Cocoon...

Wow. July? I've definitely knitted stuff since July. I've just been stuck on the commission from hell, a story I may well write up before the year ends...

While I'm here though, I did get a second commission recently, which I actually managed to finish! My lovely friend, Sandy Matzen, who is a professional photographer*, asked me to create a full-body cocoon for a photoshoot she wanted me to model for. Two months to knit it. Considering the last time I'd taken on a commission and I'd said it would be done by summer - almost 6 months ago now - I was a little dubious I could pull off something which sounded fairly simply, but... Anyway, it's hard to say no to Sandy, especially when it involves a free make-over and photo shoot! And they're always fun. Sandy sent me her artist impression of what she wanted:

Terrifying! Somehow I have to knit all that, in two months, to fit me, with a ton of work outstanding, a 60th birthday to organise, etc... Still, I told Sandy it would be easy enough... ;)

I decided to knit in the round and in rib (for stretch), with two balls of DK at the same time, to try and make the whole process as quick and painless as possible (I actually find rib to be a very relaxing and easy stitch). So I ordered four lots of 500g wool, to be on the safe side. I hadn't expected the order to turn up as four HUGE 500g balls:

But how cool are they?! I'll definitely order some of those again! (In the end, I still had half of the first two balls left, so I thoroughly over-estimated! Lots of black knitting to do now... :))

I worked every night in front of House. MD, and with 100 stitches, 3 rows to an inch, 50 inches to knit, amazingly I managed to finish it with two weeks to spare! Which was a relief considering I'd almost given up at 30 inches, as it just felt like it would take forever. I then had the scary moment of sending a (poor quality) photo to Sandy and hoping that she didn't mind the choice of rib, as I didn't think I could start all over again with only two weeks to go!

Luckily, Sandy is such a positive person that she was instantly taken with the rib, and only asked that I knit another few inches to take it past my feet. 56 inches later, and it was as much as I could get done with a day to spare!

Yesterday, I spent the morning being turned into a cracked mannequin by Alessandra Russo (I can't deny, I always love being pampered and beautified with a great make-up job! :)). I then stepped into the minus 1 degree day for a few shots outside, in nothing but the cocoon, knickers, socks and just-hidden boots, for a few pictures. Always a good view for the local men who seem to have something to say every time Sandy and I are on location! After some posing between shivers, we headed off to a mirrored dance studio for the second set of photos. Lots of fun! It was nice to wear something that I'd knitted with relative pride, at least until it was unpicked for the photos... :)

Cracked Mannequin in a cocoon project

Model: Emma Walker

MUA: Alessandra Russo at Ale MUA

Copyright by Sandy Maya's Photography

To see more of Sandy's photos, visit her website and Facebook page - highly recommended!

* and also something of a family photographer now, having photographed by sister's wedding and the recent portraits of my sister and I for my mother's 60th - plus more commissions coming up, I'm sure...! :)

Cushion Comfort and Daisy Shoes...

Cushion number two is complete:

I almost ran out of light blue wool on the reverse and had to pad out the threads with a slightly darker colour, but never mind. I'm now working on cover number three, which has a bit of a lavender theme. One side done, one side to do...


Instead of working toward finishing that today, I was distracted by an old idea: shoe covers. This was probably revived by two things: (1) the fact that I can't resist fancy dress, as evidenced by two recent, probably pointless, but nevertheless personally satisfying purchases (20s Flapper and Joan of Arc - it had a free sword!) in a recent online costume sale; and (2) the impending annual festival, for which - you won't be surprised to hear - I will be dressing up on at least one day, and I've even convinced my sister to join in, just as soon as I've pimped up her dress. I have been doing a lot of shopping over the past couple of days. I think it's that time of the holiday. Usually I'd start to feel guilty about spent money, but my current positivity means I am actually enjoying it all - it's like Christmas every morning, unwrapping the parcels and trying to guess what's turned up each day!

Anyway: shoe covers. Like most women, I have a wardrobe full of shoes I never wear. Unlike most women, those shoes are, on the whole, old, worn out things that resemble clogs and flip flops. I do have a few pairs of decent, feminine shoes - stilettos, kitten heels, wedges - but they usually only see the light of day on special occasions, just long enough to give me aching ankles, blisters and resentment over the fact that I've never felt confident or comfortable in heels. It's not that I don't love shoes - I'm quite happy to spend time perusing the Irregular Choice or TUK collections, wishing I had the feet for them. And the money to spend on them! But I stick to my tried and tested walking shoes, since what's the point in a shoe if you can't walk in it??

