Lucky Finds

I collect knitting and crochet books and sometimes I find things that surprise me.  One day I was in an Oxfam and I found a book that kinda interested me, so I flicked through it.

Interesting but perhaps not completely my thing, wondering was there anything on Irish Lace I opened it up...

wondering how the heck the loose crochet, and it's terribly fine crochet, stayed in.  I kept going, there were a few things as bookmarks including this, I suspect handkerchief holder with some very fine crochet edging.



I was also reminded me of a lucky find in a Society of St Vincent de Paul shop in Phibsboro.

Looking at it, I was curious.
The side says 1 euro each.... 

I think I gave them more than they quoted me.
These are the non-ball items.  I suspect that the blue crochet hook is early plastic, and is cut according to my husband rather than moulded as you tend to get today, and there's a very fine but very pitted hook among the items (size 4 Cross Fox Brand), it almost looks like it has been made by a blacksmith.  The Aero Stitch holder suggests that this fine crocheter was also a knitter.
 
I'm going to have to reverse engineer the motifs, or see if they're in one of my crochet books and try to finish what this crocheter started, or possibly just fasten them off and have them mounted in some way but I suspect they were going to be something and that would be more what the artist would have liked.

These aren't my only charity shop finds but the two of them have a special place in my heart.

Future plans

At the end of last year I did an overview of some of my WIPs. Now it's time to make some plans about how to deal with them. All 16 of them.

There are a number of types of projects.  Apart from the "Good Gods why is this taking sooooo long to make" types I divide them into several categories.

The first type I have is those that are done but need time, a dry day and energy to block.  I have one left of those, Sherwood.

Second type needs buttons or zips
Purple Biker (1)
Purple Versatility (2)
Brown Windows
Purple Leap

In progress
Dianna (3)
Memories of Springfield (4)
Brown cardigan (5)
Victoria (6)
Carmel Knotty
Multicolour square (7)
Curve of Pursuit (8)
Leaf or Stay
Sock Yarn Quilt (9)
Aquaphobia

Ripped back and needs restarting
Blue Inara (10)

with Carmel Knotty in work, Aquaphobia socks as my travelling project and Leaf or Stay at home, no buttons yet for Brown Windows or Purple Leap, that makes 10 projects that are available to do.  I may have to find one of my 12 sided dice and use it to decide what I'm working on.  Why a 12 sided dice and not a 10 sided? 11 and 12 would allow me to start a new project.  Just looking at the projects many of them are on small needles in thin yarn and really that's part of the delay.  It sounds like a plan.

I made myself some promises this year, to knit things that suited me and to try to ensure that I examined things while I knit them to ensure that they're actually good for me.  And then I spent the last two months doing a fair amount of knitting, so this is going to be a long post.


Garments:

Bramblewood Vest












Noro V-Necked top, which I may have to make into a pattern

Cowls:

 Turquoise  Drip-Drop cowl

Dented Cowl below as a test knit for the designer.


matching dented hat, which was a riff on the original

Dishcloths

I joined a monthly dishcloth along and these are the January

and February cloths











 I also knit the Big Damn Washcloth


Socks

the Par 5 Socks for Mac

Thanks socks also for Mac


Other stuff





The Serenity Blanket got finished it now needs blocking.











 A friend left work and I made two bookmarks for her bellflower bookmark (left) and Piccola (right)







 So far this year I've knit over 4km of yarn! I feel pretty chuffed with myself. I'm almost finished my Vog On socks, I got a chunk of them done during PCon last weekend and I'm happy with them.  The Nevada City Windows cardigan is almost there too. After that I'm going to go back to the Garter Stitch Cardigan and fix those damned sleeves

Colorknits Fall 2011 - Review

Slowly but surely I'm working my way back through this backlog of the eMags.  This is the latest issue of Colorknits (and I beg apology if I add in the "U" to the title, it's not deliberate)

Colorknits for Mac
Colorknits for PC

Ravelry Link
at the time of typing (17th February 2012) it costs $4.99 which isn't a bad price for the magazine, I received a free copy in return for a review, Interweave tell me that there's no VAT applied for Irish Purchasers which would make it about E3.80 by today's exchange rate, but it doesn't compare badly to purchasing a single pattern, so if you like one or two of the patterns it wouldn't be a bad purchase.

