Royal Wedding Day Gifts in Swaledale handspun

Voila! The first few skeins of the second helping of my handspun Swaledale, almost ready for knitting into the Achill jacket - it just need winding into balls  before I can take it down to my sister Katharine (aka the Queen of Knitting). Hopefully she has been to busy to knit the first few ounces yet...these look a little better spun.

Despite her title I understand she has not been asked to the Palace on  the occasion of the marriage William and  Kate as the names could be confusing around the table and her title is one of repute rather than noble birth. But this is of no real concern as it has been arranged by her family for her to hold a royal wedding day party at the Croft. Barbecue and burgers, fun and games for forty. I'll take it with me but she will deserve a rest before she starts any knitting of this complexity.

Wooly Facade

Out for a spin

Achill Jacket knitting pattern c.1963

In the early 1960’s we had the Beatles and, shudder my father’s timbers, The Rolling Stones. About the same time I was at Grammar School and old enough to be left with my older siblings while mother and father went on a jaunt touring Ireland with old family friends.

They went as far as Achill Island just off the west coast of County Mayo. Amongst the trophies they brought back were hanks of hand spun wool and a local pattern for an Aran style garment, the “Achill jacket”.

My sister Katharine was volunteered to do the knitting and she produced two wonderful jackets, one in donkey brown for Mum and one in a lovely slate blue for me.  The wool had quite a unique character and the complex arrangement of traditional stitch patterns had such a timeless quality that I wore the jacket for decades. Fashions came and went, but like Mick Jaggar, the Achill jacket just went on and on. I can not remember exactly when I finally gave in and let it go but there was quite a lot of it missing by then; it was worn to destruction.

Sadly there had not been enough wool for Katharine to have a jacket of her own in this yarn, by the time a return trip to Achill came about the hand spinners had gone and the wool could not be found again.

Now my dear sister has offered to make me another jacket, - a labour of love bar none! She still has the pattern and I have spent weeks trying to find a yarn which might have the feel of the original and that could do justice to the work involved - without breaking the bank.

I rather fancied grey as a colour and nearly tried my hand at natural hand dyeing some Shetland yarn I had got hold of, but it would have been a big quantity to do in one go and I hadn’t got any really big pots to do the job. Finally I came to my senses and realised I could have natural grey wool from a grey sheep which I could hand spin myself!

I settled on grey Swaledale and ordered a kilo of combed tops from R E Dickie Ltd. in Halifax. They have great ranges of British fleece and yarns which you can see and buy at http://www.ephraimson.com/redickieltd.php The eagerly awaited parcel has arrived and I’m very, very happy with the contents. All I have to do now is peddle until its done…watch this space.  Anyhow it beats going to the gym.

The longest day – Odd Sox

Odd Sox-Frenchie the stripe

Those who have to put up with me around the home are well aware that on occasions I will appear in odd socks or with my cardigan on inside out. Usually they have sorted me out before I have left the house. But some times it gets worse. I’ll never forget the day I got half way through a morning at work before realising I had odd shoes on my feet. Not wildly dissimilar, they should have been a pair of classic court shoes – plain black slip ons with a small heel. But one was definitely round toed and two years younger than its pointed and well battered companion.

The initial shock horror moment passed without me shrieking out. No, there wasn’t another “pair” in the car or in the staff room. This was it for the day. There was nothing to be done except quake.  Should I let on to my colleagues, or could I avoid open views across the office? If challenged what could I repartee? Worse still, had I already been clocked?  I was supposed to be a professional with letters to put after my name. Would this count in my annual assessment? The longest day ensued.

What brought all this to mind was getting news that one of my knitting bags had been featured on a blog http://thesockgarden.wordpress.com/2011/02/25/knit-club-folksy-friday/

So I was off to the Sockgarden, the home of Odd Sox at a rate of knots. I can honestly say these cute and crazy hand made creatures made by Shaz are absolutely terrific. Do take a look, they are really special.

