Last year I helped out at the knitting and stitching show at Aintree, making new knitters for the UK Hand Knitting Association. It was intended (in my head) as a day off where I could relax, spend time with my people, plus if I’m lucky, show one or two folk how to knit or crochet.

It turns out, the last time I did this, I was gainfully employed by myself, so I went on a weekday. This time it was Saturday.

From 0930 when the doors opened to finally being relieved at 1400 I didn’t get *any* time to relax or have a break. I lost count of the new knitters created, partly because by the end I was delirious with hunger. Even when I was due to knock off, I had to turn down a new punter pleading the need for food. Those of you who have encountered me when I’m hungry will know that this was a dangerous time for everyone.

In that time I made several new knitters, showed a 9 year old how to cable, made almost as many crocheters, including one failure (a left-handed lady who claimed she was unteachable, got the hang of it just fine then threw her hands up and said “well, clearly it’s just not to be, I just can’t get the hang of it”. I concluded that she likes the kudos of being unteachable.) and quite a few left handed people (an aside – in both knitting & crochet you use _both_ of your hands – why does hand preference make a difference? My left-handed mother knit in the same direction as me, she taught me to knit, what’s the problem? Debate for another day, maybe!). All in all, from the Mission Accomplished point of view, box well & truly ticked.

Also, the stand was populated by a lovely lady whose name I forget, but she started out working at Rowan alongside Kim Hargreaves and her mother. I’ve admired Kim’s work for a loooooong time, indeed recently inherited a book from my mum of her designs. Some of them stand the test of time (indeed, I fully intend to make one of the jackets… Soon!) but most of the book is firmly rooted in the soft-focus fashions of its published date. You need to have longer than shoulder length tightly permed dark hair to carry off most of the designs! It turns out Kim is a lovely, lovely person, which pleases me because her web presence is quite cold, impersonal and Rowan-style corporate.

Anyway, this is all a _very_ roundabout way of introducing another pre-Christmas project. At Aintree the UKHKA stand had a beach theme and the plan was to have knitters make a triangle for bunting, which was then pinned on the wall. Needless to say, my knitters produced no additional triangles, but I did learn the very simple method for churning them out, and saw how good it can look even with slightly scrappy pieces.

I decided that Lily needs one of these.

The basic pattern: cast on 3, knit either 3 or 4 rows straight (I can’t remember, and if I’m honest, I had trouble remembering and counting rows while I was making them) then increase at each end of the next row. Finish with a cast-off which leaves you with the classic row of ‘V’s at the top, then break the yarn. Or leave enough for sewing in on each side & just start again.

This being an ideal train project, I ploughed through making the triangles in 4 different colours, but then had a quandary over what colour to make the joining string. We will put to one side the fact that Steve said people would think I was odd for knitting small triangles. We will put next to it the fact that the train gang did ask in a fairly mystified way what I was making.

To join it, I used the cream from my jazzy cardi – the same project all the other colours were from. I had a day off before Christmas to do some preparation and to watch Lily’s India Assembly, so before piling into school I watched Avatar and put the bunting together.

10 chains between each one, and a slip stitch in each of the cast off stitches across the top of the triangle.

It didn’t take long, and my next challenge was how to pack & wrap it without it becoming tangled. I went with a bit of a parcel effect which seemed to work OK.

The bunting now adorns the head end of Lily’s lower bunk, where I like to think its acting like a bit of a dream catcher.

Suffice it to say, it’s quite hard to get a good picture of this at any time, but especially hard at this time of year!

After many months if thinking about it, one set of bunting (finally) done!

My new extended family, acquired through my Dad, has introduced an important pre-Christmas birthday to my calendar. My step-mother’s birthday is a week before Christmas… Last year was a landmark so this year was a normal one. As things have been a bit hectic round our place (hence 2 blog posts instead of the planned 31) although I wanted to make something for Gill, it needed to be achieveable in a relatively small period of time.

