Beanie top up

After taking a break from beanie knitting, I have been playing around with Bendigo Woollen Mills' recently released 16ply yarn, a recycled mix of natural fibres.  I bought three colours to experiment with, then ordered several balls in cream thinking it would knit quickly into a few spare beanies. 

As I had not knitted 16ply before, size adjustment was needed. I looked up standard beanie sizes.  My own head is small, and while I made allowances,  most of those I knitted veered small, so I wanted to skew a few towards large. To work this out, I looked up standard  sizes, which gave the circumference of a large beanie as 59-61cm. Since it is easier to measure it flat, I began with the flat version of the hat, a bit slower to knit, but required if the pattern has more than two colours. One or two colours are more easily knitted in the round. 

As I progressed, family members expressed  astonishment at the emerging size, and when it was large enough to hold against my own head, my daughter and I fell about laughing, my daughter insisting the only use was a tea cosy. I considered it. 

With some nervousness I decided to call upon my steeking skills. I had the distance between the motifs to play with to the left of the red scales, , so I cast off 10 stitches, then worked a sharp crown decrease. When the piece was finished I ran a row of machine stitching from the cast-off section to the band - and cut it off. I stitched the edges together by hand - very securely! The circumference is now 56cm.

A typical beanie height, is, apparently, 20-25 cm. This one is now 23cm (before a tassel!). It still looks huge, but it does at least conform to standard sizing. I'm looking for a big head to test it on.

For comparison, I found a Bendigo pattern for a beanie in this yarn and knitted a beanie in the round using the number of stitches they recommended at the cast-on, but following my pattern.

The result is a hat with a circumference of 48cm and a height of 23cm.  I suspect this is quite adequate for most larger heads, but at this stage I'm guessing. I might still have a tea cosy on my hands.

I was moved and embarrassed last week when there was a question in the South Australian Parliament about the Walk for Justice, and I was mentioned in the Attorney's reply.

Bless his little cotton socks! (no, no, I'm not knitting socks!).

Three more Kasia Jacquot panel craft bags

As a break from knitting a couple of weeks  ago, I embroidered Stanley from the set of Kasia Jacquot Work it your Way panels I bought. I really enjoyed stitching it.

Colour printing of the background as well as the design - is a breakthrough. It leaves the way open for stitching as embellishment of the printed pattern, rather than filling. 

I followed the recommended limited colour pallet rather than my own.  No regrets for that, It's fabulous. 

When I finished I ironed  and pinned it on to the chosen bag, turning under a hem of about 1cm..  After adjustment, I stitched it on by machine.

I then went around the hem with a herringbone stitch.

The bags come folded and held by a band of the same fabric. I attached this fabric band to the top of the embroidered bag so it too can be folded to fit into a handbag.

It's a slightly tight fit, and does result in creasing, but that will soon come out when filled with groceries!

I moved on to Marta, where the leaves and stems captured me. Again, I love the choice of colour. The design flows with stitching. I've stuck with the recommended six strands. It's thread hungry, but effective.                          

 

I didn't have a green bag, so went with the pink. Green, I think, would work better, but this has impact. I spent a while looking at it, hoping I could avoid the herringbone edge, but I'm glad I succumbed.

Again I added the folding option.

This week I moved on to Eva my favourite of these three.

As with all of these panels, it almost fits into a 12" hoop. I embroidered all that fitted, then moved it to finish the left edge. Again the leaves captured me. 

The two colours work together to lift the piece, and the closely embroidered stems really pop against the purple. I debated purple or white for the border, settling on white.

There are two more of the Work it your Way set I bought. I have loved working them so much that when Kasia Jacquot had a studio sale 10 days ago I ordered some more.  

Instead of two more, I now have five to work.     

I hope someone likes them as much as I do! 

Beanie Binge for Justice

I have been a woman on a serious mission for the last month. My lawyer daughter and her work team have been taking part in a JusticeNet Walk for Justice to raise money to stop people slipping through gaps in the legal system. For reasons now lost in time, I offered to knit beanies for the team's walkers to wear on the walk. My original thought was to design a symbol and make the hats in various colours from my not insubstantial wool stash. I found a scrap of graph paper and played around with symbols, opting eventually for Scales of Justice.

I had worked about 5 rows of my prototype, when I fortunately realised that using 4 ply yarn was a bad idea. A more thoughtful search of my stash turned up 3x200gm balls of Bendigo 10 ply Aran - in cream. It immediately occurred to me that not only was this quicker and easier to knit, but if the team all had hats with this base creamy-white it would be unifying. I liked the idea of knitting white hats for justice.  The idea now had a life of its own and I was up and running. I found 3 contrasting colours in very solid 8ply for the emblem and set to work.

