Knitting Rekindled

I knitted this cosy for my Mum, as a Christmas prezzy. I haven't made anything at all for absolutely ages (much too busy simply dealing with 'real' life, which is all too dull to bother writing about, hence the lengthy silence). It was a soothing pleasure to get back to it.

The colours blend with, rather than match her home (I hope!!!). The golden colours appear in a painting of straw bales in a harvested wheat field, and the blue and deep purple are a nod to her middle eastern rugs. Not literal, just a suggestion. Plus, a tea cosy should turn out jolly in the end. I look forward to seeing it on my father's head. I believe it's compulsory?

Yarn Bomb

When we were staying near to Ludlow we took the short-ish drive to Leominster, unsure if we had been there before on our travels. Once there, we spent a happy hour or so disagreeing about it. Although in hindsight I'm wondering if Pete was possibly just winding me up. I know for sure that we had been, and I can remember when, down to the month and year. Pete swears he had never been. It's usually a bad sign when this happens. We visited Evesham three times, each more depressing than the last, before we learnt not to do so again. At least not until it became our handy, functional town with an efficient launderette and a lovely vet for the bunnies.

Back to Leominster though, it had a wonderful fromagerie where we stocked up on a scrummy trio of local cheeses. And there was this little 'yarn bomb' event in the street, knitted coverings on trees and street furniture. A sign said it was there to make us smile. Mission accomplished

Prototype

It needs a bit of work. I think it needs a chunkier yarn. But it's a start.

Dabbling

We seem to have slowed right down. While Pete has been dealing with some rather annoying shenanigans on the UKAirstreamers forum I have managed to read a couple of books and dabble with my knitting. I'm trying out a cup cosy to keep my tea warm while I'm sitting outside. It's like a little cardi for your cup. A bit daft really, but I just feel like experimenting. I must have unravelled it at least four times so far.

Perhaps I should make one to fit around my glass of red wine as well. It was getting a bit chilled as we sat around the campfire last night.

Classic And Frivolous

Pete's Mum asked me to make a cosy for a friend who likes blue and white china and always makes her tea in a pot (the proper way, right?). So here it is, more restrained in colour than usual but with a generously oversized pom pom to make up for it. I think a tea cosy should be frivolous in some way.

This bank holiday weekend, with the rain we have come to expect, has proven to be perfect for staying in and knitting whilst watching old movies which we have probably seen too many times already.

The Felt Revelation

One of my challenges at the moment, having filled a box with Sock Critters and listed them on Etsy, is what to focus on next? The Airstream has a finite amount of space, the Critters' box is full, time to work on little things. But my mind is in butterfly mode. Must grit teeth and focus.

I have made drawings for lots of smaller projects but I keep flitting from one to another. I've got some knitting on the go - a new tea cosy for the shop and another for my Mum-in-law, plus a couple which are knitted but not finished. As I've said before on this blog, I enjoy the repetitiveness of knitting rows and watching the form unfold slowly from the needles. I might also have one eye and half of my brain on a cheesy/classic film, or the ramblings of a DJ on the radio while I engage in this semi-autonomic activity. But, as soon as the time comes to sew up seams and sew in ends it starts to feel like a chore and I'm tempted to succumb to the thrill of a new project, abandoning my old one until I literally have NOTHING more interesting or pressing to do.

I'm dabbling with felt at the moment. It is a new material for me, and I'm enjoying getting the hang of how it behaves. It behaves very co-operatively in fact. You cut it into shapes and it doesn't fray, or stretch, or roll up at the edges. It comes in all kinds of vibrant colours. You can layer it, or stuff it. It lends itself to cute or funky designs. You can draw something, then make it in felt and it looks just like your drawing! Brilliant! I made this pin cushion to fit a specific space in my sewing box.

Winter Projects

I did finish the shorter mittens from Hand Knitted Things and made another pair to give as a gift. I have, as I expected, had more use out of these than the longer, 'arm warmer' version of the pattern. There's just too much bulk to tuck up into my jacket sleeves. Maybe they're more suitable with just a sweater, or a gilet?

