Happy 7th Birthday Maud Tabron Blog

 

When 22 February comes around each year – I think – another year can’t have passed already.   The other thing I think each year is that I didn’t do much knitting.  However I know I knit without noticing and often forget to write about something because I am too busy knitting it.  I think the square shown above is an example of this.  I knitted this for a Knitting and Crochet Guild project.  We had to knit something that represented us - a favourite stitch or favourite yarn etc.  I chose stocking stitch but it is the yarn, the colours and the patchwork that represents me.  Also knitting something that has a meaning.  The lack of definition was intentional.

During the first lockdown of 2020 – I meant to do more knitting – I meant to finish some things and in fact I did.  I finished the jacket that I had started at least the year before.  I don't seem to have a finished photo of it - but I know I did finish it!

I also wanted to knit another Fandango bag – in a brick design – something that had been in my head since 2014!  I have another one in there – which may get knitted this year.   I still have plenty of Fandango and a few basic bags – so I could make a new one every year.  Typically I tend to use the same bag all the time – so much so that it is now very worn.  I should start using the Brick bag and knit another one to put in the cupboard!

During the spring I got some tea cosies finished which had been waiting unfinished for years.  Later in the summer I also knitted a new tea cosy for my cousin.

I also knitted some other gifts too including a cowl and a shawl using yarn from my stash.

I had completely forgotten about a couple of the shawls that I knitted during the year.  It’s a good thing I can re-read this blog and see what I have been doing.

I had been wanting to have a go at the Elizabeth Zimmermann Baby Surprise Jacket  - I managed to achieve that as well as several other baby jackets that are now ready to give to new babies.

At the moment I am still working on the Bressay Hap shawl that I mentioned last week but I have 4 large unfinished projects and plenty of ideas for new projects.  I have knitted lots of individual squares for a charity blanket.  I have knitted several individual squares for my Afternoon Tea throw and I would still like to finish the Everything I Have Ever Knitted project which I think I started in 2019 and have hardly touched since.  I should keep knitting pieces for it as I go through my stash and a memory of a particular project comes back. 

At some time before the autumn deadline – I would like to knit and send off some Innocent Smoothie hats for Age UK.  This is something I have been thinking of doing for a few years and I have collected together some patterns and have a lot of odd bits of yarn that I could use up.

While I am still furloughed from work – I should get on with some of these projects but unfortunately when I am out for my morning walk – I usually thing of something else that I would like to knit – and my family history is never-ending.  I enjoy knitting but it does not occupy the mind like family history.  I will have to think of some more projects which combine the 2 things.

Bressay Hap Shawl by Sharon Miller

 

When the book – Rowan 40 Years - 40 iconic hand-knit designs – was published in 2018 – I bought it and thought that I would like to knit something from it.  I thought it was interesting that if I had been asked to choose 40 patterns – I would have chosen 40 different ones!   This isn’t a criticism – it means that there are just so many good designs to choose from. 

I have always wanted to knit a traditional kind of hap shawl.  This design by Sharon Miller is a nod to tradition.  I have chosen almost completely different colours.   The design is made from Felted Tweed and the main colour is Watery – but I used that for my last shawl – so I wanted to use something different.  I have chosen Avocado.   The only colour that is the same is Peony.

Originally I had thought about choosing pink as the main colour but I couldn’t decide which one to choose.  This design includes 4 different shades of pink.  I would like it to go with a pink jacket that I own – but it probably won’t.   I think having a lime green as the main colour is likely to go much better.

When I started knitting the pattern – I struggled to understand it.  I would have liked a diagram.  I am still not completely sure what I am doing.  I have knitted the 2 side edges and am now working on the third one which I am supposed to keep on the needles instead of cast off.  The plan is to knit a fourth edge and then work on the central section.  I am hoping it will turn out OK! 

Taquero Shawl

 

When I go out for my morning walk – sometimes I walk passed a new Mexican street food takeaway business that has started up in Banbury out of the ruins of the Little Amsterdam cookery school.  It is a very noticeable business as you can see below.  Despite the national lockdown in place in the UK at the moment – I think it is still open for takeaway food if ordered in advance.

As soon as I saw it I thought – I could knit that! I think this about the most odd things.  I read a lot of blogs where knitters are inspired by the beautiful landscape where they live, but I live in the centre of a town and there are things here that can be inspiring.

The shawl is basically the same design as the one I knitted last year.  It is called Offset Triangle Shawl by Jacqueline Van Dillen which was in the Autumn 2018 edition of Designer Knitting magazine.  It is not exactly the same because – she used 4 colours and I have used 5, and I have sometimes changed the number of rows of each pattern and have changed the combinations of colours.  Jacqueline says that in her design the colours are inspired by the landscape of the Netherlands.  She uses dark grey, light grey, green and yellow.  She also uses a different brand of yarn.  I have used 5 shades of Rowan Felted Tweed. 

This project was quite easy and it has only taken just over a week to knit.  It is the first of the 3 projects using Rowan Felted Tweed that I intend to complete during February.