A Cat Cardigan

I offered to make a cardigan with a cat on for the 4 year-old niece of a friend of mine.  I thought it would be appropriate to use her cat as inspiration, so I asked for some photos.  This is Cheeky sitting on the draining board.

As you can see this cat has very distinctive facial markings.  I hope I can do something similar in yarn.  So far I have knitted the front which has very little cat on it.

The cat is on one front and its tail goes around the neck and the end appears on the other front.  My friend had trouble getting the cat to sit still and some of the more blurred photos show him in almost the correct position –so that I can see how the white and black appears on his back.  The design is loosely based on an old pattern that I have got with a cat in the pocket of a cardigan, but that only includes the head, paws and tail of the cat – and looks a bit odd.  I have decided to include more of the cat.

I haven’t got much knitting done over Christmas but I have knitted quite a lot of one of the sleeves because that was fairly easy to do.  I need to be fresh and alert when I tackle the cat so I probably won’t get on to that until next week.

WW1 Memorial Quilt – Bob

I have sorted out my piece of knitting which represents the tailors and drapers in my family who died in World War 1.

In the end I had to make it 24 rows shorter.  This seems a lot but it is now roughly the right size.

This piece is for Robert Henry Chant who was the husband of my third cousin twice removed.  He was a gunner in the Royal Garrison Artillery who died in Salonika on 19 Dec 1917 – exactly 100 years ago today.  It is also for my fourth cousin, twice removed Harold Farley Carver who was a private in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry and who died on 3 Mar 1916 aged 26.  Harold was a tailor in civilian life and Robert was a Drapery warehouseman.

Originally I had thought about doing a design which showed some “fans” of fabric – like those you used to see in shop windows, but I couldn’t make them look right – so I thought about actually knitting some fabric – and decided on dogs-tooth check.  The red bits are supposed to represent stitches.

I cast on 79sts and repeated the 4 row pattern 12 times.  I then knit 12 rows including the red “stitches”, and then repeated the 4 row pattern a further 12 times.  I used Rowan Felted Tweed DK Shade 153 (A) and  Shade 157 (B).  The red is Shade 150.

The 4 Row pattern is:

Row 1:* K1A, K1B, K2A; repeat from *  to last 3 sts, K1A, K1B, K1A.
Row 2:* P2B, P1A, P1B; repeat from *  to last 3 sts, P2B, P1A.
Row 3:* K3B, K1A; repeat from *  to last 3 sts, K3B.
Row 4:* P1B, P3A; repeat from *  to last 3 sts, P1B, P2A.

I hope that is right – basically on each row you knit or purl one stitch in one colour and then 3 in the other.

I am now going to make a cardigan with a cat on for the niece/grand-daughter of some friends of mine, but I have an idea for the next piece of the memorial quilt and I will get back to it in the new year.

WW1 Memorial Quilt - Charlie

This piece of my WW1 memorial quilt represents the occupation of a butcher.

It has turned out quite well – just as I envisioned it in my head.  I am not sure that butchers wore blue striped aprons in the early part of the twentieth century  –  the stripes may have been red.  I have looked at lots of old photographs but of course – they are in black and white. 

When I was thinking about what to knit for a butcher – I thought of lots of gruesome things which seemed inappropriate.  A clean apron seemed a bit odd – but I resisted the temptation to add blood stains and included a poppy instead!

This particular poppy is similar to one that adorns the front cover of a book I own called Banbury During the Great War by Kevin Northover.  Normally my knitted poppies are one shade of red and have a black centre but the one on this book cover has a green centre and the petals appear to be different colours due to the reflection of the light.

For this piece of knitting I cast on 95sts and worked 66 rows.  It is exactly the same size a the piece I did for the postmen.  I mainly used Shade 178 of Rowan Felted Tweed. 

Although many members of my family were butchers – at the moment – I only know of one soldier who died during World War 1 who was a butcher and that is my second cousin twice removed: Charles Richard Carswell who was a private in the 17^th Welsh battalion.  He died on 31 December 1916 aged 25.  He is remembered on the war memorial of his home village of Elham in Kent and on the Thiepval memorial.

