Simply Messing About In Boats

We are just back from our summer holiday. We had a great time on the Kennet and Avon Canal. I hardly did any knitting and also had very limited internet access, so have very little to show for it in that respect. But we did all have loads of fresh air and exercise, but all at a very gentle pace. 

You just can't rush on a canal.

In the background of this picture is Caen Hill, the longest flight of locks in Britain. So I feel like I have muscles in places I didn't even know existed. In all we think we went through 76 locks. I also pranced around on the tow path with my camera, and took loads of lovely photos of plants and animals, but I will put a few in another post. For now I am going to tackle the most enormous pile of washing I have ever seen!

"You Shall Have A Fishy ..."

I have been working all week on a new knitting pattern, Little Minnows.

It is a really simple little pattern, but I am happy with the way it has turned out, as it gives the knitter options, and all the choices are included in the one pattern.

First of all 4ply or doubleknit. The pattern works well in both.

There is the beaded fish. The beads are not sewn on, but incorporated into the knitting.

Then there is the Minnow with Bobbles. I thought this would be a fun way to make the scales if you didn't have any beads handy. But even with this version you can decide whether to do it in one colour or two, for which the patterns are slightly different.

Then there is the decision of whether to use a separate colour for the tail and fins, or even whether to knit the top and bottom fins at all. 

A minnow does have fins, but I knitted a few without as I thought they also looked nice. Hubby says those ones are not minnows, but anchovies, but I think he is just thinking with his stomach.

So not a good pattern if you find decision-making difficult.  It might put you in a spin trying to decide.
 

Thank you to my virtual friends for all the kind comments on my starfish and scallop shell last week.

A Little Bit of Embroidery

In my knitting patterns I use embroidery quite often. I only just noticed that more than half of my patterns have what I call "a little bit of embroidery". And my two sewing patterns on Craftsy (the Rainbow of Owls and Smocked Headband) have a lot.

It is such an easy way to add a little bit of decoration. Embroidery on knitting also has the advantage that the lines formed by the knitting automatically give you a bit of a grid to help you measure and position your embroidery.

But embroidery can be a bit daunting, especially if you are new to it, so I thought I would make a small section of my blog that shows how to do these stitches by picture tutorial. I made a single page recently on how to sew a French Knot, and had some nice feedback. Most of these stitches are quite simple, but you may need to practise a little to get the hang of them. There are other places on the internet that show stitches, but not often done using wool on knitting.

I have put the links in my sidebar. I really wanted to put them as links from this page, but as I have said before I am a bit of a computer half-wit, and just can't work out how to do that. I may move them down from the top eventually, but they will stay somewhere in the sidebar.

I think embroidery can really enhance your knitting. Have fun with it.

If you have found this interesting please bookmark the pages. I plan to add some more stitches in the future.

"Oh I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside"

My recent family trip to the seaside, closely followed by a school trip to the Sea Life Centre in Brighton, put in mind that I should branch out a little from the insects and try my hand at some sea creatures, or maybe I should say beach creatures.

The knitting patterns for these sea creatures are available on Ravelry. 

I have a special offer running on Ravelry, where you can buy any two of my seaside patterns, including my popular spiral shell, and get a £1 discount. I also have a few of my seaside sets for sale for non-knitters in my Etsy Shop.

I have a few more sea creatures in the pipeline, which I am still working on.

I have tried to photograph them below so that you have to look quite hard I hope to see which are knitted and which are real. 

I have been working on the patterns for a while, and am pleased with the way they have turned out. The scallop shell can be knitted as one half, or as two and sewn together and stuffed. I thought it might be nice to make into a lavendar bag. 

Hubby suggested fashioning two shells into a bikini, but soon told him what to do with that idea. Scallops seem to come in a huge variety of colours and patterns, as you can see from the black shell that we found on a beach in Cornwall. So anyone who knits one could really let their imagination go wild.

This version of the starfish has a bit of embroidery, but this is optional. As usual I have tried to go for realism. I have put a page on my blog on how to sew a french knot, as I love using this stitch. I seem to use it a lot, and people think it is difficult, so hope I have shown how simple it is.

This is the underside, which my son says is where a starfish's mouth is?

I have a few more sea creatures in the pipeline, which I am still working on.

