4 March: More bits of weaving

When I made the inkle for the loom bag pocket, I enjoyed the process, so I made a few more.


The green and white one is handspun bamboo; the purple, blue, green and brown one is some cotton samples from Texere; the blue, turquoise and lavender one is crochet cotton; the charcoal, orange and blue one is handspun BFL/tencel; the coral and green one is Natural Dye Studio sock yarn in merino and bamboo; and the grey and pink one is handspun Shetland. They are all different in feel, and I love them all!

Then back to the backstrap loom for an experiment in sprang, something I'd been meaning to try for ages.

Brief instructions in a paragraph and 3 diagrams in a 1974 book, Off the Loom by Shirley Marein. Unfortunately, it forgot to mention that some of your earliest handspun wool yarn is perhaps not the best material to use for your first attempt. On the other hand, though, there was no need for sticks to hold the twist in the upper part of the work - the yarn stuck together by itself, very securely. Only really a problem when mistakes were made, and un-weaving had to be done. But that was more often than I would have wished.

And then, looking on the positive side again, that's the last scrap of the awful hairy Wensleydale used up (that's the bluish colour). This is how it looks relaxed -


- and this is how it looks spread out -


The instructions for finishing it off were vague, so I turned to my friend Google, who brought me straight to Phiala's String Page; where I discovered that my use of bamboo kebab skewers had already been thought of, and the method of closing the middle of the woven piece was one I had come across before in tri-loom weaving.

It is, of course, the ideal method for making a string bag.......

12 October: Stressful week, and another string bag

DH's cat had an operation on Tuesday, to remove a greatly enlarged thyroid gland. In the event, both thyroids were removed.

So I've spent a lot of time this week rounding him up, transporting him to the vets' different offices several times, cooking fish (ugh!) for him, and generally fussing him. More to come next week, when he has the stitches out.

And as soon as DH comes home, the cat totally ignores me, and attaches himself to his preferred human.

But there's been time for knitting. The little peacock coloured scarf is finished, and is drying after being spread out.

The green and black key pattern waistcoat is finally finished. It stretched a lot when wet, so it now fits -


I've cast on a Danish shawl, to use these yarns -


And this morning, finding my odds and ends pouch was a bit overcrowded, I crocheted a mini string bag -


which will be a home for the little tins of stitch markers, and such of my 3 row counter clickers as are not in use at any time.

It's about 4 inches high and the same across, made from some yarn I made from a 2-ply handspun bamboo yarn, cabled together with a cotton yarn I bought ages ago from Texere, at one of the stitching shows in Harrogate. Part of that hybrid yarn went into a face-cloth, which is used all the time, and now there's only a little left.

17 August: The cloak of invisibility - and a string bag

They say that old women become invisible; it obviously extends to their cars.

While going to this morning's selected supermarket, a drive of perhaps 10 minutes at 50 to 60 m.p.h., great big silver 4x4s rolled gently and slowly out in front of me, then failed to get a move on, TWICE.

Fortunately, not only are my brakes good, I am a much better driver than either of these two cretins, and I didn't crash into them, flash my lights, or even swear (at least aloud).

Moving on, I'm afraid back to the string bags, here is the Mark 3 version -


This one is knitted from dishcloth cotton, in garter stitch, every 3rd row with the yarn wrapped twice around the needle, the extra turn being dropped on the next row. Here's a close up -


It would have been better knitted in the round, to avoid a seam affecting the stretchiness of the fabric. A row of bigger holes round the top for the drawstrings would be an improvement too.

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 own string bags.

11 August: Photos as promised

You probably don't really need to see knitted dishcloths, but here are the knitted boxes that have been felted in the washing machine -

The two dark ones, top right, are a nesting pair. So far I haven't made the smallest size, as the middle size, about 4.5 inches square, seems to be the most useful. (Very Buddhist.) They are posing for their photo-call on the garden bench, as the two at the front were still damp from the wash.

And here is part of the knitted creature - a section of the body in the stripe pattern described yesterday. Well, actually, not quite in the pattern described, as it went a bit haywire with the balls of variegated wool being close in some colours. So let's just call it a random stripe pattern now, eh?


This stripe with slip stitch looks as if it might be promising for socks, should any more be required. The sock drawer is fairly full at present, and the low boredom threshold has been passed as far as socks are concerned for the time being.

Perhaps a Mark 3 string bag?

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.

25 July: Monster Mash

Happy birthdays to Grandchild 3 and Grandchild 4, yesterday and today respectively!

Remember we planted potatoes back on Good Friday? (7 April's posting mentioned them.) Well today we dug some of them up.

They are completely organic, having had no sprays or anything other than garden compost and grass cuttings on them. So naturally, they have attracted some of our garden wildlife. 2 of the 6 or 7 plants we dug up had been attacked by slugs, and I found a millipede and a woodlouse in the water when I washed a heap for our meal tonight. Yes, of course I rescued them and released them into the wild - threw them out of the kitchen window.

The ones with slug damage or that we'd speared with the fork got cooked tonight, and the rest, cleaned up and checked over, have been stowed away in bags in a dark cupboard. We ate great mounds of mash with a quiche, but there's a big bowl full of cold mash in the fridge. Looks like fried potato, mushrooms, courgettes, and eggs tomorrow.

Elsewhere, Le Tour now has the drug scandal that lots of journos have been looking for. If only other sports and games were tested like cycling, there would be a lots of "drug cheats" uncovered in other arenas. The bike racing is still fascinating - would have been better still with Marco Pantani in it.

And back with the knitting, or rather crochet - the New, Improved, Mark 2 String Bag is under construction!!

You will just have to contain your excitement for a little longer, though, till it's properly finished and photographed.

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.