Heather Knits

On the move

2007-08-31T13:22:00.000+01:00

This blog is on the move. I now have a shiny new home at http://www.heatherknits.com/blog/ and look forward to seeing you there! Please update your bookmarks and add the new feed if you use something like bloglines .

I don't intend to delete this blog so it will remain here as an archive, but there will be no new posts, all new posts will be over at the new blog .

Half a hat

2007-08-29T17:27:00.000+01:00

I was hoping to post this on Saturday but my computer has been having a bit of a moment. After spending an extended time-out on the naughty step contemplating the error of its ways, and having its hard disk defragmented 4 times (which took 2 days!) it is now a behaving itself a bit better.

In the time not spent at the computer I have been knitting a bit more on the hat:

I have worked the first crown:
I have picked up my stitches from my provisional cast on, and started on the second half, in inverse colours:

P is convinced it is a hat for Marge Simpson, I keep telling him he needs to wait and see ...

It's arrived!

2007-08-20T12:10:00.000+01:00

I caved and finally ordered some of the Kauni yarn everyone has been going on about. It is such fantastic colours I couldn't resist, and it arrived on Saturday! I had been hoping that the weather would perk up a bit so I could take pictures outside, but it hasn't so I'm afraid we have inside pictures today:

Surprisingly (!?) I ordered the brightest colour they had (EQ), and while I was at it a couple of balls of Trekking found its way into my shopping basket too. It was the first time I have ordered from Astrid's Dutch Obsessions and the process all went very smoothly and quickly, and she even included a little piece of cake! (just visible on the right of the picture above). I have been very restrained and haven't casted on yet, I am still plotting what exactly I am going to do. The yarn is very nice and I love the long stretches of colour. My only niggle is that it isn't the softest yarn in the world. I think it will be ok, it is not that harsh, but I would love to find something in colours like this but perhaps in merino. If you have come across anything I would love to know about it!

Stranded hat

The hat is trotting along, I have started the decreases for the crown (and changed my mind, undid about 20 rows and redid them), here you see version 2 (version 1 didn't live long enough to have its photo taken):

My hands are definitely getting more used to knitting together, although I am still haven't some difficulties with pulling the yarn in the left hand too tight, anyone have any suggestions?

Comments

The Japanese short rows aren't too much of a pain once you get going. Also, while the pins are handy while you are starting out because they make it completely clear exactly which thread you need to pick up, I think you can dispense with them once you have got the idea. Once you have got rid of the pins it it probably less fiddly even than the wrapping method. I am going to do some more experimenting so watch this space!

Japanese short rows

2007-08-17T12:42:00.000+01:00

The two-colour hat is jogging along. It now looks much the same as before but slightly longer so I have spared you an update photograph. Instead I will share something else I have been working on.

I found a great tutorial on Japanese short rows and have been doing a bit of experimenting on my latest pair of socks. I found all the safety pins a bit cumbersome but very helpful for a beginner. I'm sure that once I have practiced a few times I wont need them anymore, but it is nice to be able to clearly see which loop needs to be picked up.

I definitely think I am getting a more even result than I normally do with wrapped short rows. With wrapped short rows one side of the heel seems to be fine, but the other side is a bit sloppy. I might have a go at the yarn over short rows as well, just to compare, but so far I really like the Japanese method. I am looking forward to trying it out on something other than socks too.

The yarn I am using is Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Socks That Rock Lightweight (100% merino) in colour Sunstone. It is a really nice yarn to knit with, very soft and comfortable. Their website is very dangerous, in the process of looking looking up those links I have found two new colourways I am keen on - oh dear.

Also the new Interweave Knits and Vogue Knitting magazines arrived this morning, so I am going to enjoy reading them while I eat my lunch.

Terribly British

2007-08-13T19:55:00.000+01:00

In celebration of all the good weather here we have been out decimating the garden this weekend. We had a large goat willow near our boundary with next door which was starting to lean on their greenhouse so on Friday a couple of tree surgeons came and removed it, and gave the Eucalyptus and the smoke bush a bit of a hair cut too.

This was the view from our back door on Thursday before all the action:

and here is the view this lunchtime:

The tree surgeons were very quick and tidy, although it was rather hair-raising watching them climbing the trees with chain-saw in hand! P has also been hard at work at the weekend chopping down and pulling up some of the other rather over-grown stuff, and is now onto renovating the lawn which is currently partly bald, and partly brown and crispy.

After all the excitement we decided it was time to actually enjoy the garden and so on Saturday night went shopping for some food to cook on the barbecue for Sunday lunch. Sunday dawned rather grey, but neither of us are particularly good at letting go of an idea once we have latched onto it, so we bravely forged ahead, got the barbecue out, lit it, and put the food on. Then the rain started:

There is something so terribly British about barbecuing in the rain, so many happy childhood memories of summer holidays with iffy weather :-) It is all part of the fun really. Luckily it stopped raining and the sun came out just as the food was cooked and we had a lovely meal, beef burgers with onion and chilli made by P in rosemary rolls made by me, very yummy. We finished it all off with a trip to RHS Wisley to enjoy someone elses garden.

Knitting

In amongst all the gardening I have been doing a bit of knitting:

I am practising my two-handed two colour stranded knitting. I have just about beaten my left hand into submission now and am starting to get a bit faster and more even. I thought this would be a good practice project before I launch into Alice Stamore's Henry VIII. It is going to be a double layer reversible hat, but requires a bit of imagination at the moment.

Comments

Thank you all for your very kind comments on the Patchwork Sweater. I will definitely look into writing the pattern up, though it may take me a while to work out the logistics of making it fit a wide variety of sizes!

Patchwork progress

2007-08-09T17:06:00.000+01:00

Finally I have finished! Hooray! I am possibly the slowest Knitting Olympian in the history of the sport but like the tortoise I got there in the end, and I am very pleased with the result.

Click on the piccies as usual to make them bigger, and admire the diamonds which increase in size to shape the sleeve, I am so proud of this shaping! I'm afraid anyone who has already been shown this sweater knows that I can bore for England on the subject of increasing the diamond size to shape the sleeve.
The pattern is my own and based on the modular knitting of Horst Schulz, Vivian Hoxbro, Maureen Mason-Jamieson and several others. The yarns are a couple of bargains I had in my stash. The navy background is a cotton approximately DK weight and the turquoise is an acrylic bargain cone knitted double that I picked up from Uppingham Yarns. In fact this is the cone that wont die, I have so far knitted this sweater, a scarf, a wrap, and a poncho with this yarn and I still have about half a cone left!

I enjoyed the fact that this design was relatively easy to alter as you went along, although I did have a rough sketch from the beginning of how it was going to work. Perhaps this is the moment to let on to the fact that there is actually a third sleeve in the bottom of my knitting bag which didn't work out :-) A Learning Experience (TM).

Another thing I loved about the modular way of working is that you can knit the diamonds in different ways depending on how many sides of the square you have knitted already. Rather like a big jigsaw.

And of course the best bit is there are no seams at all. The U-shaped squares allowed me to join the sleeves into the body where the knitting is coming from two different directions at right-angles to each other. Then there are bulls-eye squares on the tops of the shoulders and under each arm (you will be pleased to know I didn't photograph my armpits) to join the whole thing together.

Typically I have finished a nice winter sweater just as the weather perks up. To continue in this contrary frame of mind I am now going to go and make some nice hearty soup :-)

KnitPicks in the UK

2007-08-08T00:05:00.000+01:00

Get Knitted is now stocking KnitPicks needles ! I have some which P brought back from his last visit to the States and I am very keen on the long sharp points and shiny surface. When I bought mine the 2.25mm and 2.75mm sizes weren't available so I think I will indulge in circulars in my missing sizes. They mentioned that they would hopefully be stocking some of the KnitPicks yarn too.

Wave Wrap

2007-08-06T12:03:00.000+01:00

I have been having a bit of a clear-out and discovered some pictures of a wrap I made a while ago but hadn't got round to blogging about before.

This is the Wave Wrap from Knitters magazine, I can't for the life of me remember which issue, but I think it was probably Spring or Summer from last year or the year before. I am in the process of organising my books and magazines but haven't come across the appropriate issue yet. The yarns are left overs I had lying around and I think are all acrylic.
According to the pattern the two lower points at the back are supposed to be sewn together, but I couldn't make it lie flat when I tried that. I quite like it with the two points anyway.

I really like the turn-back colar too, and think I will do some more experimenting with this shaping.

The weather here is still lovely which does wonders in making me feel like getting on with things! The sort-out is coming along well, although there is a lot to get through, I am finding time for a few rows here and there too :-)

Fluffy scarf

2007-08-03T15:34:00.000+01:00

I am still knitting here! I finished this scarf last week, just in time to hand to my mum when they were visiting (Mother, if you are reading look away now). It isn't her birthday for another week but I wanted to be able to hand it over when we saw them.

It is a pretty basic sideways knitted garter stitch scarf with self fringe. The yarn is Drops Symphony, 65% merino, 35% polyamide, and feels incredibly soft. It was in the summer sale at the InterKnit Cafe in Farnham and I couldn't resist. I hope she likes the colour.

I am also doing the happy dance here because not only is it lovely and sunny today, but also our car has come back from being mended (someone drove into the back of P as he was coming home from work about 3 weeks ago - luckily he was fine just rather shaken, but the car was rather squashed). We also now have a working phone line! (the electricity company dug through our phone cable just over a month ago, but luckily they managed to miss the broadband). So a very good day is being had here - I hope you are all having such a great day too.

Debbie Abrahams workshop

2007-08-02T17:28:00.000+01:00

On 2nd of June I went to a finishing workshop with Debbie Abrahams at Stash Yarns in Putney. Debbie used a sweater for a teddy as a demonstration which was a really good idea, since it enabled us to try out a wide variety of techniques in a relatively short time. For our homework we knitted up the separate pieces of the sweater, and then assembled them and worked the neckline in the class.

It was a fun class and very useful, and I had a great time meeting Debbie and the other class participants. I have come away with some nifty ideas for picking up stitches around necklines without getting lumps and holes - although I think I do need to do a bit more practice! I think I am still with Lucy Neatby though on mattress stitch (she likes to go under one bar each time rather than two, although I think it depends a lot on the thickness and texture of yarn you are working with).

I managed to get the neckline and one of the side seams done in the class but it then took me absolutely ages to get round to sewing the other side seam. Then it rained lots and I failed to get round to taking any pictures. Finally here it is finished! The yarn is Jaeger matchmaker merino.

I am disappointed to hear that Jaeger is being discontinued, but there are some very nice Debbie Bliss yarns around at the moment. This is my Rialto swatch:

And this is the colour I am going to make my cardigan in:

The yarn is DK weight 100% merino and is lovely to knit with and wonderfully soft. I am looking forward to getting started.

Just for fun

2007-07-20T18:09:00.000+01:00

I saw this test on Annie Modesitt's blog and since book 7 is out on Saturday thought it might be good fun.

The answer wasn't really a great surprise :-)

The sorting hat says that I belong in Ravenclaw!

Said Ravenclaw, "We'll teach those whose intelligence is surest."

Ravenclaw students tend to be clever, witty, intelligent, and knowledgeable.
Notable residents include Cho Chang and Padma Patil (objects of Harry and Ron's affections), and Luna Lovegood (daughter of The Quibbler magazine's editor).

Take the most scientific Harry Potter
Quiz ever created.

Get Sorted Now!

I am such a Ravenclaw that I scored 92 out of 100 for Ravenclaw! What was a surprise was that I scored 88 for Gryffindor. I always wonder whether these tests are skewed towards Gryffindor because everyone wants to be in the same house as Harry. I scored 62 for Slytherin and 60 for Hufflepuff.

While we are on the topic of personality testing, I spotted there was a lot of the Myers-Briggs personality test stuff going round. If anyone is interested I am an INTJ - which explains a lot of things :-)

Knitting

I've been knitting a little sample in stocking stitch with the Debbie Bliss Rialto yarn, and it is lovely, a really nice yarn to knit with and beautifully soft. I used my Knit Picks interchangeable needles in a 4mm and had no problem with the yarn splitting even though the points of the needles are quite sharp. Last time I was at the Interknit Cafe I ordered enough of the Rialto for a cardigan in a kind of teal shade. A couple of days ago I got an email from Kareen to say it had arrived (very speedy!) so I am going to pick it up tomorrow. I have to go tomorrow because tomorrow also happens to be the start of their sale :-)

The new washing machine is marvelous and I have done 5 loads of washing since it arrived yesterday afternoon! The next load is going to be a wool wash so once they have dried I can take some pictures of the Rialto swatch and the little sweater I knitted at a workshop with Debbie Abrahams.

I'm off to go and watch the washing machine go round ...

Louisa Harding and Debbie Bliss

2007-07-18T21:29:00.000+01:00

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.

