Making It All Over Again

The holidays are all tied up and finished off here at High In The Sky. I got up at 5.30 this morning to wave The Tall One off to the airport, having climbed into bed just before 1.00 am because I'd stayed up to gossip with the other one. But that's what you do, when you know Studentland is calling: if the talk starts, you don't say It's bedtime, you say I'm listening.

As they pack up I finish off little jobs I'd promised. I did a bit of mending for The Tall One yesterday: exactly the same mending I'd done for him as he got ready to travel to Scotland for Freshers Week, over three years ago. As I stitched those stitches over again, I thought about him surrounded by suitcases and boxes holding half of his life, back then, and I thought about today's trip, travelling light, in charge, back to do his Finals, back to his friends and his flat, and the promise of a job, not next year - his diploma year - but the one after that. That's a whole life, right there, pulled together in between two mending sessions.

As a scrapbooker, I'm used to seeing a record of what we've been up to as I create. That's what it's there for. That's the point. With a big sewing or knitting project often the recording comes as you finish it off and reflect upon what life has cast up since you picked out the pattern and made the first stitch. I recently finished off that brown yoke sweater in my first photo. It's the second one of this "crofthoose" pattern I've made this year. The first - maybe you remember it - is blue with red and green houses, bright and cheery and the sweater I turned to every morning in a difficult March in which I cast on and knitted hard and fast on a new version I'm now wearing with a lighter heart.

I've finished up that man sweater I've been telling you about too. It's another double. First time I knitted this pattern - maybe four years ago? - I knew enough about knitting to realise the pattern was wrong and some trickery would be needed to get sleeves and neckband combined. This time (for I had to make it again as everyone was agreed this particular pattern offered your every day accountant both cuddle factor and macho manliness in magical proportions) I knew enough about Ravelry to look for help, which I found. No trickery required.

Every project marks some change, ecah one is a way of moving on. I'm working a shawl at the moment, with many, many stitches: plenty of time in that to wonder what's next. Maybe I'll be warding off a stiff Scottish breeze on Graduation evening the first time I wear it. Who knows? How about you? What plans do you have for your works in progress?

Project Notes:

Crofthoose Yoke by Ella Gordon knitted in Jamieson and Smith 2 ply bought at Tangled Yarns

Baseball Sweater from Knits Men Want by Bruce Weinstein knitted in Rowan Alpaca Merino DK

Drachenfels Shawl by Melanie Berg knitted in Rosy Green Wool Cheeky Merino DK

Memorandum Monday: Hello Old Friend

It was a companionable weekend here, this last one: the kind which adds to that Here's December! feeling. There's the doorbell! Quick! Turn on the twinkling lights!

For on Friday afternoon I had received two messages: one from my dear friend and fellow blogger Alexa, of Trimming the Sails, asking if we'd be about the next morning for a flying visit; and one from Studentland, asking if we'd be around on Sunday. Yes! Yes! we said; and we went to the attic and brought down the fairy lit garlands with which we brighten our very dark stairs over Christmas (and beyond, if I can get away with it). 

And Alexa, and her lovely husband, came and we ate Dundee cake and chatted; and then, for the first time (because you knew there had to be one in there somewhere) I was able to leaf through one of Alexa's stunning photo books. You can read about this one on her blog. It's a beautiful thing to hold in the hands: put together with such care and love and no little skill. Thank you, Alexa, for letting me see! And for making time to visit on a short, busy trip.

But wait: on Sunday I managed another first. I finished another sweater and its owner came from Studentland to collect it: the first one I've knitted on the suggestion of a friend. It's well over a year now - maybe two? - since Fiona linked me up with the Kate Davies Owl Sweater. I thought it was clever and beyond what I knew how to do and it was then; but that was before I learned how to knit a sweater on circular needles. It turned out to be very straightforward, thanks to a clearly written pattern, and fast, thanks to the chunky wool (Rowan British Sheep Breeds).

The trickiest part was in the finding of thirty two - count 'em - tiny buttons to fit onto the faces of sixteen cabled owls. After a bit of thinking I decided to use buttons cut from old white school shirts; and now I like the idea of her wearing a little bit of her old uniform as her new one. 

So that was my weekend. We stayed away from the shops and stayed in with friends. Oh, look:

there we are, colour coordinating just for you. How was your weekend? Anything new?