As is common with this series, the magazine is a downloadable program that need Adobe Air to work, so I haven't got it to work on my main machine, a Ubuntu machine, but the patterns are downloadable as PDFs so it's not that inconvenient.

When you open the magazine you may feel a little cheated at the stated number of pages at 24 pages, which do include advertising, however many of the pages go down for more than one page.on the screen and there are six patterns, videos and articles so overall I do think that if these magazines are about what you're interested in they're worth it.

After some introductory material there's some covetables, a yarn bowl, wire stranding guide, bobbins, yarn keeper and a suggestion to use bread clips!

Colourwork would be nothing without colour yarn and the next portion reviews some long colour-repeat yarns.  Universal Yarns Poems; Crystal Palace Mochi plus; Noro Aya; Plymouth Boku; Kauni 8/2 Effektgarn and Jojoland Rhythm Superwash all swatched up in double moss stitch, which does show the variations in texture off well.

The next piece is an ideas marketplace where the magazine talks about a variety of dvds, designers and books to get more ideas.  Beside everything is a little mouse symbol and if you click it here (or elsewhere in the magazine) you're brought to this link.  Bohus; Lucy Neatby; Kieran Foley; Melissa Leapman; Alice Starmore; Barbara G Walker and Margaret Radcliffe feature.

The next piece is about some computer based/online programs to design colourwork both free and paid.

Next up there's some knitting traditions, starting with Roositud, an Estonian method of inserting colour into a project, it's something like satin stitch embroidery only it's worked at the same time, it looks pretty straightforward.  There's a mitten pattern supplied, Forest Flowers Mitts (the technique was also discussed in Knitting Daily 15th February with a free pattern)

Next a discussion of use of colour in Fair Isle, again the diagrams can be exploded from the text by clicking on the Fig. no link, which makes things nicely clear.  The photographs are great and the discussion of how to use colour is quite clear.  Accompanying the article is a tam pattern, the Faded Splendor Tam

How to Pool is the next article, an interesting article on how to work with pooling to create interesting striping then there's the Rippling Fans Cowl project that uses this, it looks like magic!  The way that the Switchback Scarf uses a yarn to create patterning is also fascinating

Working Intarsia in the round is interesting, I may have to find a project to try it out with, however the Owl-Aboard legwarmers don't really appeal.  They may appeal to owl lovers though...

There's an interview with the Fiber Company followed by a Bohus-inspired short-sleeved top, the Seurat top, a fingering weight top-down piece that has a touch of colour in the top and might be a good way to use up so pretty leftover sock yarn.

Finishing with some words of inspiration from several people, both knitterly and otherwise, about colour and working with colour.

This one I would be very tempted to buy, more for some of the techniques than anything else.

Kirstie Allsopp's Craft

 Impressions: It's a pretty book, nicely styled. The crafts require a lot of variety of skills, from very basic to more complex.
 There's one knitting project, bubble coasters designed by Suzie Johnson, worked in stocking stitch and then with an applied edging with tapered corners that are sewn afterwards (um, not my type of thing) but good practice for getting your seaming in garter stitch right.
There's also a quick piece on natural dyeing.
A lot of the projects aren't bad but some of the outlay could be a bit much to dip your toe in (rose oil in her perfume is quite expensive if you get the pure stuff). It's an interesting mixed bag for someone looking to try out crafts.

 Buy/Borrow: I borrowed this from the library and to be honest I won't be buying it, the only things I was interested in are already in my library in other books. The book does have a list of contributors and a suppliers list but lacks some suggested reading.

 Where found: Dublin City Public Libraries has copies.

World of Knitted Toys

Book Depository Link; Ravelry Link

Impressions: Some of the patterns are pretty interesting, some a little off but overall not a bad selection of people and animals.  The book starts with some basic techniques and a generic person pattern that you can then dress as you see fit or according to the tableau you have in mind.  There's also a guide to ease of patterns in the front.


Types of patterns: Toys; People and Animals

Number of Patterns: 47

Colour/Black & White: colour with black and white charts where necessaryl.

