Loved: Childhood Friends

#a month of moments
22. Loved
When I was little we lived in various caravan parks in heavy industrial towns around Australia as my father pursued his career as a construction electrician; Port Kembla in NSW where the steel industry is town's lifeblood, Mount Isa, the red heart of Outback Queensland and an obscure place called Saraji, about 100 miles inland from Mackay in Queensland, the home of a massive open cut coal mine. I had a constant companion during these years, my teddy who I gave the highly original name of Ted.

My Dad documented my childhood with his super eight camera and there are blurry movies of me running down endless hills swinging teddy by the hand. Me swinging upside down on some jungle gym which wouldn't get Occupational Health and Safety approval today showing my knickers with teddy sitting safely propped against a pole at the base looking out for me. Me curled up sleepily somewhere with teddy tucked under my arm and my thumb firmly in my mouth.

I still have teddy. He lost an eye somewhere and I replaced it with a blue paint thumbprint. His growler gave up the ghost. His fur is threadbare and the oil cloth pads on his paws wore out. A few years ago I launched a teddy rescue mission and totally restored him with new hands and feet, eyes and nose and fresh stuffing. He still shows the signs of being firmly and unconditionally loved but may now live to survive many more years yet.

 

But Ted wasn't an only child. Somewhere in my early years, Susie also came along. Susie was my other constant playmate. She is 15 inches tall (39 cm) about America Girl sized but she was made in England. (It even says so on the back of her head). The weirdest thing about Susie has always been the fact that she has white hair - old lady hair on young girl doll.

The suitcase here holding Susie's clothes is my first school suitcase, or port as we called them in New South Wales.

I nibbled off several of Susie's fingers. Her hair is matted and there is evidence of someone's amateur hairdressing skills. She gives a new definition to the problem of cracked heels. Her arm hangs on by the barest thread. My children have done something to one of her eyes and it doesn't open or close properly anymore and these days her expression is just plain creepy. She badly needs the attention of an expert doll plastic surgeon. But I still love her.

Susie in her winter underwear

I honed my dressmaking skills dressing Susie. When I was little, my Mum made her clothes and Teddy would cross dress in Susie's clothes. As I got older, I learned to sew and the rudiments of pattern drafting from my Grandmother who was a professional seamstress. I remember being able to rummage through her precious offcuts and trimmings to make Susie clothes. Not many of these gorgeous but somewhat shoddily made creations survived to this day.

This was my first dress I made on a sewing machine.

As my own children grew, I raided my Mum's collection of antique doll's clothes knitting patterns and made Susie a new wardrobe. I even made Susie and the girls matching outfits.

Nightie and Dressing gown

This outfit was original made for the boy's defunct knitted boy doll "Man". They also fit Teddy when he wants to dress up and the cable cardie fits Susie too.

Underwear and socks

Some of the wardrobe

The girls had matching outfits to this.

I love how I have my childhood memories packed into my childhood suitcase.

B is for Bears and Berets

B is for bears

Baby Bear Cub by Sue Pedleton.
Who can resist such a sad little bear face?

The ballet bear. For her full story read on here @ The Ballet Years

From my favourite ever knitted bear book by Debbie Bliss.

And Sleepy Bear in a Bunny Suit from the same book. I've made this one a few times as a new baby gift (though this one is not mine, it's by This is Knit).

Graduation bear - One of the gradu-animals

And I know that Pandas aren't really bears. but this was too cute to resist. And it reminds me of certain Italian exchange student who is obsessed with Pandas
By Owlishly (Mia Zamora-Johnson): Pearl in a Panda Suit.

B is for Berets

Anyone who is a regular reader of my blog may have guessed that I'm a fan of a beret. You merely have to follow the next instalment of the ongoing saga that is The Beret Project. (Just type "The Beret Project" into the search box on my blog to see all berets so far). These are the ones on the top of my to do list...

The Beckett Beret by Mary Veterano (Platformnine Designs)
Inspired by the character Detective Kate Beckett from the TV show Castle. Love the cables (and the colour).

