Tag Archives: knitting

What Have You Fixed Lately?⤴

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Leopard print jacket
Leopard print jacket flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license
Today’s TDC says

Show us a photo of something you recently fixed or made better.

When my SiL was clearing out my MiL’s flat she came across a bag of knitting. Inside was a jacket, half finished. We both remembered it as a project we’d seen a few years ago, quietly cleared away. Shona asked if I’d like it, and I said I would. It’s been sitting on my knitting chest since the beginning of this year while I made sense of where to start on it. There was no indication of what row had last been knitted, so first I had to work that out. This wasn’t as easy as I’d hoped as the pattern has 23 different coloured yarns and Morag had noted down three different versions of how the yarns she had chosen corresponded to those in the original pattern. She’d also altered the pattern to make it smaller, but I did work that out from the markings on the chart. Finally, and this puzzled me a great deal, the last row she’d knitted had started with one row on the chart and finished with another, and she’d dropped a stitch. I think these last mistakes were the ones that made her decide to put it away. Still, on a rainly morning on holiday this year I puzzled it all out and made a start. At the weekend I cast off the ribbing for the last piece of the body and I am now knitting the two sleeves. Wish me luck!

Creator appreciation⤴

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During the month of August I will be participating in Blaugust, a month long blogging challenge.

From what I’ve read about this week’s challenge, it seems that this was originally aimed at giving appreciation for games developers. Well, I don’t really play games or like them, but I have a huge amount of appreciation for anyone who creates things that I do enjoy. Often I’d use this type of post to wax lyrical about DS106 and the Daily Create, but with my whole month of Blaugust being spent blogging my responses to the TDC I wanted to take this post in a different direction.

As anyone who knows me will tell you, I am an avid knitter. I always have at least one pair of socks on my needles – this is my current pair (they’ll be an Xmas present for my sister, the Rev Polly):

Socks
Socks flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license

Knitting socks like these are great for times when I just need to keep my hands busy, but they’re not challenging. So as well as socks, I always like to have a bigger project on the go. Every year I’ll make my OH an aran jumper – the same pattern every year, as he likes it a lot. Here’s the Xmas 2025 version:

Aran Jumper
Aran Jumper flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license

And, over the last few years, I’ve started to really enjoy knitting Shetland Lace in very fine yarn. Here’s a hap that I made for a colleague’s first baby recently from a traditional patterns:

Hap on stretcher
Hap on stretcher flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license

And a stole I made for myself, from a pattern by a Shetland designer called Elizabeth Williamson:

Roerwater Stole
Roerwater Stole flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license

So my creator appreciation is for the Shetland women who knitted the haps and handed the designs down to us, and to the modern designers who keep the craft alive.

And also to my OH, who made me the hap stretcher.

Add AI to an Unexpected Product⤴

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During the month of August I will be participating in Blaugust, a month long blogging challenge.

HapGPT
HapGPT flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license modified with File:AI-Check.svg wikimedia commons image by Subilan shared under CC0 and additional text

Today’s TDC asks us to:

Look around and find an everyday object that could use some AI added to it. Create an advertisement image that extols its virtues in the new age.

I chose a photo of a Shetland Lace Hap I made earlier this year from a traditional pattern, streched out on the hap stretcher that N made for me. I then downloaded the  AI-Check image linked in the TDC and used PPT to add it to the image. I wrote some text in the spirit of the example Alan had shared, and added that to the slide:

HapGPT is here.

Shetland Lace Haps have been made by hand from traditional patterns since the 19th Century, with patterns passed down by word of mouth.
Now new technology can take all of the pleasure out of knitting.
Expect mangled instructions and patterns that do not work.
All for a very reasonable monthly fee of £300 pcm

Then I screen shot the slide and uploaded it to Flickr so I have it in my files and can use Alan’s Flickr attribution bookmarklet (which saves me seconds as it does it all for me). The result is at the top of the page.

Ugly undersides⤴

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The ugly underside of knitting
The ugly underside of knitting flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license
Today’s TDC says that:

‘Like an evil twin or a twisted pair, happy places can have an ugly underside’. Is your happy place always happy? What is its underside.

On my knitting chest there is a bag containing a jacket half knitted by my MiL many years ago. I have plans to finish it and gift it to her daughter, my SiL, but have not got around to it yet. It’s a thing of beauty – a jacket from a pattern by Kaffe Fassett which is incredibly complex as every row is different, and with three different colours in every row. This means that the two yarns not being knitted have to be carried across the back, and this means that the back is never as beautiful as the front. There are also many, many loose ends that will need to be sewn in at the end, sigh (like most knitters I loathe this part!). However, as my MiL was such a neat crafter, the back of this project is actually not as bad as it could be.

Anyway, that’s the ugly underside of any piece of knitting – not just what the back looks like, but all of the work that goes into making the final version look beautiful.

