A REAL Knitting Mystery

I am a true fan of Agatha Christie mystery novels. I think I've read about 25 of them. Poirot and Miss Marple are both so fun to read about. And I love all the other characters as well.

Speaking of Miss Marple, several years ago, I was watching an Agatha Christie televised movie called "A Caribbean Mystery", and noticed that the cameraman looked over Miss Marple's shoulder to show what she was knitting (a baby cardigan). It showed an actual pattern book, and the name of the pattern was "Diddle Dumpling".


I immediately went searching on the internet to find out if the pattern was real or not. After searching all over the place, I finally gave up. It must not be a real pattern after all. :(

Segue to 2011, and I'm perusing Ravelry, as I do every day. I had recently joined an Agatha Christie Ravelry Group called "Delicious Death", and mentioned the sweater in one of the discussions. The other group members were interested in the sweater as well. In fact, they said that this pattern has been the quest of several knitters for quite a while now.

Great minds can do wonders, especially if we are all tuned in together. Believe it or not, one of us FOUND the pattern!! She watched the episode over and over again, until she was able to figure out the name of the publisher. (Bairnswear) Then, she kept at it until she discovered the actual pattern book that had "Diddle Dumpling" in it. (Bairnswear #107) She even found a lady that sells PDF copies of the book!
http://www.theretroknittingcompany.co.uk/babypattern1.html



We were all SO PLEASED to have the pattern available to knit, so several of us quickly purchased the PDF from Sue at The Retro Knitting Company.

Now, we are doing a knit-along, making the same baby sweater as Miss Marple made. I think we are dedicated fans, don't you? :)

Oddball Charity Blankets

As usual, I've been doing lots of charity knitting. It's always a joy to share my knitted items with people who really appreciate them. :) I have several friends who feel the same way. Over the past 4 years, more than 200 of my knitting friends have been working together to make Oddball Blankets.

The project started in the Knitting Help Forum back in February of 2007, when I posted about an idea I had. I really loved talking to all my friends in the Knitting Help Forum online, and wished that I could see them all face to face. I thought that one way we could "connect" would be to work on a project together. So, I grabbed some knitting needles and started a blanket by casting on 200 stitches.



The next day, I posted about my idea in the forum, and everyone was interested! I showed them a photo of the blanket I had started, and by the end of the day, I had several knitters signed up to knit more sections on the blanket. It was a WILDFIRE! All of a sudden, MORE knitters signed up. I had to start four more blankets, so there would be spots available for everyone that wanted to participate.

Our blankets travelled from one knitter to the next, with the original knitting needles still attached. All each knitter had to do was choose a similar yarn, and knit a 3 inch section of the blanket, then mail it to the next person. Some of us added little gifts to give to the next knitter. It was a very special way for us all to connect with each other. We wrote about our time with the blanket in a little journal, and also posted about it in the forum, and on our knitting blogs.

The large blankets were very exciting, but took a very long time to complete. So, we decided to make smaller versions for babies in hospitals. They are really fun to make. The baby blankets each get a name, so they are easy to follow online. They finish up quickly, and in the end they are given to charity.

Our baby blankets are now being knit by people all over the United States and Canada. At one time, there were some Oddball Blankets being created in England and Australia as well. I haven't heard any more of them for the past two years, so I don't know if they are still going or not. One thing we've added with the Oddball Baby Blankets is a touch of crochet. Each of our baby blankets looks so much better with a crochet border. So, we've added a "Crochet Border Patrol" to our list of workers.




You'll find some Oddball Blanket groups on Ravelry: Oddball Charity Knitters, and Western Canada Oddball Blanket Society. There is also a group there that knits 100% WOOL Oddball Blankets: Wool-Aid

Our exciting project has been fun and has been a benefit to charity as well.

Today, I am packing up a box of two of our larger blankets, and mailing them to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota - the poorest spot in the US. The unemployment rate is 90% and the teen suicide rate is four times the national average. Basics such as running water, heat and food are scarce for many residents let alone jobs and health care. I've heard that they really appreciate handmade blankets, so I'm very happy to send our blankets their way.

Here are the blankets I'm sending to them:

Oddball Blanket #1


Oddball Blanket #4


Those blankets are two of the ones I started back in February of 2007. Now, it's four years later, and our blankets are finally ready to go to charity. It took a long time, and a lot of love. We should all be proud of the work we did. :)

I've already mailed one of our blankets to another Native American reservation in California. And I'm working on finishing up two more blankets as well. It's a joy to finish them up and see them finally going to charity.