Lace Knitting Exhibition

2007-07-11T18:36:00.000+01:00

The Lacis Lace Museum in Berkeley, California is having an exhibition on knitted lace at the moment. For those of us who can't get to Berkeley there is a slide show you can view on their website. Very inspiring stuff. I definitely feel some lace knitting coming on :-)

Four Things

2007-07-10T23:27:00.000+01:00

I spotted this on Dee's blog and thought I would have a go.

4 Jobs I have had in my life:

Entry specialist (I always think this makes me sound like a burglar, actually it was computer programming)
Administration assistant at a University
Co-ordination assistant for events
Knitting technical editor

4 films I can watch again and again:

Hello Dolly
One of our Dinosaurs is Missing (a childhood favourite and I adore the music)
What's Up Doc
Casino Royale (the old one with Woody Allen, I haven't seen the new one)

As you can probably tell music plays a big part in the films I like :-)

4 places I have lived:

Hertfordshire
North Yorkshire
Oxford
Surrey

4 TV series I watch:

Grand Designs
Location Location Location
Time Team
Actually I don't watch much TV and I can't think of anything else at the moment. I am better with series's where it doesn't matter if you miss one!

4 places I have been on holiday:

Brittany
The Loire
New Jersey
Hadrian's Wall

4 things I do every time I go on the Net:

Check my bloglines to see who has updated
Read my emails
See what specials Elann has today
Follow the links other people have mentioned in their blogs

4 things I would NOT eat for anything in the world:

(I'm going to limit myself to things which actually class as food here :-) )
Oysters
Raw meat
Raw egg
Eels

4 places I would love to be right now:

Actually I am quite content to be here now, so I will fill in 4 places I love:
RHS Garden Wisley
Locquirec Brittany
Just about anywhere with Roman ruins
Oxford

4 people to tag:

If you would like to do this then consider yourself tagged :-)

I am very flattered that Diane has nominated me as a 'Rockin' Girl Blogger' ! This may well be the first time I have rocked at anything :-) I am savouring the moment. It is very hard to decide who to nominate. My bloglines has 159 feeds at the moment, and I love them all for different reasons. Today I will nominate Fiona, Mary, Liz, Dawn, and Sue. These are all bloggers who I met first in real life and then discovered they had blogs.

PS. Sue I did manage to get home before it got dark, but have since worked out how to put the car lights on anyway so I am saved from turning into a pumpkin.

Patchwork knitting workshop

2007-07-06T21:39:00.000+01:00

We are having a surprisingly rain-free day, so I have been catching up on photographing my knitting.

Way back on the 13th of May I went to a workshop on Horst Schulz style patchwork knitting taught by Rosie and hosted by Jill (who I think doesn't have a website yet). It was a nice intimate workshop with people working on various different techniques depending on their level of experience and what interested them. Rosie handled the differing projects very well, making sure everyone had as much help and guidance as they needed, while allowing time for people to experiment with the techniques. I had a lovely day, and it was a great opportunity to see many different directions the same basic methods could be taken in.

I had a go at some short-row work. This is the most recent design idea that Horst has been working on.

And also some shells.

Apologies for the horrid choice of colours :-) This was what I had in my knitting bag at the time.

Better go and get ready for bed. I am going to the Knitting and Crochet Guild AGM tomorrow which unfortunately means getting up appallingly early in the morning. Say hi if you see me, I will try to be awake, and not too traumatised from the drive! Someone drove into the back of Paul on his way home from work last Friday while he was driving the shiny new car (it wasn't even two months old - boo hoo) and we collected the hire car this afternoon to replace our car while it is being fixed. The hire car is an automatic (we used to have an automatic but that was several years ago) and is a Toyota Corolla. It is quite different to our car which is a Nissan Note, and the Corolla is going to take some getting used to! At least I should have a good long time to get the hang of it on the way to Cheltenham and back.

Exhausted

2007-07-02T13:34:00.000+01:00

It has been a busy few weeks, with some very long days at work. Not a lot of knitting has been done. For quite some time I have been just too tired in the evening to even knit a row which is a pretty poor state of affairs! Things are starting to look up a bit here now and I have been plodding on with the never-ending patchwork sweater - photos of the progress soon.

It hasn't all been doom and gloom here you will be pleased to know :-) I have managed to find time for a few fun knittery things which I will write more about soon.

Stitches East

2007-05-14T16:08:00.000+01:00

Well I think I have just managed to sign up for Stitches East . This is part of my birthday present and I have been looking forward to going to something similar for ages. I found the registration system somewhat stressful, as it took me about 1/2 an hour to actually choose all the classes I wanted and put them in my basket (no doubt due to a large number of the knitting population all trying to do the same thing). Then when I finally came to log in to pay it turned out I couldn't login using Opera (my internet browser of choice). When I switched to Internet Explorer of course it didn't remember any of the classes I had chosen so I had to do it all over again. Luckily I have managed to pay and hopefully I have signed up to all the classes I meant to. Time will tell, since it is another couple of weeks til the confirmation should arrive in the post.

In the mean time I think I shall go for a bit of a lie down ...

Crochet

2007-05-09T16:38:00.000+01:00

We have been having a go at crochet at the knitting group that I go to once a month in Ash, Surrey. So here I present my first go at a granny square:

and a variation on the traditional granny square:

Made out of the most horrid yarn known to man! (with the possible exception of some truly awful nylon stuff left over from my Nan crocheting ponchos in the 70s, which has now been relegated to stringing up the Christmas cards).

The crocheting has been good fun, and very useful to know how to actually read a pattern. I am rather a self-taught crocheter, and the sum of my knowledge comes from the Ladybird Book of Crochet (for those of you not familiar with the Ladybird books, they are small hardback books, the size of a thin paperback with about 20 - 30 pages, and lots of pictures, aimed at introducing children to various topics). I don't think I will be abandoning the knitting any time soon though. I like the fabric produced by knitting more, although crochet does certainly have its uses and is handy to know.

Speaking of knitting, one and a half samples left to go for my City and Guilds homework ... (and a lot of painting too).

Opal Hundertwasser socks

2007-05-07T16:07:00.000+01:00

Thank you for all the lovely comments on the finished shawl. Finishing something has spurred me on to have a go at some rather neglected things on the needles, after all if I finish them I can actually be wearing them. I have been making some progress, and here are some finished socks:

The yarn is Opal Hundertwasser, the colour is Silver Spiral, and the pattern is my standard ribbed sock with short row heels and gussets in the leg and foot. My sister bought me the yarn for christmas along with a couple of other colourways and it is lovely. I love the idea of yarn inspired by a painting and I love the colours used and the long colour repeats.

It has been a busy few weeks since I last posted. Some very long days at work, which weren't so good, but it was also my birthday last monday which made up for it. I have now reached the grand age of 30, not that it feels greatly different to 29 :-) The knitting has been progressing rather slowly in the last week due to a rather unfortunate run-in with my new bread knife (birthday present from my parents). It is surprisingly hard to knit with plasters on 3 fingers of your right hand! Luckily the cuts weren't deep since the second I grabbed for the knife falling off the worktop I realised that it was a very stupid thing to do and let go, so they are pretty much healed completely now.

I have been plodding through my samples for this months City and Guilds class, and they are coming along well, only two left to do now. If I am feeling brave this afternoon I am going to have another look at my Patchwork jumper (scroll down to the bottom). I think I must be the slowest Knitting Olympics participant. It has got to the point now that it is so close to being finished it is just ridiculous. I would really like to finish it before the weekend when I am going to Rosie's workshop on patchwork knitting. Better go and get a move on ...

Finished shawl

2007-04-13T19:28:00.000+01:00

After all the excitement of dying the yarn, I'm afraid I disregarded all current works-in-progress and jumped straight into knitting a little shawl with it. Progress wasn't actually that fast, but that is mostly due to the fact that I had to stop and admire it at the end of each row :-)

Since I wasn't sure how far my yarn would go I opted for a simple triangle starting in the centre back neck and increasing at each edge and twice in the middle on every other row. I went for garter stitch since I like scarves to be reversible, although I suppose it is less essential on a shawl. I also added a simple lace tree pattern I designed. Although as Diane pointed out the trees are actually upside down when you are wearing the shawl. Oh well, I like it anyway :-)

So now onto the delight that is blocking!

First we have a shawl in its unblocked state, looking not very lacy and rather wobbly round the edges:

And as if by magic with the addition of a few million pins, ta da:

A gratuitous close-up of my upside down trees:

And even closer - you can tell I am enjoying this can't you :-)

This is being blocked on my new super adjustable blocking system, otherwise known as a set of foam recreation mats for 3-8 year olds from the Early Learning Centre . They are 60cm (2 foot) square and fit together like big jigsaw pieces. They come in packs of 4 and I bought 2 packs so I think that will be sufficient to create shapes to block just about anything I can think of. Also they fit down the back of the spare bed when not in use, very handy.

And, finally the shots of me wearing the new shawl:

I was worried that it would be too titchy to be of any use and was very pleasantly surprised. It is a pretty good size, not bad considering it is only 100g of 4ply weight cotton.

I'm afraid I appear to be pulling a strange face in the next one. I am probably instructing the photographer :-)

Now I am going to be good and go back to all the abandoned projects, and also do my City and Guilds homework before the night before (next class is a week on sunday, I have already done half of the knitting part of the homework).

Skip North Part 1: The Workshops

2007-04-08T18:53:00.000+01:00

Well it has now been nearly a month since Skip North and I have finally unloaded the photos from the camera and am getting round to blogging about it. I'm afraid I don't have any (decent) photos of the participants as I am the worlds worst photographer combined with forgetting to take my camera out and about with us (the excitement of all the yarn went to my head). I had a great time and met loads of lovely people, and now my Bloglines is up to 124 feeds. I'm afraid I wont be attempting the herculean task of doing links to all the people I met as I would be bound to miss someone out.

Photos of all the shopping will come later when I can get to it. Currently the new yarn is barricaded into the spare room by our old mattress which the council are taking away on Thursday. I am looking forward to rediscovering all the fun things I bought! and am actually considering starting a spreadsheet with all the yarn I have an information on it, a rather daunting prospect.

Anyway, on to the first part of my update on Skip North. This was the first time I had been (there was one last year which I only found out about at the last minute and unfortunately couldn't go), and also the first time I had been to Haworth. A lovely area of the country and I enjoyed the great views as you drove across the top of the moorland from Bradford.

As part of the weekend we had the option of doing three out of four possible workshops. These were due to all happen on Friday afternoon, but due to the London train containing at least one of the workshop leaders being delayed we had two workshops on Friday and the remaining one on Saturday evening.

The first workshop I signed up for was cold water procion dyeing of plant fibres with Liz . I had never dyed yarn before, and the most dyeing I had ever done was tie-dye T-shirts while at school, and dyeing jeans in the washing machine. This workshop was marvelous fun and I am really looking forward to trying acid dyeing too soon. Liz brought all the dyes with her, in a wide range of colours and all we had to do was bring our yarn and a tray in which to dye. My yarn was Patons 4ply cotton which has a nice sheen without being too hard.

Here are some of the yarns dyeing:

This one is mine. I think this is a photograph of it after adding the soda which explains the amount of liquid. I was really worried that I had added too much dye and that everything was going to turn out a shade of mucky greenish brown but luckily it came out all right.

This one was Rosie's . I love the colours she has chosen and the way they blend together.

And this is my finished yarn. I absolutely love it and am ridiculously proud :-) I have knitted it into a little triangular shawl / scarf which is currently blocking on the dining table, pictures to follow when it is dry.

The second workshop I went to was making beaded stitch markers with Alex . Apologies for the very dark photo.

On Saturday night I did the bullion crochet workshop with Nic . It was good fun although I was rather tired at that point, and I'm not sure why I decided that black yarn would be a good idea to learn something new at 9pm in a badly lit room.

Comments

Thank you all for the lovely comments on the bracelet pattern .

Miss Knotty asked whether I preferred the slip stitch method of knitting with beads, where the bead sits on a thread in front of a slipped stitch, or the garter stitch method where the bead sits between the stitches. I think it depends a lot on what sort of pattern you are creating and the effect you are going for. The big advantage with the slip stitch method is that the beads appear as a surface decoration on only one side of the fabric and it doesn't affect your tension much. So a surface beaded pattern can be relatively easily incorporated into a section of stocking stitch, although it has some limitations, for instance that you can't place beads in front of adjacent stitches. At some point I will get round to blogging about a knitted beaded dress I am making using this method. It has been languishing in a bag in the computer room for about 7 years unfortunately due to it being large swathes of stocking stitch in 4ply yarn and so it gets a little boring. I am determined to have another go soon though.

The big advantage with the garter stitch beading method is that it does affect the width of the fabric, and so you can easily create a shaped fabric just by adding or subtracting beads, without you having to have greater or fewer stitches. All in all, I like them both but for different things.