Since I've been enjoying a little designing of late, I decided I would try my hand at knitting shoe covers - why not? How much worse could they look than my actual shoes? :) The only problem was the complete lack of a pattern anywhere on the web - or at least not one I could find. There were a few patterns for boot tops and lots of very pretty slippers, but no shoe covers. Sewing patterns, yes, but not knit or crochet. So today I started from scratch and came up with these:

New festival shoes! I only started knitting with the green because I wanted to work out a template with some scrap wool, but since it worked out, I decided to finish them off.

In case you're interested, this is a quick explanation of how they're made:

First, I measured around the back and sides of the shoe and knitted a long rectangular strip, which I joined at the top cast-off corners:

In this case, as I'm a size 3, it measured 16 inches long, which was 80 stitches, and 3.5 inches high (DK wool, size UK8 needles). I used a stocking stitch pattern reversed, with a rib on every ten stitches.

I then moved to the front, measuring across the tongue (for this shoe: 3 inches = 15 stitches) and knitted 2 inches. I then increased on each side by 18 stitches, decreased at both ends for the next two rows, then at both ends of every other row until only 21 stitches remained. I then purled two together to the last stitch, purled 1, cut the yarn and threaded it through the stitches, pulling them tight.

Next, I sewed the sides and front piece together and secured the cover underneath:

Finally, I topped each one with a simple crochet daisy - check YouTube for an easy pattern for that. I don't expect they'll last very long - particularly the fastened bit on the sole - but who cares? They're still cheaper than a new pair of shoes, and now that I have a template, I can start to play with the idea... :)

Tutti-Fruitti / Cushion Comfort...

While I choose to ignore the misery of the world and too much rain - which, despite falling incessantly, still hasn't washed the bird muck off my windows! - here's an update:

To use up some of my old, child-friendly scrap wool, I decided to knit another item for my impending niece/nephew - a housecoat type thing (it might have been a cardigan, but I ran out of wool at the sleeves... It's a baby! It'll never notice...):

It's a cream coloured wool which has always reminded me of tutti-fruitti ice cream because of the yellow, green, blue and red flecks. I thought I might be able to pull off a unisex pattern with it, but half way through my dad said it looked a bit "girlie". He might be right. I can't imagine most boys want to look like ice cream. But it's a baby! It can hate me later.

My other big project - using up the millions (minor hyperbole) of wool cones stashed in my bedroom, has taken a giant leap (definite hyperbole) forward with the completion of my cushion cover! All those cones of red wool I thought I'd be lucky to get a single hat made out of, then lucky to get one side of a 21x 21 inch cushion cover from... then realised I could have knitted an entire jumper from...!! Well, I managed to completely use up six cones in two days. That still leaves about four of various sizes and shades, plus a small 2ply ball, in red, but it's a pretty good start, and I have a rather comfortable (if I do say so myself) cushion cover to go over one of my torn, stained and generally rubbish lounge cushions (three more to go). I also used up one of the pack of 20 zips I bought years ago during a dressmaking phase that came to naught. It feels like progress! Comfortable, woolly progress...

Finishing touches...

I used to have this tam which my Nan gave me. I'm pretty sure she'd bought it from a charity shop, but I really liked it. It was striped and originally from St Michaels (M&S). And then I lost it, I suspect at work. My suspicions were even more confirmed when I saw it on the head of a student. Problem is, I can only assume it was my hat - I can't prove it; I haven't fully searched my cupboards and draws at home, but I think the odds of a student having an old hat exactly the same as mine are slim - just not impossible. So I've been thinking for a while about knitting a replacement the lost tam (and yet still not about searching my mounds of clothes to see if it's still around...!).

When I saw the pattern in Hats for the 'Fair Isle tam', I thought it would make the perfect replacement. But the Fair Isle bit, although it looks great and perfectly possible, seemed too much like hard work. Luckily I still have a stash of striped sock wool from Wilkinson's to use up, which was the perfect way to cheat through this pattern:

I had to use an old hairband to elasticate it. It should make a suitable replacement, though... Until i can finally get around to searching for the missing hat...

