The Things We Forget

Whenever you tell someone that you're a keen knitter, a common response is, "Oh! I tried to knit a jumper/scarf/hat/poncho* (delete as appropriate) once but I gave up. My reply is usually, "Well why did you give up?" which isn't always what they want to hear. I just don't get it; surely if you're keen enough to go and find a pattern and buy the yarn, you're keen enough to see the project through to the end? No? Just me?

Sadly, this belief has gone a bit 'pot calling the kettle black' after a recent discovery.

We're moving house. Sigh. Which means having to properly tackle the craft and knitting cupboard. BIG sigh. But, ever keen to condense and de-clutter, I set about the task with my small plastic boxes and vacuum storage bags in hand (which, incidentally, are amazing for storing yarn in small areas). As I was rummaging around behind my bags of toy stuffing, I suddenly came across a dreaded UFO. An Un-Finished Object.

Noooooooo!

Back in 2006 I started a hoodie from the Stitch 'n' Bitch Knitter's Handbook (Stoller, 2003). The idea of knitting a hoodie struck me as pretty cool and autumn was approaching fast. I went to Durham Market and over-bought yarn then started knitting with gusto. In no time, I managed to finish the back and started on the front. It was here that I can unstuck. For some reason, completely unfathomable to 2013 Suz, I couldn't work out how to knit the front pouch pocket. So I gave up. Yes, I am thoroughly embarrassed by my young self. (Blink-182 said, 'Nobody loves you when you're 23,' and I can see why if I was that much of a quitter!)

Looking at the project again, the pocket seemed so simple. All I had to do was pick up some stitches from the front and knit in a panel before knitting across all stitches to join them. Invigorated by my discovery, I managed to finish the whole project in less than a week.

Was it worth it after seven years of languishing in my craft cupboard? Definitely. And my advice to all knitters who have projects that they gave up on - ask for help, look on You Tube at tutorials, read the pattern again on a different day with a clearer head. Don't give up! Although I am in no position to judge anymore.

August is the New December

I was reading a thread on a mummy forum the other day (sorry - please don't judge me) and it was all about Christmas. The mum in question was asking for tips and patterns for Christmas crafts that she could make with her 2 year old and also admitted to having done some Christmas shopping already. I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that she was shot down in flames. "How DARE you mention THE C WORD when it's still August?" the Keyboard Warriors cried. "Stop wishing your life away!"

Whilst I didn't comment myself (yes, I'm a coward) it's fair to say that I am also thinking about Christmas in a big way. And that's for two reasons. Firstly, the Hart Household is on a tight budget these days. It makes sense to spread the cost and pick things up when you see them, even if it is August. The second is because I'm a knitter and knitting takes time and patience and should never be rushed because that sucks the joy out of it.

Rachael and I already have all of our Christmas markets and craft fairs booked and have had for some time. Every year, I knit reindeer tree decorations and they always sell out. I can't knit the things fast enough! So I've started already with the gravelly tones of Alan Sugar saying, "Smell what sells," in my ear.

It's not just about knitting for our mini-business, though. Which is why I'm starting now. For the past few years, I've knitted furiously throughout November and December and made some money out of it. Don't complain, I hear you cry, right? I guess not, but by the time I've done that I just don't feel like making anything nice for myself. This thought coincided with Rachael's return from Norway clutching julekuler and I fell instantly in love.

Julekuler are traditional Norwegian Christmas balls and they are gorgeous. Seriously, just Google them. I did and discovered 55 Christmas Balls to Knit (Nerjordet and Zachrison, 2012). For starters, just look at that man's Space Invaders Christmas jumper. What a hero. I'm already tabbing that pattern out, let me tell you. Anyway, with visions of a beautiful tree covered in knitted baubles, production is well underway.

Admit it, you've thought about The C Word, too...

In other news: I found and finished a hoodie I started knitting in 2006. Yes, 2006. It's taken me 7 years to finish it but I promise it won't take that long to blog it.

We're All Going on a Woolly Holiday

A sad thing happened this week; my best girl and partner in craft crime, Miss Rachael Dilley, moved to Norway for her four month university placement.

Never one to miss an opportunity for travel, I booked for us all to go and visit her during May half term quite some time ago. The strange thing is, I haven't actually given the country or what we will do there any thought - I just focused on the fact it'll be nice to see my friend.

