The Naked Teapot

In a moment of blood rushing to my head, I bought this yarn:

I think it's Moda Vera Spell, but as I tend to forget to put a sample of yarn around the ball-band, and I have a lot of orphan ball-bands, I could be wrong.

Now, when I buy yarn, I usually have a project in mind, even if I don't have a specific pattern. I didn't have anything specific in mind for this.

I was just intrigued by the discussion with two fellow shoppers, Cindy and Toni, who said the pooling of the colours makes it look a little like embroidered flowers.

Some time later, I was making myself a cuppa, when the lightbulb went on! Aha! My naked teapot could use a teacosy, and maybe I'd get my second cuppa without having to microwave it hot (doesn't taste quite the same).

So I measured the circumference around the top and the bottom, measured everything else that needed measuring, did a quick swatch, did the maths, especially how many stitches to decrease, and then did the knitting!
The colour pooling does look a little like flowers, or perhaps a flock of butterflies in a meadow.




Finding the right coloured buttons is what took the longest. Of course, I didn't have two that matched. I don't mind - I quite like the quirkyness of mismatched buttons.

And now my teapot is roasty-toasty cosy, and my tea is hot!

(wanders off to have another cuppa ...)

Footnote to Beanie Bonanza

We all know it's just wonderful to have home-made unique knitted garments.

Here's a perfect example.

Mr M was travelling home on the tram, when he looked across and saw JJ in another tram, heading into town.

How was he able to spot JJ in a tram full of people? JJ was wearing his new beanie, of course!

It's An Ill Wind ...

It's certainly been that lately, with houses unroofed and trees brought down.

But it's an ill wind that doesn't bring any good, and the little bit of good that came my way was literally a wind-fall.

We were at a family function at Mr M's niece's place about an hour drive away last night, mmmm, home-made pizza, when one of the neighbours came in bearing armloads of Leucadendron flowers/branches. A nearby tree had blown down, and we got to share the bounty from the clean-up.

I had enough to fill three vases. Luckily I still had some large vases left over from my days doing Floral Art. You wouldn't think I'd ever done that, given these rather primitive "arrangements" (just stick 'em in the vase, these days).

Oh well, they should last a couple of weeks at least, at a time when the garden isn't doing much yet. Just a few daffs - I think I recorded the first Narcissus out in June. They really should be called Winter Bulbs rather than Spring Bulbs - or is that an effect of global warming?

Salsa Scarf

Crocus is having a holiday. It's reached a decision point, (what colour to do the next row), so I'm just letting it rest, with the philosophy that the answer will reveal itself when it's ready.

In the meantime, I've knitted a scarf.

It's the first scarf I have knitted in over 25 years. I used a simple reversible pattern of k2, k1b, P1, as espoused by the Yarn Harlot for her "One Row Scarf".

The yarn is Katia Venus, 50% wool, 50% acrylic. It's lovely and soft. Did I mention I'm a sucker for soft?

I call it the Salsa scarf because that's what the colour reminds me of.

Having finished it, I don't like it. The shading is supposed to give it interest, I suppose, but it just doesn't work for me. To me, it just looks like sections of the scarf have gotten dirty. Maybe the transisitons are not marked enough, or maybe the colour combinations don't quite work.

Maybe those gradations were supposed to work better in a wider garment, such as a jumper - the colour pooling might have made the relationship between the colours work better. Or maybe not ...

Beanie Bonanza

Oh, it's another beanie.

Here's how this happened:

Me to JJ:"Why aren't you wearing your new beanie?" (this one)

JJ:"It's a bit too tight."

Me:"Why didn't you tell me!"

JJ:"I didn't want to hurt your feelings."

later, JJ:"Oh, and if you're going to pull it apart, can you make it a bit longer too?"

Men!

That beanie did fit me, and Polly, without feeling tight. JJ must have a much bigger head than me!


So, I quickly knit up this one, as I didn't know how long it would take me to pull apart the other one, or how far back I would have to rip it back.

This yarn, a Katia one called Katrine, has an unusual texture - thick and chunky sections interspresed with thin sections not much thicker than thread. I figured it would have a fair bit of "give".
I bought two balls, and a ball of a contrasting colour, as I had no idea how much yarn I'd need with a texture like this. As it was, I had enough without having to use the contrasting colour.

I knit this top down and made the rise part extra long, and then kept knitting, and then a bit more. JJ said he likes to have it sit right down to the nape of his neck. That's what he got.I did block it, Polly helping out as usual. It would have been very lumpy and puckered otherwise. JJ immediately put it on once it had dried completely, and gave it the thumbs-up. Then he handed over the other one for modifications.

The frogpond is noisy today ...

Swatching for Seashore

I can’t resist a bargain, so when I found this cotton blend at only $2.00 a ball, I succumbed to temptation rather quickly.

I had in mind a jumper I had seen in my vintage pattern book. When I say vintage, I mean from the mid-1980s, which is the last time I had done knitting.

I have to finish Crocus first, but I just had to try a swatch, firstly to see how it feels to knit this yarn, and secondly to see how the stitch pattern comes together.

The colour is impossible to photograph accurately. It’s called Oxford, and it’s a bluey-greeny-grey. My photos don’t show it right, and I’ve no idea what colour it will show up on other people’s monitors.

The yarn felt nice to knit up. The pattern was fairly easy once I got the hang of it. It seems to be a row of moss stitch in between rows of knit, with rows of purl as ridge rows.I have to decide whether I want to follow the pattern as it is, or do these pattern rows spaced further apart. Decisions, decisions!

Hocus Pocus Crocus

I unpicked the duplicate stitch row from under the light-green reverse stocking stitch ridge.

I then had to decide whether to rip all the way down to the light green, or do something else. I had vowed to rip without hesitation if the situation demanded it, but when it came to the crunch, I couldn't face reknitting the bits that were okay.

I also knew I wanted to break up the solid brightness of the light-green.


So I threaded in a safety line top and bottom, and snipped the yarn. I then had live stitches which were the top of the bottom piece and another lot of live stitches which were the bottom of the top piece. Confused? Not as confused as I was, when it came time to rejoining the two pieces.

I thought of doing a three-needle bind-off, but I thought it would make the area of the join too bulky.

Just messing around, I threaded a long strand of the purple yarn through the upward pointing loops and the downward pointing loops, alternating them one on one. I liked the effect. I was careful to make the thread loose enough to match the tension of the knitted stitches.

Still just messing around, I then threaded the purple yarn back the other way, this time weaving it through every second loop. It gives a really interesting effect, and the tension is good. I hope you can see in the close-up photo how it worked.

Now the question remains: do I do the same thing at the top of the light-green stripe? My pattern doesn't have to be symmetrical.


Oh yes, I break all the rules, and join colours in on purl rows too. I really like the nubs showing. It almost looks like top-stitching in sewing techniques.

I can see the yarn play -
purple:"It's my turn now"
green:"No, I'm not ready to go!"
purple:"Okay, just a little bit more then."

I've been doing that purl row colour joining quite a bit throughout. I don't know why all the advice books say don't do it. I like the effect.