KnitWit

FO: Pom Cosy

Tea is one of my most favourite things. It's a bit of recurring theme with my friends and family - there are few things I love more than afternoons with a pot of tea with lovely people and quality conversation. This afternoon I'm meeting up with some of my top girlfriends to quaff tea, help plan a veggie patch in my friend's back yard and make some lists of things to do before we all turn thirty. 

I started this cosy in January as a housewarming gift for my lovely friend Sonya. However, while I managed to finish the sides and sew it up quite quickly, it did languish in various parts of my house for months until I got round to making the pompoms (and overcame my desire to keep the it for myself!). The pattern was from the same book as the Sheep, I am very pleased with the finished result. When parcelled up with some chocolate buttons from Greensmiths, Sonya was also quite chuffed. One of the reasons I like it is that before poms were added, it did look very like a sea anemone: I see more anemone/sea urchin cosies appearing in the future...

I knit it in Sirdar Click. While I don't usually knit with acrylic, I did want something very washable. I bow to the very sensible advice from Abby, Annabel and Ellen who helped me buy the wool: I think it helped to create a nice springy effect and I liked the effect of the floats on the inside.

All details are ravelled here.

If you haven't already seen it, I thoroughly recommend Kate's marvellous post on tea and the
exploitation of female knitters on Shetland. Well worth a read.

Recharging the batteries

 

So, I have a new job which is slightly overwhelming and exciting at the same time. It is a great job but daunting at the same time. However it is all about rising to the challenge and remembering that it takes at least 6 months to really settle in anywhere. I have had a whole week off to prepare for it and catch up on all the domestic chores that I have been piling up since Christmas. It has been quite exhausting but also a much needed break.

Today I have finished the week off seeing my mum and sister for Mother’s day. It was a lovely day involving roast chicken, walks in the sunny university parks and a few little treats.

- Daffodils and paper white narcissi from the Isles of Scilly bought at the covered market. They smell absolutely gorgeous and buying them I had a little thrill that come June Mum and I will be back on the Islands for a couple of weeks.

- I knitted mum a dishcloth in Anny Blatt cotton which I brought back from my Paris Trip and parcelled it up with some soap. The colour of the cotton is so vibrant. It is like a slice of sunshine and I think it will look really nice in my mum’s kitchen. I loved the pattern and will definitely knit some more of these in the future.  Ravelled here. I quite like the idea of starting my own little stash of knitted dishcloths and homemade tea towels.

-  I made some florentines which was very exciting. I had wanted to make them since I first bought ‘How to be a domestic goddess’ and they seemed to me the perfect treat for Mother’s Day. They were really easy to make and a nice thing to do on a Sunday morning – I made all the batches before 9am while leaping around to Radio 1 and drinking copious amounts of tea!

Hope you all have had a lovely and relaxing Sunday!

2008: Pick of the Year in Laraland

Having watched, listened and read various reviews of the year and being a fan of pick of the week, this is my pick of 2008.

Gig of the Year –Tough call but I think for me Lisa Hannigan @ Smith Square was  a late entry in this category. She was simply amazing, completely blew me away and did great covers of Tom Thumb's Blues, Lady is a Tramp and Free Until They Cut Me Down.

Strong contenders:
- Radiohead at Malahide Castle in Dublin, they came on underneath a rainbow and it was the first time I had ever seen them live.
- Spiers and Boden at Union Chapel. First time heard whole of Vagabond performed and thought it was pretty special.

Top albums of 2008: I couldn't narrow it down to just one but these for me were favourites this year.

- Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever ago.  It really grew on me, I thought it was dull at first.
-Lisa Hannigan – Sea Sew. Lovely lovely lovely and the CD case features knitting and embroidery. Very happy.
- Pete & the Pirates – Little Death. For sheer indiepop joy that has me jumping around.
- Spiers and Boden – Vagabond.  My favourite folk album to date features pirates, outlaws and all manner of vagrants.
- The Mummers: Tale To Tell. Fairytale gothic songs that soar and swoop all over the place with overtones of marching bands or fairground rides. I loved Raissa’s voice when i was a young teenybopper and she supported Suede at several gigs. And they rehearse in a treehouse - what is there not to like?!  

Book of the Year: - The Amateur Marriage – Anne Tyler.
Although I have to say that 2008 is one of my all time lows for reading. I seemed to read quite a few books that were either trashy or I was really underwhelmed by. Reading more (and better) books  is definitely on the list for 2009.

Film of the Year: - Sex in the City. 
I don’t think there is anything else to say. I loved it. All of it. Apart from the dead bird thing on her head in the wedding scene. (Why would anyone want a blue parrot stuck on your hair?)

Best political moment of the year: - Internationally: Obama winning in US. (Obviously)
- Domestically: 24 weeks Abortion limit defended (although frankly I think it is shocking it was ever seriously threatened) and sales of free range chicken going through the roof after last year’s big food fight programmes and Hellman’s mayo using free range eggs. 
Check out the f-word's UK top ten feminist moments of 2008 which is also well worth a read.

