Sweet heart baby beanie hat knitting pattern on Kindle

Sweet heart baby beanie hat knitting pattern

Knitting patterns to download, what a joy! Platforms for publishing have evolved incredibly since the first knitting patterns were published commercially around two hundred years ago.

Today there is a need and demand for electronic knitting patterns.  Sweet heart baby beanie hat pattern is one I designed earlier. A really cute baby hat pattern. Knitted in two colours its just perfect for a new born baby. Tried and tested, I designed and it myself.

Let me know if you would like to knit it.

Free form knitting - Knitting Hero Prudence Mapstone

Free form knitted Flowers

Its sometime now since I came across Prudence Mapstone's amazing free form fibre art on her website http://www.knotjustknitting.com In truth at the time I was looking for a domain name for a little creation of my own - "Knot", a little dog drawn in the form of a single piece of knotted up string. But Prudence had got there long before me. Her work is truly sensational and inspirational and her world wide following is so well deserved. One of the very best things to come up from "down under" I think she has to go down as my second knitting hero after James Norbury.

Free form knitted landscape

While I don't ever expect to produce anything approaching her amazing output, and have only seen the website as yet, I now I often sit down and start some "random knitting". Just casting on a few stitches using an oddment of yarn. Before long some sort of idea will pop up and I might then make a little sketch  to give a basis to work from. Its very relaxing and as creative as working with a brush or pen. 
I now have lots of little bits but here are a couple of ideas I did a while ago which went a bit further.

I'll never afford to go to one of her shows or get on board the good ship "Voyager of the Seas" for a 14 night craft cruise from Freemantle to Singapore.(http://www.needleworktours.com.au/). They really do know how to treat their crafts people in Australia! But I know there are lots of free form knitters on Ravelry, perhaps I really should catch up with some of them. 

Florence the knitted bear gets into nursing outfit

I  knitted this little bear for a family new born named Florence and just had to dress her as a nurse; after her famous namesake.

 Designing the little blue dress for this tiny bear, just 6” high, was quite tricky. It has separate bodice pieces, puffed sleeves and flared skirt. The intricate shaping for the sleeves was achieved by making stitches along several part rows and then decreasing rapidly. Using several sets of increasingly larger pins created the flared skirt without too much bulk. A little bit of crochet for the collar.

The bear, knitted in DK on size 11(old UK) was easy to work yet really firm so that no stuffing would ever escape.

Swaledale fleece - to dye or not to dye that is the question

Swaledale fleece, washed, carded, spun and plied

Not much blogging but plenty of slogging away lately on the the two unwashed fleeces a brought home from the Yorkshire Dales last year. Finally its all been sorted, washed and the first 150 gms have been carded, spun, plied and washed again.
Now: to dye or not to dye, that is a question still unresolved.

The wool is lovely as it is; a little harsh in places maybe and neither carded or spun to perfection but quite unique and all my own work.

In the Pink – Acid dyed wool from recycled tissue paper

recycled tissue paper acid dyed wool 

The year is racing away and its been another long while since I posted on this blog. But I have another excuse.

I am getting back to reality after another surgical adventure care of our amazing NHS hospitals,  Taking it easy;  browsing Etsy and the like I came across a new UK online magazine, Bodkin, for crafters who love to try out different skills. You can find it at

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Yarnspy

My dye pot has been staring me in the face for weeks  but  now I have been told I’m allowed to lift a few pots and pans for myself  I just had to have a go at something really interesting  I read there. It proved to be well worth the trouble.  Today I have very successfully dyed 12.5gms (1/2 oz) of wool using a couple of sheets of recycled, colored tissue paper!

That scruffy tissue paper may well have been lurking in my little paper stash for a decade, but today was its day. Wow! Pink fit to dress your favorite Barbie doll and the color has set really tight.

If you have ever had the misfortune to wash a white table cloth with a colored paper napkin caught inside it you will now just how rapidly that color transfers and ruins your cloth

 It happens because the dye in papers such as tissue, napkin, and crepe is most often an “acid” dye which will also dye wool and these types of paper have fewer binders than harder paper, so the color readily comes out in water. There is no acid in the dye you just need to add some (white vinegar or citric acid) to the process to help the color absorption and heat to set it.

I will be growing my collection of tissue paper and napkins if I go to a party from now on. This is a great way to create a hue of colored yarns at virtually no cost and help conserve the planet too!

