The Adventures of the Blue-Green Skein

Once upon a time there was a beautiful skein of blue-green cobweb weight yarn. It was cunningly made from cashmere and silk, and was as cool and beautiful to the touch as it was to the eye:

It had come to live with a Keen Knitter, who stroked it lovingly and told it that she would make it into something wonderful, as it deserved.

First it had to be wound into a ball. This was not an easy matter: the silk fibres were very shy and nervous, and clung together until the whole skein was one tangled mess. Luckily the Keen Knitter had a friend who loved to turn worried skeins into smooth balls of yarn, and she worked at it gently over many hours until every last knot was undone, and the yarn was in balls and ready to be knitted.

The Keen Knitter wanted to choose a pattern that would suit the beautiful blue-green yarn, the colour of summer waves, so she found one which reminded her of the sea. She cast on, and concentrated very hard, but she made so many mistakes that she undid her work and sat, disheartened. She had never knitted with anything so fine and delicate before.

She wondered if that was the biggest problem. She hunted down a simple pattern that would allow her to get used to the fine strands before she tried to do anything clever with them, and this worked very well. As soon as she felt confident, she started to look for a more complex pattern.

As luck would have it, another kind friend of the Keen Knitter sent her a lovely pattern which she thought might be just right. It was designed to look like the leaves on the trees outside her window. It took a lot of concentration, and she worked very slowly, but at last she had done three complete repeats of the pattern.

But then disaster struck. Just as she put her needle into a stitch, the stitch snapped. A whole row of work unravelled before her eyes. She could have wept. All that effort, all that concentration - she was just not cut out for knitting with something this fine. She put the balls of yarn away, and picked up a sock instead....

Two days later, picking up a dropped stitch with a fine crochet hook, inspiration struck. Perhaps she could crochet with the blue-green yarn? It was far too beautiful just to sit at the bottom of her work bag. She pulled some yarn out and began to doodle with it.

It seemed to like the crochet hook. It seemed much more relaxed and the stitches were more even. She doodled and scrumbled until she had made a beautiful ruffled flower. Then she found a lovely pearl button for its centre, just as a nod to the sea-colour of the yarn. It was pretty, and soft, and it had worked.

So the Keen Knitter, who was also a Clever Crocheter, found another pattern for a shawl. This one was made with a crochet hook - and this one, she hoped, would get finished.

(As soon as I get Richard to take its photograph, the flower - and its pattern - will be appearing here!)

Christmas Presents

Yes, yes, I know - Christmas was nearly a month ago (where does the time go??), but I never blogged properly about my handmade Christmas. I did supply a couple of photos of projects in progress, but not a proper round-up.

I decided that my three carers, Jacky, Joan and Hayley, should have mitts. These would keep them warm and allow them to smoke, as they walk between clients, without taking their gloves off... I am an ex-smoker, and I know what it's like!

I used the excellent and very quick (3 hours per pair!) Ysolda Teague Garter Stitch Mitts pattern. They're constructed side-to-side, so I made them in Quaker rib for a little extra stretch (it's a mock rib for when you are working side-to-side: row 1 knit, row 2 purl, row 3 purl, row 4 knit.).

Joan got Stylecraft Baby Velvet chenille:

Hayley got Jarol Hyde Park DK:

and Jacky got purple Sirdar Denim Tweed DK:

...which I packaged up with something else, and they got left in the paper and thrown away.

Ho hum....

Richard's grandfather and my brother both got Moebius neckwarmers, one in Sirdar Denim Tweed DK held double:

and one using the reversible cables of the Palindrome scarf pattern by Kristin Bellehumeur. I made this one in Rowan Tapestry held together with some unlabelled cream acrylic:

The shading shows up well in this photo, but not the clever reversible cables. They're much more visible on the actual piece.

One of my friends loves turquoise, so she got the Storm Cloud Shawlette by Hanna Breetz, in a glorious, clear turquoise from Woolcraft New Fashion DK:

Mine was a little smaller than the original pattern, but it tucks in nicely under her coat collar!

For Mum I had a load of small presents, and her only handmade item was a washcloth - the Christmas Dishcloth by the talented Kristen Patay. Because it was in white, it didn't photograph well, but you can see the design clearly on the linked page.

