Casting On

Last time I said that I was going to cast on 3 projects and see which one I fancied concentrating on – since then I have acquired some more.

Firstly we are still trying to get a decent photograph of my memorial quilt - so last week I made a sleeve for the top of it so it could be hung on a pole like a curtain.  However the bottom still looks uneven so I am going to re-block it and make another sleeve for the bottom of the quilt.

I have started it!

Actually – it wont take long to finish the knitting – I just need to get on with it.  I may do it today.

The second unforeseen thing was that my friend Buzz from All the Fun of the Fair wants some more tea cosies knitted.  As I was travelling around at the weekend – I started knitting these as they are very portable projects.

The first of the 3 projects that I had intended to start is a short-sleeved cardigan to wear to work when it is a bit chilly.  I don’t need it at the moment but it would be good to have it finished by September.  

The second is another project that I need to finish in August.  It is a shawl for my aunt’s birthday.

I am not entirely happy with it and may take it out again yet.

The third project is so far even less successful.  I have knitted 2 of the afghans from Martin Storey’s Afghan Knits book and I decided I could use up some yarn by knitting another one.  However I have only done one row and then got stuck.

I think the pattern is wrong – but it may be me – I am not good with charts.  Often patterns have both but this one doesn’t.  I will come back to this!  I have enough to be getting on with.

Simply Stripes Blanket – Finished Version

I have finished this throw – and taken some terrible photos of it.  It is so sunny here – that I had to take the photos with the curtains closed. 

Although the photos are not great  - at least you can tell what it looks like in a general way.   Last time I said that the throw is quite small and it is – but despite going down 2 needle sizes – the sample is still larger than it is supposed to be.

This week I have also been knitting a sleeve to sew to the top of my memorial quilt so it can be hung up.  The only problem is that I haven’t got the quilt here – so I have had to knit roughly the same number of stitches I did for the edge of the quilt and hope it will fit.  I could be taking it out yet.

Karen Draisey from Oxford Yarn Store has become the quilt’s publicity agent.  Which is a good thing because if it were left to me I would just put it in the spare room and move on to the next project.  

I am in a funny mood at the moment.  I can’t decide what to knit next.  I think I may start 3 projects and see which one I want to concentrate on.  Normally it is best for me to work on a project until I have finished it – otherwise if I stop – I don’t start it again.  Perhaps if I can do a bit of each project most days I will get them all done – or alternatively I will have 3 more half-finished projects!

Simply Stripes Blanket

I haven’t done much knitting recently – hence the long gaps between blog posts.  This week I have been knitting a few tea cosies for All the Fun of the Fair and I have also been working on a sample for the Oxford Yarn Store. 

This work in progress is a Martin Storey design from the book Afghan Knits.  This book has several interesting patterns in it – but this one is particularly good for using up odd bits of Rowan Felted Tweed.  After knitting my Memorial Quilt I have got quite a lot of odd bits!

You are supposed to knit 63 separate squares and then sew them together.  I have decided to knit 7 strips and sew them together.

I did try to knit the strips together as I went along but could not get the join to look very neat.  Now I am glad I didn’t manage that – I do not want a lap full of blanket in this heat.  Thin strips are ideal for knitting when it is hot. 

I like the design and I like the effect – the only criticism I have is that although it is described as a blanket – it is very small.  If I was knitting this for me I would knit more squares and make it bigger.  This would mean that if I had bought the yarn for this project I would use up more of it.  I would also need more of the main colour but I think it would be worth it to make a larger blanket.

While I have been knitting these strips I have been thinking about another mad project that I might try next year when it will be the 40 year anniversary of me taking a serious interest in knitting as opposed to knitting dolls’ blankets as a child.  I have started scribbling on a piece of lined paper – that is how the quilt started.  Anyway – there will be more about this in the future.  I think the next project I work on had better be a shawl for my aunt’s 80 birthday.

Bits and Pieces

Now that I have finished the WW1 Memorial Quilt – I seem to be in a reflective mood.  Over the last fortnight I have been trying to finish a jumper that I started earlier in the year.  It is in Noro Shinryoku Colour 2.  It is a mixture of 70% wool and 30% silk.  It is like thick aran or thin chunky.

In order to try to keep the sleeves a similar colour.  I knitted them at the same time.  This does work but means that they seem to take ages to knit.  I used a very simple pattern that I have used before for Noro yarn.  I let the yarn do the talking.

For several months now I have been knitting one thing while thinking about what to knit for my next piece of the quilt – and this week I caught myself doing it – even though it is finished.  The jumper is finished as well now and I can move on to something else.  

On Tuesday I took the quilt to Oxford and left it in the Oxford Yarn Store.  The owner, Karen is going to take charge of it’s promotion.  If it was left to me – you are the only people who would know about it.   Now it is finished I do feel drained.  I had realised that it had affected me so much.

Now I am starting to feel a bit more relaxed and  I am watching the football, tennis or listening to the cricket and have started knitting a sample throw for OYS.  I will try to take a photo of it before I hand it over.  

Otherwise I have been thinking about how many other unfinished items are lurking in bags.  I know that at least 2 of them are very nearly finished.  Why don’t I just get them out and finish them?  Perhaps I will this summer. 