All thanks to Bodkin . http://www.etsy.com/shop/Yarnspy

Golden sands and Golden Hands - landscape knitting

Never one to throw anything away, my box of odd bits of wool is overflowing again...

Recently I have been gradually working my way through the 150 issues of Golden hands and Golden Hands Encyclopedia of Crafts which I acquired a couple of holidays ago for the princely sum of 1p each. These publications go back to the 1970's. I never saw too many of them at the time. But I will be ever grateful to the good lady who ordered every issue, kept them all and then forty years and later left them at her gate. For sale at one pence a copy - the money to be left in the honesty box at the side. Our stroll to the beach had to be abandoned, the only way this lot could be got back to the campsite was in the car.  And I wasn't going to pass this little treasure trove up!

A little tip I had just picked up about knitting in several colours said to keep the yarn in use coming up from below the other yarns. I thought I would have a little practice. I did not have a pattern so I cast on about twenty  and  made a little sketch of a country scene to have something to aim at. I had to have two goes at the little dog, it came out too big the first time. But drawing a little grid over the shape made it quite easy.

The tip was a good one, I ended up with a little bag. I was so pleased with it, I took the trouble to line it. Just right for crochet hooks and little tools.

All thanks to Mrs Lee.

Now they have all gone bananas in pyjamas

Bananas in pyjamas knitted hats

In the run up to Christmas I spent more than a little time creating Bananas in Pyjamas outfits for two of my nearest and dearest for a seasonal fancy dress party. How easy that should have been. But having trawled every shop in town and seemingly every location on the web, I could not find a single piece of fabric with the right sized stripes. Candy stripe fabric every where... but only a mean narrow cm. wide. In true dedicated Grandma style I ended up piecing every single blue and white stripe for two pairs of pyjamas! A bit tiresome by the end but I got there just in time and with two inches of fabric to spare.

Knitting the banana hats was much more fun and would have been simplicity itself if only I had not had to knit them simultaneously to eke out a very limited amount of yarn between the two hats. They are based on a simple bobble hat with a slip stitches on alternate rows to create the idea of sides and the top stitches decreased  rapidly into an oblong shape, lightly stuffed. And don't they look cute!

What reminded me of all this was the sight of  "this season must have fashion trend" in the Sunday Times Style magazine. Bold monochrome stripes are all it apparently. Amongst many other examples, lo and behold, boy and girl bedecked in £75 bold stripey jacket and £41 bold stripey shorts.

Well I got two pairs of pyjamas out of a slice of blue fabric off the bottom of an old duvet cover from out of my patchwork stash and a metre of white cotton from the market. And two banana hats from some yarn someone else had left over many moons ago. Which is why I never throw things away.
Woolly

Too many sheep - not enough knitting

The house is full of wool but very little has been stitched of late. Its been a strange Summer and rather sad. My sister Mary was suddenly very ill and in July, not long after my last blog, she died. We had some lovely family times together in her last few weeks. She was such an amazing character, she gave so much to so many and we miss her.

Unscoured Blue Faced Leicester fleece

So blogging about knitting has not been on the agenda for a while. At one point this summer we defied the elements to briefly go camping in the Yorkshire Dales. We met lots of sheep and despite my stated determination not to buy I came back with an unscoured Swaledale fleece, unscoured Blue Faced Leicester fleece and a kilo of beautiful Wensleydale combed tops.

It's now all lurking in different parts of the house in various stages waiting to be washed, dyed, combed, carded or spun. The Blue Faced Leicester was hilariously curly, but I have to say rather whiffy too! Washing it was not something I wanted to do in my kitchen so its been a question of dodging the showers. Its been a bit of a learning curve too - book in one hand, fleece in the other. Something will come of it all eventually I dare say: but will it be wool or worsted?  I will try and keep you posted. I might need some wool combs and a new spinning wheel yet!

Wensleydale combed tops

Rolled up unscoured Swaledale fleece

Fifty years in the making - Aran knit meets Swaledale hand spun

Aran Achill jacket knitted c.1963 meets Swaledale hand spun c.2012

It seems ages ago now; but actually only about twelve months have passed since my big sister promised to re-knit the Achill jacket pattern she had last knitted 50 years ago if I came up with the wool. Back in the early 1960’s she produced several beautiful Aran jackets in wool brought back from holidays near Achill Island off the West Coast of Ireland by our late parents. (earlier post-Out for a spin).

