ConnieLene – KnitDesigner

Funky Fashionable Feather and Fan Fingerless gloves are back on etsy

So sorry to all those lovely people who have followed up on my patterns and my knitting progress. We have been more than a little busy here on our little wee lifestyle block (2.2 acres) in Miranda, Waikato, New Zealand.

Dinner when we were camping at new home

Since we arrived in September from the Netherlands we have had our hot water cylinder blow up and flood and damage the floor. We have had to do various electrical work to fix or make legal what was done here and we have added another water tank as all our water is gathered from the house and garage roof tops. We have also started several vegetable gardens and begun establishing fencing for a few sheep or a couple of cattle. We have lost a bit of the driveway and are filling sand around the tank to reduce the issue of the side of the bank risking collapse. We have also had rather difficult neighbour issues to deal with – which we feel are now solved but it certainly added to our stress for many weeks. We have retired here to live the good life and have fun stuff to do every day and we are doing that.

We are now eating cucumbers, tomatoes, celery, lettuce, herbs, courgettes, bok choy, radishes, spring onions, and more and that Best Beloved is floundering with our local electrician. What a great guy – he comes to sort out our electrical issues and now he and Best Beloved are floundering together. They brought in 8 flounder and 2 Kahawai this morning. Kahawai Information here

We have planted potatoes, kumura, cabbages, beetroot, and many many trees. Today we will put in 2 red currant bushes and 2 hazel nuts. We are also planting to reduce the risk of wind damage as the property is very very wind swept and our plants are young and tender. Best Beloved has counted 42 olives on one of our tiny trees – so all the Good Life stuff is happening.

I am just not knitting yet.

I still haven’t unpacked everything from the Netherlands and in the evenings I am just too shattered to even pick up the needles – besides I don’t have a knitting chair.

So all in good time – I will knit again and I have patterns to complete and stories to write – so SORRY SORRY for now that there is no knitting news.

and

A Happy New Year to you all.

I love knitting skirts and this one was delivered to Angelica in Switzerland last week and has already travelled to Prague to be photographed.

The yarn is Bombay from Katia and is lovely to work with and the colours are gorgeous. This pattern will become available – probably after we return to New Zealand as there is too much to manage right now. It will available in 3 lengths.

Bombay is 100% Mercerized Cotton.
100 grs. – 3 oz 1/2 | 230 mts. – 251 yds.
Size of needles: 3 – 3 1/2 USA 4 – 5
Number of shades: 12

Just how many terms can there be for a piece to wear around the neck and shoulders – one to keep the neck warm and protected?

You know already I have posted on the wimple and then I posted on the snood – See here:

Of course I followed with the cowl pattern still to come I am sorry – and then ever so curiously I found the Gaiter(s) Now the gaiter is really tricky, given that gait means “a manner of walking” – how on earth did a cloth or leather covering for the legs and ankles become a covering for the neck?

I had not considered that there were even more terms for fashion pieces that adorn the neck and maybe the shoulders and what was posted on facebook tonight Dickey

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A dickey (alternately written as dickie or dicky; sometimes known as a tuxedo front or tux front) is a type of false shirt-front – originally known as a detachable bosom – designed to be worn with a tuxedo or men’s white tie, usually attached to the collar and then tucked into the waistcoat or cummerbund. The rigid plastic dickey came into fashion in the latter years of the 19th century, and was one of the first successful commercial applications of celluloid.

So I looked up dickey on google as you do. Google images were inconclusive – and some of the pictures are not very nice. I did however find a link to a pattern for a hand knit Dickey So there you have it – a dickey pattern, but I think you could develop a dickey pattern of your own by combining a hand knit or crochet babies bib pattern with a roll collar and then you have a dickey.

But will there be even more terms for my neck warmers?

It could be a crisis working out how to label my pieces if different communities use different words for the same things – so I might have to create a new word.

Wimplesnooddickeygaiter

or

Dickeygaitersnoodwimple

or

snooddickeygaiterwimple

or

gaiterdickeysnoodwimple

or ever so simply

A neck / shoulder warmer

or maybe

“A Not Isadora Duncan Scarf”

or

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..what????

How is that you think you know a lot about lots of things. But you never do. Today I read about a clothing item called a gaiter. I looked at the photographs and then I looked up the word (gaiter(s)) – and they simply do not relate.

Wikipedia states:
Gaiters are garments worn over the shoe and lower pant leg, and used primarily as personal protective equipment; similar garments used primarily for display are spats. Originally, gaiters were made of leather. Today, gaiters for walking are commonly made of plasticized synthetic cloth such as polyester. Gaiters for use on horseback continue to be made of leather.

Now I understand that, but it seems that neck warmers, circular scarves, pieces that wrap the neck, cowls etc are also called gaiters. And they are not created with plasticized synthetic cloth – they are knitted or crocheted in delicious, warm, sumptuous, and colourful yarns.

When did that happen?

Where have I been!

I have been callng my cowls, my “not Isadora Duncan Scarves”, my neck and shoulder warmers, and other versions of fashionable scarves etc all of which are designed to wrap and keep the neck warm – I have been calling them anything and everything but gaiter.

Rib & Cable neck / shoulder warmer

How does a leg protector become a neck warmer?

Collins English Dictionary and Thesaurus:
gait n Manner of walking

gaiters pl n cloth or leather coverings for the legs or ankles [French Guêtre]

I kept looking and there seems to be a trend towards the gaiter being a practical item of clothing for skiers and motorbike riders and there are no photographs of the delicious, fashionable, hand knit designer gaiters that started me looking on google images for Gaiter

So someone out there, decided that while a wrap for the neck is also a piece of protective clothing (hence, Gaiter), there is no reason at all why that protective clothing should not also be a fashionable piece.

Hence the hand knit designer gaiter.