A Scarf Tale

(Note from the author: It's actually been nearly six weeks since I saved this post as a draft just needing to take a few more photos to finish it off. I started this in the last week of MAY! However, in the meantime life has hit hard with a death in the family, massive marking obligations (100+ assignments and about the same number of exams) and a house which is in a state of messy, dusty renovation. So while it is now deep into a very cold winter and the floods have abated, I haven't changed the beginning of the post).

Winter has hit with a vengeance here in country Victoria (and it's not even officially winter for a bit over a week!) Seasons, you need to learn to stick to your allotted timetable! As a write this, the fog is sliding gently across by backyard wreathing the grass in a mysterious grey haze. Last night the backyard more closely resembled a swimming pool with the surface water deep enough to rise over the tops of your shoes and turn your socks into a sodden, soggy mess (which is exactly what happened to me when I put the extremely disgruntled chicken to bed). There was also a waterfall going on in the back porch with the gutters having given up in protest at the sheer volume of watering bucketing from the sky.

All this winter weather means the winter clothing has come out. Last Saturday as I was excavating the house from under a week's accumulated debris of a family of five busy people in preparation for a mass wash of the clothes, I counted the scarves, hats and other accessories as I uncovered them. Back of armchair in the lounge room, one plain black pashima type scarf. Half stuffed down the side of the Head of the Household's favourite chair, a stretchy bouncy little number in a greenish grey khaki type shade (didn't pick the head of the household as a scarf person - blame the girls instead, whoops it was me). Under a crumpled labcoat, a black mohair beret. Tied around the straps of my laptop bag, my favourite fuzzy red, blue, yellow diagonal knitted, multi-coloured scarf. How did it end up there? Oh, I remember, I was trying not to drop it in a puddle when I got out of the car with my hands full. I also found a fetching little number in grey leopard print, a maroon and black zebra print (much nicer than the description sounds), a Geelong football scarf recovering from a hard night out at the MCG watching its team lose the night before, a pale blue rib scarf which used to be a school scarf attempting an escape from the girl's washing basket and a plain grey pashima. What can I say? My girls, particularly the oldest one, are The Queens of the Accessory.

This is what the back of the door in their bedroom looks like. And this is not even it in it's full glory - pretty much all the afore mentioned scarves were in the wash when I took these pictures.

Berets, beanies, pashimas, lace scarves and hand-knits (including two knit by my daughters)

Look, they're even sort of colour co-ordinated

So it seemed like a great excuse to chronicle the life histories of a a few of the hand-knit scarves which have found their way into our wardrobes. Every scarf needs a chance to tell their story. Considering how many scarves there are around this house, this is possibly Chapter 1 of a saga.

The somewhat acceptable blue school scarf. This scarf owes its existence to the clean out of someone else's stash. I think the wool was originally part of a large donation of odds and ends of wool from my Mum' next door neighbour. This scarf could tell lots of stories. The principal of my daughter's school always felt that it met the strict private school requirements of plain (really supposed to be Navy) blue school scarf. (I think she just secretly liked it). The uniform Nazi found it offensive whenever she caught it out in public. This usually meant a a few days or so of detention in the basket in her office with all the other 'naughty' clothing. It always served its time and got out though. It even got to go to school in Venice and not get confiscated. It now it makes sense as to why I found it escaping from the washing basket last weekend, it has bad memories of past confinement.

Just enjoying  a casual ride to school on the Grand Canal in Venice

Mummy's favourite red scarf. I don't often make things from kits, especially not knitting kits from large chain stores. However, one day, I was wondering through Big W when a scarf kit caught my eye. The colours were the seller and when I felt the wool, it was soooo soft. This was great fun to knit and very quick as there are no ends to sew in. It's angled garter stitch with an increase on one end and a decrease on the other. It's knitted in random thickness stripes from three different yarns, a plain red and two different multi-coloured textured yarns.

I love how this scarf is so deliciously light and warm. I wear it heaps and when I accidentally left it behind after a lecture one day and it wasn't there when I went back to get it the next day I was devastated. However it was only a short holiday for the scarf as the very nice cleaners had sent it to lost property. There are no photos of me wearing it as I actively avoid having my photo taken. However the scarf it is not so shy...

See it has even very slightly changed its pose

The 'Icecream' scarf. This one is sort of a twin to the red scarf above using the same pattern. Mel picked out the wool and this was knitted up specifically for her to take on her school trip to Italy.

Where else but Venice?

Scarves in the middle of a renovation. This is what the lounge room wall looks like at the moment.

We say a fond in memoriam to a couple of scarves which have outlived their usefulness or their owner's taste, both seasoned overseas travellers with a trip to Italy under their belts. So a fond goodbye to the Oscar the Grouch scarf (which did actually at one stage have an Oscar face on one end - a bit of a failure as it was extremely creepy rather than cute), and the neon orange/yellow "you can't lose me in a crowd if I am wearing this" scarf. You may have both gone on to productive second lives via the op shop but the happy memories live on forever. The neon orange/yellow scarf was too shy to pose for a photograph on its travels but Oscar was proud to show off at the Coliseum in Rome.

Oscar the Grouch Scarf at the Coliseum

And because the very act of writing this post inspired me to knit yet another scarf: here is the current scarf in progress, a ruffle scarf made using garter stitch and short row shaping. The yarn is a cheap junk shop acrylic whose colours will complement a large part of my winter wardrobe. Total cost = $4 + a few evenings of relaxing knitting.

