitter rescued from big black hole by UFO

I always have the problem that when I have finished a project, especially a big one, like the Pink Pea Pod shawl, that I tumble into a big, black hole and have absolutely no clue what to knit next. Not that I don’t have enough ideas, or that there would be any lack of material. As is the case for many compulsive knitters, my stash is about to take over my home. Just a week ago I went into reorganising mode. All second hand jumpers designated to be used for a wall hanging that I am now musing about for a couple of years had to go to the uppermost shelf of my stash cupboard to make space for the those 2^nd hand jumpers that I intend to use for more mundane projects such as socks and jumpers.

So, I am in this hole and it is agonising because I really don’t know what to knit. Yes, so many things come to mind that I could do, that I would need to do.  A new hat in a different colour that would compliment the new winter coat so much better than the old one, or another pair of socks, or a scarf for the son. I could make the red cashmere jumper with a sort of upside down heart pattern that I now keep thinking about for a year (I’ve already unravelled an old cashmere jumper for that purpose). Or I could start making presents for the time of the year that I don’t want to mention because I don’t like to hear the term spoken or written in October, not even in November. Or I could for once pick up and finish one of my UFOs, which I never do because how could I otherwise accumulate them and maintain them like precious gems… yeah…actually only lying about in a corner gathering dust, or, in the best case, tucked away in a plastic bag with a cedar wood pellet in the deeper regions of the cupboard.  What would a knitter be without UFOs?

Well, believe it or not, I managed to pick up a UFO. I only need to finish off the waistband. It wants to become a winter skirt having been an Alpaka jumper before. I always liked this leaf and acorn lace pattern. The skirt is a very simple item, but the thing about is that the lace is sewn together in Kitchener stitch, not cast-on and cast-off sewn together. It took me ages to figure out how to weave the lace together, so that start and finish cannot be made out.

almost Pea Pod disaster

I finished the Pink Pea Pod shawl, bored or not. Here blocked. I’m about to finish off writing up the pattern. But there are no ‘pleasing’ pictures as yet.

I’ve already worn the shawl to a party. When I cycled home that night I thought I had taken good care to knot the shawl up in such a way that it couldn’t get caught. Well… it did get caught. I hadn’t even cycled 100 m when I noticed that something was wrong. Immediately hot and cold shudders ran up and down my spine. I had this overpowering picture in my mind of my beautiful, new shawl being torn up and smeared with dirty bicycle grease. And the strangest thing was that I couldn’t even stop cycling. I had to consciously tell myself to stop. The shawl had got stuck onto the rear break cable, which is relatively new. Nothing was broken. Phew!

Pink Pea Pod problem

The Pink Pea Pod shawl is about to bore me. I am working on the second border and I can’t help it, it’s not very satisfying to knit at the moment. I can’t wait for it to be long enough to be finished off with the edging I have already designed. What’s worse, I was already envisaging myself wearing it to a do in a couple of weeks and I’m nowhere near the finishing line because I’m putting off knitting whenever possible. I’d rather do the washing than knit.

What’s more, Winter is approaching, which means making socks and cosy jumpers for my son. So, I’m really not thinking of finishing the shawl.

Pink Pea Pod

After crocheting a pair of pot handlers I think I had enough of crocheting for the time being and am now working on another shawl.

Here the swatch for Pink Pea Pod

It’s a very thin lambswook/angora yarn from an old Laura Ashley vest that I bought ages ago only because of the colour but never had a clue what to make from it until I scoured Knittingfool again and fell in love with the pea pod pattern. I have managed 20 pea pod repeats so far and it’s coming along nicely.

Not quite right in my mind

Saturday before last I bought a nice children’s mohair cardigan. I wasn’t quite sure whether to be so brave to risk it and open it up (after all mohair is tough going when you want to rip it) or leave it as it is and put my son in it when it’s cold in winter. Well, I tried the belt that came with the cardi first, and… it worked; not necessarily like a dream but much better than I expected.

And just to take things a bit further, I separated the 3 ply yarn. I ‘m not quite right in my mind.

Here my first attempt with 4.5 mm needles. I think it either needs to be plain with an interesting cut or something simple with a distinctive stitch pattern.

