Mending an Hand-Knit

One of the easiest and most rewarding things to mend is that lovely old hand-knit.  Sometimes the garment has sentimental value and mending a hand-knit can give you a lovely feeling of connection with the original knitter.   They are also quite easy to mend ...

Recently I mended this hand-knit jumper / sweater ... it really has had a life!  All those safety pins mark holes or areas of weakened yarn, about to become a hole.  There was a huge laddered area on one sleeve and some of the seams had gone.  (I must also apologise for the photos showing this jumper as all sorts of shades of green - different light at different times of the day and my having to use a phone camera - my digital one died!)

Re-sewing up seams is easy enough - use mattress stitch.  Sometimes the trickiest part of mending an old hand-knit is finding new yarn to match the old.  Going for a thinner yarn is always a good idea - I used a lace weight variegated yarn (Schoppel-Wolle) selecting the parts where the green was almost the same shade.

Sewing up the under-arms again - and in this photo you can see some old mends done by someone else a long time ago.

 I left one of those old mends & strengthened it but re-did the other - and this photo shows the front of the jumper with all mends and strengthening done.  This is pre-washing - blocking and some of those specks of paint didn't come out with a simple wash.

Such an old, much worn and loved knit will never look brand new again - but it can be given many more years of usefulness.


Here is how to mend an area that has gone to ladders.

First - catch all the stitches at the top and bottom to stop them laddering further.  Putting them onto safety pins works well -

Now re-knit up those ladders - and this is the same technique you use if you've dropped a stitch while hand-knitting.

Take one of those stitches from the bottom of the area onto a crochet hook and thinking of those loose strands as rungs on a ladder, work them up, one rung at a time, taking care to get the 'rungs' in the correct order. 

In case you are wondering - that isn't even an official crochet hook.  Everyone under the age of 12 seems to be making "Loom Bands" these days and most bags of those little elastic bands come with a hook ...

When re-knitting up a ladder you are working a sort of chain stitch - hook goes through the loop of the stitch, hold in front of the lowest 'rung', catch rung and pull it through loop - and it becomes your new loop, hold it in front of the next rung ... ...  repeat till you get to the top.  Where you will need a sewing needle and matching yarn to stitch together the stitch / loop from your ladder and the corresponding stitch at the top of the area being mended.

Most of these laddered areas start from a hole and you will probably find some broken yarn somewhere in the middle ... sewing needle & yarn will be needed there.
This photo shows the mend pre-washing







And now, after a wash ... a few more washes and I think the mend might be practically invisible.

Snowmen - in Australia?

Audrey :  Our mummy has been busy knitting - let's see what she has been making ...

... hmmm, looks like a lot of white peanuts and coloured worms!

Imogen :  I think this is the prototype - they are tiny little snowmen.

 Audrey : Looks cute, but what is a snowman?



Every year I knit little Chrissy decorations as small Christmas gifts for family & friends - last year I made lots of Santas (see this post)   this year it is to be Snowmen.


Both Santas and Snowmen are MochiMochi Land patterns.   






As I've started quite late this year I am glad that the snowmen are rather faster to make than the Santas were :-)

And I love the way they sometimes turn out a bit different - this one has quite a 'personality'.





Do you know the collective noun for a collection of Snowmen? 
Some say a "dusting of snowmen"
Others say a "melt of snowmen"
I live in Australia - so I'll go with the melt!

A Melt of Snowmen!

And here is a little bit of Snowmen Spam.

A batch of Finishing

I've been "clearing the decks" and scrambling to finish some knitting projects so I'll have time for the next commission (another cardigan for the current production of "Mousetrap" - there is a change of cast coming up).

So - quite fresh off the needles are this vintage style vest for a very good friend. 



I've dubbed this Zep's Zig Zags :-)

I adapted this from a vintage pattern - circa 1930s or 40s.
The original pattern is called "Forbes" from "Patons Knitting Book No. 338" it was a jumper for a man, in a 3ply yarn (that's Light Fingering) which is far too much work for a commission - even for a very good friend!    I adapted up to 5ply which still took absolutely ages - the yarn I used is Bendigo Woollen Mills 5ply "Classic" in "Mayfair".
The vertical lines and horizontal zig zags are on the back too.

The original pattern also had the Zig Zags just above the hip basque - we thought that was a little TOO fussy.

and a close up of the front













I've also been knitting up samples for Sydney's main craft store Morris & Sons.


One Ball Samples - to show what the yarn looks and feels like when knitted and how much knitted fabric you get from one ball of it.

    

These are all Morris & Sons' "home brand" of 100% baby alpaca called Maya - in 3 weights / thicknesses.  It is a lovely soft Alpaca yarn.


