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Closeup of the hap on the blocking mat, showing the wire stretching the lace section.
The magic of blocking lace

The magic of blocking lace

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Ah, lace.
Occasionally I crave a knitting challenge, so lace patterns (preferably with a chart) grab my attention and I just need to finish that thing and see it in all its glory.

Unlike a run-of-the-mill stocking stitch jumper/sweater however, lace looks absolutely dreadful and underwhelming before it’s blocked. If I were to show my finished lace project to a non-knitter and ask for their opinion, I’m sure they’d wonder why I wasted so much time hand making something so wrinkly and ungainly.

Give it a warm bath, a gentle squeeze and some vigorous stretching with wires however, and the thing blooms into beauty.

I recently decided to use some of my stashed lovely Mongolian cashmere yarn. As it happens, I saw a pattern in my LYS that I really enjoyed and cast on. A Hap for Harriet is a simple enough knit, with a lace border to keep you entertained.

Looks quite underwhelming, doesn’t it? The stitches have no particular definition or structure. There’s something missing. No wonder, it’s not blocked yet! Out come the foam mats, the pins and the blocking wires. Mine have memory, so they move as I want them and go back to their original structure, giving me more control than the wires I usually see for sale.

After a warm soak in wool wash, this hap was quite vigorously stretched. I showed it no mercy! It showed no mercy to me either, I was doing this on the floor on my knees. There’s other things I’d rather be doing in my mid-40s… my poor back. The sacrifices one makes for one’s craft.

My knitted hap on the blocking mat with wires and pins to keep it taut, with my black cat Kenya at a distance staring at the whole thing.

This was a big one. Kenya in the background for extra cuteness and (maybe) size reference. I wonder what was going on in my cat’s mind as she saw me on the floor practicing human shenanigans…

After a couple of days of drying under tension, my lovely hap is now looking amazing and cosy! I do have to say though, a while after I’d finished blocking it a friend told me cashmere should be rubbed when being washed, so the fibre can bloom and make it extra fuzzy. Lovely to know, thank you, but I’m definitely not soaking this thing again for a long time… blocking is magical but also a lot of hard work!

Do you love or hate blocking? Any tips to share? Tell me in the comments section. Thanks for reading!

A frontal photo of the Side Eye jumper
When knitting rebels against you…

When knitting rebels against you…

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…or, “when you’re a monogamous knitter and can’t bring yourself to knit anything else, even when you’re tired” – that could be the alternative title, it just slides out the tongue, doesn’t it?…

I am the sort of weird person who can’t stand multiple unfinished projects, I’ll definitely forget they exist if I don’t give them my full attention until completion. Sadly, this means I am stuck with a knitting project that challenges the brain even when said brain is clearly too tired to work on it. I’ve been very busy lately but also very stubborn and insisting I can knit something complicated even when I can hardly keep my eyes open.

Clearly this is headed for success!

Let’s backtrack: I got obsessed with a colourwork jumper I saw on Ravelry a while ago called Side Eye. To my eyes it is magnificent and just the sort of thing my wardrobe is wanting. I had some precious baby Yak yarn that would be perfect for it.

A frontal photo of the Side Eye jumper
Photo by Caitlin Shepherd

Of course, I apparently also crave chaos, because the version I really wanted to knit was one that had some colour changes. I wanted the same version as a Ravelry user called Viorelknits had made. Their version took my breath away and I needed one just like it.

Viorelknits' version of the Side Eye jumper
Photo by Viorelknits

To the unconfounded mind, this version might seem like a simple question of creating a couple of extra rounds in the knitting to switch colours and Bob’s my uncle. To my very confounded mind though, this was a bit of a nightmare. My tired braincells just refused to compute the change. Did this mean I rested and came back later? No, this meant lots of swearing and persisting!

My version of the Side Eye jumper, still unfinished

I have so far managed to knit the bottom successfully, but had trouble interpreting the changes Viorelknits made to their version to make the colour change possible in the section shown on the needles above. This means the beginning of my ram’s head doesn’t look as neat, and now there’s a possibility I might have to frog part of the top bit – can you imagine how much work it’ll be undoing colourwork?

