Jewels of Summer Tea Box

Eighteen months ago I bought two of these boxes when they appeared at Create in Stitch, along with two Anna Scott kits for embroidered panels to fit in the top of the boxes. I finished one which my Adelaide daughter has in her office. The second was promised to my eldest granddaughter when she too gets an office or decent work space of her own. The boxes take up too much bench space for an average kitchen. 

Recently it occurred to me that the time may have come to see if my Canberra daughter would like one. Affirmative!

I bought another box and checked out suitable available designs for the lid. When I consulted with younger granddaughters, they too wanted one (for their glory boxes, which have nothing to do with marriage!) 

So back for more boxes while  they were in stock. 

The Canberra one was immediate, so I set to work on the chosen design, Anna Scott’s Jewels of Summer. It is a pleasure to stitch. Anna’s instructions are both concise and precise. The stitches are nicely varied and there is a logic to the sequence. I usually use up thread from a finished section elsewhere to avoid wastage, but didn’t with this, feeling compelled to obey instructions to get the best possible result. 

Each time I finished a section I really wanted to move on, to see how the next one emerged. The combinations of stitches and colours are ingenious.

It was a lot of fun and very hard to stop. I worked in a 10" hoop on a sitting stand, so minimised strain on my hands.

 I finished it around 10pm one night, and blocked it straight away, in the hope it would be dry in the morning. It took a few hours into the morning, but I had a piece of acid-free backboard and wadding, so, after a lot of checking, was able to mount it later that day.

I stitched the corners down first, with cotton thread, then laced it using a waxed thread from a reel that has survived from my childhood.

There were many jobs for which my mother would tell me "Go and get the black thread". I'm pretty sure I have some cream waxed thread somewhere, but I don't think the black will shed colour. It certainly won't give way.

I did use double-sided tape to hold it on to the lid. I can't guarantee it is archival quality, but as far as I could ascertain, it should be OK.

I'm very happy with the result. I can see why one of my granddaughters has also chosen this design, and stitching it again will be enjoyable. Another has chose a Galah - which will need a bit of adapting, and the third chose Stars of Winter, to which I am also partial.

It's an uplifting mission to be on.

Berwick Cardigan: Try reading the instructions - carefully.

I bought the kit for this cardigan back in April 2024 and moved it to the top of my knitting queue on 2 May this year. From the beginning I made several mistakes. First, I assumed I had ordered the kit for the largest size. The pattern had three standard sizes, but in the fine print, there were two larger sizes available. I missed these when coming to knit it and simply assumed I would be working the largest size in the pattern. Only when I had finished knitting it did I discover I had, quite appropriately, ordered the second to largest size and had, quite inappropriately, been working instructions for the very largest!

It turned out to be quite a knitting journey. With 404 stitches on the needle and the main body knitted in the round with a steek, it took every extender I had (4) to get a cord that would accommodate the stitches. While I tightened the joiners as hard as I could there was still a slight bump as the stitches passed over, so moving stitches around required care and attention.

Even ensuring the round had no twist in it was an exercise. In the end, after a couple of rows, I pinned it out on the arm of a chair, cut it and rejoined without twists. 

It's been hard to get a handle on the all-in-one-piece method and how to keep the growing garment manageable. I must have succeeded because I put the cardigan on today. It has flaws, but is wearable.

On the plus side, it has a nice hang, I learned a great deal and when it drops below 10C in Adelaide it will be just the ticket.

On the downside I struggled at every turn and would have benefited from working it in a class. Some of this is a consequence of not realising I was knitting a size too large. Much of it is because of the complexity of the pattern and more because it's the first time I have knitted a cardigan in the round.

The next issue to arise was the dramatic curl that developed as the band progressed. It drove me mad. A bit of research revealed it was caused by continuous knit stitches without a ribbed border. In 70+ years of knitting I had not learned about this. I damp ironed it flat as best I could, knowing it would eventually have a ribbed band added. 

Sure enough, when I moved into the main body where there were purl stitches in the pattern, it stopped curling.

Even with the largest cord I could manage, the stitches were not fully stretched out. While this made it easier to move stitches around, it made it difficult to try on without dropping stitches. When I eventually managed it I was horrified at the size.  I was not, however, going to undo it and start over!