I am now trying to fix “Bob” - my piece of knitting which represents tailors and drapers.  I have checked and it needs to be the same size as Tom – the piece for glass fitters – so I have unravelled some of it and am reknitting it shorter.

WW1 Memorial Quilt

As I said at the end of my last post – I have started knitting a piece to remember the tailors and other textile workers in my family. 

When I say I have started it – I had hoped I had finished it – but something has gone wrong and it is too long – so I will probably need to unravel some of it and make some adjustments.

When I started this project and drew out a plan of how many pieces I was going to knit and how many rows and stitches each one needed.  I was a bit worried that this piece would be too narrow if I pulled the threads too tight across the back – but the width is OK – it is the length.  This piece which will be known as Bob should be the same size as Tom and it isn’t!  Never mind – I can fix it!

Before I make adjustments to this piece – I am going to knit the next piece.  Because that will confirm how long it needs to be.  So I will come back to Bob.  I have made a start on Charlie – the piece for a butcher.

On Saturday I went to Oxford for the monthly Knitting and Crochet Guild meeting.  It was a Show and Tell session – so I took the pieces of quilt that I have done so far.  I have told several people about the project but I don’t think they understood it until they actually saw what I was doing.  I am now going to do a talk about it in June next year.  As a member of the Birmingham group was present – I am also going to talk about it in Birmingham next August. 

Before I went to the meeting, I visited Oxford Yarn Store to buy some more yarn – and everyone there seemed to like the pieces of quilt and were interested in the idea behind it.  With all this interest I had better get on with it.  However, I think I may have to fit in a last minute Christmas present before I can concentrate all my attention on it.

WW1 Memorial Quilt – George

I am on a roll at the moment.  I think I was inspired by Armistice Day to put more effort into this project.

This piece is called George and I hope it is obvious what the occupation is – it is a letter to represent a postman.

This piece was named after George Skeer who was the husband of my 4^th cousin twice removed.  George was a postman but he became a sergeant in the Royal Garrison Artillery and died on 21 March 1918 aged 37.   This piece is also for my 2^nd cousin, three times removed - Francis Reginald Wade who was a rifleman in the 8^th battalion of the London Regiment (the Post Office Rifles).  He died on 24 July 1915 aged 24.

When I was thinking about what to knit for a postman – I did consider a pillar box, but I like the simplicity of a letter.  It is a bit of an odd shape – but at least it is not tall and narrow.  I chose the most “letter-like” shape for the postmen.  It is the second time this year that I have knitted words as blocks of colour – or in this case – blocks of grey.  I may embroider on some franking across the stamp.

This piece is 95sts wide and 66 rows high.  I mainly used Rowan Felted Tweed Shade: 177.

I am now working on a piece for a tailor and draper.

WW1 Memorial Quilt – Jack

On Armistice weekend - It seemed suitable to start on another piece of my memorial quilt – so I designed and started knitting this piece.

This design is called Jack and it represents the unknown.  I do not know the occupation of a number of my soldiers.  I can’t find their enlistment records and in 1911 they were “At School”. 

The design for this piece is based on the Thiepval Memorial. I know – you can’t see it!  I had intended to produce a repeat pattern inspired by the shape of the memorial – however – I own a book called The Memorial to the Missing of the Somme by Gavin Stamp – in which there is a “floor” plan of the memorial and when I saw it I knew immediately – I am going to knit something like that.

I wanted to use the Thiepval Memorial for inspiration for soldiers of unknown occupation because it commemorates the unknown – the missing – the soldiers with no known burial site.  I have called it Jack for a special reason.  It is named after my grandfather’s cousin John Harris.   He was a rifleman in the 12^th battalion of the Rifle Brigade and died on 8 September 1916 aged 19.  What is strange about him is that I made him up and then found out he existed!

