March 2013 – Alice in Knittingland

A new skill… almost

Posted on March 30, 2013 by Alice Neal

Well, Easter is upon us and it’s time to get together with family. Fortunately for me, that means spending time with my fabulous mother-in-law, whose yarn skills leave me in awe. Since I’m off to stay with her and don’t want to fill the entire car with my works in progress, I have started something new. (Don’t tell Bertie, because it’s not the crocodile… that’s next – promise) I spent much of my free time yesterday looking at broomstick lace crochet, found a tutorial and tried to follow it, worked out too late that it was written for left-handed people, and gave up. That’s for another day.

But on my travels I came across somebody called Luz, who has a facebook page, blog and Etsy shop. I splashed out on her pattern – this one here. It makes this beautiful cowl. (Go and check her out – she has some truly beautiful things).

I have some yarn for it already, and thought I could give it a go whilst staying in the rural wilds of Norfolk.

Thing is, my youngest decided to throw himself at the wall earlier on – he is a terribly fearless and intrepid two year old, the like of which none of his four older brothers has been – and is sporting an egg on his forehead bigger than any I have ever seen in my 13 years as a mother. So he couldn’t be left alone. So I kept him company and picked up the crochet.

This is where I’ve got to.

I’m clearly going wrong somewhere, and it probably has something to do with the acronyms bpsc and fpsc, which I guessed at rather than looking up and have therefore not got anything like the definition she has. I’ll look them up for my next attempt, but I’ve come too far to go back now! 😉

And I love it. It’s more complicated and beautiful than anything I’ve attempted in crochet so far, so I’m really looking forward to the finished product and incorporating the pattern into something else, too.

Right. See you the other side of Easter. Have a lovely week wherever you are… 🙂

Sewing – a break from the yarn

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Alice Neal

A bit of a stray off the yarn route today:

It started with a request. Well, the request was actually made last night, but became a job for today. Allow me to explain.

My youngest son (2 1/2) has a ‘nuggie’. It started life as a cot-sized fleecy blanket, without which he would not sleep (so we bought two more, just in case in case!) It was so soft and snuggly that we called it his ‘snuggler’, which of course he could not say. So it has become a ‘nuggie’. Last night, as he was getting ready for bed, and watching his baby brother’s routine, the middle of my boys (nearly 9) was lamenting his lack of nuggie. I had a flash of inspiration. A while ago, in our local supermarket, they had a promotion and were selling fleece blankets for a song. I mean, almost literally a song. Something inconceivably crazy like £2 each. Being a sucker for 1) a bargain and 2) snuggliness, I couldn’t resist and bought a few, intending to give them to my boys at Christmas, with an initial stitched onto each.

I forgot.

So, when I say I had a flash of ‘inspiration’, I guess what I really mean is I had a jogged memory 😉

I told him about them and asked if he’d like one. He was instantly enthusiastic. Which, in his case, means leaping-up-and-down-can-I-have-it-now enthusiastic. And the sound of his enthusiasm was enough to draw his oldest brother (13) away from his computer programming to see what all the fuss was about. So it wasn’t long before “Can I have one too?” was uttered. Now, since they’re all the same colour, I’m just going to have to personalise them. And since I don’t have much time today, it’s going to have to be a little ‘initial’ job…

That was my job for today. And it’s the kind of job I love because it means having to make something. Aw shucks. I’ve just got to make these, because they’ll make the boys happy. They’ve asked me to. A chance to indulge myself with playing, and make them happy at the same time. Win, win 🙂

I’m from the ‘raw edge’ school of applique; not just because of time constraints, but also because I like the almost instantly aged, loved and lived-in look of it. So that made today’s task even easier. I know I’ve mentioned, on my about page, my mother-in-law‘s incredibly generous gift of two large sacks of yarn, but I haven’t yet mentioned that the last time she visited, she brought a fair bit of fabric with her, too. So the patches you see are made with some of that beautiful material. Once finished, I deposited each on its corresponding bed and got on with the rest of my day.

Which was rather taken up with Beard Oil – we’ve had a bit of a run on since we introduced the sample bottles. Busy busy, mustn’t grumble! (or Mustard Crumble as we have, probably rather irritatingly, started to say) 😉

And then I returned from posting the orders to find my sons home from school, new blankets tied around their necks, superheroes all.

