Knitmas time again - happy days for Twitter Knitters!

My Knitmas gifts!

Yes, it's Knitmas again and for those of you wondering if I've lost my festive seasonal marbles, rest assured, it's just that it's the time of the year for a dedicated group of Irish-based knitters to do an online Secret Santa via Twitter! It's my second year and it's been fun both times. Last week my "victim" Jenny (@jenbear) posted on her blog about the goodies I sent her; now I'm doing likewise with the lovely parcel I got on Friday from Isobel (@teaandcakes).

Driving to Dublin on Dec. 8th

I was thrilled with the lovely gifts I got last year from Caroline, (@scattyhats) who sent me a lovely alpaca silk cowl and two skeins of yarn, which gave me a lot of pleasure as I knitted a shawl and a scarf with those during the year. I drew Cathy (@cathyqtpi)This year I was paired with Jenny and as it's a three-way swop you don't get something back from the person you draw. Via the website Elfster I could post anonymous questions to Jenny to see what colours she liked and what her shoe size was! All a bit smoke and daggers, as Bertie "Malaprop" Ahern might say! But she had indicated on her wish list on Elfster that she'd love a pair of handknit socks - so that was a challenge I loved! I made her a nice pair of purple self-striping socks and even though she wasn't too keen on variegated yarns she was delighted with those. I made mitts to match, and a phone cosy as well as sending a few balls of nice yarn - some Cushendale bouclé and merino with a tea cosy pattern.

Lovely Lace Merino - perfect for a shawl.

So I was chuffed with the parcel on Friday which had this delightful pair of fingerless mitts in a terrific navy, cerise and teal intarsia design - a bit like stained glass - and some fab sock yarn, as well as a 1400m skein of lace merino in a gorgeous lavender colour! I can't even begin to think how I'm gonna wind it into a ball - I'm sure I need a ball wonder thingy but haven't investigated it yet, they always wind the skeins in This is Knit in Dublin which is the only shop where I've bought unwound wool! I wore the mitts going to Dublin yesterday for the Labour Women executive meeting and they are perfect driving gloves, keeping me cosy when it was 1°C outside and ice on the roads!

Isobel also sent me some funky stitch markers, beads and slices of cake (!) as well as a notebook and soap and some cookies and chocolate to keep me happy! Altogether a very thoughtful and generous pressie and I am always touched by the kindness of strangers who've become virtual friends via Twitter - there's a lot of good things about social media despite all the bad press it gets!
Enjoy the photos!

This is what I sent to Jenny!

Sock yarn - can't wait to get going!

Not just for Pandas - Knitting up a Lacy Bamboo Cotton Cardigan

The finished cardi 

I have been working on this fab cardi for the past month and am very happy with the end result, so much so that I am writing this quick blogpost to share it with those of you on Blogger who may not be on Ravelry, where I shared some photos and pattern details here. 

The pattern is by Anniken Allis who is a pattern designer for, among other publications, Let's Knit, a lovely UK Knitting  monthly which I have been getting when I see it in the bookshops for the past few months. This pattern is called Serena and is from the May 2012 issue. It is in King Cole Bamboo Cotton, a lovely yarn with a great fall and drape, which means it hangs well on the wearer! It also doesn't seem to crease, as I've had it bunched up in a bag in my car and it was fine, so it's a dream for holiday packing.

I got the yarn as a stash-busting treat to myself when I got a gift voucher from my daughter-in-law's mother Irene last month when she was here for the wedding of Shayne and Jany, and they came to visit us for an afternoon during their  holiday after the wedding. As the yarn is a bit pricey (about 7 euro for 100gm) and the cardi pattern called for 4-5 balls, I probably would have balked at buying it with my guilt-inducing stash and my pledge to forego any new purchases till it's diminished. But a gift voucher is different isn't it? Yes, thought so!

Note the matching nail polish!

Blocking on foam playmats!