My grandfather said that his aunt and uncle did not have any children.  I thought this was unusual and one day I started thinking that if they had a son he would have been called John or Jack  Harris after his dad and he would have been born a year or so after the marriage – which would have made him the ideal age to die in World War 1.  I looked at the War Graves Commission website and typed in the name John Harris.  There are 700 men called John Harris who died but he was the third one I looked at – and I knew it was right because the record gave the name and address of his parents. 

Jack obviously wanted to be remembered after having been forgotten in the family for the best part of 80 years.  So this piece is for Jack and for all the other young men who died including another cousin twice removed - Frank Hatcher who died on 9 September 1918 aged 20, James William Merryweather my third cousin twice removed who died on 24 September 1917 aged 19, my third cousin three times removed Frederick Samuel Read who died on 16 June 1915 aged 19, and Lawrence Dimmick Willmett my second cousin three times removed who died aged 19 on 11 December 1917.  The latter was in the Royal Army Medical Corps – so he may have had a medical occupation but I don’t know what it was.

There are 2 other soldiers whom I should mention by name who are both recorded on the real Thiepval Memorial – Archibald Francis Jones who was my third cousin twice removed and John Deal who was my fourth cousin twice removed.  They both died aged 19.

For a blog about knitting – this post seems to be full of soldiers.  The knitting itself was very straightforward.   I used mainly stone colours to represent the memorial – but added the orange for a bit of contrast.  If you didn’t know the story behind the piece – it just looks like a graphic pattern.  That is the effect I wanted.

I am now working on the next piece and it is almost finished.  It was a much simpler pattern and much more portable.

WW 1 Memorial Quilt – Tom

It seemed appropriate this week that I would knit a piece for my great grandfather Thomas Wade who died in 1917.  I know I have mentioned him in previous years.  He didn’t want to fight – he wanted to stay at home with his family.  In the event – he was killed and his widow had to struggle to bring up his 3 sons.

Thomas was a glass fitter.  My grandfather said he was a cabinet maker, but on the 2 occasions when he gave his occupation - in 1909 when he married and on the 1911 census – he said he was a glass fitter.  I think he fitted glass in cabinets.  I always knew I would do a glass inspired piece of knitting for Tom.

This is very similar to the design for the tea packer which means that the arched shapes will be carried across the quilt. For this piece I cast on 79sts.  I had originally intended to do 80, but the design works better with an odd number of stitches and I have just altered the surrounding pieces accordingly.  This piece is 132 rows long.

I was just going to use blue and brown yarn but I decided to add the lime green for a bit of interest. Each blue arch shape is 15sts wide and 24 rows to the shaping (29 rows in total).  There are 2 rows at the bottom and top and 4 rows between shapes.  Across the row there are 5sts between the arches with one lime stitch in the centre.  There are 2sts each side of each row.  If you want to knit one – just draw the set-up on graph paper (or the back of an envelope) – that’s what I did.

I was thinking – you might not want to knit a memorial quilt but you could knit a quilt like this for another reason – eg you could do one for your family with a different piece of knitting to represent each person – or you could do one for a special person with each piece representing an important part of their life – or you could knit a quilt  for your community with each piece representing something important in your town or village. If I had enough old photos I would combine knitting with using photo transfer paste to produce a knitted family tree.  That’s enough mad ideas for this week…

WW1 Memorial Quilt - Horace

While I was away at my Mother’s last week – I knitted the next piece of my memorial quilt.

This piece is called Horace after Horace Edwin Willmett who was my second cousin, three times removed.  He was a private in the 7^th battalion of the Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment who died on 7 March 1917 aged 26.  In civilian life he was a printer. 

The husband of my third cousin twice removed: Robert Bramall Dives also died in 1917 on 28 February.  He was a gunner in the Royal Garrison Artillery but in civilian life he was a compositor.

I nearly forgot to mention another printer – my third cousin three times removed – Henry George Cann who was in the Rifle Brigade.  He died on 30 June 1916 aged 32.  He is a recently discovered member of my family tree.

This was probably one of the easiest designs to think of and to knit.  It was obvious to choose words for a printer.  For this piece I cast on 134sts and worked 99 rows in stocking stitch.