There is even a comment on the bracelet pattern in (I think) spanish! Although I'm afraid I have absolutely no idea what it says, and Google language tools didn't really help. If anyone would like to translate, I'd love to know what was said.

I'm glad you liked the cabled socks Janey. They are holding up well and in fact I am wearing the brown and green pair today!

Thanks for the lovely comment on the circular cardigan Padraigan. I love the colour and have worn it a lot this winter. I am also hoping not to actually need bullet proof socks! Although I did go to school with a boy who accidentally shot his dad in the welly (Wellington boot, I'm not sure what the American name would be, rubber boot maybe?) with an air rifle, his dad was not best pleased.

Ansley has knitted up a beaded bracelet in the most beautiful colours (scroll down to see). She has also worked out that you need to string about 6 feet (1.8 metres) of beads onto your thread in order to make this pattern. Thank you very much for working out the length of beads! It just hadn't occurred to me, partially I wonder because although I gather in the US (and possibly other countries too) beads are often sold by length in a string, they are rarely sold this way in the UK, and I have always bought beads over here by weight.

Magknits

2007-03-08T22:08:00.000Z

I have a pattern in the March 07 Magknits!

I am terribly proud, and have already texted my Mum, and bored everyone at work silly. Welcome to anyone who has found the blog through Magknits, and if you do knit up the bracelet I'd love to see a picture.

This week has been a week of washing, yet another load is in the machine as I type. We spent last weekend in Glastonbury for Majma (a weekend of Middle Eastern and North African dance), great fun but exhausting. I am now frantically packing for Skip North (a knitting weekend in Bradford), for which I will be setting off obscenely early in the morning in an effort to miss some of the worst of the traffic on the M25 (London orbital ring road for anyone lucky enough not to have encountered it).

The difficult decision of the packing is of course what knitting to bring and what knitted garments to wear :-) My knitting for this weekend will be socks since then I can still chat and don't have to keep consulting a pattern. Also they are nice and small and easy to take on our coach trips. The Socks that Rock yarn is just delicious to knit with and I love the colours.

Comments

Kat, Posh Yarn don't do an exact DK equivalent of the merino and cashmere 4ply yarn I used. They do have several other DK weights though, you can see their yarns at their yarn info page, and they can dye any of the yarns up in any of their colours (I can't seem to find the colours page at the moment). They also have a sale of one off special dyed yarn every sunday.

Fiona, I am going with your idea of a fairly plain sock for the multicoloured Socks that Rock yarn, a ribbed leg and stocking stitch foot. The yarn is knitting up very nicely.

Thanks Dawn for the info on the Forest Path Stole, yours is looking great so far and nice to hear that the lace weight from Colour Mart is as nice as the fingering weight. I love your Persian Poppies too.

Mokihana your Fire on the Mountain socks look great! They are making different patterns to mine since I am doing a 3 x 1 rib on the legs, I haven't got to the stocking stitch foot yet. I'll hopefully get some pictures up next week.

Hope I haven't forgotten anyone in the comments, better go and check on the washing now. See you again next week.

Cashmere Socks

2007-03-01T09:58:00.000Z

Just a quick post with some more finished socks.

I'm afraid another rather dark picture, taken indoors in the depths of winter. These were made from fingering weight 100% cashmere from Colour Mart . I'm afraid I can't remember what the colour was called, but it is 3 strands, one of dark red, one dark green and one navy twisted together. It makes a very nice mottled kind of effect when knitted up. The knitted fabric is beautifully soft although it does have a tendancy to stretch and then not spring back - a feature with cashmere. I think this yarn would make a fantastic drapey shawl, its just a question of deciding on the pattern ...

More Christmas socks

2007-02-19T17:10:00.000Z

Well, it is the middle of February and I am still catching up with blogging about Christmas knitting!

These are the other pair of socks that I knitted for my Mum for Christmas. The yarn is Lucia , 30% cashmere, 70% merino, 4ply weight from the lovely Dee at Posh Yarn. The colour is Feather .

The pattern is my basic sock pattern again, with a 3 by 2 rib at the cuff, narrowing to a 3 by 1 rib for the leg, short row heel with gussets in the leg and foot, and a stocking stitch foot. I know a lot of people don't like colours in hand painted yarn to pool, but I actually rather like the effect on these socks. I love the way the stripes of colours are different in the different sections of sock, and the way the different colours look depending on the number of stitches there are in the round, and so which colours end up next to each other.

I found this yarn more suitable for socks than the 100% cashmere 4ply yarn I used before . The merino gives the yarn greater elasticity although the cashmere is still luxurious. The big difficulty with using inelastic yarn for socks is the shape of a foot means that the sock has to stretch to get over the heel when you put them on, but you don't want them to go baggy and fall down. Although I'm not sure about doing any more socks in 100% cashmere I do think this yarn would make a great shawl or scarf where the drape of the yarn would really benefit the pattern.

Comments

I think the coloured Denise needles are a relatively new thing. The pink cables were a breast cancer awareness special edition, and the rainbow needles are dyed specially by Knitting Help.

Goodies!

2007-02-17T10:34:00.000Z

Last week I treated myself to some little goodies, and they are so beautiful I have to show you. Apologies for the dark photos, it was rather gloomy here yesterday when I took them.

First up rainbow coloured Denise needles from Knitting Help . Fiona (sadly blogless) from the Ash knitting group brought her set to the January meeting and it was love at first sight! They are just beautiful, a really interesting marbled colour, and useful too. Now I will be able to easily see which size needles I have picked up, and also to see whether I have got matching points or have accidentally picked up one of each size. They also of course will fit with the set I already have giving me two circulars in each size, always handy. I have started knitting with them already and the tips and cables fit together well and are very comfy to knit with.

Secondly a little parcel from Blue Moon Fiber Arts . This is three skeins of their lightweight Socks that Rock. The colours, are from the top: Chapman Springs, Sunstone, and Fire on the Mountain. I'm afraid my photography doesn't do justice to how beautiful the yarn is. I am really looking forward to knitting this, although I haven't yet decided whether to go for a fairly plain sock or something with a bit of pattern. I think I will go for a bit of pattern with the Sunstone, because that is a semi solid and the colour doesn't vary very much, I am still undecided about the other two. Any ideas? recommendations?

Comments

Thanks Sandie for the needle recommendation. I have some of the Knit Picks needles, my sister brough them back from a business trip, but I haven't used them very much yet. So far I really like them though.

We usually have snow about twice a year here but it rarely ever settles and if it does it is usually only an inch or so and is gone in about a day or less. Something to do with being on the edge of London probably.

Thanks for the nice comment on the avatar! The photo was taken by my husband on our honeymoon in the Loire region of France. We were looking round a maze in the grounds of one of the chateux and he thought it greatly amusing that although he could easily see over the tops of all the hedges, due to my height (or lack thereof!) all he could see of me was the top of my hat.

Alpaca left-over socks

2007-02-09T14:30:00.000Z

As you may have noticed I have bitten the bullet and finally gone over to the new version of Blogger. I'm not sure if this will make much difference to you as you read. If there are any problems, let me know and I'll work out how to fix them.

The snow has nearly all melted today and we are having a rather gray day. A perfect day for some nice indoor sock knitting! In the best Blue Peter tradition, here are some I made earlier:

These are made from the same yarn as the bullet proof socks, alpaca blend sock yarn (60% alpaca, 20% merino, 20% nylon) from Alpaca Plus , and using the same two stage cable pattern.
I knitted the brown sock first and then discovered that it weighed 65g which didn't bode well for getting two socks out of a 100g skein, which explains the choice of a green foot for the second sock. This is very robust yarn and I actually snapped the tips off two of my Brittany birch sock needles while performing the cables!

Talking of birch sock needles, I have been having a think about sock needles generally and was wondering which were your favourites? I like to knit on 2.5mm needles and because I have wide feet and so quite a lot of stitches on the needles I prefer the 20cm long needles rather than the little short glove-type needles. I think my current favourites are Susanne's ebony needles bought from Scottish Fibres (I notice this size is out of stock at the moment), with the Susanne's rosewood needles a close second. I have a set of Brittany birch needles which really I am not that keen on, even though lots of people seem to like them. I have a pair of straight Brittanys in about a 6 or 6.5mm and I quite like them, they just don't really seem suited to my way of knitting socks. I recently bought the Susan Bates pretty coloured set of small metal needles, and while I love them, they don't come in a 2.5mm so they are not favourites. Also lurking somewhere I have a set of Inox bamboo sock needles but it has been so long since I used them I can't remember whether I like them or not! So what do you like? I am a total sucker for needles of different sorts and would love to have recommendations for different ones to try.

Snow!

2007-02-08T13:28:00.000Z

This is the view from my computer this morning before I went to work:
Its quite exciting because we don't get snow often. I think we had about an inch or two, which is about as much as we have seen since we moved here 6 1/2 years ago.

I've just popped home at lunchtime and it has nearly all gone now, it was snowing when I left home this morning, and it is now gently drizzling (a lot less interesting), and there is slush everywhere.

It would be a great day to be inside knitting but alas the day-job calls. Speaking of which, I had better go back.

Bullet-proof socks

2007-02-06T07:48:00.000Z

While having a bit of a tidy up on my camera I discovered these pictures, and realised that although I finished these socks before Christmas I hadn't actually blogged about them.

The yarn is alpaca sock blend (60% alpaca, 20% merino, 20% nylon) from Alpaca Plus in Canada.

I ordered 3 skeins (100g each), one in dark green, one navy and one brown. Unfortunately I discovered after making one sock in the brown that one skein would not be sufficient for two socks, so decided to make a pair with green legs and blue feet, and another pair using the left overs from the first pair, and the brown.
The pattern on the leg is a kind of cable, over three stitches and 4 rows. On row one you cable the right most stitch over the centre stitch. Rows 2 and 4 are plain, then on row 3 you cable the centre stitch over the left most stitch. A cable in two stages. It doesn't pull in as much as cabling two stitches over two would, and I like the look.

This yarn is very robust and a lot more rustic than I had really been expecting, and the socks have come out practically bullet-proof. They are very good for cold days though and I am wearing this pair today.

Whew! and Weird things

2007-02-05T09:39:00.000Z

Well it has been a busy few months! A little over a week ago I finished editing the patterns for Issue 2 of Yarn Forward Magazine , and now I am also up to date with the other job that I do from home. The job I do in the office is also a bit less manic now so I am starting to calm down and get back to some serious knitting!

As you can imagine not a lot of knitting has been done over the last couple of months, although I do have a bit to show you, I'll get the pictures sorted out in the next day or so. First of all Annie , I haven't forgotten that absolutely ages ago you tagged me for the weird things meme, so here we go:

Six weird things about me:

THE RULES:Each player of this game starts with the ‘6 weird things about you.’ People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.”

Of course I think I am perfectly normal and that it is the rest of the world that is weird, but I enjoy playing along anyway :-)

So 6 weird things:

I am a total creature of habit, and always get up and ready to go out in the morning in the same order. As I am not a morning person at all I have found that this is the quickest way of getting out of the house without having forgotten anything essential, like trousers.
I hate it when it is so dark that you can't tell whether your eyes are open or not. I would rather sleep in broad daylight with the lights on than sleep in pitch blackness. Luckily where we live there is a streetlamp right outside our bedroom window so it is never very dark.
I have more qualifications in computing than my other half, although his job is as a programmer, and mine doesn't really involve much technical computing at all. He knows a lot more than I do but just didn't get round to doing the exams.
Following on from 3, I am a total education junky. Give me a course and I'll go on it. I absolutely love learning new things and actually don't mind exams (although my degree came close to putting me off my love of exams!). While I was at school I took about 30 Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music exams altogether I think. I have also just started a City and Guilds in Hand Knitting with Fiona Morris - great fun, more on that in another post.
With some circular knitting patterns, despite being circular and so you could just stop and start anywhere, I find I always like to leave my knitting at the end of the day at the same point in the round. I think this is so that I will have more of a chance of remembering what I was up to when I come back to it. My other half finds it a little weird that even though I am knitting in the round I still have the "after I finish this row" problem.
I have weirdly very wide feet. My other half jokes that they are as wide as they are long. When trying to buy shoes as a child the shoe shop assistants, after measuring my feet, would often check that I had only 5 toes on each foot, and would often suggest that if I chopped a toe off I would stand a better chance of getting shoes to fit (not entirely sure whether they were kidding or not. Since we used to shop at the same shoe shop each year for school shoes the assistants got to know us, and after a few years of the same routine in which they would measure my feet then find that actually they didn't sell anything that fitted me, they would all make a bee-line for the back of the shop as soon as they saw us coming).

I tag anyone who would like to be tagged (is there anyone who hasn't done this already?). If you do then drop me a comment to let me know to come and read.

So there you have it, as you all suspected I am completely normal (no sniggering there please).

