A Question of Time

I've been asked to give you a knitting update, so here it is. I will say in advance that I am much better at sewing! Here is a gratuitous shot to start off, of my valentine sewing project for Mr Marmalade who is suffering with back pain. It's a wheat pillow/hot pad.

So, back to the knitting. I bought a very inexpensive ball of red acrylic yarn to practice with, using a stash of needles I bought from ebay last year.

I started off with some plain squares, and then progressed to a stocking stitch, discovering at the same time, the effect of knit one pearl one.

Then I tried a stripey effect, and a waffle effect ...


And then a chequerboard effect

Then I had some gin, and my chequerboard effect went a bit wrong ...

Somehow the knitting turned backwards.

Note to self: Do not drink gin while knitting.

Then finally, after more practice, I nipped out on Saturday to buy a nice ball of cotton yarn, and some new bamboo needles. I love the bamboo needles, they are so light to work with. The cotton yarn is challenging as it has no give. But I ended up with my first complete project. A washcloth... I know .. it looks like part of some ancient garment that Time Team dug out of a trench.

It does look better in real life, and somehow it felt quite sacreligious to put it under a tap. But like most things, I have to tell you, that it looks much better wet.

Look! no Worms!

Mr Marmalade bought me this book last year for a Valentines present. Do you think he knew that it was about knitting?

click on the book to see the gorgeous pictures inside it

So after completely losing the will to crochet, despite all your lovely and helpful suggestions and a private lesson from Lorna - thankyou! I thought i'd stop procrastinating and get this book off the shelf and try my hand at knitting instead. I did knitting classes at one of the many schools I went to - it seems amazing that we had dedicated knitting teachers in schools once upon a time! Mine was called Mrs Long, she was very stern indeed and we were all terrified of her but some girls still insisted on being cheeky, and calling her "Mrs Short" under their breath. She always heard as she had radar ears which were particularly tuned into "morse code" (tapping needles on the desk), and these brave girls were always quickly admonished with a few lashings from Mrs Long's razor sharp tongue. Perhaps she was a domiknitrix! Certainly that's what I intend to be one day - when I've read this book.

And so as soon as I got the hang of casting on, the rest came quite easy as I remembered the form from my old schooldays.

I haven't got past squares at the moment, mostly because I need to get some proper yarn and correct sized needles for this pointy hat pattern, which seems to be the easiest in the book...

This hat with horns, is my favourite hat in the book, but it is listed as a more 'advanced' pattern.

I love all the patterns in the book ...

A little red riding hoodie, this is my favourite

The shape of this jumper, but not the bow.

The ultimate!!! I might have this coat by the time i'm 90, if I live that long!

click on the pic to see image source and pattern

But first - before a post payday splurge on decent needles and yarn, I will get some cotton yarn and knit myself some flannels as described on this blog and this one too. I like the sound of these, and they let you practice your knitting while making something ridiculously simple and useful.

I know there are some other bloggers out there who have recently taken up the needles, and to you, I give these links, which provided no end of help for me..

Domiknitrix
Learn to Knit in the UK
Learn to Knit.com

Hearts and Thorns

Inspired by Valentines day, and also requiring several cards for various reasons, as previously discussed, I discovered the addictive art of cutting tiny hearts out of tiny fabric scraps and then glueing them onto card, and adding other delicious bits and pieces such as beads, sequins and glass painting outline paste. Thus, I have a healthy stock of cards (which are now nearly all spoken for!) ...

I cut out so many hearts that I had to find a box to put them all in! I sent Mr. to the shop to find an appropriate vessel. He came back with this tiny tin, not only appropriate to its contents, but also to the day ..

And ever inspired by all things romantic and arty at this time of year, I made a birthday present for my dear friend BrainStorm who paints passionate pictures, writes novels, pantomimes and children's books, and other wonderful things including his new blog. It's one of my Moleskine book covers adapted from my original tutorial.

My big disappointment of the day was that I nearly finished my new corset, but ... IT DIDN'T FIT!! Boo hoo ... Not only do I now have nothing to wear on Saturday night, but I have such sore fingers from a day of hand stitching the necessary stabilising tack stitches required before sewing the boning channels. I'm not really sure what went wrong- perhaps the cup size (?), but suffice to say, that if I lace it as tight as I like to (as designed), I end up with 6 boobs which shouldn't happen despite the most ardent of male fantasy! Ebay, here it comes (for somebody with B not D cups)...

For Valentines day, Mr. took a surprise day off . He had intended to take me to see Sweeny Todd, but unfortunately the cinemas change their viewing times on Thursday's so the expected midday viewing had been moved to 3pm which made it impossible considering school. How much disappointment can a girl take?! We decided to visit a nearby cotswold village for lunch instead, and despite all the odds, tucked away and up a staircase, I managed to find a specialist needlework shop selling a book which made me very excited indeed! One of my resolutions this year is to learn how to knit, but I've been a bit confused and confuddled about which book to buy. This one speaks my language and unexpectedly, it has made up for my corset consternation because it inspired me again, and made me laugh. There is even a blog to read! Hurrah!