De-pilling

...my daughter's wardrobe staple black cardigan (Cable Edged Jacket by Debbie Bliss  in Andes -baby alpaca/silk), which I knit back in May 2011.  Awful lot of black stocking stitch, not to mention the stress of sewing on the border (immaculately done by consistent knitting friend, Karen), but it was all worth it  because it's still smiling through and seldom not worked in some way into what she wears.  It's astonishing to me that it's still on the go at all because I could run a small cottage industry from the amount it pills. A really serious craftsperson would collect, re-spin and reknit, apparently, and while I wouldn't mind trying to crack spinning  (because it looks like an astonishing skill) I'm not sure if I have the patience. I heard in the vet's that some people go as far as knitting sweaters from their dogs' hair to wear proudly at Crufts.  And a woman I met at a cafe was chatting about a bloodied smelly fleece in her bath that she's planning on cleansing, combing out and spinning through the winter, but I did get the feeling there was a tinge of regret at what she'd taken on in there too.    

Here's something hand dyed which is a skill I'd really like to learn - it's silk and baby camel and produced by Alex McLeod from Coolree Yarns in Wexford who is a young all-round genius with colour, and the deserved hands down star of craft events.  When I wanted to come up with something really special, this is what i chose to use as a gift to a fellow knitter because I knew she'd enjoy and appreciate his work - although she didn't know the end product was destined for her, utilising this donut pattern from Mason Dixie Knitting with this yarn was her idea - one I wasn't sure was working at the time I knit it, but now I think it did.  

Death Metal

reckon this is in the zone or what?  Try as I may, I still don't fully get death metal.... I listen to the radio a lot when I'm knitting, and often to two late night shows largely devoted to metal or its hybrids, so I'll keep trying for another while so I can try to understand the urge to seek out the soothsayer of orpheus because of the hell cats of the dæmon and so on.  No one could ever accuse them of lack of effort and that's for sure, and more power to their elbows (spoken with total sincerity of a knitter). 

I actually made this black and white shawl for a lawyer called Jane who apparently dresses in black and white a lot - It's Pagona by Stephen West and the yarn is Katia.  I don't know lawyer Jane so well, but what I do know is she helped Nira from Mauritius out with a citizenship application.  Nira's the main family breadwinner, and works very, very hard as a beautician while simultaneously processing all the troubles and triumphs of raising adolescents... Her struggle to keep her family in Europe for their education was titanic and leaves me not just in awe, but more than a bit shamefaced about certain things I took completely for granted.   

But, yabba-dabba-dobah... NIRA FINALLY GOT HER CITIZENSHIP THIS WEEK!   But another unsung herione is Jane who put in many hours on Nira's case and is refusing to take a cent.  

Day off knitting

..also a chance to wish good luck to brilliant techie Tom L en route to seek fame and fortune in NYC ... hi to Annelise too!  But I hope you also take note how well galvanised he is against the elements in his space invader hat knit by me in 4 ply from a pattern by Vinny on ravelry   

I got back into knitting again a few years ago -  a lot in 4 ply actually....for babies. Friends I held in very high esteem were due the baby they'd waited a very long time for, and to say joy abounded is understatement because they're really good people.  So I wanted to give them something unique and every bit as good as I'd give my own, and I had knit for my own, but somewhere along the line had stopped. 

The baby arrived with some health problems but things seemed to improve, and once that seemed assured, I set to work rustily, but quickly recalling how much I'd especially adored knitting baby clothes. When I was done, I dropped in to the baby's aunt - a neighbour - gift in hand, and received the news that things had taken a sudden bad turn, and really there are no more words to be said.

Later it struck me that every day healthy babies are born into problematic circumstances where it's possible to help, and perhaps the arrival of a no-strings-attached something someone-had-taken-the-trouble-to-hand-knit could be a morale boost for a beleaguered mother.... and even if it wasn't,  what harm to have an extra layer in the drawer?  I'd done time in prenatal myself years ago, and a feature then was an overbearing bossy lady pushing a trolley of glinting yarn that made your skin crackle with static as she hopefully pushed on past your bed and left you alone.  She would deliver Instruction on Home Skills in such a highhanded tone that she only ever inspired fantasies of pushing over her trolley in me at any rate. But she was also the organiser of exactly the type of back-up system I had in mind, so I bought a Debbie Bliss baby book, drove consistent knitting friend, Karen, half mad with refresher questions, and began knitting baby things and didn't stop for several months - here's a picture of some…I think the sweater pattern was Sublime actually, but the rest are Debbie Bliss

... but when I tried to hand it all over to the hospital,  it wasn't as easy as I'd thought. The trolley lady was long dead and I found that nobody had taken her place... not just that: nobody even seemed to begin to grasp what I was doing.  Volunteer fundraisers were too glizty and didn't have the remotest interest in distributing bags of knitting; and social workers were hard to speak directly to, and when you did, suspicious that you were trying to offload some junk you didn't want. And that's the point where I began to appreciate that I'd probably been a bit hard on the bossy trolley lady, and presuming she or her ilk would go on forever was foolish... 

In the end the clothes were accepted, but only after a intercession by a middle-person. And once they were received, the hospital was very appreciative -but I wasn't ever looking for that. The part that really worked out from where I'm clacking away here is that perhaps it succeeded in replanting a seed.  That would be a gratifying result from a bag of knitting!