I’m working on Spinning a Yarn. I worked the pattern as a hat before but this time I will make an Afghan. It is meant to be for my mother. She has got self-made red and purple tartan bed linen complemented by a self-made woollen tartan bed spread in the same colours, but she says the wool she used is not so nice. It’s some old machine wash wool she got from somewhere long forgotten. She loves the Wooly Thoughts patterns as much as I do because she always preferred geometrical patterns over the flowery stuff she had to do at school in the 1950s. Back then she was forbidden to do the ‘modern stuff’, i.e. geometrical patterns.

I combined two very nice, but very different yarns: an old frogged red jumper of mine, Schachenmayr nomotta Bossa Nova, made from lambswool, alpaca and silk and White Rose Mohair by Texere Yarns in lilac. White Rose Mohair is a non-fluffy mohair yarn.  I’m sure those two yarns are nice enough for my mother.

Henry playing in the water during the Easter holidays

So, he sat at the breakfast table being a bit sad and I thought what I could do to cheer him up. It’s not hard to cheer anyone up if you happen to have James Walters’ book Crochet Workshop lying on the table. I showed him the pictures with freeform crochet. Instant success! Henry liked the freeform crochet and was mightily impressed how people could make all sorts of different patterns and forms just with a hook. I said I could teach him. He liked the idea because he said he already knows how to use a French knitter. I have never managed to teach him to knit because holding tension and trying to work stitches with two needles never seemed to work out for him. Maybe holding tension and working with just one needle works better given that he can already do this with a French knitter.  I will see how it goes.

I had wanted to make hot water bottle covers for my mother and my brother for Christmas but hadn’t got round to it. What better excuse to make them, though after Christmas, then to try a stitch pattern. I got out the rest of the light blue wool that I had used for my mother’s Curve of Pursuit afghan and got started. I really struggled with this pattern. Sometimes a stitch seemed to disappear and I couldn’t figure out what had happened. And then two thirds along the way I saw I had made a very visible mistake at the bottom. I had knitted a yo in the wrong row. So, there I was fighting with myself what to do. Shall I open that column up and try to fix it? Would I be successful? Or would I fail and have to rip open everything anyway? Or would I be able to live with that mistake? Or more importantly, would my mother be able to live with that mistake? Or would I just cut the yarn, fix the mistake and try and thread the ends? Being completely crazy I chose to open up the column and… succeeded. I’m still mightily pleased with myself. When I got out my colleague’s jumper to fix it I noticed I had practiced the wrong brioche stitch. It looked more like Moss brioche stitch, but the principle is much the same.

Material:

gray cover: 1 skein 100 g gray Ethical Twist yarn (70% wool, 30% alpaca, 240m/100g,)

light blue cover: 100g light blue wool slub (100% wool, about 12 wpi)

Notions: double pointed needles size 5 mm, 5,5 mm and 6 mm . Threading needle.

Gauge: honeycomb brioche (done on 6 mm needles) 11 st x 19 rows (gray)  and 10 st x 18 rows (light blue) = 10 cm square.

The cover is knit in the round without any increases or decreases. To shape the corners smaller needles are used. Because there are so many different hot water bottles out there no measurements are given. Remember though to make and wash a swatch so that you don’t end up with something of the size of a children’s jumper in the end. As small as a project may be, wash your swatch!

The honeycomb brioche stitch is taken from ‘the brioche stitch’ website but adapted for knitting in the round.

With 5 mm needles cast on 24 stitches (or any even number of stitches needed). Knit 24 stitches on one side then knit 24 stitches out of the bottom of the cast on stitches on the other side. Knit in the round from now on.

Foundation round 1: *k1, yf sl1 yo purlwise, rep from *

Foundation round 2: *k1, k the stitch behind the yo and sl the yo purlwise, rep from *.

Round 1: * yf sl1 yo purlwise, brp1, repeat from *

Round 2: * k the stitch behind the yo and sl the yo purlwise, k1, repeat from*

Round 3: * brp1, yf sl1 yo purlwise, repeat from *

Round 4: * k1, k the stitch behind the yo and sl the yo purlwise, repeat from*

Repeat rounds 1-4 twice then switch to 6 mm needle and knit until the next corner is reached. Switch to 5.5 mm needle and knit rounds 1-4 at least once. End with round 1 or 3.

Start the neck by kfb for every yo and pfb for every k in the round below.

Then ktb and ptb every round for about 20 cm or as long as required.

Cast off and thread.

My son likes the circles. He thinks I should crochet lots and not join them. Just keep them for the sake of beauty. What a lovely thought.

First I spotted a Newzealand possum jumper. Possum! Until then I had only known possum hats. The jumper is too small for me, but just the right size for my half-newzealandish son. What a find!

