Knitted Scarecrow

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My three-year-old grandson watched me knitting soft toys for friends, and paged through my patterns. Then he asked me if I could knit the scarecrow shown on the front of Jean Greenhowe's 'knitted toys' book.

I gulped a little - it's quite a complex and highly detailed pattern - but said I probably could. He's quite keen on scarecrows, and although I did suggest various alternatives, he stuck to his choice. I said I would send it to him for Christmas.

The first part to knit was the trousers, which are done as two pieces in sideways stripes in stocking stitch with the purl facing outwards. They were easy enough. The main body part is knitted with the head as a single piece, and also proved relatively straightforward. Then, keen to see how it looked, I started sewing it together... unfortunately, I was quite tired, and forgot that the trousers were 'inside out', so to speak. So I then had to un-stitch it, by which time I was fed up of sewing. I decided to keep knitting and sew it all together at the end.

None of the rest of the clothes sections were particularly complicated, though at times I wondered how the different sections were going to work out. I tried to follow the given colours as closely as possible, using up yarn I had already. The only change I made was to knit hands rather than mittens, in the same colour as the face.

The hair and fringes seemed complex when I read the instructions. But they were quite straightforward, wrapping loops around fingers before knitting into them. I have learned from experience that if I follow Jean Greenhowe's instructions exactly, they work. I don't have to understand them in advance.

I took a break from the scarecrow to knit the puppy for a friend, then resumed, doing perhaps half an hour per day, collecting the pieces in a ziplock bag.

Eventually I reached the end of the scarecrow part of the knitting. Only the three add-on creatures to do. I put the head, body and trousers to one side, and spread the other pieces on the floor:

At this stage, I rather wished I'd gradually stitched it together, as the instructions suggested!

I had to do the body first, however. Not wishing to un-stitch the head and body parts, it took several attempts (with pins) before I worked out how to attach the trousers, the right way round this time. It was quite a relief to have that done and ready to stuff:

It was then very easy to attach the hat, the nose and the feet, and to make a mouth. It took a couple of hours to get to this stage, and I'd had enough of sewing by then.. but at last it was starting to look like a scarecrow. It even stood up by itself:

A couple of days later, I made the eyes (knotted yarn, not felt pieces that might detach). Then I attached the hair and cut the loops. I managed to work out which of the little pieces were the bow tie and the belt sections, and attached those too.

In my next sewing session, I attached the jacket - done in several pieces garter stitch, so it was quite easy.  My one deviation from the instructions was to have the thumbs facing downwards rather than upwards, which felt more natural.

The coat has tails at the back, with two of the little knitted decorative buttons like this:

It took one more session to complete the basic scarecrow, with fringes at the ankles and wrists (I didn't cut the loops, as they looked fine as they are, and are much less likely to come out). The little flower on the jacket lapel was the last thing for the basic scarecrow.

I was quite pleased with the result, and to my surprise it still stood up, if balanced carefully, at least for a minute or two:

In between sewing sessions, I had knitted the small pieces of animals: a robin for the shoulder, a mouse for the hat, and a ladybird for one of the feet. They were all quick and straightforward. In my final sewing session, I stuffed and sewed them in place. I could no longer get the scarecrow to balance, so here's the completed toy against the corner of a sofa:

Now I have to trust it to the international mail... it's been quite enjoyable, albeit frustrating at time to make this, but it's not something I want to do again. At least, not for a while. 

A quiet 'day in the life'....

Since the family departed, I have taken very few photos. I've been scanning a lot of negatives from the 1960s and 1970s, both my own and some of my father's, and knitting, and proof-reading a book which my brother is writing. These don't take up my whole time, yet the days seem to move on increasingly fast. I suppose it's a sign of late middle age.

However, one photo I did take was of a Middle Eastern wedding, which took place on the beach where we were sitting with our friends, a couple of weeks ago. As we watched, hotel staff came and set up chairs and a table, guests started to arrive - the men in suits and ties, the women in dresses and high heels, which looked a bit awkward on the sand. After a while the bride and groom arrived, and the ceremony itself cannot have been more than ten minutes. People out on the beach watched with interest. Three of the children from our group went up quite close...

