This image of tree bark sprung to mind shortly after I had spoken to the obsessive knitter and brother after the recent earthquake in New Zealand. Even if half the obsessive’s glass collection was in tatters on the floor, and an out of sorts chimney stack was leaning precariously to many sides, I was glad they were safe and sound, hearing the sighs of relief in their voices and mine.

The obsessive knitter and I want this website to inspire, to encourage you to create your own ideas. We won’t dictate a pattern that you will create without question – that’s just not what this is about. So, we will regularly post inspirational words and images that we hope will get you thinking about the crafts, including knitting, in a different way.

The image – why did it spring to mind? It was something about the cracks in the bark, like mini-tectonic plates, where the old is swept away and reborn, anew.

The word fissure encapsulates it – those cavities that encourage and reveal new ways of looking at life; the tremors and vibrations (often felt on the other side of the world) that invigorate and inspire fresh perspectives.

What does this image make you think of? Would it inspire you to create, and if so, what would you create? What colours would you use?

Can you knit an earthquake?

BDW

Mustard Moss Stitch Scarf

Everything comes to those who wait.
That mustard wool had hidden in the stash for at least thirty years, waiting its turn to be chosen as ‘the one‘ for today.

Patiently, silently it accused me of neglect.  Thoughtlessly, I used it as a trail, a pattern test for size and drape, knitted it in moss stitch, then once again cast it aside.  Again it waited, fabric now, until he discovered it and fell in love.

Discovered, coveted, wrapped around his neck, it has now flown to the other side of the world to live in beauty.

Every knitted piece, eventually, finds the one who loves it.

To knit the scarf:

Play with your swatch until you have achieved the feel and the look you want, then knit to your heart’s content and wear with joy.
Length  180cm
Width  34cm
10 by 10cm swatch: 13 stitches across, 20 rows

Knitted in Moss Stitch, on an uneven number of stitches, you do not have to count and remember which stitch you begin a row with as it will always be a knit stitch.
So, knit 1, purl 1 until you have yourself a scarf.

MBW

Red and white and crisp

I seem to be recalling a lot of childhood music that my family used to sing when I was little. The tunes flood in from nowhere. Not sure why, but it is wonderful to hum the songs that surrounded my childhood.

I also seem to want to surround myself with the colours that I loved as a child. Red has always been my colour. Fire engine red, poppy red, orange-red, blood-red (that deep blue to the base). When I found wool that was flecked with a good, deep red contrasted with white, I knew I had found the perfect material for something. And then it came to me – winter (or Christmas, to us Northern hemisphere dwellers) mittens. Those big paddles that mittens make of your hands are another fond childhood memory. Perfect for hard, crisp snowballs. Ready, aim….

It was an easy pattern that I mostly made up myself. Big needles, big wool meant the mittens took no more than two evenings.  BDW