Recycling

Recycling is so very 'now'.  But recycling has been going on for ever.  Then again, recycling can mean something quite different depending on the era.

This book was published in 1915. 

WW1 was raging and recycling was a necessity for most people, so, it was often a topic of interest, especially for women trying to make ends meet.  I find the difference in how we 'express' ourselves in different eras interesting.  Back in 1915 we 'explained' what we meant with a lot more words.

A good example was the 'Preface'.

War is a hard, stern teacher, and its lessons are bitter in the learning; yet some of its teaching we badly needed - and not the least important of its main lessons is the one it inculcated on the criminality of waste.

To so many of us "waste" was a word with a comparative meaning. What was waste in one woman was not necessarily waste in another, we argued.  It was wrong for the factory girl to let her skirts drop off her for lack of mending: but not wrong for the better-off women to discard their clothes directly they showed the least sign of wear, because they could afford to buy more, we said; and besides, it made it good for trade - that was a favourite argument used by the extravagent to excuse their wanton waste.

Harsh words indeed.

On reading this book I had no idea that you could use old crockery for beads.  It seems like a lot of work.  We can purchase beads at a very cheap price today, maybe this is something that will change over the next 100 years?

What I was looking for was drawings, rather like those of Margaret Clarke, to use in my 1920's quilt.  The only thing I found was these illustrations in advertisements.

I might use the faces of the girls looking over the wall and the flowers on the cover could translate into an applique.  Or maybe these?

 

What I can't see myself doing is turning the collars of my husbands shirts.  If he wants that he can do it himself!

Little Bill

Here he is, "Little Bill". 

Never has it taken me so long to finish a small project like this.

I think I must have re-knitted his jumper "upteen times" and then I see that I added an extra row to the pattern, but, it stays.  What was nice was opening my button box and finding a little old button just the right colour.

He goes to his new home next week.

Knitting

I have progressed with my continental form of knitting so I thought it was time I attempted a new piece.  Not too complicated, small and doable.

So Blinky Bill is my first attempt.

I still have to knit his clothes but I am pleased with the progress so far.

Advent is here

Here we are in December again at the beginning of Advent.  I have dug out my little Xmas tree and some of my old decorations.  I selected some that came from my time in Denmark and Sweden.  ( I have to admit that some are now 50 years old.)

The big tree was great when we had a big house but this little one suits our down sized home.

I have also brought out the nativity, minus one wise man who broke during out move.  The Xmas runner that was started by my friend Angela and which I finished the stitching of, and the Xmas candles, which are new.  I will light them on Xmas eve.

I have downloaded my advent calendar from Drops Designs.  I always say "Oh I must knit that" and never do.

And I see that Arne and Carlos have similar knitted decorations at their site.  They talk about Norwegen traditions at Xmas.

 

And they have some very attractive Xmas cross stitch as a background to their demonstration, and, Arne is using both the English and Continental methods of knitting in his colour work.  I really miss knitting.

It is normal Xmas weather, hot, humid and lots of thunder storms.  (This is the time for the Monsoon up north.)

Sometimes they miss our island and go right around us.

Other times we get hammered.

Well that's normal at Xmas.  I just hope that I get home from my cancer treatment each day before they hit .

Blocking your knitting and chrochet.

As a teacher and competition judge I get to see a lot of different work presented.  In the knitting and crochet section the major problem with most work  is that competitors do not know how to block their work properly before presentation.  Good blocking can take your work from being a good standard to being outstanding, it is that important.

I found this very good article on-line at the Knitting Shed's web page.

Their before and after shots of work speak for themselves.

It is hard to find some of these tools locally.  Some small speciality knitting shops have some of these tools but you may have to order them from overseas.  Still, they are worth the investment.    For most of my own work I use  a piece of 'styro-foam' which was left over from packaging, (although you can buy sheets from hardware stores) to pin out my work.  I leave my woollen garment for at least 1 hour, fully immersed in luke warm water to get the thread to really 'relax' before removing it and rolling it in a towel, or multiple towels to remove the excess water then pin it, to shape, on the board .  I don't remove it until it is dry.  (This may take a couple of days depending on the weather.)  If the water is 'hard' I add a little shampoo first.

