White Christmas Doves

 I found these felt doves on the Leprosy Mission website a couple of months ago, and thought they were begging to be embroidered, so I bought 5 of them. When I finished knitting the Christmas beanies, this was my next task. They are, I think, my last 2023 Christmas project. 

I began with white perle thread and open chain stitches, roughly resembling feathers.  Only on the wings.

I moved on to a silver thread and the same stitch.

 Then to gold thread and the same stitch.

Emboldened, I moved to daisies in gold, slightly varied, on the remaining two.

 I considered arranging them in a large hoop (I have several for the purpose) but settled on a drop which I tried in a couple of places in my apartment before settling, for the moment, on the wall immediately visible when I open my front door.     

While appropriate for Christmas, it’s not a bad message for any time of the year, so they might stay around for a bit.                                                 Wishing you peace and joy now and throughout 2024.

Last hat post for a while - I promise!

I didn't resist the temptation to turn Santas into trees.  I worked out the mathematics of the  repeat and just jumped in.  My first dilemma was where to switch the background from green to blue. I decided to keep the light green going a fair way up the trees, setting a horizon further away.

My second was the colour of the pompom.  I went for white, partly as a contrast and partly because the white yarn is acrylic and much fluffier than the other colours which are cotton. The cotton tends to droop.  I tried the smallest pompom maker, which I haven't used before. I had a near disaster when I accidentally cut through the tie thread by mistake. There were a lot of 2.5cm threads to retrieve and tie together! 

I discussed the dilemmas with my granddaughters, who were clear that the pompom should be white, but like me, were in two minds about the horizon, so I knitted another one to see how it looked.

While I think both are OK, I do think the second is better. I also increased the size of the trees on the second one

The second pompom is also white and slightly larger.  The photo doesn't reflect the colours accurately, but  you get the idea.

I could almost knit a hat blindfolded now, but I'm not planning to try. 

There are a few embroidery projects awaiting my attention.

A trio of Santa hats

Here are the three Santa hats finished. As you can see, I modified no2 and no3, eliminating the upper row of Santas. I realised it would work with one row as long as I extended the white top a little. The second one, with the red pompom, is a little smaller than the first and the third (gold pompom) is even smaller. They all fit me, but I do have a small head. I think there are family heads that the gold Pompom will not fit.

The acrylic (white) yarn works the best for the pompom. It has a bit of body and holds shape. The red cotton worked least well. It's very floppy and doesn’t hold shape. The gold worked better, but I did make it smaller.  

I think I now have enough cotton beanies for Christmas Day, but I might try one more. With a bit of modification I can turn Santas into Christmas trees!

It's a magic shape!

Santa Hat No1.

Last year I knitted hats for Christmas Day, using the 2022 Shetland Wool Week hat pattern in cotton that I had in my stash. They were a success, and most hats were packed away as part of our Christmas paraphernalia. Three hats, however were kept by those who wore them and I need to replace them. Yes, I’ve left it a bit late, but I prioritised this year’s Shetland Wool Week Hats, as detailed in my last 3 posts. If our current Adelaide weather keeps up, those three might serve on Christmas Day, but it would be a rare year when anyone would wear a wool hat in Adelaide on Christmas Day. 

I had seen a photo of a hat cleverly designed with Santa heads in a diamond shape but couldn’t find a pattern I did find a chart for the heads on Pinterest, so set about working out how to knit the hat. I used measurements from the Buggiflooer Beanie, knitted a tension swatch in 10 ply cotton from Bendigo Mills,

did some scientific calculations on the inside of the wool label and started knitting.

After the band I shifted down a needle size as the knitting looked a bit loose. 

The Santas repeat is 11 stitches with one stitch between each, so easy to calculate. I didn’t have white in the 10 ply cotton, so used an acrylic I had acquired somewhere along the line. It adds a bit of dimension, and not a lot of warmth. For the tiny strip of face I used a 10 ply cotton in a gold colour. 

This is a very easy knit. Once I had the concept clear in my head I could knit without referring to the chart, except for putting in the nose and eyes. Even there, once you've got the logic in your head, it's easy to repeat. The thicker yarn, and therefore needles larger than the Buggiflooer ones, mean fewer stitches and quicker progress. I finished it in a day and a half.