Two further steeks were added to accommodate sleeves. These gave me less trouble than the shoulder decreases, which were knitted back and forth. I found myself trying to work the mini-cables on the wrong side of the work, and soon worked out to add in a plain row so I could work the pattern from the right side.

Cutting the steeks did not give me palpitations. I've learned to run two rows of machine stitching to give myself confidence.What was awkward was the need for numerous stitch holders once the Fair Isle fronts were done.

There was a choice of working the sleeves next or the total ribbed border. Either way was awkward.

Reluctantly I went for sleeves first, as the pattern decreed, trying to work out the length without losing any stitches off the various stitch holders all over the garment.

The resulting sleeve turned out to be too long so I improvised by folding it back. Undoing Fair Isle is not for me!

This meant though, that I had to repeat both the mistake and the fix on the other side to keep the sleeves the same.

Around this point I began to doubt I would have enough of the grey wool to finish both the second sleeve and the band all the way around the edge. I weighed and calculated, eventually deciding I would need one more ball, which I sourced and ordered from Queensland. I had enough to pick up the 650 or so stitches around the edge with about a metre to spare, but the rib itself remained to be done.

The extra ball arrived the next day.  Each round of rib took me one hour to knit. The pattern suggest 6 rounds. After 4 rows my calculation was that allowing for cast-off, I might have enough for a fifth row. I decided not to risk it, and cast off. I had 10 gms left. The fifth row would just have been possible. I still made the right call.

 

I had got up early to finish the cast off, planning to wear the cardigan to a lunchtime concert today.  I chose the dress and brooch to match the cardigan. Just before leaving I had doubts. I walked out on the balcony and decided I would be far too warm. It is winter in Adelaide, but the cardigan is made for much colder conditions that a windless 18C. I changed it for a lighter silk and alpaca cardigan, and was very pleased to have done so.

The experience, however, drew my attention to the fact that the neckband is too wide so I have now turned in and stitched down the lapels, much like the sleeves. As I write this, wearing the cardigan, the temperature has dropped and I'm cosy. 

For me, the big moral of the story is to only buy what I can keep up with. Had I stitched this when it arrived I would have known the size and stitched it accordingly. All the adaptations I have made are to reduce the size. While I'm grateful that I can adapt, and I will wear the cardigan, I'd have saved myself a lot of work had I knitted when I bought it and my intentions fresh in my mind.. 

Here's hoping the learning sticks!

Shetland Beanie2025

I bought the yarn for last year’s Shetland Wool Week beanie a year ago, when the Yarn Trader put together the Jamieson & Smith colourway, but it sat untouched until I was invited to a friend’s birthday celebration. The friend’s ancestors came from Shetland and she had hoped to visit her ancestral home again this year, but too many things got in the way. It occurred to me that the beanie might be a welcome gift - a connection as she walks along an Adelaide beach this winter.

I made a mistake straight away, using the lighter shade of purple for the band instead of the dark shade (more haste less speed). Luck was on my side. It produced a bit of a softer look.

I now use Lantern Moon ebony needles for preference (in the photo above). They don't bend, have fine points and are gentle on your hands. The finest gauge they make is 3mm, the size for the medium version of the pattern. Unfortunately, towards the end of the first pattern repeat, one of the ebony ends snapped in the middle of a row.  I have two sets of Lantern Moon exchangeables, but only one pair of 3mm ends. I also have a number of bamboo fixed circulars, but not 3mm. The only 3mm circular I had was a fixed steel. It was the right length, but the steel ends were quite long - about 15cm. They worked well enough on the main body of the beanie, but were too inflexible for the crown. Once upon a time I used steel needles for preference (when the choice was plastic or steel)  and I had forgotten how hard on the hands they are.

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After my error with the band, I set up a set of reminders, with a loop of each colour threaded to its label and marked with it's alphabetic letter in the pattern. As the label also contains the colour number, this constitutes a complete index. I made no further colour mistakes.

Lantern Moon needles are not easy to come by in Australia. I managed to find a retailer in country NSW with some replacement points and ordered some. I continued, however, with the steel rather than waiting.  