Despite a long time searching, the special quality of the wool proved impossible to match at any affordable price. So it’s been a double challenge for Katharine to convert my wobbly hand spun Swaledale into this fantastic jacket. I am very much the novice at spinning and it took me a good while to spin the yarn. Many other major knitting projects have been and gone through Katharine’s hands while she has been waiting.

The result is superb, I could not be happier. It deserves the greatest care I can give it but I will want to wear it all the time

I wore my earlier jacket to destruction and we were convinced all that remained of the Achill wool was one of Narnie’s hats.  How very odd that the very week the new jacket was finally completed, mother’s original brown Achill jacket was spotted at the bottom of an old trunk.

Here they are together.  My new one complete with its handmade wooden buttons, created from fumed oak by my unique brother in law Derek Martin, who is not only maker of all those knitting pins for my knitting bags but also the craftsman who designed and built my spinning wheel.

At the risk of sounding a bit cheesy ……..and I have just had some for lunch; this is about more than just knitting. It’s special and its wrapped up in wonderful family ties and fifty years of memories, in particular my BMT in 1988 from Katharine which gave me the last 24 years.  We have come by two great husbands, thirteen children and twenty grandchildren between us and countless cousins , uncles and aunts so there is still plenty more knitting to do…...

All I can say for now is “Thanks sis!".

Down the slippery slope - bias knitting problems

Oh dear what can the matter be? Quite a lot it appears. The knitting has gone all lop sided!

I had my suspicions when I knitted a tension swatch that all might not be well with the yarn I had Navajo plyed on the spinning wheel. This looping/chaining technique converts a single strand into a three ply yarn. It's quite simple when you get going, but  I was aware some over twisting had occurred while I was getting the hang of it.

I knew over twisted yarn can cause the knitted fabric to slope off in one direction, but the slope on the tension swatch was barely perceptible so I pressed on with the main garment sleeve. Thirty six cms.(15") of slip stitch pattern later not only do I have a bias on the fabric but one side is a good 5cms(2") longer than  the other.

Time for a cup of cocoa and burning some midnight oil while wading through Montese Stanley's "The Hand Knitter's Handbook - still the best book I have for finding better techniques and problem solving.

Along with  the over twisted yarn, loose stitches at the beginning of a purl row could well be part of the problem.  Apart from tightening the first purl stitches another suggestion Montese gave is to work a double chain selvedge on the over long edge. But that might not be suitable on a sleeve seam.

I'm hoping taking the yarn from the opposite direction of twist might help things. Another possibility for sorting the bias caused by the yarn, given by Montese, could be to incorporate twisted or plaited stocking stitches going in the opposite direction.

You often come across knitting or purling into the back of a stitch when shaping but I have never really considered the possibilities created by the use of rows of such stitches for forming basic fabrics. I am now quite fascinated and am busy making sample swatches of twisted and plaited stocking stitch.

I still love the yarn, I'm determined to make it behave and give me a new cosy cardigan - based on one I had when I was eight. Any other suggestions?

Wool in the willows

Hand dyed wool in home grown willow basket

It might have been raining cats and dogs all last month but at last some of my hand dyed wool now lies basking in my first ever home grown willow basket!

Making bags is one thing but I have long had a yearning to make baskets too.  Last year’s birthday present – thirty or so willow stick cuttings and some agricultural matting might not be everyone’s idea of a glittering, surprise birthday treat; but for me it was potentially a dream come true.

Despite some rather dry weather last year and little attention on the allotment the cuttings survived. One year on the first rods were harvested in February. Although another year is really needed for the rods to be suitable for basket making I have finally coaxed a few of the first growth into something recognisable as a basket.

Apart from a practice run with some rolled up newspaper and sliced up supermarket carrier bags this was my first attempt at basketry. A long way to go yet and lots to learn but working with the willow proved to be very satisfying. The aroma of the willow is lovely and I’m looking to grow some different varieties next year.

Around 1850’s William Scaling, willow grower and basket maker to Queen Victoria grew the finest willows on land less than a mile away from my little patch. There is no sign of it now but basket making and wicker work for perambulators and furniture was an important industry locally well into the twentieth century. I wonder if could ever be revived ? .... I guess it might take just a few more willows.

