SCARF OF DOOM.

Ingrid is staying with her parents at the moment, while her Mum has a knee replacement. They have been doing a lot of knitting together and trying out new techniques. Ingrid knits on the train on the way to work in Winchester, while she listens to podcasts. Pictured here is the view out of the train window.

2/3 years ago, Ingrid started knitting a scarf for her girlfriend, to go with her green coat. They split up before the scarf was finished. It sat in a ziploc bag at the bottom of her yarn hamper, and made her feel sad. She named it the 'Scarf of Doom'. Ingrid's mum made some socks out of the rest of the yarn.

Pulling it out of the hamper for the UFO project, Ingrid feels better. She thinks it is pretty and is proud of her work, but she would rather see what someone else could do with it. 

RED WAVE FROM THE PAST.

Clare's Mum was clearing out a cupboard and found this red glove. She is not really sure where it came from but it is likely to have been started by Clare's great Aunt, who was a queen of UFOs, with all her projects in little plastic bags. She would often give Clare little bits and pieces when she was a child which inspired her love of textiles.

MINTY SQUARE BUT FOLDED THING.

Knitted on tiny needles, this little minty square thing has a little bit of shaping which makes it fold in half but that is all we can tell you.

It came to us from Sue who has a stall on Broadway Market.

PUSHING.

Completed, perfect and extraordinary knitted objects have been flying in all week. 

What a PUSH you are all making for completion....the UFOs are giving us all a lot of problems, sleepless nights etc, 

Each project has started with problems. Every successful project has a pain barrier, but with the 'Someone elses' UFO' the barrier is at the start, and can continue for a while. The only way to break through the pain barrier is with a PUSH. We are all pushing really hard and good results are coming. Each project is so different, but I love hearing about the relationships with these pieces and how determined you are to fix all the problems. I'm finding it moving.

Pictured here is Louise's solution to the 'Candy Stripe Shoulder and Half a Bust' which was knitted in short rows. It was impossible to know what the garment was meant to look like, but Louise just loved the shape and it's colour. Louise started knitting the same shape over and over again. She did not worry about what the piece would end up being, because it had endless possibilities, and the joy was in the repetition. She is content with this wonderfully happy construction. It's like the pieces all have their arms around each other.

3/5 TH'S FLUFFY CHILD'S CARDIGAN.

Barley at Fabrication's gave us 3/5th's of a child's cardigan which one of her customer's brought in, with no pattern and no yarn. It is a lovely pattern, and would make a baby very cosy.

OTHER SOCK.

Ellen's advanced second sock syndrome, was so advanced, that she gave up before she finished the first one. Part of the problem was not remembering who the sock was for, even though this person must have had quite big ankles. 

BEIGE DENIAL JUMPER.

Ellen got a couple of inches into this jumper before admitting that the yarn, although washable, was too hideous to waste her time on. It was destined for her boyfriend but she couldn't do that to him....

PERVERSE PURPLE NUMBER.

Ellen is giving away her perverse purple angora jumper. She loved the colour, loved the pattern, loved the yarn and couldn't wait to wear it. A joy to knit, and yet she put it down two years ago and never picked it up again. She wanted to look like a sexy cookie monster but thinks that deep down she didn't deserve it.  

Can anyone help Ellen with this fantasy? There is enough yarn and a pattern to finish it......

MRS. MINIVER'S PETULANT SOCK.

Ellen dropped a few stitches and refuses to pick them up again, partly because she can't remember who the sock was for in the first place. Ellen says it was possibly a 'wait and see who it fits job' which, it would seem, it is!

Ingrid in Waterlooville tackled the petulant grey sock. She explains what happened..

"I was thinking about relationships and how two people can become very interdependent on one another. Also about what we bring to a relationship. There is a geometry problem called Mrs. Miniver's Problem that is about over lapping circles. It has a basis in a story....

is reached when the area of the two outer crescents, added together, is exactly equal to that of the leaf-shaped piece in the middle. On paper there must be some neat mathematical formula for arriving at this; in life, none.

The sock pattern lent itself to this idea rather well, as instead of finishing the toe, I knit another heal and up the leg, so it would be a metaphor for a relationship between two people. I interpreted the idea of the circles into knitting by making the circles 3-D, turning them on their sides and making staggered transitions rather than a venn diagram idea. I wanted to make the transition between one sock and the other pretty obvious so I used the contrasting yarn, and also (in somewhat of a stereotype I admit) made a female sock. Actually while I was making it, it was more about the relationship between the origional sock maker and me, si I made the second sock to be the one that I would wear (that is to say an emerald green sock with a frilly cuff).

It is perhaps a warning not to get too hung up on one another or you might not have enough of yourself left to keep adding anything to that relationship. I rather like that nobody can wear it. That it's something that is generally thought of as a practical garment, but I've been able to make into a piece of impractical art. I think it might be part of a series."

Wow...Ingrid....thank you so very much for these lovely thoughts.

PURPLE EXPERIMENT.