More pictures of knitting soon, I am off to see if my camera batteries have finished charging.

Happy christmas!

2006-12-21T22:16:00.000Z

Well it has certainly been a busy December so far, and I am definitely looking forward to a nice rest over Christmas.

My Christmas knitting present plans turned out to be a little ambitious. I did manage to finish a pair of cashmere socks for my mum:

The orange-ness of our dining table makes them look a slightly odd colour. I'll try and get her to take a photo of them when she is wearing them.

And a hat for my dad:

This was a bit of an experiment after having read the article on Brioche stitch in the round by Meg Swansen in the latest Vogue Knitting. Once I got into the swing of it it was good fun, and a nice quick knit since the yarn is chunky.

Hope you all have a great Christmas, and I will see you in the New Year. I'm off to wind a skein of cashmere sock yarn into a ball to start on my Mum's next pair of socks. Maybe if I start next year's christmas knitting now ...

Back from Edinburgh

2006-11-16T19:04:00.000Z

I do still exist and haven't fallen into my stash and drowned as was suggested in the comments (although most days it is a close run thing, we haven't been able to sit on the sofa in the lounge for about two weeks now due to the yarn).

We got back just over a week ago from a conference I was helping to organise in Edinburgh, and I still haven't caught up on all my email yet! Also the place where I work has introduced a new finance system and it is all very busy.

In Edinburgh we stayed at the Royal British Hotel which despite the name was very Scottish and even had tartan carpets!

I managed to get some of one of my Mum's christmas socks done during spare moments while we were away. As you can see above it was stunned by the carpet, even though it clashed badly. The yarn is Serena 100% cashmere sock weight by Posh Yarn. It is lovely but seems to be knitting up to a tighter tension than the sock yarn I have used before so I am slightly concerned that the sock is coming out a little small. I will see how it is after I have washed it and then work out whether I need to reknit parts of it.

At the weekend we finally had a bit of decent weather and I persuaded the other half to photograph me in the circular cardigan:

and from the back:
The yarn is Inka by Garn Studio, 72% acrylic, 28% wool, bought from Interknit Cafe in Farnham.

It was really fun and very addictive to knit. I am going to try another one but this time as an eight segment circle rather than seven to see if I can get the centre back to lie flatter. Also I think I will experiment with shaping the shoulders and neck to get a better fit. Since this photo was taken I have crocheted a chain accross the inside of the shoulders to stop them stretching so hopefully that will improve the fit.

And just for a last silly, I bring you, new shoes:

They are Birkenstocks and are made of wool! (as close as I could get to a sensible pair of knitted shoes). They are wonderfully comfortable and I love them.

Norwegian Yarn

2006-10-30T18:26:00.000Z

Catching up on a few old things here, I found this photo on my camera.

This is some lovely Norwegian yarn my Mum bought for me on their holiday there earlier in the year. I think it will make fantastic bright cheery socks, just the thing for winter days. It hasn't been very wintery here yet. It is still remarkably mild, I haven't needed a coat yet and we haven't switched our heating on.

I am still plodding on with the Patchwork Jumper. Not really worth a progress photograph. The second sleeve is slightly longer than it was but it is dragging rather. I think I need something good on the telly so that I can have a proper go at it and get it finished. In the mean time I have loads of ideas and keep buying one ball of this and one ball of that to try out ideas but I don't want to have too many things on the needles at the same time because I find it rather overwhelming. All rather circular as an argument and I think the solution is to get a move on and actually finish the patchwork and then I will feel free to try out lots of other ideas.

My copy of the first issue of Yarn Forward Magazine arrived last week! Unfortunately there was an error in the printing of charts C & D for the Ariel silk top :-( I have re-sent the correct charts to Kerrie and hopefully the errata will be up on the website soon. I would love to hear your thoughts on the magazine, particularly on the technical editing, but also generally.

I am starting to get in patterns to edit for Issue 2 which is all very exciting! I was hoping to do a design for Issue 2 but the yarn for it still hasn't arrived and the design deadline is in only 2 weeks so it might not be happening at this rate :-(

Workshops with Lucy Neatby

2006-10-23T22:11:00.000+01:00

On Thursday night, Friday and Saturday last week I attended 3 fabulous workshops with Lucy Neatby . She also ran a class during the day on Thursday on grafting too but unfortunately I couldn't go to that one.

Thursday and Friday's workshops were at Taj Crafts in Buckinghamshire. I had a lovely time in their shop and managed to do a bit of damage to the credit card though not too much. They are really easy to find too if anyone is thinking of visiting, they are very close to the junction between the M4 and the M25. Saturday's workshop was at Reading Museum, organised by the Reading branch of the Knitting and Crochet Guild .

Thursday's class was on equilateral triangles, she had some great garments to show us including a waistcoat (vest for all of you on the other side of the pond) in Noro, and a couple of hats. It was great fun having a go ourselves, each triangle is knitted onto the previous one and then the remaining seams are done with mattress stitch. Mine came out as a very small hat, just the right size for a grapefruit! I stayed up far too late on Thursday night getting it finished, a fascinating technique and very addictive. I think I will have a go at a hat for me using triangles with the left over yarn from my circular cardigan.

I love the symmetry with this pattern. The triangles tile so beautifully and really lend themselves to being made into so many different shapes.
Interesting piece of trivia for you: 3 of the 5 Platonic solids (or regular polyhedra) are made from triangles. The Platonic solids are the only solids for which each of their faces are the same, and for each face, each side and angle is the same. For example, the cube is one because each face is a square of exactly the same size, and each square face has 4 sides which are the same length, and 4 angles which are all 90 degrees.

Moving swiftly on to Friday, this was toe up socks with Bosnian toe and Turkish heel.

Don't you just love this cast off! I really want to try it with three colours too. It is done with a crochet hook. You cast off a couple of stitches with the first colour, then crochet a chain of about 4 stitches, then pick up the other colour and do the same. Then pick up the first colour again and repeat but making sure than the two chains are twisted. You can vary the effect by the number of stitches you cast off in each go, and by how long the crochet chains between cast offs are.
This is the Bosnian toe, a garter stitch square which you then pick up stitches all around to knit up the foot.
And the Turkish heel. This is an after thought heel, made by knitting in some waste yarn where you want the heel to be, then going back and knitting over it with your main yarn and continuing up the sock. When the rest of the sock is finished you come back and put the stitches from the waste yarn back on your needles and knit your heel, grafting the end together.
At the end of Friday's workshop we had just enough time to learn tubular cast on (in green), and tubular cast off (bind off)(in red). They are beautifully neat and almost invisible in rib. I will definitely be using these again. It was really useful to see how the cast on works with a 2x2 rib as well as a 1x1.

I bought both of Lucy's Knitting Essential's DVDs and her sock book while I was there but I haven't had a chance to look at them properly yet.

Saturday was off to Reading for a workshop with a much bigger group. The morning workshop was on knitting with colour and mixing colour in different ways. I seem to have failed to photograph my swatch from that. We covered holding two or three yarns together and varying the colours one at a time, also fairisle and intarsia and combining the two.

In the afternoon Lucy gave a talk on her knitting, over coming problems and planning your knitting to allow more flexibility, and we practiced some grafting.

All three workshops were fantastic. Lucy is a great teacher, very clear and patient and her handouts seem very comprehensive (I am going to re-read them as soon as I get time). We also seemed to cover an amazing amount of really useful and interesting stuff, I definitely feel that I got my money's worth and will be signing up for more classes if and when she is back in the area again (not sure that the budget will run to a trip to Canada!).

A wonderful time was had by all

2006-10-21T21:31:00.000+01:00

Its been another busy week or so. A busy time workwise as we have something like 3/4 of our conferences for the year in the last three months of the year! Also with Ally Pally and National Knitting Week it has been a busy week and a half in a pleasant way too.

My mum came down for a few days to stay with us in between visits to my Nan who is in hospital with a broken hip at the moment, and we managed to fit in a day at Ally Pally and also a day visiting yarn shops in the area before she went to stay with my sister for a bit.

I thought Ally Pally was great this year, more yarn, and I think slightly less crowded. Also a much better temperature, although the hall with the guilds in was still rather hot. It was fantastic to see so many inspiring things. Lots of lovely new yarn, and wonderful to catch up with the familiar favourites too. I even managed to find a few nice bits and pieces to accompany me home :-)

Apologies that the photographs are rather dark. It has been rather cloudy, rainy and grim here. These were taken outside in as much light as I could find. Just imagine really bright yarn if you can't see the piccies very well :-)

At the top we have my bargain of the last half-hour of the show. 2 packets of 10 balls each of Paton's Crystal from Black Sheep Wools for £7.99 a packet. Years ago I bought some of this in purple and the T-shirt I made from it has washed and worn really well, so I think I will make another the same or similar.

Next on the left hand side, there is a skein of Cherry Tree Hill supersock in dusk, a skein of Cherry Tree Hill supersock potluck in blues/greens, and a skein of Cherry Tree Hill merino lace in dusk, all from the Wooly Workshop . I could have happily spent more time there.

At the front on the left are two skeins from Catalina. The dark green is 100% baby alpaca chunky, and the teal is 60% baby alpaca, 40% merino chunky. They are both unbelievably soft and I think I am going to make hats. Catalina had some really gorgeous yarns, I had never come across them before so it is always good to have my horizons broadened.

On the top right are two balls of Regia bamboo from Web of Wool, and just to the left of them the skein you can hardly see is my first ever Colinette! It is jitterbug, and the colour is florentine. I was a little disapointed that I wanted to see some Colinette Wigwam (a cotton tape yarn) but they hadn't brought any with them, I suppose it is the wrong time of year for that kind of thing.

The jazzy skein at the front on the right hand side of the middle is a skein of Opal handpaint from Laughing Hens. We were there right at the end of the day and it was nice to have a bit of a chat with Nicki again. I went for a workshop down there a few weeks ago, I have been meaning to photograph my samples and blog about it ever since I came home.

The last yarn, in the front right corner was another new to me yarn. 2 balls of 20% possum, 80% merino in a DK weight from Jamie Possum (their website isn't up yet but should be in a month or so). It is a lovely soft, and slightly hairy yarn and I think I am going to have a go at a hat. I seem to be in quite a hat phase at the moment, at least theoretically, in that I am buying lots of yarn which is going to be hats but I haven't actually knitted one yet.

It was also great to meet up with lots of friends new and old and chat about knitting. I saw Yvonne , Dawn , and Mary (I don't know whether she has a blog, but she was wearing a fantastic fairisle cardi!) at the Knit and Relax stand. I also ran into Mary a couple of times, and met Sue for the first time though I have been reading her blog for a while. It was nice to chat to Kerrie again although she was understandably busy with the customers. Unfortunately as I was there on the Thursday the Yarn Forward Magazine wasn't there yet. My copy still hasn't turned up, still floating somewhere in the post. I am looking forward to seeing the first issue and to hearing what people think about it. I'm sure I have forgotten several people I spoke to, my brain was a bit toasted by the end of the day. Say hi in the comments if I have forgotten you and please accept my grovelings about my lack of memory.

On the friday I dragged my mum out of bed at the crack of 11 o'clock and made her drive me to Stash Yarns, I can be a hard task master. We managed to find a few lovely bits and pieces, and had a great time talking to Michelle and Nathalie. Apologies for an even worse photo than the last one.

With a lot of imagination this is, three skeins of Fleece Artist sock yarn, a skein of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in Black Watch, and two balls of Loft by Zitron in a really loud purple, pink and orange colour. I have never come across Loft yarns before and this one is lovely and soft. I think it is going to be .... yep you guessed it, a hat. I think that has become my new solution for yarns which I want to try but not necessarily buy a sweater's worth.

After Stash we headed down to Fibre Crafts and I gave in and bought the Tap Dancing Lizard. My sister has requested socks with reindeer on for christmas, and this book has one in which I think I will be able to adapt.

Then we dashed down to Farnham to the Interknit Cafe before they closed. Shockingly I didn't actually buy any yarn, but I did order some lovely Garn Studio Alpaca in a dark tealy colour.

We were exhausted but happy after all that lot.

Speaking of which that is how I am now after two and a half days of workshops with Lucy Neatby. They were fantastic but I am shattered. Off to bed now and I will blog about the workshops tomorrow.

Ally Pally

2006-10-11T17:56:00.000+01:00

I can't believe it has been more than a month since I last updated.

Things have been busy busy here, aided and abetted by my deciding last week that I wanted to finish my Circular Cardigan before The Knitting and Stitching Show at Ally Pally . It zipped along on 7mm needles (good job too considering my brink-man-ship), although my speed was slowed slightly by re-knitting the sleeves several times.