And in the spirit of supporting local crafts, I was delighted the voucher was from the fabulous Design Workshop where Angela plays host to our Tuesday Knitters Circle. I dithered over the colour to choose, given that she had my fave colour hot pink but I decided to be daring and go for another fave colour of this vivid Peacock Blue Shade 531. I started the cardigan in one piece for the fronts and back, and it worked fine, to the sleeve divide and then I worked as if I was working each piece individually. The only thing I didn't do was eliminate the side seam stitches for a totally seamless pattern of lace. I think my maths and chart reading aren't good enough for that yet, or my confidence.

Blocking the sleeves

WIP Stitch and side seam detail

The sleeves were worked in the round using the Magic Loop method with a circular needle, size 3.5mm used throughout (size 9 UK). I had used that  method on two previous jumpers and it worked fine. They were also Anniken Allis designs from Let's Knit.

Blocking on playmats

The shoulders were joined with the three-needle cast off, and I had some short-row shaping to do for the last few rows. I liked the detail in the lace pattern that meant right and left front were mirror images of each other, not identical. This kind of detail is something I'd never think of which is why I knit, not design! This is the third Anniken Allis jumper I've made in the past 4 or 5 months so I think I can safely say she's a favourite and very easy to follow. The charts are also easy to follow and she explains the technical stuff too, like short row shaping and neat buttonholes.

detail of armholes

I took some photos of the WIP and the Blocking (on kiddies' foam play mats that slot together) as well as the modelling - it got premiered at a colleague's hen party last Friday and got plenty of praise, much to my delight. There's something about hand-knits that's extremely satisfying and I am delighted I rediscovered the Zen of knitting and crochet in recent years - as I said to someone on Facebook yesterday - it's my Yoga!

Knitting Noro Silk Garden - from Sock Yarn to Zig-Zag Scarf

Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn Scarf

I wrote about my  Noro sock yarn find in Kinsale in June here so I just wanted to share the finished product with you. I have been very busy and lots going on in my life over the past few months what with the wedding and emigration of our eldest son and his new wife and their two daughters to Spain, where I accompanied them for their first week in the new apartment.  I am back from Spain a week now and feel I'm ready to tackle the blogosphere - though not yet with a holiday post! That'll wait for a bit as I have already posted the photos and they are on my Facebook page.

Blocked Scarf

Before blocking

Meanwhile knitting has been my constant, an anchor in an otherwise turbulent time, and I love the way it helps me Keep Calm and Carry On like on those now fashionable posters. I also like the Father Ted version - Keep Calm and Drink Tea!

Hope you like the scarf - I had blocked it with pins at the side to give some feature peaks but they vanished soon after the scarf dried out, so now it's just wavy ends! I used the pattern from Ravelry for those of you interested, and it was a very simple Chevron design but very effective for showing off the beautiful Noro colours at their best. I like the lacy holes too, and the needles I used were 4mm. If you wanted a lacier scarf, bigger needles would have done the trick, but I felt the 4mm suited the double-knit (worsted in USA) weight just fine. I also used a provisional cast-on using a crocheted chain length and that meant both ends were matching - a  handy tip on the pattern. My first Provisional Cast-On and very simple to do, I'd do it again. Got the info on it from my Stitch'n'Bitch Superstar Knitting book but it's online too. 

Happy knitting and I'll be back soon with my current WIP when it's done -hopefully in the near future! 

Knitting Surprises - Yarn Bargains and Blog Prizes!

Thank You Kathy! 

Last week I got a delightful surprise - no, make that two delightful surprises - when I won a blog prize from Kathy B at IrishEyesKnitters Blog , and I found a great yarn bargain in Kinsale.

Firstly the yarn prize came as a complete surprise, as I hadn't expected to win the competition. All I did was post a comment linking to another blog on knitting that maybe needed more visitors and comments, so I trawled a bit and thought of Irish Knitting and Crochet which is a great resource of all the Irish crafty sites, although they don't update too often. Anyway KathyB informed me I'd won and asked for my address so she could forward my prize. So I sent it off and forgot about it till a box with an American postmark arrived during the week. I had to think what it might be and wondered then if it was my prize, which it was - all the way from Illinois! I had missed the blogpost that showed the prize, so it came as a real thrill to see all the lovely yarn! I got 2 x 50g skeins of Berocco Denim Silk, which I'd never heard of, and 3 x 50g balls of Tivoli Cotton and Linen slubby boucle yarn in a nice creamy colour.