Classic Elite Yarns Soft Linen Lace Beret
I like the fact that this has a panel of  contrasting stitches at the front.

The Rustling Leaves Beret by Alana of Never Not Knitting from the book Coastal Knits. I'm amazed at ingenuity of interlocking leaves and how it was inspired by eucalyptus leaves rustling in the ocean winds. How very Australian for a beret design inspired by the American coastline.

And finally, lets mesh the themes. Here's a Bear in a Beret.
The British Army Teddy Bear, with his red beret and camouflage.

UFOs and PhDs (Take 2)

In my last post, I was telling you of my belated New Year's resolution to complete all my UFOs (unfinished Objects). However, I only got about half way through the list last time before I decided the post was getting epically long. So here is Part 2: the rest of them.

Jean Greenhowe Teddy. Another almost finished project. This was born from a skein of beautiful hand dyed merino I bought at a craft show. I love the wool and he is just the right level of fuzziness and squishy-ness. But I can't get his face right. He is supposed to have knitted nose and no mouth (see pattern picture below). I have done this but then removed it cos it just wasn't right... Also his back seam is off centre (which makes me cranky).

Hug me!

From Jean Greenhowe's Christmas Special, Reindeer and Polar Bear

Tropical Bird. My Mum gave my kids a Women's Weekly Book called "Knit a Square: Make a Toy". This is a combined effort from a few people knitting the squares. It's all done - just needs sewing up now. (Is anyone getting the impression this is my least favourite part of knitting toys?) This one is for sale or gifting.

This is what It should look like when I assemble it.

Mike the monkey. OK, this one is just frustrating. This is the project I took with me on my summer holiday to Queensland in January to finish off. It's a kit I got as a Christmas present in 2010. I had made one and a half legs. I finished the leg and did the arms and then started on the body...

 Notice something about that brown bit still on the needles? That's right, THERE IS NO MORE WOOL. As it was a commercial kit, I can't match it. I knitted to gauge and used the right size needles and everything!!! I will frog this I suppose (When I get over being so pissed off). I don't even really like monkeys anyway! I hate you Mike the Monkey. (Unless someone has some matching yarn to donate?)

Prudence Mapstone Scrumble Handbag. It's been a bit of a tradition for the last 15 years or so that I go to a Craft Show for my birthday with my Mum and littlest sister and then they buy me something crafty I love as my birthday present. We used to have the Stitches and Craft Show on  around mid March at the Caulfield Racecourse in Melbourne. However, it disappeared from this venue a few years ago so this is a tradition I really missed this year. This bag is an unfinished birthday present project from about 4 or 5 years ago. My Mum bought me the book, my sister the plastic bag frame.

Its going to be covered in flowers

I have this vision of a handbag covered in a multicoloured carpet of flowers and leaves - sort of like a tropical forest.

Here's the bag frame. At the moment it is covered with some fake fur pieces I knitted as the cuffs and collar of a cardigan that didn't really work out. I did re-knit the rest of the cardigan but without the fake fur collar. However, I don't like this and I'm got to take it off.

Here are some of the leaves I am going to use. I really like the garter stitch embroidered ones.

At the last craft show it went to late last year, I got the opportunity to have a sit down class with Prudence Mapstone and get to refine my skills at freeform knitting and crochet. Here's the little scrumble I did with my kit in class. I'm definitely re-inspired to finish this bag now. I'm not sure about the colour palette I'm using though.

Cardigan.
I have this favourite dull golden khaki cardigan I bought a few years ago - a commercial one not a hand-knit. However, It is the most comfortable thing to wear and I love the swing and shape of it. Its one problem is that it has three quarter length sleeves limiting the times of year I can wear it. Then I found this cute 5ply baby yarn on sale in Summer at Spotlight. I bought what I thought was enough yarn to knit a long sleeved cardigan but didn't factor in the fact that it has a swirly lower edge strip and a wide collar.

Here's how far I have got, upper fronts, upper back and two sleeves done. But I only have 2 and a bit balls left of the yarn. And that's not going to be enough.

