Casting on in Chelsea

I decided recently that it was time to admit that my stubbornness in trying to learn new techniques was not working for cast-on strategies, and off I went for my first knitting class ever.


What a great afternoon I had. Alice of Socktopus was unfailingly patient with my apparent inability to tell my right from my left, or my working yarn from the yarn tail, and soon had me producing loop cast on, long tail, variations to both, Channel Island, crochet provision, tubular (both 2 strand [German] and provisional cast on method), and star cast on (my favourite). Hoping Alice doesn't mind, I've copied here the exact names from the Socktopus site as I'm still playing with my edges and studying my notes, which have slightly less orthodox instructions, including the intriguing annotation 'pick up Australian cousins here'.


My finished edges resemble wobbly worms; Alice's smooth green edge variations are the real thing. I aspire to such neatness.

Adding to the pleasure of the afternoon was of course a fair amount of yarn squidging, especially in the ongoing quest for a particular acidic shade of green. Alice had several suggestions, and also showed me her new Kilcarra Donegal Tweed shade cards. I cannot get the beautiful pinks, greys, blues and greens out of my head. While waiting for the Donegal Tweed shades to hit London, instead I succumbed to some colours from Wales.


Flimstone Bay by Cariad Yarns in Enchanted (above) and Electra (below).
Mmm.

Adaptability Saturday

Glorious sunshine outdoors, a sunny kitchen indoors and no work. Almost perfection. A day for adapting things.

First there was a cake recipe that ended up as Chocolate and Crystallised Ginger Cake, followed by a sweater pattern adapted to experiment with some Rowanspun DK in Goblin, shade 736. I fear I may not have enough wool to make the hoped-for item so I won't jinx it by naming the garment just yet. What a shame this yarn was discontinued. Maybe I'll stumble across some more as if by magic. It has been known.




A jockey wearing green won the Grand National this afternoon so my knitting adaptation is at least topical.

Swamp Thing Socks

I love these socks. Everything about them is happy. From easyknitter's yarn stall at IKnit 2007 with free gingerbread men giveaways to the great colourway name and the way in which the pattern provides lots of toe wiggling room, every aspect was straightforward, generous, and did what it said on the tin.

I have only very recently come to sock knitting. One of these socks was the first sock I ever made. I like being a swamp thing while wearing them. They are perfect for stubbed-toe recuperation.

Pattern: A Pair of Socks (ravelry link) by Ann Budd
Yarn: Easy Knits Blue-Faced Leicester; 1 skein, 100g, 330.0 yards (301.8m)
Colourway: Swamp Thing

Needles: 3.25 mm

Treasure Trove

I was once working on a photography shoot with Axel Russmeyer, a German jewellery designer who used minute beads to create beautiful larger beads. I coveted with all my heart just one bead but couldn't afford one then, and certainly couldn't afford one now. This necklace was recently on sale for $3,995. I hope he won't mind me mentioning that he told me a treasure trove tale that has stayed with me, in the hope that one day I too might stumble upon a similar find.

Axel was researching the art of Venetian glass bead production, and visited a very old, traditional glass factory in the Venice region. At the very back of the most neglected part of the factory he came across a box, covered in thick dust. Upon opening it he found that it contained hundreds of minuscule antique beads, each one the size of a large pin head and of a type no longer manufactured. It was a design using some of these beads that I covet still.

I have several treasure-trove wishes, including finding a portfolio - or even just a single one - of an original Tintin drawing by Herge, or a stash of pure linen sheets in their original 1930s paper and ribbon wrappings, or perhaps a pile of beautiful vintage knitting patterns from the 1950s back. The ultimate trove would be a house or shop sealed and left untouched for several years full of the original contents. I suppose that is why this news piece grabbed my attention recently.

A couple of treasure-trove experiences have come my way over time. When I was 10 my best friend showed me a warren of tunnels beneath her family's house. This had been used as an air raid shelter during the war and had been left virtually untouched ever since. There were toys, books and furniture left scattered around from the last time people had taken refuge down there. Last year my elderly neighbour, an elegantly dressed woman in her 90s, had a fall and alerted me by banging hard on the floor until I heard her. After she came out of hospital I went up to visit and for the first time saw inside her flat. It was a time capsule of 1930s decor, furniture and Clarice Cliff pottery, unchanged at her own request since she had first moved in. The kitchen was fitted with the original mass of tiny larder cupboards, a wooden draining board and large butler's-style sink. The only nod to modern living was a 1960s cooker and slightly younger fridge.

Last summer in Oxfordshire I was led through a half-concealed wooden door into an abandoned walled orchard. The tree branches were full of apples, no longer picked, and the grass and wildflowers reached halfway up the tree trunks. We shouldn't really have been there, but I went exploring all the same. It was too much of a secret garden not to.

Yesterday I came across a mini-trove. I was browsing in a charity shop and spotted a squashed assortment of yarny things in a tatty plastic bag. It turned out that there was another bag down in the store room, and I made an offer for both. The woman in the shop wanted to know if the wool would be going to a good home. I assured her it was.



Inside, along with some rather strange acrylicky things which will go back to charity, was a miniature treasure trove:


2 balls of Kidsilk Haze, in Candy Girl and Jelly



3 balls of Jaeger Matchmaker DK in Teal



some more Jaeger Matchmaker DK in shades of green and blue that someone has started to knit together and then abandoned. I could have told the poor person that there are easier ways to create a variegated effect, so if he or she ever sees this and would like their wool back to make something else, do get in touch.