The good news is, I finally finished the baby pouch for my future niece/nephew, now complete with teddy bear buttons which will be an absolute bugger to open in a hurry... :)

Eleven Shades of Red...

Another hat from Hats completed! I've skipped past the Tam at the moment, because I have to do some final touches to that before it's ready. Instead I moved on to a chunky knit hat; the reason being, a long time ago now I bought a couple of boxes of 'job lot wool' from eBay, thinking it a bargain at £40. The pictures showed many cones of machine-knit wool. Many, many cones.  The description was a little vague, but I took a punt anyway. Two huge boxes arrived - good stuff. Except that it wasn't exactly good stuff; it was 1ply and 2ply wool that looked like it had been stored in a shed for years. Nevertheless, it was workable, just thin. Very, very thin. Useless on my knitting machine and a pain to knit with. I tried out lace knitting without much success (or patience), and then I started to combine cones to make 3ply and 4ply yarn. That seemed to work a bit better. I have an unfinished pink top I'll show at some point from my first combining experiment.

Now, however, I'm a bit sick of having two huge crates of wool in my bedroom and really want to get rid of the stuff! So a couple of nights ago I had the brainwave of joining up every possible cone of the same or similar colour together to make a chunkier yarn - and it worked! It's fiddly and impractical, but it worked. I combined all the different shades of red into an interesting, not too bright tone and I now have a 'Ribbons and Bow' hat to add to the ever-growing collection... :)

Only fifty more shades to use up!

Hats all...

I never really got around to telling about some of my Christmas gifts from last year, but as I've been using one of them this weekend, now seems like a good time to correct that.

My mother bought me an unexpected book: Hats (Cozy) by GMC Editors. I hadn't asked for it, but after a flick through I thought it looked alright. I like hats; their relatively quick to knit. In fact, there are some really nice hats in this book, and now that I've branched a little into crochet, none of them are totally off limits. 30 hat patterns, to be precise. I had thought I might try and knit a hat a month. That hasn't happened, unsurprisingly. But, shortly after Christmas, I began my attempts, starting with a beaded blue one called 'Nocturne', which is basically a dark blue beanie with knitted bobbles and bead work. I didn't have quite the same amount of pretty beads as the original suggests (despite thoroughly raiding my old, broken jewellery stash), so I stuck to a few simple silver-ish beads from a broken costume necklace. It just about works:













I also tried, with my limited crochet knowledge, the 'Fur Fun' hat, which, after several attempts at working out exactly what was going on, I've had to abandon for two reasons: (1) ran out of suitable wool; (2) it just looks like a shower cap! Where would I go that I would want to wear a shower cap outside the bathroom?? However, I do intend to retry the pattern another time in a different colour, as I suspect it's the pale blue which really doesn't help its general appearance.

I am, however, particularly proud of my attempt at the 'Trilby', even if I have chosen to make it in dark pink, rather than the more acceptable grey. It's made with chunky wool and super warm, which is great for these British summers!!

I definitely recommend the book if you're a hat or quick knits fan - and it's fairly cheap too, if bought from the right places. I'm now on to the 'Fair Isle tam', although I'm cheating a lot by ignoring the Fair Isle aspect. I'll show you what I mean when it's done...

Jaeger Monster

It's been a miserable June half term holiday - may as well be October at the moment! Since the Jubilee events ended, I haven't really felt inspired to do anything. But, as it has been on my to-do list for... ever, I did pick up my knitting commission again, to give it another try. I had put it down after I dropped a stitch in the middle of one part of the base pattern, in an impossible position to just pick it back up again. So I diligently unpicked to the amber border and started all over again (version 3.5). It's a monster, this knit, and no matter how far I manage to get with it (still only on the first sleeve!!), I never feel anything but disappointed at the quality. If I were only knitting this for me, I'd feel satisfied enough that I was making progress at least, but I really don't think this is good enough to give to someone else. But the aim is to finish the sleeve and show it to the lady at work to let her decide if it's really ever possible to complete this kit...

2012

Knitting continues even while blogging doesn't... It's been so long, Blogger has changed its whole set-up, completely confusing me, and I am having to work out what I haven't blogged about...