Then I found a woolen, gray and white skirt with houndstooth pattern. Oh, how I love that pattern. It’s one of my all time favourites. It’s firmly on my list of patterns that I have to do before I die.

In the book section I found two craft books. One basic book about patchwork. I never do patchwork but that does not matter when you find a book in which loads of block patterns are listed with name. That alone is worth buying it. It’s ‘The perfect patchwork primer’ by Beth Gutcheon.

The second book I tell you about when I have told you what happened at the till. It seemed to be buy-one-garment-get-one-free day today, which I had not even noticed. So I got a pleasant surprise when the lady at the till told me that I would get the skirt for free. Free?!

Now, the second book deserves special mention. I opened it and thought I faint on the spot, and that for £3.99. It’s the best crochet book I have ever seen: James Walters’ ‘Crochet Workshop’. It does not only cover the basics, but describes all sorts of advanced techniques in a very detailed and incredible fun way. It’s bound to change my crochet life.

Judging by this picture James Walters must be what Germans call a Spassvogel, a ‘fun bird’.

Meanwhile I’m thinking up something else. Winter is approaching fast and I want something nice, soft and quick. I will work a variation on the fab Lacy Dolman by Stephanie Japel from her book Glam Knits. I’ve got a cone of silver Alamo from Texere Yarns that is just right for this. It’s an Alpaca/Mohair/Acryl blend.

I’ve chosen a ladder pattern that looks great on the right and wrong side with this yarn. I could wear it both ways. I’ve even found the right buttons today after searching John Lewis’ button aisle during  lunchtime for more than 30 minutes . I wonder how many potty customers they get taking out one tube after the other and musing endlessly over shape and colour of buttons spread out on a knitted swatch.

I went for these silver knobs in the end. Simple is best.

Now a little update on my recent successes and mishaps and I think I will start with the latter.

The Lorenz manifold: On my third attempt to mount the Lorenz manifold the last two rounds broke because the wire was too thick this time.  I will have to open up the last one and a half rounds and redo them. Then I noticed yesterday that a moth had eaten into it which really deflated me. But  I ‘m certainly not giving up on mounting the manifold alth0ugh it might take me quite some time to find the right wire. It really doesn’t surprise me that there are not many mounted Lorenz manifolds on the web.

The green thing: Maggie Smith remarks in Gosford Park: ‘Tricky colour, green.’ Whether she says it out of spite about the one and only party dress of the poorest member of the party or because it really is her opinion, it might well be both, I find it’s very true.

Now, I have this green thing going, and green really is not my favourite colour, and not this shade of green anyway, but it all came over me so quickly. Recycling yarn is sometimes weird. I bought a knitted linen top for a pound in a charity shop. It was my size, not really my colour, but is went with a couple of skirts I’ve got.  After wearing the top twice, more out of necessity (all other tops in the wash) than pleasure, I noticed it had a little hole in the back, which wasn’t a big problem because I had worn the top tucked into my skirts. Not having been too happy with it anyway but being linen (i.e. nice yarn) I opened it up. I always wanted to try this particular crochet motive, and this linen yarn seemed to be the right one .

The first motive looked nice and when I had crocheted the second onto the first I little butterflies appeared. I proceeded figuring out a net pattern for some sort of ‘skirt body’ repeating the bobbles of the original motive. I decided to vary the bobble pattern theme and alternate bobble patterns according to Fibonacci numbers. That solves the problem of having to decide for yourself for how long to crochet a stitch pattern. I liked it so much – funnily it’s looking especially good in this shade of green  – that I started a skirt. Yes, well at first, now it has actually become a dress, because there was enough yarn for one in the end. It’s now a question of finishing it off. Making the lining will be the worst bit. I’m not particularly good at sewing.

I’ve started another Curve of Pursuit last Monday while catching up on Ugly Betty on 4 on demand. This one will be for my mum. She gave me a 1 ply light blue lambswool and dark green Shetland style wool, well, I went through her stash during my holidays at her place and when I said I would like to make a Curve of Pursuit for her from it she was delighted. I found a third colour at home (a pink lambswool jumper that I tripled to match the thickness of the other woo) that I originally wanted to use to frame the Curve, but I decided to use it in the Curve to be able to make the afghan as big as possible with the limited amounts of yarn I have got.

Although I liked the combination of light blue and dark green in the beginning, while knitting I had second thoughts. Actually I didn’t like it anymore, especially the green had become too dark for my taste (difficult colour, green),  until my son assured me that it will look good in the end, although, he said, not as good as the other one.

Before it went into the wash

Finished crocheting the Lorenz manifold and it’s in the washing machine as we speak. It felt a bit odd having finished it. I’m sure it will be a pretty thing being mounted… if ever I will get that far.