So, wish me luck and keep me accountable, let’s see if my next blog post features a finished jumper, or whether I have instead gone into hiding and hate all yarn until infinity.

See you next time 🙂

One frog and one toad, both hand knit, sat on a desk. One is wearing a turtleneck jumper and the other one dungarees and a shawl
When knitting is tiny

When knitting is tiny

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Does your crafting mojo wane and wax like the phases of the moon? Mine does. I have a fairly narrow set of interests but it’s up to the Gods of Craft when I work on one of them.

After my knitting took a back seat for a few weeks, I started feeling the need to get the needles and yarn out and create something cute and tiny. I didn’t feel ready to tackle a bit knitting project, my brain was asking for a quick reward. Enter a frog and a toad!

One frog and one toad, both hand knit, sat on a desk. One is wearing a turtleneck jumper and the other one dungarees and a shawl

If you are familiar with India Rose Crawford on Instagram, you’ll know her cute frogs poised in adorable miniature cosy scenes. If you’ve never heard of her, I highly encourage you to have a look, her attention to detail is fantastic.

I bought a knitting kit featuring India Rose’s frog pattern (jumper included) and when the time was right I begun working on it. My first attempt didn’t quite go to plan, as I mistakenly placed the eyes on his bottom… poor thing ended up looking much more like an axolotl than a frog.

 

Axolotl
A real axolotl. Photo by National Geographic

 

A knitted from resembling an axolotl
My “frog” with eyes on his bum, poor thing…

The knitting gods were mocking me but I persisted! A couple of days later I had a new cute amphibian with a wired armature.

An unfinished knitted frog with wires for arms. My hand is holding his torso.

Knitting an i-cord around wire isn’t easy, let me tell you. It’s fiddly work but the end result is super worth it. And yes, the background for the photo above is my pyjama bottoms – evening knitting works best in cosy loungewear.

A knitted frog next to a mini knitted jumper, still on the needles

The gods played tricks on me once again as I didn’t have enough yarn to finish the mini jumper, so I frogged it (if you’re not familiar, “frogging” refers to when you remove a project from the needles and undo the stitches, the resulting “rip-it” motion being similar to the word “ribbit.” Fitting for this post, no?) After adding some blue stripes this dapper gentleman was ready to stay cosy.

I seem to enjoy making things in pairs, as soon as I was done with the frog I decided it needed a friend and Toad was born. I even bought a tiny dungarees pattern for added whimsy. The front pocket was my own creation.

A hand holds a small knitted toad wearing knitted brown dungarees.

And there you have it, two quick dopamine-inducing knitting projects that eventually led me to a human-sized jumper a few days later. I’ll have to frog that project too, but that’s a subject for another day.

A hand knit frog is sat on the edge of a table with a standing knitted toad next to it.

And, finally, here is an image of what India Rose Crawford does with her knitted frogs. Amazing, isn’t it?

Photo by @indiarosecrawford on Instagram

Maybe I’ve inspired you to knit something tiny. If you do, let me know in the comments section. Thanks for reading.

Eleanor Shadow vending booth at Tangled Galashiels 2024. There's a table in the middle with fibre and yarns in wire cubes, plus one yarn rack on either side and a large basket on the ground
Becoming an in-person vendor again after 7 years

Becoming an in-person vendor again after 7 years

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For those who read this blog but aren’t familiar with what I do, I sell fibre and hand dyed yarns under the brand Eleanor Shadow. For a while, I was happy simply doing my thing of selling online only, until I moved to Edinburgh and started receiving emails via my site from people asking to come to my shop and buy in person.

I can’t allow customers to come into my studio for contractual and insurance reasons and so had to turn people down, which made me really sad. I hate disappointing fellow fibre lovers! This turned out to be a great thing because it lit a fire in me to start vending again in person. Enter Tangled Galashiels, a new fibre festival that two lovely ladies named Naomi and Samira decided to create near the Scottish Borders.

I had been to Tangled last year for their debut and had a lovely time, accidentally buying two fleeces in the process. When I found out they were taking applications for this year, I decided to apply.