Christmas 2011:

I had a lot of fun making all my Christmas tree baubles, and I did finish off the Star Wars scarf for my brother-in-law, although I can't currently find where I saved the pictures of that, so I'll have to add those another time.














2012: After the apparent success of my first ever knitting commission (me vs the moths), I was asked by another woman at work to attempt a knitting kit which she'd been unable to complete for many years. I can safely say I may have been a little too cocky in saying yes.
I'm currently struggling no end with this one. It's a Jaeger cardigan with a fruits and flowers pattern around the base of the back, front and sleeves. The problem is not necessarily the pattern - I can follow charts without too many issues - it's the fact that, not only am I dealing with more than a dozen different coloured yarns, but they're also different plys! Some of the colours are only supplied in small amounts, so although, now on my third attempt of knitting this up (the pictures are of my second attempt!), I am doubling the yarn over to try and make the knit more even, I'm concerned I may end up running out of yarn long before the cardigan is finished! Luckily, the lovely woman who asked me to complete this is completely empathetic of the problems - she gave up because she found it too difficult to concentrate on the pattern, so she doesn't mind if I give up; she actually asked around some professional knitters, none of whom would touch it! My current attempt is a backward knit - I'm starting at the top of a sleeve at the moment, in order to work down to the more complicated pattern at the base, just to try and make myself feel a little more successful! I was doing really well until I dropped a stitch in the middle of a pattern and had to put it away before I cried... I am determined though, I have to at least finish the one sleeve to see if I can do it. I've had it since the start of the year though, so I'm still not wholly convinced...


A couple of things I have been able to complete just recently though are linked to some recent family news: at my birthday meal, my sister told me she is going to have a baby - I'm going to be an Aunty! A perfect excuse to use up all those odd balls of wall and 2ply mistakes I've acquired over the past few years! So far, I've knitted a hat and booties set in pale blue (it's a bit difficult to knit too much yet, as we don't know the sex), and a baby pouch, which I'm particularly proud of and am just waiting for some buttons to arrive in order to complete it... :)

Moth holes and Christmas balls...

Having discovered I was a knitter, one of my colleagues asked me to help restore a jumper of him, with particular sentimental value. He told me it had very large moth holes. I assumed he was exaggerating a bit and that it would be easy enough to repair...


That's just a part of the holes...

Anyway, I set to, back patching behind the larger, wider holes as it was the only way I could reconnect the tatters. Unfortunately, I didn't have an exact colour match, and my trip to the local wool shops wasn't anymore successful. Whether by design or wear and tear, the colour was most definitely a faded version of itself. So I combined a grey DK with a royal blue 2 ply to get the closest match I could. My first successful attempt at combining colours to create a new one (I got the idea from the Tanya Alpert book). Unfortunately, one hole fell in the middle of a colour strip that I couldn't match with anything, so I had to re-knit an entire strip and sew it over two areas to hide this.

My colleague repeatedly insisted that he was not worried about the final outcome and, although I'm happier with it than I expected it to be, I'm still not sure this is a good enough patch job. But I'm going to show it to him tomorrow to see what he thinks...


This weekend, I have mostly been infusing my old, battered Christmas baubles with new life by knitting each of them a kitsch 'Christmas jumper' to use up some of my scrap yarn...

To do list: update blog...

It isn't that I haven't been knitting since July. It's purely that I haven't kept up with the blogging. Until there's an 'app for that', I probably won't either...

Still, while I'm here, a few items that have been made recently:

When my Nan recently fell ill, I decided to make her a scarf out of the remaining bright pink wool she'd given me (see jumper below) to cheer her up. And I used my newly-learned skill of double crochet! If I could just start to understand the crochet patterns I like, I might be able to use this skill for more than straight lines one day... I used a pattern for a ruffle scarf from Lion Brand, which came out rather well. So well, in fact, that my mum asked for one too, so I've made her exactly the same thing for her birthday.

My friend Sandy is having a birthday party at a pretty expensive restaurant in London, so I have to confess, what with the thought of all the money I'm going to have to spend and the fact that I'm not really sure what she might want as a gift, I decided to make her something. Sandy's a photographer, and one of her most popular photos is of a sea turtle, hence the obvious choice:


Mind you, he's so cute, I'm tempted to keep him... No surprises there...!!

