Knitted vest

The next Basic Wardrobe chapter I tackled was a knitted vest, modeled by these two lovely ladies:

This is a very attractive vest, shaped over the hips, with the front and armhole ribbing knitted separately.  I used Cleckheaton California yarn, a 100% 12 ply variegated wool that knitted up very quickly.  In the Golden Hands instructions, the front band and armhole bands are knitted separately and sewed on.  I decided it would look neater if I picked up the stitches around the edges and knitted the band this way.  I used a very long double-pointed needle, and I think it worked well.  it took a couple of goes to make the curve look good, but I added a little ruffle there that I really like. In fact, I think I will make another vest with a ruffle all the way down the front on both sides.

Two beanies

I've now finished all the knitting chapters in Golden Hands book 1!   Winter has really hit, and I am in such a knitting mood, so I've gone onto the Basic Wardrobe chapters.  These chapters contain patterns for wardrobe items, and I gather that they are included for those people who are experienced knitters and crocheters. (Not sure is "crocheters" is a word!).

So the first Basic Wardrobe chapter has patterns for 2 hats - knitted and crocheted:

Natty, aren't they?

I made the knitted hat in the same green wool that I made the scarf with, and I did the crochet one in 8 ply cream yarn left over from my knitted samples, but I omitted the flower.  Both worked up quickly and easily - the knitted beanie on four needles was easier than I had expected, and the shell pattern in the crochet one was very pretty.  They fit me fairly well, I'm not sure if I will ever wear them, maybe to a night footy game?

My effort:

Knitting, knitting, knitting.....

Knitting Chapter 3 gives instructions for plain and purl stitch, so  beginners can continue their scarf, and Chapter 4 shows how to cast off and add the fringing.

Things get more interesting in Chapter 5, with samples of some reasonably easy patterns - broken rib, rib, double rib, moss stitch, twisted stocking stitch, double moss stitch and basket stitch.  I've used some of these stitches before, but hadn't come across broken rib or twisted stocking stitch.  The broken rib produces a ridged effect which I can see knit up in a jumper, and the twisted stocking just gives a bit of texture to a normal stocking stitch.  The Golden Hands samples:

My samples - I worked them in cream Totem (Patons) 8 ply cream wool, and will probably put them into a baby blanket.

That's it for the knitting lessons in Book 1 - now I can start on some garments in the Basic Wardrobe chapters - can't wait!

Knitting!

I have now finished all the embroidery and needle lace chapters in Volume 1, so my next challenge is knitting, and I am really looking forward to it!  The weather is cooling down and the footy has started, so bring on the yarns and needles!

My mother taught me to knit when I was 4 or 5, and I have been clicking away, on and off, ever since.  In my 20s, I knitted myself quite a few jackets, cardigans and jumpers, I even made matching fisherman's jerseys (a Golden Hands pattern, if I remember correctly) for hubby and I! What was I thinking??  I knitted lots of baby clothes and a few toddler jumpers for my boys, but then became more interested in quilting and embroidery for a long time.  Just over the past few years, I've taken up the needles again and I've enjoyed producing some small items.  I have a HUGE collection of knitting needles, thanks to my mother and mother-in-law and I will never have to buy a knitting needle or crochet hook.

There is a LOT of knitting in Golden Hands, Volume 1, so I had better get busy if I am to get it all done before the end of winter.  I am starting with the basics, then I 'll go onto the patterns for more experienced knitters.  Chapter 1 has the usual excellent overview of the craft, including a survey of needles and yarns.  There is also a useful yarn chart, showing the tension for certain brands of yarn, and those that they can be substituted for.  Even though the magazine is over 30 years old, I am finding this very useful.

Knitting itself begins in Chapter 2, with instructions for casting on, and plain and purl stitches, and then we beginners launch into knitting a scarf. There  is a pattern for both an adults and a child scarf.  The adults scarf is HUGE, but I made it a more sensible length.

The scarf is just cast on, then knit garter stitch (all plain) until you reach the required length, then cast off - nothing could be simpler.  I used the "thumb" method of casting on which I had never done before, and it was very easy.

I used 5 balls of Patons Jet 12 ply, including the fringe. This yarn knitted up quickly and easily, and was real pleasure to work with.  I used a variegated blue/green wool - it was made up of three strands, one dark blue and two shades of green.  I knitted on 7mm (bright yellow plastic) needles, which produced the recommended tension of 4 stitches to the inch.

My finished scarf:

Now for needle lace

Embroidery Chapter 4 is the last embroidery chapter in Volume 1, and is full of useful information about transferring embroidery designs to your fabric, but no project, so I've moved onto Needle-made Lace Chapter 1.  I consider needle made lace to be an embroidery technique, but Golden Hands treats it as a separate skill.  I have always liked this type of embroidery, but haven't had a go at it as it looks hard!

This chapter explains that needle lace is basically made by building up buttonhole stitch into patterns along the edge of fabric, or in a cut-out space in the fabric.  The Golden Hands sample in this chapter is a an edging made up of small triangular shapes:

My sample is unfortunately nothing like this picture.  The sides of my triangles are not as steep, and he shapes are shorter and fatter than they should be (a bit like me, really).  I used a fine crochet cotton, and I think if I used a thicker thread the triangles would have turned out better:

Embroidery continues

Embroidery Chapter 3

This embroidery chapter extends skills in simple line stitches - back stitch, stem stitch and the embellishment of running stitch with whipping and lacing.  Golden Hands suggests building up these stitches on a border, such as on a cuff:

Golden Hands loves to adorn clothing, but I decided to stick to my small mats:

The stitches I used were long and short running stitch, whipped running stitch, laced running stitch and interlacing between two lines of running stitch. 