My lovely prize from Illinois! 

The irony of the airmiles undergone by the Tivoli didn't escape me as it started life in Cork about 50 minutes drive away from Lismore! In fact my son and his family live in the suburb of Tivoli, near the original woollen mills. Sadly now most of the yarn is made in Turkey but still marketed out of Cork as one of the oldest most regarded Irish knitting brands. Thanks KathyB for making my week a  lot brighter - especially given the foul weather we're enduring in pursuit of our Irish Summer, which is making a mockery of us! I have yet to decide what to make with this fab prize but I'll let you know in good time! This yarn is now discontinued so I will make sure I use just enough!

Beautiful Silk/Wool blend Sock Yarn

The second surprise which actually preceded the yarn prize, was this find of a ball of 100g Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn Colour 301 in Vivi, a lovely crafty shop in Kinsale where I went last Saturday. I wandered around the pretty seaside town while hubby Jan attended a town councillor's national meeting in the Blue Haven Hotel, and as I'd never  been to Kinsale before I figured I'd make like a tourist and do all the touristy trail things. Like wander the narrow streets, visit the shops and go down the quayside to the plummy Kinsale Yacht Club and gawp at all the recession-busting yachts in the Marina, which were the ship equivalent of bumper-to-bumper (stern-to-stern?).

The Yarn shop in Kinsale

Kinsale Marina

A colourful Kinsale street

Along one narrow winding lane I saw this shop which was manna to any knitter, and I browsed covetously for a while, like I do in bookshops, not buying but loitering with guilty intent. I had taken my stash-busting pledge seriously, or maybe I thought I had; well I had told hubby not a drop ball of wool would enter the house till the stash was diminished to virtually nothing, but like any self-respecting knitaholic, I was only one  ball away from falling off that wagon, and the temptation of a lone ball of Noro was too much, and I caved in. The real lure was the price tag - a fiver, that's 5 Euro or about $6, or £4, anyway about a quarter of the normal price. Seems it was the last of the lot and the saleswoman didn't seem to make much of my enthusiastic reaction to my find, as she told me she wasn't a knitter herself.

I have spent the past week deliberating over what to make and while it's sock  yarn,  all 300m of it, I think it's far too pretty to hide in my boots, so I'm going to make a scarf/shawl in a chevron pattern that'll show up the stripes beautifully. I know it'll have a right and a wrong side but I don't think that'll matter as the reverse stocking stitch will be lovely with the lacy design. I have decided on a pattern I found in Pinterest, as it's simple and easy.

Source: ravelry.com via anemone on Pinterest

I think it's very delicate and hope it does the Noro yarn justice!  It's also on Ravelry as a free download.

Right now I don't have time to work with complex charts as I've a wedding in a week and a bit. Our eldest son Shayne and his fiancee Jany are tying the knot after 4 years together, and regular blog readers will know they have two beautiful daughters, Sofia and Livia. So I have a cake to bake and decorate, albeit simply, and a frock to find, again not getting too stressed about that, as I'm not going the whole mother of the groom thing with hats and shoes and bag matching a serious rigout. More like a summery frock and a shawl or bolero and I'll be grand. I got nice white sandals in New Look in Cork today so that's a start!



Enjoy the photos and be sure to visit Kathy's blog and all the blogs people in the competition recommended to her and thanks again for thinking up a lovely surprise to make my week!

A Snug Solution - for a Sony e-Reader Cosy

The finished Sony cosy  

I just wanted to share this latest project with you - it's been gestating for the past two months as my friend and colleague asked me if I'd make her a cosy for her new e-reader - a Sony - when she saw my iPhone cosy. Of course I agreed, and it would be in the same hot pink - but the only caveat was that there wouldn't be any time pressure. Probably a mistake as I am the queen of procrastination and unless I have a deadline I'll put everything off till tomorrow...or next week, or month, or year.

