skein

Another two hats

This time for an infant,

Although I do cull my stash from time to time (and indeed have spent the past four years culling and knitting it up) it is still a bit too much for me.  I reckon that Ive halved it (at least) but I still see the same yarns in the stash each time I have a rummage.  I wish it was small enough so that I could buy to knit because I don't have it stashed.  Not quite yet (though I still do buy!).

Anyway this Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted has been in the stash for about four or five years and I decided it was high time to use it up.  I have 2 x 100g skeins, but these two hats used about 50g.

Both are destined for my great nephew T who turned one this week.  

The first one is Polpo.  Cute hat, but it looks a little small to me. My niece doesn't own a tape measure so I guessed and think I got it wrong. I'm going to post it up to her anyway, I'm sure she knows babies who need a hat!

So I cast on another hat, this time Quynn.  In the next size up. It looks suitably larger.  I'm presuming his head is about 18" now!

I can see more Quynns in my future, though I'll use a more substantial yarn next time, this is great to knit with but can't see it being that warm for cold weather.  I usually knit superwash for children, but as Mr C says, they are more likely to lose the hat before it needs washing, so  I might try out some noro next time.  The colour's Baltic Sea. I've spent all  these years thining that it was Khaki!

I still have one hat finished and blocking, another one finished and not blocking (it looks horrendously huge) plus two more to knit, but I'm so enjoying knitting hats at the moment I shall carry on until I'm pig sick of knitting them.  A knitting friend commented a few weeks ago that she's been buying more patterns than she will ever knit up, and I feel the same way, must have about 50 patterns not knitted up yet, and that's excluding free ones and ones in books! 

 

A couple of simple hats

I'm gathering quite a pile of knitted but not finished or blogged items. All small, all simple. All destined for gifts!

Here's the first two items.  

The pattern is the Ribbed Watachman's Hat, knitted for my father and C's frather. I took two photos!  I used some stashed Cascade 220 in black.  The pattern is pretty simple, just 2x2 ribbing until you decreaseat the top.  

First hat, for my dad.  It's as per the pattern, but I went down to 3.75mm  needles, making for a tighter hat.  (Truth is that I couldn't find larger needles in longer lengths for magic loop!).

Apologies fo rhte poor quality of the photos.  Mr C was on his way to the boat, and it was raingin, so he didn't want to hang around in the wet weather. 

It's a bit snug on Mr C, so I added another 8 stitches and another inch in length for his father's hat.

Despite Mr C telling me he didn't need any more hats, after modelling this one he's decided he would in fact like one. I have some bright blue yarn...

 

 

irst hat - the small ne  has the ame number of stitches as in the pattern, but I'm using smaller needles.  

Moonbeam

Just one more baby thing! I can't really see Maja getting much use out of this, but it has cuteness value and gave me a bit of mindless knitting when I last went home to visit my parents.

A baby cape, Moonbeam by Kim Hargreaves.

Start/finish 28-29th October

Yarn: Rowan Wool Cotton in pale pink, about 2.75 balls.

No way was I going to get tension on the specified needles, so I went down to 3.50mm needles.  Even then, garter stitch and mindless knitting meant my tesnion was still off, so I had to modify the stitch and row count a little, but it's very easy to do this.

Of course it would look better modelled by a baby. I refuse to find a live animal to wear it, and it would freak Mr C out if I put it on a doll (if I owned any) so it's not really shown to its best advantage in 2d.  

(mind you, it still looks a bit creepy to me!)

I'd planned just one more baby garment, but it's on hold, I think I'm finished with baby knitting for a few months!

Another Small Things Sweater

Thank you all for the lovely comments about Jill.   I'm realy not back into kntiting or blogging, but Yvonne's suggestion of visuialising Jill sitting next to me reading the blog is a great idea!

So, here's the first knitting post, another baby garment for my work colleague Maja.  She's now only three weeks away from her due date, so I've given her all of the baby garments I've knitted, which she loves. I've lost a hat though, sure it will turn up some time. It's tiny, and we've looked behind the chest of drawers in case it had slipped down, but no luck.   

 

Pattern: Small Things Sweater (my favourite baby gift)

Needles: 4.5mm

Start/finish dates: 26th - 28th October (a quick knit)

Yarn: Cascade 220 superwash, pink.  About 0.9 of a skein.  

This is the first time I've knitted with this superwash yarn, and I reallly like it.  The only UK supplier I could find was Get Knitted, and the only colour in stock was this pink.  I'll be keeping my eye out for more of this. It's  not bad to knit with. 

Previous versions have been knitted in Artesano superwash, size 3 months, but this time I've gone for newborn, so it's a little smaller.

And the peach version (which had orange spotty buttons) has had new buttons attached. Really, those orange spotty buttons just didn't work, so I've sewn on shell buttons, my standby buttons.

From this:

to this:

Much better!

Saying goodbye to Jill

Yesterday we all said our goodbyes to Jill.  If Jill had sat down and planned her own farewell it would have been pretty much as it went.  

