more little knitted things

So the last weekend of my holiday looms, and the kids and I are planning to drive north to Waimate to visit my dad - aka Grandad. He is in his 70's and moved north to warmer climes to keep his vintage truck (1930-40 brittish bedfords) and tractor(Case tractors only) collection from rusting. Of course he now lives 10 mins from a beach and we don't mention salt air causes rust, nor do we mention the last 2 years running farmers in his area have been snowed in for weeks at a time with no power or running water. Waimate for those not of New Zealand origin is a Maori place name, and pronounced Why-mat-ee. So this weeks post is a tad early, as he has not comes to terms with a mobile phone, let alone a computer or the 'net'.

I am begining to think this might be a year of small projects, little things, not any less complicated but of short duration. Then again it just might be holiday lag, and a real project will be required once work and the year resume full strength again. Unusually for me I have two projects on the go at once. Widdershins is finished, has been worn and washed. The second sock fitted as nicely as the first - so both my feet must be simillar! They were a snug and warm fit under a pair of army green converse hi-tops. I forgot to photograph them in use, so the image today is of them in wash. I don't usually hand wash hand knit socks, but was washing something else - so in they went.

Next little project was a blanket for Poppy's dolls houseout of the last of the pink mint Merino yarn used earlier. I had been cruising knitty and came across the recipie for Mrs Hoovers baby blanket by Kristi Porter. I readily admit to being a technique junkie so wanted to try, and using the last of the merino to knit a blanket for the dolls house seemed a good idea. I've double knitted before, and that part was sucessful as you can see, but the use of a 2nd colour on the reverse tested me somewhat. I eventually worked out the twist required to secure the second colour to the blanket, but did not like the way the green twists showed thru for the first half of the blanket. So frogged - just like the blog title. I also realised that while a nice technique it would be a little heavy for the dolls house, more of a mattress than a blanket, so knit up a mock patchwork blanket in my favourite dish cloth pattern. Alternate squares of stocking and reverse stocking stitch, 5 stitches and 6 rows, on 2.5mm knitting pins, with a slipped stitch edge. You might just notice little double knit pillows at the head of the bed - I couldn't quite let the technique go without a use. The wee wooden doll is Poppy, she lives there with other dolls like Jack, atomic betty, Polly Pocket, Barbies little sister Kelly and friends, and many many MacDonalds toys, my little pony, more polly pockets and some pupies.

The other wee 'tidy' up project is a hat for Toby to match the kangaroo sweater. I have been listerning in to the Ready-set-knit podcast, I am only caught up to episode 4 or 5, which for them is just before christmas. Its a two part podcast per week, with part two starting with a knit along for a design your own hat and then moving to problem solving with Pixie - their in house knit-expert. She is good. The hat issues inspired me to start my Toby's hat. I already had my guage swatch done for the sweater, and had used 3.25 mm pins, but for some reason automatically went down a size to 2.5mm pins for the hat rib. Just about every pattern tells you to do that, so it is an automatic response in some way. Result was a 'pop-off' hat, one that would stay on for a minute before slowley but surely narrowing and sliding off the top of the head. Luckily I worked this out around 4 inches in. So two frogs this post. Not sure if it is the smooth worsted yarn, the Bamboo Addi dpns I am using, or the use of singe rib, but I unusually have a serrious problem with laddering on this project. It will be hidden by the deep fold up brim/cuff, but my usual fix of tightening the first 2-3 stitches on the needle is not working. A few machine washes should take care of it.

Funny how making new things always sparks a web search to see what else in the same genre is out there. Searching for hats, i came across this wee gem at knitty by Brooke Higgins. She designed it to counter all the hats with horizontal stripes, and it seems a good modern solution for my man this winter. I am not keen on acrylic, but maybe in a two toned lofty wool or merino or even cashmere? Anyway I was so intrested I had to knit one right now, but being stash deprived, had to be creative. I realised that it would make a great dish-cloth pattern. So out come two untouched balls of magic garden cotton from my tiny teeny stash - I kid you not - my stash consists of 2 balls of wool/cotton/lycra sock yarn in a bright orange and purple ugly colourway, 2 balls of magic garden and a bohus rose collar kit. My real stash is books, knitting books, fashion theory books, patternmaking books, garment construction books, fashion history books, tailoring books, fashion inspiration books, knitting social history books, and vintage versions of all of these.


