Beware - noisy knitters!

I don't know about you but my perception of knitters is that they are generally quite well-mannered, easy-going type of people.

They do things like knit scarves for clocks in cold countries,

or decorate communal spaces with knitted flowers

So when I read in the local news about "noisy knitters being evicted from a local library" I was a bit surprised to say the least. Not only were the knitters being accused of being noisy, they were also told that their knitting needles were considered "dangerous" to boot :)

Clearly these needle wielders were not your common or garden knitters though, as they were described as a group set up to " knit replica anatomical parts for trainee midwives" I have to confess my mind boggled at that one, and boggled even more to read that they have to date knitted 1,500 pairs of breasts and are currently knitting replica wombs! Way beyond my fledgling knitting skills that is for sure :)

Fortunately the tale has a happy ending as they found a new home, and are currently clacking away with their dangerous needles entirely unhindered by stuffed shirt officialdom :)

My daughter-in-law tells me that this is the beginnings of a lace scarf, but I think I will keep out of her way until it is finished just in case :)

Linking up to

Knitting with wire

Last weekend I took a workshop on wire knitting and yes it is as strange as it sounds!

Although I can knit I am not the most proficient so I did wonder whether I had bitten off more than I could chew. Being someone who tends to cast on stitches rather tightly I was convinced I had gone beyond my abilities when trying to knit the first row. Fortunately, the groans coming from the more experienced knitters reassured me that I wasn't the only one who was struggling, and after the first row knitting with wire did get a bit easier.

The wire used is 0.5mm and for this size I cast on 26sts and knitted 6 rows adding a bead every other stitch on alternate rows. As with knitting with wool and beads, the beads are threaded onto the wire before the knitting is started. I used 39  beads in this bracelet.

 To make the bracelet you need to roll the knitted piece back on itself (or in on itself if you want the beads encased) and then "sew" the raw edges together with more wire. The end caps have jump rings looped through with wire that is then secured to the end of the bracelet.

Next time I will definitely cast on the stitches more loosely, but apart from that it was all pretty straightforward, if a little sore on the fingers!

Once my fingers have recovered I will definitely have another go at this, it was quick to do and I would like to think that I will get neater and quicker with practise, but then again maybe not :)

As far as sewing goes I have been paper-piecing away to get a block finished for Quiet Play's Just my Type quilt. My allocated word was Comfort and I could certainly have done with some of that after the wire knitting.

The letter blocks came together really easily and apart from the self-inflicted error of a mark (chocolate??) on the white of an O block, which had to then be replaced,  it was a joy to do from start to finish.


So this is what my WIP list looks like now

• In Color Order HST BOM - Top Completed
• (Almost) Irish Chain quilt basted
• Tsatime quilt pieced, backed and basted COMPLETED
• 5 blocks of NY Beauty QAL completed and fabric cut for remaining 5 blocks
• 14 blocks of Craftsy BOM completed (way behind schedule) 
• Sunday Morning Quilt Bee blocks completed and sent (ahead of schedule!)
• Star of Africa Bee blocks completed and sent (on schedule just!)
• Friendship Bag Swap - Bag made ready to be filled
• Modern Scrappy Bits Swap 3rd Round signed up
• Triple Zip A Long pouch  COMPLETED
• Curved Seams Challenge signed up COMPLETED
• And And Sew On BOM - first block completed
• Just my Type paper-pieced block  COMPLETED
• Everything but the Kitchen Sink SAL - no progress

I have pulled out my Craftsy BOM blocks and even printed out the instructions for the remaining blocks so, who knows, maybe it will see some movement soon.

Hope you have had a productive week.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday and WOW

Orphan Blocks, HST's and Needle Rolls

Last month the Pleasant Home Blog's theme for January was using up your scraps and there were some wonderful projects showcased. Although I have not been sewing long enough to have built up enough scraps to consider some of the marvellous quilts shown, like probably all quilters I do hang onto leftover fabrics from my projects, no matter how small, in the belief that they will come in useful for something!


So, inspired by the many projects I have been looking at in the last month, I decided that it was time to "liberate" some fabrics from the scrap bag, and realise their potential :) I spent a pleasant hour going through the scraps, remembering the original projects and trying to image new ones. To my delight I came across an "orphan block" from the very first quilt I made, which was for my eldest son, who was living in Madrid at the time and complaining of the coldness of the winter nights. As I also had some fabric left over from the original quilt too, I realised that there was scope for a new project using the block and fabric scraps.