I decided to use the trades and to knit them using the fair-isle technique.  I tried to use light colours with a dark background and dark colours with a light background. Some of them stand out better than others.  In the photos some are hard to read – eg Fireman – but it is not too bad in real life.  Also the end of Clerk looks a bit odd because of the flecks in the yarn.  I have done it right – but the K looks a bit warped.

Over the years, I have knitted lots of tea cosies with slogans on – so this idea was just an extension of that.  I hope I haven’t spelt anything wrong!  Once the letters are set up correctly they are fairly easy to knit.  When I was designing the pattern – I had to write the words on graph paper and then cut them out and stick them onto the blank pattern piece.  I couldn’t just mark them straight onto the pattern as I didn’t know how much space they would take up until I had written them (if you see what I mean).  I could have written them again instead of using glue but I am lazy! 

I also admit – that I have not exactly stuck to the pattern – sometimes I have started the words in a slightly different place – but it doesn’t matter.

I am now knitting the next piece. 

WW1 Memorial Quilt – Arthur

This week I have been knitting a filing cabinet!  There are a lot of knitting blogs out there but I doubt if any of the others contain that line. 

This is the next piece of my knitted quilt.  It is to remember several of my relatives who died in World War 1, but it is named after my third cousin twice removed – Arthur Edward Jones who was a Lance Corporal in the 6^th battalion of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry.  He was killed on 30 July 1915 aged 26.  Arthur was a clerk.  His brother and brother-in-law were also killed during the war.

My second cousin three times removed John Frederick Stenner was also killed. He was in the Grenadier Guards and was killed on 2 Oct 1916.  He was only 19 when he died but he had done office work as a young boy in 1911.  His cousin Edward Henry Stenner (who is also my second cousin three times removed was also in the Grenadier Guards and a clerk in civilian life.  He died on Christmas Eve 1914.

I don’t know what the occupation of “clerk” suggests to you – perhaps piles of paper, but I thought of a filing cabinet.  I am not exactly sure what a contemporary filing cabinet would have looked like – I looked at a few antiques online – and it seems it is likely to have been made of wood – so I decided to use brown yarn.

Originally I had thought of green.  I have an old green metal filing cabinet – but I think it is only about 50 years old rather than 100.  I think I will be using green yarn for other occupations – such as labourer and gardener – so I decided on brown for this piece.

For Arthur I cast on 67sts using my main colour  Shade 145 and then knitted 6 rows in the darker brown  Shade 169.  I used red – Shade 150 to outline the drawers which are knitted in light brown – Shade 157. The handles are the main shade again – and I used Shade 177 for the labels.  I knitted three columns of 4 drawers with 2 rows of the darker brown between each row, 2 sts each side and 3 sts between the drawers. There are 99 rows in total.  This is exactly the same size as Caleb – the first piece I knitted and at the moment – I intend them to be placed at opposite corners at the bottom of the quilt.

I drew the design on graph paper but once I had done the set up row to get the first row of drawers in the right place – I did not really need to refer to the diagram.

Now I am going to start knitting a piece to remember the printers and compositors in my family. 

Free Your Fade

Free Your Fade is the latest design by Andrea Mowry of DreaReneeKnits.com.  A couple of weeks ago I received a copy of the Tangled Yarn newsletter and it advertised this shawl as well as a variation on the Hitchhiker pattern – Hitchhiker Beyond.  I ordered both immediately and started knitting this shawl as soon as the pattern arrived.

I think I have almost finished it.  At least I haven’t got much yarn left so it will have to be nearly finished!  You are encouraged to use any yarn of any thickness. 

I have used 2 balls of Debbie Bliss Rialto Luxury Sock yarn in Shade 04.  The idea of the shawl is to change from one colour to another whenever you like.  The pattern describes two colours changes.  I have knitted it in one shade but have changed balls following the pattern – so I have two colour changes, but my colour changes are very subtle.

When I started knitting this shawl – I took it out 3 times until I got the hang of the pattern.  It is me – the pattern is excellent.  I was tempted by the previous design called Find Your Fade shawl – but decided it is a bit too big – this one is a more manageable size – both to knit and to wear.  I may have a go at Find Your Fade but make it smaller.  I thoroughly recommend Free Your Fade to all shawl fans.