The original pattern had straight sleeves which when I tried it on slipped down my shoulders, so I had the idea that I could use short rows to make a shaped sleeve-head which would be more anatomically appropriate. Jacqueline Fee talks about this in The Sweater Workshop . The sleeves you see in the finished article are numbers 5 and 6. Number 2 was a silly mistake where I did the sleeve head upside down! 3 and 4 were good but at that point I decided it was too wide across the back, and because of the construction I needed to undo both sleeves in order to make the back narrower.

I finally cast off last night and washed and blocked after band rehearsal. I am just hoping it will be fully dry for the show tomorrow.

The yarn is Inka ,72% acrylic, 28% wool, by Garn Studio. It stood up well to the repeated undoing and redoing of the sleeves, and I am hoping will wear well.

I really enjoyed knitting this. I rarely ever knit with anything thicker than DK or perhaps Aran weight so it was nice to have something which grew so quickly. Great from the instant gratification point of view. It is a circle in 7 segments which needed some persuasion to lie flat. Also because 7 is a prime number it isn't symmetical, so you get a horizontal line caused by the increases across the right side of the body at the front, but not on the left. I would like to have another go but this time use a circle in 8 segments. I think this would help it to lie flat in the centre of the back, and also make it generally more symmetical, I love symmetry.

Better go and organise my shopping list for tomorrow. Anyone else going to Ally Pally tomorrow? If you see me come up and say hello, I'll be the one in the loud cardigan, or with the weather we have been having probably carrying the cardigan. I will try and blog more soon.

Thanks Daisy for the shoe link, I will give them a try!

One armed jumper

2006-09-03T20:05:00.000+01:00

The patchwork jumper now has one arm! And Blogger even seems to be co-operating, I uploaded today's pictures first time. Obviously the threat of defection has worked.

Without further ado, here is the one-armed wonder:

And a close up of the join of the sleeve to the body.
A bit of unpicking and reknitting was involved but I am very happy with the results so far. It satisfies my sense of neatness that it is all knitted together, there are no seams. An elegant solution, I think that is the mathematician in me speaking again.

I have started the second sleeve and that is coming along although not particularly quickly. This week has been a busy week of tech editing for the first issue of Yarn Forward Magazine. It has been a very interesting and educational experience. I have been really surprised by the wide variety in the quality of patterns submitted, although there seems to be an almost universal blind spot over tension information! There will be fewer patterns in the first issue than in subsequent issues so I think I will be even busier in future, although at least by then we should have a pattern template and also have more experience with the whole process. I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on the new magazine when it comes out. Particularly those pertaining to the clarity and correctness of the patterns. This is my first go at this, but I am keen to learn! (Hopefully there wont be too many mistakes along the way). I only have three patterns left to complete for this issue so it is going well. One really is just a trivial odd number vs. even number problem that I am waiting to hear back from the designer about, but should be easily solved. One Kerrie is going to post me the garment so I can work out what shaping the designer meant as the pattern isn't clear. The third seems so far to be a clear pattern, but it is on 12 pages (!) and I think it may be easier to read in chart form, so far I am on page 3.

It hasn't been all work round here though. I have just signed up for Skip North 2007 which I am now ridiculously excited about. I know that Rosie is going. So who else is going to be there? I may be a little tired by the time I get there though because it is the week after Majma (a Middle Eastern and North African dance weekend down in Glastonbury, their website is rather out of date as booking has already opened for next year).

I've also started having osteopathy treatment on my neck, back and shoulders which have been a problem since January. Hopefully this will start to do the trick, it will certainly make the knitting easier if I don't hurt! I have just about recovered from Thursday's treatment now which is good because I have another appointment tomorrow morning.

A swatch and some progress

2006-08-29T18:36:00.000+01:00

I had just about given up all hope of Blogger actually allowing me to upload any pictures when finally I managed it. It seems that whenever Blogger is being irritating enough for me to start researching alternatives it pulls its socks up and I think I'll just give it another week or so. It is still in the back of my mind to possibly change hosts though so those of you who use something other than Blogger, what do you use? and what do you think of it?

Back to the knitting content:

At knitting group on Wednesday Masumi was knitting a blanket for charity using a lovely wave pattern. She generously let us write the pattern down so I had a go:

I think it would make a great scarf. A very easy pattern too as it is only a 3 row repeat. I knitted this sample out of some left over Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted, colour Get Knitted .

After knitting group I headed down to Farham to see if the new Interknit Cafe had any of her new stock. Last time I was there only about a third of what she was hoping to stock had actually arrived. She had a lot more this time though is still expecting more! I see an excuse for another outing on the horizon.

Some of the yarns that had arrived are by Garn Studio . They have some lovely yarns, at pretty reasonable prices. Of course some had to come home with me :-)

This is Inka 72% acrylic, 28% wool, knit on 7mm - 8mm needles for a tension of 16 sts x 11 rows to 10cm. The colours are just fabulous. I bought colour 5, and my Mum bought some in one of the other colours. It contains really long lengths of each colour, similar to Noro (but without the bits of Japanese countryside) which is why the balls above look to be completely different colours even though they are actually the same dye lot. Garn Studio have loads of patterns you can download for free on their website (in English!) and I had a very fun time printing a load out. The pattern I am going to knit with the Inka is Jacket with Circle Pattern . It looks fun and I think would work with the multi-coloured-ness of the yarn. I am slightly concerned about the way the sleeves join on as in the picture they look a little odd. The model is standing in a rather artificial pose though so that may make a difference.

I was so keen to start this that I got out my Denise needle set to do some swatches only to discover that a 7mm needle which the pattern calls for lies between a US size 10 1/2, and a US size 11. I swatched with both the 10 1/2 and the 11 but there is a big difference in size (a 10 1/2 is 6.3mm and an 11 is 7.7mm) and the fabric produced wasn't what I was after. I have ordered a 7mm Addi Turbo to use, and am going to actually finish up some of my other projects on the needles while it is in transit.

As well as the Inka I also found a few other bits to come home with me.

Two balls of Garn Studio alpaca, it also came in a fantastic kingfisher colour although she didn't have any in. She is going to order some and it should be in in a week or so so I will have to work out what I would like to knit with it. A ball of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK, the colour is actually slightly darker than this. I bought just one ball so that I can do some swatches and see what sort of thing I would like to make and then go back and buy enough to actually make it. And finally three balls of Patons DK cotton, this is the same as the 7 balls I bought last time I was in the shop, and is even the same dye lot! ( a customer had returned it). I should now definitely have enough for a T-shirt thing for me so I am very happy.

Those of you with long memories may remember my patchwork jumper I started knitting during the Knitting Olympics . I have finally started knitting on it again and am nearly up to attaching the first sleeve to the body (I haven't actually started the second sleeve).
With the help of the Big Royal Dig this is progressing quite well.

Finished

2006-08-19T09:59:00.000+01:00

The bathroom is finally finished!

The plumber finished on Wednesday but had to come back yesterday to replace one of the tiles which was cracked, and to sort out the taps on the washbasin because the hot and cold had accidentally been connected the wrong way round. We are all sorted now though and I had my first shower in the new bathroom this morning :-)

The sock is plodding along. I got quite a bit of it done yesterday while at the photo shoot for the first issue of the new Yarn Forward Magazine . I am the technical editor which sounds slightly scary but actually I am enjoying it. It was great to meet Kerrie and Laura and to see the designs which will be in the first issue. They also took our photos too for the magazine which was hilarious. Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while will realise I am one of the least photogenic people ever. I think it is probable that after a whole day of me Kerrie and Laura are realising that I am a little barmy, I hope they aren't regretting their choice of technical editor too badly.

Shower

2006-08-15T07:12:00.000+01:00

The shower was fitted yesterday and I finished the blue and green socks - pictures of them to follow.

I have started what will be a multi-coloured left-over sock but haven't progressed very far with it yet. It is enjoying taking over bathroom-admiring duties though.

More to follow soon, our power is being turned off so they can plug the radiator in in about an hour and then I am going out for the day to meet up with my parents and some friends, the sock is coming too.

Ceiling

2006-08-14T21:04:00.000+01:00

We spent the weekend painting the bathroom ceiling, here is the sock admiring our work.

I don't think anyone will mistake us for professional decorators but I think it will do.

The sock is coming along, I'm now about half way down the foot and am hoping to finish today or tomorrow. It is handy to have something which is easy to put down and take up again and doesn't require too much concentration, yet the pattern helps to make it not too boring.

Tiles

2006-08-13T11:17:00.000+01:00

At last Blogger has allowed me to upload some photos. I have been trying since yesterday. I'm still not sure what the secret is.

Anyway, we have tiles now! This is the view on Friday night:

and a close up of the sock with one of the tiles:
There is no grout yet and there are still some gaps in the tiling but it is coming along.

The sock is coming along too, I am nearly at the heel. Here is a close up of the pattern on the leg, apologies for the lumpiness but the pattern shows up best when slightly stretched and it was easier to photograph on my hand than on my leg!
The pattern actually isn't a proper cable it is a pair of twisted stitches one after the other separated by a plain round. I am enjoying doing it but the yarn (Alpaca blend sock yarn from Alpaca Plus ) is thicker than the sock yarn I am used to using and the fabric produced is practically bullet proof! The fact that this yarn is thicker also means that there are fewer metres in a skein which I discovered after knitting the first sock (a beige one which I don't think I have photographed) and weighed it to discover it weighed 65g and there is no way I can make a pair out of 100g. I have three different colours with 100g of each so I am making a pair with green legs and blue feet, and then there is the lone beige one and I am going to make the pair for it a multi-coloured sock using up the left overs. The other problem with trying to do twisted stitches with this yarn is that I have snapped the tip off my Brittany birch sock needles twice now, I snapped the second one last night. Luckily it is just the tip though so I could just sand paper it and carry on.

m mentioned in the comments for the last post about doubling the ridiculously fine yarn. Would this work ok for lace? I haven't much experience of knitting lace and although I have happily used several threads knit together on a firmer fabric I don't know whether this would work on something so open as lace. Talking of lace knitting, what needles do people recommend? I think this yarn is going to require some pretty small needles. The smallest circulars I have are 2mm and are Inox I think, I see on the KCG Trading website that both Addi and Prym make a 1.5mm circular and am considering one of these. I have some 1.5mm dpns so thought I might do some experimenting with them so see if I can create a fabric I like before I dash off buying all different sizes of circular needles.

I'm not sure I will get to the swatching today, this weekend we have been painting the bathroom ceiling. We did the sealing coat on the new plaster yesterday and the first of the proper coats of paint. We are going to do the final coat today and then go down to my sister's house for a much needed shower! We went there yesterday too and it is so nice to be clean and not to have to do the strange contortions needed to wash my hair in the kitchen sink.

Bath

2006-08-11T12:53:00.000+01:00

The sock has been hard at work again. So hard in fact that I finished the first sock and started the second. Here is the new sock with the new bath!

Installed but not plumbed in, this was the view last night.

And here is an exhausted sock admiring the new floor:
I'll ask the sock what its availability is for DIY in other people's houses Daisy !

While the sock (with the aid of the plumbers) was hard at work yesterday I had a nice little trip to Fibre Crafts , the official excuse being my Mum's birthday today and I was trying to find her something. They didn't have the book she was looking for (Knitting Nature by Norah Gaughan) so I bought it from Amazon but I did treat myself to 3 books. Heirloom Knitting by Sharon Miller, Folk Shawls by Cheryl Oberle, and Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls by Martha Waterman. I have this hankering to knit a shawl, to knit lace, and to knit something ludicrously complicated, I'm not sure yet whether these three things will manifest themselves in the same piece of knitting or not.

As well as the books I gave in and bought a skein of Shantung silk yarn , the colour is Gentian I think and is the most fabulous colour ever.

I have been eyeing this yarn every time I go to Fibre Crafts for years, it feels lovely and comes in the most beautiful colours. The one downside is it is ridiculously fine. For scale, the knitting needle in the photographs is a 1.5mm dpn.
I think it may have been a moment of insanity which persuaded me that knitting with this would be a good idea. I shall give it a go though, it will keep me busy for a nice long time :-)

Progress

2006-08-10T08:42:00.000+01:00

There has been progress on all fronts here. This is how the bathroom looked last night, with the sock in progress reclining on the windowsill:
All the interior has now been taken out, and although you can't see it the ceiling has been replastered.
As you can see the sock has been progressing well too! I am hoping finish this one and cast on for its mate soon.

Knitting with beads

2006-08-08T16:44:00.000+01:00

This is some more catching up with things I have been doing but haven't got round to blogging about.

At the April meeting of our knitting group the theme was knitting with beads. We had a go at four different methods of incorporating beads into our knitting, these were all methods which required you to thread your beads onto your yarn first.

Here is the sample I produced, the yarn is Size 8 perle cotton, and the beads are No. 11, or at least I think that is what they are. These were some pre-strung beads I had left over from knitted beaded baubles I made a few years ago so I am not entirely sure what they are as I haven't got the ball band for the yarn or the bag for the beads any more.