I needed to figure out how to do the decreases for the crown, but the diamond shape sets the logic and I did it as I went along. I managed to do it without changing needles or too much awkwardness. 

There were very few ends to thread in, and the final decision, to pompom or not pompom, was easy. By this point I had decided I would knit all three of the hats I needed for Christmas in this pattern and colour set, but would distinguish them by different coloured pompoms, white, red and goldy. I often make pompoms by wrapping wool around a credit card but got my pompom maker out for this one.

One down, two to go.

Three Buggiflooer Beanies

I have knitted furiously over the last three days to use up the remaining Jamieson and Smith wool I bought to make their Buggiflooer design for this year's Shetland Wool Week Hat. This morning I finished. All three hats are in this photo, along with the leftover wool, and the pouch I embroidered from the same design.

I am, of course, sorely tempted to knit another pouch from the remaining wool, but I do need to get on with some Christmas projects!

I wasn't at all sure the third hat was going to work. I had bought a second ball of the navy to finish the first, and official, beanie, so had quite a bit of that left. The mauve colour was nearly a full ball, and there was enough of the yellow to use again for the flowers.

As no remaining colour would be enough as background for the whole hat, settled on two main colours, the navy and mauve. As in the orange hat, I used one background in the band and the crown, another in the main section. I wasn't sure the orange contrast was going to work. around halfway it seemed doubtful.

However, once I got the middle section bordered with orange and navy my fears were allayed. It is amazing how the impact changes as the pattern progresses.

I had a similar concern about the crown, but it was again, unfounded.

Keeping the flower in a single colour, without the shaded band of Beanie 1 helped, I think. 

As always, the final rows of the crown were awkward. I used the ChiaoGoo Twist Shorties this time- only 2" needles on a 6" cable. It's still awkward, and slow, but a bit better than other methods. At this point the stitch minders are more trouble than they are worth, and I removed them.

To my surprise, I really like the result - it's almost my favourite of the three!

I am, however, unlikely to wear any of them. I already have several woollen hats I rarely wear. Most were knitted when travelling, or planning to travel, in colder climes than we see in Australia. 

They will, however, illustrate our upcoming WES group session on knitting - and someone will one day get use out of them. They have fun to knit.

 

Buggiflooer Beanie 2

As you might have guessed from my last post, I am on a mission to use up the Smith and Jamieson wool I bought to make their colour way of the Shetland Wool Week Buggiflooer beanie. 

It took over a ball of the main colour to make their beanie which was a little on the large side. The russet colour wool was barely used so I began with that as my main colour in the new band. I also reduced the circumference of the band by about 3cm,  increasing to the recommended number above the band. I then chose colours from the remaining wool. The pale caramel was the obvious choice for the stripe and the dark blue provided a good contrast for the zigzag. As I didn’t want to buy more of the main colour, and I wasn’t convinced the band reduction had saved enough to keep within one ball, I worked the background of the middle section in the light caramel rather than russet.

I opted to keep the flowers in the creamy yellow, which left me a choice of mauve or light blue for the border to the flowers. I think I made the right choice, but wonder if it would not have been better to stick with the dark blue.

When I reached the crown, I reverted to the russet background.

This has been a really interesting exercise. The colours are totally different to the first one. yet they are using the exact same wools, just in very different proportions.

It still looks harmonious, indicating that it is a very well-chosen set of colours - and pattern.

I have enough wool left for one more beanie, and I can't wait to try it out. It might have to wait, however. A queue of Christmas projects has built up, and I don't think I can ignore them much longer!

Buggiflooer Beanie 1.

 Each year Shetland Wool Week has a competition for a hat design.  The winning entry is made widely available, local mills produce their own colour way for the hat and all over the world knitters join in. This year's winning designer was Alison Rendall with a design called Buggiflooer, a Shetland name for Sea Campion or Silene uniflora, which grows on the rocky shores of the Shetlands. 

I knitted several of last year's SWW hats, in 4ply cotton that I had in abundance. This year, because The Yarn Trader, my local wool store, had a good range of Jamieson & Smith wool, I decided to try knitting their colour way for this year's hat. The Yarn Trader did not have all the exact colours, but with their help, I got fairly close. 

