Category Archives: Knitting

December 19, 2016 · 3:51 pm

Turquoise socks

Back in the middle of the year, I invested in possum wool sock yarn. I have been knitting away… though I must admit the experience of losing the last pair on public transport has had me fretful for my own carelessness! The second pair are blue.  I clearly didn’t take any really early pictures.

2016-11-12-10-48-29

But here we are on a houseboat, where friends have been working on (above) tea and treats and (below) a puzzle.  I’ve finished the first sock and here is the ball that is to become the second sock.

2016-11-12-13-38-13

The pattern is what my dear friend has named ‘whimsical cabling’.

2016-12-08-11-39-49

To put it another way, I cable when I feel like it, in whichever direction seems like a good idea at the time. 2016-12-08-11-40-03

And now these socks are off to Denmark, where it is heading into winter as we enter into summer.  The world is a rather amazing place…

2016-12-08-11-39-30

 

4 Comments

Filed under Knitting

Tagged as , , ,

October 26, 2016 · 2:59 pm

Alas, the red socks!

Once upon a time, I cast on a lovely pair of red socks, from possum wool.  They had an intended recipient and unusually, I had told her they were coming.

2016-08-26-08-52-26

Here we are on the way to work on the bus. I am known to some in my workplace as the parsley fairy.

2016-09-05-17-24-15

Here they are on the way to the Newcastle Local Court, out of focus on the window ledge of the plane.  And then, one day I went to a long series of meetings and was one and a half socks in, past the heel and on the home strait toward the toe… I remember seeing the bag with the socks in it on my office desk and thinking I should pack that to take home.  I caught an usual series of public transport home, and when I stopped to change from bus to tram and the tram was late, I got out my knitting.  Well, I would have, but it was GONE!!!!  I know you will understand I hunted high and low and contacted several different possible places a lost sock might be handed in.  But I think I have to face the fact that my one and a half socks, wool, needles and bag… are GONE to who only knows where?  But quite likely, somewhere where those socks will not be completed or warm anyone’s toes, sadly.

12 Comments

Filed under Knitting

Tagged as , , , ,

September 29, 2016 · 4:08 pm

Knitting Nannas & Skills fest

I interrupt the regular diet of guerilla planting round here lately, to mention an upcoming event that local folks may wish to attend and people further afield may enjoy hearing about:the famous Knitting Nannas Against Coal Seam Gas (Fracking to some) are coming our way!

knitting-nannas

These women are my kind of crafters… they came to the Newcastle Local Court to support those of us arrested at the Break Free protests against fossil fuels recently and I had a great chat with a Knitting Nanna.  I was knitting a sock, which impressed her, and she was a Knitting Nanna who is not a grandmother and can’t knit, which impressed me!  The Knitting Nannas are active all over the country wherever fossil fuel extraction threatens waterways, agricultural land and the climate.  They work with Lock the Gate (to oversimplify, farmers and rural people against fracking).  And for those wondering why the fuss about fossil fuels, I’ll summarise a bit more, on a day where we are facing a once in 50 year weather event right here at home and floods threaten houses on our quiet street for the second time in two weeks.  If we want a viable climate for the future, and we don’t want an escalation in droughts, floods, tornadoes and extreme weather in general, we have to stop taking fossil fuels (coal, gas and such) out of the ground and burning them.  The clock is ticking faster and faster and reaching even the targets agreed at Paris is fast becoming unrealistic. If you’d like more information, here is a very bracing, readily understood summary by Bill McKibben.  If thinking about climate change scares the wits out of you and you need some help with your despair, try Rebecca Solnit on optimism, first.