Not quite a host of knitted daffodils

knitted daffodils

The daffs in the garden and the parks are pretty much all over but I now have couple which will never fade. Some what strangely the other week we found a pile of artificial flower heads in our gateway. Whether they had been dropped by a child or by the bin men remains a mystery.  We left them in situ in case anyone returned for them and they gradually disappeared. But then I wished I had collected a few to pop into the basket by the door - under the rapidly fading mini daffodils we had been enjoying.

By nightfall it had became a bit of a personal challenge to try knitting a couple of replacements The outer petals were not to complicated - simply increasing and decreasing to get the overall shape. It took a few goes to get the idea of a trumpets. I wanted a more frilly effect which I finally got near to by knitting it as a flat piece starting with just a few stitches, rapidly increasing to about four times the number, finishing with a picot edge before joining. The stem is a simple knitted  I-cord with a stick inserted up its length. The vaguely knitted leaf shape got stiffened with a few dried stalks from last year.

I will try to remember to dust them so they don't turn into Narcissi!

Pink panther's Olympic bid - crochet cat on the loose

A few weeks ago the BBC ran an update about the £500,000 Arts Council commission to celebrate the Olympics. The East Midlands artist Shauna Richardson had completed all three 30ft Olympic lions crocheted  in local wool. Out of all the original contenders this had been my favourite, but I was quite amazed at the audacity of the project.  The wool is quite rough apparently and unsurprisingly Shauna did admit to sore fingers from time to time.

The project set me off thinking about knitting a quick little cat of my own. I looked through a stream of cute woolly felines on Ravelry and tried downloading a free pattern from Japan. Despite the translation and a multitude of diagrams it totally defeated me. It may have been down to the different stitch notations that are used in different parts of the world. Anyhow I eventually set off on a venture of my own. 

No sore fingers for me! I decided to use up some really soft 3ply fingering in pink. Well it was never going to be too realistic. There is definitely room for improvement and I thinks she needs a bit more to eat. But she doesn't bite and when asked most recognise her many cat like qualities.

I will definitely be off to Chatsworth to see Shauna Richardson masterpieces when the go on show before I try another one.

Little big heads - knitters beware

Zip up top for two year old

How time flies! My youngest grandchild has passed his second birthday already. Rather late in the day for a creative hand knit to add to his birthday booty I decided to haul out my old but trusty Knitmaster 155 knitting machine with its equally vintage KR6 knit radar.
To ring the changes on the standard raglan sleeve jumper I went for a cosy high neck with a front zip opening. I was quite pleased with the outcome. It had been a bit touch and go as to whether there was sufficient of the yarn I had selected which is a lovely pure wool in variegated grey browns - perfect chocolaty toddler camouflage.
A shame then that I had slightly underestimated the size of the young gentleman's head so that the garment had to come home with me again after a birthday outing to West Yorkshire. No matter how brainy you may think the infant it seems its very hard to be too generous when calculating the neck opening for a young child as the head's of all children are proportionally larger at that age.  Another lesson relearned the hard way! But its all OK now.

Knitting for Heros – our diamond Queen at home during the Second World War

Princess Elizabeth knitting

Last weeks anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth to the throne reminded me of the collection of books about Royalty which have been gathering dust at the top of the stairs for a few years since I accidentally acquired them in a huge job lot of books I brought at an auction sale.

Taking five minutes off to have a little browse and picking up on one volume with a very striking cover, The Royal Family in Wartime, I came across this lovely picture of the Royal Family at home. Princess Elizabeth is looking so relaxed as she stands, knitting in hand, right by the fire.

In our house she would have been accused of hogging the heat, but perhaps the Palace was just as draughty as our place used to be - so I wouldn’t blame her!

Home tonight telegram 1945

As I got further into the book I started coming across little pieces of wartime ephemera. The front of a charming Christmas card, newspaper cuttings of children’s colouring pictures, hand written recipes for Eggless Cake, and Sponge Parkin came fluttering out.  But my heart nearly stopped when a page opened to reveal a telegraphic envelope. Dreading the thought that it had born bad news, it was a relief to find it was in fact to herald a soldier’s homecoming in December 1945.

The young Princess may well have been knitting socks for the troops or even prisoners of war,  it looks like she is knitting on double pointers. And I guess there is a double point to all of this in how closely the Royal Family did stand by the people during the devastation of the war and just how spectacularly something as simple as a little  bit of knitting contributed by many individuals can create a significant difference where it is needed.

