Knitting Knews brought to you by the letter K

A progress report on 2 large on-going projects.

The 'Sampler Shawl' from the wonderful book 'A Gathering of Lace' is progressing quite slowly as I've got so many other things 'on the boil' at the same time but I'm loving the way it looks.
Traditional lace shawls can look really pretty, pristine and well ... prissy. This is not prissy - it is slightly rustic and earthy. It's the yarns, I'm using 2 held together - Kaalund's lovely sheeny blue/grey silk Enchante & Dairing aka Habu's silk thread with Fern Fibre (AK20). The fern fibre has fluffy nubbly bits of tan brown which is adding that touch of earthyness.

I'm also knitting toys again for the ongoing Alphabet Project ... and K = Kangaroo


A vintage pattern which I knitted up back in the 80s for my daughter - unfortunately the moths ate holes in that roo ... this time I made a few very minor changes but this is still a fiddly pattern which relies on careful sewing-up to refine the shape.
This is it pre-sewing ...




It is a clever pattern though - the roo stands up well and she has a pouch :-) I've added a security chain so the Joey can't get lost. I could blame the mummy roo and call her a helicopter parent but really it's because I don't want to have to knit another Joey - he is a fiddly little thing.

Something Blue

In the last week I've been working with a lot of blue, which is somewhat alarming as I am NOT a blue person at all, at all.

I'm working on putting together a knitting pattern for a pretty lace & beads neck warmer, a button-up collar thing and because the lace stitches I've used are called "little waves" & "fish tales" it conjures up images of mermaids. I wonder if mermaids get cold necks? Anyway - this knitting pattern will fit a young girl 6 to 12 yrs and I'm doing an adult version in 10 - 12ply yarn ... handspun. SO first I must spin the yarn and the first step is to dye some roving in suitably mermaid-ish colours. Like this -Bendigo Woollen Mills' "ReadySpin" dyed with Sandolan primary blue. The green/blue in the back corner had 1 teaspoon of Landscapes "Kelp" added. As there was still some colour left in the pot and I don't like to waste all those chemicals, I put in another 200g of roving which come out a soft sage green - very gum-leaf.


The other very blue project is a very Over The Top dress-up outfit for little granddaughter. Now when my daughter was about the same age her daughter is now, I made her a dress-up outfit inspired by an illustration in a book of Nursery Rhymes ... here she is - what a little moppet!

Yes, she is wearing sandals and socks (the cheapest footwear available at the time) that apricot floral polyester came from upstairs at Coles Variety store in Sydney's CBD ... what a wonderful shop that was! The cream lace was a gift from a lovely neighbour. I didn't own a sewing machine back then - that frock is all hand stitched, I still have it and can't bear to part with it so I've made a new outfit for my moppet's little moppet. This time lots of machine stitching - some quite visible :-)
Difficult to get a decent photo without a little body in it. Apart from the visible machine stitches this one is slightly more "historically accurate" - square neck-line (trimmed with elaborate lace) and very 18thC sleeves, elbow length, pleats at the top of the sleeve head & "engageants" (aka those circular frills).


And the cap is a whole lot smaller -






Had a lot of fun sewing this outfit - using lots of stuff out of stash - that electric blue embossed poly fabric has been hanging about since the 1980's! I hope little one gets some fun from wearing it and being a Princess!

Gum Blossom - Inspiration & yarn

The inspiration






Wish I knew what sort of eucalypt ... growing in a park in Melbourne, there are a few of them with various shades of pink blossom in early spring. They are in sandy soil (secondary sand dune?) rough black bark, sage green leaves and a weepy droopy habit. Very pretty.













Here is the Yarn - currently drying in my garden, having just been 'set'. It is Bendigo Woollen Mills "ReadySpin" which I kettle dyed, sage green and peachy pink. It's about a 10ply and it's a 'Colour-Block' yarn - it'll knit up in bands. Say, a wide band of the green then a short transition through white into a wide band of the pink then a short transition through white into a wide band of the green ... ...

