Keeping the ex-batts warm

On the first of March we might be excused for expecting to feel a little warmer.  Not so in Hampshire today  where, despite crocuses, tiny daffodils and primroses in bloom, the temperature was 2deg c .  So spare a thought for those arriving here from warmer climates, hoping to have missed the worst of winter... and ex-battery hens.  Recently some kind people have been adopting hens that have spent all their lives on battery farms. Newly released from their overheated accommodation where the 'daylight' is controlled to maximise egg laying and where they are so over crowded and stressed that they moult and peck each other's feathers out, they feel the cold.

While their future is considerably more rosy than their past, as they are liberated in fours and fives into people's back gardens,  for a short period it is a bit chilly and their baldy state is prolonged as the habit of pecking at each others feathers can take a while to kick.

What has this got to do with knitting and knitters?  Well reading tweets on twitter the other day I came upon a heart warming story.  Some very practical people in Hertfordshire have come up with a great idea to provide cosy comfort for ex-batts.

It was not the first time I had heard of woolly knits for hens.  Gill, one of the lovely people I work with  has four 'rescue hens'. 

Meet Gracie, Gladys, Matilda and Ethel-May.

The girls are looking very sleek now but when they arrived in Gill's garden they were very skinny and dehydrated and Matilda and Ethel-May (don't you just love the names?) were practically bald. 

Gill told me her friend Margaret had knitted some of the little hen body warmers.  When I heard this I asked if the girls would mind modeling their new knitwear for the blog.  Ethel-May was kind enough to oblige

In fact she quite likes showing off

The chicken gillets not only keep the hens warm while their feathers grow back but they also provide a bit of armour against being pecked by their 'chums' (perhaps this is a bit like wearing gloves while trying to stop nail biting, except oddly it is your friends who nibble).  This way the hens loose their bad habits too.  G,G, M & E-M did not need to wear vests for their feathers to grow back.  Good food,  sunbathing (they did move in in the summer), scratching around in the garden and plenty of fresh air seemed to do the trick.  But if Gill decides to take on more hens, the jumpers are ready

As Gill doesn't need any more clothing for her hens I thought I might make something for her.  As she had admired my mittens I searched out a chicken chart from Ravelry

I have heard that battery hen farmers get rid of the hens when they stop laying but these four girls provide their new family with plenty of eggs now they are feeling better.  Please think about these old girls when you are eating your breakfast eggs

So thank you Gill very much for taking the photographs and for telling me a story about your 'old-batts' that I just had to re-tell here. 

xx

C

Sewing Stanley

Whenever I am reviewing a book that contains instructions on making things of apparent loveliness I always try out one of the projects myself.  I  imagine I am an absolute beginner who has chosen to make something for its sheer desirability.  I don't think anyone, greedily gobbling up all this colour and flowery delightfulness comes over all sensible and selects something on the basis that it was suitable for a novice.  It is so disappointing if a book promises more than it delivers

The biggest difficulty I have with the three gorgeous books by Cath Kidston, Sew! Stitch! and Make! is the huge choice.

A union flag pencil case perhaps...

It may look as though I have already made this perfect Cath Kidston take on our national flag but I have not.  It is all down to the great photography and clever styling in this book that all the pictures of the projects look as though you could just reach into the page and appropriate the pieces of Cath Kidtson's whimsical cleverness for yourself.

Perhaps I should make the little purse, all the materials for which are tucked into the cover pocket of Stitch!

In the end I chose Stanley

Each book has some extra goodies in a pocket inside the front cover

As well as the little kit to make the purse described in Stitch! and a needle case filled with needles and a needle threader inside Sew! there are patterns and charts to help make birds, flowers, a plane...

And of course a pattern for Stanley

The model for this  little soft canine bean bag, and a number of the CK doggy fabric prints, is Cath's wire haired fox terrier Stanley.  I wanted my project to be made entirely from my stash of fabric and trimmings and it just so happened I had some Stanley print.  I didn't have any suitable 'beans' for filling so I had the idea of putting  a layer of polyester wadding either side of a piece of heavy duty interfacing, as well as applying a piece of iron on interfacing to each of the outer fabric pieces.

Allocating last evening for making up my project I wanted something that was  hand sewn.  Friday night is not a time for setting up the sewing machine and working away in my craft room while JTH sits by the fire sipping wine and watching something not very challenging on television.

The instructions are simple and very clearly explained.  Any tricky techniques and the reader is referred back to the clearly illustrated section at the front of each book which explains all the basics .  This section also contains more lovely photographs of the equipment everyone needs (or perhaps desires) for a well stocked work basket, set out like beautiful collages. 