I had a job finding an actual sea turtle pattern, but I eventually used this one and adapted the colouring.

I'm sitting on about six unfinished projects, which I won't bore you with, and I've finished the first side of my brother-in-law's Christmas scarf (well, it was supposed to be his birthday present in October, but it's still in need of a 'back' to cover up all the loose threads...). I will try and update again soon... :)

Finally, I can tick this off the To-Do list...!

Puce it all up

This one has taken absolutely ages. Admittedly, I had other more interesting events happening in the meantime, like chatting up Strange men and finishing college for the year. And also the fact that I could not make head nor tail - or rather sleeve nor neckline - of the god-awful knitting instructions. When I finally almost worked it out, it then took more than 30 minutes to do a RS-WS round. I've watched a lot of episodes of Waiting for God on YouTube of late - in fact, after 20 of these rounds, I'm now up to Series 5 (including 2 Christmas specials!)! But I suppose, in the end, at least there is an end to it:



And, on the plus side, it does fit. Although I do resent having to knit the larger size with considerably more stitches these days. I think I finally understand why the fashion industry really uses stick women for models - not because they look tall and elegant in anything, but because they use up far less material and are therefore quicker to dress!!

So, after just over two months, I've used up most of the pink wool my Nan gave me for my birthday. I visited her this week. She gave me some peach wool... I know. Try finding something you can knit in peach...

Monkey do...

I know I've been a bit skimpy with my updates lately. I could provide lots of excuses, but it doesn't matter. The knitting has been continuing, however. I've been trying to complete the bright pink jumper using the wool Nan got me for my birthday and the pattern from Brave New Knits, but I'm currently working on the sleeves and the pattern is suddenly becoming very complicated. I'm trying to decide whether to try and decipher what it's going on about, or to improvise... Yes it will probably end badly...


Meantime, Darwin Davey himself is complete, as is the skull he's meant to be holding. The thing is, he's so cute, I'm not sure I want to limit him to a lifetime of contemplating a poorly knitted skull whilst sitting atop a pile of knitted books. I think I can finally understand why people like dressing up monkeys! I'm extremely tempted to knit him the entire back catalogue of Doctor Who outfits... for starters... So, for now, I've cheated by only safety pinning the skull to his paw and by sitting him on my iPad with the iBooks application open... It's close enough! In the modern sense.


For myself (as if Darwin Davey isn't for me!!? I mean clothes-wise...), in frustration at the number of times I was having to reread the Brave New Knits pattern, I moved on to a design of my own. Admittedly I'm using, for the basis, a pattern from Sensual Knits and it's my attempt to copy the top Eowyn wears in LotR: Return of the King, but giving it a modern twist. I've finished the back, and have just started the front. Complications will doubtless arise with the neck line, but I'm sure I'll work it out... eventually... I decided to do embroidery, rather than try and knit the pretty swirling patterns directly on to the top, as they turned out to be more complicated than my charting abilities could cope with...

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Monkey see...

Primate...

Monkey see, monkey do...

My dad's birthday has finally been and gone. I think he liked his gifts... Anyway, it's now time to return to my stuff. And, as usual, new projects have been taking precedent. I've started using the pink wool my Nan bought me for my birthday to knit a jumper from Brave New Knits. Most of the body is complete, but the sleeves are causing some difficulty, so I've put it down for a moment to return to an old idea...

In The Bag...

The gift bag is complete. Ignore the unplanned slant upwards to the left - it actually works quite well when being carried... ehem... I suspect the lining will actually fall to pieces in a very short time, as it's only old curtain lining, which was already fraying at the edges, but it should last at least for the birthday! I struggled initially on how to make the handle; I thought about using my new French knitter:

but the cord created was too thin, so it was going to take too long to get both the desired length and thickness. Then I considered using a square flower loom, but that made the knit too baggy. So down came the knitting machine again, and after much cursing and invoking of my late Nanna (cast-on and bind-off are still not happening!), I finished the handle by the end of NCIS!

So no more hand-creating things for my Dad's 60th! As soon as I've finished the final tie design (printed by an online company - I hope!) and the cake, and booked the table for dinner, it will all be over bar the partying... Yep, it's finally time to pick up all those old, abandoned projects... She says as she begins something completely new... Eek...!