*chortle*

A hit, then.

I’m still plugging away with little Alice’s jacket on which, hopefully, I’ll have some progress to show soon.

For now, though – the holidays are here! No more school for 2 weeks. I love the holidays 🙂

Frustrations and Playing

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Alice Neal

To continue where I left off yesterday, whilst my fabulous man was preparing a scrumptious chicken chasseur last night, and with all my littlies tucked up in bed or otherwise occupied, I decided to try my hand at spinning.

I settled down with my spindle, bag of fleece and YouTube and I believe I made two fatal errors, both of which result from my usual modus operandi of going off half-cocked, full of enthusiasm and without the requisite knowledge: 1) I assumed that the fleece I had bought had already been carded. And 2) I didn’t realise you could get more than one standard spindle size.

So, 1) It hadn’t, and was a pig to try to spin, and 2) You can, and mine, it turns out after just a few minutes’ research on YouTube, is too small. That is, it is made of pine and barely 3″ diameter, when, it would seem, at least 4″ and hardwood gives you the weight you need to keep it spinning. To add insult to injury, the carders I acquired with my spinning wheel have not been used in a very long time and are consequently a little rusty / dirty with the result that they turn my once white fleecy wool a less fetching russet. Harumph. If anybody reading this has first-hand experience of such things and feels like sharing their wisdom, you’ll find a most grateful recipient!

In not too very long, I hope, I shall be receiving the wool from the black sheep, which will mean I can card it without any real change in colour, and I will order a larger spindle. Incidentally, whilst perusing eBay for said larger spindle, I found a listing for some Roman spindle whorls, carved from black rock. Now wouldn’t that be a thing of beauty – dated around 100-200 BC… Food for thought…

I gave up on the spinning and sat twiddling my thumbs for a moment, wondering which of my many WIPs to pick up. None of them enthused me, and I didn’t fancy starting the crocodile just before supper. Then I stumbled across one of the first neckwarmers I ever knitted. I never wear it because I made it too narrow. And since I first knitted it, I have begun to crochet, and seen half a million totally inspiring fusions of the two methods, so I decided to pick a few chunky yarns I had lying around and play a little. Below, you can see what happened, and you can make out, I think, the original chunky rib knitted in a heavy multi-coloured (flecked) yarn:

Knit / Crochet fusion neckwarmer — Knit / crochet fusion neckwarmer

I haven’t taken it off since, except to bathe and sleep 🙂 It has also inspired me to look into knitting or crocheting a sweater with a neck similar to this one (I love my polo necks and this winter seems to have gone on forever. It is snowing as I type and nearly Easter!) I’ve seen a few patterns which are knitted from the neck down, which I find quite an intriguing and challenging idea, since I’ve only ever tried garments using the ‘make-this-bit-and-add-it-to-this-bit’ method. I’d love to hear from anybody who’s tried it, or feels like sharing any links to patterns. 🙂

As I mentioned, the snow has not stopped, and I am grateful to have a large drawstring bag stuffed with hats and neckwarmers I’ve knitted the past few winters. Here is my number 4, complete with infectious toothy grin (that one at the front is about to fall out) and a hat I began by knitting for myself, gave to my youngest, who refused to wear it, and that has now been appropriated by this one:

But most of today has been taken up with Norfolk Beard Oil – packing and posting new orders. We’ve just released sample bottles, which are proving rather popular. “Try before you buy”… If you have a hairy man in your life, you might just want to take a look 🙂

I guess I have to hope for more crafting tomorrow, if the laundry permits…

Hexagons and Spindles…

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Alice Neal

This week, I am determined to advance some of the projects I already have on the go. I am itching to start several other things, but I must exercise some self-discipline or my house will be taken over in the messiest and least intentional yarn-bomb catastrophe known to man (or woman, for that matter).

So, with that in mind, I went back to my hexagon blanket today. I’m using Rowan’s Kaffe Fassett Colourscape: a gorgeous woollen yarn whose colours melt effortlessly into one another. All the hexagons below are from the same skein. I have already got 30 made, and some already joined up, but I decided I needed a more methodical approach. So my mission today was to edge all the motifs I already have:

But then I got bored. I’d edged maybe five or six, so I decided to join them to the piece I already had. I now have around 17 joined together and I totally love the look (though it needs blocking, the ends weaving in etc) and working with it in this unseasonally snowy weather was lovely and snuggly warm, too.