So the dish cloth details, 30 stitches, size 3mm bamboo needles, first corner I forgot to slip the first stich of the return row, and ended up with a rather bulky junction of the stripes - but 2nd corner is under way now and is looking much neater. The hat recipie knitted with a double ply of yarn, but not for this dish cloth, the neat trick is to always twist the yarns the same way at the end of the row and you get a neat rope effect along the edge. I know I should have provisional cast on, and kitchenered the ends together, but with the stripes am hoping the join will be hidden by the optical illusion of the stripes. Using circulars and the wee short 5" brittany's has made me slightly and surprisingly intolerant of long straight needles, I ended up taking a craft knife and sand paper to my bamboo straight knitting pins, shortening them to better fit a dish cloth. A polish with wax and good as new and easier to use.

The Bohus photo shoot

I'm back to knitting Blue shimmer, the final 10 rows or so of colour work. But before I ran out of colour to work with I had Bear take literally hundreds of photos of my knitting. Hundreds to get the lighting right, the focus right and to get the images to have enough infomation so I can show how I knit. Digital cameras sure make that easy, and cost effective and instant. I was pleased with my digial minolta, it is over 2 years old yet worked fine. We did resort to using a tripod to make sure the focus worked and the images were simillarly set up. I have divided the images into four sets, which I plan to post on my blog over the next few weeks. The four 'sets' are

1. How I hold two different colours of yarn in my left hand
2. How I make a knit stitch, while holding two different colour yarns in the left hand
3. How I make a purl stitch while holding two different colour yarns in the left hand
4. How I rib, using the 'finish' purl method.

At some stage further down the track I will add more, like how I hold two colours in my right hand. I do feel that there is a lot more infomation on the net about right handed colour work.

Why did I do this? Not because I think I knit the best way there is, but because over the last two years I have tried lots of variations of knitting. All of this infomation and experimentation has resulted in a current style that works for me. Over the past few months I have had several on online conversations with various helpful people over how best to work with up to four colours for the Bohus work. I am so glad that others on the net share their experience and tips that I would like to offer the same to others. Not all of us live where there are advanced knittig workshops, for me I would have to travel very widely to take part.

So how do I hold the yarn? Like this, I wind the first yarn or 'dominant' yarn around my first finger, then weave it over my 2nd finger, under my ring finger and under my pinky. In this first image I have wrapped the first yarn, but the second yarn is just sitting, waiting to be wrapped.
By dominant yarn I mean the colour that is used the most in the work, or the colour with the longest floats, so I can weave it it if the floats are longer than 3 cm or over an inch. If a yarn is used to purl with in a row of knitting that is the dominant one that I wrap around the first finger.


The second yarn, is wraped around my second finger, then woven under the middle finger and over the ring finger, and finally under the pinky. I tension the yarns in three ways, I can and do use my pinky finger to grip the yarns a little, but try and avoid that. Griping with the little finger can lead to a kind of cramp up the side of my hand and wrist if done for several nights knitting. I hold my first and second finger close together, this stops the yarn sliding as easily. I also hold the side of my first finger against the needle at times, again to increase friction and this allows me to lift my finger and tug a little to ensure the junction between purl and knit stitches is firm.

GF Shrug, is over half way complete. I do need to tell you that while I am being guided by the pattern, I have made quite a few changes to accommodate my own knitting preferences. Firstly and probably most importantly I am knitting shrug in the round not flat. I used a tubular cast on and have a lifted increase 2 stitches appart for the forearm increases. The other major change is that I have chosen to knit shrug as two matched pairs and graft these together across centre back. Shrug is knited in self striping sock yarn with an unbalanced repeat to the colour-way. If I continued to knit from wrist to centre back and then down to the wrist, the striping on each arm would be a reverse match rather than a mirror match. So I am knitting the second sleeve from the cuff up, to match the first. I am nearly finished the rib on the second sleeve. I still don't know if I will make my may 28th deadline, as after I finish the second sleeve, there is 1.5 inches of rib, on 2.25 mm pins around the shrug opening.

And Bear, has offered to send for a 2nd bohus kit, for my upcoming birthday (40 eeeekkkkk), I think it will be Rose collar and knit as a cardie. So Flat fair isle with whole rows of purls. The bar raises.

Blogging - the behind the blog work

Yes I have been behind the scenes blogging, or rather tweaking things, mostly the side bar of my blog. A little more pink, a little more lower case. And I've renamed the blog knit- knit - frog, as that pretty much describes how I knit at times. I do like to get things right. I have grown into a perfectionist, where I once just wanted to finish things and wear them. Thats the transition for teenager to adult I think.

So whats changed/ some new links, to Guido's podcast, and to his pal Grumperina, some colour changes, and Yes , what I have been wanting for ages and waiting for, drum roll please, ....

ta da (I did have a wee glitch, but fixed it with the help of Nerissa from Knitters Review), I admit to being a complete html code newbie or bunny, but want to learn.

a WIP or Whats on my needles section, complete with teeny-tiny images. Not sure if I did that the most elegant html code way. I feel so smug and pleased that I worked it out and got it into the code. and didn't break it. I had posted on Knitters review to see what suggestions the knitting geek code guru's have. After I completed my version of the progress images, i checked back into knittersreview, and found that Nerissa had posted a link to Indigirls how to,


Bohus update with photos of the last of the Bohus Blue shimmer colour work next weekend, I promise.

