Rescuing abandoned patterns and books

I may be alone in this, but I am completely and hopelessly sentimental about knitting patterns and books that are homeless. I saw two knitting books in a charity shop yesterday, glanced through them, thought 'hmm, not my kind of thing', went home empty-handed - then worried about their well-being and had to go back and get them today.

They're both rather '80s, one a Kaffe Fassett, the other a Sasha Kagan one - not designers I'm particularly keen on, I must confess. I know they're the great colour gurus but their designs have never really appealed to me, even though I can recognise they're doing interesting things with colour and pattern. However now I've got the books home, had a good look through and overcome my aversion to '80s hairstyles, the designs are starting to appeal to me - not as garments, but potentially as soft-furnishings. Quite a few designs would make very nice cushion covers, which would be fun winter knitting. So my hopeless sentimentality is not so bad!

I'm really quite taken with the section showing the colours used at the end of the Sasha Kagan book - it's attractive in itself, but also interesting to see the unexpected colours chosen.

Last week while mooching around the antiques/collectibles section at the Speyside Heather Centre, I found a pile of 1950s knitting magazines. I resisted most of them, primarily because they're machine knitting magazines, but I did buy two just for their historical interest. Jen, if you fancy these you're welcome to them now I've read them!

They even have the odd article on fashion which read oddly in a modern way - 'The Importance of Accessories' could almost have appeared in Red, until it states that 'a woman never looks well-dressed without gloves'! My mum, who remembers the '50s, flicked through the magazines and had a chuckle at that.

Aestlight continues

Apologies for the terrible picture - I keep meaning to photograph it in daylight when it actually looks Quite Nice, but only remembering after dark. The lighting isn't ideal in our house. So, this is my Aestlight - obviously I'm still on the soothing garter stitch triangle. I keep freaking myself out reading other people's project notes on Ravelry and so many talk about it being so quick to knit up! I've been so busy recently (holding the fort while my Beloved putt-putt-putts his way round Scotland) that I'm lucky if I manage a couple of rows a day.. Good thing I'm not in a hurry! I think I'm up to 105 stitches or so now. Counting stitches isn't my forte.

"Mama, my bwoken your knitting!"

Indeed she had.

The neat ball at the back is what it looked like before Miss Mouse got hold of it. She also pulled the needle out and I had to pick up about a squillion stitches.

Meanwhile I've done some colouring - an attempt to get my log-cabin panels to not have overlapping colours. I've done the four panels now and need to block them to the same size before sewing them together and then adding some strips at each end.

Soft things

On a trip in to Glasgow the other day, the siren call of the John Lewis yarn department proved strong. I fell in love with this Rowan Tapestry in 'Whirlpool'. The photograph doesn't really do justice to the subtlety of the colouring, which is like early-morning light on the sea. Oddly enough one reason I was in the yarn section was to find some suitable 4-ply for the Aestlight shawl which will be one of my next projects. The Tapestry is DK so that's not the yarn I'll be using, but obviously I had the dawn on my mind. In a happy coincidence, for some reason that shade of Tapestry was half-price, so I didn't need to feel any guilt about buying without a specific project in mind.

In fact I was buying using vouchers so I was also throughly self-indulgent in also buying a ball of Baby Alpaca, which is just so soft and squidgy. Really, shopping for yarn is such a multi-sensory pleasure :-).

In the meantime the log-cabin continues (slowly and in short stints, as I've had hayfever and the fluff on the yarn doesn't help my poor nose!). I spent some time yesterday drawing diagrams in an attempt to work out how I could arrange panels such as this so that I can make something bigger but not have colours overlapping, seeing as I only have three colours of the lopi. As an aside, isn't the 'yellow' yarn yummy? I keep thinking of mango sorbet when I look at it! I'm not an ice-cream person at all, but sorbet is a different matter entirely!

Log-cabin

Oooooh, I like this - it's fun.

I've been dipping in and out of Mason-Dixon Knitting, my favourite comfort-reading at the moment, and decided to have a go at log-cabin knitting. I like it a lot - it's simple and soothing but satisfyingly something-or-other (square probably). The yarn is some Sirdar Highlander Lopi, a long discontinued yarn I suspect. I've had it lying around for, um, years - I made some naalbinding socks using it (roughly copying the Coppergate sock) sometime last century in our more active re-enactment days.

Notice my mistake (the dotted line) on the first square - I couldn't remember the 'proper' way to pick up stitches so I did it my own way, resulting in it being back to front. Oh well :-).

Pattern for the Underpants Alien

'Pattern' may be overstating it slightly but here goes..

Alexander's Underpants Alien
Requires: cheapy garish acrylic dk yarn, the brighter the better! And 3.75 mm needles. I used two dpns 'cos they were more transportable being shorter but I did have to remember not to let the stitches slide off the other end.