 

Instagram post by Tangled Galashiels where I am seen with three friends at the door, just having bought two fleeces and smiling broadly
From left to right: my friends Si, Liz, me and Lisa. Just look at our smiles!

 

Having not done any in-person vending in years, I was slightly apprehensive about the whole endeavour. My friend Liz was super supportive and offered to help me out in any way possible, which included the most important step in this whole thing: transportation. I can’t sell if I can’t get there with my wares, right?

Well, my application was unsuccessful! I was obviously sad, but also very relieved; this meant I wouldn’t have to do any prep and overthink things. I was off the hook for potentially feeling stressed for 6 months as I got ready for the occasion! Life went on.

Six weeks before the event, I receive an email from Samira – one of the vendors had to cancel, would I like to take their place? Panic. Mode. ON! What to do? If I was already convinced I’d be stressed having to get ready 6 months ahead of time, how would I feel with having only 6 weeks? They gave me a few days to decide, so obviously I agonised over it, asking my friends what they thought, asked Liz if the offer of help still stood, asked my husband if he was willing to put up with a frazzled wife and fibre in the flat everywhere (ok, more than usual)… Everyone was super supportive, so I had no excuse to say no.

After replying positively to Samira and questioning my sanity, I got to work. I ordered more yarn and fibre, planned my dyeing schedule and colourways, prepped my marketing and watched videos on festival vending for booth ideas. If this sounds like a well organised me, trust me, this was done with a lot of sighing, swearing and wanting to dig a hole and disappear.

After six weeks, I was ready! Things just slotted into place: the stuff I had just about fit Liz’s car, my husband was my trusty sidekick, my ideas for the booth worked out almost exactly as I had envisioned, and I still had time to do last-minute adjustments on the first day.

Eleanor Shadow vendor booth at Tangled Galashiels 2024. Leonor is standing in front of it, smiling, waiting for the festival to start

Luckily I didn’t have time to feel nervous, I just went into meeting-and-greeting mode, talked to people and was grateful when they bought something from me. Some of the things I thought would fly off the shelves weren’t too popular, and some I didn’t think would garner much attention sold out!

Most of all though, I was so happy to hear people say nice things about my fibre. Being a one-woman band hidden in my studio means I don’t often get feedback on my work, so having fibre-loving strangers telling me they loved my sense of colour or my yarn bases was just soul-lifting.

The event was only two days, perfect for me to get my feet wet and not get too overstimulated. By the end I was exhausted but oh so happy! I loved the whole experience and couldn’t have asked for lovelier people to have met, talked, or sold to.

Now I’m looking into refresher driving lessons (I’ve never driven in the UK and am unaccustomed to driving on the left) and car rentals. I might just start applying left, right and centre to all the fibre festivals!

Tell me all about your experience at yarn festivals, be it as a vendor or buyer – I’d love to hear it! Thanks for reading.

A sample of my own knitted diamond-shaped puffs on a wooden surface.
Diamonds and Dolls

Diamonds and Dolls

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The title of this post is misleading: although there are several diamonds in this story (in shape, not in value!) there is only one doll. Apologies for this, but “Many Diamonds and Just One Doll” just didn’t sound as good a title to me.

Let’s begin with the first, shall we?

The diamonds

If you use yarn in any way in a crafting project, chances are you end up with leftovers once you’re done. What to do with the lovely remnants of woolly, colourful string? If you’re anything like me you won’t bear discarding them willy-nilly, but keeping them in a bag without a plan also seems like a waste… Enter the Diamond Miner’s Quilt by Lucky Fox Knits.

A set of diamond-shaped knits, stuffed and sewn together to create a puffy quilt
Photo by Valya Boutenko

This project is not one to be made in a jiffy, rather it is meant to be an ongoing thing, to be added to as the years pass and one is presented with more little bits of yarn that are too precious to not make the most of. It’s a no-fuss, small outdoors knitting project, or simply a quick in-front-of-the-telly-knit when the brain is too tired but the hands are restless.

I currently have two full ziplock bags of diamonds, not nearly enough for a proper quilt, but slowly their numbers have increased and soon I shall have to start sewing some together to show myself I’m not simply hoarding teeny tiny pillows…

A sample of my own knitted diamond-shaped puffs on a wooden surface.