The brick colour is Maya 14ply / Super Bulky - colour 3420 “warm spices” dyelot 215446, the needles 7mm - sample is 29sts wide.

The green is Maya 8ply / DK - colour 3823 “grass” dyelot 215879, needles 4mm / US 6 - sample is 45 sts wide.

Then - unfinished (and it'll take forever to knit through that 1 x 50gr ball) pumpkin colour is Maya Laceweight / 2ply - colour 3218 “sunset” dyelot 215472, needles 2.75mm US 2 - sample is 73sts wide

Isn't it interesting how much more knitting you get from a really thin yarn!   Probably why those vintage knitting patterns are nearly always for thin yarn is that it is so much more economical - all except it terms of the time spent doing the knitting!

This self-striping Mohair sample is Schoppel Wolle “Mohair Lady” colour

376 1874ombre - I used 5mm US 8 needles and the sample is 45sts wide. 

 

Love the fire-like colours of this self-striping yarn - it is a nice whiskery mohair too.

And, because no post on the blog can be completely without photographs of Blythe dolls these days!   Here are Lillian and Imogen modelling new knitted Ombre Skirts.

Imogen :  Do you think they'll notice our tiaras?

 These are in Noro "Sekku" a Laceweight yarn with lots & lots of variegation.  Not sure that I'd like this yarn knitted into a human sized garment but it is perfect for Blythe Doll clothing (Imogen's lace blouse is also from the same ball of this yarn!)  

Mummy planted all these purple flowers just for me.

Lillian's skirt is purple & pink - perfect with her new purple top and lace-top sockings (from Cool Cat)

Imogen :  "My new skirt looks better without the shirt tucked in - this makes my hips look enormous!"

Me:  "Possibly, but I do want to show everyone the whole of the skirt."

Imogen :  "hmmm OK but I'm going to pout!"

Knitting - Some Finally Finished Knits

Excuse me, but this is NOT a gum tree!

Well - time for a little bit of a catch-up post - catching up on some of the things that have (amazingly) been finished in the last month or so.  As always - I've been knitting a lot!

This Koala Tea-Cosy is a for a friend who is a very proud 'Bear' and he asked for pink !!  So - Pink mohair yarn, with primrose lemon lining, thick black felt for nose & claws and button eyes.  The pattern is a blend of Vintage Tea Cosy and Barbara Lennon's Koala from an out of print Cleckheaton pattern leaflet (please don't ask for a copy - it is still in copyright).

Human necks need to be kept cosy too - and I've put a couple of hand-knit (to my own pattern) neckwarmers up on Etsy.  This one I've dubbed the Mermaid -


the yarn is my own kettle-dyed and hand-spun - there are green aventurine beads on each of the points.








There is one made in white alpaca yarn and this one in grey wool.  With the very different yarns - each collar is quite different in style.














With the cooler weather starting here it was time to finish this jumper for my grandson.  I started it back in 2009 - it was turning out too large for grandson back then but he has grown!

Pixie inspects the knitting

And as I'd only got as far as the arm-holes I could add length ... but I ran out of yarn - hence the grey stripes in the sleeves.


The pattern is Chaos from knitty.  And I love the random cabling, it produces a fantastic texture. 

I used a thicker yarn than the pattern calls for and this is a very warm jumper.  I used Bendigo Woollen Mills 12ply in Guava.

It should fit for this winter at any rate!

For my Granddaughter - a bolero from a vintage pattern - Bernat Handicrafter book no. 47 (dated 1956).  I dyed the yarn myself (it is Bendigo Woollen Mills again - it was white).

 The bolero is in a modified Moss Stitch and I think the variegations look quite nice.

The one button is a heart shape - of course :-)











As always - a lot of knitting has been for Blythe Dolls.

This is my donation to the BlytheFest 2012.  The theme is CandyLand - so I knitted a Candy Cane dress.  Knitted from sock yarn, the dress is all asymmetrical & twisty and it fastens with a fake bow on one shoulder.

Audrey has been rather spoilt of late - I bought a vintage Vespa for use as a prop in photographs but Auds has claimed it as her own ...

 You'll have noticed the beret ?  When I gave this to Auds she wasn't sure what it was.

Is it a Blanket?

Perhaps it is a cushion?

Oh! it is a Hat!

 Yes Audrey - it is a hat!   I was quite pleased at how the colours in this self-striping sock yarn (JigSaw I think) distributed themselves on the beret, the dark maroon was going to one side and the white all went to the other ... I tweeked things a little to maintain this as the number of stitches decreased.  But depending which way you turn this beret (or tam) - it is a pastel hat or a boldly striped one. 

Ciao people ... I'm sure that there will be more photos of me in the next post.