1 ball of Jaeger pure alpaca 4 ply in Ice



2 balls pure cotton 4 ply from Slovakia



2 balls Wendy Cotton Aran


However, if this wasn't enough, there was what seems to be a vintage element to the trove:





Altogether there are 235 grams of this 2 ply. I've tried researching Rivermist and the Waterfall Spinning Company but can find no sign of it currently in production.

As well as the two shades of cream 2 ply, there was also this:



Lots of smaller skeins in beautiful shades. Or so I thought. It turns out there's a slight drawback:



The coloured 2 ply has been cut into short lengths. Any ideas what to do with this, apart from very fiddly fair isle, or embroidery (which is not really my thing)?

There was one last item in the tangle of yarn. Tucked deep inside was a tiny tool, a bit like a fairy's crochet hook, with a normal-size handle.





I am ignorant about many needlework and hooked crafts so any clues as to what this might be used for are very welcome. Crochet for people who really like a challenge? Tatting?

If anyone would like the miniature hook, or indeed any of the bright yellow silky mohair also in the package but which I haven't shown here, or some of the short lengths of coloured 2 ply botany, do let me know. Unusual swaps or ordinary ones considered. The hook, well, that can just go to a good home.

I should mention that I wasn't meant to buy any wool yesterday. I had actually gone out to buy a toilet seat, but, hey, this haul is a lot nicer to stroke (unless you are very, very weird).

Secret Garden Harris Tweed Socks

Pattern: Harris Tweed Socks by Put A Sock In It
Needles: 3 mm
Yarn: Skein Queen Plushness
Colourway: Secret Garden; 1 skein
Composition:80% lambswool, 10% angora, 10% cashmere
Weight: DK Light - sock weight; 100g, c 300 yards

I've mentioned this yarn and the heel of this sock before. Both socks are now ready for public viewing. I used the pattern as written, apart from the toe. Instead of the suggested wedge-shaped toe, I substituted the Star Toe of Three Points from Knitting Vintage Socks.

Moneypenny Socks

Socks on a Saturday.

Pattern: Charade
Yarn: Skein Queen, Moneypenny (custom dyed); 1 skein
The name, well, it's a long story. Skein Queen and I know how it came about. Daniel Craig, hold on to your hat...

Vintage scarf

Being blocked...

I know this has already appeared on ravelry, but it is one of those projects that became addictive and which lingered in the mind as it raced off the needles.

A 70th birthday present for someone I've known most of my life, it was a gamble in case purple was not a favourite colour and lace a disliked texture. However, it went down well, which is not so surprising as the yarn is a fantastic mixture of silk and cashmere.

I chose an original pattern from, I think, the 1930s. I have a large collection of vintage patterns, waiting to be used and adapted for modern life. This one required no adaptation, just blocking and wondering if it might have been published the year its recipient was born. That would have been a neat coincidence indeed.

The yarn came as a transatlantic gift of great generosity, delivered one rainy Sunday afternoon to me, a complete stranger except for some emails. We should have been out looking at pelicans in St James's Park but instead talked about knitting and New England over a cup of English tea.

Yarn: Jade Sapphire Cashmere-Silk 2-ply, vintage rose colourway (perhaps); 1 skein

Needles: 3.0 mm
Adapted from ‘Two-Colour Scarf’ in vintage "2 oz Woollie Book", cost 1 shilling, Weldon’s leaflet no. 364, probably 1930s.

If you aren't on ravelry and would like the pattern instructions, do let me know. I'm sure copyright has now lapsed.

The Glue That Sticks

If, unavoidably, this is what Sunday afternoon holds, in spite of the wonderful Indian Summer sunshine outdoors,


and you would much rather be making something with this

(Fleece Artist DK Organic Wool in Sugar Plum)

or with this

(Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 sock yarn in Ruby Red)

then I strongly recommend listening to The South African Gospel Singers and the sounds of Pinise Saul, Lucky Ranku and colleagues. They provide just the right mixture of enthusiasm, poignancy and addictive rhythm to glue me to the desk when I'd rather be dabbling with wool.

The wool is from yesterday's Open House Knitting Tea Party held most graciously by Purlescence. There were cakes and wool and buttons.

Autumn Sock Club - First Arrival

What an excellent thing to come home to one evening, courtesy of the postman and the Skein Queen.

This is the first instalment of the SQ Autumn Sock Club. Such soft sock yarn, this is Plushness in a summery, anti-autumn colourway. Very clever. Paradoxical yarn naming.

Yarn: Skein Queen Plushness
Colourway: Secret Garden
Composition:80% lambswool, 10% angora, 10% cashmere
Weight: DK Light - sock weight; 100g, c 300 yards

Now to decide what to make with it.

All done bar the Kitchener

Fascine Braid sock in progress, originally uploaded by GreenPea6.

Please can someone teach me to do Kitchener stitch?

This Fascine Braid sock is all finished apart from grafting the toe. I've tried following every video and every book diagram and still I end up with a lumpy, entirely visible join. It has occurred to me that I may have diagram-lexia. Perhaps I will simply invent a new method entirely for finishing toes. Alternatively I may start a fashion for open-toed socks.

• Yarn: 100% merino wool Laine Claude, "Penelope" colourway, by Tricoquelicot; 1 skein (100g = c 430 yards)
  
• Needles: 3.00 mm (I use magic loop so circular, but Tiennie's pattern is for DPNs)

This yarn from Japan is wonderfully squishy (such a good technical term).

Autumn is creeping in

lazy Sunday, originally uploaded by GreenPea6.

The first conkers are falling and my love of Rowanspun is not abating. More of this yarn is needed. I have heard of a secret stash of it that might be for sale and am remaining patient in the hope of finding some of the colours I am still searching for, the brighter shades of green, blue, red.