Long Tall Sheep

 

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.  

The palm pattern need to be sorted so that the mid-point of the black  diamonds fits neatly under the tip, which could affect the stitch count.  I won't be putting the thumb on this, or, of course, making a second mitten.

Back to the drawing board.  (Don't know why I keep saying this, I haven't even got a drawing board) 

New Year lethargy

I got five knitting books for Christmas.  Three are being passed straight on in Ravelry book sales.  One is on the Norwegian way of Entrelac, without turning the work.  The method is not purling backwards really, but taking each stitch to  the other needle and knitting it.  Much easier than I have tried before, but it is slower.  The fifth book, a surprise present rather than self-bought, is a brand new one for a Fair Isle (actually living on Fair Isle) designer.  She does bespoke garments on a machine, (I had heard of her before) and I think this is reflected in her handknit patterns as they are all 24 st repeat.  This makes it ideal for me to put some on punch card.  The patterns sort of dissolve up a jumper, a really nice modern idea.

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.

Looking backwards and forwards

Looking back to my post of 24th October, I said I would be selling the pretty Cymbal on.  Well, once the equal slot ribber arrived, and I got into making the drop stitch crav-hats, I have rather changed my mind.  The machine is running so much smoother now, and it is nice to be able to do the experimental stuff on a machine totally separate from my "museum production" one.  Being the same make, it makes for useful comparisons in case of hiccups.

The photo is of a set of Russian joined balls of sockyarn, all ready to go for more experiments.

Capping it on Boxing Day

For the hats I had been trying out, I had been using either a 50 gram or a 100 gram ball of yarn.  I wondered if I made a pair of handwarmers from a 100gram ball whether that would leave enough for a hat (say about 5 60grams) of the size I wanted.  Then standing at the ironing board this morning, my hanging bag of Russian-joined re-wound yarn was just a few inches from my eyes - why hadn't I thought of that before?  No restriction on weight or yardage!

So I made my fifth stocking cap, 72 cylinder, drop-rib-stitch rib, cylinder tension as low as it will go, counted 180 full rounds in between the shaping rounds.  Half measurement is 15 inches..  Then reading one of my Crimble pressy books, thought about a tassel. This can also be pushed through other end to anchor as a scarf.

Crav-hat

I made a stocking cap which was long enough at 30 inches to double as a small scarf or cravat - hence crav-hat.

 

 

A Merry Christmas to everyone.

 

Room to manoeuvre

My knitting room ceiling sprang a leak some time ago, leaving a hole  The roof was mended earlier this year, and I really thought it was time I got somebody in to re-plaster.  The end wall was only touched up (by me) when we had the electrics done 8 years ago  - I haven't even looked to see if there is any forget-me-not paint left in the shed as it won't be any good after all this time.  Local small hardware shop has provided white paint, and used this thinned down as a primer over the work.  They don't have any colours, so the whole of that wall is now going to be white.  It will be a slow job.

This is not a blog about paint!  But I have had to move a tall cupboard/desk/bookcase to get at all the wall.  The top was heavier than I thought, and I certainly won't try to get it back up there by myself. This was piled high with knitting patterns, my 30-odd machine knitting notebooks of 40 years, extra piece of equipment for that machine, my small Elna sewing machine (about 45 years old and still functioning), all our financial files, etc etc etc.  Quite a job to empty it and try to throw stuff out.  Oh, the memories!  The Joyce Grenfell type sketches I wrote when in the WI (Joyce also found them a rich source of inspiration), holiday receipts, leaving cards from various places of work.

I have decided to be ruthless and pass on the last of my collected knitting patterns.  I did get rid of men's babies, hats, etc a couple of years ago and hung onto these - a huge four folders worth of ladies, circular yoke, Shetland and Fair Isle  Who will want them?  Have got one contact already to send 2kg worth to.

When done, I doubt the room will look any emptier, as no actual furniture is going, and is so small re-arrangements aren't really possible.  But I might get a bit more shelf space instead of cluttering up the floor.

p.s.  found the paint in the shed was perfectly okay!  Not Forget-me-not (which must have been the previous colour), but Moody Blues, so the end wall is blue again.  And two of the four folders of patterns have been passed on.

Ten Years Ago

On 16th November 2010 I made my first pair of handwarmers for the museum.  Thanks to  numbering from the start, I can now report I have made 635 pairs, which is the equivalent of 1.22 pairs per week.  The only slight alteration from the original pattern has been to backstitch bind off the thumbs as well as the tops of the fingers.  And still love doing them.