lots of little things ...

Well nearly back to normal. Still on leave from work for another week, so a temporary 'stay at home mom', we bake, we go to the park, we walk to the local shops for a loaf of bread, we feed ducks, we hang out washing and sit on the swing. Life is slow and kind of easy - could I do this full time ? - no! I need the challage of my work, my research, and adult company. Still for short periods of a few weeks it is good. Bedtime is also good, as is another adult coming home to talk to and help parent.

Spent time today tidying wee Poppy's room, purchased some storage cubbies, as kitsets, and assembled these. The households two menfolk were macho busy elsewhere, big one was mowing the lawn, and the little one was busy with a Finding Nemo game on the computer. So we got to be furniture assembly girls without any males taking over.
Then the wee one and I sorted toys. Would Maisy mouse and her clothes live in the green cubby or the pink one? Atomic Betty, did she need a cubby close to the dolls house or a bigger cubby further away. Was the $2 shop doll the same sort as Barbie? Could she live in the same basket on a shelf? And the answer was yes after some discussion - it surprised me that Barbie was seen as different to the cheap tart with too much blue eyeshadow and whose legs fall off all the time (leggless!) from the $2 shop - but Poppy (aged 4 and a half) has no preconcieved notions of Barbie and feminism, so argued she was 'better' for playing with therefore different.

At several times Poppy sighed deeply and said " I've just got too much toys". She is right, in a small way, a spoilt we girl, especially a few weeks post christmas. Imagine that - to many toys. and her mum has a 'new' antique swift, a complete set of 5" Brittney, and new jewellery, we are all spoilt.

latest projects, Well as you can see, Curly bear got a jersey to match Poppy's. A tiny wee pink merino raglan, knit in the round. This was made from the scraps of the jersey I knit for Poppy - known usually as Popsi-daisy, last november. Curly is a well loved bear, as you can also see below. Poppy has very blue eyes, she is a mini me, so not sure what is going on here in the digital photo with the brown ones - digital gremlins?

A few other smaller projects have been flying of the knitting pins a Nano sock, a special request from my Chris, who got a i-pod Nano version 2 for Christmas. But the silicon cases to protect it were all for version one. Version 2 is smaller and slimmer by a few mm's and the case was 'loose', baggy almost, not a good look. After shopping all over town with no luck, and internet cruising Chris found Apple sold 5-packs of 'i-pod socks'. So a formal request was made for a home made one. We have a saying that things are 'knitted with love' to make the kids appreciate my knitted gifts. The sock was made in left over Opal, and on 2mm Brittney needles. Part of my xmas gift from Chris. I was shocked at how short they were, and had thoughts of returning them, but found them a dream to knit with. The 5" length is perfect for small diameter knitting, so easy to turn, much less snagging of the ends of knitting pins on yarn as you go. The sock is shown on my older larger version 1 nano, but fitted his beautifully. On a roll from that I knit a felted bowl for my wee mans i-pod. Toby inherited Chris's old shuffle, which he uses to listern to music in bed and we are working our way thru the story podcast websites. We found the complete audio book of robinson crusoe online for free
Then for myself I have been knitting Widdershins from Knitty. Brenda Dayne - disussed her new found love of toe up socks with a full gusset and heel flap in her podcast late last year. I had tried knitting Widdershins before, but was far to clever so stuffed it up. I had used a firmer guage, so sized it up with extra stitches and got very confused half way thru the heel abou the math - I didn't write down what I did as I knit and lost my way. So that one got frogged - cables and all. No big loss cables and self patterning yarn sort of cancel each other out. My latest version is doing well, I knit it in the same Pattons patonyle yarn, cheerful but cheap, a very 'girly' self patterning colourway. No cables this time, no adjustments to the number of stitches, its just about me understanding the heel.

