Off we go again..........

RE-started the Sanquhar gloves, this time in traditional blacka nd white, on the new 1.5 mm very thin, very bendy needles!

Very fine, this time, progrees will be slower, but interesting and unputdownable again already!

They're arrived.............

........... and they're scarily small and thin!! LOL. I've knitted on improvised very thin needles in teh past, but enver on a set of "proper" ones before. They should hopefully produce a Sanquhar glove of more manageable size, time will tell, but I hope to get a start this afternoon.



My other Sanquhar patterns, published by the redoubtable SWRI arrived yesterday morning, via a kind Ravelry member. I'm really looking forward to adapting some of the patterns for modern knitting, as well as making samples up in more traditional colours.
I started a Sanquhar group on Ravelry, which is proving quite popular.

http://www.ravelry.com/groups/sanquhar-knitting-group

Ha..............

I've taken the advice of Lancashire Knitter and ordered some 1.5mm needles this morning. My challenge is to get back to where I was with this first attempt by the end of the weekend. :) HHHhhhhmmmmmmmmm lol

Reached the fingers.............

Progress is good, but they are turning out very large! This is due to not doing them on size 16 needles, and not having access to the original weight of wool. No matter, it's an interesting exercise, and OH pointed out I can wear them as overglvoes, over another pair. Not that it gets anywhere near cold enough down here in the balmy south, but it's a thought!

Progress.................

I've got to the not-wanting-to-put-it-down stage with this project LOL

Sanquhar gloves started

Started at last, enjoying knitting them. The wool was found at the scrapstore on Saturday - huge cones of slatey blue and cream, pure wool, for a few pence each. There'll be tons left for other projects too.

I'd like to work out a pattern for a hat of some sort too.

Sanquhar knitting

My interest in Sanquhar knitting has recently been re-awakened; there was quite a good article in September's Yarn Forward magazine which I enjoyed. I've also started a Sanquhar group on Ravelry, which looks promising. I've now cast on a pair of glvoes, using the original S.W.R.I. leaflet pattern. Will post up a pic when I get a bit further up the cuff and there's soemthing to show!

Old Shale scarf

This is my very favourite of the old Shetland lace pattersn, a simple two row pattern but so effective. I'm knitting it in handspun singles Southdown. The spinning's not perfect, but it looks OK so far.

Old dolls clothes patterns

A friend on the forum was kind enough to send me these when she was having a clearout - I think they're fabulous. I like knitting these old dolls' patterns, I find them very nostalgic, having loved dolls when I was wee. These are all knitted in 3 ply, which is still fairly easily available (if you know where to look LOL) for baby clothes and shawls. I might try and get some done for the WI market - it's a popular seller for grannies to buy apparently! Would be nice to use such old patterns again and keep them going.

Pot holder

I needed a new potholder for the kettle - the metal handle gets very very hot when it's boiled - the blue and white one on the left is the result.
The smaller red, green and cream one was knitted by me when I was about 10, so is now 38 years old, and was used every day by my aunt (now deceased). I knitted the new one from the same pattern book, albeit a newer copy, that I used for her present. Hope my new one lasts that long!

More vintage patterns

We arrived home yeysterday morning to find a friend of mine just leaving, having deposited a large carrier bag of knitting patterns in the porch - very much appreciated, and I've twice spent half an hour looking through them. Admittedly, there are some shockers from the 80s among them, but a lot of them are true vinatge - beautiful coloured pictures of men with cravats and pipes and 4ply slipovers; women with headscarves and wrap over collared mohair jumpers. Several quite old ones in black and white for children's/baby's patterns, including a apttern of two 2ply shawls, one circular, which I haven't had a pattern for before. Bean has earmarked a rather nice little shruggy cardigan from what I estimate to be the 1950s, so I'll do that one, and there's a nice looking pattern for bed socks too which I might give a go, on two needles in garter stitch. Several good, basic ones too, for adapting, so all in all, little dross to be got rid of, but a bigger pattern box is needed!

Mrs Beeton square finished

All done. I'm actually very pleased with it, but would find it extremely hard work to do enough for a bedspread, or even a cot cover.......... Nice pattern, though, I'll use it again.

Still here, still knitting.........

Been a bit of a while since I posted, but I'm back in the swing of the golden oldies again!

This is an interesting one, taken from my Knitting America book; it's actually a swatch from a pattern for a turn of the century shawl/wrap, but I did this to test the stitch, and quit elike it. Called Picot Stitch, it's knitted by K2tog in front of stitches, do not slip from needles, but then K2tog into back of them, then slip from needle, for every row. Gives a good mesh pattern and I'd like to incorporate it into a shopping bag pattern I think, knitted with thick cotton or jute or similar.


This one is from my Mrs Beeton book, a pattern for a square for making up into coverlets or similar. Complete and utter ****** trying to get only 8 stitches on to 4 needles, in very slippery knitting cotton in 4ply...........Didn't give up though, and am about half way up a sqaure now, on about the 7th go!LOL I think after a few, I could dispense with the pattern. As well as the awkwardness of being in a large, heavy book, it's written out in long hand, so difficult to keep your place on the page. However, I managed thus far, and am quite pleased with it. Whether a whole bedspread will emerge is yet to be seen.................

Knitting America

I ordered this from Amazon a while back, and now it's arrived. It was all I could do to not devour the complete book at one sitting LOL. What a book, and worth the wait in delivery terms.By Susan M Strawn, it's "A glorious heritage from warm sock to high art".Indeed it is. Some absolutely fascinating pictures, huge amounts of information and complete with some twenty old patterns to try. I don't know which one to go for first :) I think it might be the 1890s Victorian Miser's purse; there is also a picture (but no insturctions) for a knitted pence jug, but I have insturctions in another book for that.