If I get the chance I’d love to see them in the flesh at Sock! Sat. 26^th and Sun. 27^th March, Loughborough Town Hall. It’s hard to choose… but I think my favourite just now is Frenchie the Stripe and I’d like to be six again. 

Seeing Red - P.S. Knitted pleats for little girls are back again

Slip stitch knitted pleats

Having got quite nostalgic about Grandma's knitting I was a bit miffed to be reminded recently of one less well remembered knitted Christmas present given to me as a child. I think I must have deliberately made the effort to forget the hand knitted jumper initialed on the chest with the letters P.S. due to one of those little Christmas jests that meant no harm but left a little sting. 

Strangely I had remembered the matching skirt which came with it quite fondly. It was worn so long it became too short! Overtime Grandma had knitted little sets for all the Stillman girls with embroidered initials on each. So there was KS, HS, MS and finally PS all kitted out in little knitted pleats and a top to go over.

To understand the impact of opening the Christmas parcel in question you will have to know something of the Christmas Day ritual at Oakfields. The family gathering at our house was huge and included all Grandma and Pam Pams’ children and their children and in later years their children. Now little PS was about five years behind all the others, so at the time I was the baby of the family and the audience packed the room. 

Christmas 1956

It was always a late start. Grandma and Pam Pam refused to leave their home, some miles away, before the Queen's speech at three o'clock. There were so many to cater for; much of the day was taken up with “final” preparations for the giant spread. No presents were opened until after a huge buffet tea of turkey, roast beef, ham, trifles and jellies, mince pies, chocolate log, meringues, éclairs, batten-bergs, other assorted cakes and six gallons of tea had been well and truly consumed. All presents from everyone were piled high around the Christmas tree. The ceremony began when Daddy started to read out the labels on each and every gift and I was dispatched to pass it over. Every present was opened with eager anticipation while we all looked on and cheered the emerging socks and books, bath cubes and handkerchiefs. It went on long into the night.

Then came the parcel containing the said monogrammed knitting.

"Oh! Thank you Grandma" said I,

"Oh!  P.S.! - well she was a little afterthought” said another.

Laughter ensued.

I was not happy and let them all know.

Somehow it didn’t stop there - endearing references to little P.S. taunted me for sometime. No wonder I'm still shy! 

Pleated effect knitted skirt sewn
on to stretch fabric bodice

Never the less, the skirt was a hit, and similar ones were knitted for the next generation too. So it definitely qualifies as a family favourite. I didn’t have a pattern, but with a little help from good old James Norbury, I learnt that the key to the pleating effect is a slip stitch. So after a little experimentation I was able to reproduce it. Big sister (KS) assures me it is pretty close.

It’s remarkably simple to knit and it’s easy to make a skirt for a pre-school little girl in just one piece. You can elasticate the top or if you put on to a little bodice it will never droop. You can find the stitch pattern here and instructions for making a little skirt here.

Knitting hero – James Norbury 1904-1972

James Norbury knitting hero

I’m still looking for a royalty free image of James Norbury, my first knitting hero, until then we will have to make do with my own feeble sketch of the man to whom knitters today owe so much.

I’ve been getting great value from my vintage copy of Odham’s Encyclopedia of Knitting and I have been trying to find out more about James Norbury, his books and to put a face to him. I can understand why so many people speak so highly of him, he just made knitting appear so simple and his knowledge and passion for the craft is contagious.  

To date I have only come across one photograph and when I first saw it I was a little taken aback. I think I was expecting a version of the sort of suave fifties chap you see on vintage knitting patterns. It was not just the bald head and beard rather akin to the Philip Harben, Clement Freud look;  it was the incredibly strong, pebble thick lenses of the glasses he was wearing which struck me most. Taken in 1951 he would have had much of his writing and broadcasting career ahead of him, I wonder if he had damaged his eyes with so much knitting or if he had poor eyesight from early on?

As head designer at Patons, for many years after the World war II he was a highly influential and engaging teacher and spokesman on the subject. Apparently equally at home delivering a lecture to the Royal Society of Arts (1959) or writing knitting books for children.