GF Shrug, just a quick update photo of GF shrug. Shrug seems a little bumpy, which I am assuming is the result of knitting with yarn that has previously been knit, even if it was only knit for a day or two. you can see how much further I had knit up before she was frogged, by how much yarn is wound back around the ball. Must admit this looser gauge is not quite to my liking, I do prefer a 'firmer fabric'. A very dull day here, with a dark grey sky, so even though this photo was made by a window at 3pm it is very dull and dark. The good side of that is tonight we will curl up in a cosy lounge with a fire. Bear has to work, so once I run around and put kids to bed, wash up alone and generally tidy up ready for tomorrow, I will be sooo ready for kniting.

My dress dummy returned tonight, Yes little Miss Purfex has been visiting. I lent to to a visiting designer at dfi, Darlene who is from Canada, and she has such a cool accent. Darlene must have been on the outreach programme, as she is not listed as one of the incubated designers, Darlene wanted to pay me for the loan of the dummy, but how much do you charge to rent a dress form for 6 months? I had no idea, Darlene thanked me by leaving this beautiful fabric all rust and gold, fabulus - now shirt or wrap? There is just on 2.5m, at 115 cm wide, maybe even a dress? This term I am teaching a class to drape, so mmmmm.....yummy thoughts.

Bohus vs Shrug vs Work,

Just a really quick post this time, this has been one of the more hectic weeks, it included

• teaching monday afternoon,
• teaching all day wednesday and thursday,
• giving a lecture on 'good design' to a room of around 80 this morning, including 5 fellow staff which was a little nerve racking,
• planning meetings all afternoon,
• hairdresser tuesday night,
• Book club wednesday
• homework for my study tonight.

I have a full day of meetings tomorrow including one with my supervisor for my study,
so time seems a tad short this week. Things should settle down next week.

Blue shimmer is looking good, I managed a little more progress on her. I must say Bohus Blue shimmer is a girl, at least in my mind she is. Here is a picture. There was a little more frogging, fribbit, fribbit. When reading the chart I found it really hard to see the difference between the two blues, 103 and 102 on the chart under incandescent lights. I initially thought I had made a mistake half way around the row, so frogged, then realised it was right and reworked it. I had a simillar incident of uncertainty a row or two latter, eventually I took a drawing pencil, 2B and carefully outlined the areas of each colour. That made it much easier, and I would strongly recommend that to anyone knitting at night from the chart.

This week I started the Girl Friend Shrug, working the rib on my vintage 2mm knitting pins. I inherited them from Mrs B, my MIL, who was a prolific knitter in her day. But she never knit socks, making my husband - Bear - only one pair and they were a new and significant experience for her in the 1970's. So significant they were remembered 20 plus years latter. I have no idea where the knitting pins came from or how they came to be Mrs B's, but can only imagine she saved them from another relative, her sister died much yonger and she had a lot of special things saved of hers. There are only 4 in the set but they come in a delightful vintage wooden tube, with size "14" carved into the side. to stop rust they are stored in talc powder, so smell all baby fresh and spill a fine dust whenever I open the tube to use them or to store them away. I do prefer to knit with a set of 5 dpn's so I have to add a modern Milwood needle, which is shorter and feels different. The knitting is not affected, but I always know when I am not working on the steel pins.

Anyway, GF Shrug grows well, I have decided to rib for twice the length in the pattern, so around 6 cm, this will allow my wee girl friend to grow somewhat over the winter. I have not yet decided if the sleeves will match in colour repeat or not, knowing how fussy I can be they most probably will. This image was scanned, rather than photographed, as my camera is at work. The colours are brighter or more garish than in the real yarn. If I was more photoshop savy I would remedy that, but I am not.

Book club, meet last night, we swoped the last book by Witi Ihimaera, Bulibasha: King of the Gypsies (1994), for Silas Marner by George Eliot. Bit of a difference between those two! I didn't get very far into Bulibasha, but wished I had after listerning to the group talk about how much they enjoyed the story. Witi has a wonderful way of describing people and situations, you can smell the environment it seems so real. It will be on my things to read over the christmas break latter in the year. They all said the first few chapters were really hard work then it became a 'can't put down' book and the story with its characters was great. I missed out, with being so busy I didn't stick around past the first 60 pages.

Of now to read a chapter or two on educational methodology and research methods, so I will be all fresh and know stuff for the discussion tomorrow.