A Collection of Cowls

I don't think I'd ever worn a cowl until my friend Caroline gave me this one for my birthday a few years ago.  Caroline always chooses beautiful and  thoughtful gifts and this bears the name of Orkney designer, Kirsteen Stewart, and is 100% lambswool.  I wear it around the house when I'm chilly - it keeps me surprisingly cosy without adding another layer of clothing.

Mixter Maxter Twist Scarf by Kirsteen Stewart

So what is a cowl?  One definition is a large loose hood like that worn by monks.  The root of the word is the Latin 'cucullus' meaning hood.  Cowls can also cover chimneys to increase draft and cover the gap between the bonnet of a car and its windshield - but let's just concern ourselves here with knitted neckwear!  

Knitters tend to think of cowls as quick projects using relatively small amounts of wool to create tubes that keep your neck cosy.  When I saw how cool knitwear designer Isabell Kraemer looked modelling her own cowl pattern, I just had to make it.

The design is called Copenhagen Calling.  Back in October 2018, I was about to enjoy a mini-break in Copenhagen, so it seemed entirely appropriate to use some treasured Hedgehog Fibres and Ripplescrafts yarn and make this lovely design.  I even got to try on a grey and turquoise version of this cowl on Baa!'s stall at the 2018 Perth Yarn Festival.  This only galvanised my desire to knit it.

You could choose how many stitches to cast on and my version is more of an infinity scarf than a cowl.  I made it too long and found it too bulky.  Consequently, after popping it on for this photo, I never wore it.

And in June 2019 I recognised I was never going to wear it so I ripped it out!

Which freed up the beautiful wool to become something else.

Cowl patterns kept creeping into my life and in the lockdown summer of 2020, I spotted the Arabella Cowl by Rowan Yarns.

Again, the jury is out whether this is an infinity scarf or a cowl.  I enjoyed selecting colours from my stash of precious leftovers, including the purply-pink I'd freed up a year earlier.  Knitting outside in the sun is always a pleasure, especially if the project isn't so big to be too hot on your lap!  A cowl like this meets that brief.

I wore the Arabella Cowl twisted twice around my neck but, if I'm honest, it's a bit short for this and too long (for my liking) to be worn without doubling it up.  Too much like a mahoosive woolly necklace.  Not yet the cowl of my dreams.

During the stay-at-home summer of 2020 I purchased some pretty mini-skeins to support the Flower Power Fund.  A one woman initiative, Dr Sarah Holmes' Flower Power Fund raises funds for Marie Curie by teaming up with UK indie yarn dyers once a month to produce a limited edition colourway based on a flower of their choice.  Last year Sarah's yarn sales and raffles raised over £25,000 for Marie Curie hospices!

I was smitten when Leona-Jane at Rusty Ferret dyed up these beauties for the Flower Power Fund based on her favourite blooms, sweet williams.  They're beautifully vibrant and I chose to knit the merino minis whilst holding a strand of Rico mohair silk as I like the cosy texture this creates.

When I tried to purchase more of the icy mohair, though, I learned that the colour had been discontinued.  After a short cry, I found this pretty pink Lang Mohair Luxe at Emily Foulds online shop and held the Flower Power yarn with this instead.

Over the winter, I chose to knit the SOS Cowl by Edinburgh designer and tutor, Maddie Harvey, which she designed specifically for mini skeins.  It's a free pattern which combines multiple colours with a simple lace repeat when you sign up for her newsletter.

How generous!

The resulting cowl is really toasty and I'm going to wear on the golf course.  I need to be warm but don't require the extra bulk of a scarf.  My beginner attempts to hit the ball need no additional encumbrance!  

This cowl is definitely a keeper.

As soon as I opened my advent calendar from Henny Penny Makes I knew I was going to knit each tiny yarn package into the Simple Scrappy Advent Cowl, the pattern included in the box.

For twenty four days in December last year I uncovered a new woolly bundle and incorporated it into my cowl.  Erin of Henny Penny Makes creates the most beautiful colours. 

It's a simple stocking stitch design but I love it.  I'd some misgivings about the highlighter green on day 9 but only a flash is usually visible which makes all the other colours sing.  I wear this cowl a lot as it appears to go with almost everything I wear!

Another cowl for the collection!