Stanley is sewn together on the outside with slip stitching.  This might sound rather labour intensive but as well as the actual act of hand sewing being soothing (well I find it so) it also helps in easing the pieces together to get the shape right.  I also think details such as the curvy tail would be very hard to achieve by the 'rights sides together, seam and turn right way out' method. The instructions were simple straight forward and easy to follow

As I began to sew my little dog up I remembered while I didn't have any polystyrene beads, I did have lavender so I abandoned my poly wadding idea and used lavender following the stuffing method in the book (use a small teaspoon and add a little at a time). 

I didn't have any felt to make the collar and identity disc.  But I did have ribbon and a tiny silver dime, with a hole in it.  I found it on the pavement near my home when I was a child, the dime has been kept with my jewelry and moved from box to box ever since.  I knew it would come in handy one day!

All three books are a real joy.  Full of wonderful projects, good just to look at as well as make and fill your home with happiness. No 1 daughter (whose kitchen contains china and linen in Cath Kidston pinks, blues and greens) spotted the books when she came to call this morning and poured over the illustrations with many oohs and ahs.

As the sun shone briefly this afternoon I nipped out into the garden with Stanley and photographed him amongst the crocuses

Vintage material

I bought my first batch of vintage knitting patterns out of sheer curiosity.  I have written before about how my mother and mother-in-law had been great knitters throughout their lives.  They were both young women in the second world war, when to be well dressed women had to be resourceful and crafty.  So I assume if they wanted a new jumper or cardigan they set to and got knitting.  Yet despite both women having carefully conserved and very well stocked work baskets, that I inherited; no patterns survived from their war years.

Then I spotted that someone was selling a large bundle of mixed patterns on EBay.  It was a great 'win'.  The bundle contained patterns for men, women and children.   It was no good just looking, I needed to see what it would be like to knit one of the patterns up. 

While not wanting to depart too far from the spirit of 'make do and mend' I also wanted the finished article to be a thing of loveliness.  In my stash I had some Debbie Bliss pure silk.

I chose a little button up to the neck number with a small collar.  For the cardigan to be wearable, I am not at all sure about the pockets with buttoned flaps high up on the front.  I intend to knit mock flaps attached in such a way that I can remove them if they don't look right.  I am also making it a little longer.  I understand that CC41 regulations restricted the length of all sorts of clothing (including banning turn ups on men's trousers) to save fabric and yarn but I am not going to be too purist

With not enough in either colour to make a whole garment I decided to have both.  Using both colours with the darker shade for the ribbing and lighter for the rest also seemed a gesture towards doing the best with what you have got.

Usually I am very impatient to begin knitting, far too impatient to knit a tension swatch and I was certainly raring to go here but good sense prevailed. The pattern called for Paton's Beehive Scotch Fingering 2 ply (presumably in one of the utility colours black, grey, brown, navy, bottle green or Maroon) and needles size 9 and 11 (3 and 3 3/4 mm).  The Debbie Bliss silk knits up nearer to four ply but I found, even using the same size needles, which are slightly smaller than those DB recommends, it knitted up reasonably close to the stated tension when I knitted the square. 

The honey comb pattern is achieved by reversing the direction of a simple four stitch cable so that the twists face each other, then face away, alternately. The soft, silky and drapey yarn is a joy to knit with, as you might expect.

But gosh the pattern is in a tiny size 32-34 inch bust. They say that that the rations in WW2 ensured a very healthy diet and that this, together with almost every able bodied adult working their socks off for the war effort, ensured a slim svelte population...sigh!  I needed to add some more stitches to make up a bigger size

I have recently discovered that I knit rather in the same way I read books.  Just as I have one book for my handbag (train journeys) one in the sitting room and one beside my bed so I have three or four knitting projects on the go (one for knitting group, one for  television watching...)  This one's not quite finished, when it is I will post more pictures.

xx

C

Stylish Blogger Award

                                               

I have been awarded a 'Stylish Blogger Award' by Tanya at http://www.cardswithadifference.blogspot.com/

I am very flattered, I have been blogging for less than 2 months and am still learning loads from other blogs I visit.

The rules of the award are:-

1.  That I should thank the person who gave me the award, which I have done.

2.  That I should share seven things with you about me that you didn't know.

Here goes:
a)  I am married with four adult children (age 29, 28, 26 and 23) a granddaughter too but readers know about her!

b)  In my 20s I quallified as a general nurse, midwife and health visitor
c)  In 1994 I graduated in Law from Cambridge university - one of my proudest achievements
d)  I worked as a solicitor for 8 years and am now legal director of a charity
e)  I have knitted, sewed and embroidered almost as long as I have been able to read (which I began age 4)
f)   I am a little over zealous about tidiness - I like my linen cupboard all folds to the front and have three very carefully ordered stashes, wool, fabric and haberdashery - I only stop short of producing a written catalogue
g)  I have a very naughty profligate shopping habit