I am now going to get back to the serious stuff.  I have started knitting the next piece of my Memorial Quilt.

WW1 Memorial Quilt – Fred – Finished Piece

I have finished my second piece – I told you it was easy!

This piece is called Fred and is based on the occupation of tea packer.  A rough pattern is given below.

I used brown (Rowan Felted Tweed Shade 145)for the background and 15 other shades (from the top left to right  158, 150, 181, 151, 157, Mink, 154, 184, 159, 177, 192, 186, 175, 161, 195)  I used separate balls of each colour – winding 3 balls of brown.

Using 4mm needles I cast on 67sts and knit 165 rows.  I knit 2 rows in brown and then did a “set-up” row to place the colours as follows: K7 in brown, K9 in first shade, K15 in brown, K9 in second shade, K15 in brown, K9 in third shade, K2 in brown.  For the next 4 rows I decreased the brown by one st and increased the colours correspondingly until I had 2sts in brown, 19sts in Shade 1, 3sts in brown, 19sts in  Shade 2, 3sts in brown, 19sts in Shade 3 and 2sts in brown.  I worked 18 more rows straight – so you have 19 rows without “shaping”.  I then reversed the procedure I had used at the bottom to reduce the coloured sections down to 9sts again.  I then worked 4 rows in brown, and started the with 3 new colours and so on.  When I had completed the 165^th row, I cast off in brown.

If you want to try it – it may be best to draw it on graph paper first.  As with the first piece – the pattern sounds much more complicated than it actually is.

While I have been knitting this piece – I have been thinking about patterns for some of the other pieces.  I am going to start another piece this week but at the moment I am knitting a shawl.

WW1 Memorial Quilt – Fred

I have started working on a second piece of my knitted patchwork quilt.    I am calling it Fred after Frederick Charles Connew who was my third cousin twice removed. He was a private in the 2^nd Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment who died on 25 September 1915 aged 21.  

According to the 1911 census Frederick was a tea packer working for a tea merchant – presumably in London where he lived.  I think this could have been quite dangerous work, as tea can be explosive if it forms a dust cloud.  The design I have come up with for this piece is based on the tops of tea chests.

Originally I intended to do columns of 4 shapes – but now I have decided to do 3 columns of 5 shapes – this means that this piece uses 16 different shades of Rowan Felted Tweed but it could be knitted with just 2 one for the “centres” and one for the background.  I have used my main colour – brown for the background.

This piece is knitting up very quickly.  I think there are 2 reasons for this – firstly it is quite interesting to knit and secondly because  it is easier to knit than the first piece - the yarn does not get so tangled.

WW1 Memorial Quilt – Caleb

I have completed my first piece of the WW1 memorial quilt.  This piece is called Caleb and the design in inspired by the occupation of “painter”.  It is very colourful and is more a modern idea of painting than one from the early part of the twentieth century when a painter probably painted walls white and railings black.  Anyway the design doesn’t have to be too literal.

I had considered doing a chart for the pattern but it is much easier just to type it – even if it seems a bit long-winded.   There are only 2 rows. Don’t read the next bit if you have no interest in knitting Caleb.  I am including it as a record of what I have done in case anyone does one to do it.

I used 4mm needles and 7 shades of Rowan Felted Tweed.
Shade 145 - Brown

Shade 151 - Mauve
Shade 167 - Blue
Shade 158 - Green
Shade 181 - Yellow
Shade 154 - Orange
Shade 150 - Red

Before you start wind a second ball of Mauve, Blue, Green, Yellow and Orange.

I cast on 67sts using the Brown yarn which I am going to use as a main colour for the whole quilt.  I tried to loosely strand the colours across the back of the work but I seem to have done it looser on one side than the other.

