Spinning and Spinning Wheels.

 I am fascinated with yarn and spinning it:

Some of my spindles.

  

Recently I fell in love with an old Walnut spinning wheel on Ebay and I managed to bring it home! 

Hand carved Walnut spinning wheel.

When I asked the dealer if he had any more information about it he replied:

“It comes from an eighteenth-century country house in the center of the town of Balangero in the province of Turin. I know the family. The spinning wheel belonged to the Lord’s great-grandmother who gave it to me for sale. This gentleman is 64 years old. His mother was from 1930. Therefore the spinning wheel can be dated towards the end of the 19th century. The carving is the work of carpenters from Lanzo or surrounding areas. The design is typical of the Lanzo valleys.
Here typically walnut or chestnut was used, never birch”

I had told him that I have another wheel from Sweden which is Silver birch. Strangely here on my blog I don't seem to have added photos of that! 

Old Silver Birch Swedish Wheel.

I did document the one my DH made for me back in May 2015 though! It is in a previous post.

Now the adventure will continue! 

Yay! It works!

 

Let's hope I can really learn to spin well! 

Washing "Never ending story!"

 

The book was strategically put to hide the coffee stains!

Well after so much shaking and fear I washed the bedspread.

I was really scared it would not come clean or would fall to pieces!

I soaked it in cold water first for 24 hours. 

Then I soaked it with a solution of Omino Bianco in cold water. 

It was still stained. 

I washed it in the washing machine at 40°c without wringing. 

Took it out. Still a few stains. 

I took a new makeup brush and gently brushed the stains with bleach until they were less.

Put into the washer again at 40° without wringing. 

Took out. Rinsed well in the bath and then rinsed again with fabric softener! 

Hurrah!

I never thought it would really come clean let alone so brilliantly white! 

Started : October 1987. Stained with wood smoke age and coffee. 

Finished now. 

Doing a happy dance here!

Never Ending Story.

 The story of a bedspread: The work of almost a lifetime!

Way back in 1987 I bought some crochet cotton to make a bedspread. 3.5 kilos at the great price of 95000 lire! Less than 50 euro in todays money! Wow!

 I can’t even start to imagine how much it would cost today!

Poor bedspread is yellow. It has been forgotten for so long. Smells of dove soap as I put a bar of soap in the bag it is in! Lol!

I started this when I calculated a design for a friend charting the bottom corner. It starts at the corner, turned, then worked to bed width and then second corner. Then it is worked continuously across the blanket width, fringe included as you work, I cannot imagine doing that math nowadays!

I don’t know where the original design is from. It is a “campione” sample worked that my friend had. People used to work from sample pieces not from paper designs. It was done in stripes and sewn with the border sewn on and gathered at the corners which I didn’t like. I decided to modify to make in one piece.
We used to sit and work together in the mornings for an hour while the kids were at nursery school. Happy days and nice memories.

It took me so long to do those calculations so the corner design would be correct. All on squared paper! I can't find the design I drew out but still hope to find it somewhere in my old craft things. 

We used to sit in front of the fire and work on our bedspreads. In fact there is still a lot of wood smoke on it! Then disaster struck and I dropped some coffee on it. 

I gave up working for a while. I thought of starting all over again but just couldn't face the idea. At that time it would take me a day to do a row! 

After a while for some reason I decided to do a bit more....on and off slowly over the years it grew..getting ever more yellow in colour! 

This summer (after a difficult time with two family deaths) I was looking at all the things I have to finish thinking I would never manage. My youngest daughter commented that this was "bella" and jokingly said she would put in in the coffin with me if I didn't finish it! 

So I started working again. Always with the doubt that it is a waste of time and will never come clean. That is still the next challenge! 

She took a couple of videos of me working on it on the steps in front of the house and I just had to finish! 

Yesterday I crocheted almost all day and in the middle of a very unusual rain shower she took photos of me finishing! The final countdown to cutting the thread! 

My daughter weighed it. Total weight 3.2 kilos!

Follow the next post to see how and if I manage to wash the thing!