I think it was the Facebook feed of my LYS which brought this fold-away bag to my attention.

As a bit of an Eco-nerd I like to carry spare tote bags with me. Although this is more of a classic buying-oranges bag, it seemed like a good idea, so I dove in.

The mercerised cotton came from knit-wise, my LYS (swings & roundabouts – they give me the idea, it seems only fair to give them my custom). If this was for me I’d probably have gone for red or hit pink – as Gill favours a more earthy, neutral palette I went for the colour usually known as “beige”.

I made one or two adjustments – instead of double crochet around the second/inside rim to join the two circles together, I used slip stitch. It seemed to lie a bit better. Around the top the pattern asked for 5 trebles in each gap. I started following the instructions, but it was coming out awfully frilly and flappy, so I unhooked & did 3 in each gap. That seemed like a good quantity.

Other than that, I did remarkably well on doing as I was told.

So, look: it’s a shopping bag. It’s this big:

…and it’s stretchy. I didn’t do any stress testing, but you’d easily get a couple of days’ worth of fruit in there. Or other things which are too big to fall through the holes.

I wouldn’t advise loose pens and cherry tomatoes may be unwise.

And, total bonus, it folds up into its base, like this:

If I’m honest, I’d like the folded bag to be smaller (it’s large-fist-sized) and the unfolded bag to be a bit bigger, but maybe I’m just after a companion for my moon on a stick. From a design point of view, it’s in perfect proportion – it’s not hard to get all of the bag in the pocket: an extra round or two might make that tricky. I may just need to live with the relative proportions, should I ever get around to making one for me. In pink. Or red. Or maybe purple.

Plus, I only just started the second ball of yarn, so all suggestions of what to do with just under 100g of DK-weight beige cotton are most welcome!

I have, among the several items crowding my new year knitting to-do list, a new pair of slippers to make for me. Our kitchen floor is quite cold (less so with the aga on, but still a bit chilly in the am) and so barefoot is rarely pleasant.

However, the fab pair I was given last Christmas was deteriorating at the sole of the big toe and occasionally got a bit precarious in the not-going-flying stakes.

On an “essentials” trip (side note, Joel now has enough moshi monsters pants that he only has to wear them for 2 days on 2 days per week instead of 6 days and then resort to briefs) to M&S, I spotted a simple fleecy pair in the sale.

You can hardly see I’ve got them on, which is quite a good thing, they will combine well with leg warmers, which I’m confident will be fashionable again any day now, and most importantly, my feet feel like they are about to burst into flame.

And now I have until these ones wear out to knit some replacements!

Well, my plan to post every day, or even frequently during December worked out well, didn’t it?!

I was clearly having a highly creative flow day when I thought it would be possible, however, December has turned out to be quite busy. We are hurtling into Christmas barely able to draw breath and occasionally thinking “ooh, I meant to do that – I’ll just finish this off first” – and then repeating it 4 hours later.

BUT ENOUGH ABOUT ME – what do YOU think about me?

I managed to complete some pre-Christmas crafting in time for its due event – I made a handy fold-away shopping bag for Gill’s Birthday. See how this…

…turns into this…

…which flattens out to this!

..which was very much admired. It’s not as big a bag as I would have hoped, but you could certainly fit 10 oranges in there no problem, which is the classic use for one of these bags I think. The folded away bag is probably bigger than I’d like as well, but unless I make it with spider’s webs, it’s always going to have *some* presence.

The bag was made mostly following this pattern, with some alterations – I did slip stitch instead of double crochet around the base, and only did 3 trebles per loop around the top as it felt quite “frilly” when I did 5. Other than that, I did as I was told. I used a nice quality mercerised cotton as well, so it has a slight sheen to it.

The button was re-purposed, possibly from one of Joel or Lily’s nursery craft projects, which makes me feel I’ve somehow contributed to the green cause. Pathetic, I know.

Anyway, I’ve made a couple more things I’ll feature here presently. In the meantime, pass the chocolate!