Month: June 2023

Fiona Blue Pattern

It is hot outside. The air wraps hot curls of heat around my bare legs when I walk in the city. It is not a day to promote Winter traditional Shetland motif mittens. But these mittens are a little special. They were designed with a wonderful woman in mind – Fiona, who had the bluest of eyes.

To everyone who knew her, it was devastating when Fiona suddenly died. I wanted to knit something to remember her by and to share her name.

Last month, I published a little pattern in her memory. for the first month of sale, 50% of profits will be sent to Macmillan Cancer Support.
The initial blog is here

It is the last week before I will send the charity donation to Macmillan, so I thought that, if you would like to donate and get a little pattern in return, then, here is a gentle reminder. The pattern is in the link below

the pattern is here

If you have already knitted this pattern, please tag me in your project on instagram, then I can share the work.

with thanks to Karen Sprenger for test knitting (bottom left image) and to Ericka Eckles for swatching test colours and gauge (bottom right image), for this little pattern.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fiona-blue

best wishes

Tracey

Update:-

On Sunday 18th June, I sent a donation of £188.00 plus £47 gift aid, making a total of £235 to MacMillan Cancer Support in the memory of Fiona Gray of Bressay, Shetland.

Just a little string

A couple of weeks ago, I gathered a big bunch of rhubarb stems, to harvest their skins because I wanted to make cord, or string.  Hoping for red.

I washed the rhubarb stems in a bucket of water then tried to peel the skins off.  Some lengths were successful, some less so, but I saved all the strands and hung them on a string across the kitchen window.  I froze the rhubarb in the hope of making crumble when the apples come. ( I might do a crumble party – with ice cream)   Crumble party in the autumn anyone?

I left the skins hanging on the string until they became dry / brittle.

After my unsuccessful attempt at making a tiny basket out of lily leaves, I turned to the red rhubarb skins, soaked them briefly so that they were pliable again, and twisted them into a length of string. (string, I can do)

I love the tactile act of twisting the natural fibres and the anticipation of what it might look like when it dries.

Above is after twisting the fibres, below is the dried little bundle a few days later.  It kept most of its colour

Now I have two tiny bundles of hand made string and I am on the lookout to collect more fibres.  It’s addictive.  The Iris leaves are definitely going to be next and I have my eye on long grasses.

Just a little string that I made.  

https://ko-fi.com/traceydoxey