Baby Blanket Blue

I nearly called this post Baby Blanket Blues, but it sounded like the song from the television programme Sesame Street, ‘Baby Blankie Blues’ so I dropped the final “s” and now I have Neil Diamond’s ‘Song Sung Blue’ going round my head instead!

Song sung blue
Weeping like a willow
Song, sung blue
Sleeping on my pillow

Well this little chap is certainly sleeping, and he seems quite content with his new baby blanket. Thomas is a few weeks old now and he’s already able to charm with that smile. We’ve known his mum since she was a little girl and the playmate of our own two, so it was a pleasure to be able to make his blanket, whuich is proving just as useful to lie on as under.

The pattern is free from Black Sheep Wools website. I used Schachenmayr Bravo Color (02119, which is a random dye double knit acrylic yarn for the granny squares, and Boyes Double Knit (1422 Aspen) for the edging and joining.  Each 50gm ball of yarn made four squares.

Something For Nothing

This is a vintage Monsoon labels dress, which I tracked down in some charity shop or other about ten years ago, when it was probably already old. The colours were still vibrant and, as it was 100% cotton, it was a perfect ‘cool’ wear for the hot Lanzarote summers.

Then I went and lost 2.5 stones in weight (about 16 kilos); amazing what retirement does for a healthy lifestyle. I hacked away at the material and preserved the best bits - mostly the voluminous skirt- with the intention of making something with it a later stage. It languished in a drawer until recently, when I thought of trying to make a simple bolero/jacket. I drew round my daughter’s shop-bought model, and made a pattern for the front (two pieces) and the back (one), and here it is!

Eight years since the first pics - older, wiser, slimmer, wrinklier (me) and still vibrant and useful (the jacket), but also me :)

Vintage Santa Mouse

This little Santa Mouse is looking good, considering his great age. The pattern dates back to at least 1983, which is the first sighting of him on our Christmas Tree. I have a feeling this one may have been made a few years later and that I gave away the original. That said, he’s still getting on a bit as I haven’t crocheted for years, until I took it up again quite recently.

Can you spot him?

I still have the pattern and I’m reproducing it here, alongside the Christmas stockings and bells, which were also part of the pattern. Crocheting was very much in vogue in the 1970s and the early 80s, but, as with knitting, it dropped out of favour for many years, until the recent resurgence of interest.

  I think the pattern came from a women’s magazine, judging by the story illustration on the back; I’ve searched on line but can’t find it anywhere else.

Every year Santa Mouse now joins the Christmas Teddies in the hall. There’s ‘Little Donkey’ and  ‘Bear in a Kit’ from last year’s blogpost.

Snowman Surprise

The surprise in the title is that ever finished him at all! This ‘Derek - a squishy snowman designed by Val Pierce’. He was in my digital copy of Let’s Knit Christmas Special 2013 (the same one that had my gingerbread men in ‘Run, Run, Run as Fast as You Can); I downloaded him in November 2014 and threw him into the back of the cupboard sometime later! All year he has stared accusingly at me from there. I got so frustrated with the garments that I’m afraid to say, I gave up.

Remember I’m a latecomer to this knitting lark.  I managed Derek OK, except that the pattern called for Sirdar Snuggly Chunky and I ordered Sirdar Snuggly (non-chunky), so perhaps he would have been a bit denser in the knit with the correct yarn. Never mind he turned out just as soft and cuddly as the original.

My problem is with intarsia (ie the method of forming the pattern on his jumper and hat. I’ve watched countless YouTube videos and read lots of books, articles etc, and I still can’t seem to grasp it. My mother was an expert at this in her day, and turned out the most beautiful picture jumpers and Fairisle sweaters. Perhaps I’ve come to it too late. According to Wikipedia it requires no additional skills other than the basic knit and purl! I also used whatever yarn I had in my stash for his jumper and the white was not as thick as the blue, though still Double Knit. I ended up ‘Swiss Darning’ over the snowflake pattern to make it stand out more.

Never mind, when I could stand his stares no longer I fished him out of the cupboard and got cracking on some clothes to make him decent. I’m sure he’s be just as cuddly in the nude but it wouldn’t be the same, and not true to what the designer had in mind either.

He’ll probably make someone very happy.

Remembrance for Animals in War

This is Red Poppy from the book 'Flowers to Knit and Crochet' by Susie Johns and Jan Ollis. I didn’t finish it in time for last year’s Remembrance Sunday and so this year, as it’s rather large, it’s been gracing my handbag.

Here it is keeping company with my keyring/tag from the Donkey Sanctuary, as a tribute to the many animals who give their lives in times of conflict.

No honours wait him, medal, badge or star,
Though scarce could war a kindlier deed unfold;
He bears within his breast, more precious far
Beyond the gift of kings, a heart of gold.


This Friday, 13th November, the Animals in War, Memorial Service will be held in London. For details, and to read the poem,  'A Soldier’s Kiss’ from which the above words are taken, click the link. To see the watercolour by Fortunino Matania, titled  ‘Goodbye Old Man’ visit the Blue Cross Archive.

Animals in War, Memorial, Park Lane, London, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Wanda the Witch

This is the friendliest witch and her rather bemused looking cat or her ‘familiar’. She is Wanda, by Amanda Berry of Fluff and Fuzz, and the pattern is available to download from Ravelry. I altered her hairstyle slightly as the original was in bunches and I wanted something fluffy, so I used the same method as with Serena the Mermaid. I also added a nose and mouth as I enjoy embroidering features.

Her broomstick landed at my grandchildren's house in time for Hallowe’en and here they are enjoying her friendly company. She looks as though she’s had a wild time Trick or Treating.

The Mouse and His Child

 No, not the very wonderful book by Russell Hoban, but knitted toys made from a pattern by Amanda Berry of Fluff and Fuzz.

It appeared in issue 67 of  'Let’s Get Crafting: Knitting and Crochet’ (LGKC)  magazine which was passed on to me so I didn’t have the ‘Jazz’ yarn kit which came with it originally. I matched the colours from scraps left over from previous LGCKC projects.

Amanda herself says that Baby Mouse was her favourite creature to make of all her projects in that issue.  First of all I applaud he for using the word ‘creature’ and not ‘critter’ - which seems to be the way all animals are now described in craft magazines on both sides of the Pond, often preceded by ‘cute’. I have no problem with the word ‘cute’ and I use it myself quite happily, but combined with ‘critter’ it makes me want to scream out loud....and sometimes I do!

 Amanda includes a mother mouse, and I suppose if you were inclined you could go on and knit any number of baby mice wearing different coloured outfits. I may do so one day, but for now I am happy to settle with father and child, a unique bond that will be celebrated next month on Father’s Day. I didn’t give the Baby Mouse buttoned braces and I hope that by using both pink and blue the gender will remain indeterminate. In Russell Hoban’s book the child is male. Find them also on my Ravelry Page.

“What are we Papa?” the toy mouse asked his father. “I don’t know," the father answered . “We must wait and see.”

'So begins the story of a tin father and son who dance under a Christmas tree until they break the ancient clockwork rules and are themselves broken. Thrown away, then rescued from a dustbin and repaired by a tramp, they set out on a dangerous quest for a family and a place of their own - the magnificent doll’s house, the plush elephant and the tin seal they had once known in the toy shop.’  

(Blurb from the Faber Children’s Classic edition)