Wednesday 24 October 2012

I finished making

something yesterday - apart from putting the shoulders together.  It all started quite by chance. One of the local children was given something by her grandmother. It was one of those nifty little machines into which you can thread yarn, then turn the little handle on the side and - hey presto - abracadabra - a cord appears at the bottom.
It is the modern version of "tomboy" stitch, a "knitting nancy", a spool-tool, an i-cord maker etc etc. What we did with a wooden cotton reel, four nails and a hair or bobby-pin the modern child apparently does with the machine.
The problem is what you do with what you have made.
The girl had made rather a lot of the stuff and then told me, "But I don't know what to do with it."
I showed her an old book she could download. That had some ideas in it. She is not much of a sewer  and the cord needs to be sewn together but she made a couple of caps from it, a tea-cosy for her grandmother and some flowers on chains for her friends. There was still some cord left. She passed it over to me. Perhaps, she suggested, I could use the rest?
Right. I put it to one side with absolutely no idea what I could do with it. Then I was looking at something else. It has an i-cord border. Hmm. I thought some more - and some more. I detest sewing. It is something I find really difficult. I also detest waste. I was determined to use the stuff.
So I found an old sewing pattern for a vest and I drew the outline of it. I pinned some of the i-cord around the edge and then, over the last few months, I have been filling in the middle at random. I knitted some "leaves" - diamond shapes and worked around them with more i-cord. In between those I have wriggled and whirled the i-cord. The end result is "red" and there is a myriad of textures.
The resulting "garment" is something I would never wear but yes, it is interesting and it could be worn. The cord has not been wasted.  I will get a photograph and put it up on Ravelry. I still do not know how to put photographs on this blog - and really, I do not want to. This blog is for word-pictures.

2 comments:

jeanfromcornwall said...

That sounds like great fun - to make, and if you can find the somebody who wants to, to wear. I am looking forward to seeing it on Ravelry.

Anonymous said...

Waiting to see the finished item Cat - going to bring it to the library? Ros