Schematics: no

Target Audience: beginner with some skills to intermediate

How to knit guide: some of the basics are given

Experimental/Classical/Modern: pretty classical

Comments on patterns: the animals range from kittens to koalas and almsot everything in between, it's not a bad book if you want to play with making animals.  I'd say you'd get a fair number of patterns from this one.  She does explain the ease or lack thereof of knitting the pattern and what you would need to know to do it quite clearly at the beginning of each pattern.

Some of the animals are more realistic than others, but they all would probably appeal to most kids.

Buy/Borrow: If you're into making animals I'd pick this one up, it's a useful pattern book and I could see variations on some of the ideas being useful.  I love how she uses some textural variations to give the idea of the animal.

Where found: Dublin City Public Libraries has a few copies

Colorways Summer 2011

Let me preface this with some caveats.
I am not a dyer, I'm a knitter and really, I don't want to become too interested in dyeing because I have enough hobbies at the moment and dyeing isn't one I want to get into.
I didn't spend any money on this, Interweave sent it to me and asked me to review it.
Having read and enjoyed Entreknits I was fairly neutral about it, but a bit reluctant because it is somewhat out of my field but I thought I'd take a look anyway.
Again, because my primary machine is Ubuntu, I was looking at this on the netbook, the screen isn't too big but it was an interesting read, something I wasn't unhappy to read, the kind of thing that if I'd read it from the library but wouldn't put it on my wishlist.

The opening always makes me smile where it shows a stone rolling pin style grinder going across a stone grinding plate.
Then it talks about getting colour from Cochineal.
The Natural Colours of Oaxaca where a weaver explores his weaving heritage.
Next colour variety of Cotton, it doesn't just come in white you know!
Michele Wipplinger talks about global colour.
Kakishibu is a Japanese Dyeing technique that's kinda interesting and has a lot of variety and variations.  One for someone interested in playing with light and colour.
An excerpt from EcoColour talks about printing with plants.
A Verb for Keeping Warm talks about their techniques and philisophy.
Then there's some discussion about global aid via fabric.
A review of a mud-dyeing kit and some book reviews and suggestions
Lastly a song about dyeing.

It's a magazine for someone interested in dyeing and in investigating it.  A magazine I'd read in a friend's house but not really something I'd purchase for myself.

Socks and tanktop

So I've been quite productive this few days


Thanks socks for Mac with some extra repeats of the straight patterning in order to make it long enough.

 

Bramblewood top with some extra infilling.

The socks produced a grin and the top is timely, as soon as it dries anyway!  The infilling was necessary because the armholes needed to be deepened, now they're right but then they were too small, I would never have been able to wear it.

Soccupied Spring 2012

So being an eejit I forgot to check my login for Interweave to find that there were more magazines I could download and review (for free!) so the next few posts are going to include a fair number of these to play catchup.  I'm going to do these in reverse availability, starting with the newest and working my way to the oldest.


Impressions: Like the previous eMags you look at the number of pages and you start thinking that maybe you're not getting value for money, but as you scroll through you realise that many of the pages scroll down.  For 6 socks and a lot of info and videos and techniques it's actually quite good.

The magazine starts with some photographs of socks around the US. Then we have some supply favourites from Joanna Johnson, the cat with yarn ball measuring tape is cute and I want to try hiya hiya needles, she's not the first person to recommend them.
Next up is some yarn reviews, well photographed with the same lace pattern on each.
The war between toe up and cuff down is discussed.  Something I have to admit my only stance is that everyone should try at least one of each and that while I prefer cuff down other people's mileage may vary.  This is basically an ad for Donna Druchanas class on Craftsy.

