The knitted convenience

The Beginning!!!

My contribution to the knitted convenience
http://www.sydneydesign.com.au/sd09/exhibitions/the-knitted-convenience/
My little joke, the free-form crochet on a loo roll.
(Toilet roll inner)

A spare hour, a pot of tea on the patio and my little but all important contribution.

My quick crochet.....it's at least a couple of sheets, Crocheted today then straight into a jiffy envelope. next step the post office.

Project K C, NSW oz.

It's really not much, but hopefully a gap filler.

I just hope it cuts the mustard.

(no more yellow joke's, promise)

My knitted graffiti, gets signed. I added my signature;-)

VHS

This bug bear dress, is just getting more and more technical.
The weight is still an issue that's why if you look close you can see all my support ropes.
(Well odds and ends of yarn)

My handsome puppy, who seems to be terribly jinxed. Yesterday he got stung by a bee and his face swelled, the swelling went down.
Then.........Today his chin swelled. Poor boy!

A Crochet Outing

I took my crochet to lunch.
The crochet poem,gets a road trip.
Well a walking tour............

Walking and Crocheting

Here I am walking, walking ......it's me trust me.
(no car crashes caused)
But It must be a funny sight, some people listen to eye pods.........

I crochet and watch where I'm going (A multitasking feet!)

The Palace in sight

Drottningholm Slot

A Swedish palace not to far from my home.
And my favourite palace, the gardens are beautiful. And unlike the English monarchy, you can get really close to everything around the palace.

A beautiful day, you cant feel the warmth from the picture but the sun shone.

Lunch

New tea gardens/cafe, this was desperately needed.. The previous was very run down and not fit for a palace afternoon tea, In the Swedes case, cooooffffeeeee. I feel awfully Swinglish and quiet at home here. So coffee for me!/no decaf.

Lunch and my Poetry crochet, minty

The menu slightly difficult, seeing it is a tourist trap. But I managed and
My lunch lovely, my crochet well it didn't eat much, just a few rows.

Then my trip home.

All in all, I think my poetry square grew an inch, but a size 3 hook and 90 stitches I'm really not surprised, but at least we got a little exercise.

Knitted Graffiti and other projects

I have nearly completed my crocheted Graffiti for the kulturfestivalen. I ran out of beads and then I got bored of strips, so I have just really being playing with the stitches. My favourite type of crochet.

Vhs

I have been using the red cotton to create the imaginary zipper. The place that you can pull the dress tight(to skinny) to fit and that of course you have a little give (if larger) the access point.
(I just cant think of the right word;-()
Hook size 8, 5 then 3

Crocheted letters

(My E)

E for Eat me, Drink me.........Part of my Alice collection.

Tuesday at Hurtigs
Carin and Gunilla
A lovely cup of Earl gray tea, we got to sit outside and chat.
We really laughed, it was a very funny knit cafe.
Whom ever thought of the knit and stitch a very skilled multi tasking women,
Because when you chat and stitch add laughter, inevitably this happens

I had to unpick a few free-form rows(go figure), Gunilla lost count of her stitches.

I learnt something new

Carin show me how to crochet the 2ND yarn in, as if the back of a fare isle knit all thready was how my 1st attempt looked, but on explanation a little twist and stitch the tread was neatly in.

(My best explanation)

I'm making letter again and I'm trying it the make a crochet square way using the two colours at once.

Before I made the shape of the letter, then I crocheted around it.

Yarn for poetry

4ply

Not acrylic and a light colour, all that was required.
I had to ask around about 4 ply and wool, not anything that I have used before.
4 strands it was all quiet simple, really I guess.
But with a little advice........(That what experienced knitters are for)
I found this at 23krs a ball, I think a pretty good deal
Soft and minty

Work began

12 by 12 inch square
size 3 hook
59 chain? this was more like 8 cm. A little math reqiured (kim star)

90 and that made the 12 inch required.

Then I began, I didn't get far with such teeny tiny stitches, but it's all in the name of poetry so I won't complain.
www.poetrysociety.org.uk

A Knitted Experiment .

Not a lot of knitting but a lot of photography.