Cut to the staff room, a normal lunch break, and a colleague starts talking about when she lived in Denmark. Now, I know full well that Norway and Denmark are very different countries, but what she said peaked my interest. It seems that when she was there, everyone knitted almost constantly. Allegedly, during meetings or presentations, if you can get the audience to actually stop knitting then you must be something pretty special. Just imagine that!

I then Googled "knitting shops Oslo" and BAM! hundreds of listings came up for across the city and country. I'm so used to living in a country where buying yarn takes planning that I had forgotten what this was like. But we weren't so different years ago. In the 80s, there were so many more yarn shops on the high street. My nan and I used to visit a fair few of them, let me tell you. So why did ours vanish when those in other countries in Europe didn't? Did we just stop knitting?

Since then, I have had word from Rachael that it is, indeed, some kind of woolly Mecca. Here is her photo of the wool display in her local supermarket:



Amazing!

What's more amazing is that the UK has the potential for this. I was pleased to see a yarn display in Wilkinson's the other day and I know Big Tesco does, too. It's not great quality, admittedly, but it's there. I've previously mentioned my beautiful local wool shop in Stanhope and, since then, we've had Woolaballoo open in Hexham. Is it possible that we have a resurgence on our hands? Or have we moved on too far?

Why not be the catalyst? Get yourself to your local independent wool shop this bank holiday. Vive le revolution!

UFO sightings

The first time I saw the abbreviation UFO on a knitting thread (sorry, couldn't resist) on a blog, I thought the author had gone mad. One minute they're talking about techniques and the next they're banging on about aliens. Bonkers! I soon realised that I was mistaken and that UFO actually stands for 'UnFinished Object' in the world of knitting.

I'm sure that you can all think of a UFO lurking somewhere in your knitting basket... Regular readers will know that I have the Skirt of Doom which, I'm sad to say, remains a UFO and has been resigned to the cupboard again. However, I'm generally a completist and have always seen projects through to the bitter end every time. Or so I thought.

We're actually in the process of trying to sell our house so every school holiday I try to de-clutter another corner or cupboard. Well, Easter saw the both rewarding and depressing task of tidying my craft cupboard arise. Diligently, I sorted through bags, filled boxes and sucked the air out of vac-pack bags stuffed with yarn. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I found a carrier bag stuffed in the corner and (shock!) it contained a UFO. Memories flooded back; starting my first 'large' project from the Stitch N Bitch handbook of a hoodie over seven years ago. I can't believe I didn't finish it!

If I remember rightly, I got confused about how to knit the pocket and became distracted. I blame youth. But there it was again, half finished, and looking lovely. I wasted no time in finding the pattern and starting again. Looking back, I can't believe I ever found it difficult. To create the pocket on the front, I had knitted up to the line of stitches level with where the top of the pocket would be. The pattern then instructed me to pick up a number of stitches from the bottom of the work (between two stitch markers) and knit up. I then had to knit both rows of stitches together to join them and carry on up the front as normal, thus creating a pouch. It seems so simple now but obviously beyond the me of seven years ago.

This got me thinking - just how much do we actually improve every month? Every year? Knitters are always practising, looking up new abbreviations, watching videos on You Tube; our progression in constant. I know that I am far more confident now than I used to be.

So my message this week is to make mistakes and be adventurous. You'll reap the rewards.

(And I'll post a picture of my hoodie once it's finished!)

Peaks and Troughs

I don't know about you, fellow knit-fans, but I sometimes go through phases of not wanting to knit. I know <judgemental silence>, I know. It doesn't happen often and never lasts long but, occasionally, I'll have a spell where I sew or draw or make jewellery of an evening instead of knit. Which is what I've been doing since my last post.

Thankfully, the Skirt of Doom appears to be working. So I have conquered that demon, if only temporarily. I know that I should press on with it before I forget all over again how to do it, but it has been resigned to the UFO pile in my craft cupboard (probably because I can't really knit it and do anything else at the same time - impossible with a tiny hurricane running around).

Now though, the trough seems to be passing and I have come out of it eager to knit CONSTANTLY! First of all, I knitted a couple of Anna Hrachovec's Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi  (Potter Craft, 2011) just to scratch the knit-itch as quickly as possible with maximum satisfaction. I remember her posting a picture of the tiny hot dog and falling in love with it, so I started with that. I also made the cupcake and then a bunny and lion (slightly altered by me, I must admit.)

