Monday...crochet and washing and all that

Monday, first day of the week.  With extra joy for the sunny weather and knowing that tomorrow, my mama will be here for a visit.  Look at this little flower, thrusting up from a little crack in the pavement, determined to enjoy life

and this young thing, dashing about on his bike

and a little lady taking a stroll in the sunshine

anyway, now matters either more interesting or more trivial, depending on one's perspective...

I am crocheting a THING

have you ever made a THING?  Something for which you may or may not have an idea of its intended finished state?  Something which you hope will serve a certain purpose but are unwilling to admit it until you know for sure it comes off?  I have made many THINGS, some more successful than  others.  This thing will have to wait to be finished and felted until its fate is known.

Also, the yarn I dyed with onion skins finally finished drying today, thanks to the sunshine

And, just to make full use of that glorious warming force, I got round to some handwashing

Nothing  I can do will ever stop the feet of those tights being such a filthy colour...well possibly cleaning my floors more often may have helped

Day 7...crafting time! 2KCBWDAY6

Today we are supposed to write about the time we spend crafting, where and when and how etc.  I don't really have a specific crafting time.  I was starting to worry how I would write a vaguely interesting post for this topic, let alone find relevant pics.  But then it occurred to me that there are different types of knitting for different types of crafting time.

I knit in front of the TV in the evenings.  A lot of TV went into Shalom. 

Sometimes, if I did a lot of knitting in front of a particularly moving film or documentary, all the feelings I had whilst watching it come flooding back the next time I pick the knitting up.  Weird.

I knit whilst browsing online.  Often there is a small mindless project next to the computer, like this:



I sometimes knit whilst singing abi to sleep (less so now its not such a long process)

I knit when getting a lift with a friend to toddler group.  Good for dull mindless knitting which allows easy conversation, like this (4ply, ugh...and I keep knitting the yos, double ugh):

I used to knit a lot whilst sat next to her as she played, but somehow I seem to spend more time on my feet now that she can handle me not being more than two feet away from her.

I knit when cooking pancakes at the weekends, I sometimes knit standing in the kitchen (apparently there used to be special knitting holder things on belts which would hold the wool so folk could knit whilst they walked between their chores, I think sometimes they even held a needle in such a way that the knitter could knit one handed whilst doing other things, though I have no idea how I came to 'know' this...maybe it was a knitting obsessed dream??)  Dischcloths are good standing knitting, doesn't matter if it gets a bit grubby

I knit...quite a lot.  But often not for extended periods of time, its just here and there, up and down, ya know?  Sometimes I get to a point in my knitting which I can see just requires some stamina...for me to just sit and knit and knit...then I find something good on the tele, or devote an entire nap time to knitting regardless of housework, and just go for it, and then something will get done really fast, like this:

And at the end of every row I have a sip of

 (OK I drink coffee really, but I wanted to post my tea cosy pic!)

Weekend stuff

The children have been elsewhere today so I have spent most of this beautiful sunny day at home sorting things out, sigh.

BUT this is good, because it meant I could start getting part of Dan's birthday pressie sorted out

a woodworking corner in the craft room!  No longer will it be a realm of knitting and sewing and books relating thereto (very small sigh) but a space where I hope we can craft and spend time together (yay!) We are in need of more fun quality time together.

I made onion soup and baked rolls for my darling brother who then somehow managed to not turn up, grr!  I still lub him though, and at least it meant I didn't resort to chips as I usually do when the children aren't here to see

Whilst the onions were cooking, I noticed I have managed to collect over an ounce of onions skins now.  So I got those boiling away too

for some angora yarn, and a scrap of silk which I decided to cold water dye, just to see :D  I was a bit worried about the angora, its a lovely grey shade and I'm worried dyeing it won't do it any favours, its so pretty already

but the silk is looking rather gorgeous, drying in the sun

so I am optimistic about the wool too.  Then I headed into town and picked up the other half of that fleece to be washed (I think this might be the bottom end, hmm)

which created a bit of an appetite for actual yarn I can knit right now...

oops.  I am hoping one skein will be enough to create some sort of summery top for dd...