Row 1: K4 in Mauve, K1 Blue, K1 Mauve, K4 Blue, K1 Green, K1 Blue, K4 Green, K1 Yellow, K1 Green, K4 Yellow, K1 Orange, K1 Yellow, K4 Orange, K1 Red, K1 Orange, K7 Red, K1 Orange, K1 Red, K4 Orange, K1 Yellow, K1 Orange, K4 Yellow, K1 Green, K1 Yellow, K4 Green, K1 Blue, K1 Green K4 Blue, K1 Mauve, K1 Blue, K4 Mauve.

Row 2: P5 in Mauve, P1 Blue, P1 Mauve, P4 Blue, P1 Green, P1 Blue, P4 Green, P1 Yellow, P1 Green, P4 Yellow, P1 Orange, P1 Yellow, P4 Orange, P1 Red, P1 Orange, P5 Red, P1 Orange, P1 Red, P4 Orange, P1 Yellow, P1 Orange, P4 Yellow, P1 Green, P1 Yellow, P4 Green,  P1 Blue, P1 Green P4 Blue, P1 Mauve, P1 Blue, P5 Mauve.

I hope the instructions are correct – it is much easier to knit than type the instructions.

Repeat these 2 rows until 99 rows have been completed. Cast off using Brown.

I am now going to block the piece – that may sort out some of the irregularities in the knitting!

I have done a rough plan for the second piece of this quilt – I have been thinking about it while I have been knitting the first one, but I also intend to knit a thick jumper that appealed to me.  I think I will make a start on that next.

Old Knitting Patterns

This week I have been doing a lot of over-time –so I haven’t done much knitting.  On my only day off last Saturday – I went to the Knitting and Crochet Guild meeting in Oxford.  We looked at some of the Guild’s historic items including stockings knitted in very fine yarn, a fair-isle jumper, and a crocheted tea cosy cover commemorating the end of World War 1.  It was interesting to see them.  I meant to take some photos – but I forgot! At least one of the items – a wrap made from little granny squares - came from an old Vogue Knitting magazine and when I saw it – I thought – I have got some of them from the 1950s or 1960s.

This is actually a Stitchcraft magazine from 1963 but it is similar to some of the Vogue magazines that I have somewhere.  The patterns are so old that they have come back into fashion – but most of the sizes are so small they wouldn’t fit me.  In fact this magazine includes an attractive unisex jumper which means it has larger sizes to fit the men – I might add it onto my list of patterns to knit one day.

When I was trying to find another shawl pattern to knit – I looked through the box files that I have full of old patterns cut out of magazines – and thought many of them need throwing out as they look so dated.  In fact they are only about 10 years old – but that was the time of funky fur and other strange fashion yarns – now we seem to be in an era where more traditional yarn is prized.  However, I suppose if I keep them long enough – they will come back into fashion again.

Incidentally – I didn’t find any shawl patterns – shawls were not in fashion 10 years ago.  However 30 years ago – when I was a student – they were.  One of the first garments I ever knitted was a bramble stitch shawl.  I have still got the pattern for that – I will have to knit another one – something else to add to the list.

WW1 Memorial Quilt

I have started knitting my WW1 Memorial Quilt.

This is the first part of the first piece.  I was going to say – “square” but the pieces will not be square.  At the moment I intend to knit about 24 different-sized pieces – each one representing the civilian occupation of one of my soldiers or sailors who died in the First World War. 

The first piece represents those men who were painters.  I am calling it “Caleb” after Caleb Brown Smith who died in January 1917.  He was a painter.  He was also the first man I put on my list when I started a list of family members who died in the First World War.  When I recorded the details of his death – I realised that I had noticed a lot of family members who had died in the War  – and even since I have started planning this quilt – I have added more names to my list – one of these – George Symonds who died on 2 August 1917 was also a painter.

Originally I had intended to knit a representation of half-painted wall for the painters of the family  – but now I had decided to use a rainbow of colours.  This design has another link to the First World War – because it is similar to the colours of the ribbon of the Victory Medal which was given to each man.  I had thought of just knitting stripes but the blended sections were suggested to me by the woven part of the ribbon.