Sitting next to the scrap bag in my craft cupboard, is the evidence of my infrequent forays into the world of knitting. My nice new knitting needles are jumbled together in a magazine file so it is not easy to find the right size or even a pair when I need them. Something needed to be done, and here is the something!

A shiny, new knitting needle roll made from the "orphan block" and leftover fabric, and lined with fabric cut from yet another of my husband's discarded shirts! They are coming in very useful these shirts of his :) My knitting needles have never been this organised. The needle roll measures roughly 22" wide by 17" high, with an inner pocket approximately half the height. I quilted channels of various widths from the top to the bottom of the roll before binding and adding a ribbon tie. I even discovered that I have purchased two pairs of needles the exact same size, but now that I am so organised I won't be making that mistake again.


By now I was on a roll (apologies for the pun!). Until now my knitting UFO's have resided in the brown paper bag that they were originally brought home in, but it is all too easy to ignore them in brown paper, so if they are ever going to be finished it was time to house them in something a bit more inspiring too. Last year I had made a couple of bags from jeans that were being discarded by my son (I seem to have become a bit of a magpie with my family's clothing!), from the bucket bag pattern by Lisa Lam available here. So I dug one of those out of the cupboard too and, voila, a new knitting bag and needle roll for no cost apart from time, and time spent sewing is never a bad thing.

Although we did venture out this weekend, it was not for long as we have found that when you can't feel your chin, it is time to head back indoors. So I had plenty of opportunity to catch up with the February block of the month at In Color Order's HST BOM, which this month is a Flying Geese block. I have always thought that these were beyond me, but having just finished the Flying Geese block for the Sew Happy QAL, I was feeling much more positive towards them, so set to work and finished that too.

We spent a glorious day last Autumn/Fall in the SW of France listening to the honking of flocks of geese and watching as they flew south overhead, and making this block conjured up those memories. Maybe one day I'll make a quilt from this block to keep that memory!



Linking in to Little Quilt Monday at a pieceful life

Cozy clocks and re-purposed shirts

We had a beautiful, sunny, but cold weekend here in Riga so took the opportunity to have a wander around the Old Town centre. I couldn't resist taking a photo of this clock to share with you, obviously the temperature is colder than I thought if the clocks need to have covers.

Laima is a chocolate factory here in Latvia and the Laima clock is a well-known meeting place in the centre of the Old Town. I can't imagine how long it must have taken to produce a knitted cover for the clock and would love to have been around when the clock was being dressed. Knitting is not my forte, unfortunately, despite my mother being an excellent knitter. I have bursts of enthusiasm and buy lovely wool and fancy needles but always end up adding to the basket of UFO's as the finishing off throws me every time. Perhaps I should sign up to a Knitting WIP challenge, but then again maybe not!

My favourite part of the whole knitted outfit was the scarf, how sweet for the clock to have its own scarf! I shall have to try and keep a lookout for when the knitted outfit comes off, as that must mean that the winter is officially over :)

Whilst waiting impatiently for the next blocks of the Sew Happy QAL and the HST BOM due this week I decided to work on another cushion in one of the colours of the rainbow. Having decided that blue would be the colour, I rummaged around in my scrapbag and came up with enough fabric pieces to have a go at a cushion pattern I had seen in the May 2009 issue of British Patchwork and Quilting. (I knew it was worth keeping that magazine!)

The cushion pattern is called Fleur Audrey and is also available online here so I have called my version Fleur Bleu. The cushion front and back are both cut from a discarded business shirt of my husband's, which was the perfect shade of pale blue for the background. He disputes that it was discarded but it truly was! He will be "losing" more shirts in the future as I received, for Christmas, a copy of Juliet Bawden's book "The shirt off his back", which is full of great ideas for re-purposing men's shirts. I was already putting shirts in the laundry and thinking "that would make a great bag lining" so the possibilities have increased with ownership of Juliet's book :)

Finally, if the forthcoming London Olympics and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee are putting you in the mood for all things British, check out Sam's blog "Cup of tea and a Slice of cake aka UKMUMINUSA, where she is hosting a giveaway for her Union Jack pincushions. Details of the giveaway can be found here