So here's Plan B, I have some really disgusting brown coloured 5ply which appears to be nearly as old as I am in my stash so I'll knit the lower part in stripes. The brown tones nicely with the darkest part of the variegated yarn I was using. Then I should have enough to do the front edgings and collar in the original yarn.

AK Traditions Doll. This was a 40th birthday gift from my mum, my sister and my Aunty Carol. This is a kit for a doll from AK Traditions. I have been admiring AK traditions knitted doll kits for a long time. I love their modern twist on ethnic traditions and the quality of the materials they put in their kits. This is a dress-up-doll for grown-ups. As well as the doll, I have a number of different patterns to make her clothes, both knitted and sewn.

Here are the doll bits I have knitted so far, both legs, the body back and front with integrated underwear, the head front and back and one arm. Its almost ready to be sewn up and stuffed. This is a case of slow deliberate procrastination. Its the knitting equivalent of reading a good book really slowly to draw out the goodness of it. It is so beautiful to knit with soft springy merino wool, I don't really want to finish the knitting. This is really a once in a lifetime knit.

Here's what the finished doll will look like (unclothed).

And here's the dressed version. My chosen colourway is the one on the left.

Granny wants a Latte Macchiato. Strictly speaking, this one is not a UFO. It is a WIP (the current Work In Progress). Its zooming along. I have a plan of a square a day. I don't necessarily make it every day but some days I get four or five done and that makes up for it. The current square count as of 17th March is  

59 squares.

 And I'm being a good girl and sewing in the ends as I go. 

To keep me on track, I signed up for Pip Lincolne of Meet Me at Mikes' Granny a Day Challenge.

So this project is now linked on her page so I can get cheered on to victory (i.e. granny rug completion)  by the rest of the challenge participants. Hey, a little bit of encouragement goes a long way.

There are actually more of these now.

UFOs and PhDs (a belated New Year's Resolution)

All knitters know about UFOs: the inevitable unfinished objects. Us sophisticated types prefer to refer to them as PhDs (Projects Half Done). I don't really believe in New Year's resolutions (as I never keep them) but I did sort of set one for myself this year. I decided to that I need to finish the unfinished objects (But first I needed to find them... This may be the reason why a New Year's Resolution post is actually happening midway through February).

So here are the UFOs I have unearthed from various nooks and crannies and hidey-holes. This was a really useful exercise. I got to be honest about just how much stuff I have stashed and discover where it was hidden. Dragging them out into the bright light of day to be photographed forced me to decide their ultimate fate. Will I ever finish them or should they be frogged (that's unravelled back to balls of wool for those who aren't fluent in "knitspeak")?  Do I really need to stop procrastinating about sewing fiddly things up?

The Dead Fox. This is one of my longest standing UFOs. I've blogged about this one and the inspiration for the project before. However, I really find feathers type novelty yarn hard going to knit for any length of time so its likelihood of getting finished any time soon is pretty small. It hasn't got enough votes to go to the top of the "To Be Completed Next" list at this time.

Gentleman's Sampler Afghan cushion. This is from Nicky Epstein's Book "knitting for Your Home (which is out of print these days). I actually got to meet Nicky at Craft Show in Melbourne a few years ago and she kindly autographed my book and told me that it is now considered a rare item. This cushion is intended for my son's room. He choose the patterns and colours for the initial two squares we made and the buttons we used. It goes with the decor in his room where the interior walls are painted to resemble stone castle walls.

Two squares done

This one is definitely a keep and finish. Need to decide what other two squares to make now. Actually also toying with turning this into the outer layer of case for his new Asus Tablet. These two squares are the right size to make one side of a case.

Domino Cushion. At a craft show a few years ago I picked up a little book called  Domino Knitting by Vivian Hoxbro. (In fact one of the things I consistently by at craft shows is books). This was a test piece. I wanted to see how to make basic domino squares and then how to add an I Cord edge.