The hexagonal story so far, with, in the background, my toddler whose favourite place is on top of the coffee table 🙂

The post brought a rather exciting parcel, too… My spindle! I now have some fibre (and more on the way), a spindle, YouTube and am just waiting till all my little darlings are in bed, my lovely man cooking – how glad am I that he’s in the kitchen tonight!? – and I’ll give it a whirl. (No pun intended) 🙂

And finally, my little number four son, aged 6, has been suffering from a lack of attention lately. It’s tough being number four of five. Actually, it’s tricky getting enough attention being any one of five (and I speak from experience) especially when you have a mother who is constantly buried under a mountain of yarn, and is off in a world of ‘what shall I make next’…?

I had a rare insight into his world outside home yesterday, when his teacher told me how proud he is to come to school in something I’ve made for him. I do sometimes worry about the potential therapy sessions when they’re grown up and have left home: “All the other kids had this really cool kit, but my mum made me wear all this homemade stuff…!” After all, I’m not sure my 13 year old would be remotely happy about leaving the house in something I’d knitted 😉

So I’m off to spend some time with my little fella, and I’ve promised him that the very next project I start will be a knitted crocodile for him.

Progress and Experimentation

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Alice Neal

I had the chance to catch up a bit with weaving ends and attaching squares to my granny square waistcoat this weekend. This is what it looks like now:

As you can see, I have made two ‘granny triangles’ to shape the top of the front a bit and it now meets around me, though I’m going to crochet a border around the whole thing when it’s finished, so meeting at the front isn’t too necessary.

I’ve had a couple of flashes of potential inspiration, too. Around the bottom of this completed part, I’m going to crochet the little squares you can see in the top picture, along with some the same size in a different colourway. This will form a sort of empire line belt. Then, below that ‘belt’, I’m going to add some squares I’ve already made in said different colourway, along with a couple of triangles at strategic points at the back, to make the ‘skirt’ of the waistcoat a little fuller. Does that make sense? It makes perfect sense in my head, but is quite possibly gobbledigook in the explaining… 😉

The baby jacket is coming on, too. I have just finished the front right, and am onto the hood on that side.

I have long hankered after those cute little stitch markers and finally got around to ordering some. As you can see, I used the old ‘tie a bit of old yarn around the stitch’ on the back of the jacket, but by the time I had started the right front, the markers had arrived. They are just the cutest little things – like teeny tiny nappy pins – and have brought me disproportionate pleasure 🙂

And we’ve been painting eggs for a school competition. That is, I haven’t painted them at all, but three of my boys have. With… ahem… interesting and varied results 😉

The one on the right, as you may well be able to tell, is a robot. The one on the left, I am reliably informed, is a Ninja… You can see it, can’t you? Go on… squint a bit… a bit more… and a leeeeeeeeeeetle bit more… see it now?

No. Thought not. 🙂

Spindles and Looking Glasses

Posted on March 23, 2013 by Alice Neal

So I’ve picked up my spinning wheel. It is a thing of beauty!

I haven’t a clue how it works, as I have mentioned before, nor even if it has all its requisite parts. So this morning, before dragging my bones out of bed to cook brunch for a million small people (and two big ones), I looked on YouTube to see if I could shed any light on the situation.

I didn’t get further than this (a fabulous lady who goes by the name of Biddypunk on Tumblr too, and who I follow for her fibre adventures):

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zfPKLpL0TQ]

from which I learned that I didn’t need the spinning wheel at all!

So, I’ve bought one of these on eBay:

Now, instead of picturing a rather haggard mother-of-five trudging her way steadily forwards on the treadmill of packed lunches, homework, nappies, laundry, cooking and trying to remember if she brushed her hair this morning, I can imagine myself like this:

I promptly bought myself a kilo of black sheep wool (which tickles me… the Black Sheep part, for reasons I’d better not share 😉 ) and am waiting for spindle and fleece to arrive so that I can get cracking with it.

There are also videos a-plenty on YouTube for advice on how to wash fleece without turning it into a great big lump of felt. Felting is all well and good, but better when it was intended – I speak from experience (though I have always made good use of his shrunken jumpers afterwards… shhhh!)

