A present for Louise

 This is for Louise of Raspberries in Winter. Louise is really the person who got me into blogging. I've loved reading Louise's various blogs over the last few years. Louise is a gifted photographer, a fellow crafts-person and a great procrasti-baker (Procrasti-baking, a term coined by my eldest daughter, is the art of baking to avoid studying). Louise just has a way of chronicling life in our part of the world that is sometimes quirky, beautifully illustrated with cool photos and always interesting. She also did good tutoring via proxy for a novice blogger. So thank you Louise for lots of things and congratulations on your recently celebrated Blogiversary.

So a present for Louise? I think today I might tease you a little before I reveal the finished item and its story. Obviously it's a knitted item because that's pretty much what I do. Lets see if you can guess what it is from the following work in progress clues...

Knitted fuzzy bits and pieces

 

Is it a bird?

Is it a plane? Only joking? Looks like penguin.

Alright the next one will give it away...

It's a cat!

Louise's dad is a notorious cat hater. (See Louise's post Cat Cat Kitty Cat from July this year). As a real one was out of the question (although Mel did offer to lend ours to her for a short term visit), I decided I finally had reason to knit a particularly cute cat pattern from my To be knitted list. So here is an unobjectionable cat that Louise's Dad can live with. No allergy problems, no sleeping on his favorite chair, no fur everywhere and no scratching the furniture. No need to feed it. Just cute and cuddly.

The pattern is from The English Woman's Weekly. I though this was cute from the first time I saw it but it is knitted from a specialty yarn. The pattern calls for Sirdar Snowflake Chunky which was really only available in Australia for a while about 10 years ago and so it took a while to find a suitable substitute. I've knitted this in Bella Baby Sooky. It was knitted on 4mm (UK 8) and 3mm (UK 11) needles.

The cat joined the exodus to the park and had its photo taken along with the Little Poppets. I also thought it was a great way to showcase the absolutely gorgeous display of gladioli in my front garden at the moment. Enjoy the cat and the flowers.

(P.S. If you want to see how the cat is settling in at Louise's see her post here).

Cat rides horse

 

 

These are species gladioli rather than the cut flower variety

Little Poppets in the park

This post is a little different. Today I'm going to post about a photographic excursion I took with some of my knitted creations, the Little Poppets last Sunday afternoon. Now these girls have been clamouring to be blogged about for a while, hanging out underfoot, in the lounge room, on my ironing board and at one stage on my computer desk. (As I write this, they are imprisoned in a orange Kung Fu Panda shopping bag on the ironing board). 'Yes' I said, looking at them. 'You'll get your go. You just deserve to be photographed in a way more in keeping with your character. Something groovy and funky and frivolous'. However, inspiration refused to strike except to rule out photographing them sitting on the couch or in the garden.

Then a couple of weeks ago, I  read an article in the Fall 2011 Issue of Petite Purls by their resident photographer and co-editor, Brandy Fortune,  called How to Stage a Cute and Timeless Photoshoot. And the germ of an idea on how to most properly photograph the Little Poppets took root.

Then I had to wait for the weather gods to smile on me sufficiently at a time when I could actually do something about it. So last Sunday afternoon, we gathered up the models (a herd of stuffed cats also joined in, but they get their own post later), stuffed them ignominiously head first into a shopping bag, grabbed the 'good' camera and strolled off to the park (children's playground) around the corner. I really wanted to go to the big all-access playground next to the racecourse in our town as it has the most beautiful hand carved sitting ponies but I figured I'd get less weird looks carrying around a camera and a bag of stuffed toys in my own neighbourhood. I have found that the 'good' camera, a fully auto Pentax SLR tends to convince people that you actually know what you are doing anyway.

The little poppets on the slide

So here are the Little Poppets on the slide. The one on the left is an angel, complete with knitted wings which I knitted for Mel. The one on the right has stepped right out of the Swinging sixties in London and belongs to my eldest daughter. I knitted these about 6 or 7 years ago when the girls were in their early teens. In some ways, these dolls are a little bit of a failure. I was experimenting with hair so the brown doll has a million braids. The angel one has long blond hair using about six or seven different shades of yellow wool. It's not that I don't like their hair; it's just that I didn't know when to stop so their heads are so heavy they can't hold them up!

Next on the agenda was a pony ride.

No, you're supposed to face the other way!

Then a go on the swing and some climbing and hanging on the monkey bars.

These dolls are made from the Little Poppets pattern originally published in the English Women's Weekly. They are knitted in a mix of 8 ply (Double Knitting) acrylic yarns from the stash. I modified the eyes as I didn't like the originals (see here for more about how to do these embroidered doll eyes). These dolls are stuffed with a combination of stuffing (the heads and limbs and the upper part of the body) and pellets (the rest of the body) which allows them to sit on the edge of shelves, etc... However, the angel's pellets tend to congregate at the bottom of her body as so she looks a bit fat (or pregnant as one unkind person in the family commented when checking out the photos).