Just a week after finishing the advent cowl, I opened my Cookston Crafts Hogmanay Treat Box.  I already had the The Fireside Chat Cowl by Zanete Hussain in my pattern library and the wonderful warm tones of the Hogmanay colourway dyed by Claire of Cookston Crafts was perfect.  I teamed it up with a gorgeous rust coloured skein dyed by La Bien Aimee in collaboration with Mondim I'd won in a giveaway two years earlier.

This Cookston Crafts Treat Box included a Jane Keenan candle and shortbread by Bakeology 

This cowl was ideal knitting as we locked down again in January 2021.  The online course I attended last October run by Maddie Harvey on how to cable without a cable needle came in really handy for this design as I put my new skill into practice.  

I couldn't help but notice how colour coordinated my reading and knitting had become!

Reading Shuggie Bain for pleasure and David Walliams for school!

What drew me to this pattern is the way this cowl showcases two completely different yarns.  The textured and stocking stitch sections are knitted at the same time then seamed with a twist which creates a double thickness of woolly warmth.

So what have I learned from knitting all these cowls? 

• I've realised that I like a short tube which doesn't hug the neck too tightly.  
• Using yarn which will drape nicely has made me more likely to wear the finished item.  
• Colour, colour colour!  I will always choose to keep cosy with colour coordinated accessories.  

I'm sure there will be more cowls in my creative future but I may be more thoughtful over my pattern choice to ensure I make neckwear that I will love.

Neeps! A celebration of the Doric dialect

Fit's a neep?  You might well ask.  In my part of North East Scotland, those born and bred here speak a particular dialect known as Doric.  I am not native to Aberdeenshire, hailing originally from Ayr on the other side of the country, but my husband was born and brought up a few miles from where we live now.  Even after spending the last 37 years together, he can still surprise me by using Doric words I've never heard uttered before.  Skittery hippit vratch being one such phrase describing an unruly (young cow) with questionable hygiene in its hind quarters!  How could I not know that?

When I spied this request on Facebook to contribute to Kate Wilson's degree show piece by crafting something incorporating Doric heritage, I knew at once just what I wanted to make.  Drawing on my family's delight in story telling, and their lapse into Doric when they're all together, I focused on a tale told my father-in-law, Bill, involving his Dad, a German prisoner of war called Walter and some turnips (or neeps in Doric).

Bill was brought up on a farm in Banffshire during World War II.  Walter, who was billeted nearby, was assigned to help out with farm labour over the many months of war.  Bill's dad never moderated his native dialect for Walter and one day Bill heard his dad telling Walter to pu' neeps in twa rows.  Bill was sure Walter, who spoke Polish, would be bamboozled with this instruction but, a while later, found that the turnips had indeed been pulled up and laid out in two neat rows.  Doric, it would appear, is a universal language, if you're around Doric speakers long enough that is!

So I began my contribution to Kate's project by crocheting  my first neep following a free pattern I found on the Hobbycraft  website for a spring wreath.  To be honest, the pattern is for a radish and it turned out a bit big so I located some finer fibres in my yarn stash and used a smaller hook to create a rather daintier turnip lookalike.

Kate, the student who'd requested the textile samples for her final year art project, provided clear specifications whilst encouraging her contributor's personal creativity.  3D elements, such as my wee neeps, could be included so I needed a flat panel on which to display them.

When I was a student I had a penchant for knitting picture jumpers.  I didn't know the technique was called intarsia or even how to do it properly.  As a nod to my own student days, I decide to knit an intarsia background for my panel.  That required creating a pattern for my pastoral scene - time to crack out the coloured pencils and graph paper.

Never throwing away any wool from past projects has its advantages.  I used mostly Scottish yarns (as that is what I like to knit with nowadays) including Shetland's Jamieson and Smith for the peaty brown earth, Balnahard natural dyed yarn from Colonsay for land and hills and hand dyed sky blues from Assynt-based Ripples Crafts.  Further embroidery embellishment included a flock of  fluffy sheep, a post and wire fence and some additional green shrubbery, all in wool and threads I've already used in my own personal crafting life.   

Finally I stitched on the Doric words which inspired me in the first place in a giant sunny circle attached using tiny appliqué stitches.