What I most enjoy about these is, I can look at them and remember which project they came from. It’s a way to reminisce about a past knit that I find comforting.
The best part? My knitter friends who know about this now have taken to gifting me their own remnants, so now I get to remember them in my future quilt as well. To me, that’s the definition of cosy.

The doll

Now to my latest fun project, Billie the Sheep. I forget how I came across this cute pattern, but it was before Christmas 2023 and I decided to buy it as a present to myself. Of course, this cute sheep would need some clothes and luckily the creator Gabrielle Vézina would provide the dress and cardigan to go with it.

Billie the Sheep doll, dressed with a knitter dress and a cardigan, next to a printed page of the pattern to make the clothing

Want to know the best part? This dress comes in a children’s size as well, so if you have a little girl in your life who needs a sheep doll and wants to match with it, you can make it happen! It’s simply too adorable.

All of this project is also made from remnants, the calico fabric I used previously as mock-ups for my own clothing, the threads on her face were gifted by a friend who no longer embroiders, the yarn was leftovers I hadn’t made into diamonds yet. The woolly part of her head is a bouclé yarn I used to knit a friend a cosy jumper and stabilised with some pre-felt (see, there’s felting in this post!). If this isn’t the cutest way to enjoy “leftover” project materials, I don’t know what is.

Billie the Sheep flat lay on a wooden surface.

Have you made anything with remnant materials that you care to share? It doesn’t have to be fabric or fibre, anything goes! I love a good upcycle story, so feel free to share it with me below.

 

Not for Hélène’s eyes – Christmas “card” swap

Not for Hélène’s eyes – Christmas “card” swap

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This year, our merry (see what I did there?) group of crafters/blog writers decided to do a card swap among us. It didn’t really have to be Christmassy, it just needed to somewhat resemble a card.

The idea is to overthrow the ephemeral notion of a Seasons Greetings card on its head and make something with your own hands that a fellow crafter will appreciate and want to keep.

I was partnered with Hélène, felter extraordinaire, so I was naturally stressed out. I knew my card wouldn’t begin to compare with anything she created, but I put those pesky defeating voices aside and got to work.

It took me a few days to come up with a jolly (ha, again!, I crack myself up) theme for the time of year, and decided to join two strengths of mine: pattern search and knitting. Off to Ravelry I went browsing, and settled on Stay Cool  by Drops Yarn.

Ravelry first page results for patterns with the term "snowflake"
First page results on Ravelry for the term “Snowflake.” Pretty, but not very card-like…

Stay Cool is meant to be a pot holder but I adapted it to be slightly longer on two sides and kept the back plain so I could attach it to cardboard. In hindsight, I could have knitted both sides in pattern, but at this point I was still a little fuzzy on my end goal. (Sorry, Hélène!)

I used my own hand spun yarn because I wanted the “card” to be as handmade and personal as I could possibly make it. If you want to get geeky with me with specs, I used white Shetland spun woollen from pencil roving for one yarn, and an Alpaca/Polwarth blend spun worsted for the brown.

A printed version of the pattern on top and the finished knitted snowflake "card" on the bottom

Not unsurprisingly, the back came out “longer” than the front, despite having the same number of stitches. I should’ve predicted this because fair isle knitting constricts patterns a bit, but alas, I didn’t remember.

Now came the daunting part for me: wet felting. I wanted the end result to be a fuzzy and smaller version of the knit, so off I went to the kitchen sink armed with bubble wrap, soap and very hot water.

If you think this felted right away, you’d be wrong. Nothing happened for the longest time! In fact, I nearly despaired because my idea was to fuse the back to the front, and that never happened. Apparently, knitted jumpers accidentally machine washed only become tiny versions of themselves if you never intended for them to shrink – Sod’s law!

After what seemed like four years of wet felting, here’s what my snowflake looked like:

Knitted snowflake after wet felting, on cardstock background with "Merry Xmas" written on top with iridescent ink

Hopefully it still looks like a snowflake to the untrained eye. I punched holes onto the thickest paper I could find and attached the wool to it with string, because I want Hélène to be able to take it out and use it as a coaster (or something else functional of her choice). This way she can always have a laugh every time she reaches for a hot drink and sees my meagre wet felting technique.