Worst political moment of the year: Boris – what was London thinking? Bah.  Incredibly depressing.

Craft achievements of the year: Overall I was a lot more productive than in the past with more finished objects...

I made my first garment (s) including (slightly odd) socks and my cardigan which is gorgeous and I wear a lot. I also completed by first sewing FO and finally finished the effing cushion. I knitted in the dark for the first time and hunted for treasure on worldwide knitting in public day with Kirsty and Alice. I finally got round to trying out fairisle which I love (still to blog), actually made soda bread rather than just talking about it, got into making muffins,  made some shrinkie-dink pins, reacquainted myself with letraset, experimented with more felting  and managed to spread some knitterly love with the bluestockings’ blanket for Felix.

Phew! I often feel not very productive and while there is a lot more that could be done, I don’t think that is bad all in all.

Favourite FO: Fabric bead Necklace. I love it. Everytime I wear it, I like how it looks and I get constant compliments on it. I’m hoping to make more in 2009 with slightly different fabrics. I’m thinking of making one with smaller beads to use up fabric scraps.

Largest knitting disaster: There has been a few, the slippers as a starting point, discovering that puppies and wool don’t mix has resulted in some interesting results.

Most ambitious project: Having talked myself down from the ledge of wanting to knit my director’s chair covers, I think this gong goes to the Having Hope socks – never having cabled and knitted from the toe up, I see now that this was quite an ambitious second pair of socks. All was well, if not slow until the cuff when I have spectacularly mucked up the cuff,  it is now frogged to the heel and I need to work out quite how to sort out the wreckage.

UFOs not touched in 2008: Witterings – it makes me look ridiculous, I might finish it and give it away, never has anything been so disappointing. Minisweater,  so little to do I can’t be bothered it seems, and the peg bag of death.

Blogtastic moments of the Year: Messy Tuesdays Love – I have loved all the variations that have sprung up on this theme and how different people have revelled in exposing the messier side of life.

Exicting new blog discoveries: This year I massively expanded the list of blogs I read by using the magical google reader. Although it seems a bit mean to highlight just a few but the following have become staple reads in 2008: Needled, Polkadotmocha, Other Stories, Dogged, Flint Knits, Yarnmonster, SixOneSeven, A Shrill Carmel & A Tiny Plot.

Doing this round up of the year reminded me about so much I haven't blogged or recorded but it also made me really appreciate all the comments and emails I have recieved from people stopping by here.Thanks for taking the time to read here and respond to my various ramblings and here's to a great 2009!

Done and dusted: Minimalist cardigan FO

I finished this in August/September  and have been wearing it pretty constantly since then and I love love love this cardigan. It has been the perfect autumnal garment – great for slinging over dresses or pretty much anything. I finished just before Iknit day and I was very gratified by the number of knitters that wanted to stroke it.  Half my office are now obsessed with paying me to make them one – they do not understand the economics of the hand-knitted garment. They seem to think if they buy me the wool, I’ll knock it up in a couple of bus journeys. Sadly this isn’t the case with my knitting.

I put all of this  down to the absolutely beautiful Oxford Kitchen Yarns that I used to knit it in.  This was Katie’s first custom dye job which I bought after trying on and nearly stealing her minimalist cardigan last summer.  I realise that I’m far from impartial but I can honestly say the colour and texture of the  wool is simply lovely.  Really enjoyable to be making something using British Wool that has been naturally dyed by a small local business.  I still have a balls worth left over which I’m going to use to make some mitts of some description. This pattern was a joy to knit in double moss stitch and I knit the front and back fairly quickly although the sleeves seemed to take forever.  I have to say I’m quite proud of my finishing – considering it is my first finished garment I think my mattress stitch is mighty fine.  

Pattern: Minimalist Cardigan from Interweave, Fall 2007, Size 39' (I love how this appears to be THE pattern for Oxford Kitchen Yarns cardigans – Liz also made a fine specimen)
Yarn: Oxford Kitchen Yarn DK, Raspberry – 10 balls.
Needle Size: 4.5mm bamboo circular
Start to finish: late Febuary - late August '08
Ravelled: here

Knit as pattern, worn with joy. Cheers!

A belated present

A hot water bottle may seem like an odd gift for a friend in July but that is because the said gift was made in winter for a February birthday. It then fell victim to never being in the same time or place as me when I saw its intended recipient.  However my long suffering friend realises that sometimes certain time delays are inevitable and if belated presents were ever going to be an issue I doubt we would have been friends for the best part of two decades (how old are we Raks?!)

Anyway, here we have a recycled hot water bottle made with love and gifted with a copy of Fur and Gold by Bats for Lashes. Raks also seems to be at the forefront of my rather experimental craft skills – she was very nice about the rather strange sock monkey I made her before but I’m hoping that this is a more useful and aesthetically pleasing present. 