The Poppets and I (and the photographer's assistant - more about him in a future blog post - the one about the herd of cats) had fun hanging out in the park on a Sunday afternoon.

She IS looking a little fat here

I have had a really productive last couple of weeks finishing off about 6 projects, but most of them are gifts and so I have to hold off blogging about them until they've gone to their new homes. Just keep your eyes open for a smorgasbord of cute over the next few months.

Jo-ann

The Beret Project: The Second Installment

Berets are addictive to knit and a girl just can't have too many. The documentation of the The Beret Project on this blog began here. After the success of the first berets, I was now ready to try lace berets.

The first beret the girls tried to get me to buy was a light and lacy leaf patterned beret. It was gorgeous but too expensive. I haven't ever found a pattern that was quite the same but this one jumped out as being close. The pattern for this beret is the Lace Tam and Scarf by Susan Rainey of The Rainey Sisters which can be downloaded as free pdf file here. When I saw the pattern I immediately knew that the beret had to be red too. (Plus I'm old enough that the Prince song Raspberry Beret was running through my head too).

Actually the stash had several gorgeous red / cherry / maroon odd balls of yarn. Mel's beret is knitted in a Bendigo Woolen Mill's 8 ply wool alpaca blend on a set of four 2.75 mm needles. The eldest daughter also has the same beret knitted in a slightly different shade or red in a wool acrylic mix. I don't have any photographs of this one as it lives a few hours away and is rather shy. However, Facebook stalking has located it on holiday in Daylesford (see the small photo at the end of the post).

Mel wearing her red beret

I should apologize to my family (Mel is particular). Since I started blogging I do tend to creep up on people who are wearing knitted garments I have made for them with the camera yelling 'Stand still and Smile'. I do seem however to end up with photos of people looking startled, annoyed or grinning manically till I go away. I think the photo above probably illustrates "Just take the stupid photo and go away'. The scarf Mel is wearing was hand-knit for her by  little Italian lady from Spinete, a small town in Italy where she was on a home stay a few years ago on a school trip.

This is actually the first photo. I sneaked up behind her.

The underside of the beret while it is being blocked. Note the gathering thread run through the brim stitches. For a more complete description of how to block a beret see The Beret Project: Chapter 1

Close up of the blocked beret

The underside of the beret after blocking

The finished beret

The other elusive red beret on holiday in Daylesford

How to wear a dead fox

I have vivid picture memories my Oma (my Dad's mum) wearing her Sunday Best, a tailored wool coat and a fox fur scarf. I'm not fond of real fox furs, the musty small of vintage fur and those fake glass beady eyes always put me off. However, I've always thought the concept is cool.

Oma (second from left) wearing the dead fox at Mum and Dad's wedding

Here are some of the best knitted dead foxes out there that I've found recently. 

Knitted fox scarf. Made by Eugenia Kim and available through Anthropologie. (Unfortunately they are sold out).

 

Nina Furher Uniques Knitwear

Pattern available from the Etsy store Pretty Flamingo

This is by an Australian Fashion label called TV.

By English Designer Donna Wilson

Knitted and Felted animal scarves by Mia Underwood

Crochet fox scarf pattern from Esty store Bees Knees Knittin

And finally two free dead foxes to knit for yourself:
From Katie Boyette at Caffaknitted,  The Stone Cold Fox Scarf.

 And from Knitty Magazine, The Vegan Fox.

 My dead fox is still a long time work in progress (about 10 years or so). The design genesis comes from three sources both predating all the foxes I've since found on the internet.

The first was a visit about 10 years or so ago to the Royal Melbourne Show. The Head of the Household and I were looking at the prize winning knitting exhibits (especially the knitted toys and novelties) and I said I could do better (there was an overabundance of Jean Greenhouse dolls and toys which seems to be the knitted toy designer of choice for the over 80 knitting brigade). So he dared me to try.

The second was a pattern for a knitted tiger scarf which I had made. This comes from an early pattern book written by Debbie Bliss for Hayfield Yarn. (And I've just realized that that this is yet another knitted cat-like creature inhabiting my house).

As well as the tiger scarf there is a knitted bear and crocodile scarf.

Tiger in the grass

I think his tail looks like the keys on a piano

Close up of the tiger face

The third inspiration was some yarn from my stash. One ball in particular reminded me so much of a foxes tail. Another ball was foxy colours. Eyelash yarn had just become popular and one day I found some in a junk shop the exact red orange of a foxes coat. So I knitted the head and tail. I'm still working on the body...

Inspirational fox wool

A fox in progress

Foxy's Head: Needs a tongue and possible some wicked teeth

Foxy's tail

The reverse of the knitted body piece. It is actually a random mix of three different yarns knitted singly.

I should finish this someday. Dead knitted foxes appear to be trendy at the moment.

Jo-ann