In the fifties and sixties he was the face of knitting on television. I have been trying to work out why I can not remember him. But now I know he was on the screen as early as 1951 when I would have been a baby in arms.  We did not have a televison at home until 1958 but that should have allowed us to see him on BBC2 in the late1960’s but I don’t recall seeing him.

He must have been quite a striking character. Sir David Attenborough, talked warmly about him in 2009 to Jenni Johnston.

"There is a telling moment when he tells me of one of the few times in his life where he found himself in a job he 'didn't much care for' - the stint he spent as controller of BBC2 in the late 1960s. 

Even here, though, he found things to marvel at. 'The knitting intrigued me,' he says. Knitting? 'Absolutely. There was a chap called James Norbury, who had his own knitting show on the BBC. I sat in on some of the programmes, and good stuff it was, too. I learned lots of racy stuff about "knit one, purl one"."

Mailonline 15th January 2009

I can not wait to get my hands on more of his work. Last time I checked out EBay I had just missed a lovely copy of The Penguin knitting book (1957) by minutes. I know there are about 25 titles out there by him, one or two on embroidery and sewing too, which I will list on a page here as soon as I get time. 

If you want to take a peek at the photo try

http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/JG8198-001/Hulton-Archive

Woolly Facade

The yellow brick road

Finally! the first recreation of an old family favourite is complete just in time for Christmas 2010 and a perfect fit for our youngest grand son, baby George, aged 10 months. This brings the simple brick pattern which my Grandma used to knit for us down through five generations and lives which span across three centuries. This is like the one I was wearing in the 1950's photo on my earlier post “Down by the Sea”.

Looking at it with my sister she was relieved I had been able to complete it with just two yarns remembering how when yarn was in short supply after the second world war, the brick pattern jumpers might be randomly completed in different colours if enough of the original could not be found.

George’s jumper was put together from five strands of machine coned yarn wound together. The exact fibre content is debateable as both colours were remnants from a job lot acquisition.  I don’t think either the brown or the quite lustrous camel is natural fibre but they have combined into a soft but fairly dense fabric, making a nice cosy jumper.

After a few false starts the simple slip stitch pattern was really easy as you only have to carry one colour across at any time and the alternate colour comes up the edge. There are loads of possible variations but if you would like to see how I did this one click the knitting stitch pattern tab to see the stitch pattern I used.

The house that Jack built tea cosy - charity auction for Crisis at Christmas 2010

The house that Jack built

Its just so cold out there! The thought of people having to sleep rough outdoors is really worrying. When the Crisis at Christmas leaflet came through the door, gently floating on a stream of warm centrally heated air it really struck a cord. Crisis can offer a lot more than Christmas dinner to the homeless if they have the funds they can offer a real turning point and direction to a better future too. I thought I would put something together to auction as an EBay.for charity item.

I quite like making tea cosies as a way of using up smaller bits and pieces in applique and patchwork but I have never knitted one. Thinking on a housing theme, memories of those odd "Tudor" cottage patterns you used see in Woolcraft sprang to mind. I'm rather fond of nursery rhymes too... next thing I know  I'm making "The house that Jack built" -  what a lot of characters!

Anyway this turned out be lots of fun. I've had a go at felting or strictly speaking "fulling" a big strip of  loosely knitted Shetland wool into a thick mat  for the walls, I've taken up the warmest seat in our house right between the radiator and my knitting machine to make the roof, got out my fabric paints and done some free embroidery on a sewing machine. I added one of my little designs on leather for the cock that crowed in the morn.

It's up for grabs now, the auction ends Sunday 19th Dec. Item number: 290511734935 Fingers crossed  it will find a new home and the proceeds will help some one out of the miserable cold this Christmas. A perfect present for "the hard to buy for because they already have everything they need"

The damsel all forlorn has perked up no end since she got kissed by the man all tattered and torn!

cheers
Woolley Facade