So true

I  currently read Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitter’s Almanac. Well I only started March. But for February she describes how to make Baby stuff. What she says about the leggins (longies) I find especially interesting. She says she knows them from when she was a child staying in Germany.

“Longies take the place, in one fell swoop, of all manner of dresses, soakers, and booties, and let the child wriggle to its heart’s content, unimpeded, and without uncovering itself.”

I can only agree. My mother (German) made lots of leggins for my son. He loved them. They kept him warm and he was indeed able to move about ‘unimpeded’. The difference in movability was quite apparent every time we went to the playground. He was happily climbing to every height while his peers were sometimes almost shackled by their demim trousers. I will never understand why parents put their little ones in denim. It must be stiff and heavy to wear for little bodies. I know there is this trend to put your little ones into adult type clothing, but why? What’s wrong with comfy baby and toddler stuff? My son was so fond of his granny-made leggins he continued wearing them right into primary school reception class.

“Our favourite longies are those on which we used up odd remnants of wool. A green pair has a cute grey color-pattern at the calf, and then becomes steel-grey for the feet. A navy pair has a white pattern at the knees and scarlet calves and feet. They must be actually seen on young legs for their true charm to become apparent.

“Thrift and conservation are in the wind: how delightful to find that usuing up wool-remains improves the appearance of finished product”.

My mother always used oddments for my son’s leggins. They came in all colourways and patterns. Something my son absolutely loved. Now, I don’t want to say it’s something German to be thrifty or to make colourful leggins. It’s just that my mother is a war-child and hence thrift was a necessity not a choice. And because there were adult times in her life when she had to count every penny, thrift developed from a necessity into a habit.

Something else Elizabeth Zimmermann says in the same chapter is  interesting:  “You know, if our ancestors had thrown out their furniture every decade, as we do, where would we go for antiques? Let us give some thought to the well-being and enjoyment of our descendants, patch up our lares and panates, and hang on to them, so that the future will inherit at least some relics of our heedless and wasteful age. Working over something, and repairing it, -wheather we re-finish furniture, fix over an old house, or put new cuffs on a sweater – not only gives things new life and makes them look cared-for, but embeds them still deeper in our affections.”*

So true!

* Elizabeth Zimmermann (1981), Knitter’s Almanac. Projects for each month of the year. Dover Publications, Inc, New York.

Polkadot Tea Cosy

The balaclava with measles has finally metamorphosed into a Polkadot Tea Cosy. It took me quite some time to find the right formula for the decreases and where to place the bobbles to make everything fit and look nice. I’m please but I think a second model would see some improvements. But isn’t that always the case. I decidedly like my prototype, though. The second model is in the making, in my head and in finding the right colour in the charity shops. It needs to be a special blue for a very special reason, it has to go with my mum’s crockery (there, I’ve said it, it’s out, Mama, you are up for a tea cosy. You know what I’ve got in mind, don’t you?).

Meanwhile I’m thoroughly enjoying my very dotty tea. If it’s not obvious from the photo, my teacup has dots on it, too.

Tea Balaclava with Measles

I’m working on another crochet project. A tea cosy. I got hooked by the idea of bobbles I first used for the fly agaric pincushion. For the fly agaric I made bobbles with three double trebles to give it a slightly more odd shaped appearance. In real life fly agarics have anything but smoothly shaped white spots. For the tea cosy I opted for a more round version with four trebles to give it perfect circles in the style of my new polka dot tray. Though at the moment the cosy looks more like a tea balaclava with measles.

Fly agaric pincushion

I had a bout of crochet in the last three weeks. I have to say I like crochet as much as knitting. But there is a distinct difference in preference. Big things I like to knit and small things I prefer to crochet. Never in my life have I managed to finish a crochet jumper. They always ended up to be frogged again. Though I like crochet as much as knitting I was very reluctant to take it up when I was a child, although I’ve learned it of course.  The only crochet I seemed to knew when I was little consisted of ugly square cushions in a friend’s house made in white, red and blue acrylic. What a colour combination and what a yarn. Even then I suffered each time my eyes inadvertently glance over them in the friend’s living room. Only later in my childhood I noticed that my grandmother pursued the art of crocheting handkerchief edgings.  I never took up making handkerchief edgings myself but I think that my grandmother’s pastime saved the thought of crochet as a worthwhile pursuit for me.

