About Me

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Been knitting on and off for about 50 years, sporadically trying to crochet, just bought a lucet. More details about my knitting, crochet and tunisian crochet can be seen at https://www.ravelry.com/people/Rosebark for which you need to be a member, but this is free.

Tuesday 10 December 2013

Heartsease bags

A member of our knitting group brought some leaflets to a meeting early this year. Ruth and Belinda (www.ruthandbelinda.co.uk) have teamed up with Kids Company, which delivers services to vulnerable children, those 'not properly cared for' as the founder Camila Batmanhelidjh puts it, and set up a project for knitters to make heart-shaped bags for use in therapy sessions with the young people Kids Company work with. They are trying to get some large number (can't remember the figure) by 14th February 2014. I therefore set to and made a heart-shaped bag, using one of their patterns. Unfortunately I did not read the pattern properly and left out 12 rows at the sides of the heart, making it a somewhat dumpy heart, but I decided to leave it as is rather than undo and correct. I added a little i-cord handle, a tassel at the bottom add a butterfly I found somewhere.

It occurred to me, however, that maybe boys would not be keen on a heart-shaped bag. I consulted DS, who is not particularly vulnerable, but has been a boy fairly recently and he said in no uncertain terms that he thought heart-shaped bags would not be suitable for boys, so I emailed Ruth and Belinda to see what they thought. They said something to the effect that I had made a valid point and that bags of all shapes would be acceptable. So I then made a boy bag. It started like a scarf, but after about 8 inches, I started decreasing to make a triangle at the end, the folded it in half (minus the triangle) and sewed up the sides. I gave it a toning button and to cheer it up a little embroidered a little yellow thingy (supposed to be a sun with little rays, but it could  be interpreted differently - as a flower or just a funny blob). I also attached a long enough i-cord for the bag to be worn over the shoulder. I've shown two photos to show the length of i-cord in the top one and a bit more detail in the bottom one.

Both were made with acrylic DK yarn I already had, left over from previous projects. Thus they are machine washable and stashbusters (although I had quite a bit of yarn given to me recently... Oh, well).

I still have my doubts as to whether any boys would like any shape of bag, but nevertheless I sent both off with the Tunisian crochet one I made some time ago and some others made by members of the knitting group, including the stripy one made by my Mum mentioned way back. I do hope they'll do some good.

Friday 29 November 2013

Pentagon coaster

Slightly odd this one. I found instructions to make a Tunisian crochet hexagon coaster and followed it, triangle by triangle, but after five triangles, there was no room for another, so I sewed it up and made a pentagon. This was actually the second attempt, but the first went off in a swap package without being photographed. The same happened with that one too. Hmm...

White diamond pattern cardigan

Oops! I realised it had been a while since I last added a post here and that I had a few things to add, but I didn't realise it had been eight months! I'll try to add one or two things a day for a bit to catch up.

This is obviously the V-neck version of the pink diamond pattern cardigan I did earlier. The yarn used was Keynote Acrylic Nylon, which was given to me by a knitting group friend for the purpose of making things for SCBU. You can tell from the name (if you're old enough) that it is quite old yarn. I think it is good that it has finally been found a use. More items to follow before long...

Friday 29 March 2013

Third diagonal baby blanket

This one's made the same way as the previous ones (the pink and white one and the blue and cream one), except for the border. I used up a lot of tatty old bits in this and was a bit worried that it looked a bit of a mish-mash, but I think the white border (added because I realised I had made it a wee bit small) brings it together well enough. Some of the yarn I used was specifically given to me for the purpose of making baby blankets for the local baby unit and some was left over from previous projects (including some from at least 30 years ago), so as well as being a useful item, it has been a good stashbuster.

Dropped this in to the Acorn Suite last Saturday (23 March) along with the pink cardigan also posted today. Now I've finally got started on another pair of socks for myself, which will of course turn up on here eventually.

Pink Diamond Pattern Baby Cardigan


Yes, it's yet another baby cardigan for the local special care baby unit, but it's a pattern I haven't done before. Also I've been doing 3 ply ones so far and this one is in 4 ply and for a change it doesn't have raglan sleeves (I'm sure there's a proper term for the sort of sleeves it does have, but I'm not sure what it is). The Acorn Suite (SCBU) have stated that they want newborn size cardigans, but looking at the pattern (Sirdar Tops and Pants 3613) and comparing the number of stitches with other patterns, I thought their 0/3 months size would be a bit big, so I followed the instructions for the largest of the premature sizes - and it still looked a bit big for newborn to me, but the nurse who checked it when I brought it in confirmed that it was the right size. She commented that she was checking because sometimes people bring cardigans that are too small (may have said before, but they don't clothe the babies until they are newborn size - presumably keep them in temperature-controlled environment!).

Just as an aside, my Mum admired the stitch pattern of this and copied it for her next square towards our latest blanket for Refuge.