Maybe you'd like to make a memo, for Monday, just as  Deb, Helena, Mary-Lou, Ladkyis, Maggie, Barbara, Mitra and Alexandra did last week. Go on, give 'em a wave! And have a good week.

Memorandum Monday: Take a Seat, Make a Wish

Can you smell it? No: I guess not. Our Christmas pudding is safely tucked away, wrapped in greaseproof paper, in its white china bowl, after six hours of boiling on Friday afternoon. And if you too make a pudding, you'll know that with the stirring comes a wish: you mix it together with the oldest wooden spoon in your collection and you think about something nice.

And as I'm mixing I'm thinking about weaving in all the ends...

We had our something nice right there in front of us: our girl called round specially, just to stir. I wonder what she wished for? She has a washing machine in Studentland; so her wish probably wasn't the same as mine, which included a load of clean underwear and the innards of the washing machine removed from the kitchen table.

But that pudding worked fast! The postman brought the spare part first thing on Saturday morning; and before long, freshness reigned once again in the Fair household. That's our first first for the weekend. We (and I use that term loosely) have never fixed our own washing machine before. 

....and working my stretchy cast off again, so that I can fit it over my head...

Riding high on a sweet smelling, sudsy tide of success, our patient decided that he felt up to a trip out, so I told him about a junk shop a friend had mentioned to me recently. Our second first! So close to home and we hadn't even realised it was there, and with all the perfect junk shop essentials: a winding brick alley with signs to follow before we found it, a must-have (but too large) piece to lust after right outside the entrance (a double sided school changing room bench), old sewing mahines, each with a story to tell..

..in the end we chose two chairs, probably from the old school round the corner, with scratched seats and chipped paint. Dare me to carve our initials on one? Or maybe you didn't do that at your school?

....so that I can wear it out on Sunday afternoon (picture on instagram). Pattern is called Strokkur, by Ysolda Teague, on Ravelry, knitted in Istex Lett Lopi from Carreg Yarns

And that's my memo for this Monday. How about you? Anything new? Anything you know now that you didn't know before? Maybe you'd like to make a memo too. We'd love to hear from you!

Deb, Alexandra, Helena, Mitra, Mary-Lou, Ladkyis, Maggie, KraftyKaren and Karen made one last week. Go on, give 'em a wave! Good luck with your week!

Poke-Story

That nephew of mine, Little E: if he texts, it's usually a matter of some urgency often requiring rapid aunt participation of an interesting kind. Saturday's message got straight to the point:

Auntie Sian, can you knit me a pokeball hat, please and maybe a pikachu too. Thank you. E xx

There was even a Ravelry link attached; and in that I detected the hand of his mother, so I texted back:

That's a crochet pattern. But there are knitted ones too. I can do that. No problem. 

She returned:

He was worried you might not know what a pokeball hat is. But I said of course you'd know

And, not for the first time, I whispered a quiet word of thanks to the generous knitters who create and post their patterns to a place where an aunt can find them first thing on a Saturday morning, right around breakfast time.

Pattern: a free Ravelry download by SashaKnits (thank you!)
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino (which is machine washable)

I printed out my poke- pattern, but it was Sunday night before I was able to sit down and order some poke-wool: red, black and white aran, with a larger-than-my-usual-size circular needle, which couldn't really be called poke(y) at all because it looked so fat. And then I waited for the wool to arrive.

A couple of days later, as I listened for the postman, came not a text message this time, but the very face of Little E himself. Face time! 

"Why aren't you at school?" I asked.

"I'm sick!" he said brightly and smiled his most winning smile, so what could I do but clear my schedule and settle down for a long poke-chat. 

"I'll phone you again later, Auntie Sian: you have a lot more pokemon to learn!" he finished, quite a bit later.

And, what do you know, by the time he called back the parcel of wool had arrived and we were able to open it together. Now, this was good and this was also bad. The red and the black came out of the parcel looking poke-perfect and Little E approved. But when the white appeared? Poke-panic! It wasn't white at all, it was cream.

"That's not right," Little E shook his head. "That white has yellow in it. You need white with....grey in it."

which was pretty deep, I thought, coming from a seven year old, and also unnervingly accurate. The white wasn't white, it was yellow.

"I have to go out now," I said. "But phone me again in a hour and I'll have poke-progress to report."

