With other diamond projects on my mind, these are having diamonds in moss stitch. the thumb also has a 7 st diamond motif on it.
So as not to interrupt the pattern, 62 sts used. Side slits for first ones, the handwarmers, and finished off with rib top. Full glove length is 20 rows for inner hem as stitches are elongated, 2 to change colour and turn. 24 rows of pattern then hem picked up. No thumb gusset to preserve pattern, another 20 to thumbline, 20 to top, 2 rows palin colour and divide for fingers.
And that completes my year of intermittent blogging!
I've never been interested in knitalongs before, mostly because of the time constraints and the competitive elements. But, having got all the advent stuff out of the way, I found myself in knitting limbo. Someone was starting a mystery mitten, one "clue" to be unveiled every three days. She's a designer whose other items I rather like, but this one is turning out most peculiar. Too many different techniques in one item. Half of stitches are knitted with two strands held together. With J& S 2ply jumper weight, and size 3mm needles, this makes for tough knitting here, and sloppy stranded colourway on the other half. There is a maxim in stage management "never book an act you haven't seen" ( that brings back some awful memories!), so I don't think I will be doing any more knitalongs if I can't see a photo of the finished object by gathering the clues together. Which probably defeats the whole object!
Finger puppets of boy, girl, rabbit, cat, snoman
Stuffed toys of birdie, snowman, gingerbread woman, gnome, sheep in overalls, owl
Knitted Santa jumper and trousers, crochet angel.
Bought unicorn biro and choc coins, candle tealight, choc reindeer.
Mushrooms and toadstools are the most obvious things that you think about when selecting items Advent calendar pockets, but the Amanita muscaria, fly agaric, is nicely red and white. Not my pattern, but from ODdknits - she has other fungi on her website as well, but I t hink I will stick with this one!
Not much knitting going on as the whole house is being painted. The paint company has called one colour "glistening grey" and it is pure lavender!
Finger puppets. I now have to make up a story around Goldilocks and the One Bear, the 'armless wizard and his black cat, a boy in over-sized dungarees, a very long-eared (but not floppy) bunny, a snowman and a pirate with an eye patch. Good luck with that, Mary!
In a single day, some of my ideas for sale were rejected - but they will make Christmas Gifts. And I was sent a huge bag of yarn, some of which cannot be used on the CSM - so I am handknitting some socks. The added bonus of this one is trying out a pattern for tabbed socks which a fellow cranker has adapted from the original CSM pattern to handknit, both toe up and cuff down. It should be quicker than normal a) because they are shorter, b) because the yarn is thicker. Will also incorporate the "no wrap, no turn heel" - once I re-work the maths!
Plus a clearout of desk drawers revealed ancient 3 and 5 inch floppy discs and re-writeable dvds. The latter gave me a storage lid and a device for centering circular labels, both of which are perfect sizes for coveing the top of CSMs. Not so much to keep dust out as to protect my sleeves from the needles when I reach over them to get into cupboards.
Next thing to try out is integral pockets. Plan is to lift all needles out of work except 12, knit on those for 20-30 rows, knit all round again. Finishing edge will have to be done by hand. The intention is for socks with teddy pockets. Then to make mini teddies on the Knitmaster.
I have some brown tweedy yarn, rather stiff, so has to be washed before sewing up. The handknit pattern has to be adapted. Due to the small scale of the arms, I decided to knit them wider and roll instead of stuffing them.
I was looking for another circular sock machine project and came across these little clown purses in an 1989 magazine. Althought I had done "full size" clowns before, I hadn't made these disembodied ones. They were done on the Knitmaster, based on 40 sts. Although they seem small, they would be too gi-normous on a circular I think, even the 60 cylinder. However, ideal size for Christmas bauble, and as I had still got some of the lavender acrylic that B gave me , instantly thought of lavender bags. An empty one will hold chocolate coins nicely, and then doesn't look too emaciated to hang back on the tree. Dark green ones will have some spices and dried lemon verbena in.
So hot, even first thing, My left anle swells up in the daytime, so I try to keep it elevated. This means looking for something useful to do in this position. Normally when I do Russian joins of my scraps, I wind onto a crochet cotton centre, as it is such rigid cardboard it doesn't collapse like kitchen roll. Please, no toilet rolls- ugh!. Then I use the ball winder. This time I have an empty cone, so am trying direct on that. A standard length of scrap is 50 times round - obviously this will vary.
Later observations after three cones wound - try not to get a beehive shape. Although it looks very pretty, it doesn't knit off easily at speed!
Adapted from a hand knitting pattern, and an obvious
Not cost effective for re-sale but what the heck.
I was looking for buttons ... and came across some circular bag handles. There's always plenty of diamonds on hand, so whipped up 24 into another bag.I alos popped into the local Marina chandlery for some cord, and replaced the handle on the previous bag. I had to flatten it a lot to get it under the sewing machine foot, and it has now unravelled further below the stitching to give a rather pleasing fluffy effect. Enough left for two more. It was quite a bit more expensive than I thought, but then if it has to secure a boat in the water it has to be strong!
... but only because I am forever knitting them! Having made four blankets now, I am hesitating on a fifth (two are in use in the lounge, numbers 3 and 4 are sitting upstairs waiting for new owners).. I have got a giant cushion, which I was planning on covering crosswise . The difficulty is that based on a multiple of four diamonds it is going to squash the inner, based on five it might be too big. The former would take 64 squares, the latter 100 - a huge difference. But 100 it had to be, Here is the result.
E wanted mittens with a flip top, not my favourite thing to knit. I sent a sample for size, made from Russian joined scrappy yarn.