I tried to get gauge, using the stated 2mm dpns, but even when i when i went up to 2.5mm I got 31stitches in 4" not the required 28. I don't think i am a tight knitter, things flow and are easy, but as I knit alone (not by choice - I can't find a knitting group to join that has out of work hours meetings) I don't have anyone to compare to. Maybe Squeaky the designer is a very loose knitter? Maybe it was 3mm's? Maybe I knit tighter than tight and don't know it? Anyway I completed the toe, as a final swatch and found the stock stretched to my 9" foot ball, when it was only intended to fit an average 8" foot ball, so I continued. First sock image is of the 'backwards gusset', looks like a traditional sock but the needles are on the 'wrong' side of the gusset. I finished this in 3 days, and it fits beautifully. Havn't done a wear test yet, but looks very promising. Also in use here are the short Brittany knitting pins, easily long enough for an adult sock. Next is my foot , all size 9 or 25 cm of it neatly and very comfortably encased in Widdershins sock, The pair or 2nd sock is 1.5" from finishing. My other modification was to knit the leg in 2x2 rib, and the last 1.5" on 3mm needles with a stretchy bind off. I hate socks that fall down.
The last image is of my knitting workbook and sock kit - all I need to work a sock, I went thru the pattern after I completed the first sock and noted my changes and worked out the proportons/percentages for heel stitches, gusset increases, etc.. Only to find today that the designer Brooke Chenoweth, had posted a quite detailed and more mathematical formulae for this very thing. I can work the formulae but am in awe of some who can write script to calculate such things automatically. This sock is fast becoming a classic, as other bloggers have taken up the explaination challange and done simillar work. Maybe this is a new Jaywalker, or classic? Jacywalker snuck in there as i plan to knit her next, I sucumbed to sock yarn on line via webs americas yarn store after tuning in to their podcast/radio show. Very tempting site, lots on sale.

You can see my more manual and old fashioned scribbles along side the printed pattern in my workbook.

knitting and purling - my style left hand carry

Well a new year, a new project or 3, a project completed, and a new technqiue to share. But first the latest item off the knitting pins, a kangaroo pocket jersey for my 7.5 year old son. In teal blue, on 3.24mm's. I made this one up, mostly in advance- but resolve a few details as i worked, like the stripe pattern, and the neck finish to match the ribbing at the hem and on the pockets. Hem is 4 rows garter, 10-12 rows of 2x2 rib, and another 4 rows garter, all on knitting pins one size smaller. I short rowed the back neck, starting when the raglan decreases has achieved 80% of K, and turned 5 stitches short eachtime until only the back stitches remained. Then I knit two rounds to resolve all the short row wraps.



Ages ago i was learnng how to knit with a left hand carry, and to knit with two colours in my left hand and searched the web for help. There are so many good help sites out there but it wasn't until i found a with a video not in english, it was noted as being Finish, (will post link when i find it again) that i found a purl that really made continental work for me. I has been a right hand carry knitter, and before that a pick up the yarn and wind it round the needle, drop it and move the needle knitter, and after that a combined knitter, but I was wanting to do Bohus which required colour work with purl stitches at the same time as carrying multiple yarns in the left hand.

I aplogise for any delay in the images loading, there are 17 that show me ribbing in knit and purl using a left hand. The images were made by my very own non-knitting but very helpful Christopher - and I think he did a wonderful job. At the time I was knitting a shrug for my daughter in sock yarn, in the round on 2.25mm needles. Please ignore the additional needles, focus only on the ones in use. I won't provide much commentary, as the images do show quite clearly the movements in my knitting, I find that i can rib easily and fast using this method. I tension my yarn by winding it around my index finger, which allows me greater control when I carry more than one yarn (each is wound around a different finger), but tensioning around the pinking also works. For me i know i need to carry the yarn towards the tip of my finger and close to the needle tip.



















To 'flick' from knit to purl i lift the yarn into place over the left needle tip, and then sweep the tip of my right needle inbehind it when i start the purl stitch. I do find my hands and wrists do much of the work as the needles twist from horizontal to vertical when knitting this way.

The last blog before 2007

and whats on the needles, well ongoing with the Kangaroo jersey for my Toby, aged 7. I have been lazy with updating the blog, lazy or busy, not sure which. Just the blog has been lower down the priority list than finishing study, christmas baking, wrapping prezzies, tidying up ... getting on top of the washing.

Don't you just love that saying, who in their right mind would want to get on top of a pile of dirty washing?

Progress photos, Toby is here testing the kangaroo pocket, and it works, kind of boring knitting, but what the boy (and his dad want). But first the background work behind the kanga jersey. I completed the swatch a while ago, scanned it with a measure tape, washed and dry it and scanned it again with a measure tape for scale. I have done this with the last few swatches, and it provides a great record and counting teechnique for gauge. I print it out at between 100 & 200% and the stitches are easily countable, I can tick each stitch off and use the measure tape as a scale to find 10 cm or 2 inches or whatever.

