#shilasdair

[dutchjan]

January 07, 2020

[dorothydoes-blog-blog]

A Raccoon For Rohan

You may remember around a month ago I blogged about a mystery parcel being delivered to Dorothy Does HQ. I was absolutely delighted to find inside two skeins of hand-dyed wool from Shilasdair on the Isle of Skye, accompanied by a letter from Rohan, an old friend of mine.

The letter explained that, on a recent trip to visit her friend Emma, who lives on the island, the girls had visited the Shilasdair shop, having met its owner, Eva, at a Burns Night evening. Ro said the shop was just brimming with beautiful, hand-spun yarns in a multitude of vibrant, stunning colours.

Shilasdair, Gaelic for 'Flag Iris', a historic Highland dyeplant, uses the very best Scottish fleece and natural dyeing techniques to produce the softest, most incredibly beautiful yarn.

Recently, Emma came back down south after having fallen really quite poorly and needed to have several operations. Rohan asked her to bring with her a couple of balls of Shilasdair wool and asked me, to cheer Emma up, to make something with the yarn and blog about it, which of course I was thrilled to do.

As it's June, I decided against knitting anything woolly to wear (although I did actually don a scarf and hat to walk the dogs the other night, such is the truly horrific weather we've been having) and turned instead to my trusty Donna Wilson book, The Knitted Odd-Bod Bunch, whence from Rowena Robin and Olive Owl came. I decided that wool so soft really ought to make something cuddly and opted to make Rita Raccoon.

According to Donna Wilson's book, "Rita Raccoon is a workaholic; she is always checking her emails and talking on her phone, as well as looking after her two mischievous boys. Sometimes she is so busy she freezes on the spot for a few minutes - until she's off again!"

To begin, I knitted Rita's first foot in stocking stitch using M1L and M1R increases then put the work on a stitch holder:

Next, I made another foot using the same technique then joined in the stitches on the holder:

Once both feet were done, I continued working another 26 rows of stocking stitch:

Next, I shaped some -rather stumpy- 'arms' (Rita wasn't really blessed in the arm department). Then I took some plain white DK yarn, held double, and worked a band of six white rows across her face:

To work Rita's ears, I put half the stitches onto a stitch holder then continued working stocking stitch with the live stitches, using k2tog and p2tog decreases to create a point; then I returned the stitches on the holder to the knitting needle and worked these the same way.

I made another piece of knitting exactly the same but without the white strip across the face and, using mattress stitch, sewed them together, leaving a gap, where I stuffed Rita with synthetic toy stuffing until she was plump and squishy - fit for a good cuddle:

Once Rita was all sewn up, I made a start on her nose. This involved a technique I hadn't used before: the short row wrap:

The short row wrap involves knitting to a particular point down the row then, part way along, turning your work back-to-front. If you've not done it before, this feels really weird! You then start knitting (or purling) again, and repeat the process.

For a detailed explanation of the technique, I found this tutorial really helpful.

Once I'd finished knitting the nose, it looked decided like a woolly red merkin:

I used mattress stitch to join the cast on and cast off edges of the nose together, filled it with stuffing, then attached it to Rita's face. It undoubtedly looked very much like a large, slightly droopy, red parsnip. Which I kinda liked.

Once Rita's nose surgery was complete, I stitched her some eyes (using oddments of black, white and green yarn and a tapestry needle):

To make Rita's tail, I worked two pieces of red and white-striped stocking stitch:

After sewing them together and filling the tail with stuffing, it looked and felt like a big, stripey, squishy club. I sewed it to Rita's bottom:

Rita is now complete and, thanks to Rohan and Emma, she'll be going on sale at Swanage Lifeboat Week in August to raise money for the RNLI - rather appropriate, I'd say, seeing as the wool she's made from was grown on sheep trotting about on the Isle of Skye, whose waters are kept safe by a bunch of volunteers on several big, orange boats :-)

Get well soon, Emma, and thank you so much for the beautiful wool - it was an absolute pleasure to work with xxx