My post this month is another mixture of things.  I have continued my reacquaintance with knitting, and I want to become a more skilled hand knitter.  It is such a comfortable task to sit with in the evenings, and time passes very easily.  I have made another hat, and an asymmetric triangular scarf.  I loved the hat that Carlene wears sometimes, and Ann suggested where to get the pattern.  This hat has a wonderful name “Anemone Hat”, the main body looks so complicated, but is quite straightforward really.

Pattern obtained, then some time spent studying it, especially the rib, or the Moebius half-twist as it is called.  However, I have only just become familiar working with a circular needle, so this form of beginning the hat was a stretch too far for me, or a little like ‘double dutch’ as the expression goes, so I did some plain knit and purl rows instead.  I may try the moebius another time.  The yarn used was from my sister, and is King Cole stylecraft, 50% wool and 50% acrylic.  There is a much wider variety of yarn types today than was available when I was younger.

Leonor connected me to a free pattern for a scarf on her website, that promised to be easy to knit.  I had one skein of wool, from West Yorkshire spinners 70% Falkland wool, 20% lyocell, and 10% Cashmere, in a lovely soft green shade, and is soft to touch.  I was hoping it would be soft around my neck, because sometimes wool can be prickly.

I needed help with a scarf because I could not figure out how the triangular shape would be achieved; in the end this achievement was actually quite simple really.  So I began knitting, starting with a few stitches and ended up with over 150 or so, and I could carry on until I was happy with the length, with enough yarn to continue, and in the end I had a triangular scarf.  Then a cool wash and pinned it onto the ironing board to block it.  I practiced some simple lace pattern stitches to break up the plain knitting.

Early on during the winter, the Dean of Gloucester Cathedral put out a call for some volunteer embroidery people to help repair an altar cloth that has a lot of wear and tear from use over the years.  I belong to a group of women who do crewel work; we meet twice a month for two hours each time, to work on our own projects, or just to stitch.  Four of us decided to help out with this task, and we car share twice a month over to the Cathedral.  The Dean provides use with tea and coffee! Gloucester is about a 45 minute drive from me.

The altar cloth needs repair to many areas.  All of the embroidered motifs have been appliqued onto a base of hard wearing linen.  Many of the motifs have become loose, and some of the motif threads are degrading almost as soon as they are touched.  There is a lot of gold work on the cloth too, much of this is also loose, and takes time to stitch back down, but so worth the effort, and it makes for a lovely sheen on the work.  We are using cotton embroidery thread, and some silk thread.

The cloth will be returned to use as an altar cloth, we are repairing it for use during church services, and not to museum conservation quality.

No one is quite sure how old the cloth is, the embroidery thread is disintegrating in places, and the only thread that is not perishing is the white thread that is couched around each motif.  This is an example to us of how likely it is that the dye used could be the main reason for the coloured threads to perish.

This work will keep us all busy for some months, but I do enjoy it.  A sample of my stitching is the featured image – practice work really.