Here is what came out of that. I measured a top that fit Toby, and used gauge to work out my stitch count for various parts of the jersey. I did a bit of math, just planning and working. Then I did a bit of sketching of what could be. I know that most 'designers' would sketch first, but I do lean towards the maker side of design. So before any thinking about how 'it' can be I have already quantified some limits, like the width of this jersey, the proportions, sleeve lengths, and such. so mine is a made jersey, no developmental leaps in this one. The next two pages in my work book show playing and planning how the shape and stripes can be, and the pocket. I really wanted to knit it in the round as much as possible, not to sew it in. It took me a lot of over thinking to work out a very simple solution was th best and most straightforward. Sometimes I can be brainy-stupid like that.

So my design, cast on half required stitches, plus 4, garter for a few rows, 2x2 rib for 12 rows, garter for a few more rows. this is the hem for the front, repeat to get the hem for the back. that gives me a narrow yet 'manly' gansey type hem. To join these two hems I overlaped the last 4 stitches of the front with the first 4 of the back, and knit one stitch from front together with one from the back. This technique reduces the pull of stress on that join stitch, repeat for the other vent. I put a stitch marker at the mid join mark.



Then I knit abut 4 cm straight in the round, to give the pocket some depth. I didn't want small toys nd collectable cards falling out. Starting the pocket flap, about 7 cm in from the side seam, in this case 30 stitches in, and kniting back and forth, stocking stitch. I wanted slanted openings, I drew vertical ones but like the look of the slant on the sketches. less boxy maybe? to achieve that slant on the knit rows I knit the first 2 stitches tog, and the last 2 tog, ssk'ing the last two to make them lean in the right way. I continued until this slanted edge looked wide enough to let a hand with a toy in easily. I strung these stiches on a yarn holder and broke the knitting yarn free.
To make the inside lower bag of the pocket, I picked up and knit stitches on the inside of the hem, the top of the garter edge. I picked up across the width of the pocket plus 3 extra each side, so the inside flap was 6 stitches wider overall. I knit back and forth until the inside flap was the same height as where i had started the pocket flap, and then joined this into the body stitches. I used the same technique of overlaping the extra 3 stitches behind the first and last 3 of the body stitches. Knitting two together.



I then knit the body until it meet up with the top of the flap, and this took ages. It repeadedly seemed like one more row would be enough and then, once done, still another row was required. I knit across the top of the pocket, knitting the pocket flap stitches into place with the body stitches. And above you have Toby demonstrating that there is a working pocket in the kangaroo jersey. I have now completed a few more rounds and have sewn the little open lower edge of the pocket lining into place. This last photo shows that little line of almost invisable seaming.

For us this holiday season brings travel, we are off to visit distant relatives this year, which involes a plane and lots of exitement from our two small people. But not any space to update or check blogs or mails so bog until the new year. My fav podcast cast-on is off air until Brenda is better, so i am sending get well wishes her way.

stella

children and knitting, don't mix

well they do, but sometimes it is heart-breaking. My wee darling loved her new jersey, and we made it clear it was in the special occassion clothes collection. Days with mum, shopping, or parties, not day to day at creche. Well after a week or so, she had a rough night, wet the bed, and was really upset. Such a big deal rides of being a big girl, on being grown up, not wearing nappies to bed, and in a fit of consolation we let her chose her own clothes for school. What did my wee girl choose? Her new merino jersey, I was secretly pleased my work was more desirable than the kidi fashion shops purchases, and neither her dad or I had the heart to tell or no. We did elicit a promise not to do any painting wearing the jersey.



This is a quick photo record of the state of the jersey when I picked her up after school. She attends a montessori school, so as part of that the children take care of the classroom. They prepare the work, and they clean up. She told me quite indignently that she wore an apron while painting. This mess happened as she cleaned up the paint tray. Well, it washed, it seems clean, no trace of paint, and dried yesterday in a lovely warm breezy spring day. Poppy helped me with that, amidst much discussion about it being quicker to take a jersey off before dealing with paint, than to wash and dry it. Poppy agreed it was quicker to take it off, we will see if mum (me) is brave enough to send it to school again soon, as a test of lessons learnt.


Quick post this time, not much to say, started a new hoodie for 'the boy', who is miserable with a head cold. Will post pictures once beyond he hem edge. Will have a kangaroo pocket, and will try and post images of my prep work, the swatch and sketches use to develop the design with. Not that I am a great at sketching, but they are a form of communication and I have got to start somewhere.

Watched one of those tv nanny programes last week, and trying to put into place less yelling more praise. Seems to be working. Main problem is the spouse, he didn't see the programe and I am not sure i am explaining very well.

More knitting next time