Pink
Green

Pink, Blue and Green
Or Hot Pink

Chartreuse , Electric blue
you decide;-)

A Knitted experiment
Apparatus

One chocolate spread Jar(empty)

A few balls Ecuadoran yarn in bright colours(Karin)

A good camera

Acrylic paint lazily left to dry out, in the jar. Then soaked in water.

Then a quick thinking, what a good idea (on my behalf) camera shoot. My camera always close at hand.......

And what result do you get.....
ART

Abel Morrall's Areo knitting Needles

Almost perfect condition in original packaging
Abel Morrall's
(It's a cool name)
Vintage packet

10kr in a charity shop. That's around £1..........sitting at the bottom of a little bucket. Perfect packaging and very traditional English brand for sale in a Stockholm charity shop, perfect!. They must have been lost and forgotten to sit in such good condition for all these years. The paper packet is very flimsy.

I will love and cherish them.;-)

History lesson time!

The oldest known knitting needles, still very much in use, are double-pointed needles.
They are generally used to form tubular fabrics such as socks and the bodies or sleeves of sweaters. As the name implies, double-pointed needles are tapered at both ends nearly to points.

They are normally used in sets of four or five as depicted in a number of 14th century oil paintings, by a flexible strand (usually nylon) that allows the two ends to be brought together.

Dpn's are typically used for circular knitting, especially smaller tube-shaped pieces.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knitting_needle

Knitting needle history

Brief facts taken from Wiki above.

1st

There are three basic types of knitting needles (also called "knitting pins").
The first and most common type consists of two slender, straight sticks tapered
to a point at one end, and with a knob at the other end to prevent stitches from
slipping off.

2nd

The second type of knitting needles are straight, double-pointed knitting needles
(also called "dpns"). Double-pointed needles are tapered at both ends, which allows
them to be knit from either end.

3rd

The third needle type consists of circular needles, which are long, flexible
double-pointed needles. The two tapered ends (typically 5 inches (130 mm) long)
are rigid and straight, allowing for easy knitting; however, the two ends are
connected.

Flora MacDonald

Fact
The packaging mentions ,Flora Macdonald needles this is all I could find.
Flora MacDonald (Gaelic: Fionnghal NicDhòmhnaill) (1722 – March 4, 1790), Jacobite heroine,
was the daughter of Ranald MacDonald of Milton on the island of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, and his wife Marion, the daughter of Angus MacDonald.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flora_MacDonald_(Scottish_Jacobite
I'm not sure of the link, but I researched her as best I could.
(let me know if you know)

On closer inspection the packet reads, with specially tapered point that will not injure your fingers. To Cute
Below she is Tilted "Catholic girl knitting" how this is known I'm unsure, but she was as close to 14th century as I could get.
History lesson over;-)

Graffiti knit up-date
Stripy crochet for project kulturfestivalen.

Late night crochet
Here is my Beaded-Graffiti so far, all eyes on me last night as I KIP'ed
Pub, Train, Tram and even the cinema before the darkness and the scary film set in, Drag you to hell! aptly named and what you get if you leave it all up to your husband to book. Luckily for me I had my denim jacket to cover my eyes as it was VERY SCARY.

This week I have been busy! (mostley making)

Double ended hooks

New! not seen before......
Knit story
I found a really cheap place to stock up on my acrylic wool in the UK.
A sewing machine fixing shop, opp Primark (make it easy)

We chatted about Stockholm, I guess he wondered why 10 balls all bright colour balls of acrylic.

Then I saw that he had a little collection on needles for a £1(the usual sort)

On asking if he had any crcohet hooks, as this trip to UK I forgotten to pack
my knit fix bag.

I had a 25! and a 8 variety, not. Mind you any hooks better than none.

He replied "no" to crochet hook request, I thought id look anyway, for my knitting needle collection I can always find more space , Just one more set.......

Shining from the bottom of the pot a gold doubled ended crochet hook!
Around a size 3 and 3.5.

I joked with him not knowing his stock, and he gave it to me, yes told me to pop it in my bag a kind knit gesture.

A hook for Free........now that's a story worth sharing.

A hook or a screw

A charity shop purchase and I think that it could have possibly been hand made.