This morning, the postman’s knock at the door bore my copy of Alice in Wonderland for turning into an English Patient-type journal. At first, I was concerned it was too big – there had been no dimensions in the listing and it is a large copy. But as my lovely other half pointed out, we are not world travellers, so lugging it around isn’t going to be too much of an issue. And the really really good news is that it is just beautiful.

So I am champing at the bit to get started on that, too.

This afternoon, though, I have finally completed the crocheting together of the top of my granny square waistcoat. Which will probably be more of a long, sleeveless coat, but let’s not fret about names 🙂

I took some photos in the mirror, as I always think these things look more real when they’re on a body, rather than lying on a table or floor, but… I’ll try to upload them tomorrow, and get better pictures when it’s nearing completion. Don’t watch this space. And certainly don’t hold your breath – you’ll turn blue! This is a lengthy process.

Off to cook supper.

Toodle-pip

Old films and new spinning wheels…

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Alice Neal

I had a lovely afternoon yesterday. My man and my youngest babe are both poorly, so we all snuggled up on the sofa – well, the littl’un snuggled into his daddy and went to sleep – and I spent a very happy couple of hours crocheting and watching the English Patient. The top of my granny square waistcoat is now in one piece, though I have discovered I need four more squares to make it meet at the front. In other words, I went from making it for a giant to making it for a supermodel. I’m neither. Oops. 🙂

One of the upshots of watching the English Patient was observing Ralph Fiennes’ character – Count Almasy – and his notebook/journal. What we realised is that it was a copy of Herodotus into which he had stuck his memories, sketches, observations… What a fabulous idea! I have ordered an old, hardback copy of Alice in Wonderland and am going to do the self-same thing.

Count Almasy's JournalThe English Patient — Count Almasy’s Journal
The English Patient

But then, cruising Tumblr this morning, I came across this rather synchronous and totally beautiful thing:

Isn’t it dreamy? So I’ve decided to make one of those rough, thick-papered notebooks and am determined to master the rather more intricate of lace patterns, .which I have so far avoided as too difficult and fiddly. 🙂 At some point…

And today I drove to a gorgeous farmhouse the other side of Durham and picked up my spinning wheel!! Here is a not-very-good picture of it:

I have no idea if or how it works, but plan to do some research this weekend and see if I can make head or tail of it. I haven’t the first clue about spinning, other than to be careful not to prick my finger in case I need a big kiss from a handsome prince in a century’s time… (Though, frankly, I could do with the sleep)… It came with these two carders and these books, but is missing its manual, which the lady selling it to me has promised to post on, should it resurface:

So, I have a voyage of discovery to embark upon this weekend.

And a letter home saying my 6-year old needs to bring a decorated egg into school by Monday. So he and I will be busy, too.

Happy weekend, all! x

Squares and Hearts and…

Posted on March 21, 2013 by Alice Neal

It may not surprise you enormously, even at this early stage, to hear that there is another blanket in the works that I haven’t mentioned yet 🙂 It is also of the granny square variety, but using a much heavier weight yarn than the waistcoat. This yarn is Sublime chunky merino tweed – 80% merino wool.

It’ll be much quicker to make a blanket with this, given the difference in size. I took a picture of the two types of square it feels like I’m mass-producing at the moment:

which, since it takes roughly the same amount of time to make them (15-20 mins depending on the number of children at home and the number of interruptions from start to finish), illustrates the point doesn’t it?

I embellished another little hat when I went to bed last night. I love these little crochet hearts. I found them while cruising for crochet on Pinterest, and it’s only fair that I share the tutorial here.

My baby jacket is coming on quickly, in spite of the near disaster it encountered yesterday. My unsupervised toddler managed in the few moments I was out of the room, to remove the needles. Suppressing the inclination to flap and panic, I threaded each stitch back onto the needle as slowly and calmly as possible. Note to self: never leave littl’un and work-in-progress alone in the same room 🙂

I have some birthday cards to make and have found another fabulous use for those hearts

In other news, Norfolk Beard Oil co-founder, Marek Duchnowski has been bigging up my chunky-rib masculine Rowan Big Wool neckwarmers as his neckwear of choice:

But perhaps most excitingly of all…. Tomorrow I pick up my spinning wheel!! Hard to express quite how excited I am 😉

TTFN

When Life Gets in the Way…

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Alice Neal

… crochet!

Ooh! My new mantra!