So he did. And I did. I ran to the Post Office (no: not actually, what a thought) and, on my way, I tried our local wool shop, keeping my fingers very tightly crossed since  I only resort to internet shopping because this place doesn't often have what I need. I was in luck. The poke-hat was back in business, with a new white, signed off by Little E, and a big needle for some swiss darning.

It didn't take very long. So I ran back to the Post Office (no, not really). He says he likes it. But I think it's going to take a bit of persuasion to get him to take a picture. He's gone all shy. Or maybe he's just too busy chasing pokemon. Hey, Little E, I want a go!

All's Fair

I'm sitting balanced on the arm of the chair beside the range and I'm dreaming of the dress my Mum is knitting for me: a soft fawn colour, with a band of bright pattern worked in. Later, there were others: a spring yellow pleated skirt and a top with daisies on, a smokey blue sweater dress with cables stretching up the front, but the first one was always my favourite. That pattern, the Fair isle.

Yoke sweater Nordic Summer (a free pattern from Drops Design) knitted in Drops Alpaca

I'm sitting on my bed, now: a teenager flipping through the pages of a Christmas present book : Vogue: More Dash Than Cash, which I read and reread in place of spending any money at all, for I have very little. I'm stopping again at the page I always linger by: a spread of linen and crsip cotton outfits, with a delicately patterned cardigan arranged on top. Fair isle.

Now I'm a grown up and I receive a message from a friend, who points me in the direction of a blog she thinks I might like (Kate Davies Designs. Thank you Julie). I scroll through screen after screen of beautiful knitwear. I learn about colourwork and I long to be able to reproduce the patterns I see appearing, one after the other, for sweaters with yokes which frame the face with bands of colour and pattern and neat, firm stitches.

More than a year later, I make a start. I have been knitting socks, not realising, when I begin, that the techniques I gather will push me on to where I've always wanted to be..

..knitting those stitches, feeling the fabric firm up under my needle as the yarn weaves along the back with a satisfying pattern of its own. This sweater teaches me more about what I need to learn next; but, for now, it's soft and pretty and she likes it. She'll take it with her when she goes. I reach for my new handbook, Kate Davies' Yokes. I have a way to go.

No Need to Take Them Off at Bedtime

So as soon as I'd cast off the last stitch, darned in the last end, she packed them up in her rucksack and took them to camp.

With thanks to Grandpa's old Scout Handbook

Or, to be more accurate, since I managed two pairs, she put the blue and navy ones on her feet, which were stuffed, then, into her wellies, and she packed the stripey ones for emergencies.

 On Friday night we took her to the drop-off point and the latest news we have is in a forlorn text this morning which tells us that pick ups might be earlier than originally planned. We're used to that round here. It's a rain thing.

I hope her feet have stayed warm, because I was pleased that she had agreed to play along when I had suggested special camping socks. I would have saved their details for a memo this Monday; but, new thing as they are, I can't count them as a weekend innovation if, by Friday night, they were in a field, in a sleeping bag, under canvas.

All the same, they are the first heavy duty socks I have produced, with (UK term) double knitting wool from West Yorkshire Spinners - I love this wool, it seems to help my stitches come out more neatly and more ordered - and a new toe style which achieves a chic little raised line along each side of the top of the foot. I'll definitely be using it again. 

I had started with a pattern from ravelry; but - lesson learned - I now know that just because it has a cute name, a persuasive picture and a set of instructions that doesn't mean my downloaded pages hold the secret to an excellent well fitting sock. So I tried again and made it up as I went along (though some of the colourwork pattern comes from Folk Socks by Nancy Bush. Then I wrote it all down in my sock notebook. Maybe what I need now is a cute name? For socks to help you camp in a field in the wet and cold, in a tent? How about the "No Need TO Take Them Off At Bedtime Socks"? That's June Sock of the Month.

If It's Snowing, There Must Be Socks

It's getting chilly in here I thought this morning, as I grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down to check my emails. The first one I opened offered "What To Wear In May" so, as we are nearly there, I took a quick look : Choose light layers! it said. Pair with sandals and a floaty scarf so you look cool and fresh at May's festivals and markets! And then I looked out of the window, and saw that it was snowing, so I closed up the email and went to look for a pair of knitted socks instead. 

After that, I hauled myself up the stairs (that exercise bike is beginning to do its worst) to take a few photos of the new pages I have made in my sock notebook. I know: It has been a while; but I've been knitting more and recording less. I'm pretty sure that I haven't told you about these ones before:

That would be two pairs of easy to put on, wear instead of shoes socks:

I cut pieces from the invoice and snipped a sample of the wool because I want this notebook to be a proper scrapbook: full of scraps.