The first two zigzags on the sample show slip stitch beading. This is when, on a knit row you stop just before the stitch you want your bead to be in front of, then you bring your yarn forward, slip the stitch purlwise, then push a bead up the yarn so that is sits in front of the slipped stitch, and then bring the yarn back and continue knitting as usual. You can do the same thing on a purl row but then you will bring the yarn to the back to place the stitch, and forward again to continue purling.

The difference between the two zigzags is that for the first one the beads were all added on the knit rows and on the second one the beads are all added on the purl rows. I think you could probably do a mixture of the two which would be quite interesting but you do have to be careful about getting the beads too close together or they wont lie flat.

The U shaped sample is adding the beads between the stitches on garter stitch. There are no slip stitches here, and the beads appear on the side away from you when you are adding them. To place a bead between two stitches you simply knit to the appropriate point, slip a bead up the thread so that it sits right next to the stitch you have just knitted, then you knit the next stitch, anchoring the bead in place. This is the same method used for the knitted baubles and also for the Victorian bead purses I have seen. If you add beads on all rows you get a reversible fabric. For this sample however I decided to only bead on one side so every alternate row is just plain knit. You can create interesting shaping by having more beads between each stitch.

Finally the rather pathetic line of beads at the top of the sample is my attempt at close beading, this is bead knitting rather than beaded knitting (which the other methods are types of) and the bead actually sits on the stitch rather than in front of it in the slipped stitch method, or between stitches in the garter stitch method. I found it incredibly hard to get the bead to go through the stitch, probably because I knit quite tightly, close beading I feel is not for me.

After the workshop I was inspired to have a go at a bracelet, partially inspired also by one that Janine had made although I wanted something a bit narrower, and I wanted to experiment with increasing the number of beads between stitches more gradually. Here are the results:

It is surprisingly difficult to photograph your own wrist! I think I probably should have waited for Paul to come home so that I could borrow him and his superior photographic skills :-)

Edited to include a slightly better photograph of the bracelet laid flat.

Here is the fastening, using a rather nice button I found in John Lewis.
Although I failed to take a picture of the other side it is actually reversible. This is using the garter stitch beading between the stitches method, and increasing and then decreasing the number of beads between the stitches. This gives a shaped bracelet even though every row has the same number of knit stitches in it. If anyone is interested in the pattern let me know and I'll write it up and put it on the blog.

False start

2006-08-07T08:12:00.000+01:00

Well it turns out Brian the plumber had been trying to ring us all weekend to tell us that his previous job has over-run and he can't start on our bathroom today, but unfortunately he had a mistake in the phone number he had for us. So he might be starting tomorrow afternoon, or failing that Wednesday. Oh well, at least I get another couple of days of being able to have a shower this week.

Bye bye bathroom

2006-08-06T21:20:00.000+01:00

Here is the sock in progress saying goodbye to our bathroom. At 8am tomorrow morning Brian the plumber will be arriving to rip it out and replace it. You can see why.
The sock is actually green, although due to my appalling photography you can't actually tell that.

Off for an early night now so we can be up bright and early to remove the last few bits before it is all demolished. I am so looking forward to a new bathroom.

Stash enhancement and a swatch

2006-08-04T13:21:00.000+01:00

I was hoping to post this earlier but couldn't get Blogger to upload the pictures. Anyway, here is it now.

Last Wednesday at knitting group Mary brought along some dolls clothes she has been making and we had a go at the colour pattern she had been using.

Apologies for the horrid colour choice, this was what happened to be in my knitting bag at the time.
The pattern is actually really easy since it only has two rows, the first row you work a repeat of p3, sl1 purlwise with yarn in back, then the second row you knit while slipping the slipped stitches purlwise with the yarn at the back again (you do need some kind of selvedge stitch on this repeat). Rows 3 and 4 are the same but the stitch you are now slipping is the centre one of the three plain ones from rows 1 and 2. You change colour for each pair of rows. Being a slip stitch pattern, the colours blend and it doesn't look starkly stripey but you only ever knit with one colour at a time. It is a kind of pattern which is actually very restful and has a nice rhythm to it once you get going. It looks better from a distance, and it was interesting to see the colour choices people were using. You got quite a different effect with three very similar colours, to three very contrasting colours. It looked very nice as Mary had done using two colours which were close together and the third was a contrast. I think I will have a bit more of play with this.

After knitting group my Mum and I went to investigate the new knitting shop in Farnham, called Interknit Cafe, it is at 60 Downing Street, round the corner from the central car park. She had only been open a week and only had about a third of her stock so far but it looked very promising. I have signed up to her newsletter and am looking forward to hearing when she gets more stock in.

I did manage to buy 7 balls of Sirdar mercerised cotton DK in navy. This is beautifully soft stuff and I thought would make a lovely summer top of some kind. She only had 7 balls but luckily they were all the same dye lot so I bought the lot. I'm not sure if that will be enough for a top for me but I do have lots of bits and pieces of DK cotton lying around so I'm sure I can think of some way of eeking it out.

I've been having a very good week stash enhancement wise. I think I need to work on being able to knit the yarn up as fast as I can buy it though!

To help me in this endeavor Miriam (she of the Icarus shawl in Interweave Knits) is having a pattern sale, which ends today. I bought the patterns for the Mountain Peaks Shawl and the Lightweight Mountain Peaks Shawl. This download-a-pattern lark is good for the instant gratification too :-)

This lovely parcel arrived the other day.

Sock yarn from Curious Yarns , from left to right the colours are: Sloe, Deep, and Admiral. It feels lovely too, not very soft but not at all harsh. They sent me two little stitch markers too with my order which was very nice of them.

And last but not least, so that I can be organised as I disappear under the ever growing mountain of yarn, a circular needle holder from Stitches Market, the people behind Knitter's magazine.
And this is the inside.

The plastic wallets are all quite large, easily big enough to fit several circular needles in, and have a re-sealable end at the bottom. I am going to have a fun afternoon sorting out all my circular needles and organising them into this holder.

Horst Schultz Workshop

2006-07-27T22:06:00.000+01:00

Finally the long awaited thoughts on the workshop I went to with Horst Schulz. I'm not sure they will live up to the expectations after all that!

On 6th April me and my Mum went on a one day workshop in Marlow with Horst Schulz. It was the first workshop we had ever done with him before though I had heard him speak at the Design for Knitting day at the V & A a couple of years ago, and we had a chat to him at the Knitting and Stitching show at Alexandra Palace a few years ago too.

He was very organised and the workshop was very interesting. The first thing we all did, was joining our 4 stripey homework squares together by knitting a square in the middle of them.

This was knitted backwards and forwards rather than circularly and then the diagonal seam was sewn using both colours so that each colour sewed together just its coloured stitches. It is one of those ideas which seems so obvious when someone suggests it but had never occured to me before!

Here is the same in different colours

Next we used our homework strip of knitting to learn how to knit another strip onto an existing strip.

The homework strip was the denim blue at the bottom of the page. We cast on the second strip (in this case the grey one) and then knitted it while at the same time attaching it to the first strip (denim blue). We used two different ways of attaching, both attaching one stitch every two rows. The first method was invisible from the right side, and the second created a decorative chain up. They are actually the reverse of each other so that the first method created the chain on the wrong side of the knitting, and the second method was invisible from the wrong side.

This method of joining involved picking up a stitch from the side of the first strip for every two rows of the second strip. Next we tried a join where we picked up stitches along the whole side of the second strip (the grey one), knitted a couple of rows, and then left these stitches on the needle to be joined to the third strip (purple). This pick up and knit is in blue so you can see it clearly on the sample. There are actually a couple of rows of the blue at the start of the purple strip but I can't now remember why. The actual joining was very similar to the invisible join from the first two strips, the main difference being that the stitches had already been picked up and knitted from the side of the second strip, ready for attaching to the third, rather than picking them up one at a time as you got to them. We did a mitred square at the top of this strip to show that you didn't just have to be knitting linear strips.

Lastly we picked up and knitted a kind of corrugated rib. Unfortunately I got the wrong end of the stick and messed this up. I think I was rather tired by that point in the day. Horst was very kind and actually went through this rib again with us in the pub after the workshop. Definitely beyond the call of duty! The green is the rib I did wrong, and the cream is the right one. It is a little hard to see from my picture but the purl furrows are different. The rib he was trying to get us to do involved working one row with the first colour, then sliding all the stitches back to the other end of the circular needle so that without turning the work you could knit the second row in the second colour. Then knitting back with the first colour, and again back with the second.

After that lot we had a go at his falling leaves pattern which he had used on a scarf.

I didn't manage all this in the workshop, most of it was done at home afterwards so I could get more of a feel for how the leaves fitted together.
I really love the fact that this is reversible and I am definitely looking forward to doing some more experimenting with it. One of the ladies at the workshop had knitted a jacket using this idea and it was very nice.

All in all a very enjoyable and informative day, I had a wonderful time and learned a lot. I really must get round to finishing the mitred sweater I started in the Knitting Olympics!

More Woolfest

2006-07-23T10:35:00.000+01:00

While I busied myself with the yarn at Woolfest , my other half photographed all the animals. This is one of his pictures of the alpacas, I tried to post it as part of the previous post but Blogger decided it was no longer my friend and wouldn't let me upload it. Blogger seems to be back and speaking to me again so here we are:

Aren't they lovely! I am still trying to convince my sister that she needs to be an alpaca farmer. Then she could do all the hard work and I could come round and stroke them.

It has cooled down a bit here so I might actually do some knitting today, it has been rather too hot for me recently.

Woolfest

2006-07-21T19:14:00.000+01:00

Well I think I am probably the most late in doing a post about Woolfest . We had a lovely two week holiday, a week in Ambleside, then a week up around Hadrian's Wall, and did Woolfest in between. I have just about caught up with my emails and blog reading now, two weeks after we got back!

I didn't go last year since I only found out about it just before it was on, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. It was sort of cross between a knitting show and a livestock show, although the knitting yarn was definitely leaning towards natural yarns rather than sparkly man made stuff. Good fun was definitely had! Hi to Mary , it was lovely to see you, the new purple hearing aids are beautiful! Sorry my blogging still doesn't seem to have sped up.

First off some pictures of the animals, first up the sheep:

I'm afraid I can't remember what kind they are, but they were very photogenic!

More sheep:

and some Angora goats:

It was really interesting to see all the animals in the flesh, I was quite surprised by the variety in sizes of sheep, I think that the ones we usually see round here by the side of the road are all raised for their meat and so probably never get particularly big, since lamb is eaten more than mutton.

Now for the yarn, first from Wingham Wool Work , the loudest yarn you have ever seen!

My friend C (not a knitter but she makes jewellery and so understands!) was actually struck dumb by this - quite a feat I can assure you!
On the left we have the softest yarn you have ever felt, superfine merino in cream, and alpaca in black by Knit Global , bought from Spinning A Yarn . I think they are going to be hats, and I am going to have a go at dyeing the cream.

Then there is some Margaret Stove laceweight merino bought from KCG Trading . I also bought the new Norah Gaughan, Knitting Nature, and a shawl pattern and a circular needle (one size which I found I bizarrely didn't already have) from them, but I forgot to take a picture.

The yarn on the right is Lana Grossa sock yarn, I can't remember which stall I got it from and although I found a receipt in the bag it had no shop name on it either! Some one has missed out on a marketing opportunity!

Lastly the haul from Jamieson and Smith :

At the top we have hand dyed cobweb weight, and at the bottom two colours of their 2ply jumper weight. Sorry about the quality of the photograph, I still haven't really got the hang of getting the lighting right.

Better go and have a panic now as the parents are turning up in about 15 mins and there is still stuff on the beds they are hoping to sleep on and a pile of yarn in the lounge. I doubt the pile of yarn will really be going anywhere but I might try and shuffle it round a bit to at least give the illusion of space.

I really will finish the write up of the Horst Schulz workshop (sorry Rosie!), I got half way through before we went on holiday and then accidentally deleted some of the pictures and then ran out of time. Things are calming down at work now though so I hopefully will have more blogging time soon.

Time flies

2006-06-23T15:08:00.000+01:00

I can't believe it has been nearly three months since I last posted. I have been to three workshops since then, all of which have been very interesting and I will write more about them soon. Unfortunately also work has been very busy and I have been over-doing it rather and have been very tired which is my excuse for the lack of blogging. My shoulder and neck which were a problem back during the knitting Olympics (no I still haven't finished! I'm afraid I got a bit side-tracked) has got worse and I have been going to physio, which has improved it a bit but it is still a problem and can make knitting for long periods a bit painful. It's not so much the knitting which is the problem as the sitting.

On a more jolly note, I had a nice outing to the newly opened Stash Yarns in Putney this morning which was very good fun. Nice staff, lovely yarns, great magazines and books, air conditioning, what more could a knitter ask for? I was really very restrained and only bought the following, and some magazines.