WW1 Memorial Quilt – Finished Version

I spent more than a week finishing this quilt. I decided to pick up a dark brown edge on each piece and so each piece has a border around it rather than being directly joined to the next piece.  I had thought of just doing mattress stitch joins but because the pieces are not all the same size I would have had to make some of them wider somehow.  I could have been more efficient and knitted a border on them as I went along and I could have included a seam allowance on the pieces which needed one.  However, my method of adding edges afterwards seems to have worked.  It has used quite a lot of wool – more than another whole ball of the Treacle shade of Rowan Felted Tweed DK.

I sewed the quilt together by sewing a few pieces to each other.   I was a bit worried that they wouldn’t fit together but they have.  I sewed all the top pieces to each other and sewed the bottom pieces together into 2 large pieces -  a left side and a right side. I then sewed the 2 bottom pieces together.  When I had finished I decided that they didn’t line up very well – so I had to take out my stitches and redo it.  Lastly I sewed the top to the bottom.

When the quilt was in one piece I picked up stitches along each edge – about 350 of them.  I did not count them exactly.  I worked 5 rows of garter stitch in Treacle and then cast of loosely.  I then pick up stitches along the top and the bottom including across the ends of the side edges.  I picked up what looked right and then decreased on the first row by working garter stitch as K1, K2tog.  I then worked 4 more rows of garter stitch and cast off. 

I am now blocking the quilt again in sections.  I have done all the corners and I am now doing the edges.  It is so large I can only do a bit at a time.

The only way I can photograph the whole quilt is by putting it on my bed. As you can see I have taken some photos of it – but the sun is too bright for them to be very good and you can’t see the whole quilt.  On Saturday I took the quilt to Oxford to talk about it at the Knitting and Crochet Guild meeting.  We laid it out on the floor so that everyone could see it.   I should have taken my camera!

I now have several other projects that I have planned it my head – much simpler than this one.  But first I decided to get back to a Noro jumper that I had started knitting – it is far to hot to wear it but when it is finished I can put it in a drawer ready for next winter.

I may do another quilt with meaning.  I do quite like designing from ideas rather than copying something visual.  Perhaps I should start on one for World War 2 but not this year!

WW1 Memorial Quilt – Walter - Gardener

I have finished the last piece of my Memorial Quilt – the piece which represents the gardeners.

This design ought to have been the easiest.  There are so many things I could have knitted to represent gardeners.  I had thought of doing a large cauliflower or a row of carrots.  I considered doing rows of flowers in a Fair-isle pattern.  This design has taken me at least 6 months to think of – but I think I am happy with the end result.  It is the largest piece of the quilt with 134sts and 132 rows.  I have used small amounts of a lot of different shades of Rowan Felted Tweed DK yarn.  I had lots of odd bits left over from knitting other pieces and I have used up as many of them as I could.

The structure for the design is a formal garden – 4 beds divided by paths and a central feature.  The feature could be a statue or a sundial. Each bed represents a season.  Winter which is a bit sparse – berries, twigs and pine leaves, Spring which is a daffodil and a few buds, Summer which is a rose and Autumn which is a nasturtium. 

On another level the piece is a cross with flowers – to remember the men who died. It is named after Walter James Deal who was my third cousin, 3 times removed.  He was a gardener and a private in the 2^nd battalion of the Oxfordshire and Berkshire Light Infantry who died on 12 May 1918 aged 32.

It is also to remember the following men:

George Walter Thomas Shaxted who was my second cousin, 3 times removed.  He was a gardener and a private in the 6^th battalion of the Buffs (East Kent) Regiment who died on 20 October 1915 aged 20.

Charles Waite who was the husband of my fourth cousin, 4 times removed.  He was a gardener and a guardsman in the 3^rd battalion of the Grenadier Guards who died on 9 October 1917 aged 31.

Walter James Cole who was the husband of my second cousin, 3 times removed who I think was a gardener and a corporal in the Royal Garrison Artillery who died on 27 October 1917 aged 27.

John Norwood Berry who was my fourth cousin, twice removed.  He was a gardener and a private in the 6^th battalion of the Buffs (East Kent) Regiment who died on 4 August 1916 aged 30.

One last confession about this piece – I have done quite a lot of swiss darning.  I decided that it would be better to do that than keep taking it out because one stitch was in the wrong place.

I am now working on sewing the 21 pieces together.  I have arranged them on my bed and I think I am happy that they will look OK.  There are some pieces which are the same size and could have been swopped but I am going to stick to the original arrangement.  I hope to be able to show you the finished quilt later in the week.

WW1 Memorial Quilt – Albert – Railway Worker

This is my finished piece for my railway workers.

I hope the middle section looks like a railway engine.  Either side are trunks and a vague impression of a station building or a covered platform.

The piece has 121sts and 132 rows. 

I thought about this design for months.  I wanted to do a train in some form and I considered knitting just a carriage – or a train from the side.  In the end I decided to do a design similar to the Road Transport piece – even using red and black in a similar way.  For the engine I deliberately knitted black surrounded by red – so that it looked a bit like a poppy.  

This piece is to remember my third cousin, 3 times removed: Albert John Boyce who was a railway guard and a corporal in the Royal Fusiliers who died on 24 May 1915 aged 35.

It is also to remember the other men who worked on the railway including Wilfred Algernon Burfield who was my third cousin, twice removed.  He was a railway engineer who died from disease on 13 February 1916 aged 21.  He had served in the Royal Navy on HMS Vivid.

I am now working on the last piece – the one for the gardeners in my family.