Granny update

The great granny rug construction project is moving along quite nicely. This is just a quick progress update. The granny rug story's first chapter can be found here: Granny wants a latte macchiato.

I have a plan of completing a square a day at least. Some days it works. Others it doesn't. Some days I get 3 or 4 done. However, at last count I had a total of 88 squares, so it seemed to be a good chance to see how they looked together and also to see how large it was and if my initial guess of how many squares I needed was going to be right. I randomly laid them out on the floor and I am amazed at how cool they look. In fact they look so cool, photos of them are currently also serving as the backgrounds on the i-pad and other tablet devices that live in my house.

Clearly it is also a satisfactorily, snugly blankie even in this semi-assembled  state as the cat decided it was worth curling up on. Usually you find the cat snoozing on the end of someone's bed - the messier the bed the better as far as the cat is concerned. It likes to burrow in hollows.

Do I have to have my photo taken?

{I would hereby like to acknowledge Mel for her awesome photography skills in photographing the cat. I have been informed that I should acknowledge her intellectual property and not attempt to exploit her. (Glad to see she is learning something useful in her University education). So once again thanks to Mel and the cat. Maybe I owe it a modelling fee?}

The future recipient of the granny rug likes it too. I have even been good and been sewing in the ends as I go. Nearly a third of the way there now. Yay! At his rate it will only take me about 6 more months (let's not think about that now)... How about one more cool photo of progress so far instead?

A sock story

This is the story of some very old socks: two pairs of hand-knit socks and one odd sock.

The odd sock that started it all

When I first started to knit competently, I thought it was time to learn some new techniques namely knitting in the round and stranded colour knitting particularly fairisle. The one odd sock, which is really a Christmas stocking, was the result. This is not a sock which would normally fit any foot I know. The leg part is OK, but the foot is very roomy. It does however fit over a tightly wrapped ankle I remember. The highlight of this sock's existence was being worn in public over a strapped ankle for about a month after a nasty incident involving a set of stairs and a race against an elevator when I was 18. The elevator won and I tore every ligament in my ankle.

I don't really remember there being a pattern as such for this though I did use a generic pattern to figure out how to turn the heel. The fairisle patterning is definitely experimental. This is one of the oldest pieces of knitting I still have. I knitted it in my late teens so its at the very least a veteran sock (on the grounds that cars are veteran if they are more than 25 years old).

Close up of the fairisle at the top of the sock

 

You can see this is an old sock - look at the hole

 

Blogging about random socks was prompted by me doing my mending over Easter. The Head of the Household is good at getting holes in just one sock of any pair and if the sock is still otherwise nearly new, I'll darn the holes. So on Easter Saturday, I was darning a sock....

One neat darn. Nearly new sock.

And I thought of the socks. After the Christmas stocking, I thought I would make a pair of fairisle socks sort of like slipper socks. These were knitted on 4 mm double pointed needles using a variety of mostly cheap and nasty 8 ply acrylic yarn (hey I was a poor teenager at the time). Does anyone in Australia remember Disco yarn? The soles haven't really stood up to hard wear and tear. Its a pity with all the intricacy of the knitting that I used such rubbish yarn. I did use a pattern for the foot part of these.

They are still warm snuggly socks

Well loved, battered socks

Developing holes in the band

Large hole evident in bottom of foot

Have been darned but darns are almost worn out

 

There is no excuse for these next socks except to say it was the eighties. This is what happens when leg warmers breed with socks. The really scary thing is that there used to be a matching jumper....

These socks are knitted in fisherman's rib which can be seen in detail above. This time around I used a variety of 8 ply wool and the foot part is knitted in a machine wash. These ones are great under hiking boots and ski boots. Or they make great slipper socks.

[When I was editing the photos for this blog I discovered my updated photo editor had some cool new photo manipulations built in. So here is one final photo of the one odd sock]

Jo-ann

Random Gift Giving

In my professional life, I often get the chance to collaborate closely with a number of other lecturers at lots of campuses and support staff. On our campus, we are blessed to have an amazing bunch of mainly ladies who run the HUB (Health, Well-being and Development Services). They do everything from help students with financial crises, teach inventive meditation students to stressed exam students, offer an ear to tales of woe, immunise us against flu epidemics, cater to our spiritual well being, and go above and beyond the call of duty to support our disabled students and help students effectively plan for their future careers after they finish their degrees.

One of my subjects includes a career planning component and so I get to team teach each semester with the Careers Advisor. She needs an enormous pat on the back for more than holding up her half of the bargain. I always know that it will run to plan and everything will come together on the day when I work with her. So this year (after a brilliant careers panel, lecture and tutorial) I felt it was time to tell her I noticed all the effort with a random gift.

When I first saw the pattern for these Little Kimono Ladies by Clare Scope-Farrell in Issue 86 Of Simply Knitting I knew I had to make some of them. I quite often make little random gift knits so I have something on hand as a small gift when I need one.

I decided to make the peachy coloured one first partly because it has such a cool pigtail. Here is the stuffed body and head piece. I made one slight change to this and used the lid of a juice bottle in the base of the body rather than a cardboard circle as suggested. I was really impressed with how well this worked. It makes a really stable, solid base.

Various members of my family made very rude comments about what this looked like at this stage. Use your imagination.

Here's the back seam

And the back of the finished doll

The finished figure is about 11 cm tall. The needles used are 3 mm and the yarn is assorted 8 ply (DK) acrylic and wool from the stash. I really want to make a few more now, but I am in granny rug mode at the moment. Square count as of 1st April is

65 squares

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.