I also made these cute guys for Easter.

I then moved on to making a hat for my beautiful friend's birthday, although more of that when it's not a surprise.

Knitting is doing me a favour at the moment, too. My little boy is having trouble getting to sleep alone so I have been sat knitting in his room as he drifts off. It's fast becoming my favourite time of the day and I'm getting so much done.

At this rate, I may even pick up the Skirt of Doom and crack on with that.

Rage Issues

My name is Suzanne and I have anger problems...

Knitters, we have all been there. You try to knit something, it doesn't work, so you frog it and start again. You then try to knit it again and it still doesn't work. Your temperature rises. You frog it again, this time a little more exuberantly. You go and make a cup of tea before trying again. It doesn't work for a third time. You cry.

I am going to go out on a limb and say that there is nothing in the world more frustrating than getting something wrong in knitting and having to pull it out. With each row that you pull out, you weigh up in your mind how much time you're also pulling out. Depressing and soul-destroying.

I am currently stuck in the middle of this vicious cycle. A year or so ago, when I was on maternity leave, I was revelling in knitting a myriad of patterns and garments while Noah napped. I decided to take on a tricky project; a skirt of English Mesh Lace by Suzi Anvin. I went and bought some 100% cotton yarn and set about creating the tube skirt in the round. A week later I think I had pulled it out countless times before finally succeeding, knitting 10 rounds and putting it away in my craft cupboard.

Fast forward to last week and I thought it might be a good idea to get the skirt out again. Always one to forward plan, I had written the lacework rows on strips of paper and had paper clipped the row I got up to at the top of the pile. Off I went, knitting three complete rounds, before I realised it wasn't working. And, because of the way it was knitted in the round and as lace, I really struggled to frog it back to where I picked it up. So (don't judge me!) I pulled THE WHOLE THING out in a fit of rage. Ashamed doesn't begin to cover it. I then had a little cry while my poor husband sat dumbfounded.

Being a diligent knitter, I then decided to knit a small swatch of the pattern to make sure I was doing it right. Nope, you've guessed it, that didn't work either. So I did what I should have done all along: I checked the abbreviations.

I was knitting SK2P as 'slip, knit 2, pass slipped stitch over' but I found out I should have been doing, 'slip, knit 2 TOGETHER, pass slipped stitch over.' I had assumed (lazily) that would be abbreviated as SK2-togP. Hmm.

So my advice for today? Even if you've been knitting for 24 years with few problems, don't think you are too accomplished for the abbreviations page. You're not.

Fame Infamy

I'm starting to worry that I'm gaining a bit of a reputation. First of all, I was head-hunted to start a knitting club by one of the Big Girls' teachers today. Despite having an already bulging schedule, I'm seriously tempted. It would be amazing to work with teenagers on more adventurous projects and design work. Then, as I was getting ready to leave work, a parent popped his head round the door to wave a scarf at me and say, "It's a home knit!" before wandering off.

Who am I kidding? I'm not worried at all. It's brilliant!

Anyway, I digress. I actually signed on today to tell you all about my new tea cosy...

Before Christmas, I suddenly became inundated with commissions for Christmas presents. One of them was for a tea cosy. A friend asked me to design and knit him a tea cosy that was like an Aran jumper. He sent me a few pictures of jumpers for inspiration, too, and asked for it in cream. I obliged, turning it around in two days before sending it off and not giving it another thought.

Except that's not entirely true. Now, whenever the teapot comes out, my mind wanders to the beautiful cable cosy. How I wish I had one of my own. The solution? To knit my own! Hurrah!

The cosy is knitted in two pieces and sewn together at the end, leaving ample room for handle and spout. I used 5.5mm (UK5/US9) needles and chunky wool, bought from my fantastic local wool shop in Stanhope. It is a fairly simple design using the basic cable C4B and alternate sections of knits and purls:

Now my tea can stay cosy and warm in this chilly weather!

It's a Sickness

Happy New Year, knitting friends! I hope this finds you well and happy and ready to embrace 2013.

I don't really do resolutions myself, but I do need to be better at updating my blog, so maybe a few things should change around here. Not least because I have been knitting like crazy for the past couple of months and haven't shared any of it with you.