Our projects are a joy to create, but expensive to mail. If you want to help out, but can't knit or crochet, you are more than welcome to help out with postage. You can donate by clicking the Paypal button on this blog, or by sending stamps to any of our Oddball Knitters. We appreciate any help you can give. :)

www.knittinghelp.com/forum

Pretty Vintage Baby Sweater Pattern

Back in June of 2006, I was out browsing in an antique shop, and I came across this nice vintage Woman's Day magazine from July, 1957:


Of course, I HAD to buy it, because it had a nice article about Grace Kelly knitting a sweet baby cardigan for her new little baby girl, Princess Caroline. :)



Such a sweet story, and a lovely baby sweater knitting pattern as well!

Here's the story:


and here's the pattern:


I haven't tried knitting the sweater myself yet, but I will!

Warm Wool Sweater

Recently, I knit a wool sweater for charity on the Bernat Blog. When I finished the sweater, I put it in the trunk of my car, so I could mail it when I'm out teaching.

Well, I've been sick lately, going to the doctor a lot, and only able to teach piano lessons occasionally. So, I haven't made it to the post office yet.

The other night, I was at choir practice at church, and it was a chilly night. I didn't have my jacket with me, but remembered the thick wool sweater in my trunk. So, I took it out, and tried it on. It fit!



And gosh, was it warm and comfy!

I was SO tempted to keep it for myself, but my conscience reminded me that this sweater is for a very cold person in Mongolia. They certainly need it more than I do. I have plenty more jackets and sweaters to keep me warm.

So, it's back in the trunk now, ready to be mailed. At least I enjoyed wearing it once!

Bernat Crochet & Knit-Along for Charity

Yippee! The Bernat CAL & KAL for Project Linus begins tomorrow!
http://bernatcares.com/make/blankets_for_project_linus.html

I hope that some of my friends will be joining in the fun. There is a discussion forum for us to talk about our blankets, and there are videos to help with making your blanket.

Can you tell I'm excited?!

So far, there are over 200 people signed up in the discussion forum, and the pattern hasn't even been released yet! I think the sound of our collective knitting needles and crochet hooks are gonna set off a sonic boom tomorrow! Ha!

CUTIE PIE!! Monster for Your Love

OMG! I'm in love with the cute little "Monster for Your Love" knitted toy on the Bernat website!



I really want to make one of these for my hubby for Valentine's Day. (and one for me too!)

I also like the sweet little "Comfort Pillow", covered with hearts.

Practicing Crochet Basics Again

This weekend, my hubby and I took a trip to our local library. We haven't been there in quite a while, so I had to update my library card. Little did I know, but I had a balance on account for late books! Ack! So, I paid all those pesky fees, and got everything right.

While browsing through the DVDs and books at the library, I noticed the stand of CDs to check out. In the stand, I found "Crochet Made Easy" by Coats and Clark, so I decided to check it out.


I'm SO glad I decided to use this CD. It has encouraged me to re-learn the basics of crochet. I've always had trouble at the end and beginning of rows. Sometimes, my projects get a little wonky, because I did a row wrong. So frustrating! :(

I was also unsure about how to work in the foundation chain. I didn't know if I should work under 1 or 2 strands of yarn on that row. Now, I know that I work under ONE strand on the foundation chain, then under TWO strands on every row after the first row is done.

The lessons on the CD are very easy to follow. You can pause the video when you want to think about something, then click "play" again when you're ready to move on. After just a couple hours, I had re-learned basic stitches, and learned some new ones as well!

Now, I know how to do SC, HDC, DC, TC, DTC, and TTC. Before today, I didn't even KNOW about Double Treble Crochet or Treble Treble Crochet.

While following the lessons, I took some notes about each stitch. I knew that I would never be able to remember everything later, so I decided to put my notes in spreadsheet form for easy reference later. Maybe it will help some of you also!



Now, I feel MUCH more confident about my stitches in crochet. And I think I will remember where to start and end each row better now.

My next lesson on the CD will be about increasing and decreasing. I've made these two little swatches to use for the lessons. The one on the left is all single crochet, and the one on the right is double crochet. Each swatch is 11 stitches wide:


I'll try to post some photos of my increasing & decreasing projects tomorrow. Wish me luck in remembering to do it! Ha!