She had a wonderful white felted casket, adorned with the family's flowers and the knitted flowers, arranged by Nic.  

The service was wonderful, or as wonderful as they get, still lots of tears.  Full to bursting, which was good to see, and lots of colour worn. Jill was not one for black :)

Afterwards, the family arranged a lovely celebration of her life, with photos of Jill and her knitting.  Jill would have loved to have been there!

I just wish I'd actually gone around saying hello to everyone, putting faces to names. It was good to talk, so many happy memories of a wonderful woman. She'll be greatly missed.  When we got home we cracked open some wine, I had a read of the Order of Service (well, the photos) and had a good cry.

It'll be odd going back to the knitting blog, knowing that our friend Jill will no longer be reading it.  

Jill

 

1937 - 2012

with her husband Roland, at their Golden Wedding celebration

Our lovely knitting friend Jill died last week.  

She will be sorely missed, by both her family and all of knitting and non-knitting friends. 

 Jill lived a full and happy life.  She started knitting at the tender age of six (or was it four?  Wish I could remember!) and not thick yarn on big needles, either.  Her mother had her knitting the 'easy' bits on socks for the troops during WWII, the leg and foot bits. Mother did the difficult bits like turning the heel!  Dark yarn, small needles.  And it didn't put her off knitting.

Indeed, Jill spent her entire life knitting.

I first met Jill in the early days of the Libertys knitting group.  She loved it!  Friends and yarn in one place.  After the group closed she quickly found new places to meet up - notably Stash Yarns in Putney (now sadly closed) and IKL at Waterloo.  At one stage our Jill was going to knitting groups on Wednesday and Thursday each week, as well as meeting up on Saturdays at Stash!  That isn't including forays into new territories.  We made it to Get Knitted in Bristol a few times (you girls will be pleased to know that I've passed on a photo of you all standing  outside GK to Carrie!). Loop in North London, Mrs Moon in SW London and the staple John Lewis and Peter Jones, where she also regularly met up with knitters from the Liberty group.  She loved it all and I know I've missed out a lot!

A few years ago Jill had a very nasty fall, breaking her leg and damaging nerves (that was the most painful part). It meant a long recovery at home, and complete dependence on others to do the most basic of things, even turning over in bed.  She was at the lowest point I have ever seen her, she loathed being so dependent on others. She relied heavily on her family, who rallied around and made life as easy as possible for her.  When Stash had closed some of the knitters who met there decided to continue meeting up at a pub in Putney (not so much a knitting group as a group of friends who knit) and Jill desperately missed getting there each week.  As soon as she could she enlisted her daughter Carrie to drive her there and back!  And she went there every week up until the day she was taken ill. In these past months, when Jill was increasingly frail, they treated her to little outings, to yarn shops, to lunch, and took her to Ally Pally. I still quite can't believe that Jill was there a few weeks before she died, did the whole day!  She so enjoyed these little outings, they meant a lot to her.

 Jill's passion for all things knitting was inspirational. A great ennabler, she'd tell me all about the new season's yarns, new shops, even ravelry threads I should check out.  She had a huge heart too,  would be thoughtful to friends who were sick or who were bereaved, always there for them. The number of times she'd tell me she'd sent a card or gift to someone, she must have had a large supply of lovely cards.  She'd introduce knitters to each other, tell them about ravelry, get them involved in this big knitting world.  Nothing pleased her more than new knitters.  When her granddaughter and her daughter's friend took up knitting she was thrilled.

Jill could be bothered.  She had contemporaries whom she'd kept in touch with for decades.  She was part of a round robin letter writing group, they had all been at secretarial college (presume this was the fifties) and they'd collect various articles on things they thought would be of interest to each other, to include in their letter when they were responsible for writing it.  

She was enormously proud of her family.  In recent years as her friends have aged or become unwell, she has seen how some other families cope (not) and absolutely certain that in her time of need they would all be there for her. This meant a lot to her. 

She was taken ill on a short break with her husband Ro and taken to Poole hospital.  Last Monday she was told she had terminal cancer, and her family moved her back to London the next day. They had three short days with her before she died.  Her last evening was spent pain free, with her family around her bedside, reminiscing about her life.  Just as Jill would have wanted.  

We'll all miss her terribly. Jill was a dear, dear friend.  I haven't been able to do much knitting this past week (which would make her cross) but when I return to proper knitting I'll always be grateful to have known and spent time with this wonderful women.  She was important to a lot of people.  Active and as bright as the day she was born, right up until the last week. 

If you knew Jill, and read this today, please, knit or crochet a flower. Her family want to celebrate her life, and as that involves knitting would like to cover her casket with some sort of knitted / crocheted covering.  The ceremony will be on Tuesday 13th November, so there's not much time, get those needles clacking!  Nic is coordinating this - you can find her on ravelry under nickerjac, or she has a blog nickerjac.wordpress.com.   PLEASE knit flowers! 

Anyone with photos to share with her family can email them to Carrie.  If you email me at skeins at gmail dot com I can give you her email address, if you don't have it.