gryffindor

Sheila's gryffindor

Things have been a bit quiet on the craft front this year

Never fear, Sheila's needles are still busy and she has been creating some real gems. One very lucky boy received this gryffindor scarf and I believe he was very excited and couldn't wait to wear it to school the next day. He is really really into Harry Potter.

I remember that feeling, being incredibly excited about wearing something very special to school. When I was about 5, mum made me some grey corduroy dungarees with a donald duck patch on the pocket and I got to stand up in front of the class so they could admire them. That was a very good day.

I still haven't got in to the whole Harry Potter thing, though I am told it is never too late. I would be a Ravenclaw I think (blue and silver).

saul

saul in-situ

Problem - steam escaping from bathroom and creating mold patches through house

Solution - open bathroom window and put draught-excluder outside door to retain heat

Problem - do not own draught-excluder and getting sick of someone using piles of clothes as a make-shift one

Solution - make one using leftover fabric from the Patch Pants

Problem - only leftover fabric from patch pants is the grey leopard print and leopards are pretty difficult and not draught-excluder shaped:

leopard

 Solution (genius) - leopard seals are long and smooth:

seal

Problem - stuffing isn't heavy enough for draught-excluder filling

Solution - use stuffing and cat litter (the type made out of recycled paper not the dusty chalky type)

saul the seal

escaping

fish in mouth

 Problem - draught-excluder so life-like and friendly someone keeps bringing him into the living room 'out of the draught' and for a bit of company
 Solution - give up

patches

I was born and raised down in Alabama
On a farm way back up in the woods
I was so raggedy, folks used call me, “Patches”
Papa used to tease me ‘bout it
Of course deep down inside he was hurt
‘Cause he’d done all he could...

Ingredients for upcycled patchwork pants:

1. 3 old fleece jackets, cut into patches

2. leftover crocodile shoe fabric 

3. leftover hot water bottle cover fabric

4. some faux fur 

5. cow cotton lining

6. leftover sleeve ends for pockets (lined with cow cotton fabric)

matching evening ensemble

cow cotton lining

up-cycled sleeve pockets

On special occasions can be worn with a Patch jacket.

“Patches
I’m dependin’ on you, son
I tried to do my best
It’s up to you to do the rest”

crocodile shoes

crocodile style down slippers

I anticipate that one look at these elegant beasts will leave people with a desire or longing to create 'the look', so being a generous crafter I will outline the process.

1. Start with a pair of really stinky down boots destined for bin (3 years or so of foot pong and worn down soles optional). Wash slippers.

much loved worn stinky down bootles

2. One can cut the slippers up at this point and remove the down for later use but be prepared to find down in extraordinary places for weeks (such as in the DVD player and up your nose).

down trying not to stay in box

3. Look for a down boot or slipper pattern on internet (I really like these ones based on this pattern but my plates of meat are a bit too big). Failing that if you are impatient to crack on just make it up as you go along - get a pair of pre-existing slippers and cut out fabric pieces of approximately the same shape, but bigger, as these are giant slippers.

4. You need inner lining fabric (leftover from the patch jacket), stretch fleecy outer fabric (I got my scales fabric from Just Sew and had a hard time choosing which animal print to choose), some kind of hard-wearing fabric for the soles (I wanted the sticky slipper fabric or faux leather but could only find boiled wool felt locally so went for that) and ... by far the most important thing to remember when making a down-filled project is DOWN-PROOF FABRIC.  

pattern pieces based on pre-existing slipper design

5. Down-proof fabric: this has to be tightly woven with a high thread count. Without this the slippers would go from plump to flaccid in a few weeks, shedding feathers like a moulting duck. I was thrilled to learn that the stuff I needed was called 'cambric ticking'. This is such a lovely old-fashioned combination of words, conjuring images of The House of Elliott (I loved that series). I was even happier when I went into Just Sew and the lady immediately knew what this was and had it in stock (I love that shop). Of course you need to cut double pieces for the cambric ticking to line the lining and the outer.

If you don't live near any helpful shoe-making elves, continue as follows.

6. Sew the ticking to the lining pieces. Sew the front and back pieces to the 2 side pieces so the cambric is uppermost. Leave enough room to get your foot into the slipper but not too much room or the slippers will fall off (though there is a work-around with elastic).

cambric-lined lining

7. In the same way, sew the ticking to the outer (crocodile skin) fabric, this time ticking innermost. Attach the outer to the inner at the foot-hole opening (obviously turn the fabrics right side together to do this). 

body of slipper without sole

8. At this point the slippers have no sole/soul. I decided to sew an extra piece of quilt wadding to the ticking lined sole.

lining with wadding and boiled wool felt outer sole

9. Sew the sole lining to the slipper lining, right sides together. This is the shell of the slipper with the ticking-lined outer and lining facing each other:

completed slipper lining turned inside out (right)

10. Sew elastic to the foot-hole opening at the sides and back to ensure a snug fit. 

attaching sole and elastic

11. Sew felt sole to outer - remember to LEAVE A HOLE FOR STUFFING WITH THE DOWN.

12. Add down - this bit is very messy. Do outdoors unless you live in a county where it rains for about 200 days a year.

stuffing the slippers with down

 12. Trim excess fabric after ensuring correct fit (most important that the sole is the right size for your foot). Finish edging with suitable bias binding - I used skull ribbon.

skull ribbon

  13. Prance about daintily

Slippers lined with skull ribbon

14. Debate whether slippers look more like dinosaur eggs, crocodile shoes or a snake distended with mammal.

dragon eggs

crocodile shoe

snake eating a sheep

15. Gaze at new down slippers with pride, even if they are a bit lumpy looking.  Like the handspun Herdwicks , it isn't about perfection.

dinosaur egg slippers?