Last November on a very dark and wet evening, I went to a Make Lounge workshop with one of my colleagues. The workshop was a lot of fun – I liked the ethos of it which was essentially to help time-poor people carve out time to do craft and also to try new skills. I think if I were to do others I’d try fabric painting or possibly the plastic recycled bags one. Doing workshops like this is probably a bit of an expensive way of trying something new but it was really well run workshop and people on the course where lovely. Anyway, this was an attempt to overcome my fear of sewing and cutting fabric and it did work to an extent! The tutor, Emma Seddon, was so nice and patient and I spent  most of the evening cooing over buttons, beads and felted jumpers and drinking red wine. (I’m not sure that the wine really added much to my craft skills). I am very pleased with the result.

Basically you make a pattern from paper by drawing round an existing hot water bottle and then were left to adorn it how you wished. All the jumpers were bought from second-hand shops and pre-felted before the workshop and actually the hardest thing was deciding on which ones to use. Obviously because the jumpers were felted you didn’t have to worry about edges fraying and it meant you could create quite bold effects. Lots of people used embroidery but I decided that I would use the textures from 3 different jumpers as the main decorative feature. (I did then cave and added the beads because they were so so pretty but they might not be that comfy). The front pieces were slipped stitch together and a basic running stitch round the outside.

I really struggled to let this one go as I do love how it turned out., I’m not sure that these photos do the colours justice but the back is a dove grey with blue and dusky pink on the front. I didn’t actually test it as a hot water bottle but I hope it works. I'd like to try more in the future - I'm keen to find some argyll jumpers to use. Those minging golf jumpers could be turned into lovely things!
Happy Birthday Rakhee!!

Bluetonic

Given that I’m sad and weary today, and all my hope is gone (slightly overdramatic but really – poor choice London, let us leave it at that.*), I think it is time for a restorative FO. This cushion cheers me greatly and frankly I needed a boost. Honestly, what can cheer you up more than an FO?

So to recap, my name is Lara and I’m afraid of sewing. The mere idea of cutting fabric could give me a rash and while I love my sewing machine, it currently makes me shudder. I want to be able to sew, I adore the clothes I have seen Kirsty sew, the quilts and log cabin pillows that Ashley makes and obviously the amazing quilts that Jane makes. I love fabric and have been hoarding fat quarters and general pieces that have pleased me. Hand sewing is fine – when I was younger I got really into sewing patchwork pieces together, embroidery and counted cross-stitch. (I did very much love the counted cross-stitch until everyone in my family had bookmarks and lavender bags – I find  it very soothing). I would always choose to sew by hand rather than use a scary machine being the Luddite that I am. (It once took me a triple period to sew three sides of a square cushion using a machine – the teacher wasn’t very sympathetic and suspected I had been chatting with my best friend and so made us both stay behind). With knitting it took me a long time to realise that if I didn’t like something then I could just unravel it and I think that a lot of my fear of sewing is really fear of cutting the fabric and completely mucking it up. Anyway, my sewing forays have been a bit limited to date, even with the amazing machine – I made the needle case, pincushion but then stalled.

Anyway, on Friday I decided to try and sooth my rather fragile nerves by getting out my sewing machine to finish of a UFO which had been languishing around my house for a long time. This cushion is the second thing I knit (first was the scarf, third thing was as yet unblogged mitts which I wear all the time) and I had been putting off sewing it up because of the fear of the sewing.  And hurrah it worked – it isn’t the most beautiful sewing in the world but it is finished and all held together and I love it.

The front is basically a practise square in Noro Kuryeon with intermittent garter and stocking stitch stripes. (The ball band is long gone so not much detail). Ravelled here.

It is backed with some green fabric and some fancy turquoise-bluey-silver silk for the back bought from Masons in Abingdon (in February 2006!). On the back is a flower which I embroidered from an Angry Chicken free pattern on the Craft Sanity podcast. I used silver thread which against the fabric is a bit more than my old camera can manage. It has been blogged here previously and I find it a nightmare to photograph.

Anyway, hopefully my sewing fear is going to subside slightly now. I figure that the fear isn’t going to go away but ignoring my sewing machine. My family were so excited when they bought me the amazing machine that I am determined to master it. Straight lines are a thing which seem to be a rare creature when I sew. Learning by doing is my mantra – I found knitting really hard when I started and while I’m not technically brilliant, I try all the time to improve.

* I got a text message from a friend which said “I am full of expletives today” which sums up my feelings perfectly.

Over the rainbow

Feels like knitting content has been a little on the light side. This is a scarf from pre-blog times, it is also quite controversial. Lots of people have called it “tasteless” and raised eyebrows when they have seen it.

Quite hard to photograph but it is rainbow mohair knitted with glittery disco yarn. I think it works and it makes me and its wearer very happy. It was also knitted on wooden knitting needles with pink polka dots ends which added to the complete joy of the knitting.

Pattern: My own – garter stitch, crazy yarn.
Yarn: Unspecified from fleamarket in NYC.
Needles: 10mm wooden pink polka-dot needles.
Start to finish: May 2005.
On Ravelry: here