Richard also got a stocking-stuffer washcloth - the Transformers cloth by Enid Danforth. He hasn't photographed this yet - so follow the link and imagine it in red :)

Finally I made two lined cotton handbags. For Richard's grandmother I made the Rowan International 2006/2007 members' kit, the Dolly Bag, in green Rowan Handknit Cotton:

It's meant to have bobbles, but I found them too hard to do in cotton, so I substituted eyelets! I lined it with Barefoot Roses fabric by Free Spirit at Get Knitted:

The second bag, for my dear friend Linda, was the Square Cake bag, a Knitty.com pattern from Jairlyn Mason. This was a repurposed bag kit: Rowan Handknit Cotton again, in shocking pink:

with vibrant matching Kaffe Fassett fabric to line it:

Everyone seemed to like what they got, and it was such good fun making them all. I got to try out several patterns I would probably not have made otherwise, as well as using up some of my stash. I'm already planning this Christmas - the carers are getting cowls, for a start. And Jacky's will be too big to get tangled up with the wrapping paper.....

Sock surgery

A couple of months ago, having discovered how comfy my Tiger socks were, I was pondering the ways I could fix some of my other socks, which were rather tight round the cast-on and didn't 'give' enough to fit my little fat legs. I tried unpicking one, to cast it off more loosely, but trying to unpick slightly-felted sock wool from the cast-on down, rather than the cast-off up, is something guaranteed to bring madness and bad language, so I abandoned that idea.

Next I tried simply cutting a chunk off, unravelling it, picking up the live stitches round the top of the sock and reworking the ribbing and cast-off. This worked pretty well, but I soon discovered that I am hopeless at cutting in a straight line, and thus wasted some yarn in little runs of stitches where the scissors had wavered. However, the principle was a sound one, and the re-knitting went smoothly. The socks were once more wearable, and it didn't take much time to do, either. Here they are before:

and after:

Quite a bit of yarn lost, but you can see how much floppier the tops are.

Next I dropped the slash-and-rip technique, and went for precision. I snipped one stitch in the row I wanted to start from, and carefully unpicked it all the way round to separate the top from the rest of the sock. This worked much better - much less loss of yarn, and a much quicker and tidier job. I went from these two:

to these:

I used this cast-off, which is stretchy to the point of ruffling, and so is ideal for uses like this where I really need them not to dig into my leg:

Slip first stitch of round onto a crochet hook. Hook round yarn, pull through. *Hook through next stitch, pull through. Pull this stitch through the first one on the hook. Hook round yarn, pull through. Rpt from * to end. Pull yarn all the way through the last stitch on the hook and sew in end.


You can adjust how often you hook though the yarn to make it more or less ruffled.

In future I shall use the garter-stitch cuff I used with the tiger socks, but I was pleased with how these turned out as a quick fix.

Of course, as it's me, there is a funny story attached. My tiger socks were on the drying rack, and the top pair of socks was on my over-bed table, one whole and one with the top removed, ready for picking up stitches. After my shower, I asked my carer to fetch the tiger socks from the rack. She brought them back and put them on me, and then fastened my slippers over them. I thought they felt odd, but it was first thing in the morning and I wasn't really with it.

I wore them till lunchtime, when I went back to bed, kicking off socks and slippers together as I climbed in. I couldn't find the pair I had been working on - and then I looked down. They were in my slippers, the half-sock trailing yarn halfway down the hall....

You can't get the staff, you know ;)

New Year, New Habit

Well, it's an old one, actually - trying to get into the routine of writing every week. It worked well before, until I had food poisoning and lost interest in everything except sleep, and it's time I did it again. I'll try to be here every Monday, even if I drivel on about nothing. ("How will we tell the difference?" you cry. Good point, Faithful Reader...)

We had a wonderful Christmas. Some Quakers don't celebrate Christmas, and some do so in quite a low-key way. I would say mine was pretty low-key, but we still have a tree, and decorations, and presents, and I always listen to the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's College, Cambridge.