My reason for posting today is to document my addiction. I can't stop buying knitting books. I know; it's a sickness. I just pop into those cheap, high-street book shops and come out with a bag full. I spent all of last week sorting out my bookshelf. Finally, it was tidy, and I felt marginally better about living in a cramped house. Then I went out and bought another book. Arg! I think my husband is about ready to strangle me.

Possibly the best thing about my addiction is that other people recognise and embrace it. I was bought an amazing book for Christmas by a dear friend called Knitted Dinosaurs (Barrett, 2011) and I am itching to get started on a few of them. My little boy has a dinosaur themed bedroom, as you'll know from previous posts, so I think a few more frieds dotted around the room will add to the ambience quite nicely.

I also picked up Animal Hats (Henderson, 2012) from my local discount bookseller's for a bargainous £3.99. I'm a bit miffed that a lot of the hats are crocheted (just can't do it) but some of the designs are just fantastic, particularly the shaggy lion.

I'll make sure I post photos of any successful projects!

Letting the Side Down...

Today, a friend and colleague, (or 'frolleague,' if you will) took one look at me and said, "you're wearing a hat you didn't knit." He was shocked that I would even consider wearing a hat not made by my own fair hands. It wasn't even a shabby hat - it was retro Carhartt!

But I was pleased. Firsty, because he noticed.Secondly, because he defined me by my creativity and its importance to me. And that was kind of nice.

Cut and Shut Gilet

I feel like I haven't had time to stop and think recently, let alone keep you all updated with my many UFOs. Between preparing stock for our upcoming Christmas markets, tweaking my knitting book, work and babies, life has been very busy indeed. And it seems that people keep asking me to do little bits of knitting for them, which never end up being very little at all!

Admittedly, I do tend to bring this on myself, which is where I begin today's post...

A while ago, whilst out shopping with a very good friend, we saw a fabulous cable-knit gilet. It was love at first sight. She picked one up, tried it on and couldn't resist. Really, this is where the story should have ended: with my friend skipping merrily down the street, bag swinging in hand. However, me and my big mouth, I uttered, "I could knit you a gilet like that, using better quality wool and at a fraction of the price." Clearly my subconscious was up for a challenge but had neglected to check my diary. My friend agreed enthusiastically (who can blame her? It's nice that she has confidence in my knitting ability, at least) so I set off to Boyes to buy some Aran yarn with the highest wool content available.

The hardest part of all this was deciding on the actual pattern. I am more than capable of creating a pattern from scratch, but sometimes I feel there is no point reinventing the wheel. Consequently, I looked at a few jumper, cardigan and waistcoat patterns in my knitting library and did a cut and shut job of amalgamating a few. This is most helpful because it gives you needle sizes, stitch numbers and basic measurements to start off with. I then added the basic cables and a strip for the toggles/button holes.

At the moment, the gilet is half finished, but I'm pleased where it is going. If she's really, really lucky, she might even get it before the winter is over :)

More Woollen Friends

After our success with Mini Alexander and Mini Richard, I've had a bit of a spell of creating woollen likenesses.

Back in August, a man approached me at a music festival while I was knitting and asked if I could make an Audrey Hepburn for his wife, who is a big fan. I, of course, obliged, using the pattern in the 'Knitted Icons' book (Meldrum, C&B, 2007). Now, I think this book looks fantastic, which is what led to me impulsively purchasing it. However, I think the patterns are a bit hit and miss - some of the directions aren't particularly clear and the patterns for clothes don't fit especially well if you are faithful to them. But with a bit of tweaking, you can produce some super celebrity friends, and the Audrey Hepburn I ended up creating was fantastic.

I was then asked by a very dear folk-musician friend of mine to knit a mini version of him for his next album cover. Brilliant! More than happy to help, I got knitting straight away to make the basic doll with trademark curly hair. Here he is chilling on my bookshelf amongst his musical peers:

The thread hanging from his foot is to tie in with the theme of 'loose ends' on the album itself. I then knitted a little waistcoat and made a felt guitar for him to hold.

Once the album is finished, I'll post a photo of the artwork as well as links to the website.

Anyone else fancy seeing themselves in yarn?!