Detail of "Merry Xmas" wording on card showcasing the ink's shimmer qualities

The ink I chose has gold shimmer in it, which I found quite Christmassy. I hope Hélène can forgive the “Xmas” instead of the word proper – I ran out of space.

(Aaand, a little confession: I cheated and sent my card swap partner something extra… ‘Tis the season, after all!)

A very cute needle felted Christmas tree with baubles and a star on top, made by Eleanor Shadow

That’s it from me. I have a newfound respect for anyone who takes the never-ending task of wet felting. What advice would you give me for future soapy endeavours?

Six hand spun mini skeins in different shades of pink and in different fibre combinations
I’ve been spinning a little in the past month

I’ve been spinning a little in the past month

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You know how when you get excited about one hobby, the other ones get left behind? Well, for some reason I’ve been bitten by the spinning bug in the last month, and I’ve a few skeins to show for.

Let’s start with the green-blues.

Four skeins of hand spun yarns by Eleanor Shadow

The big green skein was spun using some Leicester Longwool locks I dyed for this purpose, since I wanted to make a super Halloween-y textured art yarn; I plied it with some commercial yarn (also dyed by me) that I had to over twist in my wheel so it would un-twist as I paired it with the textured ply.

The smallest skein is baby llama, my very first time spinning such a fibre. I’m a fan! I’d love to spin more of this in the future. It’s very soft and warm.

To the right there’s a fun Blue Faced Leicester (BFL) and bio-nylon yarn that I tested for my own shop (got to know what I’m selling, right?) and I can say I love this fibre combination. The BFL is very soft and lofty, and the bio-nylon increases the strength of the wool without harming the environment since it’s as fully compostable as the natural animal fibre. I’d have no problems knitting some socks using this yarn.

At the bottom, a rather fun jewel tones Shetland and Tussah silk combo (70/30) that just glided off my hands effortlessly.

But wait, there’s more!

I was perusing World of Wool’s website a while back and came across their taster package in shades of pink, and was tempted. Each resulting mini skein is 25g and very squishy.

Six hand spun mini skeins in different shades of pink and in different fibre combinations

From left to right: merino and nylon sparkle; merino and silk; merino; wool and viscose; merino, alpaca and mohair; merino and bamboo.

My favourite to spin was the (mysterious) wool and viscose. Those tweedy bits kept me very engaged and wanting to keep treadling! The merino/alpaca/mohair blend to its right was also rather lovely. Although these all came from the same pack, I don’t feel the shades complement each other too well, so I might not try to add them to the same project in the future.

You’d think I’d be done by now, but… there’s more.

Three hand spun yarns by Eleanor Shadow

If my goth self in my 20s would’ve guessed I’d be spinning this much pink, I’d be appalled! But yes, those colours were all my choice. The pink of the left was a particularly bouncy merino and soy fibre combo, the middle one is a merino/alpaca/camel/silk blend (40/20/20/20) and the right skein is anyone’s guess (it’s a mix and match of several different wool nests a friend gave me to spin that I decided to merge together. I wish I had a jumper quantity of this!)

Lastly…

A merino hand spun skein in jewel tones by Eleanor Shadow

I dug into my own shop’s stash for this one. The colours were super well defined in the fibre braid, but I decided to spin them in a way that would blend everything and I don’t regret it one bit. This would knit up rather nicely, I’d say. If my knitting mojo comes back anytime soon I might give it a try…

There’s actually one more skein, but it’s a white one and it didn’t photograph well…

So, do you think my wheel was busy, or do any of you spin more in any given month? Let me know below.

Summer knitting (but Summer isn’t cooperating)

Summer knitting (but Summer isn’t cooperating)

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They tell me it’s Summer already. To be honest, I haven’t noticed… I know most of you reading after this post is published might be complaining about how hot it is, but I can inform you I’m currently writing this with a jacket on.

