Welcome to my blog. I live, knit, crochet, spin and craft near the Northumbrian Coast (but not too near – the waves won't be splashing my yarn!).There's a story in every stitch, every grain of sand, every blade of grass. I thought I'd blog about it…
More lovely baby tops and hats were produced this week by members of the Knit and Natter Group at Alnwick Medical Group
We were given a lovely Christmas treat by Julie, one of the practice nurses who looks after the group. She’d made us this beautiful gingerbread house.
Julie has made 32 of these (she donates them to charities) and says that her kitchen is covered in edible glitter! In the end she had to open it because none of us could bear to break it up – it’s so pretty. She’d even personalised it with K+N for Knit and Natter.
It was absolutely delicious!
The group has now finished for Christmas and reconvenes at 2.30pm on Friday 10th January. I’m going to miss it over the next few weeks.
No “Scone of the Week” post today – my fellow scone eater had a prior engagement so I made a big pan of broccoli and stilton soup and had some of that instead. Then I had a think about some of my past projects and decided to share this one on the blog.
Here in Northumberland, throughout the summer, there are agricultural shows held most weekends. We go to quite a few and there’s always a lot to see. Immaculately groomed livestock are judged; horses and ponies compete in showing and jumping classes; talented crafters bring their work to exhibit and try to win a prize; gardeners show their fruit, flowers and unfeasibly large vegetables! Barnacre Alpacas attend many of these events, bringing some of their cute alpacas and selling alpaca yarn and hand knitted items.
A couple of years back I bought some of their alpaca yarn, in a creamy beige colour – I couldn’t resist any longer! It is sooooo soft! I didn’t have a project in mind at the time, but decided it would make a wonderful warm hat for the winter, so I had a look for a pattern on line.
I love knitting cable, and when I found the 14 Cable Hat pattern I couldn’t wait to get started – it is the busiest cable hat I’ve ever seen, with 14 different cable designs running up the hat. It’s the perfect one to knit if you are a cable fan. It’s a free pattern and includes a very colourful chart. Some of the featured designs I’d never seen before and are quite complex. It made for a really interesting project. I used double pointed needles, which wasn’t great – I’d definitely use circulars next time.
I bought a furry pompom to go on the top – it is attached with a press stud to remove for washing (or changing on to other hats). I wear it often during the winter months – it is delightfully warm and cosy.
I mentioned in my post My Knitting Inheritance that I sorted out my large collection of knitting needles recently. I’d been storing them on a cardboard cylinder – a gift box that came with a bottle of bubbly in it, but everything was jumbled up and there were duplicate sizes so it took forever to find anything – even worse for the double pointed needles and having to to get the needle gauge out every time I wanted to use them.
I decided that it was time to make a storage roll, so I dug out a couple of pieces of cotton fabric, , bias binding, ribbon and a sheet of foam (previously some packaging – I do like to repurpose things.) I sort of made it up as I went along. Initially, the needles fell out the top, so I added an extra pocket along the top to tuck the needle ends in.
I’m so pleased with it! On the principle that everything is easier the second time, and because there was enough fabric left over, I made another smaller version to store my double pointed needles. I put strips of paper with the size on in each pocket (this will save a lot of time in the future!)
To complete the set, I made a wallet to hold all my circular needles,
I’m feeling super-organised now (well as far as my knitting needles go anyway!
I love it when you find the perfect item to knit for someone. I just have to knit something when anyone I know has a baby, so when my friends had a little girl I found this Sirdar pattern (since discontinued). I simply had to make it as they have a little black terrier.
I had to change the colours a bit – on the original pattern, the dogs were white with a black eye and collar. I did the dogs black of course, but that would mean there was something missing – I had to find a way of doing the eyes and I settled on using shiny black beads.
I figured that sewing beads on a baby garment wasn’t terribly safe, so I decided to knit them into the design. Threading beads with small holes on to double knitting weight yarn is not easy, but I found a solution. I painted the yarn end with clear nail varnish and rolled it between finger and thumb to make a sharp point. When it was dry, it was quite easy to thread on the required number of beads.
I knitted a bead into the front of the stitches that would have been the eyes on the chart.
Overall the cardigan came out well. It was one of my early attempts at colour work and the pattern section came out a little bit tighter than I would have liked. The little shoes were less successful- there was no way a baby could keep these on!
Have you ever found the perfect item to knit for someone? I’d love to hear about it.