Day 6: a skill I would like to learn 2KCBWDAY6

Is, without doubt, to knit continental style.  I tried to find a picture of the idiotic way I knit, and then realised that I am the only person around to take pictures ha!  So obviously there aren't any really.  This is the closest I could find:

I am a thrower.  A lot of people are throwers, especially I think as a lot of us have had to teach ourselves, and perhaps didn't have a kindly grandmother standing over us rapping our knuckles with a steel knitting needle every time we inclined toward poor knitting technique.  Apparently the world speed knitter (who knew such things existed) is a thrower, so its nothing to be ashamed of.  But it is irritating when someone who knits 'properly' happens to see you, a thrower, knitting.  And you can see them cock an eyebrow, thinking 'tch, she throws the yarn.  She'll come to no good'.

Some people even come right out and say it 'hey, you're holding it all wrong!' I quite appreciate that, at least they are open and trying to share skills.  I always retort 'yes, thats because my mother is an ardent feminist who refused to allow me to learn any traditionally female skills, so I had to teach myself to knit by torchlight under my duvet for fear of being forced to recite the female eunuch as punishment'.  Usually shuts the old bags up.

Anyway, I'm not a slow knitter.  Neither am I a fast knitter, but that might be because I keep stopping to drink coffee or watch a juicy bit of eastenders. 

I observed myself knitting recently and noticed that, although I let go of the rh needle to bring the yarn round, it doesn't really get fully dropped.  Somehow it balances on the knitting, and I bring the yarn round so fast that the needle doesn't go anywhere and is back in my hands just-like-that.  Usually.  Also the left hand needle does a fair amount of the work.

But it would be awesome to be able to knit continental style, because it would make knitting colourwork a lot easier.  I have knitted stranded and woven colourwork, but it takes a bloody long time, which makes me bloody cross.  So I mostly don't.  Or I do cheat's slip stitch colour patterns.  These socks only had one colour per round

Same with these gloves



This isn't such a great picture, but the fair isle style pattern on this dolly jacket also only had one colour per row

I'm not sure I'll ever manage to achieve my goal though, it seems like a whole other language that my hands are not willing to learn.

Day Four: 31st March. Where are they now? 2KCBWDAY4

The other day, a  friend said it seemed like abi had been wearing this cardi forever

 

I'm not sure if she was commenting on the remarkable qualities of knitwear...how it seems to grow with a child, how something handmade can be better quality and longer lasting etc...

...or possibly, that Abi doesn't have an awful lot of clothes, and therefore we all get to see an awful lot of it, and I should launder things a bit more often (another remarkable quality of wool of course being the fact it magically cleans itself, or thats what I like to believe anyway)...

...or maybe she's sick of the fucking sight of the thing and wishes I'd dress her in something else for a change...

well why would I when its such a useful cardigan?  And although I wasn't sure the pink and orange shades were right next to each other when I first knitted it, I really love these colours on her now.  I'm so used to seeing her in it.  Its like her amber necklace, always there, always protecting and comforting (apart from on rainbow jumper, grey vest, or grey or black cardi days, but even then it often gets plonked over the top when we go out) 

and it accessorises well

I have never once had to shave it (I hate debobbling things, ugh) which is a minor miracle as it has actually been washed a few times and worn a LOT

It isn't what you would call soft wool.  It certainly isn't itchy or scratchy, but its possibly not what most would knit a baby garment from...and yet it seems to good for snuggling...

But it has served her so well, thankyou clare for the beautiful yarn and being a wonderful friend and an excellent dye witch who continues to feed my barely suppressed yarn fetish, I cannot wait to see what you come up with next!  Oh crap I wrote another soppy post.

(I wish I had earlier photos to post, I first blogged it in Oct but can't get those pictures now as they were on my since wiped phone...sob...but anyway, I am actually starting to believe this cardigan has been around forever...and I never did make that final buttonhole...)