She picked out one of the colours which she called teal, and I would call peppermint green. Then changed her mind for a red that matches her Gryffindor scarf. Bit of a contrast on the colour spectrum there, E! I thought I would put in some gold stripes on the cuff. Matching the red was a bit tricky, not having the scarf with me, and the computer changing everybody else's. We'll see.
Japanese small wave, a nami, is very popular in Japanese material. With just an 8 stitch repeat, it also lends itself quite nicely to machine knit gloves. Blue is the most popular, of course, but I might repeat these for next winter in red. The yarns are as near as dammit J&S 2 ply jumper weight, although appear to be from different Shetland sources.
There is a movement in museums to mend textiles in a very visible way, and one that can be reversed. The idea is that in future years, more techniques may be found. One can imagine a future curator asking "now why the devil did they do it liek that?" Well, here's what I did with mine! Keith has very pointed elbows and cardis made of 100% wool do not last long with him. If I can them in time, I can do a bit of Swiss Darning/duplicate stitch to match the original. This cardi has been mended twice before, and is now pretty hopeless. I was given some 75 % wool/25% nylon in browns that I decided to use as very visible, machine knit, elbow patches. He will not be let out of the house wearing it.
I was thinking abut making kits for socks, starting with machine knit tubes. After first attempt, want to record what would be best.
Pretty Cymbal, 72 cylinder, tension around 4. All yarn Russian joined. Waste yarn is white cotton.
*Waste yarn of around 12 rows, join project yarn in with a tad longer piece than usual. 210 rounds, 12 rounds or more of WY, 50 rounds* Repeat from * to *, then12 more rounds waste and take off machine.
With small dpn's 2.5mm to 2.75mm, pick up last row of project yarn knitted on a longer piece. Unravel waste yarn.
1. Standard flat toe - pick up stitches 36/18/18. Remove waste yarn. Wrap last stitch to go clockwise. Unravel waste yarn from smaller piece and join in project yarn with Russian join. K1, skp at first side, k2tog, k1 at second side. Second round plain, Go down to approx 24 sts and finish with grafting. Toe uses approx 15 rounds of a tube.
2. Standard afterthought heel. Measure the foot it is to go on (mine is 10 inches, so measured 9 inches for negative ease). Measure piece with toe, probably 2 inches and take 2 from 9, leaving 7. Mark line 7 inches up from toe. Run a needle up from exact side "seams" of toe. Don't do it by eye, there may be some bias, as in photo.
Snip one stitch in middle of the needles at the 7 inches level. Unravel stitch by stitch on to needles and work as for toe. Toe also uses approx 15 rounds of smaller piece for this. It now leaves approx 20 rounds to put a ribbed welt on.
3. Swirl toe. Pick up stitches 24/24/24. Unravel waste yarn, join from smaller piece. Wrap second from last stitch. K6 k2tog 9 times. Knit one round plain. K5k2tog, etc. After K1 t k2togl round, do not work a plain round, but k2tog all round, cut yarn and thread through twice.
4. Swirl heel could also be worked (in which case it is called a hat heel), but it may come out a bit pointed. Swirls avoid all grafting!
6.Standard commercial socks, when folded at the heel line, the leg of sock before the rib equals the foot. You can go along with this or make the rib part as short or as long as you like. The rib can be 1x1, 2x1,3x1. or 2x2 rib. Work about 20 rounds, and back stich to finish off which gives a neater edge than casting off.
7. Alternative top - simple back stitch will give a rolled top. Or fold over and whip stitch a hem.
Picture below show finished sock and the amount remaining from the starting piece
Newspaper headlines today are remembering decimalisation of the English money system. What I remember about 15th Feb 1971 is it was the day we moved into our first house - in the middle of a mail strike. The banks were closed for the changeover so we didn't have any cash to pay people (no ATM's then). The house was in Southampton, the solicitors were in Bournemouth and the estate owners/builders head office was somewhere else again on the South coast, so there had been a lot of to-ing and fro-ing with documents (no email or mobile phones with text!). Our furniture had been stored temporarily in the garage after previous "friends" in Swansea had ordered us to remove it from theirs. They charged us for it, too. Quite a few things had suffered from the damp. Despite being left open, the fridge door had become shut and was totally green inside. We had a few curtains, but no carpets, only a huge circular reversible rug. The house cost us £5,025. Thanks to the housing boom, we sold it only two years later for £9,750. Zoopla's current price estimate for it is £260,000!
The coins in the photo are a ship ha'penny (ship depicting Francis Drake's the Golden Hind), 480 to the pound,
The wren farthing (as the wren is the smallest British bird), was discontinued at the end of 1960, and was rare when I was a child. There would have been 960 to the pound
A modern penny, 100 to the pound, with a portcullis. This was the badge of the first Tudor monarch used on coins from Henry VIII. Last used on the old thru'penny bit then on the new penny which was worth 2.4 old pence
I finished the prototype sheep mitten, and what a disaster! It measures 12.5 inches long when it ought to be 10. If I ever (ever) attempt it again it will have to have a shorter "fence", a row of flowers taken out and probably the first line of sheep. I squashed the head down a bit, got the ears lopsided, and ended up with two more stitches on one side than the other. And the mistakes! Oh, tons. 
More experiments on the pretty Cymbal. With the 72 cylinder, every other needle baby socks on both T9 and T4, Leaving the tension on 4, also an "either hand" mitten with 2x1 mock rib hemmed cuff. The new row counter is a treat - slightly different from the original one, it can actually be turned off which must save the battery. The display is much brighter as well. This time I have fixed the sensor to the base of the mast, kept the wire short/bundled up and the display is on the table. The magnet is on the back of the yarn carrier.
