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!