Ah, Scottish Summer…

I had lots of lovely knitting projects in mind for the warmer months of the year, two of which involved making some season-appropriate tops to wear when the sun was out. This would be my first time knitting something Summer-specific and I was very excited about the prospect.

Have I mentioned “Ah, Scottish Summer” yet?

Anyway, since there’s no view to wear these lovely makes anytime soon, I thought I’d share them anyway so you can at least boost my ego and tell me they’re lovely. Ready?

Ripple Halter by Jessie Maed Designs in neon yellow, on a hanger against a white door
Ripple Halter by Jessie Maed Designs

In another blog post where I mentioned being brave enough to unravel my knitting without a lifeline, this halter top appeared briefly. I finally finished it! Just in time to enjoy it on a hanger instead of on my person… (this is knit in merino wool but it’s still too cool for the current weather, at least for me!)

My other fun knit is not quite finished yet… but my brain being what it is and hating an unfinished project, I can’t move on to another until this one is done – even if I know I won’t wear it anytime soon.

Gelato Tank Top on a hanger against a white door
Gelato Tank Top by Gabrielle Vézina

Note the knitting needles on the bottom! The white strip is some leftover yarn I used as a lifeline in case I wanted to frog the whole thing back (which I will, because I want a couple more rounds of stocking stitch before the edging).

Closeup of Gelato Tank Top lace front panel

I mainly knit this tank top for the front lace panel, which I thought looked fun. The yarn I knit it with is a linen blend, very soft and perfect for warmer weather.

Some of you might be reading this and saying, “But Leonor, you can wear these with a jacket, what’s the problem?” And you’d be right, that’s definitely an option. However, considering how windy it’s been in Edinburgh, I’ll want to button up the jacket, which will hide the layer underneath.

I guess I’m just grumpy this Summer has been nothing like I planned and want some commiserating 🙂

What about you, any fun plans for the season? Share them with the in the comments section so I can live vicariously! And, thanks for reading.

Marshmallow the cat looks at my hand as my knitting project is frogged
Getting brave with knitting (and a little bit of spinning)

Getting brave with knitting (and a little bit of spinning)

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The knitting

I’m very glad to have finally regained my knitting mojo after such a long hiatus. Once the days started lengthening and getting slightly warmer, my brain seems to have understood it was time for my hands to get busy making again.

However, my attention span might have been left behind somewhere, for I ended up making a few mistakes that I missed until much later! I’m glad I did catch them though.

I was knitting a Poet jumper and the pattern has sections with seed stitch. Seed stitch is created by overlapping a purl stitch over a knit stitch in alternating rows/rounds, so that you get a sort of dotted pattern resembling… seeds (the name says it all, really).
Without noticing at the time, I repeated two exact rows and ended up with something… wrong that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Once I spotted the issue however, there was no un-seeing it.

A section of my Poet jumper, showing a knitting mistake somewhere

Can you spot the mistake? I can see it from a distance… It’s a little below the middle.

A finger points at a knitting mistake on a Poet jumper
Putting my finger on it. See the two yarn-overs on top of each other on the right? One of them is the extra row I knit by mistake.

This put me in a conundrum: do I ignore the mistake and keep going, or do I frog the thing and correct it? I put it to social media, and the vast majority told me to leave it and continue. Naturally, this made me decide to frog it.

For the non-knitters: the term “frogging” is used because when you remove the needles from your work and pull the yarn back into the ball, you “rip it, rip it,” which sounds like “ribbit,” the sound frogs make.
(Don’t worry, I too was baffled when learning this.)

Completely removing the knitting needles from a project and effectively ridding the thing of its unravelling potential is daunting to me. When one does this, one also loses all useful markers set by the pattern creator, and I always fear I’ll forever miss my place and be unable to proceed… I took a deep breath, chose to trust myself and off the needles came. I stopped a couple of rounds before the offending mistake and opted to “tink” (that’s “knit” backwards – I know, I know…) until I’d corrected it. Phew.

Here’s the jumper, all finished, after I was set back two whole days of knitting.