Soon after I finished those, I bought quite a few balls of my favourite good value wool: Drops Fabel

 It washes easily at 40 and the first pairs I ever made  have now been through the machine once a week for a year without showing any signs of wear.

But then I needed somewhere to put that new wool. So we went to Ikea where I found a perfect set of white metal drawers. Remember these?

and all the time I'm knitting and purling, with a pair for Fiona, and a couple for my sister (to be honest, she got the ones striped together from the ends of other projects. She deserves better) and suddenly we were getting close to Christmas. I started on some presents

while at the same time looking forward to a present of my own

which led me to come up with the idea for Sock Of the Month. But that's probably enough for today. Back to knitting instead of recording. After all, I have to decide what I'll make for May..

I Did This, I Did That..

So it gets to Thursday and I think to myself, I still have no idea what kind of a week this is going to turn out to be. Creatively it's been a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and not very much of anything at all. I pick something up and I put it down again. Two rows of rib here, a snip of some double sided sticky tape there..

although I have a couple of things on the go. Yesterday I picked up my littlest scissors and cut into some pretty Wilna Furstenberg files, just for the sheer pleasure of trimming paper. I don't have a silhouette, so "print and cut" for me really does mean print and cut. But Wilna makes it easy, so now I have a little stock of embellishments set aside for some new pages.

I trimmed round another bunch of flowers recently, too, to turn a Gossamer Blue Life Pages card into a motif to put on my layout for this month's Inspiration Hop. It's going to go live on Instagram Friday 15th at midnight GMT, that's 4pm PST or 7pm EST.

Let me see, what else? Did I tell you I've discovered a knitting group to go to? Thanks to my blogging friend Helena, who has posted with pleasure about the group she found, I was encouraged to keep on looking here; and I now have an invite for a meet up next week. I'm thinking maybe I should get a move on and finish the plain black socks I'm working on, so I can take something a little more interesting. One pair down:

and one more to go. It's a special order for Uncle Dave, who took several pairs back with him after his Christmas visit, and was offered another two. I'm nearly there. And secretly I'm a little chuffed that there has been a bit of a delay in fulfilling that promise, because I now have labels to wrap my socks in. I found them via Winwick Mum's blog (a must read if you knit socks! or, if you knit at all, have a look at her post on Therapeutic Knitting) here at Buttons: a Blog About Creating

More printing and cutting. Aren't they clever?

And, yes, I've been reading about knitting, too. Here's what I was thinking: I can knit a sock by going round and round on a circular needle until I have a tube. And a tube is basically a sweater, without sleeves. But sleeves are also tubes, and all of that can also be achieved by - yep - knitting round and round on circular needles. So I may be about to go large. But of course you know me well enough by now to recognise that I never start anything without looking at the book first. Top Down Sweaters is written by the same knitter, Ann Budd, who did the very first, basic sock book I ever read Getting Started Knitting Socks. It's a sign. Has to be. I'll let you know what happens next. In the meantime, how about 21 Original Definitions Of Creativity, just in case you need some help getting started on a new project too.

A (Bird) House of Cards

I think we all know that I'm powerless to resist a little house motif. It's a well established fact. So you won't be at all surprised to learn that when I saw this month's Cocoa Daisy pocket scrapbooking kit, with its little wood cabin stamp, I couldn't stop myself. My finger hit the button and, before I knew it, the box was on my doorstep. 

But, as is the way with these things, once I started to play around with my new supplies, I set the stamp to one side for anther day, because the little cards in the Day in the Life kit were calling me..

...to make cards. Maybe something in our fresh Spring air - I could even smell the sea from here this morning, and that doesn't happen very often - 

has me thinking about a few brisk walks to the pillar box.

Or maybe I'm just in the mood for some quick projects which can even make use of the polka dot tissue paper packaging. Tidy, that is (as my Welsh grandparents might have said). Tidy.

Knit, Forget-Me-Knot

I like to make stuff. But even more, I like to make stuff with a purpose. So, for one evening this week, I put down the socks (which are only, really, for my fun, even if this week's model is a pair suitable for an Accountant At Work); and I picked up a pair of needles longer than I've been used to. I found some scraps of 4 ply in blue ( handy, these sock leftovers) and I started to knit a few forget-me-knots.

