Saturday 28 December 2013

KISS Baby blanket

It's been far too long since I posted here and in thinking about where the time has gone, it's been a combination of a busy life but mainly processing my grief around the death of my Mum in January. It has been hard to access the ordinary things that give pleasure in my life, such as knitting and blogging. But the delight of being able to design a blanket for the first baby of a dear friend has inspired me to pick up my needles. I've called this my KISS baby blanket, KISS standing for Keep It Simple Stripes. It's knitted with nice, stretchy, mixed cashmere and merino double knitting yarn and is currently being wrapped regularly round its owner, dear Nathaniel, who is so welcome.


Wednesday 1 May 2013

Shetland Throw


My first long trip up to Shetland for a while has seen the completion of my Denim Patchwork Throw. This project has been not quite two years in the making - with lots of gaps in activity - but I am very pleased with the result. There are examples of several different techniques possible using denim cotton yarn as well as different stitch types honouring Shetland knitting - both Fair Isle and lace knitting. I also worked out my own design for a Shetland Flag. I can see that there have been many influences along the way, the landscape of Shetland itself as well as a battered corrugated fence at my old primary school

I've really enjoyed all aspects of this project: the knitting, the 'distressing' techniques and the stitching together (and you don't usually hear me say that sewing-up is fun!). I particular enjoyed stitching some fishes onto the fishnet lace piece - a good catch! The next challenge will be to see how the colours cope with their first collective wash - but not just yet.





 
                                         
                                                   



Saturday 2 February 2013

A Welcome to Lennon



 Long time no blog post here but the latest baby to arrive has now received his Fair Isle jacket, which I really loved knitting. A huge welcome to him...