 

Brigid Coat:

Notions:

Boucle or sport yarn.

100 g

Needles: US 4 /3.5 mm. (or those you need to obtain gauge)

Darning needle.

Stitch markers or waste yarn.

buttons . I used wood buttons made by my husband. You can buy some similar online or use ordinary ones instead. . I used loops of yarn to create the closure. 

Difficulty: Advanced beginner.

Gauge: 6   sts x 8rows = 1 inch. In stockinette stitch

Abbreviations:

Co: cast on.

Bo: bind off.

K: knit

P: purl

St-stitch: Sts- stitches

K2 tog: Knit two stitches together as one stitch.

Ssk: Slip, slip, knit, slip 2 stitches and knit them together.

Yo: yarn over

kfb: Knit into front and then back of stitch.

S2,k,psso: Slip 2 sts together knitwise, k1 and then pass slipped sts over. (Gives a central double decrease)

S1, k2tog, psso: Slip 1, knit 2sts together and pass slipped stitch over. (Double decrease)

M1l: Insert the left-hand needle from front to back under the strand of yarn which runs between the stitch just worked and the next stitch on the left-hand needle. Knit this stitch through the back loop.

M1r: Insert the left-hand needle from the back to front under the strand of yarn which runs between the stitch just worked

Cast on 70 sts.

Knit 44 rows. Divide work.

K17, bo 2sts, k32, bo 2sts, k17.

Front:

K15, k2tog.

2: K16. 3-20 Knit.

Bind off.

Back:

1: Ssk, k28, k2tog.

2: K30.

3-20: Knit.

Bind off.

Front:

1: Ssk, K15.

2: K16.

3- 20: Knit.Bind off.

Sleeves:

Cast on 28sts.

1-4: Knit.

5: Kfb, k26, kfb.

6-8: K30.

9: Kfb, k28, kfb.

10-12: K32.

13: Kfb, k30, kfb.

14-16: K34.

17: Kfb, k32, kfb.

18-20: K36.

21: Kfb, k34, kfb.

22-32: K38.

Bind off.

Sew sleeve seams. Sew shoulder seams and sew sleeves to body.

Pick up 32 sts around sleeve.

With 2.5 needles and contrast yarn work 10 rows in garter stitch.

Bind off.

Collar:

With 2.5 needles and contrast yarn pick up 11sts on lapel, 52sts along neck, 11sts other lapel.

1: Knit.

2: K10, kfb, kfb, k50, kfb, kfb, k10.

3: Knit.

4: K11, kfb, kfb, k52, kfb, kfb, k11.

5: Knit.

6: K12, kfb, kfb, k54, kfb, kfb, k12.

7: K86.

8: K13, kfb, kfb, k56, kfb, kfb, k13.

9: K 90.

10: K14, kfb, kfb, k58, kfb, kfb, k14.

Bo: 94 sts.

Sew buttons and create closure. 

Enjoy! 

Auntie Sigrid's socks for doll.

Auntie Sigrid's doll socks for 18" doll.

 A little bit of their story. 

A dear Swedish friend of mine asked me to help decipher the pattern on a pair of socks that had been knit by her Aunt Sigrid. It was the last remaining pair made by her aunt. We managed to do the design and then just for fun I decided to make a doll size pair using that old traditional design. This is the pattern that I came up with! 

A small amount of fine black and white yarn. (Lace weight)

Needles: US 0 - 2.0 mm  Dpns or magic loop.

A yarn needle for grafting. 

Cast on 36 sts

Work 6 rounds in knit 1, purl1, rib.

Knit one round in black. 

Start working in pattern following the chart. 

After leg design knit 2 rounds in black then 1 decrease row to 32 sts. (K2to, k7 around).

 Arrange sts on 3 needles so that 16 sts, centered on the back of the heel, are on a single needle, and that this needle is the one you have just finished knitting. The remaining 16 sts are divided on two needles, held for the instep.