Christmas Greetings

Wishing you a Very Merry Christmas

by the bunch!

All our best wishes

Brought to you by the letters H & M

Remember that Alphabet Project I was making for my grandchildren?   I gave them the first part last Christmas (posted about it here) - the middle part will be one of this year's Christmas pressies - from H to M.   And it was those 2 letters that I hadn't yet made the toys for.

H - what animals have names starting with H?   Hippopotamus is definitely not Australian so I settled on Horse.

An easy pattern from Sarah Gasson's Knitables and very cute.  Am not a fan of eye-lash yarn but it does make a good horse's mane and tail!


The letter M simply had to be a Marsupial Mouse - remember The Muddle Headed Wombat  by Ruth Park?   Wombat's friend Mouse was a Marsupial Mouse ... she had a pouch.  Well, marsupial mice are not nice at all - they are carnivorous marsupials related to Tasmanian Devils - they just happen to be mouse sized; the Latin family name is Dasyuridae.  We have the Antechinus and the Dunnarts - I tried to make a Dunnart because they look so cute - I think this is a White-Footed Dunnart.  And here is a Wikipedia article on the Dunnarts.

Used Marisol the Mouse pattern (link is to Ravelry) because Dunnarts have a pointy slightly up-turned nose - just like Marisol.   Adapted the limbs by making them shorter & in the pale yarn, the tail is shortish and fur-colour, the ears are larger with pink linings, nose and eyes in black and quite large (Dunnarts are nocturnal).

The body is very adapted - to give her a pale tummy and a pouch (made like a pocket) and there are babies in that pouch - 6 bobbles in pink yarn, I even stitched eyes on them …. none of which can be seen :-)


The pale mouse on the left is a Marisol Mouse unadapted … a regular Mus musculus.  They seem to be friends.

More Stitches and some Facilitating

I have been working hard - here is some proof!

That's what happens to a pin made to do too much - poor thing!

The Facilitating was at a Workshop held by The Watershed on King Street, I had great fun and it was quite a success so they will be holding another  Upcycle your wardrobe workshop  more info here. 


Currently I'm working full-time sewing costumes for some musicals and I can only show you a few peeps.



Lots of stitches in that costume and the shiny velvet stuff is not easy to work with.

This beaded "cage" was a joint effort - all the major construction was by another - I did the smaller beads which are tiger-tail - lots of organic, wobbling lines to break up the straighter, structural work and wherever one crosses another they are wired together ... Quite a massive thing but very pretty and twinkly.



Most of what I can show you is knitting stitches rather than sewn ones - here are some knittings made for family & friends over the last few months ...

Socks - quite plain and traditional in a nice "denim" yarn - Araucania Ranco Solids.

 

Jacket for a new baby - an old pattern (from the 80's) and nice cheerful red wool from Bendigo Woollen Mills.

For my Granddaughter - an interconnecting set of accessories to keep her warm.  Little people are very apt to lose small items of clothing like mittens & scarves so my idea with these was to make them connected and thus, rather more difficult to lose.

Scarf with Mitts attached

The Scarf is long enough to go round then down the arms to her hands - where it ends in the mittens.  There are button-holes along the edges of the scarf which can be buttoned to the beanie hat.

And you can't see the buttons in this picture but they are there in a decorative grouping.

Of course my granddaughter has her own ideas about her clothes - she loved the beanie but insisted on wearing it pulled down almost over her eyes.  She wasn't impressed by the scarf - perhaps it is too wide.
Oh well - it served as a good project to start teaching her brother how to knit.  And he really enjoyed helping me to "stab the stitch, throttle the stitch, walk it round the ship and push it off the plank".   Piratical Knitting  :-)  

He preferred helping with the variegated yarn sections ... and that yummy yarn is "Knitcol" by Adriafil.  I bought it in a lovely little yarn shop / cafe in Nancy, France - a shop utterly crammed to the gunnels with wonderful yarns :-)   I bought 2 colourways of the Knitcol - the other will make a similar interconnected set for my grandson.

Another yarn purchase in France was the utterly gorgeous mohair I bought in Vezelay - I've blogged previously - and you can buy this yarn on-line   No, I'm not getting a kick-back.  Yes, I'll be buying more of this yarn - for a 1950's style big mohair jumper?  :-)



This is the loveliest mohair - very long haired, but quite soft, not wire-like and skritchy; it even has a slight lustre - divine.



With the 2 colours I bought I've made myself a simple lace cowl. 

Isn't it lovely?

Have I mentioned that I love this mohair?

Aren't those colours gorgeous?


Did I say that these are THE colours of spring in France?   The light green of new leaves against a freshly washed sky.

Aaaargh can I go back to France?     NOW!!