Puss Cat VII

Soon they came to Pig's house.



"Good morning, Pig!" sang Red Robin. "Puss Cat has lost her washing. Have you seen it?"

"No," said Pig, "I have not seen it."

But when Pig trotted out of his house, Puss Cat said.

"Oh Pig, you are wearing my mittens, Where did you find them?"

"Why, Puss Cat" said Pig. "I bought them from Rabbit. Rabbit had an apron and two pairs of mittens for sale. I gave Rabbit a fresh lettuce."



"Follow me," sang Red Robin, "and I will take you to Rabbit's house."

So they followed little Red Robin.

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Mittens of Moone

The High Cross at Moone has fascinated me ever since I was a child.
Unlike many celtic carvings where you have to squint to see the details of the carvings the images carved in this cross are delightfully clear.

The 12 Apostles.



Twelve monk-like figures. Apostles, obviously.

The loaves and fishes.



Without a doubt. With a knife and fork, apparantly (no, not really).

And even the Flight into Egypt is pretty clear. A man leads a donkey carrying another figure holding a much smaller figure. Yup, I have no problem accepting this interpretation.



The images on the cross work so well graphically too.

I mean look at those Apostles. They have such character.


These guys have always been central to my plans for this design. It took quite a while before I got them to appear sufficiently stocky and lined up together in a way that reflected the original.



See how the head is not symmetrical? and one shoulder is higher than the other? I really wanted to reflect these characteristics in the final design. And to avoid creating a little robot figure also.

I was very happy with how it worked out in the end.


Of course, the overall design took some time to develop and lots of fussy detail had to be refined out of it. As usual I threw all my ideas at it at once.

At one time I had trailing brambles and meadow grasses but despite many happy hours of charting fun many of these details proved to be unworkable once the swatching began.

(Note to self: Start the knitting earlier in the process for gawd's sakes. How many times do I have to learn this? My desktop is littered with carefully detailed and completely unworkable charts. Maybe I should do cross stitch instead?)

My original plan was to use a light grey and a dark grey for the granite, making the mitten itself like 3-dimensional carved stone (Oh I am nothing if not ambitious my friends) but while the result was wonderfully earthy and textured, the finer details of the motifs were completely obliterated. The beautifully blended browns and greys just did not have have enough contrast with each other.
Some of the brighter notes in the colour range did show up wonderfully against the granite and oatmeal/neutral backgrounds, the vibrant pink and spring green for instance, and it was this that led me to the final selection of colours.

When I decided to knit the fish in that beautiful blue the whole thing suddenly came together. (Thanks Lucy!)

Those fish released the design from its earthbound granite beginnings and made it fly. (If you can handle a flying granite fish metaphor that is.)

Only 4 knitting days to go!

There are only a few short knitting days left before the St Patrick's Day Celebration opens again. (Rav link here if you have one.)

No details are available but I am using about 6 of these lovely colours. Fabulous.



I am really happy with how my project is going but that doesn't mean that it is finished. Oh no indeed.

All other non-essential tasks have been abandoned.

See you on the other side.

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Full Of Mice

Like many longtime knitters I am a bit poly-craftual.

Altho' knitting is my big obsession first love, other crafts tend to seep in at the edges over time, especially thread and fibre based ones.

Paper crafts, not so much, tho' I do appreciate those skills in others and have been known to dabble a little.

Embroidery? Now that's different. That definitely does it for me.

Recently, while looking for something else altogether, I came across this.



It's an embroidered Owl Scissor Case with forest animals...



...and a sweet little poem...

The diet of the Owl
is not for delicate digestions
He goes out on a limb
to hoot unanswerable questions.
And just because he winks like men
who utter sage advice
We think him full of wisdom,
when he's only full of mice.

Full of mice eh? There's an interesting variation on bulls**t.



Anyhow, this Owl Scissor Case is a perfect combination of embroidery and vintage, and I love it.
Hmmm. I think I feel a new Ravatar coming on.



The original designer of this Owl Scissor Case is Elizabeth Talledo and you'll find a kit here (the one shown here has been modified) and lots of other lovely things besides.

Hmmm. Tempted. Definitely.

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What shall be made of Wooll onely

Oh Wow.

Lookit this...

This text is from the 1699 Wool Act by William III of England (a.k.a. Billy the Kid), and refers to the laws against exporting the fleece products of wool items from the shores of England in order to protect the industry.

Such products are referred to in the Act as...

'Wooll Wooll-fells Shortlings Mortlings Wooll-flocks Worstead-Bays or Woollen Yarne Cloth Serge Bays Kerseys Says Frizes Druggets Cloth-Serges Shalloon'

S'poetry, innit?

Hop on over and check out this fantastic blog.

Irish Historical Textiles: What shall be made of Wooll onely

Be ye warned however, you may be gone some time.

Bring sandwiches.


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