Socks!

The second ball of yarn I indulged in from Morris and Sons in Melbourne was a ball of Noro Taiko Sock Yarn - 50% cotton, 17% wool, 17% nylon and 16% silk. I thought it time I knitted Jim a pair of socks.

I looked at a lot of patterns before settling on the basic pattern from I Can't Believe I'm Knitting Socks. The yarn is variegated, so didn't need much to make it look good and the explanation and measurements for the basic sock shape are good.

It took me a couple of goes to get the tension right. I ended up varying my needle size quite a bit. I used 3.5 mm for the top of the band, to make sure it wasn't constricting, went down to 2.25 mm for the rest of the leg to keep if from falling down, then used 4 mm for the foot.

Actually, I finished the foot in 2.25 as well, discovered it didn't fit, so  unravelled to the gusset and redid it in 4 mm.






When the first sock was finished (no. 2 finish, that is) it looked like a proper sock, and the colours had come out quite well.

I weighed the remaining wool to be sure I had enough, then wound it on a little to begin at about the same colour  change as I had with the first one.

terrible photo of the two socks - bad idea to place on knitted blanket!

The colours didn't align exactly,- there was more blue in the second part of the ball- but it was near enough to be recognisably a pair.



I had a bit of trouble with a line in the space between the needles. In the second sock I managed to keep my tension a bit firmer at the needle transition, but you can still pick where the needles connected.

I thought I might use a round needle for the second foot, but didn't have one small enough. In her Country Crafting blog, Karyn suggests knitting a couple of stitches into the next needle at each join - I'll try that next time.

The yarn is not soft to knit and it twisted quite a bit, but I think it will wear well and be comfortable.

They fit well and look good. What more can a girl ask?

Frilly Scarf

In a brief visit to Melbourne earlier this year, I found Morris and Sons, just down from my hotel - yarn heaven. I was restrained in what I bought, but one of my two purchases was a ball their own Morris Osten acryllic in the red/black/burgundy variation (although I would have described it as orange/black/brown!) to make a scarf for my daughter in Canberra. I've been wanting to try this since my friend Vivienne knitted me one for my birthday.

It took about 5 hours to knit and was a pretty good TV watching project.

I had watched a demonstration of the technique for this yarn in a Lincraft store but downloaded a free pattern to remind myself. The yarn label suggested 9mm needles. I had either 7.5 mm or 10mm to hand, so went with 7.5 mm which worked fine.


It took about 10 minutes to get the hang of it. Then it was very easy.



















Started one evening about 5pm, had it in the mail the next day. Two working days later I received photo of happy daughter.

Feels good all around.

Mola Reverse Applique

On Saturday mornings we shop in the Adelaide Central Market. We rarely miss. We have breakfast there, usually with friends, before shopping. A couple of weekends ago, however, I made an exception. We went to the market during the week so I could go to an Embroiderers' Guild of South Australia class in mola - reverse applique embroidery.

I enrolled in a Mola class once before, but the class was cancelled for lack of numbers. This time I was in luck. Barbara Mullens was teaching the class for the Certificate Group at the Guild, and members are free to join in. Saturday morning saw me iron my two A4 size pieces of bright cotton, a pile of smaller pieces of bright cotton in other colours, gather my sharp scissors, cottons and needles and head off to class.

Barbara provided us with a simple design of a bird.

We traced it on to our top layer of fabric with the aid of a light table, put our two layers of fabric together, tacked around the bird shape and cut it out. We then turned the edge under, about 3-4 cm at a time and slip-stitched it down, exposing the layer beneath. 

We repeated the process with the wing shape on the cut-out piece, placing two different coloured pieces of fabric underneath to show through when the wing shape was cut out. This time there were two layers to turn under and stitch down to create a wing. We then re-inserted the cut-out bird in the  exposed shape, turning its edges and applique-ing it down.

 About where we were by the end of the day.

The straight lines on the design are slits. You tack around them, cut them, turn the edges under and form oval shapes of varying sizes. You then use your imagination to cut other shapes around the design, to expose the colour of the second layer, or by inserting small pieces of fabric under each area of the design, you can introduce new colours.

The pale pink is out of place - bold colours rule!

It was a lot of fun. The group was a very mixed one - I wouldn't have been the oldest and, because it is the certificate course, there were plenty of younger women. 

 I worked on my piece all the following week, experimenting with inserts of fabric and shapes, before moving on to embroidery over the top.

I followed Barbara Mullen's example in her sample piece, and applied a third layer (mine is yellow) to the back, and cut through to that in a few places.

I particularly enjoyed the running stitch embellishment, and using feather stitch to try to get a tail on the bird.

I haven't finally decided what to do with it - since I don't want to file it as my record of work, as certificate students must. Although it would go well on a bag, I might just make it into a small cushion and put it where I can admire it every day!