In this case, my friend was on hols so I didn't get the dimensions of the e-reader till she returned. Then she sent me the model - Sony e-Reader PRS T-1. All Greek to me, but at least I could go on Amazon and get the dimensions - 11x17.3x0.9cm. (How precise is that - 0.9? Couldn't they just round it off at 1cm? I think it must be mind games like 99c sounding better value than 1 Euro - 1cm must be soooo much fatter than 0.9cm!)

On the job, halfway there.

So I needed negative ease in this cosy (Ahem, betcha didn't think I knew anything techie about knitting!) I've learnt so much from my knitting library and friends in the knitting circle. Negative ease for those of you wondering is making something with a bit of give in it when it's being worn. Like socks. You don't want them concertina'ed around your ankles (even if they are ankle socks) so they must be smaller than your leg to snugly embrace that ankle or calf. A phone cosy likewise, and an e-reader cosy. It must hug the object of its desire so it doesn't fall out when moved. So the item must be larger than the cosy, if only by a few millimetres. This worked out fine, as the width is just 11cm which allows ease in the 1.8cm for the sides. The length is slightly longer than the reader, again allowing for its thickness.

Blocking (too red!)

  Where you don't want negative ease is in a jumper (sweater to the American readership!) - unless you're willowy svelte and slim with no excess of flab or muffin-top spare tyre you want plenty of positive ease! I'm at the stage where I'll adjust my pattern shaping accordingly, like my last teal jumper where I modified the waistline shaping - in my case to not much shaping at all, as it was a short jumper. I've just started another lacy jumper which is quite longline and more tunic-like, so I'm looking forward to seeing how this will turn out.

A word about the cable pattern on the cosy. I loved it when I saw it on Ravelry, and as it was in Jolakey's projects as a Kindle Cosy. As it was a personal  pattern not in Ravelry or available for purchase, I decided to decode it - a first for me. It was a nice challenge and very satisfying when I eventually cracked it. It was  another challenge to write it down, and I'm still working on that. I left a note on the comments box about my using the cable for this project, so I hope she likes my interpretation of her design. The only glitch is that hot pink is well-nigh impossible to photograph properly with my fairly basic cameras (my Panasonic Lumix and my iPhone.)

The Cable Design, colour good match

How I made it:

1. I used Cotton yarn, DK/Sportsweight, and it took just over 25gm, which was pretty good going as the ball is 100gm. 
2. I cast on 52 stitches, and put 26 on each needle of the 3.5mm circular needle, using the Magic Loop method which meant no side seams. I use this method for everything possible now, like the sleeves of my last jumper, to socks, to the body of my current jumper. 
3. I used the 3-needle cast/bind-off for the end seam, worked on the inside, so it's very neat on the outside. That's another technique crossover from sock toes, which is very adaptable. 
4. The Cable was worked over 18 stitches in the middle of one of the 26 stitch groups - so K4, work cable panel over 18, K4 (total 26 stitches), K all 26 stitches on 2nd needle. 
5. As you're using Magic loop for stocking stitch, you knit each round, (excluding the cable panel of course!) and no purling. 

Cable design detail, one repeat. Colour a bit too lavender!

I'll try to do the written pattern instructions and/or a chart which would be a first for me as I am not really used to them; they seem to be a very American thing.

I do like the end result, after blocking and drying. Happy knitting!

New Knitting - My Teal Lace-Trim Jumper

My new cotton jumper

 This is a jumper I finished in time for the Immrama Launch in Lismore Castle so you've seen it being modelled if you read the blogpost on that event - and it's also on my Facebook profile pic, as it was taken by the pro photographer on the night and the quality is great. Better than my Panasonic Lumix point'n'shoot or my iPhone pix!

I thought to share this project with the various knitaholics among my blog readership, apologies to the rest of you who find knitting up there on a par with watching paint dry, but that's the joys of blogging - anything goes.