They knit pretty quickly, although when it comes to sewing up any project I usually lose momentum. My attention wanders and my eyes glaze over and I will allow pretty much anything else to grab my interest. So, if you are not me, these mittens are brisk gratification.

Currently on the go is a knitted camper van from The Little Knit Kit Company, one of my lovely crafty prezzies from Pete. So far the pattern looks simple, no shaping involved. The kit comes with everything you need, including some 4mm needles (although I'm using my own longer ones) and some pretty beads to use as headlights and decoration.

We live in an Airstream now but we used to have a red 1973 VW camper van and I still love them to bits. Living in one might be just a bit cramped though. My mission to fill our trailer with sewn and knitted stuffed things is going rather well, except I have been thinking about putting some sock creatures up for adoption.

Chunky Mitts

Here, at last, are the Arm Warmers, made with Sirdar Click Chunky yarn, on straight needles, and following a very simple pattern from Hand Knitted Things. I actually finished them very quickly, for me, but I was put off photographing my hands wearing them because they have been in a right dried-up old state. I had to slather on some heavy duty hand cream before taking this pic, just so that you wouldn't recoil in disgust.

The yarn is a mix of acrylic and wool. I usually buy pure wool, even when it isn't necessarily practical. I just prefer the feel of it. But the wool shop which is to be my local for as long as we decide to stay in our current location (somewhere in the county of Worcestershire) has a large selection of yarns, but most of them are blends. If I'm going to be a purist I'll have to travel further afield.

The cable stitch was a cinch. How pleasing to be able to create a complicated effect by simple means. And I like the finished result so much I went straight out to buy more (blended) wool and I am knitting a shorter pair. I liked the idea of a long-armed mitten, but I think I will rarely have exposed forearms in the next few months.

Still Cosy After All These Years

This tea cosy inspired me to knit. Just look at it. Isn't it perfect? Clearly made from brightly-coloured scraps jumbled together, it is the word 'jolly' manifest in wool. It used to belong to Pete's grandmother and it brought a bit of crazy colour to our neutral-hued home for a few years before being put into storage at the beginning of our Airstream travels. We weren't going to have a teapot, taking up space and payload (weight allowance). Well that soon changed. Tea and coffee are important to me and they have to be made properly - brewed and infused rather than scalded and wrung out!

We recently had a bit of a sort through of our stored possessions and this little cosy came to light again. It has been brought aboard, even though I had just made a new one. A bit restrained in colour perhaps, but in keeping with the Airstream's interior.

My own grandmother showed me how to make cosies, carrying the yarn across the back and keeping the tension. She was a speed knitter. She used to make some dodgy things though, like ladies in crinoline dress toilet roll holders, and lacy tissue box covers. All of these unnecessary disguises would be in whatever garish wool she had stashed. Every time my parents redecorated the bathroom a new crinny lady would be produced, whereupon ( yes that is a real word, heathens) it would be hidden out of sight until she visited and it was ceremoniously placed on the toilet cistern, as if that was where it always lived. More grateful recipients were, hopefully, the charities to whom she donated her wares to raise money.

Anyway, I shall be making good use of one or other of these cosies today. Pete has gone to Wembley to see the NFL game and I will be indulging in a new knitting project, lots of tea and biccies and repeats of Sherlock Holmes and Poirot. More about the project later. I'll just say that it's a pair of hand warmers with a cable stitch. Hand warmers? Like gloves, but without fingers. I was assured by the enthusiastically helpful woman in the wool shop that there's nothing to a cable stitch, much less complicated than it looks. We shall see. Now, time for a brew.

Crafty Airstreamers

Last weekend at the fourth UKAirstreamers Gathering near Ludlow we had the first 'Unhitch and Stitch on the Sunday' afternoon. There was some knitting going on, and some exchanging of techniques. I learnt how to cast on with my thumb and other crafties who had forgotten how to knit, had their memories jogged.

