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.

Ariadne’s Labyrinth

For several weeks I have been knitting a throw based on the central section of Frankie Brown’s 10-stitch blanket.  It is now finished and I am trying to decide whether to risk putting it in the washing machine on a wool wash.  I think I won’t – I will hand wash it this evening and dry it on towels.

I am happy with the finished throw.  I was not really sure what it would look like as I knitted a pile of squares in Noro Kureyon.  I joined all the squares together by using a couple of odd balls of black aran yarn to pick up stitches along the edges and then using the 3-needle cast off method. 

I did the same around the edge of the squares and joined on a narrow garter-stitch edge piece.  When I knitted the original 10-stitch blanket – I did not knit an edge piece and this means the edges are a bit floppy.  I may go back and add one.  I have some of the yarn left.

On Saturday – the latest edition of Knitting magazine arrived in the post.  In that there is a reference to a Drops Design pattern called Ariadne’s Labyrinth.  This is a very similar pattern.  As I said a few posts ago – I don’t think there is anything original.   So if you want to knit a similar throw – you could use the Drops Design pattern or just use the central sections of Frankie Brown’s pattern. 

I have also nearly finished the shawl I was knitting last week.  All I have got to do is cast off, sew in a couple of ends, and then block it.  If I am going to tackle the throw today – I won’t get onto that until the end of the week.

Orange and Lemon

This week I have been good and got back to knitting for other people.  I have made a start on the knitted fruit that Buzz from All the Fun of the Fair asked me to come up with.  So far I have done an orange and a lemon.

The knitted versions are actually slightly bigger than there real-life models.  It is amazing how much knitting stretches when it is stuffed.  I started knitting the fruit because it was a small project.  This week it has been too hot to have a shawl on my lap.

I have done a bit on the shawl I started a couple of weeks ago.  It is not that far off being finished but every row has more stitches and so it takes longer and longer to complete a row.  If the weather is a bit cooler – I might get it finished this weekend.