Completed cushion front

Domino knitting book

This one is finished. I just need to add a cushion back and then stuff it. This is a definitely finish project. I need to go and measure it and see if a commercial cushion insert will fit. This one will be a gift or for sale as it doesn't really go with my home decor and my husband sees all cushions as offensive and requiring killing and dismembering. Though cushions in the kid's rooms escape his radar. It would go with the girl's bedroom renovation though. Hmm....
 

Domino shawl. This then led to the domino shawl / wrap. This was inspired by the wool which was birthday present. The photos don't really do it justice. The three colours: a brown with a blue thread through it, a grey marl and a black all have metallic gold and silver threads through them. I'm not sure how big this will be as I haven't really got a handle on how far the wool will go.

This is a very fun knit in small doses. I used to take it with me to ballet rehearsals (no more of those now since the eldest daughter retired from competitive dancing about three years ago) but it's getting a little large to be readily portable. This one I will definitely finish (but in little chunks). I'm not sure if I will wear it though!

Thomas the Tank Engine. I think Thomas is actually the longest running UFO I found (about 10 years). He is still a UFO mainly because he is sort of finished and functional as is. This is an Alan Dart pattern from the English Woman's Weekly (again out of print) and now worth a fortune on Ebay (if you can get one).

This is Thomas. He looks sort of finished doesn't he? In fact he had at least 5 years of quality playtime with my son when he was little. I actually dug him out of stuffed toy chest to take his photo.

However, these are the bits still to be added. I gave up on this for a number of reasons. It is knitted in 12ply (about aran weight) on very small needles so it is really painful on the hands after any length of time. It is extremely fiddly to sew up. And finally, notice that black bit still on the needles. I ran out of the ball of 12ply I was using and none of the other blacks quite matched. There is very little knitting to be completed here. It's mainly sewing up.

I will finish this. After all who could resist a face like this and this is a future family heirloom. I can just see it handed down through the generations. It's knitted out of good quality wool and has already stood up to a mountain of abuse (I meant vigorous play) with no visible effect.

Dickensian mice. Another vintage Alan Dart Pattern from the English Women's Weekly. I like to have a number of small knitted toys as gifts. These ones make ideal Christmas presents. So I tend to knit them when I just want to do something little.

This is nearly finished. I have the head and arms sitting there waiting to be sewn up and stuffed. I just need to remember which one I was knitting....

Ninja Knitter. My Ravelry account name is ninja_knitter. Ravelry is like Facebook for fibre artists Those who knit, crochet and spin). My little avatar at the moment is a calculator, but I want a ninja knitter. So I'm making one. This is mainly unfinished as you can't crochet black under artificial lighting. I'm also designing as I go, so it's a bit slow.

Sheep. This sheep is part of my sister's Christmas Crib. Once again all the bits are here but I have to sew it up. There's probably only about an hour's work here. Just finish it will you. (I also need to make a few more sheep, one sheep is lonely, 3 is a flock).

Camel. This is an addition to an existing Alan Dart Christmas Crib set which belongs to the small grandsons of a friend of mine. The Christmas Crib was knitted by an elderly lady in a nursing home. However, one little boy when looking at the three kings, said "Where's their camel? They need a camel!" The original pattern doesn't have a camel so I'm knitting this one from Alan Dart's Noah's Ark instead. I'm hoping the scale will work with the Three Kings.

I started sewing up the camel but need to look at the pattern to figure out which way the neck and head go together. Also, I dreading those legs which have straws in them to make then stand up properly. I did mean to have this one finished for last Christmas...

The pattern comes from this book

A headless bear. This was intended to be an aviator bear for my Long-term University Office room mate. His hobby in his spare time is to fly a light plane into remote communities and bring hands on Science to the kids of the school of the Air. He is affectionately known as Phiggles - the Flying Scientist. If you want a clearer picture of exactly what he does have a look at the ad made by Vegemite about him. The pattern for this bear comes from Debbie Bliss's book Teddy Bears: Twenty Five Irresistible Designs for knitted bears.

So I raided the stash, found some wool, knitted away and then ran out of wool. I have made the body, both arms and legs and sewed them up and stuffed them. But he is head-less.

It has been suggested that I just sew him him up and leave him headless. I may just do this.