Dear Green Shawl⤴

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194/365 Dear Green Shawl
194/365 Dear Green Shawl flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license

I’ve been meaning to knit this shawl for many years now – it’s been sitting in my Ravelry queue awaiting the right yarn. Luckily I’d downloaded the pattern, as it’s no longer available. ‘Dear Green Place’ is Glasgow’s nickname – a translation of the Scots Gaelic Glas Chu, and the pattern is a play on that, with motifs from the Glasgow coat of arms.

Glasgow Coat of Arms 1996

TilmannR, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Glasgow’s coat of arms is composed of symbols representing the life and legends of Saint Mungo, the patron saint of Glasgow, and are often remembered by the following poem:

Here is the tree that never grew
Here is the bird that never flew
Here is the fish that never swam
Here is the bell that never rang

The shawl itself has these in a different order, as the designer says:

The shawl uses lace motifs representing a bird in flight, a tree, and a bell, ending with the traditional ‘Shetland’ fishtail lace pattern.

Dear Green Shawl
Dear Green Shawl flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license
It was a lovely shawl to make – really quick and easy. It’s currently drying out in the garden, next I need to decide who to give it to.

 

Knitting memories⤴

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With a new great nephew due soon, I’ve been spending time knitting for him – a hap to wrap him in when he arrives

134/365 Hap
134/365 Hap flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

A stripy jacket and jester hat from the same pattern I made for his big sister

136/365 Tiny Jester
136/365 Tiny Jester flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

And then, as I was wrapping them carefully in tissue paper to post them to my niece, I remembered that I had picked up some old baby patterns last time I was down south at mum’s – I think this is from the 1960s. I knew Rosie would appreciate me knitting something with a connection to mum.

Knitting pattern
Knitting pattern flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

I chose a pattern that I remembered making many years ago, looked out some pretty pale purple yarn and started knitting. When I copied the pattern (the original is very battered, and I didn’t think it would stand being carried around again), I noticed that it has some of mum’s notations.
Annotations
Annotations flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

So as I’ve been knitting I’ve felt connected to mum. I’ve been remembering how I’d  sometimes get myself into a state when my knitting went wrong, and throw it down in a temper. How mum would raise an eyebrow and tell me to leave it for another day. And how, the next day, I’d find that she’d picked it up after I’d gone to bed and unpicked the mess I’d made so I could carry on. I started knitting this because I wanted to create a memory for Rosie, and in doing this I’ve spent some happy hours revisiting my own memories.

Thanks, mum. Cardigan all finished and sewn up with ‘vintage’ buttons from my button tin.

Baby Cardigan
Baby Cardigan flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

I hope Baby Bridges is not allergic to cats, as when I turned around to pack this up, this is what I found.

Cat cardigan
Cat cardigan flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

Knitting memories⤴

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With a new great nephew due soon, I’ve been spending time knitting for him – a hap to wrap him in when he arrives

134/365 Hap
134/365 Hap flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

A stripy jacket and jester hat from the same pattern I made for his big sister

136/365 Tiny Jester
136/365 Tiny Jester flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

And then, as I was wrapping them carefully in tissue paper to post them to my niece, I remembered that I had picked up some old baby patterns last time I was down south at mum’s – I think this is from the 1960s. I knew Rosie would appreciate me knitting something with a connection to mum.

Knitting pattern
Knitting pattern flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

I chose a pattern that I remembered making many years ago, looked out some pretty pale purple yarn and started knitting. When I copied the pattern (the original is very battered, and I didn’t think it would stand being carried around again), I noticed that it has some of mum’s notations.
Annotations
Annotations flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

So as I’ve been knitting I’ve felt connected to mum. I’ve been remembering how I’d  sometimes get myself into a state when my knitting went wrong, and throw it down in a temper. How mum would raise an eyebrow and tell me to leave it for another day. And how, the next day, I’d find that she’d picked it up after I’d gone to bed and unpicked the mess I’d made so I could carry on. I started knitting this because I wanted to create a memory for Rosie, and in doing this I’ve spent some happy hours revisiting my own memories.

Thanks, mum. Cardigan all finished and sewn up with ‘vintage’ buttons from my button tin.

Baby Cardigan
Baby Cardigan flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

I hope Baby Bridges is not allergic to cats, as when I turned around to pack this up, this is what I found.

Cat cardigan
Cat cardigan flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

Visible darning⤴

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Lacey's new bed

Many years ago mum made me a blanket for my bed. It’s made from woollen garments left at the end of a jumble sale, all in my favourite pinks. I put it on my bed when we first got the cats, and Lacey sees it as her own. Recently I noticed that it had been eaten by moths, so I brought it downstairs and put it on my yarn chest, intending to mend it. Of course, it is now Lacey’s new bed, as you can see. So now I am stuck with darning the matching cushion (actually, this is one of Cagney’s beds, so I’d better be quick before she misses it!

Visible darning
Darning

As I was searching for ideas for mending this and celebrating the wear and tear, rather than hiding it, I came across Sashiko, which is exactly the ethos I was looking for as it’s a way of celebrating the remix.

Now if only Lacey will let me darn her new cat bed …