Next up we have how to adapt a short-row heal to make it a bit deeper, followed by (a)symmetry socks using this technique.
Donna Druchunas looks into some Balkan socks that were the legacy of Edith Durham, a Victorian traveller who collected textiles during her travels. Kilmeni  socks are inspired by Albanian inner socks.  The Frost Flower Stockings are lacy socks that go up to the thigh and are fastened by ribbons
A variety of cast-ons for toe-up socks are explored with videos on how to do them
The Leapfrog socks are suitable for either coloured or plain yarns
An interview with Cat Bordhi is followed by a toe-up or cuff down sock Flutterby Socks designed by her.
Our Paths cross socks are a toe-up pair of socks
Some sock knitting poetry from some readers finishes the magazine

Types of patterns: socks

Colour/Black and White: lots of colour

Schematics: no

Target Audience: Intermediate to advanced knitters

How to knit guide: No

Experimental/Classical/Modern: Fairly classical.

Comments on patterns:
(a)symmetry socks - using the naive gusset Kate Atherley plays with cables and unusual movement


Kilmeni Socks - toe-up socks inspired by the inner socks worn by Albanian men  Designed by Donna Druchunas.


Frost Feather Stockings - thigh high socks designed by Deborah Newton inspired by wedding stocking ideas.  Starting from the top and fastened by ribbons


Leapfrog Socks are designed by Debbie O'Neill, a pair of socks that are designed to work with both plain and handpainted yarns.


Flutterby Socks- either toe-up or cuff-down socks with a slip-stitch pattern a Cat Bordhi pattern.


Our Paths Cross Socks - a toe up sock with carried strands of yarn to create ribbons of colour by Lorilee Beltman


My verdict: I would have been quite tempted to buy it if I didn't get it for free.  There's a lot of information here and it's interesting reading.

Bags of Bags

Now this isn't a knitting post, but it's a record post, these four bags are the most used bags I have.  If I was to knit a bag it should fall into one of these sizes as I have more bags but they don't get used as much as these sizes.

Starting with the Biggest

It's solid leather, tooled and I got it for a little bit cheaper because it has a minor cut on the top, I think it's the most expensive bag I own, however it's also mostly waterproof, and it can hold my knitting socks bag, a book, my purse and wallet.  Perfect if I'm planning to go into town and to do some shopping by bus.
Bag Back

It's 30 cm (just under 12") across the back, approximately 32cm (12.5") from bottom to top back, 30cm front(12"), sides are 11cm (just over 4") the front pocket is 22cm (8.5") 4.5cm (just under 2") deep and 20cm (just under 8") high.  Interior measurements are 28cm (11") wide, 29" High and approx 9cm (3.5") deep, it weighs 1.2kg.  The open pocket across the back is great for leaflets or maps when on holidays.

The Swedish bag was bought on holidays in Stockholm, the small bag I was carrying at the time couldn't handle all the other stuff I kept being handed.  So I bought a bag, Fowadi Brand (whose domain seems to be up for sale) somewhere in the streets as we were walking around.

There's a open front pocket (great again for maps and guidebooks) with a magnetic clasp, a back pocket with a zip and a center zipped pocket.  You can see the pockets to a degree in this picture  there are some pen loops, a mobile phone pocket and a zipped small pocket inside.  The strap is plenty long to go across my body.
29cm (11.5") wide at base 32cm at top, the strap is just under 2.5cm or 1" wide and the body of the bag is about the same, It has a reinforced base that's 9cm (3.5") wide

Next up is my Ness Bag (and yes I have a matching hat, visible in the top picture)  It has no exterior pockets, a small interior pocket, fastens by a zip. It has a comfortably wide strap and is about the same size as the Swedish bag.  It's a little shorter at 25cm (10"). I picked it up on holidays in Edinburgh, sadly they had no clothing that could fit me.

The last is my small utility bag  it fits my phone, my purse, my keys and in an almost hidden interior pocket it regularly holds my passport while on holidays, this one needs some professional attention as one of the leather loops is starting to give, though the interior is also starting to show wear visible here 
it's 15.5cm (just over 6") 20cm (8") high 6cm deep (just over 2") the front pocket is 10.5cm (just over 4") 15cm (just under 6") high and 4cm (just over 1.5") deep the strap is 1cm wide and the bag fits quite comfortably across my body, I've also carried it under a coat when I thought I needed to hide my bag. I've brought it to several countries and many airports have allowed me to carry it separate to my single carry-on, but if I have to put it in a bag it does collapse quite flat.

These are just 4 of my bags but these are the four I reach for on a regular basis.