The first one off my needles was fine. I worked out, however, that I could shorten the scales a little to avoid them wandering into the crown. It took 3 more before I had what I thought was the best version. All were, however, visually clear and wearable.

Over the next 18 days I knitted 20. By then 17 had registered to join the walking team.  My original 600gm of Aran made 10 beanies, so I ordered another 600 from Bendigo, as well as 600 gm of 10 ply cotton, for those who might be allergic to wool. 

The Authorities (my granddaughters) said yes to pompoms, so I made 20 of those and attached them. 

Such intensive knitting was hard on my hands, especially the thumb joint on my left hand, which is largely stationary. Exercises and a brace helped, and I really enjoyed doing it. In the end it took 4-5 hours per beanie. I varied the size slightly. I began using 5mm needles with the wool, varied it up to 6.5 and ended using 5.5. I also varied the number of rows before beginning the pattern and in the crown reduction. There should be a fit for most people.

The 10 ply cotton is not as thick as the wool, and the contrasting colour shows through a little but it works well enough. Reducing needle size reduced the shadow, but required stitch adjustment.

I also made one in another colourway for a family member from a different workplace, walking as an individual.

In the end, 34 of the work team registered for the walk. I used all the Bendigo wool and cotton, and found, at the last ditch, a skein of cream alpaca yarn my brother had bought me back from Peru.

I couldn’t find my swift to wind it into a ball, so did it by hooking the skein over my arm. This ended in a tangle that took me the best part of two hours to sort out, but resulted, 10 minutes before my handover deadline, in the last 2 beanies!

As I wasn't sure that I'd have enough yarn to finish the last one, I began knitting it with a narrow band, planning to make it a headband if I ran out. There turned out to be plenty of yarn, so I finished the crown. The result was a skull cap, so  I added  to the band- as you can see!

Just as well I did. It was 6C when the team assembled at 7.30am this morning, so ears needed covering and the beanies were useful. 

The team raised over $14,000 - a remarkable achievement. They also won the best-dressed team prize!

I'm delighted to have helped along the way. This is the first time I have designed a knitting pattern. I enjoyed the design process and learned a lot. I intend to document the pattern for others to use. I'd like, however, the basic colour scales of justice on white/cream background to be reserved for this team. This year's participants will hopefully walk again next year in their beanies and I'm up to add extras for new recruits.

I also enjoyed the knitting. It was somewhat rushed: 36 beanies in 40 days is not a record I'm looking to break! While it wasn't a stash-buster, I did end up with about 700gm of wool less than I started. Interestingly, while my arthritis gave me trouble along the way, in the last 10 days it was well under control. Worth knowing.

It's been a privilege and a lot of fun to be involved. Many thanks to my family for encouragement and help.

And hats off to all the walkers!

Kasia Jacquot panels have arrived and await embroidery!

When I finished the Veronka bag I ordered more printed panels from her Stitch it Your Way line, roughly matching my choices to the cotton bags I had to hand. These arrived yesterday. I really appreciate the simple packaging - paper envelopes, slipped flat into a postbag that fitted easily through my letterbox slot.

I immediately got out the bags and tried matching them up.

I don’t remember my original thoughts on each one, but this is where I have ended up.

The bags are now neatly folded in each envelope with the panel and diagram. While they call to me, I am now embarked on a substantial knitting project, so these will need to wait their turn. When that comes, which will I choose first?  At the moment I don’t know, but don't need to decide.

I'm knitting as fast as I can!. 

Meadowsong: Mountmellick pouch

I'm beginning this post with the finished product. Getting to it was a bit of a process, so I want to reassure any reader (and myself) that I did get there! 

This was a kit I bought from Inspirations 122, A Mountmellick pouch which the creator, Deborah Love, named Meadowsong.

I had not, as far as I can remember, attempted Mountmellick before. The kit came with the fabric - described as white jeans material -along with 3 threads of different thickness wound on cards, white machine cotton and needles. From reading Yvette Stanton, I gathered Mountmellick always uses non-polished white matt cotton, usually sold in three thicknesses.

The first challenge was to transfer the design. The fabric was too thick to transfer the design by tracing on to it, even using a light table.  In the end I used the old pencil method. A is the printed design sheet. B is my pencil copy onto tracing paper and C is the pencil design transferred to the fabric by rubbing over the reversed tracing.

It gave me a clear image of the end motif ( yes, I stitched the design in reverse) to work with and a single line around the length and breadth of the piece to be embroidered.

