Louisa Harding and Debbie Bliss

I was intending to post this on Monday, which was my day set aside for doing a bit of organising round the house and catching up. Monday started fairly well, I got up early and put the sheets in the washing machine and got the vacuum out. As I was vacuuming near the utility room I noticed that the washing machine wasn't moving round, and thought it must be near the end of its cycle which meant it had washed pretty fast. A while later when the cycle had actually finished I went to move the sheets into the dryer and thought they felt very wet. I put them back in the washing machine for a quick spin to try and sort them out, and noticed as I set it going that it was making all the usual washing machine noises but that the drum wasn't actually spinning. It turns out that the washing machine has decided that spinning is over-rated and that it isn't going to bother anymore, which unfortunately makes it rather useless. I had to rinse out the sheets in the bath because they were still rather soapy - it certainly makes me appreciate the machinery when it is working!

Monday ended up being spent in research on and shopping for a new washing machine, which we found and ordered and will be arriving sometime on Thursday. This one has a bigger drum than the previous one though it takes up the same space in the utility room and is more energy efficient which will be good. It even has a little display which tells you how long the washing has til it finishes!

Just to add insult to injury I managed to crack one of the heads of the vacuum while swapping heads, although I don't think it will make much difference to the functioning of the vacuum (it is a pretty useless vacuum at the best of times). I don't think I am cut out for house work!

Back to knitting related things.

I have been to a couple of great events organised by Kareen at the InterKnit Cafe in Farnham. Unfortunately I completely failed to take any photos, but I have photographed the things I bought :-)

First, on 27th June was a talk by Louisa Harding, and second on 13th July was a talk by Debbie Bliss. They were both very interesting and I enjoyed myself enormously. They talked a bit about how they had come into knitting designing, and about how they approached their designing and their inspirations for their upcoming autumn pattern books. They also both brought with them loads of garments which will appear in their new pattern books, and Debbie also brought garments from her current pattern books. We were able to have a good close look at all the knitting and also try lots on - which I did gamely despite all the samples being made to fit a 34 inch chest and me being quite a long way from 34 inches anywhere!

I am hoping that Kareen will organise some more of these events, I had a great time and it makes such a difference to actually see the garments. However fantastic the photography in a pattern book, knitting is such a 3D tactile activity that nothing can beat seeing the garment there and being able to feel the drape and see all the stitch detail. It was also very interesting to see lots of people in all different shapes and sizes try on the garments, sometimes a garment looked completely different on people of different proportions even though they wear the same dress size. I have come away with lots of ideas and quite a few unintelligeable scribbles in my notebook!

I did buy a few little bits and pieces while I was in the shop :-) First at the Louisa Harding day:

The ball at the front is actually chocolate brown Rialto DK (100% merino) and the toffee colour is Louisa Harding Fauve (100% nylon) which is a kind of suede-like thin ribbon. There is a lovely pattern for a cardigan in the Rialto book which I am going to have a go at (although having tried the model on I will alter it a bit), unfortunately I can't find a picture of it on the Debbie Bliss website at the moment.

At the Debbie Bliss day I also bought:

The purple is Rowan All Seasons Cotton (50% cotton, 50% acrylic I think), and enough of the Cashmerino DK to make a cardigan - it is the most fantastic kingfisher / peacock colour. I am looking forward to trying all of these new-to-me yarns.