Valentine Hat (Woolly Wormhead's Ruislip)


I've cheated slightly with this post - just straight copied from what I've put in my projects on Ravelry. (I usually say things slightly differently here from there - dunno why).
Now that I know this has been received and fits, I feel I can write it up here. Didn’t want to before, as it would have spoiled the Valentine surprise!
Some long time ago (2 or more years?), I bought a mixed batch of yarn ridiculously cheap from someone on ebay. In among this batch were two large balls of red DK yarn wound double. They have sat in my stash ever since, waiting for me to have inspiration.
I signed up to the Sending Some Sunshine Valentine’s Day Swap 2013 in January. Then I received the March issue of Simply Knitting (it was still January! I know magazines come out well before the month on the cover, but really!) and saw the Woolly Wormhead pattern for Ruislip and it instantly popped into my head that it would look good in red and that I had red yarn already, so I wouldn’t be breaking my yarn diet, nor would it stretch my finances. All I had to contribute to it was time. So far so good. Remember that little phrase above - ‘wound double’? I thought, ‘I’ll just rewind one of the doubled balls into two balls of single wound yarn, then I can get going on this hat’. Ahem. I started rewinding it in the morning of 2 Feb, thinking I would just do that before going out a bit later in the morning, then I could get going on the hat at our knitting group meeting in the afternoon. I soon realised that ‘just’ rewinding the ball would take more than a few minutes, packed it up and took it with me (with needles too so that I could start it later). I did my DD a favour lunchtime, so fortunately for me, she owed me, so I enlisted her help with the rewinding. It was still taking a long time and two other members of the group got involved with the rewinding too. About half an hour before everyone left, we had got it sorted and I managed to get started on the actual knitting.
The pattern says to use dpns, but (a) I don’t have the right size dpns and (b) I have a tendency to give up trying to join knitting in the round with them and throw them and the knitting across the room. I considered using two circulars, like I have done to make socks, but then thought, why not just use one (interchangeable) circular, then I can use magic loop, which I had not done before, so I would be acquiring a new skill, even if it isn’t a very complex one. DD had said how easy magic loop is and she was right.
Then there’s the problem of what to do when you get to the decreases. It gets too small for the circular needle. I then used an idea devised (possibly not the first person to do this, but the first person who suggested it in my presence) by another member of our knitting group. Keep one end of the correct size on the interchangeable circular and attach one a size smaller end on the other end. Put the two other halves of the pairs on another cable and use the larger size to knit onto (knitting off the smaller one). Hope that makes sense. It would be easier to demonstrate, probably.
Anyway, it worked and the hat got finished. The only other modification that I made was to slightly round the end of the button tab.
I was going to put a heart-shaped button on, which seemed right for a Valentine present, but when I held it up against the hat, it didn’t look right. I rummaged through my button stash and found a red button, which was not only the right size, but matched perfectly. Voila! Sorted. Got it finished, not in time for the suggested deadline for mailing, but in time for it to arrive by 14 Feb. And now it has been received and fits. Yay!

Thursday 28 February 2013

Winter Sky Wingspan

Quick - get in a post before February has gone!

My DD received from Secret Santa the Wingspan pattern and some white and grey yarn with sequins to make it with. She made it and called it "Winter is come" (as a sort of quote from Game of Thrones) as the yarn looks like clouds and snow and the sequins are the sparkly bits in the snow (when there is enough sunlight to make them sparkle!). I looked at this and remembered I had bought some similar-coloured yarn (no sequins) a few years back, intending to make a hat for DS's then girlfriend, but then had made the hat out of a plainer grey yarn (pic under Hats - May 2011). They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Well, whatever, I decided I'd do one too and as the yarn is sort of winter sky colours I decided to call it Winter Sky Wingspan. Mine is two triangles shorter than DD's, so a bit short for an adult, but would be fine for a girl.
[In original post: And at this point I was going to put in a picture, but the facility for uploading a photo from one's computer has disappeared. This happened before when I was using Internet Explorer, but then DD suggested going back to Google Chrome, as this is a Google blog, which seemed to make sense and indeed, yes, there was the facility. Now it seems to have disappeared even when using Chrome. So, I'm going off in a little huff now and will come back sometime and see if it has become possible again and if so, edit this post.]

Added on 9 March 2013: and now it seems to be possible add a photo again, although the method seems to be slightly different. Why do they have to keep changing things?

Friday 18 January 2013

Hat for me!

I looked at the Charleston yarn I acquired from the old lady's stash previously mentioned and had a feeling that, if I knitted the Tam pattern with it, it might actually turn out large enough to fit me. I did the increases and got started on the decreases, then realised I didn't have enough yarn to finish it. Fortunately a nice person on Ravelry happened to have some and very kindly sent it to me free of charge. By the time I got the further yarn, I thought I still knew what I was doing but realised after a few decreases that I should have been doing them every other row, not every third row. D'oh! Then I looked at it and realised it made a slightly more domed shape, which would actually fit my big head better, and decided to continue as it was, rather than undoing a dozen or so rows. I also decided this is not the sort of yarn that suits a pompon.

I tried to take some photos of it actually on my head to show that it does fit rather well, but they were awful, so I modelled it on a plastic pudding basin instead.

Small after comment: Having made it, thanked the nice Ravelry lady and worn the hat a few times, I looked in my stash boxes for something else and guess what I found. Blush. Some more of this yarn. Really don't know how that came about, as I was sure that I there had only ever been a whole skein and a partial skein in the old lady's stuff, and that is what I started this hat with. But there in the box was another whole skein and another partial. Oh well, now I can make a scarf to go with it if I want! But how embarrassing when I've begged some more!

Spotty Cardigan for Cousin's Grandchild 2

With bootees
Just my work









My cousin's son had a baby last year and I knitted a cardigan for that baby, who turned out to be a boy (see Once More with Bootees last March). Now my cousin's daughter is pregnant, so I thought I'd better get knitting a cardigan for this baby too (who, I am told, is a girl). Ah, I have set a precedent. I could think of worse ones!

This time I decided to make a second size one, as parents generally get given many first size clothes for their baby, which of course baby grows out of quite quickly. I know I am not original in this thought. One of my aunts gave me some second size clothing for my first baby for the same reason.

My Mum knitted some bootees (see second photo) and I packaged the cardigan and bootees and sent them off to Canada a couple of weeks ago.