I got the pattern from the March 2012 edition of Let's Knit, a UK knitting mag, which was new to me, but has lovely patterns in it. I get a lot of American crochet and knitting mags, and find the crochet ones easier if they're American as I use the American stitches in crochet, which means the UK crochet mags wreck  my head. I have to do a translation of the pattern as I go along, and often mess up, and even though I am totally baffled  by pattern charts in crochet, which the Americans favour, I am getting used to reading knitting charts for lacy projects, as in the cast of this jumper.

Bathroom mirror modelling - to show neck detail!

It was designed by Anniken Allis (her Ravelry link) and it was a first for me, working from a lace chart. Also the shoulders were not cast off, just  left on a stitch holder and they involved the Wrap and Turn technique to slope them, and then they were joined by the 3-needle cast-off (bind-off for my American readers). This is a technique I was used to from my sock knitting, as I always use it for the toes, and my iPhone cosy too. It leaves a lovely neat finish, and I will use it ad infinitum!

Another first for me was knitting the three-quarter length sleeves in the round, which meant they were seamless. I was chuffed with that as it wasn't on the pattern, and I managed to incorporate the sleeve shaping with no problems. I also blocked the pieces, which was  a step I've never done before - all those knitting books are paying off - and it really gave it a neat finish.

Detail of neck back

My favourite part of the jumper was the lace detail, especially on the neck back. It is a little triangle, and it was easy enough to do once I could concentrate on the counting. The same trim was in the pattern for the sleeves, and I adapted the pattern to include the same trim on the front and back hem. I think that enhanced it and it turned out lovely. What do you think?

Note seamless sleeve: pre-blocking, a bit too blue.

Swanky launch at Lismore Castle - with hubby Jan

The yarn was adapted too - as long as it was cotton 4-ply (sportweight for American knitters) I was happy to go along with it. I had lovely teal cotton yarn from Lidl, called Lima - but I only had 250gm. That should have been enough, but that wasn't applicable to this yarn, and I ran out before the front was done! Disaster loomed as Lidl only bring out wool about twice a year and don't always run the same ranges from year to year, so I thought I'd  have to park the project. Then an angel of mercy appeared, in the person of Annie, one of the Tuesday Knitters at Angela's Design Workshop. She heard of my dilemma and offered me a pack of the same colour yarn she had bought last year! It was called Spring, and it was a 5-ply yarn with a slightly larger gauge, however, I decided to continue on the 3.5mm needles and it wasn't discernible. So unless you look with a gimlet eye for flaws, and spot a tiny discrepancy at the neck, it's totally fine by me.

Border detail - colour very hard to capture but this is it!

I wore the jumper for the launch of the Immrama Festival in Lismore Castle, and it got many compliments. The photos from the launch have been in the local papers so everyone can see my lovely jumper. I hope you like it too.

Lismore's First Sit'n'Knit - The Tuesday Knitters at the Farmers' Market

The Tuesday Knitters - on Saturday!

Today was the first Sit'n'Knit session of a number that may take place over the summer in the run-up to the inaugural exhibition of Knit One, Purl One planned by the Tuesday Knitters from the Design workshop run by Angela Nevin. The exhibition will take place in the off-site gallery of Lismore Castle Arts at St. Carthage's Hall in November 2012.

We have been meeting as a Knitting Circle since late 2010, shortly after the Design Workshop opened, and it is very pleasant to get together every Tuesday evening with fellow-knitters and crocheters, and occasionally I go to the morning session if I'm off, as it's not really an option for those of us working outside the home. As a result, a lot of the morning knitters are retired, and as I wrote before in this blog, some are retired nurses, which shows what a crafty crowd we are! Also that generation knitted regularly and it had none of the cachet that it has today, where it has become practically a celebrity must-do in some circles. I read in one of  my myriad knitting  books that Hollywood stars can now be seen knitting away in the downtime between takes on set, so that can't be bad! There is a children's knitting circle running on Tuesdays as an after-school club which attracts a group of enthusiastic early knitters - the future is safe in their nimble fingers!

Farmers' Market on Lismore Castle Avenue.

