Leaf pattern

Here is the leaf pattern that Bev asked for. It features on the SWS as seen here

Cast on 3 sts

Row 1: k1, yo, k1, yo, k1 5 sts
Row 2 and all even rows: Purl
Row 3: k2, yo, k1, yo, k2 7 sts
Row 5: k3, yo, k1, yo, k3 9 sts
Row 7: k4, yo, k1, yo, k4 11 sts
Row 9: k5, yo, k1, yo, k5 13 sts
Row 11: skpo, k9, k2tog 11 sts
Row 13: skpo, k7, k2tog 9 sts
Row 15: skpo, k5, k2tog 7 sts
Row 17: skpo, k3, k2tog 5 sts
Row 19: skpo, k1, k2tog 3 sts
Row 21: sl 2 sts tog knitwise, k1, pso 1 st

Cut yarn and pull through remaining st.

I left the tails long for sewing onto the shawl and varied the size of the leaves as I fancied. For a smaller leaf, omit rows 9 - 12. For larger leaves, just keep increasing. I also experimented with a garter stitch based leaf and varied the cast on and first row.

Enjoy!

I'll be off for a few weeks so see you when I get back.

Hello Mum and Dad
;)

Keep plodding on

Just for the record, I do not hate my mother.

Another thing, I have not yet put the leaf pattern up for Bev.

Also, I had a comment from Noblinpa asking why he never gets mentioned.

The last few posts didn't get labelled so I think I'll go back and edit them.

I've developed a bad habit of giving knitted gifts away without getting proper photos of them. Shedir has been finished and posted and received so you won't be seeing that for a while. I'll try to get a modelled shot when I'm visiting Aunty again. I missed my chance this weekend but was very busy. I stayed with my sister and managed to get you some pictures of the hat I made my nephew for his 1st birthday. It is a Lucinda Guy pattern but I changed the yarn and colours as the ones in the book weren't available. It is adorable, especially when being wrenched off the young one's head.














I have made progress on my parts of Aunty's blanket. My sister and mum have aswell but they deserve their own post after I have blocked the squares which got very crumpled in my suitcase.






On one of the long sections, I knitted too far and had to undo several inches.




Last weekend, we saw the inlaws for an opera and a wedding. It was all very fun and tiring so then I slept late for a few days.




Noblin Sighting:

I had another run in with my mother

Now, I don't want you to think that this happens often but it seems to be increasingly related to knitting (see here for the previous episode). This time it revolved around a similar theme - me being frustrated at her lack of confidence in her knitting ability, her not being positive enough about something I was interested in.

My aunt is ill. I decided it would be a grand idea if we (me, my mum, my sisters and my dad and brother if they're interested) knitted her a blanket. My mum said that was fine if I organised it* so off I trotted full of enthusiasm and ideas. Probably a little too much enthusiasm. I sat down at the computer to look for yarn and then with my trusty stitch guide to look for stitch patterns. I sketched an idea for the layout of the blanket, picked all the stitches I liked the look of and thought looked fun to knit, went back to the computer to search for rough estimates of yarn requirements, drafted a plan on excel, coloured it in, ordered the yarn, changed the colours to what were in stock, scanned in the stitch patterns from the book, emailed everything to my mum and sisters and BLAM. Instant smack down from my mum.

I got quite huffy with her. It was all over the internet which probably contributed to me feeling huffy. The huffy feeling continued after we had stopped messaging so then I phoned my sister. My big sister, who I knew wouldn't indulge me but I hoped would sympathise. She was quite keen on the knitting and the stitch patterns but couldn't view them on her computer, it being old and doddery. She wasn't having any of my whinging and after a lovely chat and being told off for being over sensitive (Moi? Never!) I felt better and realised I too had some part to play in the situation and that my mother wasn't entirely at fault. In fact, perhaps I was more at fault than her.

I love stitch patterns. I love challenging myself with knitting. I get excited by lace and cables and entrelac and colourwork. I want to feel I'm stretching myself and I feel pleased at the end results. I fear not the knitting.

