The Yarn Gallery

It did come as a bit of a surprise, to find my partner had volunteered our home to 5 visitors from Papua New Guinea, 3 of which had never left the Rain Forest before. So whilst they have been enjoying the comforts of mattresses and indoor plumbing we have been roughing it in a tent in the garden. Fortunately we have been blessed with the best and driest weather for years!!

Its been quite an amazing experience especially the morning spent trading craft skills. The girls were showing me how the roll the fibre from inside a tree on their legs, rolling two strands and plying it at the same time. Once they had made a few meters they began knotting it into a bag, stopping the bag to extend the yarn by rolling more fibre on to it.

They then had hours of laughter trying to master the spinning wheel. They where amazed at the speed we could make our yarn with such a tool as the wheel, little did they know how badly and slowly I spin!!!

Foul purple cardigan knitted during a wet washout of a holiday in Devon. Bought the yarn and pattern in an old department store that was closing down in desperation for something to do. Paid a small fortune that we really couldn’t afford but drove my husband mad because I had nothing to do. Knitted it for almost a week and had a half a sleeve to do but whilst packing to come home I lost a ball of the yarn so it remained in the bottom of my basket for years to remind me to take something with me when I go on holiday! Threw it away about a month ago when I embarked on a mission to use up all my leftover yarn and un-used stash!! I am quite proud of the pile of socks, gloves, scarves and hats that have cost me nothing (??!) and are ready for Christmas. When my baskets are empty I can knit something for me – yippee!! Sadly no picture, just bitter memories

Sorry, I don’t have a photo but when I was a teenage schoolgirl at boarding school I started crocheting (mostly in the dark after lights-out) a scarf in yellow bri-nylon 4 ply baby yarn (yuk). I had 2 full packs of this yarn (approx24 balls in each) plus lots of loose balls (that I had unpicked from baby jumpers & blankets )and I crocheted & crocheted until it was all used up. It was so long that it went round about 5 human necks, (about twice on each). It was used as a skipping rope, to tie people to the rugby posts and many other bizarre uses. My brothers used it as a tree swing and goodness knows how many other uses they had for it. After completing that project i Vowed NEVER again to use Nylon yarn………………………… and I haven’t!

I’ve not been knitting very long. I recently finished making a long waistcoat in big chunky. It was great it knitted up quick but sadly deposits red fluff on everything and breaks easily if it gets unravelled. As for the red fluff i think i will be finding it for months! My poor husband even found some in his dinner oops

I made this Alpaca baby cardi for my sister’s baby girl. She wont put it on her because she says it makes her look like a boy. Also I Hate the way the yarn has pooled on the sleeves and I didnt enjoy knitting with it either so all in all it was a bit of a disaster.

I have had many knitting disasters, from a knitted coat, in which the wool stretched so the coat dropped to floor length.  A Ravelry cardigan knit in, it would have fitted an elephant to a beautiful jumper my hubby wore once then shrank it so it would fit a 2 year old. Sorry no pictures.

The ugliest yarn I ever bought was online. The colour looked a soft subtle lime green – when it arrived it was bright acid yellow. It is still in the cupboard as I have never met anybody I dislike enough to knit it for.

My biggest failure was a jumper for my baby grandson from a Bergere de France pattern. It involved using a fluffy yarn and a wool in the same colour. My life was in turmoil at the time and when I came to sew up the various pieces nothing fitted together and I was reduced to tears of frustration.

A friend who is a keen mathematician came to the rescue and spent hours painstakingly working out how everything fitted together and then sewing it up. I hated it but several years later my daughter-in-law remarked that the jumper had been a favourite of hers and perhaps I could knit another in a bigger size. I declined.

April 2008 I decided I would try the non-animal yarns, soy and bamboo. I chose an “asymmetrical top” to knit – pattern and yarn both S***ar. The bamboo seemed soft, pleasant and drapey, but was in fact just soft and saggy. It split horridly and the ends wouldn’t stay weaved in. On gentle finishing wash it distended until it looked like it had not just been appallingly knitted, but also sewn together by someone who didn’t understand the principle!
The last laugh was after uploading it on Ravelry as an “ugh” my photo was requested and used to illustrate the pattern – why??

I knitted myself an aran jumper in a beautiful cream yarn, only problem was when I washed it , it grew and grew and grew. What started as a jumper almost finished as a dress but it was wonderfully warm on a winters morning when attending to the horses!

I was given a scarf kit of Patons Whisper – it was a nightmare to knit – I made a cobweb shawl and then on New Years Eve I lost concentration on the last row and had to bodge it. Fortunately my mother’s eyesight is not brilliant and she likes it!