Simple Socks - a Little Intention

As part of my reflection on the start of 2013, I set myself four little intentions; four specific tasks I had been meaning to try for some time, four mini-voyages of discovery. Like planning most voyages into the little known, I set off  by browsing my bookshelves closely followed by a trip to the library.

But of course it inevitably included a trawl of the internet to find helpful sites.And of course there were many, so setting up an Intentions board on Pinterest to store  likely links seemed a good idea. I am very pleased to say that I can now tick off one of my intentions, "Knit a pair of socks with properly turned heels and grafted toes"  thanks to Ravelry.

I found a pattern there that I thought would suit my purpose very well. OK so the toes aren't grafted but I have done grafting before so that didn't really need to be part of the learning curve of this particular project. Opening the pdf for the pattern and finding it was entitled "Wise Hilda's Basic Ribbed Sock" felt like an omen. It was another wise Hilda who taught me how to knit. ( Thanks Mum!)

It's a while since I have used a set of  double pointed needles and such fine yarn and I admit there were a lot of dropped stitches to begin with and yes, some bad language before the task became the pleasure I usually find knitting to be.

Almost immediately I began to worry that the cuff was rather small and the casting on rather tight. I use the 2 needle method to cast on but had read in one of the library books that knitting through the back of each stitch as you cast on gives the edge a little more elasticity so that is what I had done. Even so I had my doubts but I decided to carry on and treat it as the learning exercise it was, after all I hadn't even got to the tricky bit,  turning the heel. I asked a knitting friend if she had ever made socks and how she had coped with heels and she said that she had and that she had simply followed the instructions in the pattern and it all worked out fine.

Imagine how pleased I was to find that is just what happened with this pattern. It is different from any other shaping I have done before but taken one step at a time, following the instructions as given, it is not tricky at all really. Probably a life lesson in there somewhere. Something like 'take things one step at a time and don't over-think them in advance.'

The rest went really well, probably boosted by my faith in the instructions. The beauty of learning these techniques in socks is that you get to practise them again straight away. I found that the cast on edge was just fine and the socks stay up and are very comfortable. For the future I will check out other methods of casting on. All in all, I am very pleased to have made this the first completed of my intentions - hasn't it been ideal weather for woolly socks?

As for the other little intentions - well there is some progress on two of those.
(The make a book challenge is the least advanced of the challenges as yet. There have been some very useful sites on Pinterest so I have those 'pinned' for future reference.)
 
I have a second sour dough starter (hopefully) brewing away in the laundry. I wasn't convinced that my first attempt was very active so I threw it out and started again, this time keeping it somewhere warmer and it looks rather more promising. More of that later.

The photo challenge is coming along albeit a little fitfully. Inspired by Sue at The Quince Tree I embarked on the Challenge set by  Fat Mum Slim.  It is obvious I will need to build up to this challenge - after all if I had said I was going to run a marathon you would expect me to do some fun runs and half marathons first, wouldn't you?   I got through the first half  of Fat Mum Slim's list before the rest of life intervened. I will get back to it and may be even try to fill the gaps before the end of the month. I know this is not quite in keeping with the spirit of the challenge so I won't tick it off my list just yet. It has been good to make (almost) daily use of the camera and extend the use of equipment and techniques. 
From the topic set for the 9th, here is my 'faceless self-portrait.'

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 Well I can't sit here blogging all day - I have a picture of working to achieve and a sourdough starter to feed.

Patterns and Stories

Helping my mother to sort and declutter her home, I had to keep reminding myself that I had this same process to face in my own home. We kept turning up little items that evoked memories or simply charmed my vintage-loving heart. What might have happened if I didn't have the prospect of  a long haul flight to discipline my magpie tendencies, doesn't bear thinking about. But as I had been meaning to make a frilly tea cosy simply for the fun of it,  this booklet came home with me.

I can remember the two cushions shown at the top of the cover in my grandmother's and my aunt's houses. Mum doesn't recollect making any items in the book but by the state of it, it has been well used, possibly by her mother or her sisters.

 I have to admit though that I had almost forgotten about it since coming home. Just by chance, scouring the Internet for a pattern for something else, I happened to find a picture and instructions for the cottage tea-cosy. I recognised it immediately and the reference to Madame Weigel, Series 6.  (I suspect that most of the patterns in the book are now available from that site.) Having jogged my memory about the book, I had to dig it out along with some left over bits and pieces to try knitting up a swatch of daffodil stitch for the ruffly tea cosy. I had been curious to see how the ruffles were created. Just knitting a swatch solved that and seems to have sated any enthusiasm I might have had for the project. All that extra casting on every 14 rows is just more hassle than fun for me.

It doesn't end there. This blog is my place to store the things I find amazing, amusing, delightful or delicious and deciding not to follow up on something wouldn't really count, would it? I couldn't help but wonder who this Madame Weigel was. Each pattern, especially the koala, has a rather whimsical little introduction before the instructions for the distinctive designs. Back to the Internet for some research and what I found was a fascinating story. Knitting and crochet patterns for household items were a  minor part of Madame's enterprise. During the latter part of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, she had a thriving paper pattern company. At a time when many women would have made clothes for themselves and their children, paper patterns were hugely popular. She had emigrated as a young girl from Posen in what was then Prussia, to America where she worked for the McCall's company, learning to draft patterns. She later married and while she was on honey moon in Australia, initially intending to stay for 6 months ( ah, honeymoons just aren't what they used to be!) she began to make patterns for her own clothes as her style was obviously admired and women she met were keen to copy it. She and her husband spotted the gap in the market and set up business and home in Melbourne designing and printing paper patterns and publishing a fashion journal. There is much more in the story, fire destroying a lovely home, anonymous charitable donations, extensive travel to ensure the business reflected the latest fashions,  mystery surrounding the graves of the couple.
The company no longer exists but its publications are highly sought after by vintage fashion enthusiasts, particularly the paper patterns in unopened condition complete with instructions. Along with Florence Broadhurst she becomes one of my Australian style heroines.

Mm, maybe this booklet should have gone into the box of things that Mum and I took to donate to the local museum.

Days of Daffodils

There's no ignoring them! The sunny days we have had lately could have been made for them. They are everywhere; in clumps, drifts and even modest singles, all reminding us how well Wordsworth captured the impression they give. 'Jocund company' undoubtedly.

We found these in the garden under an old apple tree, one of the pleasures of our first spring living here. With their fresh  colour combination of palest yellow and clear gold and an elegant twist to each petal and even the leaves, I have been delighted to see them each year since. I have planted other daffodils in the garden, but I think the only others I like almost as well as these are the Tete-a-Tete which are almost over now, having picked up the baton from the snowdrops.

The choice now is to decide  whether to enjoy them in the garden or to bring their cheer inside and have vases of them throughout the house. With some special care when bringing them indoors,  the toxic effect that the sap from their stems has on other flowers and leaves can be minimised.

Meanwhile it seems just the right time to let the daffodil effect creep into my knitting.