Day 3 Knitting and crochet blog week...Tidy mind, Tidy stitches?? 2KCBWDAY3

Um, I guess this doesn't say a lot about my state of mind...

tut, look at abi sticking her cute ickle hand in the bag of toy stuffing

a pic of where I keep my usual WIP, which I took yesterday but now looks like this

where I keep hibernating projects (I try not to look at this too often, can you tell?)

some felting supplies:

and half a fleece waiting for carding:

and the box where I keep every tail I cut off after weaving...very nice for toddlers to play with, to darn socks, sew on buttons, make repairs, embroider faces on toys etc etc

My original plan was to take some after pics this morning, after tidying it all up.  But you can guess why I haven't done that! 

Day Two: 29th March. Skill + 1UP

In the last year I have learnt a lot, by sheer dint of quantity of knitting.  I am not a super fast knitter, but over the last year I have had more time for knitting than the year before, when abi always seemed to be in my arms.  But then, around age 1, she started doing more of this:

Which meant I could cast something on safe in the knowledge it could get finished within a foreseeable period of time!  The jumper in that pic is a rainbow sweater I knitted a good while ago.  Its a bit short in the body now, but she still wears it over dresses or under dungarees.  I loved that jumper.  Anyway, the point it, having this bit of time in the evenings, meant I was able to produce pretty much all of abi's knitwear.  I have bought the odd thing, but because I liked it, rather than because she needed it.  And this has been a fantastic learning curve, not even so much in terms of knitting, but for what I have learnt about my relationship with knitting.  Knitting is no longer just a hobby, or an excuse to stroke pretty yarn.  At the moment, it is how I create warm things for my daughter, sometimes for me, and on the rare occasions I am permitted to do so, my son!  So this post isn't just about what I have learnt technically, but also, what I have gained in other ways from knitting (vomit)

I have learnt confidence in my ability to (usually) produce things which meet a need.  Dan needed a school hat.  It had to be grey, like his old hat.   It had to be not-itchy.  It had to not have any pattern or fussiness whatsoever.  So he chose the yarn, I cast it on, et voila...son has hat.  And it feels so good, to make something which is not only liked, but also fills a need, and will keep his precious ears warm, and be a bit of mama to wear around!
This is what I have learnt, that the dialectic proposition of idea+ needles/yarn = so much more than a garment. 
And technically, from knitting this hat, I got a good feel for shaping a hat well, so that is fits a head.  It shouldn't be a disc at the top with straight sides.  neither should it be a perfect sphere at the top, if sons head seems to be a bit flat up there.  Knitted top down, the hat can perfectly form itself to the shape of that head I birthed almost 9 years ago (and finally, I can no longer see obvious signs of the ventouse)

Another example is this dress (knitted from the same rowan coccoon yarn) which is pretty recent...technically it taught me much,  as I had never knitted top down before this year.  However, if you are scared of knitting top down (ie. improvising it), don't be.  There isn't much to it.  Cast on enough for a neckline.  Increase at regular intervals, placement of said increases depending on proportions required.  Continue for a while, form armholes and underarms or sleeves as desired, knit on a skirt.  This type of knitting is liberating in the extreme.

But even more liberating than the ad lib design, is the function and form of the dress itself, and the vibes that go with it.  Where, in a shop, would we have got a dress which is:

• made of natural materials
• not pink
• comfortable and loose fitting
• warm
• pretty, rather than garish or lurid, in a style which I like to think lets abi's beauty show, rather than shouting about its own features
• has no excess ribbons, sequins, patches, novelty flowers etc attache
• in fact, it has no fastenings at all.   Fantastic.

And even better than that, no one slaved over its creation for a pittance.  I made it, when I wanted, and I enjoyed it.  That is why I think it (like all knitted things) has such good vibes.  Because no matter how hard we try to turn a blind eye to the fact, right now most clothes we see around us are made in sweat shops, shipped in massive containers across the globe, worth pennies, and seen as consumable, almost disposable.  And I do not care that I am proud of how much I have knitted this year (and there are always things I don't get a chance to blog about, like random toddler socks, odd toys, dishcloths, that lacy baktus which still hasn't had its own post...) because the more I learn about the technique of knitting, the more I learn about all its other beautiful qualities too.

Also, I have learnt to knit socks!

(well, I had knitted one before this year, but one sock does not make a pair!)