Heel flap:
Turn work and, slipping the first stitch as if to purl, purl across heel needle. Turn.
Work the following 2 rows 3 times:
Row 1: Slip first st as if to knit, knit across needle, turn.
Row 2: Slip first st as if to purl, purl across needle, turn.

Start heel shaping in black:

Turn heel:
Sl 1 st, k8, k2tog, k1, turn.
Sl 1 st, p3, p2tog, p1, turn.
Continue in this manner, slipping the first stitch and working to one st before the gap, working this together with the next st, and working one and turning, until all the heel sts have been worked. 10 sts remain on heel needle, and you have ended with a purl row.

Gusset:
Turn and knit across heel needle, and then pick up and knit 4 sts along edge of heel flap.
Knit across the instep stitches, putting all 16 on a single needle.
On an empty needle, pick up and knit 4 sts along other side of heel flap, then continue knitting 5 sts from the heel needle onto that needle.
Your rounds will now begin at the center of the sole of the foot.

Repeat the following two rounds 3 times:
Rnd 1: knit around plain.
Rnd 2: k to last 2 sts of needle 1 and k2tog; k needle 2; SSK (slip, slip, knit together), k to end of needle 3.

You now have 28 sts in total. Slide one st from each end of the instep needle onto the neighboring needle so that you have 14 instep sts and 14 sole sts.

Foot: Knit in stockinette in chart pattern until foot length from the beginning of the heel turning measures 2 inches. Continue in black.

Toe shaping:
Work one toe decrease round as follows:
Knit to the last 2 sts of ndl 1, SSK; k2tog, knit to last 2 sts of ndl 2, SSK; k2tog, knit to end of ndl 3.

Knit one round.
Work two more toe decrease rounds.
Knit the 4 sts from ndl 1 onto ndl 3.
You have 8 sts remaining on each of two needles. Graft them together (=Kitchener stitch), and fasten off yarn.

I hope you enjoy this pattern. It was fun to create! 

AGD Kirsten's Winter Woolies.

"Oh where and oh where has my Kirsten doll gone,

Oh where and of where can she be?

With her eyes so blue and her hair so blonde,

Oh where and oh where is she?"

 In 2014 I had started to try and make a cardi for my Kirsten doll similar to the retired wool set American Girl dolls had made years before. I had read that the original ones they sold were actually hand knit! (makes me wonder how much the knitters were paid to produce those!)

A Ravelry friend Beth sent me some detailed photos of the original set she had. I set to work counting sts and rows and tried to produce a similar effect. I made the body of the cardi but then the whole thing was set aside when my first Grandchild was born. 

Fast forward a few years and I had totally forgotten about the whole thing until I looked through some unfinished projects for a Ravelry Kal! 

The day after I was putting some things away in my craft room and there was the cardi! No yarn with it but from my project page I found what the black yarn was and then managed to find some white. 

So back to the knitting! Sleeves and button band were easy to make and a morning spent sewing together the pieces and weaving in yarn ends finished it.

I picked up sts from fronts and neck and worked a simple rib button band.

I didn't have pewter buttons so used some little wood ones.

Then I started on the hat. I found it easier to make a simple chart. 

Co 84 sts.

 3 rows 1x1 rib. 

1 row purl.
3x3 white/black blocks. 4 blocks high.
Knit 7 rows stockinette.

Then I followed my chart decreasing the sections on the right side after I finished the boy and girl patterns. (7)

I knitted this flat but would knit in the round if I made another one.

A simple pompom completed the effect.

Mittens: 21sts. Five rows 1x1 rows. Purl one row. As diagram.

I knit these in two flat pieces and sewed them. The cord is a simple crochet chain 15 inches long. 

Kirsten is very happy to have her new Winter Woolies!

Tea towels galore!

So what have I been doing? Yes you guessed it! Machine embroidery!

I have been busy embroidering a whole load of tea towels I had. Fun just putting simple lettering on them. 

Here are a few photos:

I have done over 40 teatowels! A lot have already left the house.

Between doing those and masks I have been very busy. Now I need to catch up with some sewing that is all piled up here! 

Have a nice day!