16. Don't bother buying Sock stop paint from Fun to Do. It might be solidified and unusable due to having been on the shelf for far to long and will only lead to disappointment.

beginner's lace

Hemp scarf kit from House of Hemp

This unfinished project has been hanging around in the bottom of my knitting bag for about 3 years and I have a good feeling for the year now it is complete - the yarn, from the House of Hemp is organic, hypoallergenic, non irritant, extremely strong, and might I say quite attractive.  Anyone interested in learning more about the properties and diversity of the cannabis plant should read this link.

hemp: irridescent sheen

The pattern was extraordinarily simple but I wouldn't look too closely at the stitchery. I am so very easily distracted so it wouldn't win any awards for technical perfection. However the pattern is very forgiving for a beginner's mistakes. 

delicate lacework

Comments made about scrim nets during the making of this were not justified. Or comparison with fishing nets. Think instead, English garden party in early summer with a light breeze and parasols. 

scrim net

fixing things

Normal sized sleeves at long last

Remember the aran cardigan with giant sleeves? It has had a lot of wear this winter which is a pleasing reward for a labour of love...but the giant sleeves ( a result of not understanding the properties of Debbie Bliss Rialto Aran after washing) could be ignored no longer.

Luckily, in learning how to rectify other mistakes I discovered this technique for shortening sleeves:
1. Using a circular needle pick up loops of stitches in a line at the level you wish the cuff to start - if you have matched up the seam neatly this line should start and end at the same level. This will allow the cuff to be knitted in a round, which is a much neater technique than having a seam.

2. Cut the sleeve off a couple of rows down from the circular needle and remove/unravel any wool below the circular needle - what you end up with is a circular needle threaded neatly through the loops at the bottom edge of the sleeve. Now simply knit the cuffs in an identical pattern to the original ones.

The knit stitches are actually upside down because in the pattern the sleeves were knitted from the cuffs up whereas this is knitting from the top down, but it doesn't seem to matter. In the original fisherman's ganseys, the entire sleeve was knitted from the top down to allow for replacement of worn out sleeves, I guess using a very similar technique. The Kate Davies sweater also has top down sleeves so should I feel inclined I could make it into a long sleeved sweater without too much effort.

close up of cuff knitted from top down on end of sleeve knitted from bottom up

brocken spectre or glory hat

Brocken spectre hat mark 1

This idea has been germinating since I encountered my first brocken spectre (also known as a Glory) a year ago.

Now although I may be guilty of a little superciliousness when it comes to the phenomenon of peak bagging, not so with bagging optical atmospheric phenomena - I would love to see them all. The photos below show my shadow on the clouds, surrounded by a rainbow.

For those of you who are spectre virgins, the "spectre" appears when the sun shines from behind the observer, who is looking down from a ridge or peak into mist or fog. The light projects their shadow through the mist, often in a triangular shape due to perspective. The apparent magnification of size of the shadow is an optical illusion that occurs when the observer judges his or her shadow on relatively nearby clouds to be at the same distance as faraway land objects seen through gaps in the clouds, or when there are no reference points by which to judge its size. The shadow also falls on water droplets of varying distances from the eye, confusing depth perception. The head of the figure is often surrounded by the glowing halo-like rings of a glory, rings of coloured light that appear directly opposite the sun when sunlight is reflected by a cloud of uniformly-sized water droplets. The effect is caused by the refraction of visible light*.

You can see why this made me think about hats.

I wanted to make a lightweight hat but couldn't find the right colours in 4 ply wool, so went for cotton instead. My first attempt, like the little alpaca hat, ended up really really small. This month's learning experience was that cotton has almost no stretch so when knitting with cotton in the round using a fair isle type approach, one should leave very loose floats to avoid puckering and making a very small hat into a very very small hat. This is a well recognised trap that the overenthusiastic novice may fall into if she doesn't read useful tutorials like this by bygumbygolly.

The first brockenspectre hat was in fact so small that it didn't fit my neice's dolly. That was until I cut all the floats and sewed in the ends. I have a sneaking suspicion this is a knitting sin but at least I now have a just about usable hat rather than a really nice dishcloth:

Brocken spectre hat Mark 1

I embarked upon Mark 2 Brocken spectre hat with the gusto and the confidence of knowing the potential pitfalls to avoid. Imagine my surprise when exactly the SAME thing happened with Mark 2. Even worse, because I thought I had factored in the non-stretchability of cotton, I had cast on a spare dozen stitches for good measure, so when I was forced to cut the floats again due to it being too small, the result was a flaccid disappointment. A double wash and tumble dry just about salvaged it, but I suspect I have made another wear-in-the-house hat.

Mark 2 brocken spectre hat

 

 

The brocken spectre hat may never become the fashion must have of 2014 but it would look very good with a crepuscular shawl.    

*Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brocken_spectre