I’ve been playing my ukulele rather than knitting for the last few days. The group I belong to had a couple of performances this weekend so I thought I’d better do some practice.
The first one was last night at the Book Club Christmas Party. We had a bit of an informal recital (most of the ukulele group are in the book club). We have a great (and tried and tested) format for the party which we’ve been doing since we started, some years ago. It’s a good alternative to going out somewhere for an over-priced turkey dinner, and let’s face it, if you have a lot of Christmas parties to go to you can get a bit sick of eating the same thing. We have a really lovely Indian restaurant nearby. so we order a banquet selection to take away and go to the house of one of the club members to eat it. She always has beautiful festive decorations and serves mulled wine and mince pies. We always pay for her meal to thank her for being such a wonderful hostess. It works really well (especially thanks to our lovely hostess). We always have an activity too. In the past there have been murder mystery games (which involved a lot of dressing as the characters.
We had two activities this year. We’d all supplied baby photos and had to guess who they all were. The other game is a bit more complicated. Everyone had to buy the most ugly, tasteless, horrible thing they could find, value under £5, from a charity shop, then gift wrap it and bring it to the party. These were all placed in the middle of the table and we each threw a dice in turn. Anyone throwing a six opens one of the gifts. As the dice continues to be thrown in turn, anyone throwing another six after they already opened a gift must swap with another person’s gift. This continues until all the presents are opened. We then had two more quick fire rounds of the dice, where those throwing odd numbers had to swap. We then vote for the worst gift and a small prize is awarded to the winner. It’s hilarious!
Gig number two this afternoon was entertaining residents at a local care home. It was a great success and they were a very appreciative audience, enthusiastically clapping and singing along. Such a nice thing to be able to do.
Do you go to any unusual Christmas parties? Do tell us about them.
The Knit and Natter Ladies have been busy again this week
We had another lively session at this afternoon’s Knit and Natter Group at Alnwick Medical Group. In the last week alone, our members have made another big batch of charity knits: hats, bonnets, tops and bootees.
You don’t need to be able to knit to contribute to the charity knits. Most of these hats were made on a knitting loom .
making a hat on a knitting loom
You may have used this sort of technique before . I know I did as a child, when it was known as French knitting or bobbin knitting . We used a cotton reel with nails stuck in the top or a purpose-made wooden figure with four metal loops stuck in the top – I think it was called a Knitting Nancy. They produced a thin knitted cord, but the modern looms like the one in the picture produce a wider tube. When the tube gets long enough, one end is gathered closed to make the hat.
The bigger the loom, the wider the tube and the bigger the hat…..and they are very quick and fun to make. Group members have made tiny ones for babies and large ones for homeless adults.
Today took us to the The Old Stables Tea Room, just outside Alnwick (on the roundabout just up from the Lion Bridge on the B6352). This lovely little cafe is situated in part of the stable block of a big old house.
Although they serve a lovely selection of yummy cakes and light lunches, we opted for our habitual cheese scones.
We were offered these slightly warmed and they arrived just warm enough to feel fresh from the oven, but not so hot as to melt the butter – perfect!. They were served with a very generous pot of butter, soft enough to spread easily (don’t you just hate trying to spread hard straight-from-the-fridge butter?) . The scones excellent: soft and very light with a little bit of cheese baked on the top. We accompanied them with a pot of tea for mum and hot chocolate (choice of milk or dark chocolate) for me, served with a big swirl of cream.
The cafe has a friendly team of staff and also includes a small shop area with a selection of cards and gifts. It’s usually quite full, especially in the summer holiday season and even today most of the empty tables were reserved when we arrived. It’s probably work booking in advance at busy times
As we were leaving, afternoon tea was being served to one table, complete with dainty sandwiches and cakes . It looked lovely – something to think about for another time.
I have some of my late grandmother’s knitting needles
I’ve been thinking about my late grandmother (Nan) quite a bit recently. I was sorting out my knitting needles the other week (which is a whole new post in itself) and in amongst them are a good many that belonged to her.
I mentioned in my post Another Kind of Yarn that I was busy editing my friend’s book. I came across these lines she’d written in her third book (working title:When All Else Fails)
Even stitches,
Don’t pull too tight,
Take pride in what you are doing
One of the characters is stitching and as he works he thinks back and fondly remembers the wise words of the woman who taught him. That got me thinking about Nan, who taught me to knit and crochet. I remember my mother showing me how to knit too, and how to sew, but Nan was the great knitter of the family.
