Yarn Bombing

At the recent Wicklow Arts Festival, there was a special feature that I just couldn't wait to see.

And my goodness I was NOT disappointed. 

See what I mean?

Happy Birthday to me

Recently I celebrated a special birthday. Thanks to family and friends I had a terrifically wonderfully stupendous time.*

My actual birthday isn't for several more days and there is lots more lovely spoiling ahead. 

This evening I overheard my 2 daughters conspiring about what my present should be. Elder DD must have suggested something about knitting because Younger DD recoiled with a sharp intake of breath.

'Oh no!', she gasped, (very shocked).

'I think maybe Mummy might have too much knitting!!'

Obviously I spend way too much time muttering over my knitting and not enough time fulfilling the many needs of DD2.

On the other hand, does she mean too much YARN? 

Yup. Guilty as charged!



*Special thanks to my lovely Sis for spoiling me absolutely rotten.

Baby Bunting

Bye, Baby Bunting,
Father’s gone a-hunting,
Mother’s gone a-milking,
Sister’s gone a-silking,
Brother’s gone to buy a skin
To wrap the Baby Bunting in.






This is what I've been working on for months and months. It's sweet and simple, pretty yet practical. And I am very pleased with how it turned out.


The Baby Bunting cot blanket is based on a traditional log cabin quilt square, with an applied I-cord border and a turned-down top lace section with knitted on lace edgings. The lace just adds to the vintage charm of this rustic and traditional blanket.


The main blanket is worked seamlessly in garter stitch, using picked up stitches from the centre block outwards, allowing the project to be easily up-sized. The lace turn-down and edging are knit onto live stitches.




Combining the simplicity of garter stitch and an interesting seamless construction, the Baby Bunting Blanket proves the point that the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts.

Pattern available ETA May 10th 2013.  

Wish me luck!

Wicklow Cloche

Here's another Wicklow Cloche. Modelled by someone especially sweet...

 ...and she's a goofball too.

Sneak Peek

As promised. A sneak peek at what's coming. 

But not everything. No siree.

See that cream coloured yarn in the corner? There's a sweet  surprise still to come.

Gulp!

Oh my goodness. 

I did it.

I took the plunge.

Finally.

My Ravelry Group has just started. 

C'mon in, everyone welcome!

Silly me never posted my tea cosy entry for the competition over at The Constant Knitter.

There was a great response to the competition and lots of money raised for the school that was to benefit. Here's hoping that they run the competition or similar again, it was a lot of fun to watch and participate in.

My favourite entries were the felted ones, altho' there were lovely cosies in knit and crochet. 

And also a fabulous one in an alternative fabric:


Winners are here.

Gallery is here.

Of course there is another competition popping up this time of year over here. The St Patrick's Day Competition is a lot of fun. Made even more so by the chat and camaradarie in the group.

My entry this year is waaay behind due to hectic work schedules, but hopefully I will post on time on March 17th. Thank goodness March 16th is a Saturday. 

Therein lies all my hope and expectation.

Anyone for a cuppa?

Recently I took part in a competition at The Constant Knitter to knit/felt/crochet/sew and otherwise magic-up tea cosies to raise funds for a school. 

Much to the organisers' delight there were more than 60 entries, raising money for a good cause and raising the levels of tea cosy amusement by many degrees in the process.

There were tea cosies that looked like hats, ones that looked like beasts of the air and of the field. 

Fabulous felted ones, complex crochet ones, amazing tea cosies of all kinds, even one made from a recycled leather bag. That'ud be some T-bag...ha ha ha...geddit!?

Mine probably looks kinda familiar in light of my last post.

Go take a look at the gallery of delights and see if you can find it. I'll be back soon to clue you in and announce the winner.

Well done everyone. A fun competition and a great result for the school.

Wicklow Cloche at last

Introducing the Wicklow Cloche, a stylish (you rock it your own way) cloche hat with a wide brim, and attached I-cord braid-and-bow option and fitted cabled detail that fits everyone and lo-and-behold suits everyone too. It's a miracle hat!

This design has been lurking for a couple of years, waiting for the perfect yarn, perfect hat outcome. After 30+ versions, it turns out that every yarn is perfect for this hat and every version suits someone, big or little.

I'm really happy to say that the pattern is now available as a kit in The Constant Knitter and will be in my Ravelry shop shortly. 

The pattern is being released for the wonderful Artesano Aran yarn (I'm a big fan of this yarn, see here) but it has been knit in many other yarns, e.g. Debbie Bliss Fez (sadly now discontinued), Rowan Lima and Artesano Alpaca DK (both thankfully still available and ohhhh sooo divine). Instructions are given in the pattern for all these variations.

So to the lovely Serena in The Yarn Room Ashford, Co Wicklow, who asked one day 'How many of these hats are you going to knit, Nic?' the answer is 'As many as it takes, hon. As many as it takes.'

    

Big Sister Bag

Published at last after some unforseen delays at the publishers. This is the project referred to on this post, almost exactly one year ago.

Everybody needs a big sister to help to carry their load. If you haven't got one of your own, then this might help.

Big Sister Bag from Tangled, designed, knit and felted by myself.

And many thanks to my very own big sister H for the inspiration!

Rest in Peace Maeve Binchy

Farewell to lovely Maeve, a wonderful woman, a great writer and a unique human being.

...more

Puss Cat IX

So how did it get to be June already? 

Everything is fine Chez Nic, I just haven't had a minute.

Don't worry, there has been knitting. And some knitting news to share too.


 

I'll just wrap up Puss Cat's adventures. 
Final pages next post. (Click to embiggen.)

Final episodes next post.

 

There's a knitting theme here too.

Just you wait. 

 












It'll be worth it.

Thank you for your patience!

Puss Cat VIII

Sorry! Been busy!



Soon they came to Rabbit's house and they found Rabbit asleep in a hammock in the garden.

"Wake up, Rabbit!" sang Red Robin. "Puss Cat has lost her washing. Have you seen it please?"

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



But when Rabbit hopped out of the hammock, Puss Cat said.

"Oh, Rabbit, that is my towel! Where did you find it?"

"Why, Puss Cat," said Rabbit, "I bought it from Goose. Goose had an apron, two pairs of mittens and a towel for sale. I gave Goose a sack of green grass. I did not know the things belonged to Puss Cat!"



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

So Puss Cat and Hen and Pig and Rabbit followed little Red Robin.

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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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Puss Cat VI

"I gave Pig a sack of acorns."

"Follow me," sang Red Robin, "and I will take you to Pig's house. He will tell us where he found the apron."

So Puss Cat and Hen followed Little Red Robin.



Soon they come to Pig's house.

"Good morning Pig!" sand 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?"

.

Puss Cat V

"Follow me," sang little Red Robin, "and I will take you to Hen's house. Hen is very good at finding things. Perhaps she has found your washing!"

So Puss Cat followed little Red Robin and soon they came to Hen's house.



But when Hen hopped out of her house, Puss Cat said.

"Oh Hen, that is my apron! Where did you find it?"

"Why, Puss Cat," said Hen. "I bought it from Pig. He had an apron for sale and I thought it would be a good idea to keep my egg in the pocket."

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