one spoilt knitter

I was one spoilt knitter yesterday, with six hours of social knitting, first at the Knitters study group run by Lorna, and second at our little WWKIP event. As a result I do owe Bear some darkroom time to repay all the solo childcare on Saturday - A happy bear is an unstressed bear, and continuous care of small bears can lead to bear-stress. Today's post includes my latest cast-on project (a striped BSJ), a twined mitten update, a report of our little WWKIP event. and the recipe for the home made wool wash, following multiple requests, here, on email and via Ravelry.

The item under study at the Knitters Study group for June and July is a hooded BSJ, but Lorna being Lorna has little sneaky tricks and clever techniques to share with us. Despite that I frogged this one inch after the cast on. I managed to mistake my counting marker (placed every 50 stitches during the cast on to prevent me loosing count) for a decrease marker. Then I knit 1" of a BSJ for a deformed baby. One sleeve was much longer than the other. So I frogged, and began again.

I also found the Baby Surprise bootie in The Opinionated Knitter and knit me one of those, but then forgot to photograph it, so will save that for next time. I think it need to be knit in stripes to really amaze, I knit it plain.


Usually when knitting garter stitch, colour changes take place on a right side row, but Lorna has a sneaky trick to enhance the colour changes. When its time to change colours, knit the right side row as *K1 purple, K1 bone*, repeat to end. Then knit the subsequent rows in bone. Look what happens, a neat little row of dots just after the colour changes. How cool is that?




And on the wrong side, short floats of one stitch long. The other trick was to knit the decreases as centered decreases. Slip 2 stitches together as if to knit, knit one, pass slipped stitches over. This reverses the order of the slipped stitches so the center stitch in the decrease is on top, and the decrease ends up straight, not left leaning. Very very nice. I've done this before, but it was nice to be reminded of all the available options.













And before I got to study group, my twined mitten grew a little, see?









WWKIP day, we meet, a small group as many of the study group knitters had already devoted from 11-2 of their Saturday to knitting, so were not able to join us to knit from 2-5 in town. A hard core of 6 of us knit away in public (4 in the photo here - the rest were shy), and were joined by another 3, one random passer by, and 2 who came looking for our WWKIP event. If a group grows by 50% - well thats a success in my book. And yes, that is some spindle spinning going on.













And finally Wool Wash - the home made kind
to 4 cups boiling water add 4 cups Lux soap flakes or grated pure soap.
Whiz using a stick blender (my original instructions said to beat using a wooden spoon - but life is to short for some things)
Add 1 cup of methylated spirits and 1 Tbsp (25ml) of Eucalyptus essential oil (or other scent)
Whiz together again. My original instructions said to put in a large jar, seal and shake until mixed - that never worked for me, it leaked and it never blended, just stayed lumpy.
At this stage it will look like greenish water, leave it alone overnight and it will set into firmish white jelly.
To use : dissolve 1 Tbsp in warm water and swish the woolens, or soak the woolens, rinse. I've been told it doesn't need rinsing, but as its soap and soap can irritate I rinse. I've rubbed this direct into dirt on Toby and Poppy's knitwear, and preschool paint, and its worked wonders. Rub the jelly into the stain before you wet the garment, then soak gently. Disclaimer - I'm not promising this is any better than the stuff you buy, or that it works better, but we like making and using it.

happy soap making
Stell

Finished!

Poppy's shawl is finished, and blocked and worn to school, so today there is that, I've bought some new yarn, and been making wool wash. The wool wash is part of this years drive to reduce our purchase and use of proprietary branded cleaning products, you know the sprays and the disposable wipes and all of that stuff advertised on tv as necessary to keep our houses clean. My Nana keep a clean house with pretty much soap and water, and we are trying to do the same. Finally - if you are in or near Dunedin, New Zealand, on the 14th of June (WWKIP day), pop on over to the back of the Meridian Mall between 2pm and 5pm for the more public than usual knitting in public of Take Back the Knit.



But first the shawl, its done, started June the 2nd all done by June the 9th, so a very fast knit, 7 days including the i-cord ties. Poppy is only 6 - so I imagine this would take a little longer for an adult, and I'd have to say those garter rows get longer, and loonger, and looonger as the shawl grows. For a larger shawl I'd have to add an more challenging edge or something to keep my interest up on those long rows. So now I'm knitting my 2nd twined mitten and then I'll let myself start something new and exiting.


And yarn, yes new store-bought yarn, the knitters study group is spending the June and July sessions on the EZ classic BSJ, with an added hood so appropriate yarn was needed. Why is it that even with a stash of several drawers full I never had the perfect yarn in the house for these study group projects?
I'm not sure which baby this is for - but given the number of baby things I've knit in the past few years, having a baby gift ready is a good plan. The yarn is a sport weight. Oddly this weight is known in unique NZ knit lingo as '5ply' - even thought it is 3 plies each of 2 ply twisted yarn (so a 6 ply) - how does that work? The colour choice was a little limited, once I rejected the baby blue, baby pink, baby green, baby lemon, and white, so I've gone with lavender and a dirty bone accent. It is Patons Bluebell crepe yarn super-wash - so perfect for baby things, and should give a nice newborn sized jacket.



And a jar of home made wool wash, all ready to wash wool. Made from Lux soap flakes, water, methylated spirits, and eucalyptus oil, it smells divine and dissolves easily in warm water. We even use it to remove extra dirty bits, the kinds kids put into knitwear and other garments, by rubbing it directly into the dirt before soaking the garment. There is something quite nice about using things that you know the ingredients of, no worries about if they are 'safe' to use or dangerous. I love this stuff, it has a firm jelly texture, and is fun to scoop out and use, almost like finger painting. Helps put the fun and play back into laundry.