She always had knitting on the go and my brother, my cousins and I had jumpers and cardigans in every colour of the rainbow. With the leftover yarn she’d knit garter stitch squares and make them up into colourful blankets, which were used at my grandparents caravan, by the river at Corbridge.
Nan taught me how to crochet when I was about 8 years old and I picked it up pretty quickly, though she was always telling me that the way I held the hook was all wrong! I’m pretty sure that she taught my cousins too and they still crochet. She also used to make the most exquisite tatted lace, which was used to edge handkerchiefs.
I love that I still have some of her knitting needles (and crochet hooks too). When I use them it’s reminds me of Nan and what she taught me. It’s great to be part of that wonderful tradition of skills being passed down the generations.
Who taught you to knit/crochet/sew? Have you inherited any of their equipment? Please follow the blog and share your stories.
Having tried and run out of time last Christmas, C and I made a concerted effort to book on to Christmas wreath-making workshop for this year and when we heard about one at The Running Fox, Shilbottle it seemed to fit what we were after. I’ve just got back with my competed door wreath after a lovely evening with C.
We were given prosecco with a dash of sloe gin on arrival and my glass was topped up throughout the evening, Then we were brought a platter of Christmas pie ( turkey, stuffing and vegetables in pastry)Bacon and brie quiche and pigs in blankets.
The guys from MBC Arts, our workshop tutors for the evening, distributed materials and tools ready for us to begin
Frames and moss ready to start
We got to work watching each step demonstrated and then doing it ourselves before moving on to see the next stage. First of all we attached handfuls of sphagnum moss to a wreath frame, winding craft wire round the frame to keep it packed securely in place.
The moss is wired onto the frame, keeping it quite densely packed. The moss is very absorbent and will hold water to keep the wreath foliage fresh
We were brought boughs of blue spruce and cypressus and we cut sprigs, sharpening the cut ends of each with an oblique cut, then pushing them into the mossy base, all lying in the same direction, at an angle, overlapping along the, frame (forming a sort of swirl pattern), then securing them further by winding more craft wire around. the ring, We used smaller sprigs to fill in any small gaps until the front of the frame was totally covered
Sprigs of foliage are added until the mossy base is covered.Foliage in place
Stage one complete, we had a short break and were served more festive treats – sweet ones this time: Cornflake cake Christmas puddings, gingerbread spice cake, cheesecake and mince pies.
Sweet treats
After the break we were given items to decorate our wreaths: dried apple, orange and chilli, cinnamon sticks, pine cones and lengths of ribbon. Although all materials were provided in the cost, we’d brought a few items of our own to add: some pheasant feathers and small gold baubles. We were shown how to secure each item on to a length of florists wire, then push each through the moss and bend back any ends coming through at the back, to secure. We finished off with a wire hanging loop attached to the frame.
You can see C’s work at the top of the post. Here’s mine below
My wreath
I may tweak it a bit now it’s home, but I’m quite pleased with the overall result. We had such a lovely night: the refreshments were delicious and plentiful, The tutors from MBC Arts were very helpful and gave lots of encouragement and the cafe staff looked after us extremely well. With all materials and refreshments included, the price was a very reasonable £35 each. We had some wonderful Mother/Daughter bonding time. Maybe again next year?
How the weather has changed since I posted this time last week in the same place. The rain has stopped and the temperature has dropped. While K walked the dog I put my knitting on a picnic table while I took photos – It was freezing, so I was soon back in the car to get on with my knitting before my fingers got numb.
The body of the poncho cape has grown and I’m really enjoying putting the different blue tones together. I’ve just joined in the turquoise colour you can see on the left – it is an oddment left over from the Valdres Sweater. The number of stitches is increasing rapidly, so I’m about to change to circular needles. You can see how this needle is absolutely crammed.
Last week’s breakers have washed up loads of kelp, The sea is a lot calmer now and it’s so good to have sunshine and blue sky. Coquet Island was clearly visible this week now the rain and fog have gone. The island is an important nesting site for the Roseate Tern – one of our rarest breeding seabirds. Other species breed there too, notably the Puffin.
Even though it was only about 2pm, the sun was very low in the sky, but then it is December. It made the Aln Estuary look beautiful.
Stitches by the Sea 