Eskimimi Knits knitting blog

My latest, and proudest, Finished Object.  Here they are at last, my Flutter Mittens.  I do love them so very much and I am inordinately proud to have them finished and the pattern written up and published.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, the design is based on a recurring motif in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s book One Hundred Years of Solitude. One of the characters on the story is a young woman called Meme, who in an act of defiance takes a mechanic as a lover.  The mechanic is forever surrounded by a cloud of yellow butterflies that accompanies him everywhere.  One day, during a surreptitious tryst, her lover is caught visiting Meme and suffers a bad fall and is injured.  From this moment Meme is the one who becomes enevloped in the cloud of butterflies which now follow her everywhere.  As her lover lays ill the butterflies start to slowly die and drop away, and she knows of his death only when the last butterfly finally leaves her.

These mittens are a reminder to hold onto your loves and your passions and to treat them gently:

In the palm of the mittens is a single, detailed yellow butterfly, like the last one that Meme beheld before it dropped away from sight.
I designed these mittens to have a thumb gore, which means that the gloves may be worn with the large butterfly on the back of the hand and the more numerous butterflies on the palm as and when the mood takes the wearer (plus I find a thumb gore construction on a mitten far more comfortable, having never met a person who has a thumb positioned on the palm of their hand).

Now, as the title of this post suggests, I am celebrating an anniversary today.  Eskimimi Knits is one year old!  174 posts and 1580 comments down the line I can look back on my very first post.  In celebration of that fact I would like to give away this brand new copy of One Hundred Years of Solitude.  As I wrote in my previous post, I can never seem to hold on to a copy.  Maybe I am just not meant to actually own one for any length of time.

To enter, simply leave a comment.  remember to fill in your email address as a way for me to get in touch with you if you win.  If you already have the book (and I imagine that many people may) then why not enter to win a copy to pass on to a friend?)
The Flutter Mitten pattern is available from Ravelry or is available for free with the purchase of Eskimimi Knits Twingles Yarn on Etsy.  the listing on Etsy contains plenty of yarn to make the mittens plus an e-mailed PDF of the pattern, including high quality charts and written instructions.

So, thankyou to readers/followers for all of the good thoughts and support for the first year, and thankyou for making writing this blog so very enjoyable.

Writing on Sunday of what I wanted to finish and achieve this week really helped to focus my attentions to tasks I most wanted to complete, and yesterday my new project finally came of the needles.  It is currently in the process of blocking, so proper pictures will have to wait until tomorrow, but for now I thought I would share a few of the details about this pattern.

This has been a project that has been forming in my mind for at least a few months.  One of the questions that somebody asked me in my anonymous question post how it was that I went about the design process.  I answered that I just thought of something that I might like to wear, or owm or just something I might like to knit, and something for which I had not yet found the perfect pattern, and then I go about knitting it, sometimes (but not always) making notes as I go.

This is true, but it doesn’t give any notice of how the inspiration for a project might come about.  My new project was inspired by a recurring motif in Gabriel García Márquez’s book One Hundred Years of Solitude.  This is my favourite book of all time, though I admit that it is a few years now since I last read it (in fact I didn’t even have a copy until a couple of days ago as every time I buy a copy I end up giving it away, which I will almost certainly also do with this copy). Still, throughout my life, since the age of about 13 when I first read this work, this same recurring motif has stuck with me and for some reason I think of it quite often.  I have painted versions of this idea onto stage scenery and canvasses, embroidered this same image onto blouses and cushions and decorated various items around my home with this same recurring element, so the idea to use yarn to re-create the idea has been nestling in the back of my mind for some time.

I have finished writing and formatting the pattern and will post the FO with (probably far too many) pictures tomorrow, but whilst it is blocking in the airing cupboard, and I am being patient in waiting until it is dry before I take the final photographs, here is the reverse of the colourwork:

As regular readers will know, Eskimimi Knits is a very monkey friendly place, sharing a few familiar faces with World of Monkey, and recently the world of knitting and monkeys collided once again with the arrival of the newest addition to the troup, Sockmonk:

Sockmonk is a traditional red-heeled sock monkey and as such carries forwards a long tradition of sock monkeys, and I’ve been asking him a little about his family lineage and ancestry.

Sock monkeys are a traditional folk-art toy originating in the United States and Canada, where they are still most popular.

The traditional red-lipped, white-limbed, marled bodied sock monkey stem from the invention of what must have been a wonderful technology of the time – a machine that would knit seamless socks in the round, patented by the Swedish immigrant, John Nelson, who set up his business in Rockford, Illinois.  Mass-produced, seamless socks targetted at workmen were extremely popular, due to the fantastic comfort that a seamless sock provides, and the market boomed.  Soon enough there were plenty of copycat socks appearing on the market, trying to grab a piece of that same market.  Nelson’s Rockford brand then decided to add their trademark red heel to their socks to mark them out as the original and best Rockford sock.

During the years of the American Depression, society reverted back to the make do and mend mentality and worn out clothes were re-patched or re-purpose, and some bright person soon cottoned on to using old socks to make small soft toys for children.  The distinctive red heel of the Rockford sock make it an obvious choice for a characterful monkey, and the sock monkey phenomena was born.