I have a poorly man and a poorly youngest babe, so there is no out-and-abouting today. On the downside, I can’t go and collect my spinning wheel, which has had to be put off till later in the week, but on the upside, I’ve been working on my mother-in-law’s blog, and had the chance to do a bit more crochet. I’ve finally crocheted enough granny squares to complete the top of my long vest (a WIP – work in progress). I have this vision of what it’s going to look like. I even have a pattern, but I find myself in the small hours of the morning planning modifications, improvements, using things I’ve picked up on Pinterest, Crochet Me, Ravelry and all sorts of other places to make it ‘better’. I have a suspicion it will look nothing like the original when it’s done. I hope I love it as much as I plan to as it’s a lot of work 🙂 Next stage is weaving in all the ends and crocheting it all in place. Then I need to start on the ‘skirt’ of the waistcoat. My vision has it as a kind of empire line affair, with some knitted godets, or maybe granny triangles providing some shaping, but… We’ll see…

I’m also hoping to get back to my crocheted hexagon blanket, but not finding enough hours in the day. So, I needed something quick and simple, which would give me speedy results and help maintain my creative enthusiasm. I chose a little pink jacket I’ve promised to a friend for her new baby (who, rather happily coincidentally, shares my name). I’m knitting it from a very simple pattern I bought yonks ago and discovered in a pile of unfiled papers recently, and using Sirdar Balmoral yarn, which is wool, silk and alpaca and beautifully soft, in a lovely baby pink, but not too pale. I love it. This kind of thing is so quick and satisfying to do, and I have plans for some embroidery on the front, though my vision may exceed my capability… Again, we shall see. 🙂

And I finished a jingly pixie hat for my toddler’s little cousin, embellishing it with a tinkling bell and a crochet heart, which I hope is not too girly for a little boy… This is knitted with Araucania pure cotton, a very unevenly spun yarn which I love – it gives such a gorgeous homemade look. The heart is crocheted with Louisa Harding Ianthe – 50% merino 50% cotton (the same yarn as my granny square waistcoat). I confess to much preferring natural yarns to anything manmade, though it does tend to stretch the purse a bit more.

Ooh, ooh! And in other news, though I haven’t yet collected the spinning wheel, this morning a very exciting package arrived all the way from Bulgaria – some wool! This is a totally new experience for me, I’ve done absolutely no research whatever 🙂 and my mother-in-law has promised me a book on natural dyes… Gulp. Watch this space!

Here… We… Go…!

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Alice Neal

My mother-in-law and I are embarking on a voyage of yarnie blogdom…

She, Susan Campbell, is an enormously accomplished knitter, designer, artist of many years standing, and I am a relative ingenu.

She plans to pass on her pearls of wisdom to me, since I am in awe and unbridled envy of her skill and accomplishment, and love nothing more than to spend the day knitting, crocheting, sewing… Life gets in the way a little too much for my liking, though 😉

Knitting, for me, began when I was 10 and my grandmother taught me the basics. She took me to a little shop in Weybridge, Surrey, where we chose a pattern and some blue, fluffy yarn and I promised her faithfully that I would finish it. A short while ago I came across a bag with the completed front in it, some 30 years later, and felt a pang of guilt.

Then, enter my mother-in-law. She got me going again. She, like my grandmother, took me to a shop – this time in King’s Lynn, Norfolk – and we chose some cream-coloured yarn. She taught me to follow a pattern again, and I made a tea-cozy. Which struck me as rather hat-shaped. So I recreated it without the holes for handle and spout, and put a little sprout on the top, and started knitting hats, for babies, for my family, for friends, and for sale.

It’s a short step from there to attempting larger projects, though I became side-tracked by crochet along the way…

So now, I have half a million projects on the go. I have nearly finished a knitted elephant for one son, have completed a tank top for another, a pair of aran socks for a dear friend, a new baby hat for a relative, a cowl for a friend… and am crocheting a long waistcoat of granny squares, a blanket of granny hexagons, knitting a baby hoodie for a friend’s baby, but my mind is teeming with more ideas and balking at not having enough time to do it all.

Oh, and tomorrow I go to collect my latest acquisition – a spinning wheel – about which I know next-to-nothing and am ridiculously excited.

Pictures and details to follow.

Off to put littl’uns to bed… I’ll leave you with some works in progress:

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.