March 2013

I'm making shells. Small ones at first, but once I figure out the pattern there could be giant twirly shell cushions in my future.

01/04/2013

Bonus Pattern

I've updated the Whelk Pattern as a bonus this month. In the end I went with knitting followed by shaping rather than shaping as part of the knitting, one was just as much work as the other.

24/03/2013

Whelk

I've spent all day knitting twisty things. The last one, when squished correctly and viewed from one specific angle, looks like a whelk shell.

The shape is very easy to knit, it's the forming into a spiral that takes thought. I can't decide if I want the pattern to include the shaping, or if that should happen afterwards.

17/03/2013

Greetings Fellow Knitters

I've received some lovely photos from fellow knitters and thought I would share a few of them. I would also like to apologise to anyone who has emailed me and never had a reply, the spam filter on my email account got a bit over-keen!

Photograph © NavyBlur

Congratulations to Aisling who carried this beautiful bouquet of knitted roses at her wedding, and thanks to Roisin who did the knitting.

Photographs © Jaea

Jaea has been designing her own knitting patterns. I especially like the smiley face that's so summery and cheerful, just what I need when it's been snowing so much.

16/03/2013

The Next Step

One cockle shell pattern typed up and ready to go!

It's left me with a few questions still to think about:

1. How can I make it obvious that I'm knitting a modern shell and not another entry in my collection of fossils? I've typed up the pattern but the brown I've used for the shell in the photo looks a lot more grey and rock-like than I intended.
2. The shells I find on the beach are coloured on the outside but pearlescent white on the inside. Is this possible to replicate in one layer of knitting?
3. Shells themselves are like fine china: thin walled and rigid. Does my pattern hold its shape while maintaining the same delicacy?

After thinking about it I've decided:

1. Colours! More Colours! Better Colours! I've got whole rainbows of shells in my collection. Fossils don't have the same range.
2. Not really. I could knit two layers (one coloured, one white) and sew them together. The reverse of the ribs works well as the inside of the shell so I wouldn't have to change the pattern, just make it twice. But that seems a shame when...
3. The pattern holds its shape well as only one layer and this helps reflect the delicate nature of the shells. The internet tells me there are ways to further stiffen knitting into a set shape which would be fun to try. Popular methods are coating with glue, starch, flour/water or a specially designed textile hardener.

So the trickiest problem is getting the inside and outside to be different colours. Last October I experimented with dying my knitting. That wasn't exactly a success but I'm not going to give up on the idea of adding colour after I've made something. Maybe I could knit a white shell and paint colour on the outside?

Hmmmm.....

09/03/2013

Quite Contrary Knitting

On the beach nearest here the types of shell I most often find are cockle and whelk. I've chosen to make a cockle shell first because... um... no reason.

I've spent the whole day knitting. It's gone something like this...

Knit, knit, knit. Nope.
Knit, knit, knit. Nope.
Knit, knit, knit. Nope.
Knit, knit, knit. Nope.
Knit, knit, knit. Nope.

In other words I knitted a shell, wasn't happy with it, and tried again. Over and over again.

Here are a few stops in the evolution of my (knitted) cockle shell.

Nope. I didn't like the ribs.

Nope. Too flat.

Nope. Too wide.

Nope. Too tall.

Hmm. Pretty OK actually.

I spent hours more knitting of course, but kept coming back to this design as the best of the bunch.