Anyway, recently we decided all our multiple and diverse talent should be shared with the wider world and with that end in view Angela hit on the great idea of an exhibition in November. We'll try to do some events in the meantime to shamelessly self-publicise, like getting involved in Knit-in-Public International Day on June 12th, and maybe some guerilla yarn-bombing activities. Of course  by their very nature they have to remain secret and surreptitious till the community awakens to an explosion of colour in their public spaces!

Knitting and cakes - note needle box- not whiskey!

Knitting away! 

The Sit'n'Knit yesterday was the second activity in the past week - Easter Monday saw some wonderfully clad ducks infiltrate and visit the charity Duck Derby in the Strand, Lismore's watering hole for generations of children and indeed where I learnt to swim with an old inner tube, in the shallow waters below the salmon weir waterfall. There was a salmon hatchery in Lismore back in the days of yore - my childhood - and the waterfall was integral to that as it had a sluice gate  nearby that diverted the water to the hatchery. Blackwater salmon were famed far and wide and indeed still are though for the chosen few who have salmon fishing licences. Luckily one of our friends is in a syndicate that fishes the Blackwater and we are always blessed with a couple of fresh caught delicious salmon every year.

The poster for our exhibition

The Duck Derby pretenders wore hats and scarves knitted by stalwarts of the knitting circles, especially Dairiona and some of the children's circle; there are numerous photos on Facebook, and even a videoclip which you can see on the Facebook page.

The afternoon went very pleasantly, with a group turning up in the Millenium Park in the afternoon, with their WIP or their stash to make whatever took their fancy, and we repaired a few yards down the road to the Castle Avenue where the Farmers' Market was in full swing. Normally that takes place on a Sunday but as this is the weekend of the Waterford Festival of Food, it was held on Saturday.

We commandeered a table and chairs in the sunshine by the Castle wall, and we had tea, coffee, and carrot cake from the delicious cake stall run by Helen Fitzgerald, who makes the most yummy carrot, coffee, lemon and other madeira cakes, soda breads and scones. We had chocolate biccies, and passed a very pleasant hour and a half. We attracted some curious visitors, who were probably unaware of our existence, and we had a great laugh with everyone. We even made some  headway with our knitting, and everyone was wearing something they'd knitted themselves.

Farmers' Market Lismore - cakes and fudge and lots more!

Lavender and Old Lace - Spring into Summer Socks

Lavender and Old Lace Socks

I finished these new ankle socks a few days ago and I absolutely love them. They have a lacy Feather and Fan or Old Shale Cuff - the name seems interchangeable but I've made a scarf and a cowl in that design in recent months so I'll stick to Feather and Fan, which describes the lovely lace design perfectly. 

The pattern comes from the aptly named Stitches of Violet Blog - and it was an adaptation in this wool as I had no plain colour sock wool.  I got the wool in Angela's Design Workshop in Lismore where our Knitting Circle meet every Tuesday evening. It's King Cole brand, Zig Zag 4-ply Sock Wool.

Cuff and Eye of Partridge Heel Flap

This is the first pair of socks I'd made in this lovely lavender and violet self-striping wool. Most of the socks I've made in the past year and a half have either been double knitting acrylic - not good as they fray at the  heel after a few week's wear - or pure wool which promptly felted as I didn't realise it wasn't machine-washable superwash wool. The most successful were made with Lidl Sock Wool, which has been terrific value and made comfy hard-wearing socks that have kept me going for over a year now. 

Showing cuff rib on left

Eye of Partridge Heel & Gusset - soft light

Cuff and Rib detail

Modelling the socks - soft lighting.

I think I'm officially a Sockaholic - I have to have a pair on the go at all times, along with any other WIP I'm  busy with. I used to use 4 DPNs (Double-Pointed Needles) but then about a year ago I learnt how to use the Magic Loop with circular needles and haven't looked back. 

Here are some links to YouTube Video Tutorials on the Magic Loop. It is the easiest method and make socks more portable than ever with no fear of losing a needle. I am to be found knitting away in the passenger seat of the car as we drive anywhere - Cork or Dublin mostly - and hubby Jan is used to it now, having a knitwit beside him getting odd looks at traffic lights! 