In 1952 the Nelson Knitting company, makers of the Rockford red-heel, were made aware of the popular craft of turning its socks into soft toys and entered into a dispute over the design patent for the traditional sock-monkey pattern. Two years later they won the dispute and decided to use the monkeys to their best advantage.  They were featured in a major marketing campaign and every pair of Rockford red-heeled socks came with a free pattern to instruct buyers on how to make their very own sock monkey, and the tradition was cemented.

Sock monkeys are still a traditional friend today, and their image can be found on many various kitsch items, from badges to hats, to compact mirrors, to small child’s tea sets:

One of the stranger elements of the sock monkey history, though, have been due to a recent crafting trend reversal.  Whereas necessity and then popularity once saw knitted socks being re-fashioned to look like soft toy monkeys, knitters are now knitting imitation sock-monkeys.  Where it is of course possible to knit a pair of socks and then re-fashion these into a monkey chum, a number of designers have produced patterns in which the ’sock’ step of a sock monkey is actually by-passed, allowing monkey-loving fibre fiends to get straight to the point and just knit the requisite parts to order.  Because a sock is never made in this process whether the resulting monkey companion is actually a ’sock monkey’ is a matter of debate, but they are often made to convey the traditional shape, style and colouring of a traditional Rockford sock monkey.  It is only one more step from making a knitted sock monkey without the sock to also making one without the knitting, and taking up the crochet hook instead:

A Ravelry search on ’sock monkeys’ returns around 20 patterns for making the monkeys themselves as well as numerous hats, mittens and baby leggings, all in the sock-monkey style, so if you are not as lucky I am as to have your very own sock monkey pal (thankyou, dear Lisa) you can always whip one up with your trusty needles or hook.  I intend to crochet another addition to the monkey clan soon, but until then the monkeys are all welcoming Sockmonk into the clan, and asking if he brought any cake along with that delicious tea.

Well, the last couple of days have been busy! I have been printing, painting, packaging and posting, dipping, dyeing and ‘don’t knock that over!’-ing. I was up until 3am on Wednesday night, cleaning, skeining and broccoli green-ing, and after day two and all packages being in the post (and the first few having arrived!) I am ready to drop.

The first few days of my shop have been a blast, all of my first customers have been so amazingly lovely and my friends so supportive, and I have my first feedback, which makes it so real.

When the postman rang the bell today I expected him to be carrying some blank base yarns for me to dye up, but they didn’t arrive. Deep down, I am a little relieved, as I am running on empty and really need a few hours to myself, but I have chores to complete, other work to do and lots of cleaning to work my arms away at, but I am super happy.

What I am absolutely determined to do today though is squeeze in a little knitting time. Just a smidgen. It’s been over a week since the almost imperceptible sound of gently clattering needles graced my ears, and my socks in progress are not progressing:

Following on from yesterday’s post about the warm and squishy feeling you get when somebody sends you a thoughtful gift, there is of course one thing that makes you feel even more warm and squishy – to give a gift that somebody loves.

I have in the past found it difficult to be reciprocal in my gifts, having no spare cash with which to post items, let alone shop specifically for a friend, but now that I have been enabled in my beginners arts of dyeing and spinning I am slowly trying to gather together all I need to make unique and heartfelt gifts of what knitters enjoy most – yarn. My beginners efforts will not be perfect, but they will be made with love, and hopefully that is what will be felt.

Recently I made a rather larger gift, though. I spent a not wholly enjoyable time striving through the endless ribbing of a sweater for my beloved nan, an undertaking I don’t think I could have completed if it weren’t for someone I loved so dearly.

I gave her the jumper on the day I left after visiting her, and she seemed very touched and said it was beautiful. I explained that I had made it a turtleneck sweater as she likes a higher neck on her swaters. It then becaume apparrent that she had been unaware that I had actually knit the sweater and that she then seemed a little overwhelmed.

She became very quiet and said that she only hopes that she will live long enough to wear it.

My Nan is feeling the weight of her own mortality at the moment. After we lost my grandfather last year she has had a fall which has left her with greater mobility problems, and I think the slowing of her pace has made her feel a little distant from her old life.

To be honest, it wasn’t quite how I imagined the ‘ta-daaa!’ moment to go, and I was leaving to catch my train in five minutes so I left with a feeling of heaviness as well as the pride that the gift meant so much to her.

I didn’t get to take a picture before I left, either. I instead had to ask somebody to take a picture for me and send it to me via text message. It isn’t exactly the best picture:

I shall have to take a better one when I see her next.

I wanted to update my blog with a post that was a bit more pleasant than that which I had to post earlier, so I thought I’d update you on the progress of my Diversion socks, from the Knitty website.

Whilst knitting Nan’s neverending jumper I sought out a side project, a diversion, and these socks were as good as their name:

I think this pattern is a great use of self-striping yarns, is full of interest and produces a great finished item… but I didn’t enjoy knitting them.  I knit the endless short rows backwards and forwards so I didn’t have to turn the socks whilst working on them, I knit them together so they’d be complete at the same time, but I just didn’t enjoy the process of knitting them.