There were challenges. The pattern controls size simply by varying needle size. I decided against knitting a swatch and opted for the smallest size needle I had in my ChiaoGoo kit - 2.75mm. 

I have a small head, and I can wear the result. I've tried it on a larger head and it's fine. Ideally I think a 2.25 might produce a better size, but that's a little tight for the thickness of the wool (and also not in my kit!)

It nevertheless looks pretty good. It will be quite warm - just what you want on Shetland.

Right is the top view, modelled over the basket in the back of the photo on the left. It has a really lovely top finish. The flowers are white in nature. I think the blue and white shading works quite well.

I wanted to finish this before our next World Embroidery Study Group meeting in early December. We are talking about knitting, and a friend and I are giving a presentation on Shetland knitting. 

In order to make a clear link to embroidery, I set about working the graph from this knitting pattern in cross stitch. 

I used thread I already had. The closest in my stash was in the DMC Etoile range - cotton with a thread of acrylic glint. 

I ran out of the dark blue background thread part way through.  Create in Stitch only had one hank in stock. It was almost enough to finish.  The orange is brighter in the cotton than on the hat, and I used it as a border all around. 

I finished the outer edge of the border in a slightly darker navy to get it done.

I turned the linen into a pouch, with a cotton lining in 

a similar colourway and a 5" zip.

Although not the original intention, the hat does fit inside the pouch. I’m not sure how many people would bother with this, but it might be useful when travelling.

It's a bit crazy, but I'm pleased to have worked the chart in two media. It is quite a different approach. It's easy to see why Fair Isle knitters used only two colours per row. The creation of floats on the back of the work adds to the thickness. Two threads add thickness, but not much bulk. More would increase the bulk significantly and risk tangles. When working the pattern in thread on a linen background, you can move where you choose, without carrying threads or increasing bulk. That produces more opportunities.

It's been a satisfying project. I'm now reworking the pattern with the same wool but remixing the colours.

Nora Shawl

This is the second shawl I’ve knitted from Knitting wraps in the Round, part of my attempt to hone my skills in steeking. For both I’ve used natural alpaca, from Adagio Mills, now located just outside Sydney. I love the yarn. While the earlier shawl was a fair isle, two colours per row, this one has been a mosaic knit, knitting with one colour per row, but carrying a second colour from previous rows by slipping stitches. It is an appealing technique, which I’ve used before. Here, with two very strong contrasting colours, it is used to produce a striking pattern.

The geometry is intriguing, and all credit to the designer who came up with it.

As with the previous shawl, it began with 3 stitches. I worked about 3" back and forth, increasing at each end of every row until I had enough stitches to join into the round., inserting a 9 stitch steek in the process.

It seems unlikely that the pattern will emerge when you are knitting with only one colour in each row - but it does. The mosaic technique not only pulls up a second colour in each row, it also creates curves.

It took quite a while to knit, with each row increasing by 2 stitches, until there were 462 stitches.

Along the top is a single colour feather and fan border, about 10cm deep. I chose to work it in the black, rather than the brown. By the time I got to it, I was pleased to move into a single colour, and a lace pattern.

The cast-off, using an i-cord, took a few hours. 4 actions went into casting off each stitch. It is strong, and loose enough to accentuate the curve. I was concerned, however, that it might continuously curl, even after blocking, especially as it is the edge that sits around the neck and front of the user.

The back has its own charm, no floats, almost tweedy (left).

Although I machined two rows  either side of the centre of the steek before I cut, I ended up unpicking most of the machine thread as I stitched the edges down, because it removed elasticity.

Blocking presented a problem. I had intended to use my hap stretcher, but the shape that emerged once the steek was cut did not lend itself to its right angles. The shawl was over 2 metres from tip to tip. A friend suggested using the spare bed. I was a bit concerned about the dampness transferring to the bedding, but with a towel under it and the window open, it was manageable.

Fortunately, the bed is a king single, so it just fitted. With the window open it dried in about 20 hours. 

I was truly delighted with the result. My worry that the edge would continuously curl was unfounded. It folded neatly around the neck and fell beautifully.  I was also sceptical about the usefulness of the shape, but it is well long enough to drape comfortably.       

It is better than I anticipated. This one is a gift for a daughter. I'm wondering if there's enough alpaca left (yes, I did end up over-ordering!) to make another one.  

Now there's an idea!