Grandma skill share

And, while we are on the theme of Nannas, it seems that grandparents are the new black!  I taught mending at this event a few weeks back and it was such a pleasure.  I also joined my friend (below) who spent hours teaching small people how to sew a button on.  I was just astonished how many small people wanted to learn from us.  But my friend had such a winning strategy, opening with, ‘You get to choose which button, what colour of thread, and which piece of fabric’!  I followed her lead (she really is a Grandma, and clearly the best sort) and taught quite a few young ones how to sew on a button… and some came back for a second one.  Then my friend would finish up with explanations of how that button-on-fabric could become a brooch… a patch… a feature on your t shirt…

2016-08-28-12-38-32

19 Comments

Filed under Activism, Knitting, Sewing

Tagged as , ,

August 11, 2016 · 3:14 pm

Warm hands, warm heart

2016-07-12 12.33.54

So, I fell off the knitting handspun wagon a bit in Aotearoa and I have been itching to cast on.

2016-07-12 12.54.32

I couldn’t wait and chose these aluminium dpns because I enjoy them in their shiny blueness so much.  Then I, umm, free associated a pattern for some hand warmers. I realised when I reached the thumb gusset that I had given away the book I consulted last time I created a thumb gusset.

IMAG2049

Pretty quickly, here I am at the train station knitting a thumb gusset anyway. Then, onto the second!

2016-07-21 16.16.47

Some small crimes were committed in knitting the second and I had to rip it back and go again… so here is the second on a train..

2016-08-01 09.28.45

And here they are ready for a short walk round to their new home.

IMAG2253

Plain but stretchy and delightfully warm.

IMAG2251

 

7 Comments

Filed under Knitting

Tagged as , ,

July 24, 2016 · 8:02 pm

Hand spun, naturally dyed, hand knit and finished

I have finally finished the colourwork jumper.

2016-07-21 12.48.34

The design includes beets from Kate Davies‘ Beet Heid tam. It’s a variation on her Neep Heid pattern.  I love her designs, though to be honest I can’t picture myself personally wearing many of them (which is just not the same question).  And, I tend to knit simple. I am a long time reader of her blog: she is a lovely writer too.  But this application of her design is all my own strange idea, with the jumper knit–or at least I tried to knit–to measurements from one of the recipient’s hoodies. I see on Ravelry that one person has been moved to knit a neep cardigan, and there are a massive number of tams too, neep-, beet-, acorn- and radish-heids among them.

2016-07-21 12.49.27

I’ve knit this jumper for my fairy goddess son, who is a true admirer of gardening, vegetables in general and beetroots very much included. Those who are curious about the dyeing can find a bit of a summary here.

2016-07-21 12.47.00

He is a lover of colours too, and when asked his favourite colour in my hearing at any time, has responded ‘the rainbow!’ with a huge grin.  I knit this jumper from the fleece of a sheep called Viola and all these colours are from plants with the exception of the deep beet colour and the pink, from cochineal. I admit this rainbow is not exactly classic in colour and the woad colours are very pale in the zone of blue and indigo!

2016-07-21 12.48.25

I loved having so many colours to play with but took advice from one of my knitting companions in Wellington and kept the neck and shoulders simple.

2016-07-21 12.47.23

I dealt with the maths of the pattern repeat with some simple patterning under the sleeves.

2016-07-21 12.46.33

And now that it’s finished, I can give in to the urge to cast on all the small projects!

21 Comments

Filed under Knitting, Natural dyeing

Tagged as , , ,

July 15, 2016 · 3:21 pm

Winter planting

Once I got started on the rushes, I wanted to keep planting and there have been some breaks in the rain.  Today I noticed a leak from one of our rainwater tanks.  It was near the top, from the overflow pipe, suggesting there is water up above the overflow outlet in that tank which is struggling to escape.  That has never happened before, and is evidence of HOW MUCH RAIN we have had.  You know what I’m saying: planting time is upon us.

IMAG2018

Here is my bike trailer load of plants bound for a bed alongside the tram stop on the nearby main road.  When I got there, there was another woman already at work cleaning up, who said she picks rubbish up there twice a week (she also cleared the paving and all manner of improvements).  She was impressed that I was doing my own planting and propagating and suggested I might want to join the adopt a station programme, which apparently provides plants.  Clearly she works up and down the pubic transport corridor, because she knew the best planted stations, where work for the dole are active and where the lavender is growing so well anyone could pick it. It was fun speaking with another close observer of these often unloved spaces.  She had noticed the reduction in rubbish and weeds from my efforts!

