Easter Objects

 

 Not quite finished, but getting there!  These are daffodils from a pattern by Attic 24.  I can crochet but am still at the stage where I have to follow the pattern to the letter and even so it is touch and go.

A basket of knitted eggs, this time from the pattern by Little Cotton Rabbits.  They are made to fit over a polystyrene egg form which gives them that satisfying neat shape.

And three Easter creatures, made up as I went along.  Odd how the character of each one was not obvious until the ears went on.  The tails are pretty diagnostic too.  I had fun making these.

Of course, they are not for our house, where I find that aesthetic a little cloying.  They are for the NT property in our village, as seasonal decorations.

Wearable objects

 

So, here is the finished item, not only finished but also worn several times. I used a range of colours in Haworth Tweed, but not the cream or the colour sequence used in the actual pattern.

Some oddities in the pattern leaflet: Discussing the merits of cotton blend yarn - this is Merino and Nylon.  Giving handy tips about intarsia.  At first you think, stripes such as this do not involve intarsia.  Right at the end you realise that there is a tiny bit of colour change to make the front band match the neckband.  I suppose that is intarsia.

I was really please with how the stripes match across upper body and sleeves now - something the designer did not attempt.

I'm now working on another design in the same yarn which also has its oddities. I guess I have just got used to making it up as I go along.

Do pop over to my other blog: Coggeshall Chronicles.blogspot.com where I have reached 1891 in the census returns, but also locate some really interesting individuals who once lived in my street.

Matching stripes.

 Thank you for your kind comments, Maureen.  

I was regarding the striped cardigan as easy knitting.  Here's the pattern:

I decided not to use the same sequence of colours, because I did not like how the cream divided it into blocks. When I was buying the yarn another customer commented that she had knitted the same pattern, but had felt the need to sort out the stripes at the sleeve head so they matched those on the body.  This is the sort of thing you hope the designer would have sorted out for you. Sadly, I did not ask how it had been done.

So I started knitting a sleeve and then realised that it would not happen automatically: the only way was to start at the sleeve-head and reverse the shaping.  I cast on 10 stitches and knitted the first stripe, increasing instead of decreasing.  Hmmm... I knitted several stripes before realising that would not work.  So then I tacked the shoulder seam together and it came to me that the cast on row would cover the first whole stripe on the body, so the first full stripe of the sleeve-head needed to be the second stripe of the body. 

 

Reversing the shaping was relatively easy once I got past this point, although working out the rate of decrease down the sleeve was a puzzle.  Perhaps this is why the designer decided not to match the stripes?

Two works in progress

 This is tv knitting - a cardigan in Sirdar's Haworth Tweed, in simple stripes.  I've used most of the colour range, but not the light oatmeal which tends to shout against these more muted colours.  It's some while since I used a regular commercial pattern from a mainstream yarn company, and even longer since I used the specified yarn.  

I did query a couple of points on the pattern, which is described as "triple-checked for accuracy " on the front page.  In a little inset box is a Tip about how to do intarsia - not a technique needed here, I'd have thought.  The Customer Service person replied that the sample, using nine colours, was knitted with the yarns carried up the side until needed.  Imagine what a cord that would produce!

This, on the other hand, is not tv knitting.  It is a pattern called Kilronan, a densely cabled DK cardigan with asymmetric cables.  Blink and you have to drop down a couple of rows to remedy your mistake. I chose a vibrant colour to make the most of its show-stopping qualities.  It could take a while.

Now, if, like me, you are interested in social history as well as knitting, you may be interested in my new blog, focusing on the history of the small Essex village where I live.  I am tracking what the censuses from 1841 onwards have to tell us about changes in this small community which was once dependent on wool and woollen cloth but by 1841 had moved over to silk and silk velvet production.

Here's the link: Coggeshall Chronicles

Midwinter Blanket

 Now that it has been gifted, this is the Midwinter Blanket by Martin Storey with three of the strips assembled.  The full item has thirty-five squares.

Choosing colours was  a puzzle.  Some of the finished pieces on the Rowan site use only two colours - a cream with a wine pattern colour  - and look very sophisticated.  There is a Festive colourway which is very bright, but a bit jazzy for my taste.  Someone else had used terracotta and black.  Here, I have used terracotta and a selection of dark colours against the oatmeal background.  This is Haworth Tweed, a 50% Merino 50% nylon blend with a smaller colour range than Felted Tweed - and less than half the price.

I realised part way through that the designer had used Fair Isle motifs from Sheila McGregor's "Traditional Fair Isle Pattern", so I chose some more to give more variety - so long as they were 25 or 27 row patterns they would work. I prefer a bit of symmetry so I reversed the stags and paired the tiles.

After I had done fifteen tiles I began to flag, but then I worked out a grid to be sure the final placements would work so that motivated me to continue.  Each tile took at least two hours to knit.

This is it almost finished - here you can see some different colours in it.  We worked out a 2023 tile.

 This one - the initials of the recipient - took a couple of tries.  The final choice is lettering from an antique French sampler.  The style and scale seems to fit better with the other tiles.

And this is it finished, showing how it fits in an armchair.  I edged it with applied i-cord, just to neaten the edges.  I was very pleased with it.

Southwold

Southwold, otherwise known as London on Sea.  No empty shops here, but a tendency towards "Vintage".  It was a cold, blustery day and we were glad to find a tea-shop for lunch.

The beach huts looked anything but inviting on such a day.

The absolutely fabulous church at first appeared to be closed,but in fact was just having masonry repairs to its porch.

Inside, it is very light and airy, much larger than you would expect for this small community.

A decorated pulpit.

And a really lovely painted screen, defaced at the time of the Reformation.

 

The panels at the ends are in a different mounting.  the suggestion is that they may have been relocated here from one of the drowned churches of this coast.

Theberton

 

Just North of Saxmundham, this very attractive country church at Theberton.  Note the thatched roof and the round tower.

The tower is clad in flint and it is estimated to have taken four years to construct.

Very impressive - and functional - gargoyles.

Curiously, inside the vestry is this superb Norman archway, dating to the early 12th century. Presumably the vestry was added later and has protected it from the elements.

In the porch, this fragment of a German airship brought down in 1917.

We were on our way to Southwold and, as so rarely happens, just when we needed it a refreshment stop  came into view.  This was Tosiers, an artisan chocolate makers where we were able to have a coffee and stock up on chocolate.  Just hit the spot nicely.