Here we have some lovely royal blue Koigu, some Colourmart cashmere in Kingfisher (which is going to become the Icarus shawl in the Summer Interweave Knits I think), and two balls of Meilenweit mega boots stretch.

It was lovely to actually see a lot of the yarns I have only heard people on knitting lists talk about, or seen on the internet. For some reason I hadn't realised that Mission Falls cotton was so textured, it wasn't quite my thing but I think my Mum would like it. She is actually down visiting my sister at the moment but as my sister is getting married tomorrow she couldn't really spare Mummy for a knitting trip today - maybe next visit. I really liked the Blue Sky Alpaca yarn and the Handmaiden Seasilk which everyone has been raving about. I will have to have a little think about what I can do with it before I go in to get some. I drooled over the South West Trading Bamboo again too, I absolutely love the purplexed colourway, but I still haven't had any ideas what to make it into, answers on a postcard please!

Broad Ripple Socks

2006-03-28T16:09:00.000+01:00

Just a quick post today before I go back to trying to make the house presentable for my parents who will be arriving soon to stay til Sunday.

I seem to have been knitting these socks for a long time, but they are finally finished!

And now for a better picture of the patterned leg:

The pattern is the Broadripple socks pattern from Knitty, well actually it is the version written for sock weight yarn which I'm sure was on Rob's (the designer) website but I can't seem to find it at the moment. Also I twiddled a little since I like plain feet on my socks so that I can wear my shoes comfortably, and I like a short row heel. The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn in the Get Knitted colourway. Interestingly I knitted a scarf from the worsted weight version of this yarn in the same colourway but the colours are completely different - the worsted weight is a lot brighter. I'll get round to taking a picture of the scarf and socks next to each other soon.

The pattern was a bit of a departure for me as I haven't knitted lace socks before but it was good fun. I have a whole stack of interesting sock patterns which I am slowly working my way through.

Anyway, better get back to the tidying. One of the reasons for the parental visit is that Mummy and I are going to a workshop with Horst Schulz on Thursday! I still haven't finished the patchwork jumper I started for the Knitting Olympics but I am hoping to take along what I have done so far anyway.

Knitting with Colour

2006-03-28T15:21:00.000+01:00

Sorry for not posting for such a long time (I am beginning to feel like a stuck record, since every time I post I seem to start like this!). Work has been busy and I have just been really tired. I actually got to the point the other night where I had to cast on something new just to have something mindless enough to knit while we watched a recorded Poirot because everything I was in the middle of required too much thought!

Anyway, work has calmed down, I have had a couple of nice long nights sleep and am a bit nicer to be with :-)

I shall distract you from the lack of knitting progress on the projects-on-the-go in the last couple of weeks with pictures from the Rowan workshop I went to on Thursday. The title was Knitting with Colour, and it was held at John Lewis in Kingston (upon Thames that is rather than one of the other many Kingstons). In typical Heather fashion this was the first Rowan workshop I have ever been to, and I decided to sign up a year after I stopped being a Rowan subscriber (having been one for several years) so I didn't get the 5% member discount. Never mind.

The workshop itself was good fun, it was held from 10 til 2 which seemed about right time-wise, long enough to really get into things, but not so long that you just became boggled by it all. There were 6 attendees, plus the tutor, and the new Rowan consultant from Peter Jones in Sloane Square who had come along to pick up tips on running a workshop. A really nice number since it was small and friendly and we could all sit round one table, and the tutor had enough time to really see how people were doing and give help and suggestions as were needed.

We covered fairisle type two colour stranding, and intarsia. The tutor mentioned that she had also planned to do a bit of Swiss darning (duplicate stitch) but we didn't have time in the end, not a great loss to me as that wasn't really my particular interest in this workshop. We started off with the stranding, using a method similar to that used by Philosopher's Wool where you weave in your carrying yarn every stitch. It was really interesting for me to see a real-life demonstration of knitting with two colours since all of my colourwork so far has been a mixture of learning from books and making it up as I go along. I really wanted to have a go at two handed fairisle where you hold one yarn in each hand, and it was good fun. Unfortunately I am not as dextrous as I would like to be and my left hand required a bit of persuasion and staring at to make it do what my brain was telling it, but I think it should get better with practice. I think I shall watch my Knitting Glossary DVD a few more times to see Continental knitting demonstrated and try to pick up some tips.

In the interests of scientific discovery (really there is no hope for me, I'm obsessive but at least I know it :-) ) I then had to do the same sample again but this time holding both yarns in my right hand (at the same time that is, rather than drop and pick up). It was really interesting to observe the differences.

The lower part of the swatch is two-handed, the upper part is with both yarns in my right hand (I think both yarns in my left hand would lead to lots of frustration so I haven't attempted it yet, learn to walk before you run and all that). I found the two handed knitting much slower and had trouble making my left hand co-operate when it was its turn to do some knitting, but the weaving in part was actually not too difficult. With both yarns in my right hand I zipped along on the knitting part but the weaving was much more of a problem, I think I would get along better with holding both yarns in the same hand if I was just stranding the carrying yarn along the back of the work. However even though I usually knit with the yarn in my right hand and so you would have thought I would be more used to it, I think the tension with the right-handed part of the swatch is not nearly so nice and even as the two-handed part of the swatch. I much prefer the look of the two-handed, and it is a lot square-er (is that a word?), which would make some designs easier to work out. I will definitely have more of a go at the two-handed lark when I pick up the languishing Henry VIII. Languishing partly because I am fiddling with the pattern slightly so that it will be wide enough, and turning it into a raglan, and also there are more than 400 stitches in each round so it is somewhat time consuming!

After the fairisle we moved on to intarsia (see the top of the swatch) which was all useful stuff too, particularly the reminder to look at where on the row above you will need the yarn again, so that you can weave the yarn to the right place and are prepared and don't have pulling across the back of the work.

The car is going in for its MOT tomorrow so that will be a nice bit of knitting time while they get that done. I am hoping that it will sail through with no expensive things needing doing since I have my eye on some rather nice looking Peruvian yarn at Elann.

No gold medal here

2006-03-03T16:15:00.000Z

Well I still haven't finished my Knitting Olympics project so I am definitely not among the medal winners. However Emma pointed out that the Paralympics start on March 10th so I am now re-naming this project to include both Olympic competitions :-)

You will be pleased to know that my jumper has at least grown a bit since last time:

Sorry these aren't great photos, the chair wasn't really big enough and the ground is still rather damp.

I have at last joined it into a circle and am plodding away working upwards, I think I might start the sleeves soon and then I can get more of an idea of how they should fit together. The big difficulty with photographing this is because of the small modules I find myself thinking "I'll just do another square and then I'll photograph it" and then another becomes yet another, and then it is too dark to get a decent picture, and I think I will photograph it in the morning, and then we go round again! I really will try harder from now on.

Apart from the knitting I have been making an effort to get a bit more organised. I have built two Ikea bookcases this week, and we have a couple of sets of shelves from B&Q to fix to the wall when we are feeling brave (I'm not a big fan of the drill, it requires a fair bit of psyching up). I have also got another two plastic storage boxes for the yarn, and am going to get another couple more. I would like to get the yarn into a more coherent organisation within the boxes too, and all this sorting is quite good for being able to get out all the lovely yarn I had completely forgotten I had got and admire it all over again!

Off to a slow start

2006-02-16T18:02:00.000Z

Well my exit from the starting blocks was more of a crawl than a sprint, but I have picked up a bit of speed now.

Here is my progress as of Tuesday lunchtime:

and here where I am up to now:
It is coming along, but there is still quite a long way to go, at the current rate I am not sure I am going to be a medal contender.

I also seem to be having trouble with my neck, back and shoulders which isn't helping, although the knitting doesn't seem to be particularly agravating it. At least I haven't had to be airlifted to hospital, another advantage of the Knitting Olympics over the ones in Torino!

Anyway, back to the grind stone, I shall try and update progress a bit more frequently.

Another scarf

2006-02-10T16:45:00.000Z

8mm needles and chunky yarn certainly makes for a quick knit!

I finished the scarf for my Dad last night while catching up on things on the TV I had taped but not got round to watching.

In real life the colour is more navy blue and less purple than the photograph.

It is a nice change to sometimes have projects which don't take forever to do.

Anyway, I had better go and measure my swatch for my Olympic project, the festivities start on BBC2 in only an hour and a quarter ...

A couple of scarves

2006-02-09T11:34:00.000Z

In preparation for my Olympic project I have been busy finishing off a few things which have been languishing on the needles for a long time (OK I haven't actually got to the jumper which I have been knitting for about a year, or the dress I have been knitting for about 6 years yet, but you have to start somewhere).

Those of you with a long memory may remember that I cast on for a moebius scarf back in November. It is very convenient in that it fits into my handbag, and I can just knit a few stitches on it whenever I have to wait around anywhere. Unfortunately this method doesn't make for a quick finish. However waiting for the car to be serviced gave me a nice long stretch of time on it and it is finally done.

It is rather longer than I had predicted, and because I just knitted until I ran out of yarn it is narrower than I had thought too. It is still perfectly wearable though and I shall incorporate these improvements into the next one. The cast on is along the spine and is very clever and from Cat Bordhi's Treasury of Magical Knitting. However having had another look at the table in the book telling you how many stitches to cast on for different tensions and different lengths of scarf, the numbers just don't add up, in future I think I shall rely on my own calculations.

The scarf was knitted using Peruvian Collection Baby Silk (80% Baby Alpaca, 20% Silk) from Elann, and I used a 3.5mm needle. The yarn feels absolutely gorgeous, which is handy as I bought two other colours too!

On the theme of scarves (and it being the appropriate weather for them) I have also finished another curly whirly:

and another view:
The yarn and pattern both came from Get Knitted, the yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted, and the colour is Get Knitted. It is fantastic and bright and has had a lot of wear already despite having only been finished last Tuesday.

Despite all this finishing I'm afraid I have cast-on two new projects too, so I am not really making overall progress in the minimising of the pile of works-in-progress. We went up to see my parents for the weekend and part of last week, and my Dad announced on seeing my finished Moebius scarf that he would like one too. I found some nice King Cole chunky wool and acrylic yarn in french navy in Boyes and he managed to stand still long enough for me to measure his neck, so I cast-on for this scarf yesterday and it is going well. It is rather odd to be knitting on 8mm needles and thick yarn - quite a change from my other project I cast-on while staying with my parents, which is a pair of socks (2.5mm dpns and 4ply weight sock yarn).

On the Olympic project front, after the wash the swatch got a bit smaller which was slightly worrying, so I have knit another swatch with another couple of rows and stitches on it and it is drying now. I am hoping to measure it either this afternoon or tomorrow morning depending on how long it takes to dry.

Anyway, back to the scarf - not sure I can get it done before tomorrow but I shall give it a good shot! I still have 1100 emails from various knitting emails lists to catch up on after being away too!

More Olympic Knitting

2006-01-28T22:05:00.000Z

CatsEye has made a team GB Olympic Knitting button in two sizes! I am really spoiled for choice now.

I finally sat down with the calculator this afternoon and did a swatch for the patchwork jumper:

I'm very pleased with it, I think the needle size is right and I like the colours together, and I think it is about the right size. I am planning to wash it before I get too carried away since I want to make sure it wont shrink in the wash. I am feeling very virtuous now, since I think that is pretty much all my training done and I still have time to spare before the start date! I still haven't totally worked out how I am going to increase for the sleeves yet though, or worked out the joining of the sleeves to the body, I am hoping that these little details will either come to me in a dream or will make themselves obvious once the knitting has started - one can hope!

The finishing up of other bits and pieces is going quite well too. The car went in for its service on Friday so I had about 3 hours sitting around in the garage knitting. I will take some photos soon.

Look at the shiny button!

2006-01-23T15:30:00.000Z

Katie put a link in her blog to some team buttons for the Knitting Olympics and they are just fantastic, designed by JenLa. The only difficulty is there are two different GB buttons, and they are both great.

So now the really difficult decision: which one to put on my sidebar?

I haven't started my Olympic swatching yet. I thought it might be sensible to finish off a few bits and pieces first. I tend to get a bit overwhelmed when I have too many different projects on the needles at once, as I forget what I was doing with each of them. So I think the next couple of weeks will be spent in the tidy up before the serious swatching begins!

Knitting Olympics

2006-01-20T18:52:00.000Z

Stephanie has had the marvellous idea to host a Knitting Olympics, the idea being that you pick a project which will be a challenge to you, then cast on during the opening ceremony on February 10th and if you finish before the closing ceremony on February 26th then you get a shiny button for your blog.

I think I am just about crackers enough to try this, and it is the closest I shall ever come to being an Olympic anything, so I will be giving it a try.

My Olympic Project

I will be knitting a patchwork jumper (sweater for those on the other side of the pond) a la Horst Schulz, which I will be designing as I go along. It is the first time I have knitted a garment of that size and complexity using this technique. I have knitted a camisole before, but that didn't require much shaping, and other than that I have only done samples.