Fionn's Marble Bag

Fionn has been bringing his marbles around when he comes to hang-out with Jim some Sunday afternoons. I saw some old marbles on eBay and bought them for him, along with a small bag of hand-made marbles from England. My knowledge of marbles is dredged up from memories of my brother playing as a boy, but I love the look and feel of them.

This of course, led to a bag for the marbles. It also allowed me to play with using a photograph for an embroidery design - something I've wanted to try for a while.



I began with a photo of Fionn kneeling in a park while playing with an iron man toy that flies into the air.

I used the outline tool in iPhoto, then printed the result and used it to trace an outline on to fabric.

I also added "Fionn's Marbles" in script using the Picassa tool, and traced the words.

I mounted the fabric in a hoop and used some browny-black variegated perle 8 thread that I got from Hetty's Patch a while ago, to embroider the outline in the style of redwork.

I was especially pleased with the sandal!

I added a few french knot
marbles
and put the words on the back of the bag.



I used a pale green cotton which took the marker quite well and lined it with a strong dark green broadcloth I also had to hand, then filled it with the marbles.

It has proved to be a popular and useful present!

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Cowboy Shirt

Jim bought Fionn a very nice blue chambray shirt for his birthday and asked if I could embroider something suitably western on the pockets.

I dug out the book I bought at A Song for the Horse Nation exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC. It has lovely examples of motifs that I hoped I could use one day.

leather jacket in exhibition

 I drew a horse and rider based on an embroidered jacket in the exhibition. The original had two two riders - more than I thought I could manage on the pocket. It did remind me of the Rolf Harris song about two little boys sharing a horse.

I used threads I had in my stash - indeed, some I had in my needles left from other recent projects in ochry sorts of colours!


Stitching inside the already made pocket was a bit awkward, but not too bad. I used mostly stem stitch with the odd french knot for eyes.

On the second pocket I made a star, also based on a repeated design from the book.

I really like these simple, fairly quick embellishments.

Mug Hugs

I have had Val Pierce's Knitted Mug Hugs for a few months, waiting for a reason to try out some of its patterns. One of my daughters recently moved into a new team environment in her work, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to use the book and make some celebratory mug hugs.

I began with a simple moss stitch one, decorated by a nifty little knitted bow and secured with a button shaped like a bow.



I then moved into simple cables. I like the effect of the colour contrast. There seemed to be an error in the pattern which suggests one cable cross-over every 10 rows, when the illustration clearly shows one every 5. My first one went with the pattern (lemon background), the others went with the illustration.

I did one with a double cable closed with a teapot button. I added a couple of extra teacup buttons to complement. On the whole, I avoided using buttons as decoration. One of the attractions of mug hugs is the pleasant feel; and buttons seem to me to get in the way of that.


Autumn leaves were fun to do. The colours here are not true - the grey is really brown. I like the effect of this one.

The jacquard one is very pleasing to do - but not, like most of the others for doing while watching TV.








I also enjoyed learning to make the flowers for these ones. I added a couple of tiny bird buttons on a couple of them.


One of my favourites is simply knitted in stocking stitch, using a nobbly wool-acryllic mix that gives differences in texture and shading.

The  pièce de résistance  is what is meant to be a cat. I decided it look more like a mouse and fiddled a bit with the ears. Now it looks like a startled and not-too-bright dog!


I think I am a bit mad, playing with these, but it has been quite a bit of fun.

Are mug hugs useful? I am not sure they will be around as long as tea cosies, but they are even faster to knit!

Native Colour Bag Construction

substitute fabric

 bag in Inspirations 73

I needed a bit of thinking and stash examination time before I could complete the Native Colour bag project. The kit for this came with a substitute fabric. There's nothing wrong with that, but I didn't like the match. The original was pinks and browns and the substitute was green. I thought it needed a bit of red.

Ink&Spindle flowering gum

 I have quite a few pieces of cotton fabric with native flowers on them, but they were a bit overwhelming. I settled, in the end, for a piece of linen from Ink & Spindle - their 'flowering gum in red, orange and stone'.

I took my time and measured as carefully as I could. The construction was then fairly straightforward. Both the osnaberg and the linen were good to work with, once I got my head around the idea of the construction.

Bag from Stitching Escapes 2007

I got one thing wrong towards the end. I didn't understand the reason for loops at the top of the bag and attached them to the outside of the bag rather than the inside. This is the first time I have used plastic boning in the binding at the top of a bag and I assumed the tabs were to hold, or hang the bag, but they are clearly to hold something secure inside, like scissors. I found a webpage for a class Bev Stayner had run in 2007 that showed the loops more clearly - but only after I had finished! Interestingly it shows the loops in the contrast colour, and also shows the tab placed to catch at the front. These variations and reasons for design elements are the things you pick up easily when learning from a teacher and less easily from a magazine.

It's a lovely design. The original fabric gives a great look, but the Ink & Spindle linen has a lovely feel and quite a good look. I learned a lot from this project and I hope to get good use out of my very sturdy, adapted bag.