Knit4Monarchs

I just thought because of the date I would reshare this video, which surprised me 9 years ago. I can't imagine that monarch butterflies are still not in need of some help. Please watch the video right to the end, as you will then find out that the best thing you can do if you live in areas of the world where the monarch is endangered is not to knit a home for a caterpillar but to plant milkweed. #gotmilkweed The next best thing would be to make a donation to the David Suzuki Foundation. 

So although knitting a chrysallis will not directly help monarchs, it is a very cute and fun thing to do. It was a very gentle April Fool joke, along the lines of a similar one to knit a coat for a penguin. It is quite funny to think I was a bit of a joke in Canada. 

I was really happy that my pattern was used in this campaign to raise awareness of a serious problem. 

 

Moths - The Good and the Bad

Moths in a woollen mill are a very bad thing. I have been told that they can very quickly reduce fleece or wool to a pile of dust, and so the wool stocks are kept sealed in what are essentially like large plastic sandwich bags, and I think every so often the whole building is fumigated. 

But moths at home are not much better, and I recently found that the one bear I had kept from my Teddy Bear pattern had been nibbled by moths. Poor Ted had to spend a while in my freezer, as this is meant to kill the moths, and any grubs or eggs too. (I probably should have warned my daughter that I had put him there!) I decided that darning was the best solution, and as my darning skills are not great, it was best to just going with making the darns very obvious. On his bottom he has two tradional woven darns, and the arms are my attempt at swiss darning. Even his little scarf had a hole. 

The house has now been scattered with cedar balls, as I don't really like the smell of traditional moth balls, and I have lavender hanging in the airing cupboard. But I don't want to put off all the moths.

Just to show that moths are not all bad, here are a few pictures of moths I have taken in my house in the last year. I think, but am not totally sure, that these bigger moths are not the main culprits for eating wool, so all of them were carefully put out doors. The first one is an elephant hawk moth, next a drinker, the yellow one a brimstone, the one on the green leaf might be a buff ermine, I think the last one is another type of ermine moth. Happy to be corrected on any of this! 

 

Autumn Garden Diary

I spent some of today doing a few jobs in the vegetable garden. The pumpkins are still coming along, so will leave them a bit nearer to Halloween.

I am also proud to present my melon, which is still growing in the polytunnel. There is also a smaller one. They are called Melba, and I guess I will leave it a bit longer, and pick when there is sign of frost.

We picked some more apples, which although more abundant than last year, don't seem to produce as much juice. My husband has been pressing them most of the day. I suppose it is because of the dry summer, so overall I think we may end of with much the same amount of cider as last year. Still a lot more on the trees, and pears as well.

Quite a lovely day, and still some colourful wildlife to photograph.

 

 

 

#Knit4Monarchs

Well yesterday really was a strange and exciting day. It started off when I noticed I had sold two of my Monarch Caterpillar Chrysallis Patterns on ravelry, both to Canadians. It's not my biggest seller, but I thought perhaps a local knitting group was doing a project. But then things started going a bit bonkers - messages on ravelry and more visitors to my blog than I have ever had.

This is why 

Please watch the video right to the end, as you will then find out that the best thing you can do if you live in areas of the world where the monarch is endangered is not to knit a home for a caterpillar but to plant milkweed. #gotmilkweed The next best thing would be to make a donation to the David Suzuki Foundation. 

So although knitting a chrysallis will not directly help monarchs, it is a very cute and fun thing to do. It was a very gentle April Fool joke, along the lines of a similar one to knit a coat for a penguin. It is quite funny to think I am a bit of a joke in Canada. 

I was really happy that my pattern was used in this campaign to raise awareness of a serious problem.

A Monarch Butterfly resting on Milkweed

Sorry to the Saturday Snapshotters if you have seen some of these photos before. I did have a really Easter themed post, but could not resist linking this one instead. Hope you are having a Happy Easter!

Baby Bug Shoes and Snowdrops

Some more baby shoes. These ones I have called Bug Shoes. I have knitted with this wool before, and just love all the different shades in it. I have no idea where it came from, and am a bit sad I only have the tiniest bit left. The bugs were my daughter's idea, at least the ladybird on the leaf. Then I thought it would be rather cool to have a different bug on the other shoe. I'm not sure that caterpillars are considered quite as cute, but I really like them, and it had to be something really small to fit on the shoe.

I then thought for these little pink shoes I would go back to my little bumble bee, and a sprig of white blossom. For these I used a wool that is 100% cotton. The pink in the photo is really accurate, and I love the gentle shade.