This meant I had to switch to DPNs to finish the crown as the steel circular was simply too long and inflexible to manage the decrease.

I really like the pattern, but it was a challenge to knit. Shetland wool is a little course and splits easily. The pattern requires vigilance, a mistake of one stitch will disrupt the pattern. I made a mistake in the second row of the crown and had to undo a whole round - a very slow process as it is very, very easy to miss picking up a stitch. With 3m needles the stitches are small. The pattern sequence however, helps identify an error.

I worked on it intensely over a weekend, pushing on to finish. The design is crowned with a tassel rather than a pompom to finish, so I went with that, using all 8 colours. 

It was a surprisingly challenging project. Fortunately I really, really like the result. 

I held posting this until the gift was given. I reckon my friend likes it too!

Celtic Symbols

I've been slowly pulling together material for a talk  to a tour group visiting Adelaide in August. I want to show,  examples of ancient celtic symbols still used in embroidery. There are plenty of images in books and online, but I am concerned about breaching copyright in my PowerPoint,, so decided to draw my own. Drawing freehand it wasn't easy to get them symmetrical  but after the best part of a day, I had what I thought was a useable set.

That's when I decided to embroider them. 

Before tackling the complexity of the knots, I did a trial  with a much simpler, more recent symbol,  the Awen, created in the 18th century by Iolo Morganwg for Cymry Gorsedd, the society of Welsh bards.The Welsh word awen refers to the divine inspiration powering artists, poets and musicians. The symbol carries, in addition, of course, a variety of additional trinitarian notions  - maid, mother, crone; sea, sky land; and for some, the Christian trinity.

I used my 6" seated hoop for the embroidery, then mounted it in a 4" hoop backed with a darket blue fabric.

It was good practice, but not of a lot of use for my talk on the Early Middle Ages!

The  triquetra and circle, or trinity knot, was more on task. If representa the power of three - past, present, future,  as well as the list above. 

The three interlocking arcs proved quite hard to embroider symmetrically. The original drawing on the linen faded and my eye was not quite true, even though I outlined the edges with running stitch. At least my interlocking line is unbroken!

The Quaternary seemed a little easier, although maybe I was just improving with practice. It may also have been easier to embroider stem stitch lines than a satin stitch fill. While I got the interlocking arcs a bit more even, the circle leaves a lot to be desired!

The quaternary was used to represent the four directions, the four elements (air, water, earth, fire) and the four Celtic festivals, Samhain, Beltaine, Imbolc and Lughnasadh.

Finally I plunged into the Triskelion, quite tricky to draw but a bit easier to embroider using stem stitch. This is a female symbol indicating, as well as the trinitarian notions, the need for balance, harmony and things working together.

I had intended to embroider the shield knot as well, but stuffed up when copying the design on to linen, ending up with another, less effective quaternary.  While the circle is better, the knot is wonky. More haste, less speed.

For now I am planning to use the shield knot sketch rather than an embroidery in my presentation..

I'm satisfied with the less-than-perfect results, which I think will at least demonstrate what I want without breaching copyright. 

Kylie Bag

 I've added another Kasia Jacquot bag to my collection over the Easter weekend. 

Back in February. I set another linen, this time Kylie, into a hoop to take up when I needed a break from knitting. It was only on Maundy Thursday, as I was starting another knitting project, that I decided an embroidery project was called for.

The hooped linen was waiting and I plunged in.

As always, it was a lot of fun. I began with the leaves, sticking to a simple herringbone to allow the linen colour to show beneath, then moved on to satin stitch in the buds. I had a quick look at the examples on Kasia's website, then plunged in on my own, deciding as I went along.

I hesitated over the blue heart, settling on a crow's foot that I'm rather pleased with.

 I finished the embroidery late on Easter Saturday.

On Sunday morning I ironed the linen, pinned it on to the bag, changed the thread in my sewing machine, and stitched the linen on.

It has joined the bunch of these bags hanging in my sewing room, awaiting ownership.  I haven't checked, but I think I have four more panels to work before disposal becomes an issue.

As I've said before, these are satisfying and interesting projects to work, not the least because they give scope for continuity, variation and whim - a welcome break from the (equally attractive) repetitive discipline of knitting.