This year it was on TV, so I got to use the subtitles for the words of the songs which were unfamiliar. No matter how wonderful the choir (and this choir was pretty wonderful), it's always easier to hear the words if you can see them in front of you!

They included one of my absolute favourites, "Three Kings from Persian Lands Afar", which I used to sing in the school choir, and T S Eliot's "Coming of the Magi". I love that poem, and it is always a part of my Christmas.

None of my family and friends wanted big presents this year. We all have so much, and we all decided to give just token gifts. Even so, I ended up with a considerable number of presents, all of which were things I wanted!

My knitterish presents were the latest Interweave Knits; some button blanks (you decorate them to match the project you're working on); some ceramic buttons with black and lavender designs on them; and three lots of yarn - two denim blue, one burgundy (both soft, squooshy, high-quality acrylic DK), and some navy Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora. Other than that I got some audio books, some real books, a DVD of Sir John Betjeman, a beautiful silver bookmark with a jointed teddy charm on it from my brother, some owl notecards, a gorgeous blank notebook, some smellies, some sweeties, a fabulous Archers Diary from my sister, and a beautiful dévoré wrap from Mum.

Oh, yes - and some knickers :)

(Actually, they were quite exciting too, because they were two sizes smaller than usual, and made me appreciate how much weight I've lost!)

We had a simple Christmas meal (lamb, mint jelly, mashed potatoes and cauliflower/broccoli cheese), at a time that suited us, and didn't have to answer to anyone else for how we spent the day. It was relaxing, celebratory and absolutely brilliant :)

I hope your Christmas was all you wanted it to be, and that you are excited by the prospect of a whole new year of knitting challenges. I'll be back next Monday - and I may even have some knitting content :)

A little present for my faithful readers!

I had a request today for the vintage pattern I used to make these cutie booties, back in May this year:

As it's out of print and out of copyright, I am happy to provide it below.

Happy Christmas :))

Vintage Booties

Originally published in Girl's Own, volume 2

UK: Use DK yarn and 3.75mm needles. (I used RYC Cashsoft DK.)

US: Use sport weight yarn and size 5 needles, or worsted-weight and size 6.

Not sure how much yarn – about 30g.

Centre pattern:
([sl1, k2tog, psso], K2, M1, K1, P1, K1, M1, K2 [sl1, k2tog, psso])

M1 = Make 1, or add one stitch, lots of ways to do this (probably easiest to Google them).

Seeded stocking stitch:
1: (K1, P1) to end
2: P
3: (P1, K1) to end
4: P

Slip-stitch rib:
(yarn forward, sl1 purlwise, K2tog) – repeat to end of row, every row

Cast on 53 sts


Short-row toe:
Rows 1 to 11: Knit
Row 12: K22, work centre pattern, turn
Row 13: P15, turn
Row 14: K1, centre pattern, K3, turn
Row 15: P17, turn
Row 16: K2, centre pattern, K4, turn
Row 17: P19, turn
Row 18: K3, centre pattern, K5, turn
Row 19: P21, turn
Row 20: K4, centre pattern, K6, turn
Row 21: P23, turn
Row 22: K5, centre pattern, K7, turn
Row 23: P25, turn
Row 24: K6, centre pattern, K14, turn
Row 25: P whole row
Row 26: K13, centre pattern, K13, turn
Row 27: P
Row 28: K12, centre pattern, K12, turn
Row 29: P
Row 30: K11, centre pattern, K11, turn
Row 31: P
Row 32: K10, centre pattern, K10, turn


Ankle separator:
Rows 33 to 35: K
Row 36: sl1, (YO, K2tog) to end
Rows 37 to 39: K

Calf:
Rows 40 to 55: Work seeded stocking stitch, increasing one stitch at each end of rows 46, 48, 50 and 52

Top:
Rows 56 and 57: K
Rows 58 to 68: Slip-stitch rib
Rows 69 and 70: P

Cast off (bind off) loosely, and sew up.

Crochet edging, UK version:
With 4mm hook, work (1ch, 1dc) into every other cast-off stitch right round. Slip-stitch into first ch to close round.