Today, I haven't spoken to another person (cats excluded). For an Introvert like me, that's actually a relaxing and energising way to spend a day. Richard went up to Nicosia yesterday, in preparation for providing PA for a day conference organised by some friends. So he's been out all day. Last night I decided I'd read in bed for a couple of hours, so went upstairs around eight o'clock, the cats having put themselves to bed already (we shut them into our dining room/kitchen area overnight so they don't wake us in the early hours!).

As ever, after about an hour my eyes started to droop, and I eventually turned out my light about 9.30pm and must have fallen asleep immediately. I woke shortly after 5.30am.  Normally, at this time of year, I would then go for a walk with my friend Sheila. But they're away at present, and I can rarely motivate myself to walk by myself, unless I'm doing some errands.

After feeding the cats, dealing with cat litter and reading for a while, I realised that I had forgotten to soak the dried fruit for a 'celebration cake' I was planning on baking this morning. I'm not being ultra organised for Christmas; this is an extra one which I promised some years ago to Richard, for his forthcoming special birthday. So I weighed the fruit, and put it in brandy, and put it aside.

I was also planning on making another batch of tomato ketchup today, and some more apple-and-tomato chutney. I had bought a 4kg bag of tomatoes at the local fruit stall a couple of days ago, for the grand price of a euro. They were still in good condition, but I needed to start using them.  So I chopped apples, and onions, and garlic, and tomatoes and started them both off in separate large pans.

I should perhaps also mention that in the middle I had mend my kitchen scales; they're very light, and have a tendency to stick to the bowl. I keep on forgetting, and I don't know how many times they have landed on the floor. I managed to break at least one set in the past by doing this, and our last set became unreliable, weighing incorrectly, after such a crash.  My current scales seem to be quite sturdy, and are still accurate... but today's crash made part of the insides come off and rattle around. I had to find a cross-point screwdriver and undo them to fix it - and was quite pleased with myself for succeeding.

I glanced at the time... and it was already eight o'clock. Time for breakfast, and a glance at my email and Facebook...

Then I washed up the utensils I'd been using; when I poured out the washing up water, a cockroach (shudder) ran out of the sink and behind the microwave. These are an ongoing problem in Cyprus in the summer; I've reached the stage where I no longer drop everything, scream, and leave the room. At least, not every time I see one. Instead I armed myself with Biokill and sprayed behind the microwave.  I turned around to stir the chutney, and turned back in time to see the roach running down the counter top and into a corner.

I didn't want to chase it around the kitchen spraying more potentially toxic insecticide, even if Biokill is milder than most. So I grabbed our large broom from the utility balcony, and swept the roach outside. I'm getting a lot braver.

Once the computer's on, it's easy to get distracted. There was an interesting discussion on one of the Facebook groups I'm on. I decided to start scanning some negatives... and kept going, finishing two or three films rather than just one. I answered a few questions on an online forum I participate in... and kept finding more that I could respond to.  I played moves in my Lexulous games. I checked my email. I briefly browsed the BBC news site.

In between doing those things, I kept popping to the kitchen to stir the chutney. I decided to move all the appliances on the worktops and clean behind them, but only did a couple at a time. I made our bed with clean sheets, as I do on Saturdays now, and I put on some laundry.

I usually clean the house on Saturdays too, and try to get that done before lunch-time, but my back was aching after all the chopping of vegetables, and I kept getting distracted by the computer. I followed links to interesting articles on Facebook. I went to Picasa, my photo-editing software, to check the results of the negatives I'd been scanning, and to add names to the faces.

Then I spent half an hour at Memrise - where I'm teaching myself some world geography, and Greek vocabulary - and DuoLingo, where I'm attempting to get better at modern Greek.  Not that I seem to make much progress in understanding other people speaking Greek - and almost everyone we know speaks excellent English anyway.

After lunch I dusted the whole house with my long-handled faux feather duster, including the ceiling fans, then turned them on as it was getting a bit humid. Summer is coming to an end, with the temperatures 'only' about 30C in the shade, at the most, so I was a bit surprised at the sticky feeling this afternoon.  I'm still using air conditioning in my study, as computers can't deal with anything over about 28C.