Extremely tarnished so it spent a night in the brown sauce
(English bad habit)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_Sauce
(The sauce acidic, I think that's the science part)

I'm a Marmite girl.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marmite

The screw looking part, I think the term is bevelled
(I may have heard Rich mention this term)

But any how, home made = made with love.
A rare one to my collection.

I knit a poem

http://outcastartists.blogspot.com/

Mentioned by Alabama, I have gotten involved with this project. Funny thing the Rebecka that's running the project is Swedish it turns out with our e mails of correspondence.
Small world, from Smaland.
My progress has not yet begun as I need to purchase some wool(Real wool).
(no acrylics here please)Today's job;-)

I'm Crocheting a blank square so it couldn't be easier.

Pink yarn and beads

The pink and beads a long scarf type of project that can be wrapped around some thing in the city.
http://kulturfestivalen.stockholm.se/2009/?LANG=EN

A new Stockholm project that hopefully I'm involved with.

Helen and her blog
http://tricot-ting.blogspot.com/

Basically a bit of knitted Graffiti, on a big scale.

knit and crochet, getting people involved showing what can be done all things yarn related.
I think that it's covering as much of Sergal concentrate area (chequer board part) as can be done.
Helens words, to make the town as knitted as possible.
More mention in swedish on blog below
http://avigmaskan.blogspot.com

Ikea bag of knitted and crocheted things, that I have pre made. I can donate to pretty the city with graffiti.

Bug dress

WIP

Progress so far...........
I'm currently on my third video cog, so it is a pretty cost effective you get a lot
on a roll.

To crochet a poncho for dolly

Vintage
The perfect Granny square, oh and how granny would have made it.

By Wynne Broughton and illustrated by Eric winter,1975 a later edition

Lady bird nerdy fact site,Just being informative

The earliest Ladybird books were not given series numbers and are much larger than the standard Ladybird size.

The books, published by Wills and Hepworth, began to appear from 1914. The Ladybird logo was registered in 1915.
http://www.kidz-books.net/kidzbooks/articles.aspx?id=13

Too cute, can you image children of today, when the book just talks about making gifts for your family and not about how to make your self look 20 when your only 12.

And even at twelve, dare I mention a doll.
Unfortunately for the children of today they are faced daily with the
popular ever growing media magazine frenzy,
That they don't really get a chance to play with dolls.

They are to busy trying to look grown up, because they want to be the next Brittany.

Mind you on the bright side,they could then be like me. Buy a new one when you get to 35! regression or just simply having fun.

This is defianlty Some thing that I could re create for my Blythe.

Inflation or popularity, but the price went up by a whole 9 pence quiet considerable in 3 years.

Rasmus the naughty puppy
He is not aloud to get on the beds,he is defiantly not aloud in the clean washing. That was neatly sat in piles on my bed, waiting to be put away.
(I hate that part)
But my door left ajar, when I was looking for him this evening this is what I found, he is so naughty he stayed in this exact spot whilst I went to find my camera.

Something to knit for mother

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladybird_Books

Making something for mother? A cute blast from the past, 1972 before I was born!.

Lady bird was a very British tradition when I grew up, that to my knowledge has been sadly lost (not in print). Correct me if I'm wrong but I think that they are no longer published;-(.

So I figured for all those 70's mad knitters out their, I would share some of their contents.

Old descriptions always seem to be the best, and image. For me Knitting and crocheting free-form the images always seem to be much easier to copy from, if need's must.

Lovely vintage Images

A lady bird vintage Knitting book.
1972

They remind me of my childhood and I have already purchased an early edition of the crochet. £1 and £150 for my knitting book collection, E-bay bargain.

15p

Phone Image

This was taken yesterdays my K,I,P on way to cafe

Mini knit cafe with Karin and Segun, mini being the word of the day as featured here is my mini Ikea bag, knitting whist taking a tram trip.

Ikea is Swedish! correct me if I'm wrong, yet the UK has mini Ikea bags!
(You can tell the size as the Hulk green is a regular double knit)

These bags are not yet available in Sweden so I'm in(like designer).
This little bag I guess I could pop on Blocket (Swedish E-bay) and make a fortune!;-)
But it's such a good little project bag, i'll just keep it for me..........