I put them down and picked them up.  Knit a few short row sections then abandoned them for other pursuits.  And then I gave in to the compulsion.

Yes, yes, I know. I promised you a cheerier post. This is one.

I no longer feel obliged to carry on knitting these socks, feeling like I must pick them up and knit on.  Every stitch I unravelled was liberating.  To so quickly undo something that was going to take me so long to complete, with the knowledge that I could turn that yarn into something that I enjoyed knitting was quite wonderful.

Now, after a few days of being in a knitting flump I am excited about and looking forward to whatever it might be that I choose to knit next.

One hurdle finally overcome. I have finished knitting a sweater. A whole sweater. Well, it is not actually a whole sweater yet as it is in pieces being blocked, but the knitting itself is finished.

It seemed endless, but I learned a few things from it. Firstly I learned that I like two types of knitting. When I want to take my time over a long project I like it to be relatively complex, something that requires concentration so I can see the pattern slowly emerge. On the other hand, when I knit something in a simple stitch I like it to be quick. Acres of stockinette stitch or garter stitch are all good, but something simple which requires no concentration but the moving backwards and forwards of the yarn every couple of stitches just seems so tedious. Ergo: I dislike rib. This jumper has a lot of rib.

After knitting both ribbed sleeves and the entire ribbed back and most of the ribbed front, the smocked portion of the sweater seemed like a holiday around the world after a lifetime of working in a factory pressing the same button once every 10 seconds, day in, day out, for 45 years.

So, for now it blocks, and later I will be on to the task of piecing it together. After that comes the tough bit, though – will it fit its recipient? I am starting to feel just a tad nervous!

This post has been updated – Please see end of post for a new FAQ and suggested tagging system.

A couple of weeks ago I thought it would be a good idea to try and organise a week of blogging for knitters and crocheters, where individual bloggers could all simultaneously post about the same topics over the course of seven days, so that for one week readers might be able to read from blog to blog and enjoy a community of bloggers all talking about elements of their craft in their own unique way.

So, after a conversation with some of the members of Ravelry’s Blog Hub group I have been working away on how the week will run. So, hoping that you might be interested, here are a few details:

The Knitting and Crochet Blog Week will run from Monday 26th April – 2nd May 2010.

OK, that’s the date out of the way. I thought that was probably important.

How do you take part? It’s quite simple. Every day between 26th April – 2nd May 2010 there will be a blogging topic (relating to knitting and crochet) asking for your experiences, opinions and hopes on various aspects of your hobby, one topic and a short explanation is provided for each day, plus a ‘wildcard’ topic in case you just don’t fancy one of the blogging topics for any particular day. The entire list of 8 topics (seven daily topics +1 wildcard) are listed below. They are hidden in case any blogger happens to want the topics as a surprise, day by day, but I have published them early as I know that knitters and crocheters are often an organised lot, and might want to get photographs, etc, taken in advance. For explanations of tagging codes, please see the bottom of this post. OK, here are the topics (click any topic to expand):

Day One – Monday 26th April 2010 (show) »

Starting Out

How and when did you begin knitting/crocheting? was it a skill passed down through generations of your family, or something you learned from Knitting For Dummies? What or who made you pick up the needles/hook for the first time? Was it the celebrity knitting ‘trend’ or your great aunt Hilda? TAGGING CODE: knitcroblo1

Day Two – Tuesday 27th April 2010 (show) »

Day Three – Wednesday 28th April 2010 (show) »

Day Four – Thursday 29th April 2010 (show) »

Day Five – Friday 30th April 2010 (show) »

Day Six – Saturday 1st May 2010 (show) »

Day Seven – Sunday 2nd May 2010 (show) »

Wildcard Topic (show) »

Use these topics and brief descriptions as a springboard for your posts and take them in whatever direction you fancy. If you are a Ravelry member and fancy chatting about what others are going to do to take part, then feel free to pop along and find out what other folks are up to, or if you have any comments or questions please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below and I will be sure to get back to you ASAP.

If you’d like to spread the word, please do feel free to blog about Knitting and Crochet Blog Week on your own blog, and feel free to use the banner at the top of the post if you’d like to.

Frequently Asked Questions

An FAQ can be found here. (Disclaimer – some questions are not that frequently asked. Maybe it is more of an OAQ – Occasionally Asked Questions).

Suggested tagging System

People have been asking if it would be possible to compile a list of every person taking part. Whilst I will do my best to find as many as possible, it is quite difficult for reasons explained in the FAQ, therefore I have had an idea for a tagging system to use in posts. Most blogs allow you to add ‘tags’ to posts. If we use these to insert a google-able tag in, then once all of the entries have been crawled by the search engines it should allow people to type that unique code into google and find the entries posted for that topic. If a blogger doesn’t wish to use the ‘tags’ feature of their blog they could alternatively add the code to the end of their post – it will still be found by Google.
For the tagging system to work the code has to be something not already in google (ie, not a recognisable ‘word’, therefore I suggest we use the following format:
Day One: knitcroblo1
Day Two: knitcroblo2
Day Three knitcroblo3 etc
Wildcard: knitcroblowc