IMAG2019

This time I had rhagodias from my generous friend (this is a sandy site where I hope they will do well), creeping boobialla that has come on strong since the cuttings went in months back; some little wattles and yet more ruby saltbush.

IMAG2020

I put them up into the bed and climbed up after them.

IMAG2021

In they went!

IMAG2022

There are previous plantings that look dead in these beds, but perhaps they will come back… and in among them, there were some struggling knobby club rushes and…

IMAG2023

Can you tell?  In the foreground, a small patch of the Ngarrindjeri weaving rushes!

2016-07-11 15.56.39

In the meantime, I finished all my grey handspun in an airport a few days back and I am now creating more so I can finish! More soon… it would be so good if this jumper could be complete before the cold weather passes!

IMAG2012

 

4 Comments

Filed under Knitting, Neighbourhood pleasures, Spinning

Tagged as , , , , ,

July 10, 2016 · 3:42 pm

Work still in progress

Since I last wrote there has been sleeve knitting in an airport.

IMAG1881

Followed by sleeve knitting on a plane.

IMAG1882

Followed by good times with fellow knitters and crocheters who also happen to share my kind of day job and therefore shared a conference I’ve been at… and this meant I brought hand spun wool plain and strange to share.

IMAG1894

Some of it has already had a crochet hook applied to it and been turned into a substantial amount of shawl/cowl…

IMAG1893

Meanwhile, sleeves united with body far from home (and on the twelfth floor)!

IMAG1895

That moment when you decide to graft the seam between sleeve and body together…

IMAG1898

And a certain amount of visiting yarn shops.  My commitment to knitting handspun may have weakened a little… but as you can see, I’ve made quite a bit of handspun knitting progress.  So much that I may need to spin more grey yarn when I get home to finish this little treasure…

IMAG1907

 

1 Comment

Filed under Knitting

Tagged as ,

June 10, 2016 · 12:35 pm

Slippers old and new

Warning.  This post contains many images created in poor lighting conditions! Apologies in advance.

Oh dear.  A much loved and well worn pair of slippers came back to me from a friend for examination. I thought I would have matching yarn but I really didn’t.  In the end I went for visible mending of this pair and also decided to knit her a new pair. #Menditmay I thought!

2016-04-26 20.45.22

Here they are about to be returned to their owner over breakfast (in May), with big mends in the heels.  The inside sole is black so these darns will be less visible when they are being worn, perhaps!  I cast on the new pair…

2016-04-30 08.40.39

The next step was knitting a new pair.  Two pairs for different people, in the end, and two dinners with associated felting (no end to the thrills when you visit us!)  With appalling photographs to match.  This pair are a rich purple and they are on a blue background, not that it shows.

IMAG1705

They went to a new home with a cherished friend who has been feeling the cold terribly.  She also scored these hand warmers, knit from the remainder of a ball of Noro sock yarn some time ago and awaiting the right moment.  They look better on!

IMAG1706

Then, my beloved negotiated handover of a small pile of pre-loved and partially felted socks that will fit my friend better than my beloved at this stage.  Some required running repairs.

IMAG1710

Some were too felted for anything other than brutal patching.  No way to knit a patch in.  Can’t find any stitches to pick up! Some of these socks were knit before I really understood the kind of yarn that was suitable.  But pairs like this, made from Bendigo Woollen Mills 8 ply alpaca, were such a hit among my friends I made a lot of them anyway.

IMAG1704

I’ve since had an email about blue socks being worn at Pilates class and a photo of my friend’s ankle as she heads out to dinner in handspun, handknit socks!  Too good.  These are the people for whom hand knits should, indeed, be made.  And finally, the friend whose slippers I was darning at the top of the post came over and I felted her new slippers to size.  She arrived wearing hand knit socks… perfect!