After another break at the computer (more photos, more forums, a Sudoku game) I swept the whole house, vacuumed the living room rug and dining room chairs, then mopped everywhere.  In between times, I sterilised six jars and transferred the newly-finished chutney to it.

Later, I labelled the chutney and put it away, next to the mango chutney I made at the end of August. I don't particularly enjoy making chutney, but I like eating it very much, so am always pleased to have a supply that should last us at least another six months or so.

When I'd finished the cleaning, I sat down at the computer again and caught up with some email.  And Facebook, and forums, and did a bit more photo organising...

By the time I'd had something to eat in the evening, I realised it was too late to make the cake, which might have to cook for three or four hours, so I'll do that tomorrow. I cleared up the kitchen, yet again, and put the dishwasher on. I am still, after eleven years in this house, very thankful indeed for my dishwasher.

I've been thinking for a few days that I needed to write a blog post, so although I was going to close my computer down an hour ago, I thought I'd 'just start' one. As ever, once I'd started, it was hard to stop...

The cats had a bit of a fracas this evening; Alex went out for a while, and then Jane started attacking him when he came in again. It's happened a couple of times before, usually when he's got into fights. I don't know what caused it this time, but I separated them for a while.  Happily, she soon got over it. And while I was in the middle of writing this blog post, Alex came and started nibbling my legs, a sign that he wants me to go to the kitchen with him. I did so, and as Jane came too - and was quite affectionate with him - I shut them in for the night.

Oh, and if anyone's read this far, and is wondering where our grandchildren and their parents are... they are at last on the Logos Hope.  It's less than a month since they departed from Cyprus, though it feels like considerably longer. They spent a week in Canada with other relatives, then flew to the Dominican Republic. Yes, that country on a small island in the Caribbean, shared with Haiti, where two hurricanes have hit in the past couple of weeks. We were very anxious as Hurricane Irma approached, but they were in a large building with other new recruits on the south of the island, and - when they briefly managed to get online - we learned that the only effect for them was heavy rain. The ship and the crew had to go out to sea for a couple of days.

Our family and the other new recruits (around 100 people in all) have joined the ship now, according to its site updates, and again had to go a way out to sea when the port closed as Hurricane Maria drew new. They should be back by now, so we hope to hear from them soon.

Knitted Puppy

I had knitted toys or ornaments for four siblings, and just one birthday remained. This was for a girl soon to turn nine years old. She paged through all my patterns, before deciding she would like the one labelled, simply, 'puppy' in the Jean Greenhowe Knitted Animals book.

I didn't have any yarn of the colour shown in the book, and couldn't find any at the local shops. Eventually I found quite a nice tan/brown, and my friend said that would be fine.

I didn't start knitting it until a couple of weeks before her birthday. The body and front legs are all once piece; a bit fiddly, but not too time-consuming. The head wasn't then too difficult, either. My heart always sinks when I see instructions that begin, 'increase in every stitch' right after casting on. I knit quite tightly, and never like increasing in every stitch. However, there weren't too many stitches, and it wasn't too painful.

When I got to the collar piece (in red) I was mystified by the instructions. But I trust Jean Greenhowe, so kept knitting.. and then, when sewing it together, realised that it's not just a collar but a whole piece of neck, so to speak, all red. It would have been clearer if the top and bottom parts were brown, I think.

I didn't see how it was going to go together until finally, a day before the birthday, I stuffed and sewed the whole thing up. It took nearly two hours to complete it; I don't like this stage at all, so usually leave it to the end. Just two double lengths of yarn were supposed to hold the head and collar in place, leaving the head free to move. The pattern did say to sew it fully if given to a young child, but my friend isn't going to try and eat it.. however I did put some more stitches in, to make it more secure.

The result was, I think, quite pleasing:

There were accessories given too, a bowl and a bone. Embroidering 'DOG' seemed a bit pointless but I hadn't discussed this with my friend, so I thought I'd better follow the picture. I didn't put any cardboard in the base of the bowl; I thought it would make it more child-friendly as it would be washable, but it meant it wasn't so solid despite two layers of knitting. The bone was very quick and easy to make.