Pointless Knitting

I've been holding this post back because I didn't want to tempt fate. However, after a very exciting telephone call today, we got the news we've been waiting for. The husband and myself have been picked to be contestants on BBC's Pointless! We are off to TVC in London on Friday. Amazing.

Anyway, I'm sure you are all thinking, 'that's great, Suz. But what on Earth does that have to do with knitting?' A valid question, readers. Now, I'm not saying that knitting got us picked to be on TV, but it certainly helped...

Obviously the goal of any audition is to stand out and be remembered in a good way. You don't want to be too showy or precocious or annoying, but you also don't want to be forgettable. I had a good long think about what made us unique and the first thing that sprang to mind was knitting. Maybe, if I took along some of my work, they might think it was cool and remember us. With this in mind, I set about searching through my pattern books to find something worthy.

It was then that I had an epiphany - why not knit the presenters, Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman? I picked up my shiny blue UK size 10 needles and started straight away. I knitted each leg separately then knit across all stitches and up the body. The head, hair and jackets were all knitted separately and then stitched on at the end. I agonised over the features and facial details, but I think I got it just about right with the help of 6mm safety eyes. What do you think?

(Apologies for iPhone pic - not my camera of choice)


They were certainly admired in the audition (something I am very grateful for) so will accompany us to London next week.


The only sad thing is that someone beat me to it. Yes, a contestant a couple of weeks ago also knitted Alexander and Richard and took them on the show. Only time will tell if my efforts make it onto TV, but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Felting Catastrophes

Apologies, first, for my lack of posts of late. I have been working away in the Knit Cave on some exciting new patterns, which I will be writing about soon. So if you have a penchant for all things geek related, keep checking back!

In the meantime, I had a little bit of an ordeal with some felting...

Now, as a knitter, I've always been aware of felting and its merits. For those of you that don't know, felting is the process of turning your yarn into, well, felt. Have you ever put a wool jumper through a hot wash? Well, that tiny, thick jumper that you pulled out of the machine has been felted. And when you do it on purpose, it can be very useful.

Felted wool is thick, solid and strong. This makes it perfect to use for bags, brooches and embellishments. It can also be cut out, so if you felt a large square, you can cut out flowers and other decorations from it. I've seen lots of lovely corsages at craft fairs that have been made from felted wool, and even a bag.

I decided it was time for me to have a go at all this, and set about looking for some appropriate yarn. Now, because you are going to heat the yarn up and make it mash together, it needs to be of a suitable material to allow you to do this. This is, of course, wool. Off I went to Boyes (other wool shops are available, but that's my wool shop of choice!) to get some and I had a right job finding any. Every time I looked at a label, it had synthetic materials mixed in. Eventually, I found a label claiming that the yarn was 100% wool (hooray!) so I bought it, excited by a new challenge.

I thought I would try and knit a simple pencil case, so I knitted two equal rectangles in st-st on 4mm needles. I sewed them together with blanket stitch and prepared to throw them in the washing machine. After reading various websites and knitting books, the most common advice was to put the knitting in a washing machine at 60 degrees with a towel and some washing powder. The towel helps to rough it up a bit, encouraging the fibres to fuse together.

Well, what came out was a complete mess! Honestly, for those of you that panic about washing wool garments and ruining them, don't. After all that, it came out looking just the same. So I threw it in a pan of water and boiled it. Seriously. And you know what happened? Still nothing.

Perplexed, I carried on researching. It turns out that some yarn, even if it is 100% wool, will have been chemically treated to stop it from going wonky in a washing machine. This wool will never felt. The trick is to check the label again - if it says you can wash it in a cold machine load, it won't felt. No matter what you do.

In the end, I dug out a beautiful ball of pure wool that I bought on honeymoon in Iceland from a wool factory in Vik. I knew it was wool because it had that almost greasy feel to it and broke apart very easily (one strong tug whilst knitting and it just snapped - took a lot of getting used to). I re-knitted the pencil case, threw it in the machine and out came a perfect, solid, felt bag. Hurrah!

In conclusion: check your labels, then check them again, then give up and go to a farm shop that has sheep outside.

Game Boy for the iPhone Generation.

Continuing with my drive to put more time and effort into designing and making my own creations, I thought it might be fun to make myself a new phone case. Being a poseur, I have an iPhone. It's an old one, mind. And I maintain that it is an aid to my craft because I have a variety of knitting apps that allow me to access patterns and count my rows at the mere touch of a button. Ahem. But being a touchscreen it does require some sort of soft cover to stop my keys scratching it to bits in my handbag.