IMAG1718

 

 

7 Comments

Filed under Knitting, Sewing

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

June 3, 2016 · 4:46 pm

Hand spun, hand knit socks

Remember this hand spun sock yarn?

2016-02-28 18.31.27

It had a long journey toward becoming a pair of socks.  Here we are early on, on the train…

2016-04-14 13.32.08

On my way to a meeting at work.  Five minutes early, enjoying the sunshine and shrubs… knitting down the heel.

2016-04-18 08.53.02

Visiting a friend in hospital (and past the heel flap on sock 1)…

2016-04-19 09.26.21

Here we are on our way to Newcastle to blockade a coal port–second sock started.  I got a lot of knitting done during train travel and nonviolence training (for an entire day–some climate change activists don’t muck about!) and there was another knitter in the training, too!

2016-05-07 06.33.33

Then I noticed late in the life of sock 2 that sock 1 and sock 2 were a bit different.  I made some adjustments.  Finally, I went over to my friend’s house for a try on. Turns out that the stretchy factor in knitting sorts out a multitude of small spinning and knitting crimes. It’s common ground between us that if he doesn’t care, I don’t either.  Usually he goes further than not caring and is pretty pleased about the whole woollen sock thing. Fantastic attitude.

IMAG1639

Here he is showing customary forbearance as a sock model.  Note hand knit sock on other foot.  Come to think of it, note hand spun, hand knit jumper in use years after being dyed with eucalypt. This is the attitude to hand knits that gets you another pair of socks in my circle of beloveds!

IMAG1661

 

 

23 Comments

Filed under Knitting, Neighbourhood pleasures

Tagged as , , , ,

May 26, 2016 · 6:25 pm

#MenditMay: Beyond darning

I have a dear friend whose entire family are facing some very tough times.  I’d been wondering what I could do that might bring some comfort to her, and then I had an idea.  I knew she had a cardigan that had belonged to someone she treasured, and that it was showing signs of long wear and lots of love.  So I offered to mend it for her.  She chose some yarn and on some quiet nights last week I set to work.

IMAG1584

Darning is always possible, but sometimes it seems barely adequate to the task, and the result is unlikely to be pleasing.  I have darned holes bigger than this, but I did cover some of them with leather elbow patches afterward!

IMAG1586

In the end I decided knitting in patches was a better idea.  I used needle and yarn to stabilise runaway live stitches.  Then I picked up some stitches, as you can see above.

IMAG1590

In a couple of spots I darned first and then picked up stitches.  See the woven section above the knitting needle?  Then it is really a process of knitting along and purling back, knitting two together at each side with a patch-stitch and a picked up strand from the garment.  There were some places where I added extra stitches or cast some off as I passed.

IMAG1588

One sleeve got several patches.  I tried different ways of casting off (binding off) and decided hand sewing the stitches down was the smoothest finish.

IMAG1602

There were smaller places where I did small darns or just trapped live stitches so that ladders could not spread further.

IMAG1592

On the cuffs, I considered a few options before settling on using some of the silk thread I dyed with Japanese indigo.  The grey was pretty much perfect here and I was able to use a fine enough needle to stop the stitches that are unravelling going further.

IMAG1594

There were four buttonholes but one button.  I couldn’t match it, so I sewed on four that have come off some other garment.

IMAG1598

Because a cardigan can be worn open, I concealed the ends of the stitching, with the initial knot and the tie off under the button rather than on the ‘wrong’ side, where I would happily tie them off on a shirt.

IMAG1599

And here it is.  Visibly mended but in a way I hope will mean this treasured cardigan will have an extended life providing comfort and warmth to my friend through times good and bad.

IMAG1601

I know my friend is surrounded by the love and care of many friends and her family too.  I’m lucky to be among them.

IMAG1600

 

18 Comments

Filed under Knitting, Sewing

Tagged as , , , ,