I would love to try these in the pattern colours, with a plain sock and a patterned cuff, heel flap and toe. It's just harder to get plain yarn than patterned or self-striping for socks, but I'll get there eventually. 

There's been great intercontinental collaboration in the world of sock-design and knitting lately as Stephanie over at Hookin', Knittin' and Livin' took my photo of the Lismore Cable designed by Cyril Cullen and adapted it to the most wonderful socks - which you can see on her blogpost here - aren't they gorgeous? I hope to make them one day, and you'll be the first to know! 

Meanwhile I hope you like my photos - they show the socks in daylight and under soft lighting taken at night - what a difference the light makes! Of course the daylight is the real deal - and they are a lovely colourway that is currently a favourite of  mine - going with my frilly scarf and my Rathcooney hat and mitts.  By the way, my Ravelry name is LismoreLady if you want to visit me there!

A Local Knitting Hall of Fame Moment - The Lismore Cable

The Lismore Cable - Finished Swatch

I want to share this Aran pattern with you - it's got a lot of sentimental resonance for me, especially this week which is my mother's second anniversary. It's called the Lismore Cable, and was designed  by Cyril Cullen, who is a Knitwear designer. He worked as a Social Welfare Officer in the "Dole Office" in Lismore when I was a child and he branched out into knitwear design for the American market to meet the demand for Aran knitwear. I alluded to him in this post some years ago when I made Shayne a cricket vest.

It was always  more popular Stateside than here at home, despite the fact that the clothes were made from appallingly scratchy pure wool,  very coarse and often replete with twigs and bits of grass and thorns, depending on the living quarters of the sheep.

My mother and many local women knitted for this designer and it was a veritable cottage industry. I guess it was a major success as he went on to leave the Civil Service and become a full-time designer, and he went on to live in Farney Castle in Co. Tipperary where he designed porcelain as well as knitwear.

Lismore Cable swatch blocked 

A friend found some of his late mother's patterns lately when he was doing a clearout, and gave them to me. I was fascinated to find some of the original Gestetner copied patterns and marvelled at the skill of my mother and all those 1960s possibly Desperate Housewives who knitted from home while raising their families in order to supplement meagre incomes.

I can't but think there was a certain irony in the fact that many of the home knitters like my widowed mother would have been clients of Cyril in his role as the Social Welfare officer. I wonder did they fear if they were too prolific in their output of jumpers would it have a negative impact on their pensions? The fear of "having your pension cut" was a very real one for people like my mother, who was a single mother through widowhood in the age when there were no supports other than the Widow's Pension and the Children's Allowance. I found a letter recently from the 1960's where her pension was noted to be 10/6 a week - that's 10 shillings and sixpence, or 55pence in old money, or about 70 EuroCent.

It can't have been easy, as they were under pressure to have the garments done in a certain timeframe, and the pattern sheet carries all kinds of dire warnings and admonishments of the consequences of getting the wool and/or garment soiled. Such transgressions had to be paid for by the knitter, and if a garment couldn't be cleaned to satisfaction the home knitter had to buy it for the cost of the wool. Now I know why my mother was always in a state to keep the wool clean, keeping it in pillow cases in the pre-plastic bag ubiquity era.

Tivoli Twirl scarf

I can remember her winding skeins of wool into balls, while I sat with the skeins on my outstretched arms, or else she used the back of a kitchen chair. It was a time where any extra household income was welcome, before Ireland joined the EEC (later the EU) and discovered prosperity, and certainly before the Celtic Tiger era.

ChaChaCha scarf

I guess many people think that the current recession might lead to a return to those not-so-halcyon days - but I think not, as Knitting is anything but an economic necessity now, and rather a luxury, given the cost of clothing vs. the cost of yarn and labour - so for me knitting is purely a hobby and a labour of love and if I am lucky to sell an item of clothing that's a bonus. I sold two scarves lately via Facebook, incidentally, to a Blogger friend, and got a great buzz out of it, but I don't think I'll be quitting the day job yet!

Some of the Frilly Scarves I made recently