One thing that did take my fancy were the Amish socks. I read years ago that soemtimes the Amish had their socks very "plain and simple" below the knee in an appropriate colour, but with a highly patterned and colourful cuff around the top of the leg. I was unable to find any information on them at all, let alone a picture. There are two pairs shown in the book, the ones I like in the most beautiful shade of violet; so, when I manage to get wool of the correct hue, or dye it myself, they'll be on the needles too.

World War 2 mittens

These are now finished. Took a while longer than anticipated as I was knitting other things at the same time! Very pleased with the end result though. They are knitted to an authentic pattern, the one in the photo, I got from a friend several years ago when she was having a clear out. Theh wool is pure wool, in a close approximation of the wool I imagine ws used for the original mittens, knitted in the round on 4 needles. A long rib cuff is followed by several inches of "Ringwood" pattern; this I found very interesting. When I moved to Droset many years ago, I found out that there used to be a glove making industry in Ringwood, just over the border in Hampshire, and that there was such a thing in existence known as "Ringwood knitting", I presumed associated with the glove making. I have been unable to find much out about it though, but here it appears to be, in this pattern. It's a broken rib patter, giving a very nice texture to the knitted fabric - 1 round of 2x2 rib followed by a round of plain knitting. Motivated to do some more research now, need to get hold of Richard Rutt again I think, it may well be in his excellent book, I can't remember. I shall need to invest in that one, I can see :)

I'm not sure what I'm doing next, but I did find a lovely apttern for a vintage tea cosy on the net with which I am very taken, so it may well be that when I find some suitable coloured wool to do it.

1840s nightcap - part the third

In which the nightcap is finished! Turned out really big, although tension was correct, but enjoyed knitting it. Fairly hefty piece of knitting in the end, but pleased with the way it's knitted up. Like the tassel LOL

WW2 mittens

I cast these on yesterday to give me something simpler to do whilst attempting the Aeolian shawl on a Ravelry KAL. Teh yarn is an odd ball from teh stash, so it will help to use that up too. I can't remember where I got theoriginal pattern, but it's seen a lot of use. I'd love to see and touch some of the wool that was issued tot he knittig parties during the war - might need to do a bit of research for that. V&A possibly?

1840s nightcap - part the third..........

Much happier with this attempt; thicker cotton is giving a frimer fabric, and seems so far to have worked out more to size. Fingers and tassels crossed LOL

1840s nightcap - part the second

As I suspected, far too big around, so it is no more, and I'll restart it with some different cotton I have. Lots of comments on Ravelry about this pattern - needle size, tension, sizing, etc, so it was as imagined. Ho hum, here we go again LOL

1840s nightcap

Nightcaps were being discussed over at Crative Living last autumn, and stangely enough (due the X files music.................) a pattern appeared in the Fall issue of Knitty, so naturally, I'm having a go. The pattern is a rework by the lovely Franklin (http://the-panopticon.blogspot.com/), and a nice to knit one so far. The cotton I'm using is from my stash - some fine Egyptian cotton rescued from a charity shop a couple of years ago. It's a bit finer than the one used in the pattern, and the result is more drapey, and I'm hoping not too floppy in the end.

Little knitted samples

I bought these little samples a couple of years back from e-bay; there are seven (plus tow crochet ones), each has typed instrutcions and a little knitted sample very neatly handsewn underneath to illustrate the stitch. Some are stamped "registered at stationers' hall", and some have a little sticker on saying 6 1/2 (could be a price, maybe, sixpence ha'penny?. Strangely, the titles of the samples are Spanish words - ovalado, angelica, malvina, campanillas, hoja, cuadritos, adela. They're lovely things to have, and I'm using them as part of our sample knit-along on Creative Living forum.

Difficult to date accurately - the seller on e-bay didn't know much about them - but I reckon 1950s or 60s.

I'd love to know more about them - who made them and why, but in teh end it's enough that I have them to save for future knitters.

Replica Gunnister purse

I've been wanting to have a go at this one for a long time, and finally started it last night. As you see, it's now finished, so I enjoyed knitting up that one! I'm pleased with this, although it has turned out bigger than the original; I need to acquire/spin some thinner wool and get thinner needles and have another go.

Pattern I used is here:

http://www.islandofmisfitpatterns.com/2007/11/26/gunnister-purse-replica/

The Gunnister burial goods were excavated in 1951 at Gunnister on Sheltand. The coins in the purse were Dutch and Swedish, suggesting that trade was taking place at that time. Other goods uncovered were gloves, two caps, stockings and a fragment of knitting.

A good section on this in Richard Rutt's A History of Handknitting.

Off to research the Gunnister caps now!

Monmouth cap

Although I've always been interested in old knitting and everything associated with it, this was the first actual piece I'd knitted as a replica, towards the back end of last year. I found the pattern in an old issue of Spin Off magazine, and couldn't resist having a go. I knitted two in this wool, as I enoyed the pattern so much. It's a handspun (but not by me) Jacob wool, soft and very nice to knit with. I then did a thrid, but spun my own wool from some Jacob fleece I was given a while ago. This third hat was given to OH for Christmas, and he was thrilled to bits with it.

If you look closely, you'll see a small button on the crown- this is for buttoning inside your helmet. A hanging loop is worked on to the brim, for hanging the hat when not being worn.

More info here:

http://www.gtj.org.uk/en/small/item/GTJ01788/