Further to this, I must (shamefully) admit that I am jealous of those with an iPhone 4s. Not because of Siri or any of that gubbins but because they come with an awesome array of case accessories. And where would any right thinking person of style be without accessories, daaahling? Nowhere. That's where. So imagine my green-eyed fury when I saw on a friend's picture that you can get a case that turns your phone into a Game Boy. The gamer girl geek inside me shrieked, 'TO THE KNIT CAVE!'

So how do you go about knitting a phone case that looks like an old handheld game console? Well, first of all I blocked out a simple design on squared paper to incorporate the screen, surround, controller and buttons. This took a few goes to make it all proportionate. I cast on 20 stitches on UK size 9 needles and just started knitting. Once my work was roughly the length of my phone, I started on the pattern. I then carried on with the block colour again until the whole piece could fit around both sides of my phone. I sewed up the sides, leaving an opening to slip the phone in and out of, and my case was finished!

I think next time I will use grey wool for the console colour, as I'm not too happy with it. But I am pleased with it as a first attempt. Mr. KnitsandGiggles also deserves a brief mention at this stage. I often send him to my wool cupboard to fond balls of wool and he invariably comes back with the wrong colour, thickness etc. However, it seems that sending him off with the instruction to find wool that is 'Game Boy button coloured' is an easy task indeed! What a man.

As ever, message me if you'd like the pattern.

Muppet hat for my little Animal

Let me set the scene: I'm in the cinema with the Dilley family (watched The Artist, which is truly superb) and a trailer comes on for the upcoming Muppet movie. Cue general excitement. It is around this time that Rachael mentions seeing knitted Muppet hats on the Internet and I know that I won't be happy until I've had a go myself. Knitting inspiration really is an itch that must be scratched!

Now, obviously, I have only procreated to have a little subject for all of my knitting trials. Not entirely true, of course, but it is fun knitting for him! So I set about knitting Noah an Animal inspired hat because he's our little drummer boy. I started by blocking the pattern out on graph paper, copying a picture of Animal from the film magazine. It took a few goes to make it symmetrical but I got there in the end. I cast on 62 stitches in the round on three double-pointed UK/US size 7 needles and knitted a 1" band in seed stitch (k1,p1 then p1,k1 on alternate rounds). For the body, I used one strand of orange yarn and one strand of fluorescent pink to give the random, mottled colours of his fur. I then used intarsia to create the face. At the top, I decreased stitches evenly around before breaking and threading the yarn to cast off.

Now, sadly, my son has been gifted the gigantic head of his daddy, so it's not the best fit in the world, but I'm sure he'll get at least one week's wear out of it. Maybe then I'll make him a Beaker one to replace it...

NB: If you'd like the pattern, drop me a line! Happy to oblige :)
        suziknitsandgiggles@googlemail.com

Fair Isle Fishies

Apologies, regular readers, for my lack of blogging of late. You'll probably be aware that I was in the family way, right? Well, that is now not the case and all of my time is being taken up by my handsome boy, Noah Richey. But I wouldn't be me if I didn't have a few knitting projects on the go, they're just taking a bit longer these days...

When I finished work for my maternity leave, I had two weeks until my due date (which turned out to be just under three weeks in the end). With little else to do except sit around getting increasingly more unwieldy, I decided to take on an ambitious project. I've used intarsia on a number of occasions but never to make a jumper or on the scale required by a Fair Isle pattern. "What the hell," I thought. "It'll keep me busy, if nothing else."

The pattern in question was to create a Fair Isle jumper with a fish pattern from the 'Stitch 'N' Bitch Superstar Knitting' book (Stoller, 2010, Workman). The Life Aquatic jumper by Serena Murphy was fun and quirky and looked just about challenging enough. It is knitted on circular needles in one go - something that I encountered for the first time when knitting my lace heart jumper. This makes it feel like you are completing the jumper in record time because I had knitted up to the arm joins in a matter of days. You then have to knit the arms on double point needles and work the pattern chart for the first time. The benefit of this is that you can practise it before you get to the more complicated cowl neck.