Back:

Cast on 30 stitches and knit 4 rows in stocking-stitch.
Next row: k1, kfb*, k 'til 2 st remaining, kfb, k1.
Next row: purl
Repeat last two rows once.
Continue in st.st for 12 rows.
Next row: k1, k2tog, k 'til 3 st remaining, k2tog, k1.
Next: purl.
Repeat last two rows until 26 st remaining on needle.
Next: k1, k2tog, k2tog, k 'til 5 st remaining, k2tog, k2tog, k1.
Next: purl.
Repeat last two rows once - should now be 18 st on needle.
St-st 10 rows.
Next row: k1, k2tog, knit 'til 3 st remaining, k2tog, k1.
Next: purl.
Repeat last 2 rows once.
Now 14 stitches remaining on the needles.
Next row: cast off 2, knit to end.
Next: cast off 2, purl to end.
Next: knit first 3 stitches onto a stitch holder, then cast off until 3 stitches remaining - knit these onto another stitch holder.

* increase by knitting into front and back of stitch.


Front: as for back.

With right sides facing out, sew up one side of alien to the stitch holders - these will be the antennae/head-tentacles. Using 3 dpns (1 for each set of 3 stitches, and one spare) knit a tube up as far as looks suitably alien. This can be fiddly. Repeat for the other side, then sew up the top of the head (between the antennae). Stuffing the antennae can be tricky - in the end I put a bit of pipecleaner in the antennae. Stuff the rest of the body until comically plump, and sew shut.


Lower tentacles/arms (x2):
Cast on 12 stitches and stocking-stitch for approx. 34 rows or as long as you want really. Cut the yarn leaving a long end, thread this through the stitches from the other end pull tight. Then sew the side shut, stuff and sew end up. Repeat for other lower arm/tentacle.

Upper tentacles/arms (x2):
Cast on 12 stitches and stocking stitch for approx. 22 rows (or as long as you want as long as it's more than about 10 rows shorter than the lower ones). In the next knit row increase into every stitch (by knitting into front and back of each stitch), hence doubling the number of stitches. Stocking-stitch the next three rows, then cast off. Sew up and stuff.


Legs (x2):
Cast on 14 st and stocking stitch 39-ish rows. On the next knit row, increase into every stitch by knitting through the front and back of each stitch (as with the upper tentacles). Stocking-stitch the next three rows, then cast off. Fold in half and sew up, the foot and side. Stuff from the top and sew up. Attach each leg a few stitches in from the edge of the body.

Making up - attached the lower (longer) tentacles, and then the upper ones. Cut out an oval of white felt and a smaller oval of black felt. With black thread sew the black oval onto the white one. Then with white thread sew the eye onto the head. With contrasting yarn embroider a mouth. If it's wonky it adds to the charm, or so I tell myself.


Pants - I can't find my notes for this so it's incomplete and possibly bewildering.

Cast on 32 stitches.
2x2 rib for 4 rows.
St.st. for 6 rows.
Next two rows - cast off 3 stitches at start of each row.
Then, um, decrease at beginning of next few rows until it looks if there's enough space for the legs. St.st. for at least 6 rows - the length of gusset depends on how well stuffed his bum is - you want his pants to be reasonably roomy. An alien with Builder's Bum doesn't bear thinking about...
Then complete the pants so they're symmetrical - i.e. increase to match shape, then cast on 3 stitches at beginnings of two rows, then st.st. 6 rows and 2x2 rib for 4 rows, and cast off. I will write this up properly when I find my notes!
Sew sides of pants up and dress alien :-D. I'd originally planned to embroider them so they'd look like Y-fronts but ran out of time, so that's an option too.

The Underpants Alien

With removable pants! Never let it be said that I don't pay attention to detail (that was the mantra of an old boss of mine actually - 'Attention to detail, team, attention to detail!').

Anyway, it was the Boy's birthday yesterday. I'd made up a 'story sack' for him as a present, rather like the ones they had at school - one fact book, one story-book, and a couple of toys/puzzles, all on a related theme. I chose 'space', got him a Dorling Kindersley kids' book on space, Aliens Love Underpants for the story-book, monster snap and a space jigsaw. Then I thought it'd be fun to make him a knitted alien along with pants to go with it, as he's quite appreciative of my attempts at knitting. So I picked a couple of suitable-looking aliens from Aliens Love Underpants and amalgamated them to make this endearing chap.

I made it up as I went along but noted down as I went so the pattern will be added here when I've deciphered my notes. It's by no means perfect, but I'm quite pleased with it.

One of the things I like about knitting is that as I often knit while watching television after the kids are in bed, my knitting then reminds me of what I've been watching. An example being the alien's felt eye which got sewn on while watching Griff, Dara and Rory messing around in Three Men In Another Boat, and I knitted the body while watching Ewan and Charley's adventures in Long Way Down (as an aside, when are Virgin Media going to stick the last three eps on catch-up? We're missing half of Africa! I'll have to buy the DVD at this rate..). Conversations are the same - I remember bits of conversations from the knitting group when I look at the thing I was working on at the time. It's odd, the way the mind works.