I always wanted to have a pincushion. When I see a nice one in the shops I always think I can make that myself but then I never make it myself. But three weeks ago I got completely fed up with all my sewing and threading needles that are usually floating about everywhere in my room. I’m too messy to put them nicely back into their dedicated place, the drawer with all my accessories. So, I thought, it’s now or never and it has to be in the shape of a fly agaric. I love fly agarics. They stand for good luck in Germany. People nowadays have them as decoration for Christmas, New Year and Easter. They are always around somehow, like pigs and ladybirds, equally regarded as lucky charms in Germany. Though I have to say, I made a big mistake and showed it to my son. It’s now not my pincushion but his cuddly toy. Well, bad luck, eh?

The yarn are odd balls from an old red cardigan of mine, that meanwhile became a crochet hat, the beginnings of a tea cosy (just started) and something else that I can’t remember anymore. The white yarn is a lately acquired jumper that turned out to be so scratchy that I decided it could go the recycling path.

Fly Agaric Pattern

Materials: Odd balls of red and white. I chose some angora/lambswool mix, about 300m/50g. A crochet hook 2.5mm, UK/US 0, threading needle.

Stalk: (with white yarn) make 4 ch, close chain.
Round 1: dc 12 into loop.
Round 2: increase every other dc
Round 3: increase every third dc
Round 4: increase every fourth dc
Round 5: increase every fifth dc
Round 6: increase every sixth dc
Round 7and 8: dc
Round 9:decrease every sixth dc
Round 10: decrease every fifth dc
Round 11: dc
Round 12: decrease every fourth dc
Round 13: decrease every third dc
Round 14: dc in the round for about 3 cm or however long you want the stalk to be.
Thread all ends, except for the working end of course, before you start the gills otherwise you will not be able to do it later or only with some difficulty.

Gills: (continue with white yarn) make a chain of 11 ch.
Row 1: 11 half trebles, 1dc in next dc of stalk, 1 ch, turn.
Row 2: 11 half trebles, 1 ch, turn
Repeat rows 1 and 2 23 times around the stalk.
Row 49: like row 1.
Close the gills sewing  row 1 and row 49 together.

Cap: (Red and white yarn)

Basic pattern of the cap: (with red yarn) make 4 ch, close chain.
Round 1: 10 dc into loop.
Round 2: 5 increases every other dc.
Round 3 until round 23 round increase by 5 until. You have now  got 120 dc.

Bobbles: Crochet the bobbles dispersed all over the cap while following above basic pattern. How to make a bobble: With red yarn make loop through next dc, finish the the dc with white yarn. Then make three double trebles into next dc with white yarn, each time not finishing the double treble on the last loop. Finish all double trebles together with the red yarn.  Decide yourself where to make the bobbles. I made 33 bobbles.

Finishing: Thread ends, again except for the working end. Crochet the cap onto the gills with red yarn leaving a hole for the filling. You need to decide in advance which loops on the rim of the gills to use. Stuff the mushroom in such a way that the filling is quite dense and will hold needles. Close the hole and thread. You can shape the fly agaric a little bit by squeezing it and even do a bit of sewing if you wanted it to stay in a particular shape. But I only sqeezed a little.

Fair & Square 2nd version

I finished the second version of the Fair & Square shawl. I made it a bit narrower but longer this time and crocheted beads into the edging.

My wardrobe door really has wholes in it. The wardrobe can double as an airing cupboard

This is just a mobile phone photo. In real life the shawl is absolutely breathtakingly delicate. When I hung the blocked shawl on my wardrobe door I became completely speechless and was hopping about in my room for at least half an hour, so happy was I.

So, I thought I had to top that off with the right packaging. I bought a nice cardboard box, glued pink paper on the lid because I think pink goes so well with this green (actually, to be precise, the lid got slightly smutched in transit), folded the shawl nicely, put a cedar wood ball in the box (moths are about at the moment) and crocheted a ribbon with beads at each end:

Fair & Square in a box

I don’t know who was more chuffed about it all, my friend or I.