Next round: (ch3, 6 dtr, 1tr) into first ch-sp, 1dc into first dc of previous round, then [(1tr, 6dtr, 1tr) into every ch-sp of previous round, 1dc into every dc of previous round]. Slip stitch to 3rd ch of initial 3-ch to close round.


Crochet edging, US version:
With G-6 hook, work (1ch, 1sc) into every other bound-off stitch right round. Slip-stitch into first ch to close round.

Next round: ch3, 6 tr, 1dc into first ch-sp, 1sc into first sc of previous round, then [(1dc, 6tr, 1dc) into every ch-sp of previous round, 1sc into every sc of previous round]. Slip stitch to 3rd ch of initial 3-ch to close round.

Thread ribbon through eyelets.

Sticks, String and Stories

First of all, thank you so much to all the people who took the time to leave comments on Tigger's death. I have been overwhelmed by messages from all kinds of people, all over the world, via comment, email and phone. I never realised how many people understood how special Tigger was. I've never had another cat like him, and I don't suppose I ever will.

I am intensely grateful that we were with him, that he didn't suffer, and that he had spent his whole life being loved. He would throw himself at anyone who came in the door, absolutely confident that they would love him - and 99.99% of the time, they did. Even people who weren't keen on cats loved Tigger.

Chloe has coped very well with his loss, gradually blossoming into Sole Cat, and realising the advantages of not having to fight for attention, cuddles and first go at the breakfast. She has become noticeably more sociable and less wary of people, and has really helped us grieve.

The other things that have helped me - hence the title of this post - are knitting and reading. With that in mind, I present a meme, courtesy of Wibbo, which I just could not resist:

The Big Read meme

This meme is originally from the Big Read. Apparently they reckon most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.

Instructions:
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Underline those you intend to read. (I had to make them a different colour instead - no underline on Blogger!!)
3) Italicise the books you LOVE.
4) Post your list so we can try and track down these people who’ve only read 6 and force books upon them.

(I've also marked with an S the books I started and couldn't finish....)


1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - J D Salinger
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens S
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy S
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy S
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert S
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov S
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville S
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce S
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert S
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

So there you go - more than you ever wanted to know about my reading habits. If you like the look of it - consider yourself tagged!

Sad news

I'm afraid I have some sad news. I'm sorry to say that Tigger died today, very suddenly, from an embolism. The vet says there was nothing we could have done to prevent it, and nothing he could have done to treat him, although Tigger actually died in the car on the way there. It was very quick, and he hardly suffered.

We are both devastated, as you can imagine.

He was 11 years and a couple of months old, and we'd had him since he was a kitten. Everyone who came to the house (and a few who didn't!) knew Tigger, and everyone loved him. He had an amazing personality, and an ability to make friends with people, even those who weren't keen on cats.

If I had to choose between feeling like this now, and never having had him, I would choose feeling like this. He was a real one-off.

A Grand Day Out

On the Quaker Faith and Fellowship forum, where many of us are in less than tiptop health, we decided to have a day out today. Here is the account I posted of mine:


I had a fascinating day out today. I started off by scaling the heights of Waking Up. The tame mountain lions that roam Duvet Plateau both came to say good morning - until they realised there was food going on in Kitchen Gulch, and shot off down the track.

Well, I got my trusty Alpenstock and set out on the long trek to the caves at Shower Falls. It's a precarious path, and as always I was glad for my stick on one side and conveniently situated handrails on the other.

The trip to Shower Falls was refreshing, but tiring, and I was pleased to find myself a short stagger from there at Window View. You get the most beautiful view of a pair of growing oak trees, whose canopies have merged into one.... as well as the local wild dogs and marauding pygmies, a strange tribe called Grandchildren.

With great forethought, I had brought my knitting, so I could sit and appreciate the scene until my faithful Sherpa, Jacky the Carer, delivered my lunch (salad, yoghurt, fruit - all very healthy and full of energy for the long haul back).