Dorothy and her daughter have struggled with this cardigan. They were given the purple yarn, which was a bit to bright and scratchy so they mixed it with a navy blue wool. Blue did soften the colour but not the texture, which is rather rough.  Dorothy's daughter knitted up the cardigan but got stuck on how to finish the neckline, which due to it's roughness, curls up. There was some indecision as to how the bottom ribbing should be, as it seemed too long, so they'd started to hem it.  With the hem and the collar still not working, Dorothy thought it best to un ravel the whole thing and use the yarn for something else, so she made an incision in the right front panel, and started to un ravel, but that wasn't working either so she has donated the whole thing to UFO administration. 

WOULD THESE FIT ANYONE?

Sue's aunty in Wales can't remember which doll this was meant for, or whether the doll is still with the family.

2 WHITE LEGS.

Well we think they are legs, but as I said, we shouldn't say what we think, it is what you think that matters.

YELLOW SOCK LIKE THINGS.

Sue's aunty knitted these. We don't want to say  'yellow socks '  because it might spoil your imagination! Two yellow sock like things are ready for any number of new lives.

ODD ARMS.

These arms might look the same but they are not. One is shorter than the other by a few rows. Someone left them behind at Fabrications, and they have no story and not much character. 

2 BLUE TRIANGLES.

Sue saved two blue fluffy triangles for us. Could be the start of a bikini or badges and patches on  a jumper.

2 1/2'S OF SLEEVES.

Helen in Surbiton was making a pregnant attempt to knit a cardigan for her son, but the truth is she was only doing it because of a pressure she felt from her mother in law, who could knit brilliantly and made Helen feel lazy every time she came round.  Mother in law was impressed with this cable, so Helen felt her work was done. We are not sure what Helen has made, it seems to be one vertical half of a sleeve and a horizontal half of a sleeve, but it does have potential.

PODS FROM WALES.

Miss Harries loves nature and started making 'pod shapes' to hang up.  It was one of those 'in between, work in progress' projects where you are working something out and thinking. Miss Harries stuffed them with essential oils so they smell rather nice and repel moths. 

I have sent these pods to Hannah, who lives with her parents and four sisters in Romford. Hannah is about to start architectual college, so I thought she might like the wierd shapes.

TWISTED THING.

Poor Hannah, from Leytonstone 6th form college, got the hang of knitting straight away, and went clicking away on circular needles to make this.......ummm......twisted thing.  It probably only took one twisted stitch on the first row to make this very interesting piece which will never be a normal hat. We wish Hannah every success when she goes to a new college to study Architecture next term.

Deirdre in Co. Antrim says she is going to give this piece 'Twist and Shout' if not 'Rock and Roll'!

Good luck Deirdre!

LOUISE'S UFO'S TAKE OFF.

After many years of dedication to knitting and crochet, Louise ended up with a lot of UFO's in her cupboard, and turned them all into this amazing bat wing cardigan. One day I will interview her about all the different parts, but for now, let's just watch her be beamed up.

WHITE GUERNSEY.

I can't resist taking this one on.  It will take yonks to finish.  Caralyn Rawlinson started this guernsey in 5ply guernsey wool on 2.25mm circular needles.  The whole thing will be knitted in the round up to the shoulders, the shoulders knitted together and then the arm holes will be cut to set in the sleeves. That is scary. I don't know if Caralyn meant to put a post code pattern in, but I am starting to knit some pictures up the chest and back...which will not be finished in time for the Jerwood show...

TIGHT HAT.

Zarah was looking after the Hyperbolic Crochet Reef at the Knitting and Stitching Show last year and to pass the time she thought she would attempt a cabled hat on circular needles. We think she could have done with bigger needles because it got too tight. 

Whatever happened, Zarah can't face it anymore. It's too small for most heads.

The brown wool is 100% pure so you could felt it.

Ellen, who is studying at the Royal college of art, has transformed this piece. Here is a copy of her letter.

'I turned the hat into a lobster -pot -thing with lobster and seaweed. No story behind it, really. The shape suggested the top of a birdcage (I'm a bit obsessed with birdcages) but deceided a lobster was more fun to make than a bird. It was done freeform, and very hurriedly, hence the uh, eccentric shape. Still, there's nothing more tedious than a perfect lobster pot is there?

Best wishes, Ellen.

HALF A DONATION BOX.

Last summer Susi stitched some beautiful little messages into corsages for her show at PYF. She didn't want to put a price on them so she thought it best to ask people for donations and just take one. Rosemary started making her a donation box, but couldn't get it finished before all the popular corsages had gone. If you have a need for donations, you could be half way there!

SNIPPIT OF SCOTLAND.

A classic piece of Fairisle in beautiful colours made on about 2mm needles and held on a proper old fashioned white headed safety pin. It was made by Mrs. Brooks, the only knitter we know to be offered 2 MBE's.

Rosemary in Harpenden has taken it on.

HYPERBOLIC PURPLE PLASTIC.

For some reason this purple plastic piece of hyperbolic crochet was left out of the crochet Coral Reef which appeared at the Royal Festival Hall last summer and then toured the country. Prick Your Finger can add it to our 'Crochet a Black Hole' event with 'the House of Fairy Tales' at the Tate Modern next bank holiday weekend.   Apparently it's OK to have purple in a black hole. For more information on hyperbolic crochet go to www.theiff.org