I got to thinking "where did I learn this?"  I don't know for sure.   I know it wasn't passed on from my family and I didn't learn it in college.  I think probably back in the time I worked in the Fashion Industry. 

Presentation and finish is VERY important for all the things we make.

Knitting

Nice to know my daughter can use my knitting.

I'm off to a hand specialist, when I can get an appointment, so this may be the last knitting for a while.  I'm thinking of the worst so that anything less then that will be a bonus.

I have a little tea pot short and stout.

I love my little tea pot.  It is a 2 cup type and a few years ago my friend Pam gave me a kit to knit a tea cosi for it.

I thought it might be fun to make tea-cosi's for my friends for Xmas this year and went onto the net to see if I couldn't find some cheap 2 cup tea pots.  Prices started at about $50 plus postage!  (This group of friends has set a $10 limit on Xmas gifts.)  So, the next port of call was the Op shops.  There were non in Vinnies, which was a surprise and then I found 2 priced at $5 each in another Op shop.

At the third Op shop prices were around $40 each, so I left quickly.

On the weekend we had our monthly Op shop on the island so I went along and found 2 pots, a sugar bowl and milk jug for $12.00.  Considering that they were Royal Albert in brand new condition, I was very pleased.

So I still need another 2 pots so that I will have 1 for each person in the group.   The next job is to design a different tea cosi for each one which I will either knit or crochet.  I haven't got a clue how to do this so quite a bit of research will be needed.

 

 

New Hat

I have just finished the easiest hat I have every knitter.  I got the pattern out of a library book called "Knitted Beanies slouchy hats" by Diane Serviss which is published by Stackpole books.

I changed the yarn to one I had on hand and did a gauge swatch to make sure it would turn out the same size.  The name of the pattern was "Sidewinder" and it was knitted flat and then the ends grafted to form the hat.  I still have to block it.

This is the photo from the book.

It is quite soft and stretchy, and will be just right for my daughters long hair to go under, or out, which ever she prefers.  So now I have both a scarf and matching hat for the cold weather for her.

Very pleased with this one.  I might even knit one for myself.

WIPW

I doubted that I would get to this point, but, I have finished my sweater, just in time for winter.

I have made the body and arms  a bit longer, to keep my backside  and wrists warm.   I also didn't make my garment as tight as Kate's original.  I just can't stand tight clothing, even if it is in fashion.  The other modification was to change the needle size to a smaller gauge for the yoke and then smaller again for the neck band.  This gave me the fitting I wanted in these sections in relation to my larger hip size. 

There is now the whole world of twisted stitches to explore.  My children have given me that  Nora Gaughin book I wanted and I think that I will explore the patterns using swatches that I will then join into a rug.  A hat for my daughter is next on the  knitting list.

A few more stitches on the table runner, in fact I have made good progress but I do have to replicate this one on the other end.

And I have made a little progress on the backing for the quilt.  I have found this really difficult.  I ended up allotting a certain number of letters each day and I finally found how to keep my stitching consistent.  But I wanted there to be a bit of messiness, just as there is with spray painted graffitti on a wall.

Now for the cat.

 

Look what Julie is designing

Here am I looking at the end of my knitting and a rest for my wrist and Julie is about to publish a new knitting pattern, horses!!

She says she will also have a unicorn.  My grand daughter loves unicorns.  I am really impressed with the number of horse she has knitted to perfect the pattern and she is still not quite ready to release it.

I hope she holds off till I finish my sweater.

H & H Trade show in Cologne

This trade show was held this year, 2023, and there was some wonderful work on display.  (There are actually 3 days of image highlights you can look at.)

It centred around knitting and crochet but most of the thread manufacturers were there as well.

I found the link to it through a report from  Arne and Carlos on their You Tube channel,

and they have a walk though of the displays.  How I wish I could have seen some to these.

They also have a number of interviews with designers (all the links are on their channel) and I was very interested in the one with Molla Mills.  She is Finnish and has that design aesthetic.  I have added her new book to my wish list.

Why the interest in Crochet?  My grand daughter, Jasmine, is turning into a crochet  fanatic.