Once I'd attached the neeps, in two neat rows of course, my piece was ready to post to Kate in Dundee in time for the 24th March deadline. 

Then it was up to Kate, an Art and Philosophy graduand at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, to weave her magic - quite literally.  

Unveiled online on Friday 11th June at the 2021 Graduate Showcase, her artwork is entitled "Wyvin' Wyes" (or Weaving Ways) and is described by Kate herself as 'a beautiful big lampshade'!

Here's Kate with 'Wyvin' Wyes'

The craft contributions received from me, and many others throughout Aberdeenshire, have been intricately woven by Kate into a veritable sound and light show.  Recordings of Doric voices place the dialect at the heart of her creation.  It celebrates Doric now, as well as in the past, and nods to the future evolution of language. 

To learn more, Aberdeen's Press and Journal newspaper published an online article all about Kate's work here.

I'm so pleased to have been part of this project and I'm fair tricket for Kate - and that means I'm just delighted!

Special K

I'm talking about the 11th letter of our alphabet and not the breakfast cereal aimed at skinny-Minis!

At the end of March last year, we began clapping for carers and the enormity of the work undertaken by all NHS staff, in the face of the Coronavirus pandemic, was beginning to become apparent.  Three yarn shop owners in East London decided to make a big banner of thanks to NHS workers.  Anna from Wild And Woolly, Maya from Knit With Attitude and Barley of creative hub Fabrications used social media to generate support.  These ladies know there's strength in unity and operate as the East London Yarn Triangle.  It's not their first banner either so makers from near and far answered their call.  Knitters, crocheters and weavers got in touch to contribute a letter from a pre-planned grid of words reading:

East London Knitters Say Thank You To All The NHS Workers

Now I'm not an East London Knitter but like to think of myself as an honorary one!  

Both my daughters live in London and Google maps helpfully informs me that Eilidh's flat is 10 minutes from Knit With Attitude in Stoke Newington, 15 minutes from Wild And Woolly in Hackney and 20 minutes from Fabrications in Broadway Market!  With my self-proclaimed East London Knitter credentials in place, I asked to contribute to the banner and was allocated letter 'K'.

Homemade rainbows were beginning to appear everywhere in the first weeks of lockdown as a symbol of hope and to cheer people up.  This pebble appeared on my elderly Mum's doorstep in our village, left by a thoughtful local child.

I knew I wanted to create my own knitted rainbow as my contribution to the banner.

The advantage of an extensive yarn stash is that there's no shortage of materials when an idea strikes.

Stipulations were few - a light letter on a dark background and some guidance on dimensions.  Measuring bunny was on hand to ensure the guidelines were met.

Our own creativity could then take over.  The upright leg of the 'K' was a straightforward column of stocking stitch stripes.  Mirroring the stripy rainbow, I increased and decreased my row count to create the letter shape.

After sewing the rainbow letter onto the blue background, I crocheted a wee sun in sparkly, golden yellow and knitted a cloud of fluffy, boucle alpaca.  I'm generally an optimistic kind of person so I gave my cloud a silver lining after delving into my slightly fankled collection of embroidery threads.  I'm not afraid to admit that the early months of the first lockdown had made me feel quite anxious.  With my husband, Geoff, still working offshore, and both girls in London, I spent a lot of this time home alone and was grateful to immerse myself in knitting and other creative pursuits.

The iridescent thread was another surprise find in the embroidery stash tangle.  I've no memory of when I bought it or what I bought it for, but it was ideal for a raindrop shower falling from my silver-lined cloud.

All that remained was for me to package up my knitted contribution and post it off.  I sent Wild And Woolly's Anna, Knit with Attitude's Maya and Fabrication's Barley my yarn lovers correspondence card designed by my daughter, Eilidh, to say thanks for organising this fun, but meaningful, collaborative project. 

 

By November the work of hand sewing the letters together had been completed and the finished banner was proudly hanging from two giant knitting needles in the window of Fabrications in Broadway Market.  I saw photos on Instagram and felt very proud of my special 'K' in the second last line.

Photos used with kind permission of Barley Massey of Fabrications

The banner gracing the window of Wild And Woolly in Clapton

I can't get to London just now to see the banner for myself so I asked Anna of Wild and Woolly if I could share her words from her latest newsletter.  Happily, she agreed.