There has been no more snow, and no frosts following last weeks snow, we do live in a mild winter climate. Still I'm told harsh frosts kill wasps in their nests - so I am hoping for some more frosts to come. Oddly it was the images of snow that resulted in comments on my last post, I do forget that the temperature soars across the oceans when ours dips.

Stella

Back on track, lots of updates, and a new video

Today, I take risks with my knitting, I've got a video showing how I pick up stitches, some colour work swatching, and progress on a hibernating project, I'm putting my first spinning and plying efforts on display to the world, I dig up an old skill for show and tell, and my 'polish' recipe as requested especially for KathyR


So first up, I sat down a few days ago to pick up the band / facing stitches on Fannigan, and Bear asked if I wanted a wine, mmm wine and knitting mmm? .... wine and knitting fine gauge? ... wine and picking up up stitches at 8.5 spi on 2mm circs .... "oh why not I replied". So here is my dicing with danger, drinking and picking up stitches at the same time - which I am sure is both illegal or encouraged some where in the world. So how do I pick up stitches, well I use a crochet hook, and a long circular needle thus ...


but I imagine most people pick up stitches like this, but I find that is fiddly for a few reasons, it seems harder for continental, because I like a firmer gauge which makes hooking the stitches through with a knitting pin more difficult, and I am using a larger needle. Why - so the first row of picked up stitches will be loose enough for me to pick up the loops on the back and knit them into a facing to cover the steek. It all went very well, but is on hold while I wait for some much longer 2mm Addi Turbo's from Kangaroo to arrive. I just hope that I made the right call, in dropping from a 2.5mm needle for the body, to a 2mm for the facing, I have picked up stitch for stitch, not 3 in 4 ... I'll let you know.


And, Andean knitting workshop this Saturday, yeah!, Instructions were to bring lots of fine gauge yarn, in colours (got that - remember that weekend spend dying a few weeks ago), and appropriate needles. Well - to work out "appropriate" one has to swatch, so I swatch on 2mm needles, and it seems fine, then - I thought "perhaps I should work out some colour combinations in advance" -- well what do you know, I've got a mini colour work blanket. And all in the flat, so colour work was done in the flat, including purling! Maybe I need the tee shirt "feel the fear and purl anyway"? And the really good news is I washed it and soaked it and the colour didn't run - always a fear with dark blue with white, and especially so for a novice dyer like myself.



And here is the almost forgotten or hibernating Garter rib cardie for Bear, back on the needles for a short spell while I worked out what to do with Fannigan's steek.I've worked about 30 cm of the 40 cm required for the body and I am still liking the garter rib. One row K3P1, next row K. I also like the inside, a rustic nubby texture - there are possibilities there for other garments methinks, or this one if Bear like it. I'm not liking the yarn so much, its sticky, and drags ... but it was cheap, and is soft when washed.

And this little nubbly and lumpy and uneven yarn is my first 'baby' born of the spinning wheel, all 90m. I'm told that I need to keep this as a reference point or latter.


And this is my finally using the white roving I bought with the wheel from Ashfords, Corridale for beginners?. When I switched from spinning the coarse sticky brown fibre to this, it nearly slipped out of my paws, but 2 days latter and I'm much more happy with my yarn. I've set the traveller up as a double drive, for aesthetic reasons, I thought the scotch tension 'looked' messy, and because I read once on a knitters review thread and in the Ashford book that double drives produce a firmer more even yarn which is what I want to knit with. Oh the things we do when we don't know what we should do.



Tatting - Before I was a knitter, well I've knit since I was 8 or so, but only in the last 4 or 5 years have I been a "thinking knitter", I had other fiber crafts. I sewed. and tailored and draped garments, I patch-worked, I made porcelain dolls, and I tatted edgings for reproductions of historical doll clothes. The pen is for scale. This is a tatted lace edging, abandoned some years ago - probably interrupted by my PhD, I put a lot of my previous life on hold to finish that within the scholarship period. Some how after a 3 year 'hobby' break, I picked up new hobbies, but recently chatting with lace-lunatic Suzanne aka Magpie (who kindly shipped me knitpics harmony circs to work brother Amos sock 2 on and a set of gorgeous stitch markers for CB's sock architecture book - pictures next time) we've been discussing Tatting. A very portable activity.


So Polish, I'm sure this recipe isn't copyrighted, its pretty generic, and I've got several variations in several old and new woodwork and housekeeping naturally books, one book even credits it to Queen Victoria who apparently liked the smell! Like the woman made polish and used it!

1. 1 cup bees wax
2. 10 cups fresh lavender flowers, or half a cup lemon peel or few drops essential oil
3. 4 cups linseed oil (thats a litre bottle) or olive oil if using on food safe bowls and boards, even sweet almond oil - in short any oil you fancy.

Heat the wax and the lavender flowers or lemon peel gently, in a double boiler or metal bowl over a pan of simmering water. When melted add the oil carefully, stir for 3 minutes, pour into clean tins or warm jars (not plastic), straining out the flowers thru muslin. Leave to set.
To use rub in with a soft cloth, leave 30 minutes and polish of any excess with a clean cloth. Store covered or it forms a skin on the surface. The linseed smell is quite 'pungent' at first but in a month or two the polish smell softens and the lemon or lavender or orange comes thru. You can use immediately. Apply two coats to raw wood and refresh yearly with one coat.

We make a batch every now and then and it lasts us 3-4 years, and that includes giving away at least one jar. It refreshes old varnished wood items nicely, but not polyurethane'd items. And I don't think the quantities are to exact, if you want a softer polish use more oil, and for harder more wax ...