The Royal Family in Wartime, Odhams Press Ltd., London 1945

Put a sock in it.

Thinking about what would make a good bag for a sock knitter, I thought it was about time I had a go knitting some socks myself.

Put a sock in it - stop laughing!

Not having any specifically sock yarn to hand I set off with some doubled up, rather sparkly yarn of undetermined fibres from a cone; which I didn’t mind getting wasted if it didn’t produce the finished socks.  By making a tension swatch and a rough lower leg measurement I followed most of James Norbury ‘s generic sock instructions from the good old Odham’s Encyclopedia of Knitting. It was all much simpler than I had imagined.

Undecided about the merits of circular needles compared with double pointers I switched around a bit. The circular needles I currently have are not the greatest but I gradually got into the swing of the “magic loop” however by the end of the second sock I was rather surprised to find that I had made much quicker progress with the double pointers.

Not the most stylish, I will readily admit! - but actually the socks fit remarkable well and look much better on the foot. Any how these will make a great pair of bed socks and they can come camping with me next time we are out in the tent. But next time I should now be able to create a sock pattern for any size with a bit more style.  

Knitting short rows

Small knitted bag curves knitted with short rows

Despite all the assorted yarn in generous amounts sitting around the place waiting for something to happen to them I have been taken up with looking for ideas of what to do with a small mountain of short lengths of rug wool from the back of the cupboard. They are warp ends from the woollen mill at  Solva, near St. David's Wales, the colours are lovely but none of them are even a metre long. Great for pegging a rug but I really wanted to weave them. This hasn't happened yet but I thought I would just see how they knitted.
I have tried my hand a little at "free knitting" in the past and quite enjoyed the effect of knitting short rows, (turning back before the end of the row). As you can see you can get some lovely curves going so I put some in too. Eventually my little experimental pieces have become a small zipped  and lined bag.

Knitting Feathers

As ever I have spent the first week of the year tidying up last years accumulated bits and bobs which have found a temporary Christmas home or a more permanent lodging in my workshop. Had to do something a bit more radical this year to better accommodate the extra craft related gear I have also acquired.  So have been shifting tool racks and making space for more shelves.

While moving things around I came across a little square of knitting I did on two feathers. I remember having a go at this after I read an item on the web about knitting on the West Coast of Ireland.  I had been trying to find some Aran wool from Achill Island, the article described learning to knit on goose quills and other makeshift needles such as sticks of willow and bicycle spokes.

I didn’t have any goose quills but there are always pigeon feathers in the garden so I had a go on two of these. They worked quite well, smooth with just a little grip too and the curve made them easy to hold. Even less excuse now for not getting on with some knitting even when the needles have been left at home.

You can read more of the article about traditional knitting in Ireland at

http://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/aemblem/sweaters.html

A little sheepish - baby blanket auction for Save the Children

Little baby blanket for Save the children

The troublesome baby blanket is finally completed and the finished article is rather sweet. A little image of Woolly Facade appears in the corner.  The pure Shetland wool in cream and the super soft naturally coloured yarn spun from Cashgora and 30% Manx Loghton rare breed wool are rather special. It's made a lovely cosy little cover up for a small baby - just right for a first size car carrier/seat.

As Christmas is coming up I decided to auction it for charity via EBay. A 100% of the proceeds will be going to Save the Children. The auction is running now and until 11th December Item 290640589687

Knitting at the ready - a little reflection for Poppy Day

I love old books. The other day I was searching the bookcases for a crumbling copy of Winnie the Pooh I knew I had somewhere. But when I opened a rather dusty book I had put my hand on it took me by surprise. Not A.A. Milne but a war time fictionalisation of  real life on a RAF station in World War II entitled Readiness at Dawn by "Blake". I flipped through the black and white photographs peppered through the book - on the last page one paragraph caught my eye.

The year was 1941. It was the early hours of the morning in the operations room....
" The map was empty. The W.A.A.F. with the gasp was reading her poetry again. Two others were knitting service garments, and one a baby's jacket. The men sat and read, or wrote letters or just sat and smoked and did nothing. The hard light beat down on the scene. The telephones were quiet."


The power of a simple task like knitting to calm the nerves, to provide the bare necessities for war heroes and to add to the little tinge of expectation for a new life to come just struck home to me. These days you often come across great nostalgia for the 1940's vintage style but the tragic reality of the era is not one we should forget.