After letting the picnic settle, I prepared for the trek back to Duvet Plateau and beyond. After a swift detour into the Shower Falls caves (to the amazing self-cleaning, self-replenishing porcelain chasm), I was ready for the journey home. The track seemed much steeper going this way, and took me much longer to climb. I was glad of the handrails and my stout stick. After what seemed like hours, I passed Kitchen Gulch on my left and knew I was halfway home. At last I glimpsed Duvet Plateau, and it gave me the little burst of energy I needed. I scrambled the last few steps to the plateau, and slid down the other side of it - into Bed Heaven.

It had been a long and tiring expedition, worth it for the memories of the trees, and the fresh air.

But it's a good job I live in a bungalow.


Tigger says: "I am mountain lion. Hear me roar...."

Lara cowl

Yes, folks, your eyes do not deceive you - two posts in one day!

I've had this design finished for about 3 years. I submitted it to a magazine, who held it for ages, then returned it to me looking as though it had been kicked around the office floor, so I've never submitted it anywhere else. I would like to add it to my designer page on Ravelry, and for that I need a URL (as it is unpublished in a book or magazine) - so here we go.

This was one of the first things I designed, and I love it. It's quick to make, very easy, light, warm, and even flatters a face deeply unsuited to hats - like mine :) It's called

Lara

Size
To fit an adult head. Circumference 70cm (28in), length 32cm (12.5in)

Materials
Colinette Silkychic (100% polyamide, 204m per 100g hank), 1 hank in 72 Tapis

(Unfortunately, this is now discontinued, but a fine mohair or eyelash yarn will be fine. Don't use too chunky and firm an eyelash yarn, or the lovely drape will be lost.)

5mm circular needle, 60cm length

Tension
17sts and 23 rows to 10cm using 5mm circular needles over stocking stitch. This is not as crucial as for some garments.

Pattern
Cast on 120 stitches, loosely. Join cast-on row to form a circular piece of knitting. Continue to knit round and round until you have about 280cm (112in) of yarn left.

Cast off loosely and sew in ends.

Drop the tube down over your head. Pull the top edge (at the back of your neck) up and over your head, and pose mysteriously like Lara in ‘Dr Zhivago’...

(Copyright Heather Cawte 2005)

Tigger says: "I see you're coming round to the idea of fur, then."

My life as a Maraca

Well, I knew it was going to happen. I have extra meds. I couldn't get diagnosed with diabetes and be left as I was. Yes, folks - in addition to everything else, I now have diabetes!

It wasn't too big a shock, really. There's a history of mature-onset diabetes in the family, and the docs have been testing me for it for ages.

One big phew - I do not have to give myself injections! Hurray!! I do have quite a good pile to add to the things I'm already taking, though.

I'd been having blood test after blood test, and I was getting quite fed up that I wasn't hearing what any of the results were, or why they were being taken. I finally ended up pouring my heart out to the nurse who came recently for yet more blood, and she said she'd ask my GP (local family doctor, for non-UK readers).

Sure enough, I got an unexpected visit from my GP the next day, to tell me all about my results. Firstly, I have a folic acid deficit (insufficient greens!), so I got a supplement for that. Apparently it has the effect of a type of anaemia if not corrected. I have since added broccoli to my salads...

My cholesterol was slightly up, so, given the family history of heart attacks and strokes, he wanted to clamp down on it - another tablet.

Then he wanted me to take a preventative aspirin once a day.

And finally, he wanted to start me on tablets, as well as a healthy eating plan, for my diabetes, to really attack it and keep it down to a good level. The latest thinking is that the younger the onset, the quicker you should start on the tablets, to avoid complications later. I had to build up to 4 tablets a day - but they have a relatively common side-effect of diarrhoea!! Luckily I seem to have been OK; I'm up to 3 a day now, with no unfortunate occurrences ;)

I had to type up an updated copy of all the meds I take, for my client file at the care company, and I was amazed at the totals once I added them up:

Breakfast: 3 inhalers, 14 tablets
After breakfast: 3 tablets
Lunchtime: 2 inhalers, 3 tablets
Dinnertime: 2 inhalers, 10 tablets
After dinner: 2 tablets

Bedtime: 2 inhalers, 12 tablets

Hence the title of the post....

And now you see why, despite its faults, I am daily thankful for the National Health Service. I could never afford all those on co-pay :(

Tigger says: "Just as long as you don't give any to me...."