Once the arms are knitted, you have to join them to the body and knit all the way across all 290 stitches (phew!) which results in a very heavy knitting project. I certainly felt like I had arms of steel by the end! The only real tricky bit was remembering which rows needed decreases in the number of stitches and making sure that the pattern still looked right. The main benefit of knitting in a circle is that you can do all of the colour changes in Garter stitch, which I find much easier.

Anyway, I finished the jumper the day I went into labour. It's almost like he was waiting, eh? And I got to wear my beautiful jumper over Christmas because that's the best time to wear knitwear, after all.

Happy New Year, everyone. May 2012 be the year you learn a new skill, complete all of your unfinished projects and go on many more knitting adventures!

I no longer have to steal my husband's slippers!

It has been a point of contention in the Hart household that I have been stealing John's slippers since my mum bought them for him last Christmas. But they're so warm and fleecy and I don't have any slippers. However, with Baby Hart's appearance only 6 weeks away, I needed some slippers to put in my hospital bag (apparently) and I don't think a pair of size 10, half-leg slippers shaped like dogs are really going to cut it on the labour ward.

As is the answer with most things here, I decided to make a pair. And, as is also so often the case, they couldn't just be any slippers, could they?

Cue an old favourite book, 'Knitting Mochimochi' (Anna Hrachovec, 2010, Watson Guptill) and the design that graces the front cover of the book itself. 'Feet Eaters' on page 107 are neat slippers that look like monsters are eating your feet. Brilliant. The sole is knitted with two strands of yarn on US size 8 (UK size 6) needles and take relatively no time to make. They are done entirely in gartar/plain knit stitch and do not get any more complicated than being able to increase knit-wise (or 'kfb' knit front and back). You then pick up stitches around the edge of the soles on double point needles to create the sides of the slipper.

The head part of the monsters are knitted separately.This was basically like knitting a tiny hat on double point needles in the round (US size 6/UK size 8). This is then stuffed, with the teeth added as you stitch them up. In terms of creating the slippers, construction was easy and straight-forward. The decrease rows, created by a mix of k2tog and SSK, provide a clear ridge that corresponds to the edge of the sole. This makes a clear boundary for stitching. The cute ears, sewn on at the end, finish the slippers beautifully.

In all, the pair of slippers took me four days to make in their entirety. In the end, I plumped for the smallest size because they provided the most snug fit across my stupidly narrow feet. I think that would be the only drawback to the pattern; the looseness across the foot. I also chose to change the colours slightly from what was recommended. Instead of going with a pink mouth and pastel slippers, I made red and black monsters. Anyone reading this who knows me personally will not be surprised by that!

Wired

I spent some time in Providence, Rhode Island last year and I met many keen knitters there (not to mention visiting all of the knitting and craft shops in the city itself - heaven). One of them mentioned that she had enrolled on an evening course to learn how to 'knit with wire' and I honestly thought I had misheard. Wire? Knitting? With wire? As if.


Back in England, curiosity peaked and in a post-travelling funk, I started Googling "wire knitting". It was then that I found a vast array of photographs of beautiful, intricate jewellery created with knitting needles. Amazing! I kept on searching and reading and made a page of notes with people's hints and advice for achieving success in what looked like a particularly tricky craft area. The one consistent factor was that it should be attempted with 28 gauge wire, which I found in abundance on eBay. Since then, I have discovered that Hobbycraft also sell it on reels, in a variety of colours, for under £2.

My experiments with wire knitting have been varied in their successes. For a start, it's really difficult and makes your hands hurt. I had to dust off my knitter's wrist support gloves to prevent getting a RSI! Yarn bends and moves, making knitting a pleasure. Wire is much less forgiving. I had to loosen my stitches and use an embroidery needle at intervals to pull the stitches into order. Most of my jewellery so far has been knitted on UK size 10 needles, which are pretty small. This is to make neat, small jewellery but again ramps up the difficulty. Lots of patience is required if you are going to attempt this!

To start off, I used the exceptionally simple backwards loop casting on method shown here. This gives you a supple edge without too much messy wire sticking out. You must remember to cast on the loops from the reel of wire and not the tail from the slip-knot - I kept forgetting and having to slip it onto a new needle at the end. If you are going to attempt to use beads in your work, these need to be slipped onto the reel of wire before you cast on. Again, a learning curve that I did not get straight away. I then just used garter stitch to knit as usual until my wire was the right size.

