Faroese Shawls

I'm very fond of Myra Stahman's Shawls and Scarves book. Knitting top down Faroese shawls is great fun and they are very easy to wear.

So when I was recently given some Jamieson and Smith's laceweight  yarn I immediately decided to use it for an old favourite from Myra Stahman's book, her Susan pattern. And I got is finished a few days ago so here it is.

I always like leaf patterns in lace, they are easy to knit and very effective.

The pattern has a very attractive balance of solid and openwork to it.

And here is another Susan. This one is in pure silk yarn from 21st Century yarns. I knitted this a number of years ago when Myra Stahman's book first came out, and it has been much worn. Silk shawls are very goodtempered, needing minimum blocking if any, and are surprisingly warm to wear.

Since I now have two Susans, I'm keeping my old silk one and my daughter will be getting the other for Christmas!



Knitted Lace Doily

I knitted this lace doily so many years ago that I can no longer remember where the pattern came from. The thread is 100% silk and will have been from 21st Century yarns.

I have very limited space to display doilies though I have always loved making them, either knitted or tatted. Tatting stands up even to cats kneading on it and can be easily washed and ironed if subject to muddy paw-prints (and everything in my home IS!) But knitted lace is a little more fragile and needs to be blocked after every wash. So I found a solution.

I dressed a doll and used the doilie as a shawl for her. The doll lives in my china cabinet, safe from the attentions of my cats.

I long ago decided that I could have either ornaments or cats, but not both. If there isn't room for something fragile in the china cabinet then there isn't room for it in my house.



Ginger and Tigger

I woke this morning from a nasty nightmare and got up to find a grey damp Monday. So here are Ginger and Tigger, to cheer me up.

Ginger loves climbing the old lilac tree in our garden. I wonder what he was looking at. Whatever it was it certainly has his attention!

And here is Tigger being his usual quietly composed self.



Christmas Tree Ornament

I live in a tiny flat and have cats. Neither is conducive to normal size Christmas trees, but this year I thought I would knit a little one. The pattern comes from this year's Irresistible Christmas Gifts to Knit, produced by Simply Knitting. It is the Twinkling Trees pattern by Elizabeth Jarvis.

In my case, I made a fabric lining for the tree and filled it completely with rice. I used one kind of eyelash yarn in knitting the tree and another as 'tinsel'. Then I added an assortment of  beads, charms, buttons, ribbon flowers etc. that I already had in my oddments box. I even found I had a little angel charm to put on the top of the tree!

My husband has watched me knitting this with some bemusement. He just doesn't see the point! He hasn't seen the finished item yet though so it will be interesting to see what he thinks of it then.



Teddy Bears

My love of teddy bears started with Teddle-eddle-eddle (on the right). He was made for my first Christmas by a colleague of my Mother's (before her marriage), Dr Bachelor.

 He was knitted at quite a fine guage but grew fragile over the years and ended up mostly covered in patches taken from my Father's old vests.

 I also made him his clothes, knitting them to fit basically because, as a child, that seemed the obvious way to do it, and I had no access to any suitable pattern. His jacket is wool left over from the cardigan I had knitted for my father. I can't remember what the trouser wool was left over from. His shirt was sewn from left over dress material. In those days no one would have thought of buying new fabric or yarn for such a purpose. The rag-bag was quite good enough for that!

The bear on the left, Pistachio, was one I made myself. I expect I made him from a pattern or from instructions in a book as he was one of the first bears I made, but I can no longer remember where I got the design.

I really enjoyed making teddy bears, though sadly these days they are too hard on my arthritis and I have had to give up.

These two are my own designs, in fact, two variations on the same design. The one on the right is in a mohair that I dyed myself.

Tatted Silk Shawl

This is one of Teiko Fujita's pattern, available in English in the book Tatted Fashion from Lacis. I've always really liked her patterns and use them frequently. She makes good use of negative space in her designs. I particularly enjoy the effect of different density in this pattern, with some areas almost solid and some very open.

I tatted this in silk thread from au ver a soie using the thread double. That is to say, I wound it onto the shuttle double and treated the two threads as one. This is a handy trick if, as in this case, you can't find the thread you want in the thickness you want.

I have always loved tatting patterns where two or more motifs create interesting shapes between them. Teiko Fujita is good at this, and so is Mary Konior.

One minor point is that I had trouble with the smell of this silk yarn. I assumed the odd odour would wash out when I blocked the finished piece, but in fact I had a lot of difficulty with this. Nothing I tried seemed to help and in the end only time cured the problem. It is now a number of years since I finished this piece and it no longer smells unpleasant. I understand that this may be something to do with the methods used in producing the silk. Anyway, if it is likely to bother you, it is worth sniffing any silk yarn before you use it and deciding if you will be able to live with the smell in case it proves hard to get rid of.



The Cap Shawl



This pattern is the Cap Shawl from Jane Sowerby's lovely book Victorian Lace Today.

The colour is a pale yellowy-green that the camera just can't cope with whatever I do! It is a much prettier shade than the photo suggests.

Because I wear my circular shawls mostly for extra warmth folded in half under my cardigan or jacket I have knitted it in a 90% silk 10% cashmere yarn that is easy to wash and doesn't need blocking. With such a high proportion of silk in the mixture I hand wash it, spin dry it and then just shake it out before I leave it to dry.

This is a good option if making a shawl for someone who won't be able to block it but will want to wash it. Any yarn with a high proportion of silk will fall naturally into shape with a bit of shaking and gentle pulling. The same would be true of a cotton yarn but that would be quite heavy, significantly heavier than the silk version, which is a disadvantage in a big shawl, though it may not matter so much with a smaller shawl.

For anyone who hasn't seen Jane Sowerby's book, it is one of my favourites, and enjoyable for the lovely photographs alone.