My mum loves to knit. She can knit bobbles and intarsia and jumpers and lace but mostly, she loves to knit. She doesn't constantly want to be taxed and I admit, neither do I. She doesn't desire to fight with cable needles to prove mastery of another stitch in the same way I do. So why do I keep trying to push her to be more like me? Shouldn't I let her find her own way? I feel like I'm encouraging her to feel more confident in her abilities but why is this important when she's having plenty of fun?

I also realise when she said I should organise the blanket* that I went too far. I didn't involve anyone else in the planning stages and then didn't explain myself when I emailed them. Organising it isn't the same as being a bully. Organising isn't an alternative to communicating. We're all going to talk about it at the weekend. I was ever so pleased when I received an email from my mum saying she had done some of her own stitch pattern research and had some ideas. I will let you all know how it pans out.

I ordered the yarn from Getknitted. They were very helpful and the next day I received this



containing this



11 hanks of Blue Sky Alpaca Dyed Cotton in Honeydew, Thistle, Shell, Orchid and Sky, and 2 balls of Rowan Calmer in Vintage. I have a long list of things I want to knit my Aunt including Shedir from Knitty. I've wanted to knit Shedir ever since I saw it, ever since I was challenged by the cables, ever since I heard of cabling without a cable needle, and ever since I heard of chemo caps and the realisation that I started knitting far too late to make one for my nan who died 18 months before that issue of Knitty was published.

This is the progree of Shedir



and here is the progress of the first panel of the blanket





See you all next week.

*My mum denies all knowledge of saying I had to organise the blanket but then that's mothers for you.

Things I am learning

Although I have dabbled in designing my own knitting work, as you can see from the sidebar, I've always felt terribly fraudulent. It's reasonable enough to make an egg cosy as eggs don't tend to vary much in size and the fit isn't crucial. However, when you get to designing for real life people, whether it's for babies or adults, it all gets a bit more important*. I decided I should invest my time more into knitting other people's patterns to learn more about knitting and shaping and fitting and all those tricky type things. Fortunately for me, I have lots of time on my hands and lots of knitting I want to get done. And even better, my friend Erssie happens to have plenty of work to give me. Which brings me to what I learnt at the weekend:

Lesson 1 When working for a friend, make sure you find out who knitted the jumper you are seaming.
Think twice before you send rude texts.
Or, What I Didn't Know About Rules.

Fortunately, I did think twice before I sent the grumpy text and then sent a fairly reasonable email mentioning the fact that all ball changes for a jumper had taken place in the middle of a row. But why? When everyone knows you change at the edge of a row. I got particularly narky because I was worried about making it look bad when I was weaving in ends. I am only a recent professional knitter and this being only one of the first of my jobs, I was particularly keen to make a good impression. I got a very thoughtful response from Erssie (Oy! I knitted it...). In this case, the seams had to be as minimally bulky as possible and changing balls at the edge of rows just didn't work. I felt very foolish and then very pleased. This is what I had hoped for - increasing my experience and understanding of knitting and being paid for the privilege.

Noblin Lesson:
Sometimes it is worth ignoring rules if they are constrictive and when breaking them gives you a better finish, isn't that what we are working towards? Rules for the sake of convention are pointless. This is the first project I've knitted where it was worth breaking this particular rule, and I admit that every other project I completed has benefited from having the ball changes at the edges. I'm not about to throw my rulebook out the window just yet but it reminded me that we are not slaves to the norm. Knitting is as much about creativity as any other art form, with masters to study and conventions to flout. So there, many lessons learned.

I finished Divas Don't Knit and it was lovely and there were no awkward sad bits where someone has a sudden terrible death. I do recommend it if you like that kind of thing.

Noblin sightings:


*Ysolda has just published a sizing guide to help here
How very kind!


HELLO, BEV!
I'm so glad you like the scarf and leaf patterns. I'll look into putting the leaf pattern up for you on the next post!