"The passers by look and see the message knitted into the banner.  They don't know about the dozens of knitters or the sewer-togetherers or Barley's beautiful finishing, but I think they almost do.  I see them look again and see a knitted version of the clapping, saucepan banging, ululating and cheering that we used to do on our doorsteps on Thursday evenings. The thoughts, fears, losses and rages of the knitters who made them are all there in the stitches of the rectangles that carry the letters that hold the message from us all that says thank you and I think the passers by see that too.  I hope that one day soon the nurses and cleaners and junior doctors and receptionists and consultants and radiographers and porters and cooks and sisters and midwives will see it too, as the banner moves onto its final home at the hospital*."

So it's not just the 'K' that's special, 

it's all the letters,

and the banner,

and the makers,

and especially the meaning 

and the heartfelt sentiment behind it.

* At the time of writing it is hoped the banner will find its forever home at the

Homerton University Hospital in the London Borough of Hackney. 

Making a Difference (Part 3) - The Yellow Edition

My recent charity makes have one thing in common - they all feature the colour yellow!

I haven't written a Making A Difference post since 2018 (here's the links to Part 1 and Part 2) but I'm always on the lookout for ways my knitting needles or crochet hook can help me to contribute to good causes.

Back in September I saw on social media that the Highland Hospice in Inverness intended to create a cascade of sunflowers in their reception for Wear Yellow Day 2021. That's on May 28th in the Highland Hospice.  The sunflower features on the Hospice's logo, and knitting and crochet patterns for sunflowers were available on the Hospice website thanks to Marjory aka @barraandcarly.  

I was happier with my crocheted sunflower than my knitted one, though I appear to have had scant regard for the pattern after crocheting my first sunflower.  The next two I made are a little more 'free form'! 

I'm not worried that they're not all the same.  The profusion of woolly blooms will be incredibly eye-catching I've no doubt, and the aim of fundraising and raising awareness for the Highland Hospice will be achieved in a glorious curtain of gold and yellow sunflowers!

I had my crochet hook out again in February after seeing an Instagram post appealing for squares to be made into two blankets to be raffled in aid of Mind UK. 

Helen, aka @florahoneypot,  requested two squares per participant and was specific about size and pattern.  Colour choice was up to us.  I'm not sure why I chose this sparkly yellow wool, hand-dyed by Erin of HennyPennyMakes, other than it's gorgeous, and it was an unusually sunny February day when I decided to start my wee squares!

So great was the uptake of crocheters who wanted be part of this worthwhile venture that Helen had to limit the number of willing crocheters to 180.  Luckily I applied straight away and was able to join in.  I was only too happy to comply with Helen's requirements as she is single-handedly edging all the squares and joining them together into two big blankets  A mammoth task!  She keeps us all up to date on Instagram with her progress and I shall publicise the raffle on Facebook and Instagram when the blankets are complete as they are already looking very beautiful as well as soft and cosy.  

See more of this collaborative fundraiser here  #communitycomfortblanket/

There was no question what colour I'd be using when I decided to take part in the Marie Curie crafting challenge to help support their Great Daffodil Appeal.  Though the charity has both knitted and crochet daffodil patterns on its website, I was keen to use this book which I received from my Secret Santa at work.

If I'm honest, I didn't get on all that well with the daffodil pattern in the book.  My flowers just didn't look like like the ones pictured.  I made two daffodils, one of which required surgery, and also tried a narcissus.  Feeling despondent that I was not going to manage to make the ten flowers encouraged for the Marie Curie Challenge, I remembered a great on-line source of crochet inspiration with clear photo tutorials, the blog by Lucy at Attic24.  

Lucy's daffodil pattern uses 4ply merino wool, rather than the cotton specified in the flower book, and I had two perfect skeins in my stash I'd picked up from Hennypennymakes at the Portsoy Wool Festival in 2019.  My memory may have been jogged by these mini eggs as much as by these daffies in the field next to us!  

Over the Easter weekend I was able to make seven more daffodils following Lucy's straightforward crochet instructions. 

Most knitting and crochet benefits from blocking - which means dampening then pinning into shape.  Even the wonky cotton daffies look a bit better.