A knitted Poet jumper is blocking on wires and a blocking mat on the floor
Here is my Poet, blocking

You’d think my knitting snafus were over, but it seems I wasn’t done frogging… I started on my Ripple Halter and, a couple of inches before being finished, noticed I was one stitch off. Normally not a big problem, but this is a 2×2 ribbing which only remains correct if the right number of stitches are maintained, so I definitely had a problem.

I’d done it once, I’d do it again! Frog, frog.

Marshmallow the cat looks at my hand as my knitting project is frogged
Marshmallow offers her support…

This was also a scary one, because I had 8 markers I needed to put back in the correct place to be able to follow the pattern. I managed… somehow. Three more days of knitting, gone. It’s all part of the handmade process though, right?

The spinning

My spinning mojo has also returned. I wanted some textured art yarn and set about preparing the fibres to make it happen.

Once my Leicester Longwool locks were dry, it was time to spin.

Now I need to decide how to ply this. I think I might dye some wool top neon green, spin it  thin and use it to create a textured, thick and thin art yarn. What do you think? Also: am I mad for frogging days’ worth of knitting for what a lot of people deem “small mistakes”?

—

Ever wondered what the difference is between wool top and wool roving? I wrote a blog post on it on my own website and would love it if you’d read it. Thanks so much!

November challenge: knitting for charity

November challenge: knitting for charity

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As I was scrolling through Instagram one day, I saw this advert by Dementia UK asking people to join their November challenge: to knit every day for that month and raise money for their charity.

I’d never done this sort of thing before, and felt compelled to join and see how I’d do. It’s a worthwhile cause, and charities are always in need of money.
It has to be said that, in the past, I’d probably shy away from such a challenge because I’d fear “not reaching my goal,” which Present Me finds silly – I’m not doing this for brownie points, it’s not a measure of my self-worth and, more importantly, if I only raise £10, it’s ten pounds more that Dementia UK will have to help those in need.
Present Me is wiser than Past Me, don’t you think?

A dark grey hand knit jumper on a mannequin

Here is my first make, which I finished in, I think, 5 days. It’s knit with super bulky wool, so it goes along super quickly.
This is a free pattern by Drops Yarn – very fitting, because the yarn is also by Drops – and it has to be said, the instructions could be better. There were a couple of techniques I had to look up in video format because the written instructions just didn’t make any sense (to me, anyway). I also made a few changes here and there, one of them being some waist shaping. I also changed the sleeves a little to adapt them to my small frame.

A closeup of my hand knitted grey jumper, where I show the shoulder detail.

It’s a very warm jumper and I’ve worn it several times to help with having lowered my thermostat at home.
On a side note, I might add a few more rows to the sleeves just to make them extra, extra cosy.

A hand knit grey beanie hat on top of a mannequin.

I had a lot of wool left after finishing the jumper, so I decided to knit a beanie hat. This was knit in an evening and I can attest it’s kept my noggin’ warm when venturing outdoors.

Finally, a bit of a cheat…

Remember my Dead of Night jumper, that I showed you in my previous post? (Apologies for the lack of link to said post, I can’t find it at the moment of writing!)

Dead of Night jumper, pattern by Dear Ingenue, on a mannequin

I had “finished” it a few weeks ago, but hadn’t woven in the ends. I took the opportunity to do so and therefore count it as another November make – hey, it’s not done until all the tiny details are finished, correct?
It did turn out to be too large for me as had previously mentioned, but in a lovely twist of fate, my mother loved the pattern and wants it. That’s one Christmas present sorted!
It’s not blocked yet, as I want Mum to try it on and see if I need to coax its shape in any particular way. This is why you can still see yarn sticking out on the sleeve, I only cut the woven-in ends after I’ve blocked the garment.

So, that’s my November knits. The more observant of you will notice I probably didn’t knit every day for 30 days. Sadly, you’re right! Life got in the way and I was unable to keep up, but I did share what I was doing on my social media and managed to raise around £70 total for Dementia UK!

Not bad for a first, and not very persistent, try.

Have you ever knit for charity? Share your experience with me. If you have any fundraising advise, I’d love to read about it.

Finally, happy holidays, everyone! I hope you have a nice season whether you celebrate or not. See you next year.