3.  That I should also name another 15 blogs.

Here goes:-

http://flossieteacakes.blogspot.com/
http://backstitchblog.blogspot.com/
http://ramblingdesigns.blogspot.com/
http://theyarnyard.co.uk/blog
http://www.socktopus.co.uk/
http://yarnloopie.blogspot.com/
http://traceyscrafts.blogspot.com/
http://robinintheuk.blogspot.com/
http://eleganteconomy.wordpress.com/
http://buttonsandflowers.blogspot.com/
http://two-pairs-of-socks-and-an-apron.blogspot.com/
http://bubblesknits.blogspot.com/
http://kristynknits.blogspot.com/
http://littlebluemouse.blogspot.com/
http://theknittingden.blogspot.com/



Off now to let the 15 people above know I have nominated them.

Thank you Tanya at Cards with a difference.

Catherine x

Frogging

I learned from one of this blog's readers last week that ripping out knitting is called frogging because of the sound it makes 'ribbit ribbit' when the work is unraveled.  I rarely unravel with wild abandon, mainly I unpick stitch by stitch as I am always a little fearful that I will go too far.  But it occurred to me that, in the style of Chinese whispers, rip-it rip-it sounds like ribbit ribbit.  And this is what I did last night.

A little while ago I made a hat, muffler and mittens for my granddaughter in one of my favourite yarns, Baby Cashmerino by Debbie Bliss.  I knitted free hand and you may say that is where I went wrong

But I loved the knitting particularly all the fiddly bits, the bell frill at the bottom of the muffler

and the bunch of hare bells on the side of the hat (the same flowers as I used for my Knitting a name project)

But the hat was far too small for the baby girl who has a beautiful shock of thick light brown curls

So I frogged it...

And am making something much bigger

I hope it is not too big! The circular needle is 18" from needle tip to needle tip, the first hat had a circumference of 18" so I am hoping I am OK making it 30 stitches larger.

Happy weekend everyone!

xx

C

Hearts no flowers

My naturally perverse nature always whispers to me 'take a different path' rather than follow the crowd.  So when shops are festooned with red hearts, full of cards for every conceivable taste and even electrical superstores seem to find a product that they can promote as the 'Ideal gift for your Valentine',  I am tempted to sit at home and mutter bah humbug!  It's OK because JTH is of the same mind as me. 

But the blogosphere, with crochet hearts, origami hearts and even heart shaped  mint creams, seems to have worked its magic on me and this weekend I found myself gazing at this bowl of strawberries and thinking how like a dish of hearts they were.

It was just a short step down the slippery slope of Valentineness to begin thinking what I might knit in the shape of a heart.  The idea comes from a new book by Debbie Bliss that is waiting for me to review. 

.

The hearts are knitted in pairs and sewn together invisibly before stringing together.

A little trio of hearts strung on a ribbon

The tiny mobile is quite light so I weighted the ribbon down with some frosted glass beads

It was a beautiful  day today, bright sun, clear blue sky, as I hung the hearts in a tree to take this last shot I noticed the leaf buds were fattening fit to burst - Spring can not be far away!

Happy Valentine's day

xx

C

Knitting a name

The idea for knitted letters spelling my granddaughter's name came to me when I was shopping one weekend and saw these letters in Tiger

A little imagination was required, and a small fret saw, to remove the odd extra appendage and get the spelling right.  What I really love with projects like this is thinking about what I need to do to produce the right effect.  I chose lovely Wendy Supreme DK cotton, in pretty colours with a lovely sheen.

Originally I was going to knit tubes with a giant 'knitting dolly' but that was not going to work on anything other than the 'S' and 'I' (I know there isn't an 'I' here but that's coming).  In the end I decided to knit pieces in roughly the shape as the letters and wrap them round the wooden forms.  So I set off and cast on, knitting in roughly the right direction increasing and decreasing to get the slants right and making gussets and slits to fit round places like the bar of the A.  Where I needed to increase on the front of the letter I kept it neat in the 'fully fashioned' style.

Having the S in mirror image was not a deliberate mistake, it was a real mistake!  I looked and looked again, turning my head to one side, and still could not see what I had done wrong.  After DS1 had pointed out the error of my ways, I just had to undo (does anyone know why this is called frogging - is it a bloggy term?) and turn it around.  I padded the letters lightly with polyester wadding and fixed the knitted covers at the back just by overlapping and stitching.  The joy of something as flexible as knitted fabric is as long as it is roughly the right shape it can be made to fit by stretching gently and plumping it out with light padding. 

The little knitted flowers, heart, star and butterfly come from Knitted Edgings & Trims by Lesley Stanfield.  I have stitched little plastic rings on the back of each letter to hang them on the wall.

Enjoy your weekend everyone

xx

C