The Marie Curie Challenge suggested we make our ten handmade daffodils into badges then raise funds by selling them onto friends, or sending them to a Marie Curie shop to be sold in aid of funds.  As I'm still not seeing many friends, and did not consider my flowers to be worthy of onward sale, I made a donation to Marie Curie instead then created this spring wreath to brighten up our home.

Just as I'd completed these three yellow projects for charity, my latest yarn purchase arrived from Rosies Moments for the next charity knitting initiative I'm joining 

and, 

you've guessed it, 

it's yellow!

The Beautiful Basket

I'm not being big headed - just honest.

In an effort to find a crochet project to use up some of the aran weight yarn that's been with me for a while, I found this blog post by Australian blogger Cintia.  Her blog, My Poppet Makes, is crammed with colourful inspiration, and not just crochet but sewing, knitting and papercraft too.

When Cintia uses what she terms 'ugly yarn' I do know what she means - squeaky, neon acrylic / anything dung coloured / once fashionable tinsel or pompom yarn / questionably, flashy eyelash.  I'm personally of the opinion that one woman's woolly trash is another woman's treasure and, if you're asked to create the angel for the church knitted nativity, that silver tinsel eyelash yarn you've hidden at the very bottom of your stash, becomes the stuff of dreams and fits the bill perfectly.

But I digress - the wee balls of wool I wanted to use aren't categorised in my mind in derogatory terms such as 'leftovers', 'remnants' or 'scraps'.  To me they are beloved bits from projects I'd created with joy and care, in colours that made my heart sing once upon a time and still do.  

I laid them out to have a look and separated them vaguely into 'lights' and 'darks'.  Meanwhile, I also unearthed some rainbow sock wool I'd been given a while back, with insufficient length to knit socks.

Some of these beautiful bits still remained after I'd created previous multi-yarn projects - like this cushion I knitted for my friend, Lorna, seven years ago.

The sheepy cushion I blogged about here is also knitted from yarn from other projects and still didn't use them all up.

Both cushions incorporated extra wool I'd bought in 2013, but didn't need, to make this incredibly cosy jumper from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Workshop.

Many wee pretty bits remained after I'd knitted these hats for family and friends over the past few years.

This gorgeous silk blend wasn't all used up after I knitted these cowls as gifts in 2013.

The purse I made for Mum's birthday a year later from New Lanark heritage wool yielded bonnie bits of bramble and gritstone.

I'd wool left after I knitted this hot water bottle for a charity initiative in 2016.  What didn't get used for the hottie went on to make these mittens I gave to a lady at church last year after she'd admired mine.  And there was still some left!

These tiny wee balls were all that remained after I made this pair of socks in 2019 for Operation Christmas Stocking organised by a friend who supports a homeless charity at Christmas and gifts warm woollies and toiletries to those with very little.

The most recent wool to make it into my basket of beautiful bits joined some other Jamieson & Smith that's been there since 2016 when I knitted my sister in law a Baa-ble Hat.  I knitted the Rose Thorn Mitts by Maddie Harvey Designs for my niece last December in time for Xmas and, you've guessed it, there was a wee bit left.

Now imagine that my mental trawl down memory lane through these woolly projects of yore lasted just as long as it took to wind these yarns into a magic knot ball.

Following this tutorial by Ellie of Craft House Magic ensured I'd both a light and a dark magic knot ball in no time, as well as this pile of wee knots leftover after joining the wool.  

So, back to Cintia's blog - where this yarny yarn began - where I found her pattern for a crochet scrap yarn basket.  Using a chunky 9mm hook and both strands of my knot balls, held together with the unwanted rainbow sock yarn, I began to crochet my own basket.

Who knew this random selection of bits and bobs would make such beautiful fabric?

By the time one ball was completely finished, I'd only a few inches left of the second and all the extra sock wool was gone.  I incorporated handy handles too as instructed in the pattern.  

It's not a rigid basket, and collapses like a failed pottery project on The Great Pottery Throw Down when it's empty, but I love it - and it holds a lot of wool (well, 32 balls in this case).  Enough for an entire blanket project - or a very, very big jumper!

Cintia calls hers The Ugly Basket in her blog post tutorial but mine is beautiful - in my eyes at least.

Find out more about Cintia's super craft ideas and tutorials here https://mypoppet.com.au/makes/