I come from a family of knitters, The Old Bat knits, my sister knits, my step-mum knits, even my Dad was taught to knit as a child (as part of the physio care when he fell out of a tree and broke both arms!).
Attempt by The Old Bat to teach me to knit as a child were always something of a disaster. Perhaps not helped by the fact that she’s left handed and I’m not, and coming from a long line of german knitters I was being taught to knit the continental way (you hold the yarn in your left hand, wrapped around your finger which is held up in the air). I tested The Old Bat’s patience and she tested mine.
Last year’s ball was a very plain one, but I love the feeling of snowball it has.
A couple of years back I decided that with parental help a couple of hundred miles away, it was safe to have another go at knitting. Working on the ‘how hard can it be’ basis, I trotted into town bought a book, needles and yarn and was determined to tackle my lack of knitty ability. Now, whilst I can happily say that I can knit (and true to family tradition, I do knit yarn in left hand, finger dutifully in the air) crochet remains my favorite and my best apart from when December starts to creep around.
Please excuse the paint splattered hands!
As the evenings draw in and the John Lewis add starts to appear on the telly-box the urge to knit takes over – during my ‘I’m going to bloody well learn to knit’ phase, I bought these books by Arne and Carlos. I love them both, I love the pictures, the designs, the cosy idea that if we knit like mad and decorate our homes with enough knitted goodies all will be well with the world. For me they have become part of the run up to Christmas, along my log burner, getting out my copy of Nigella Lawsons ‘ Christmas’ book and filling the little pockets in the kids advent calendars.
I love both of these books by Arne and Carlos
My collection of knitted balls is slowly growing, anything ski / mountain related always goes down well in this house, so these were the first two I made.
Snow on the trees – makes me look forward to skiing even more….
I’m pretty sure that some of the colour changes wouldn’t stand up to close inspection, but that’s the joy of these little balls – it doesn’t matter, a little mistake on a christmas ball just adds to it’s homemade character. In amongst the chaos, food and wine that make up the festive season in our house, no one is going to notice anyway.
Mr Skier
This year I’m opting for the easy choice of stripes and playing around adding beads – I’m using up the yarn from my breaking waves cushion because even the scraps are just too lovely to be left in the bottom of my wool basket. Also because we’re in the midst of a decorating project at home at the moment when I do get the chance of a cup of tea and a sit down (sitting carefully on an old blanket as I am the messiest painter and decorator known to man) I need some crafty creativity that is easy on my decorating addled brain (too many paint fumes maybe?).
This year I’m playing around adding beads.
I think three of these lovelies will be perfect, then I can put my knitting needles away for another year and get back to the serious business of crochet!!
JPx
Even Jerry the cat likes the Arne and Carlos book…..
Crafts & Coffee 