I know you can’t see much of Caleb yet – I should get more done this week.  Over the years, I have tried lots of methods of preventing the yarns from tangling.  At the moment I am using the knit a few rows and then untangle them.  This is also the method I am using on my Knit the Sky scarf.  If any of the pieces involve more serious intarsia – I think that winding the yarn onto bobbins works best.

I am knitting tea cosies again at the moment – but every day – I do a few more rows of this piece.  This project is a labour of love and could take some time!

Rowan Felted Tweed

I think I will add Rowan Felted Tweed to my list of all-time favourite yarns.  It is 50% merino wool, 25% alpaca and 25% viscose which means it feels lovely but is quite hard-wearing.  I am intending to use it for my next big project and so a couple of weeks ago I bought one ball of several different colours.

I already had about 7 balls of a brown shade known as Treacle and I think I will use this for the main colour. 

What I particularly like about this yarn – is that the shades are tastefully subtle – not my usual brash colours.

I have been thinking about this project for several months now – I want to do something to remember my relatives who died during the First World War.  I had originally intended to make some kind of picture – something relatively small – but I think I would like to make something bigger – eg a throw or knitted patchwork quilt.  That would be more me.

I sort of know what I want it to look like in general terms.  I think I will start knitting before I have finished the design – and I don’t want to plan everything carefully and then start knitting – that would take the excitement out of the idea.  There will need to be some planning – so that the spread of colours looks balanced.  I have considered using the main colour in every patch – that might work.

I think I will have to knit the patches separately and join them afterwards.  In theory this would mean that I could move things about to make them look right – but at the moment I intend to knit different sized patches which will only fit together one way.  I could just do squares – but again that would be a bit boring.

Hopefully next time I write a post – I will have some actual knitting to show you.

Knit the Sky Summer Update

I have been knitting this scarf every day since the beginning of the year.  By now I had expected to be knitting lots of forget-me-not blue to reflect the beautiful blue summer skies, but  unfortunately both June and July were very grey and August hasn’t started any better.

I have used very little forget-me-not blue so far.  I wonder if I will use it again this month.  When I was collecting the yarns for this project last summer, the sky was very blue – but at this moment looking out of the window – I would describe the sky as “white”.  It is cloudy and raining.

I have noticed that first thing in the morning – the sky is one colour and as the day goes on – it can be blue, grey and white all a once.  However – the main point of knitting the scarf is to take the time to look at the sky – so it is working.  I have looked at the sky far more this year than I have done since I was a child.

I have knitted a bit more of my shawl this week.  It is a bit more subtle now than it looked last week.

Part of the fun of using the Debbie Bliss Rialto Luxury Sock yarn is that – it is very hard to predict what any shade is going to turn out like.  I knit a bit more and see what happens.

Yet Another Shawl

This week I have started making yet another shawl using Debbie Bliss Rialto Luxury Sock Yarn.  It is a design by Helga Isager and is supposed to be knitted using 2 Isager yarns producing a subtle striped shawl.

I liked the simple pattern but my shawl is not going to be very subtle.  At the moment it is blue and orange stripes.  I chose one shade which is mainly blue and the other shade which changes colour quite a lot.

I am supposed to be knitting all sorts of other things but sometimes it is just nice to knit something easy.  I have been suffering from a nasty virus and some days I did not actually knit anything at all.  Hopefully I will soon have more energy and will be able to get back to knitting something difficult. 

Apple and Banana

I have finished another two pieces of fruit to go with my orange and lemon.

The apple looks quite small but it is almost identical to the size of the original. 

I had several goes at coming up with a design for the banana.  It is the ridges that are the problem.  Other designers of bananas have used a wide rib but I wanted to produce a ridge rather than a dip which is produced by using rib. 

I have also finished the shawl I was making. 

I bought the yarn from James in Oxford Yarn Store at the beginning of June.  I must have encouraged him to have a go at something similar – as there is a photo of a shawl he has knitted in the latest newsletter.  Debbie Bliss Rialto luxury sock yarn certainly is lovely yarn and I recommend it to anyone.  I wonder if it is any good for socks.  It has such a long colour change that I would have thought the socks would not look very similar – but maybe that doesn’t matter.  It is certainly great for shawls.