I got engrossed in teaching four young Airstreamers how to make sock creatures. Alice and Will had to go home before finishing so I hope I'll be getting photos of their creatures sometime. Jordan and Rory weren't in a hurry, as this is their farm, and they each managed to make a creature in one afternoon. Check them out! Aren't they brilliant?

There is much more about the completely fabulous time we had at our UKAirstreamers Gathering on our other blog, Pete And Tracey On The Road.

It's A Knitted Slug!

I had a go at knitted Amigurumi for the first time. There's a lot of it out there on the crafting websites and I didn't really get it until now. Wiki says it is the "art" of crocheted or knitted stuffed toys, typically animals and "inanimate objects endowed with anthropomorphic features". Now that's what's been missing from my knitting projects. And naturally it originates in Japan.

I've seen lots of funny little crocheted animals, some more recognisable than others, and then there's the craze for knitted cup cakes. All very clever but I couldn't really see the point. It was all a bit too pretty and cute for me.

And then I found a pattern for a knitted slug! Now that's more like it. Find this and other bugs and pesky creatures at cheezombie on Etsy.

I had to concentrate. It's not a project for doing on autopilot whilst watching an episode of Wallander in Swedish. It was so much fun. I learned new shaping techniques. This one was one of cheezombie's flat-knit patterns, most are on circular needles.


What next? I like the idea of a family of slugs, and their gnat pattern is ugly-cute. Or what about Eddie Lizzard? Or the Lobstah?

Al Fresco Knitting

We have been without internet for almost a week. We had used up our monthly bandwidth in the run-up to the Airstream gathering and ended up counting the days til the 2nd of June when we could start communicating with the world at large again. I may have already made a big dent in this month's quota by catching up on blogs.


The gathering was lovely. More about it on our joint blog. I even fitted in a few rows of knitting under the shade of our awning. It's going to be a tea cosy. The craft world has embraced the internet and there is an overwhelming universe of knitting and crochet websites and blogs out there. I've noticed that some knitters get hooked on making socks. Just check out Yarn Harlot. She makes all kinds of stuff but always seems to come back to socks. For me it's tea cosies. It's like a default setting or a return to normality after trying something new.

We are on the road again. We actually ended up in one spot for six months. We hadn't planned it that way, it just happened, and we were in a lovely place on the Somerset Levels. Moving on to the gathering was a brilliant way to start our summer travels and now that we are on our way, I'm really looking forward to some new scenery and fresh outlooks. We will be moving every two or three weeks from now on. I will also be looking out for any signs of the upcoming World Wide Knit In Public Day, which is apparently on or around the 12th June.

Branching Out

After two years living and travelling in an Airstream and sharing the blogging on ukairstreamers.blogspot.com I thought it was time to branch out and put some of my wooly musings on my own blog. Don't be fooled by the title. It's not all about knitting.

Yes I am a nomadic knitter, and more recently crocheter and sock creature maker, but those titles don't scan so well. Plus I enjoy going off on a tangent and I aspire to avoid consistency.


One grandmother taught me the basics of knitting, the other crochet. These skills lay dormant until I decided a few years ago to knit a scarf in the style of Gromit's in A Close Shave as a Christmas present for Pete. I was perfectly happy to knit scarves for a while, simply enjoying the repetitive act of knitting rows and rows, and friends seemed more than happy to receive them as prezzies. Then when I was ready for more skills my knitting grandmother showed me how to make old-fashioned, pleated tea cosies. I have her pattern which is so folded and thumbed it has practically lost its molecular integrity.


So I make small things. I think I'm a slow knitter and I get excited about a new project, but I don't want to have to wait too long for the finished product. I also get excited about the colours, finding the right one that just sits there looking gorgeous, combining colours so that they blend or pop out from one another. These combinations aren't always wearable but they look fab on a teapot.


I recently had a flashback to how my other grandmother showed me how to crochet a granny square. Sadly she wasn't around for long and I didn't know anyone else who crocheted. I recently bought a "Compendium of Crochet Techniques" by Jan Eaton and so I am branching out. I like the potential for more three-dimensional textures with crochet so I'm looking forward to combining those with some jumping colours.