I remember having to learn these very stitches when I was In Year 5 and embroidering the bottom of a gathered skirt.  I did the embroidery without too much trouble, but when my mother was helping me to take up the hem, in a rush, as it had to be finished for the school Open day the next day. We had a big fight about the length and she left me to do it on my own, and I did a very wobbly job of it, so I was very worried that it would look out of place among the much more expertly sewn skirts of my classmates.  It didn't look too bad though, in a display with about 30 other similar skirts.  And, on reflection, my dressmaking skills haven't improved much!

Embroidery begins!

Now that I have finished, thankfully, the crochet chapters, I can now start on a craft much more to my liking - embroidery!  I love embroidery and couldn't wait to get started.

Embroidery Chapter 1 gives the usual Golden Hands excellent introduction to a new technique, covering threads, needles, fabric and frames.

Chapter 2 starts out with some very simple, but effective, running stitch patterns.  Below is the Golden Hands sample:

And below is my effort:

I embroidered the running stitch on a small piece of evenweave fabric that I purchased at Lincraft and used stranded cotton ( 3 strands).

Then I played with making different patterns with the running stitches:

Fun, quick and easy - I'll make a set of small mats with this embroidery. 

Granny squares in crochet

Crochet Know-How 5 gives instructions for an "Old America Square", which I would call a granny square.  It's a simple square crocheted in treble, which when finished is about 12 cm square.  The Golden hands project is an "afghan" or throw rug made up of many of these squares.  The Golden Hands squares are made up in two colours:

This crochets up into a lovely blanket:

I'm going to use this crocheting as my "portable project" to carry around with me when I'm away from home, at appointments, travelling etc., so for ease I'm using only one colour for each square.  I'm using 8 ply alpaca yarn as I have a few balls in lovely muted shades that I bought at the Nundle Woollen Mill last year. I'll have to find some more of this type of yarn at a reasonable price.

My first square:

When I was a teenager I had a long bus ride to school every day.  My friends and I went through a phase of crocheting blankets like these ones, but we would start with a square and then just keep crocheting around and around with all sorts of different yarns until it was big enough or we got sick of it! 

Christmas decorating

Even though I found the previous project a trial, while I was working on it I had an idea for a Christmas decoration.  The increasing side of the triangle was very quick and easy to complete, and I thought that lots of these triangles in red and green would make a nice Christmas bunting.

I crocheted the triangles in an 8 ply acrylic yarn - the acrylic yarn has more body than wool and the triangles hold their shape better. After I had crocheted  lots of red and green triangles, I threaded red ribbon through the top and hung them up!

You could crochet triangles in pastels for bunting in a baby's room, or crochet tiny triangles in a fine cotton and string them on the Christmas tree. You could even crochet bunting in your footy teams colors!

I was enjoying crochet.....

I was enjoying learning to crochet......until Crochet Know-How 4.  This chapter deals with increasing and decreasing, obviously a useful technique if I wish to become competent at crochet.  It looked pretty easy in the book, but turned out to be a nightmare!  The project is a cushion crocheted from squares in two colors - you start with 3 stitches, then increase at the end of each row until you reach the desired width, change colors, then decrease at the end of each row until you are back to 3 stitches, and supposedly you have a neat square of crochet.  In my case, not so neat and not so square.  

This is the cushion from Golden Hands

I had trouble getting the increasing side and the decreasing side to match in size, and my finished shape was more of a weird elongated diamond, rather than something recognizable as a square.

In the project, the cushion is made out of 9 squares joined together.  I think I made about 25 squares before I got some that looked even remotely squarish and even then I had to block them out to shape.

After many hours of frustration, I ended up with squares of two different sizes, so I decided to make two cushions with each group of squares - 4 squares for each cushion.  I used 6 balls of Cleckheaton 8ply wool in three shades - cream, light brown and dark brown.

Golden Hands suggests that you either crochet more squares for the back (I couldn't face that!) or sew on a piece of material for the backing.  I didn't think that would work so well, as the crochet is stretchy and may pull away from a woven cloth.  In the end I just decided to crochet a piece to fit the back and crochet it together.  I had a couple of cushion pads in my cupboard that fitted my cushions, so the ordeal is finally over!

More crochet

SCrochet Know-How 3 gives four more crochet stitches, my samples are shown below.  I have a problem with getting crochet into a nice even shape, so I have blocked my samples into 6 inch squares as I plan to sew them I to baby blankets when I have enough.  Luckliy I used a pure wool 8 ply yarn which blocked out well (the stretchiness of the crochet also helps).

From the top left, the samples are half treble, treble between treble, double treble and treble round treble.  It's good to learn some new stitches, but I obviously need a lot more practice!  I liked the treble between treble, it gave a lovely textured effect.

This chapter also gave instructions for crocheting  circles, with an accompanying project of a belt.

I made the belt in 4 ply cotton in 3 different colors - I doubt if I will ever wear it, but it was fun to make. The discs only took about 10 minutes each to crochet, and then about another hour to sew them together and add the plaited ends.  These small circles could be used for other accessories, such as earrings and necklaces.

My crochet belt