Been busy

Lots of sewing in the last week - including some shirts for grandson. With short sleeves in a classic stripe -





and long sleeves in tartan - this is a lovely light weight cotton fabric.






As grandson is left-handed I've placed the pockets on the RHside and because he likes to do up his buttons himself - "I can DO it" - I've used biggish buttons with slightly larger than normal b-holes. Buttons on the tartan shirt look like old-fashioned records (those black vinyl things) - they have different coloured 'labels' & I had fun matching the colours of the tartan :-)

Have also finally gotten back to that mega-project I started last year - to make an alphabet for the grands with knitted toys for each letter ... T is for turtle & tortoise and so I'm knitting a Sheldon a great pattern and I love the way he 'comes out of his shell' :-) but at this stage in his progress I think my Sheldon looked rather like a tick with a full tummy ...
On Sunday we went to the Leichhardt Public School Fete - because of the Tea Cosy competition. Lots of wonderful cosies - here are the children's















and the grown up's






Wonderful creativity. My Anna Karenina got a prize and I'm inordinately proud :-) Bought all sorts of things at the fete, 2nd hand books and clothes and a really big metal colander - which with a bit of adaptation will fit perfectly inside my dying pot - and make it much easier to dye roving / sliver without it felting up. Yea!

Well, I'll leave you with yet another native orchid flowering in the garden right now - Dendrobium falcorostrum (aka Beech Orchid) and it seems this is another orchid getting reclassified and getting another name Thelychiton falcorostrus all these names make our lovely native orchids sound like hardened criminals!

And this one is such a pretty thing - love the fancy shape to the tip of the labellum, like one of these { The scent is classic native orchid - sweet and powdery.

Spring Flowers

The garden is darling hubby's creation and it was delightful to return from Melbourne to a garden full of lovely flowers. Especially as many are native orchids ...

We've lots of Dendrobium kingianums growing in the rocks around the fish pond :-) some are man-made hibrids (with D. falcorostrum aka beech orchid) so they vary -

they smell very sweet and more traditionally floral than most of the Dendis.

Checking on the google web I find that they've been reclassified and renamed Thelychiton kingianum - as Dendrobium means "tree living" and Kingys like to live on rocks (one common name is Pink Rock Orchid) this seems sensible but these constant name changes are really confusing for us amateurs. Shall I be cheeky and point out to my botanist friends that D. speciosum (common name King Orchid which is confusing) also likes a home made of stone - nice crumbly sandstone. We've a couple of Kings in the garden and the biggest has 3 flower spikes this year :-) Big fox-tails of secretive creamy lemon flowers with a wonderful scent - powdery and burnt sweetness like a burnt honey cake or overdone toasted marshmallows.

Also just starting to flower is the D. gracilicaule - graceful because of the long thin stems - I love the plump little flowers -

Again the scent is a bit burnt & powdery but this time with a citrus tang.

Finally a non-orchid and not an Ozzie but quite lovely - Spanish Bluebells.

Grandkidlets

Back from a lovely time in Melbourne with our gorgeous daughter and the grands :-)

Finished the madly purple twinset for granddaughter while I was there:

Loosely based on vintage (early 50s) patterns, I kettle dyed the yarn which is Bendigo's "Luxury 4 ply".

Here are both littles wearing their twinkly capes:
Whenever I go to Melbs I take my Blythe doll, Lillian so that she can catch up with my daughter's doll, BiBi. Lillian travels in a shoe box in my hand luggage, I've put a "window" in the lid of the box and she often causes consternation with airport security staff. Lillian shows up on the xray machine and if they open my bag, the last thing they expect is a huge eyed dolly looking up at them - snicker snicker evil grin!

Here are BiBi and Lillian wearing their new blouses and skirts made from the Simplicity sewing pattern - the skirts are in a lovely vintage cotton and that is the very last of it :-( there is now not enough left to make "Tippets for Mice"*.

* Beatrix Potter "The Tailor of Gloucester".