French Knot

Some of my knitting patterns include a little bit of embroidery. And although there are a lot of places on the internet that show how to do this, particularly on Youtube, I thought I would show how to do some of these stitches on wool using wool. If you haven't done much embroidery they can seem a bit daunting.

I thought I would start with the french knot, which I have used in my ladybird, butterfly patterns, and starfish. It can be really useful, especially for making eyes on little creatures.

First fasten on at the back of your knitting and stitch through to the front

Wind the wool around your needle twice

Sew into your knitting, close to where you came up, but not through the same hole

Troubleshooting: The main ways your french knot might go wrong are if you sew in too close to where you came up. If this happens you will find all your wool seems to disappear with no knot.  Just have another go. A bit of practice and it get easier.

The other thing I find can happen is that if you have too long a piece of wool it just get tangled and does not make the nice little knot. If this does happen just untangle and have another go.

Pull the wool through and you should find yourself with a perfect little french knot

Simple. If you want to make a slightly larger knot you can wrap the wool around the needle three times.

A Philosophical Bag and An African Skirt

The fabric of my latest bag made me think of the quote about the tree falling in a forest, with no one there to hear it. If no one hears it, has it made a sound?

This is my second attempt at making a bag from Amy Butler's book. It is the small teardrop bag. Again I found the cutting out and interfacing the fabric hard work, but really enjoyed the sewing. I love the shape of this bag, and its pleat, but I think the larger version might make a more practical bag.  I like a bag with room to keep a purse, book and numerous other things. My first go at fitting a magnetic clip, which was fairly simple.

Although I have a big box full of fabrics, I found it very hard to find two that would go together well. A lot are things like old curtains, or bits left over from other projects. So I cheated a bit and used the edge of this African waxed cotton for the handle and top band, and the main part of the fabric for the bag.  It is a rather busy pattern, which I am not sure would be to everyone's taste, but I think is rather unique and beautiful.

I love this fabric, which I bought a long time ago in Shepherd's Bush for a skirt project when I was doing my City and Guild. I had to buy a lot more fabric that I really needed as the picture on the wrap around sections of the skirt had to match exactly. 

So here is my African-inspired skirt. I am rather pleased that over 13 years and 2 children later it still (just about if I hold my breath) fits. It was the first garment I made on my fashion course, and my first go at designing a garment and blocking a pattern. The regulations of the course meant all the garments had to have a theme, which led to a few rather unusual outfits.

It has one major design flaw, that it is not comfortable to sit down in. You end up with a beading imprint! So it languishes at the back of my wardrobe, but it took so much work, especially the beading which was all done by hand, that I cannot bear to part with it. And I have made so many different things from the fabric that I had left over, which is really lovely to work with.

Plaiting and Braiding

Have you ever tried to teach a small child how to plait? Actually what I meant to say, have you ever tried to teach a group of small children how to plait? It can be really frustrating, and it can make you feel really miserable when it goes wrong.

One technique I have used is to get the children to practice with a really thick bit of cord. Even better is to have your cord in three different colours.

Another good idea is to tape the plaiting to the table so they can hold it with a bit of tension.

But overall I tended to avoid plaiting with my craft club, as it was just too difficult for most of them.

But I have discovered this really great way to make a braided cord, that I think most children could manage. I'm not sure if this is well known, but I had not heard of it before. If anything the result is nicer than a simple plait. But it is so easy, that so long as we have prepared lengths of wool in advance, my daughter can sit in the back of the car on journeys and braid without any help. It is really fun to make friendship bracelets this way.

So here it is. You need to cut a bit of card in this octagon shape. Cut the 8 slits around, and a hole in the middle.

If you want it to last for several cords, you can reinforce it with tape, but you don't need to do this. Tie seven pieces of wool together, and with the knot in the central hole, put one piece of wool in each of the slots. One slot won't have wool in it. Hold your octagon so this slot is at the bottom. Then simply move the wool from the third slot to the right to the empty slot at the bottom. Keeping the same side of the card facing you, rotate your octagon so the slot that now has no wool is at the bottom, and then move the wool from 3 to the right to this slot. Repeat this for a longish time, letting your braided wool grow backwards out of the central hole.

If you get a bit tired or need to do something else, you can take a break from braiding with this technique, and it won't unravel. Simple. Happy braiding!