3 January: Normality soon?

The regular suspension of normal life over the Christmas period, combined with weather that hampers outdoor activity, has led to a concentration on stash-reducing.

There's been another double cap made, plain brown with variegated yellow/apricot/green, and 2 triangular scarves, and a couple of "bags" - the first is knitted from Jamieson and Smith's millspun 2-ply Shetland yarn, and then felted, using a pattern called "Numbers" from knitty -


and the second is crocheted from yarn I spun a couple of years ago, from recycled plastic bottle fibre. I find the yarn is nasty to knit, but fine for crochet, and this little bag is just the right size to keep one of my bowstringers tidy -

The trouble is that this took only 15 grams out of the 200.....

(If you want to see the other knitting, pictures are on my Flickr page.)

31 December - ABC Wednesday - X

Not much to choose from for X, but as I am a life-long "incomer", it's Xenophobia that strikes a chord.

Here is a poem about it -

We and They

Father, Mother, and Me,
Sister and Auntie say
All the people like us are We,
And everyone else is They.
And They live over the sea,
While we live over the way,
But - would you believe it? - They look upon We
As only a sort of They!

We eat pork and beef
With cow-horn handled knives.
They who gobble Their rice off a leaf,
Are horrified out of Their lives;
While They who live up a tree,
And feast on grubs and clay,
(Isn't it scandalous?) look upon We
As a simply disgusting They!

We shoot birds with a gun
They stick lions with spears.
Their full-dress is un-,
We dress up to Our ears.
They like Their friends for tea.
We like Our friends to stay;
And, after all that, They look upon We
As an utterly ignorant They!

We eat kitcheny food.
We have doors that latch.
They drink milk or blood,
Under an open thatch.
We have Doctors to fee.
They have Wizards to pay.
And (impudent heathen!) They look upon We
As a quite impossible They!

All good people agree,
And all good people say,
All nice people, like Us, are We
And everyone else is They:
But if you cross over the sea,
Instead of over the way,
You may end by (think of it!) looking on We
As only a sort of They!

Rudyard Kipling.

Looking forward to another year of war, conflict and hate? Or peace and happiness? We all have choices and the ability to learn.

And on that serious note, I'm off to do a bit of freeform crochet.

27 July: String Bag Mk 2, plus a hat

First, here is the completed hat made from the Yarn Yard's organic merino roving, looking a little paler here than in reality -


It's an almost-tam, but the pattern I used for a starting point was a beanie hat in Sandi Rosner's book "Not just more socks". (You may read Harry Potter.....)

And I just had to try an improved string bag. This is crocheted, and I have great difficulty with following or writing crochet instructions, though it is easy to do. Here it is, hanging on the back of the door, and full of balls of wool -


And here it is empty and lying down -


It is all made very simply of chains of crochet, touching down to the row below, with a row of double crochet to reinforce the top, and the drawstrings are made from a long chain with single crochet into each chain, and joined into a circle, threaded through the top loops. The drawstrings had to be in a different colour, as I'd used up all the grey.

(For other string bags, click on the "string bag" label at the bottom of the post, or in the sidebar. Let me know about your string bags.)

I'm sure I wouldn't have been knitting all summer if the weather had been better. Everything in the garden has benefited from the rain, though, and several shrubs have grown hugely this year. There is scarcely room to walk round the path behind the borders, as the birch, rowan, and 2 buddleias all overhang.

And now I have a large heap of Blue Faced Leicester fibre blended with Tencel, all dyed orange, just crying out to be spun into sock yarn.

23 July: Would you believe - a string bag!

This blog was named for my parents' string bag - not a bag made from string, but a bag containing string.

In those austerity days after WW2, recycling was not a catch-phrase, but "waste not, want not" most certainly was. So there was a bag, made of black-out material (as was the rag bag - remember rag bags?), hanging on the back of the wash-house door. Any pieces of string were carefully unravelled and un-knotted, and popped into the string bag - bits and pieces carefully and tidily hoarded. See?

Anyway, most of the people who visit from G**gle, if they're not looking for Fred Knit*le, are looking for a pattern for making a string bag. So I thought it only my civic duty to make a string bag for them. Here it is -


It is based on a bag called Elisa's Nest Tote, seen at purlsoho.com or the purl bee (go there for the original). Naturally, I used different yarn, a slightly different stitch pattern, and then made up the edges and handles as I went along.

If you want to make one yourself (and this will only apply to the enthusiastic knitting section of my 3 readers), I'll tell you what I did.

Using some cotton thread I bought years ago from Texere, and which I dyed last week with procion dyes (and the colour probably isn't fast), and which is 15 w.p.i., I cast on 31 stitches, using a 6 mm. needle; I prefer to use one circular for knitting to and fro, but you can use a pair of straights if you wish, and if you'll pardon the expression.

Rows 1 and 3 are purl; row 2 is K1, *yo, k2 tog*, repeat from * to end; row 4 is *k2 tog tbl, yo*, repeat to last stitch, k1. N.B. you may do ssk instead of k2 tog tbl if you like - I don't.

Repeat these 4 rows until the piece is about 24 inches long, or your yarn runs out, or you are about to die of boredom. I warn you that I was knitting this while watching the Tour de France, and kept doing the wrong lace row, then having to unpick it - you need to concentrate.

When your knitted fabric is long enough, cast off loosely. Using the same thread (or indeed a different one if you've run out), join the sides with a crochet hook, a single crochet into one side, 2 chains, single crochet into the other side, etc to the bottom, and fasten off. Do the other side the same. A row of double crochet round the top, then without fastening off, chain 40 for the first handle, touch down with 3 double crochets into the opposite side of the bag top, chain another 40 for the second handle, and touch down near where you started the first handle, 3 double crochets, then a round of double crochets into the chains to make the handles (do more if you want thicker handles), then fasten off. I am aware that in the USA single and double crochet describe something other than my English version - sort out your own translation.

If I ever make another one, I shall do some shaping to make the bottom more curved - the corners are a bit pointy, and probably rather different handles. But I offer it as your starting point. If anyone actually uses this pattern, even as a jumping off point, I'd be interested to know.

(For other string bags, click on the "string bag" label at the bottom of the post, or in the sidebar. Let me know about your string bags.)

And back in the world of the non-knitter, if you haven't already glazed over and dropped away, at the weekend I bought myself a pair of Red Crocs. Not so much Ruby as Tomato, and probably not the colour I'd have chosen if there had been a choice, but there you are. They are Extremely Comfortable - I commend them to the House.