Egg Baskets

My daughter was looking for small baskets for the children to use for collecting eggs from their chickens. I have long wanted to try knitting and felting small bowls or baskets so thought I'd have a go at using up the left-over bits of Murano wool in an egg-basket experiment. I had three partial balls in different colours.
I checked out a few patterns to get the guist of it, then worked it out as I went along. I constructed a base that was roughly circular - began with 20 stitches on straight needles, increased one at the beginning of each row to 30 stitches, knitted 10 rows straight, then decreased one per row to 20.

I then swapped to a circular needle and picked up about 26 stitches down each side and 20 at the starting end.

Of course, I had to factor in the 'lean' of Murano. It is possible to use it to make patterns!


I knitted in the round until it was about one and a half times the height I wanted to end up with, then put two sets of 5 stitches on to stitch holders and cast-off the remaining stitches. I used the two sets of five stitches to knit I-cords which I joined to the other side as handles.


I was tempted to only do one handle, but thought the top might gape and the eggs fall out.


I then knitted up a second one, slightly smaller.



As there was still wool left over, I thought I'd keep going and experiment with even smaller ones with a single handle. After all, I might as well felt four together!


I began the smaller bases with 15 stitches, increased to 22, knit 10 rows before decreasing.


They still seemed fairly roomy inside and one handle looked as if it might be adequate. I did not need to combine my bits of Murano wool - each bag came out of a the remains of one of my balls - knitted as it came in term of colour.






At the end, however, I did manipulate my remaining scrap to get an orange edge on the final basket.








This is all the wool I had left when I finished.




Here are my four Murano egg baskets ready to be felted.

Skyros Man 9

I traced up my third chair panel of Skyros Men as soon as I finished the second one. By careful manipulation, I managed to get all four men following the slope of the arm of the chair without putting them very far across the grain of the linen.

I then added the edges and mounted it into my oval frame. This time, however, I tried the oval frame in my all-purpose floor stand, rather than in the stand that came with the oval hoop.

I have had some difficulty with the clamps on this general stand but my friend Alan Bevan made some adjustments and adaptations for me. This is the first chance I have had to try it out since he made them, and I am hoping it will give me more flexibility than the stand that came with the oval hoop.

The general stand is rather better suited to roller frames that have straight sides, but I managed to arrange the hoop in the stand using the clamps on the top of the oval where the curve is minimal.



 


So far it has worked well. It allows me to have the work at a more upright angle to my body. The original stand puts the work between 90 degrees and about 75 degrees to your body. This allows me more like 60-45 degrees.




I am working, as before, largely in darning stitch, but using Bokhara on his pantaloons.




I am also working up a scheme for the cushion of the chair - but more on that later!

Here he is finished.

Last Cowl of the Season!

There was one more cowl from Cowlgirls that I really wanted to make this Winter. It is hugely long, in four brown/black colours and patterned, rather like an amazing necklace.

I had enough dark blue and black fleck from two cowls I knitted earlier this year and wanted a  rich brown to put with these. I was really out of luck. Nowhere could I find a chocolatey brown wool. What I ordered in the end, thinking it would be dark brown turned out to be quite pale. In the end I used this and used a little bit of cream acrylic, left over from the Failyn Fox cowls, as the fourth colour.


Once the colours were settled, it was fun to knit, although I quickly gave up keeping all four balls in play at the same time, thinking I could weave the colour changes up the edge as I went along.











The colours have, I think, worked quite well.





It is a bit late for wearing this year, but get good wear next season.

Birthday nightdresses.

I try to make a smocked garment for my grand-daughters' birthdays. This year my effort for the twins' birthday is nightdresses, using some fabric from my stash.

One piece is a remnant I saw and instantly thought Veronica would like. The fabric is a little heavier than I usually use for smocked nightdresses, but seems to be crush-resistant and soft. The colour and the spots are likely to appeal.



The other is a piece I inherited, I think, from my mother's stash (either that, or I bought it in Gawler in the 1970s!) and have kept for the right garment. The colours will appeal, I hope, to Niamh.

I used the Victorian Dreams for Girls pattern - I've made enough of these now to be able to do them, from cutting, to pleating, smocking and construction in minimum time!

All done and dusted!

Bags for iPod Nanos.

This year we bought iPod Nanos for our twin granddaughters' birthdays. When they arrived I was a bit worried they would be too easily lost, so our daughter bought large headphones and I made bags to contain the Nanos with headphones attached.

I used a couple of fat quarters from my stash, pinks with stars for Veronica, embroidered in her favourite mauve colour, and black with butterflies for Niamh, embroidered in yellow - matching the Nanos.




 I also decided to try out a couple of variations on chain stitch to embroider their names - a whipped chain on Niamh's and a looped chain stitch on Veronica's.




 
 I used Velcro to close the bags, figuring this is more secure than a drawstring (also knowing that Veronica has been know to cut out the drawstring ribbon to use on her hair!).



Hopefully these will help to keep the Nanos in use for some time to come.

Last whole ball of Murano wool - cowl.

I had one more full ball of the Murano wool I bought at the beginning of this winter left and thought I would use it up on a cowl. I am disappointed in the distinctiveness of the stripe that results from the variegation in this wool, so thought I'd choose a pattern that uses the stripe.

In Cowlgirls, I found a pattern for a balaklava, that converts to a cowl - quite a clever design. Instead of using four different colours to achieve the stripe, I used a 200 gm ball of Murano in colour CK27 . 

This has proved to be a softer mix of colours, which blends rather than contrasts the stripes - the most attractive of the three colours I purchased.

I knitted this into the back of the stitch to prevent the skew that has developed with the other balls of this wool.

It is knitted from the top down - hat first, then a split for the face, with a cast-on section joining up the two sides to form the cowl component.

The cowl gets broader around the shoulder.

I'm pleased with the colours in this one - by far the best of the Murano colours I have tried, perhaps because the colours are so well matched in duskiness.

 I used the last of these ceramic buttons from my stash.






This works well as a cowl and converts to a hood if ever needed. It's soft and cosy and looks great.




 

Second Skyros Panel Finished

The small motifs are finished off and the second panel for my chair is out of the frame and ironed.

I pinned the new panel on to the chair cover, while it was still on the chair. This gives me the most reliable fit.






















I then removed the cover from the chair and stitched the panel to the cover using my machine.


I am mightily pleased with the result.




There is, however, no stopping now, as the chair looks decidedly unfinished!


Four more men and a few motifs to go.