I knew that the thread would pick up graphite from the drawing as I stitched. I also knew it would annoy me, so prepared myself to be patient.

I began working in the recommended place (the rose) and generally stuck to the suggested order, deviating a little to use up the thread left in my needle when it was still in good condition.

Most of the stitches were familiar to me, but the methods of stitching a couple of the leaves were new, as was the linked chain stitch stem.

I was right about the thread getting grubby, but I held off washing it and moved on to the border. which I had only marked with one pencil line.

         It was a long way around with two-length blanket stitch border topped by french knots, but soothing, if a little hard on the hands without the aid of a hoop.

This is followed by an inner border of herringbone and detached chain.  I just had enough of the recommended medium thread to finish the herringbone and a few detached chains. I worked the remainder in the heavier thread until it also ran out. Rather than use a polished thread, like coton-a-broder, I found a roll of vintage matt thread. It is a 3ply knitting thread and too thick but I removed one of its plies to finish the last 15 detached chains. Might as well try to be a purist!

As soon as I finished the stitching  I washed it and blocked it. Blocking wasn't in the instructions and didn't work very well. It did help to show heavily embroidered areas where the pencil hadn't come out. I washed these again, using a nailbrush to get into the thread layers. Once I was sure the pencil had gone, I ironed it.

I opted to line the pouch. It seems to me that to be really useful, the inside needs to be smooth, without the risk of contents catching on stitches. It also, I think, is better not being white.I chose some pink silk. 

I cut it slightly larger than the embroidered piece, folded the extra under as a hem, ironing as I went, and pinned it. The curves were a bit tricky, but OK.

I stitched it down all around with pale pink machine thread.

The kit included white machine thread for joining up the sides of the pouch by hand with running stitch. I thought I'd get a better finish on mine (especially since it is lined)  using a buttonhole stitch and the remaining fine white Mountmellick cotton. I had enough of the thread to use it double.

The result is the introductory photo at the top of this post. 

The back view when folded and the front view opened are shown here.

I'm very pleased with it. I learned quite a bit, improvised a bit and have a(nother) useful pouch. It may end up holding jewellery - an idea at the back of my mind when I went for silk lining.

Veronka by Kasia Jacquot

I bought this Kasia Jacquot kit from the Art Gallery of South Australia on one of my visits to the Radical Textiles exhibition. It is part of a series stocked by the shop, along with lots of other goods relevant to the extensive, long-running exhibition. I certainly didn’t need another kit, but loved the look of the series, the particular relevance of this one to my family, and wanted to support the Gallery.

Inside the box was the design printed in full colour on linen, a full-size colour diagram, two sheets of instructions, the threads, needle and, generously, a very clear black and white copy of the design in case I want to work it again on another piece of fabric.

Most of it fitted in a 10" hoop so I went with that in my seated frame, and took the linen out to finish the edges - the best solution for my hands.                               

I began in the centre and followed the suggestions for both stitches and thread. The designer's preference is for 6 strands of cotton, which worked.

It was a long time after stitching this central heart that I realised the outer border was meant to be dark blue, not green. It looks fine, and I’m not undoing it. Fortunately, I had a hank of the same green in my thread stash. The error meant I needed a whole extra hank!

While stitching I was thinking about how I might use the finished piece. I remembered some cotton craft bags I had bought a couple of years ago when I saw them in Spotlight. At the time I thought they'd be handy for painting. I dug them out. Veronka sat very nicely on one of the red bags. That spurred me on. I could now see a use!

It is a nicely varied design for stitching. Some motifs are paired but others are single. Although the stitch range is limited, the colours and placement vary, so there isn't a lot of simple repetition.

I stitched as far into the corners as I could

then removed it from the hoop and worked the corners in hand, followed by the borders. 

Before working the latter I folded in the raw edges and worked the borders through the double thickness as far as possible. As can be seen here, the horizontals are entirely through two layers, the verticals have two of the three through two layers.

At the last minute I decided to block it rather than iron it. It was 32C when I decided, so it dried in a few hours.

I stitched it to the bag by machine. I thought about another row of red herringbone over the edge but don’t think it’s needed. 

The bag came with a loop that can be used to hold it together folded. I’ve attached it to the bag in case someone wants to fold it to carry in a handbag. It’s tight, but works. It does crumple the bag - but shopping will soon fix that!

The cotton bag is not as strong as the embroidered linen square but it’s sturdy. If and when it wears out the linen can easily be removed and repurposed. This has been a really enjoyable project - and I've ordered more in the series.