This is a project I spotted on Miriam's Blog. The Alzheimer's Society is hoping for 3000 forget-me-knots to use as a grand fundraising display in May. I imagine it a little like the red poppies at the Tower of London - remember how amazing that was? - this time in blue and soft: crocheted, knitted, sewn, for Dementia Awareness. I have twelve made and I hope to get them sent off this week. I'm sure they'll take all they can get: here's a little more about it:

I pulled out my book of knitted and crocheted flower patterns (100 Flowers To Knit & Crochet by Lesley Stanfield) just for inspiration: there is a crochet pattern in there, but no knitted one, so I used the one on the Alzheimer's site here. It doesn't take long to make a bunch: but just think what they'll all look like together...

A Quick Christmas Card Trick

Oh, I get excited when the first Christmas card drops through the door! You? We had one arrive on Tuesday. I set it up carefully on the shelf (slightly regretting, as I do every year now, that there are no mantelpieces in this house), stood back..and then suddenly realised that if it is time for cards to arrive, then it is time for me to get thinking...

I don't make a lot of cards; but I enjoy doing a few at Christmas, usually in a similar style to whatever else I've had on my crafty mind recently:

So, this year that means a splash or two of ink

My tip: keep your card blanks flat: don't crease and fold them until after you have brushed on the ink and let it dry

and a little stamping

I used card bases with a textured surface (I think you could call it orange peel?) to make the simple design feel a bit special (I hope);  a Kesi Art ink with a drop of water added; a stamp from  Gossamer Blue and my favourite black StazOn ink pad. Is it okay to say I'm pleased with the way they turned out? Mmm...said The (Not So) Small One, when she saw them. How did you say you did that again? And I like the thought that she might make some too...

Socks, Sticking, Saturday

Well that was the week that got away from me. Most of it has been spent catching up after our weekend away; but I do have to own up to the odd ten minutes (here, there and everywhere) I've been using to get to know my new pal Instagram. This former refusnik has been very much enjoying catching up with blogging friends who have been hanging out there for a while now. It's good to reconnect. And it's so fast! So simple to reply, to say hello. But maybe you already know that? If you're there, do give me a shout @fromhighinthesky

And socks. There are always socks: easy to pick up in the evenings, satisfyingly quick to finish; and with the prospect of a story at the end of each pair.

What do I do with the stories? Stick 'em in my sock notebook, of course. You'll have heard the first one if you drop by here often: it was worth adding to the record, I thought.

And the second? Ah, the second. A good blogging friend sent me a ball of sock wool she had rescued and I took it very gratefully and put it aside for just the right project. Then I heard of another good blogging friend who is in the middle of radiotherapy, and I thought sending soft socks could be a way for me to show I was thinking about her. When she told me that her favourite colour is purple, I knew what that gift ball was meant for. Round it goes..

Sock Knitting (But With Papercrafting..)

...because, although I have a new found enthusiasm for one, I could never stop loving the other..

...and that means a new page in The Big Brown Notebook Of Socks..

...for my first pair of manly man socks: a UK size 10 knitted in Drops Fabel Grey/Brown print from the basic pattern in Ann Budd's Getting Started Knitting Socks

Yes making a page in my notebook was just as much fun as knitting the socks. I added some Crate Paper and Shimelle diecuts, Simple Stories alpha stickers, a stamp from Gossamer Blue and gold accents, including a big coffee splat stamp I've had for years. Manly, see?

I've noted that I did the tops and heel flaps in plain grey. Next time I might leave the heel patterned and knit the toe in a plain.

After all, I've got to keep it interesting. I have a whole notebook to fill...

In Which I Find a Reason to Start a New Notebook

I think it came from Paperchase. I know it was a Mothers Day present last year...

Now it's a Sock Knitting Diary: little bit influenced by all the stunning Planners I'm seeing everywhere, little bit diary, little bit scrapbook...

..I have stamped on washi tape (and recorded all of our measurements - because we all need new socks, even if some of us are still in denial). I have used punches to vary the size of the pages (just for fun)...

...I have stapled (because it's nice to keep samples of the yarn and the details from the yarn bands) and stamped ( because it's a great excuse to use all the little Gossamer Blue stamps which haven't yet made it onto layouts) and printed out the photos of my first two pairs...

...And I've made notes about where I'm going next. There are so many combinations of stitches and shades: will one notebook be enough?