For the wrist cuff, I cast on 20 stitches and knitted roughly 10 rows. I then used the break and thread method of casting off followed by wrapping the tail of wire tightly around one of the other stitches. Some of my cuffs are fastened with hooks, some with ribbon.

I still have a lot to learn about this method of jewellery making, but I'm pleased with my progress so far :)

P is for pterodactyl...

Recently something horrible happened. My lovely nan, the woman who effectively enabled and inspired this blog, died at home. I miss her terribly and only wish she could be here in October to see her newest great-grandson. In true form, the last thing she did before going to sleep that night was write 'blue wool' on her shopping list so that she could knit Baby Hart something. That is perhaps the most touching thing I will remember and simultaneously made the whole ordeal both better and worse.

What my nan did do was leave me all of her knitting needles and patterns in her will. I'll be honest and say I was excited to get my hands on them - mostly because of a set of books that I spent most of my youth studying and working through.

Nan was a big fan of Jean Greenhowe the woman behind the scarecrow family that used to be on one of the stops of the Playdays bus (remember that?!). As a child, I loved her creations and nan knitted the majority of them for me. Every week in the school holidays we would bike to Roys of Wroxham to see if she had a new book out and shriek with joy when she did. I now find myself in possession of upward of 20 of these pattern books and, I suppose as a way of coping with my grief, I wanted to knit something right away.

The choice was easy in the end. The first thing I ever knitted from a pattern from start to finish was a little yellow dinosaur with orange spots and his caveman friend. These patterns were in her 'Toy Collection' (1989, Jean Greenhowe Publications) book and you can see pictures of them here. It made sense to go back and create some more cute dinosaurs, so I did! I knitted two 'flying reptiles' and two 'cave people' (pg13-14). Greenhowe's patterns are devilishly easy to follow and these are no exception. The cavemen are knitted all in one go and then stitched up at the end, so are dead quick to make. All four took me less than two evenings to create from start to finish. But what to do with them?

It was around this time that I spotted some wallpaper on a bourgeois home improvement tv show (again, it was on in the background when I was knitting. Promise.) and developed a slight obsession. After many an hour of Internet searches I found it here; 'Jolly Jurassic' fun dinosaur paper! Absolutely perfect for Baby Hart's room. So, with a wall of dinosaurs already, I figured the perfect thing to do was turn my knitted creatures into a cot mobile. And so I did. I'm not sure if the cavemen will ever catch their prey, but they're having a good try!

Baby Chucks

Apologies, readers, for not posting for a while. It is not through a lack of creative endeavour, more a lack of free time to sit and type. Anyway, with the long summer holidays stretching ahead of me, I have time to get my blog up to date with all of the knitting that has been going on here at KnitsandGiggles Towers.

I am currently 27 weeks pregnant and becoming slightly unwieldy. I thought, by now, that I would have a drawer full of knitted joys for Baby Hart but instead I find myself running out of time. Bugger. Time to knuckle down and get those needles clacking!

My most recent project has been a bit of a fun one. As with most people my age, I own at least one pair of Converse trainers. (I actually own many more than that, but I'm not about to admit how many!) It has got to the stage where my husband and I often go out wearing the same shoes without realising. This was then amplified when we went to London to visit a friend and he too was wearing the same colour and style of Chucks as us. A uniform of our youth? Who can say, but we have since diversified our colour choices! Anyway, it didn't seem right that the new addition to our family wouldn't have the same stylish footwear as his mum, dad and Godfather, so I went in search of a pattern...

For a while, I considered adapting a baby bootie pattern but, as is often the case with knitting, a quick search on the Internet saves you reinventing the wheel. And so I found this pattern, which is perfect. The booties are knitted all in one go, starting with the sole. You then have to shape the front of the shoe, knit the side, the separate tongue and then the final side. My first read through left me confused about this but as soon as I got knitting it was clear and easy to follow. They literally take shape right before your eyes. The laces are made from an i-cord, which I have detailed before. I didn't make any changes to the pattern; it worked a treat. The last thing I need to do is add the felt on the side with the star logo.

The result is a great pair of booties that are pretty unique and individual. I'm now busy knitting them on different size needles with a variety of colours to see him through as much growing as possible!