My neighbour told me this morning he has a few snowdrops in his garden. So for the last pair I have made a new pair of Snowdrop Shoes. Previously I have made these in yellow and green, but I thought a light blue would look good and wintery.

These shoes are all knitted from my Baby Bee Shoe pattern, and are off to my Etsy shop. Although the embroidery may look tricky, there are tutorials for all the stitches you need in embroidery corner in my right sidebar.

Bugs

I've been so busy crafting for Christmas I have nothing very new to show this week. I am a bit craft-faired out, and am going to get back to making something just for the sheer fun of it next week.

So I just thought I would put together a compilation of all my minibeasts and bugs. Patterns for all the above are on ravelry (some for free), and on the others I have a Minibeast promotion: £1 off if you buy any two of the above patterns together.

Goodbye Cricket Class!

Each class in my school is named after a mini-beast. The really nice thing is the children take that name up with them as they progress through the school. So most children will be in that class for seven years. Last year I was in Caterpillar Class, so you can probably imagine what I gave them as an end of year gift. I also gave them the butterfly to go with their caterpillar.

So it has been worrying me a bit, as this year I have been working in Cricket Class. Not an easy job to make a cricket. There are a few crochet patterns available for crickets and grasshoppers, but I couldn't find any knitting patterns. Perhaps I have been watching too much Apprentice, but clearly there is a gap in the market!

So last night I sat down and set about making Charlie the Cricket. I decided to just go for it, so I have made this first little fellow without making many notes. Really speeds up the process, and although he is going to be wrapped up, I had then to make a duplicate, this time writing down exactly what I did for the pattern. 

I will probably make a few more. I've knitted him in a traditional cricket green, but a bit of reseach shows crickets come in many different shades. 

Will anyone want to knit a cricket? He can be a pal for my stag beetle, which seems to appeal to certain type of small boy. 

And for a sneak clue to the class I will be helping in September Click Here.

Bazinga Bee!

So I was lying in bed pondering a name for this post, and suddenly BAZINGA! or perhaps I should say BEEZINGA! Nice play on words I thought. My family really love watching The Big Bang Theory. As well as being incredibly funny, Sheldon reminds me of some of the autistic kids I have met through my work. Clever, funny, (and also perhaps challenging some people's preconceptions about autism) able to build good friendships.

 

I have been knitting some bees from my Bumble Bee Pattern. I saw this net fabric in a shop, and thought if I sewed it onto felt it would make quite nice bee wings. The original bees had acetate wings, the template for which comes with the pattern. I like them as they are very realistic, but I thought the gold might also look good especially if they were to used as a decoration.

But imagine my surprise when I typed Bazinga Bee into Google to find that it already exists. Someone has named a new species of bee in South America the Bazinga Bee. Click on the photo if you want to read more. I know he looks nothing like my bee, but I think his greeny sheen is rather beautiful. How hard it is to come up with anything truly original!

Caterpillar, Chrysallis, Butterfly

My original Monarch Caterpillar knitting pattern, has been worrying me. It has been downloaded a lot of times, but no one has knitted it. (Hubby corrects me, and says that it may have been knitted plenty of times, but no one has posted a project.)

I think the problem may be that as it was knitted on 4 needles, and with not many stitches, this is a fiddly. It was my very first pattern on ravelry. So I have decided to do a brand new version. This is a bit of a compromise, as it is knitted flat, which makes the knitting much easier, but there is now one seam to sew. I don't want to make it too easy, so the feet are done with a row of french knots. You can see how to do these in the photo tutorial on my sidebar.

I have also added a tiny extra pattern, to make the missing link, a chrysallis. (Hubby adds that for completeness there should also be an egg and a larva pattern! Sigh.) I have no idea why anyone needs to knit a chrysallis, but I think together all three patterns could make a nice educational toy. 

I gave my original monarch butterfly and caterpillar to Caterpillar Class at my school. All the classes at my school are named after minibeasts. This year I work in Cricket Class, and I have been toying with the idea of knitting a cricket for them, but I think it will be a challenge with fiddly legs and wings.

I have not seen a chrysallis in real life, so have had to look at photographs very closely. The colour was a bit of a concern, as they seen to start off a very bright green with some yellow spots, but then before they hatch, change to a dark brown. 

So the new Monarch Caterpillar and Chrysallis are within one pattern, and I am going to try and link it to the Monarch Butterfly pattern, so if anyone fancies making all three they get a discount.