The yarn I'm going to use has been sitting in my stash for a while. The background is cotton in different shades of blue, and the foreground is acrylic turquoise fluff :-)

I am off to sign up now, and contemplate just how mad this is ... I think a few swatches will definitely be in order before the start date.

Curly Whirly

2006-01-11T12:06:00.000Z

I seem to get round to jumping on band wagons at about the same time everyone else is climbing off, as is probably the way with the curly whirly scarf. Everyone seemed to be making them a couple of months ago, so I have just got round to making mine :-) and here it is, all apologies for my lack of any artistic photography, so I bring you:
Over the back of the chair:

Curled up on the seat of the settee:
and finally as modelled by Percy the Penguin (although black penguin on dark brown settee seems to cause difficulties for my camera):
This is the pattern from Get Knitted, free when you buy a skein of Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb, or Shepherd Worsted. I used the Lion and Lamb, and the colour is Irving Park. The yarn is lovely and beautifully soft, unfortunately none of my pictures show the colour up particularly well. For once it is not actually raining today so I might try and get a shot in day light. This pattern is of the variety where you cast on an unfeasibly large number of stitches and then do a couple of k2tog rows among your garter stitch to get the curly shape. I had a little go at the type where you cast on a smaller number and then do strategic increasing, but I knit so tightly that it was actually painful to do all that increasing. I think the decreasing strategy works better for me, and I don't end up with painful shoulders and neck! Knitting is supposed to be relaxing after all!

Anyway, got to dash now, my parents are staying for the week and we are meeting my sister for lunch in a minute. Tomorrow me and Mummy are going to the knitting show at Sandown Park, so I will hopefully blog about that later!

New Year Tidy Up

2006-01-01T20:19:00.000Z

In the spirit of the New Year and all that I thought I would tidy up my side bar, so here is a list of the things I knitted in 2005 with links to the appropriate blog entries.

The Return of the Fingerless Gloves

2005-12-30T23:45:00.000Z

Here finally are some pictures of the fingerless gloves:

Knitted from Lucy Neatby Celestial Merino in the colourway Blue Vesuvius, bought from Get Knitted at Ally Pally a couple of months ago. I used 2.5mm needles and made up the pattern as I went along, although I did write it down so I could make the right glove to match the left! The yarn is really nice to work with and a beautiful colour, I am hoping that it will wear well too.

They have already been test driven yesterday on a walk up Box Hill with the family and they were nice and warm.

We had a lovely Christmas with the in-laws, lots of board game playing and a bit of knitting. Then spent yesterday at my sister's with my parents too. I will get round to taking a picture of the curly whirly scarf soon.

Happy Christmas!

2005-12-24T21:16:00.000Z

Happy Christmas all!

I'm afraid still no photo of the fingerless gloves and we are at the in-laws now without the camera so it will have to wait til we get home again. It always seems to take longer to wrap presents and then pack everything in the car than you think it will.

I have jumped on the band wagon, rather late, and knitted a curly whirly scarf in the last couple of days, photos will follow soon, it was good fun, although the cast-on 700 stitches part took me about 3 hours!

I'm managing to get in a bit of knitting in between all the eating and the board game playing. I even won at canasta this morning which is unheard of.

Happy Christmas and hope you have lots of lovely knitting time :-)

Fame and Fortune

2005-12-20T16:55:00.000Z

Well not quite, but a bit of fame at any rate.

The picture of me in my knitted wedding dress is up at the Ample Knitters site. I can't remember if I have extolled the virtues of the Ample Knitters list before on the blog, anyway, it is a great list particularly for people on the larger side, or anyone who deviates from the expected proportions which patterns are written for. There is always lots of advice on how to cope with one part taking a different size to another part, and how to alter a pattern which you love but isn't quite right.

I am hoping to get pictures of the finished fingerless gloves done tonight. Unfortunately I haven't worked out yet how to photograph both my own hands simultaneously so I will wait for Paul to get home from work.

Fingerless Gloves

2005-12-19T15:03:00.000Z

I braved the loft, (and the rubbish in the spare room which is in the way of me getting to the step ladder to get into the loft) and got the Christmas decorations down last night, so I am feeling properly christmassy now :-) I do like fairy lights. Ours are multicoloured but not flashing. We don't have a tree this year as there really isn't space for it, but I have put the lights round the mirror in the lounge, and also put some tinsel up. Of course the knitted beaded baubles have also come out and are hanging from the shelves. I must remember to take a picture of them.

In the mean time, here is the left hand of the fingerless gloves:

The yarn is Lucy Neatby Celestial Merino in the colour Blue Vesuvius, bought from Get Knitted at Ally Pally. The colour is absolutely beautiful, very bright and I love it! I had first thought that I was going to knit a pair of socks with this, but then read on someone's blog (I'm afraid I can't remember who it was) that the yardage was quite short and that they had had trouble getting a full pair of socks out of one skein (100g). So it languished in a bag while I thought about it, and worried about the idea of knitting a pair of socks and running out of yarn just before the second toe. Then I had the idea that I would like to knit some fingerless gloves and suddenly this yarn seemed ideal, after all gloves are smaller than socks. In fact I am nearing the end of the right hand and there is plenty of yarn left so I don't know what I was worrying about!

Here is the same yarn demonstrating my early Christmas present to myself, a swift from Fibre Crafts:

Its so much fun, I think I might be spending quite a lot of time winding balls of yarn now :-)
The only problem is that the only suitable table we have to attach it to is the dining table and from there I can't see the telly or hear the radio unless I have it turned up very very loud. I shall work on this one.

Anyway, I think I shall get back to the right glove, with the help of a hilarious Jeeves and Wooster audio book from the library.

Whew!

2005-12-17T12:15:00.000Z

Long time, very little knitting. I have now finally wrapped all the presents I can so far (3 are still winging their way from Amazon as I write) and have written most of the Christmas cards. I still haven't got the Christmas decorations out of the loft but you can't have everything! I think the trip to the loft is a nice little job for this afternoon.

Some knitting has been done around here and I finally bring you the two pairs of socks I knitted as Christmas presents.

They are both knitted from 4ply Alpaca from Texere, although oddly the plum tweed colour I used for Mummy's socks is thinner yarn than the cornflower blue I used for Annie's - it isn't thinner by much though.
So first, socks for Mummy:

And these are socks for Annie:

They look a little odd not on feet but I'm afraid I don't have any sock blockers to photograph them on and they are smaller than my feet.

The alpaca is lovely to knit with and I hope they will be nice warm socks. I have bought some of the same yarn for myself in a bright purple which I will try out soon. I was slightly concerned about the inelastic-ness of alpaca but hopefully with a ribbed leg they shouldn't fall down too much. They are all wrapped up now and in the box of stuff to go to Annie's house.

I am hoping things will calm down here a bit now and I can get on with a bit of knitting! I have played in 4 Christmas concerts in the last two weeks with Barnes Concert Band, two of them were outdoors and I had a brainwave that I could knit myself fingerless gloves that would allow me to play without freezing my hands off. Unfortunately as is often the way with these things my brainwave came a little late in the day and I had managed little more than a wrist warmed by the first concert. For the concert last Wednesday though I had knitted one glove so at least my left hand was warm. So if anyone was at the concert on Wednesday at the London Wetland Centre I was the trombonist wearing one lurid turquoise knitted glove. I'll post pictures soon. You never know I may even knit the other one soon even though the deadline has now passed.

Purple Socks

2005-11-24T13:53:00.000Z

I've finished my Christmas knitting! It was just two pairs of socks. They are both waiting for a wash and pat into shape so in the mean time as not much knitting has been done here recently I finally got round to taking some pictures of some socks I finished a while ago.

The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in colour Purple Club, bought from Get Knitted . The pattern is Go With The Flow Socks from the Summer 2005 Interweave Knits magazine. I did alter the pattern a bit though, I didn't like the cuff so just worked a k4, p3 rib over 77 stitches for 20 rounds and then worked one round of k4, p2tog, p1 to give me 66 stitches for the leg (the original pattern had 60 stitches round for the leg so I just added in an extra pattern repeat).

Here they are from a different angle:

and a close up of the stitch pattern.
I am very pleased with them. The LL sock yarn is lovely to knit with and very soft to wear. I have only worn them a couple of times so far but they seem to be wearing well as well.

Yesterday was knitting group Christmas meeting which was good fun. After seeing all the curly whirly scarves I am almost tempted to actually get a move on and start one myself :-)

Nearly a crisis

2005-11-14T11:48:00.000Z

In the end I took both the mobius scarf and Mummy's Christmas socks with me to Paris, and am glad I did. I managed to finish the socks so they are just waiting for a wash and then I can wrap them up! Goodness I am organised!?

So now onto the other knitted Christmas present. If you are reading this Annie please look away now.

I bought the yarn for Annie's socks and Mummy's socks at the same time, and it is supposed to be the same, 4ply alpaca from Texere, although the blue for Annie's socks came on cones rather than in balls. However as I started knitting with the blue it felt a bit thicker than the plum colour I used for Mummy's socks. This seemed fine though, the knitting is just more dense, but I am knitting Annie's on fewer stitches anyway so they shouldn't come out too big. All was going swimmingly until when I was about half way down the foot part (these are knitted top down) I glanced down at the cone and felt the first twinge of an approaching panic. I could see the cardboard of the cone through the yarn, there really wasn't much yarn left on the cone.

It is always odd the compulsion to knit faster when you think you are going to run out of yarn. So yesterday was spent in a frantic rush to the finish. Which would I reach first? The end of the sock, or the end of the yarn? Luckily the sock won, so here is the first sock:

and the yarn left on the cone:
That was cutting it very fine.
I have started on the second sock, and am knitting away hoping that there will be at least as much yardage (it is odd we don't seem to use the word metrage) on the second cone.

I am feeling very virtuous that I am 3/4 of the way through my Christmas knitting already (it always helps to set nice low targets, then you can enjoy the feeling of reaching them :-) ).

Just a quick post

2005-11-02T23:04:00.000Z

Just a quick post as I am off to Paris in the morning for a conference. Since I finished writing my talk I have been worrying about the second most important thing: what knitting to take with me. It had to be something small and easy but which could occupy me for several hours on the Eurostar and possibly in breaks too. So I have cast on for a mobius scarf (does anyone know how to do umlauts?). Here it is after knitting the first row.

Should be a good bit of fairly mindless knitting, and is vaguely appropriate since the conference is history and philosophy of maths, and I am talking about geometry. The yarn is baby silk, 80% baby alpaca, 20% silk bought from Elann. It feels absolutely gorgeous. I have cast on 336 (approx, it is a scarf after all) stitches on a 3.5mm, 100cm addi turbo and now the dreadful first row is out of the way it seems to be going quite well. The cast on is in Cat Bordhi's Treasury of Magical Knitting, and is really clever, although I haven't yet mastered the art of not doing it too tight. It all seems to work out ok in the end but the first row is a devil to knit.

Mummy's christmas present socks are coming along, I have just passed the heel of the second sock. I'm not sure whether to take them with me to finish off or not, I might see how the space goes.

Here they are with the second sock on my Brittany birch needles.

Anyway, better dash, time to try and work out what I have forgotten.

At last

2005-10-27T21:44:00.000+01:00

Finally! Here are the pictures of the finished Shapely Tee :

and the back view:

Technical Details

The pattern is the Shapely Tee, a free pattern designed by Joan McGowan-Michael of White Lies Designs. I used some DK cotton yarn I had lurking in the stash and the recommended size of needles, US sizes 5 (for the edges) and 6 (for the main body), using my Denise needle set. I am going to weigh the Tee soon and see how much yarn I used.

I twiddled with the pattern a bit after having measured my favourite knitted top and found that the bust needed to be a couple of inches smaller than the hip. So I knitted the 44 inch size up to the waist, but then only did 3 increases instead of 5, and so had 4 fewer stitches in both the front and the back at this point. I worked the armholes for the 44 inch size, and took the 4 stitches out of the centre of the neckline, so making the shoulders narrower. I worked one set of short rows for the bust.

Thoughts on the pattern

I really enjoyed knitting this, and it is very comfortable to wear. The short rows at the bust are very effective, and certainly help the front and back hang to the same length. I have loads of similar yarn in different colours so I can definitely see another Shapely Tee in my knitting future. I think in my next Tee I will try knitting the body circularly, I am not really a fan of seams. Also I will have a go at picking up stitches around the armhole and knitting the sleeves down, I will also make the sleeves a bit longer. All in all I am very pleased with how this has turned out and am looking forward to having another go with a few improvements.

The obligatory Ally Pally post

2005-10-25T18:00:00.000+01:00

Better late than never I suppose!
My parents came down to stay for the week, so that Mummy could come along to Ally Pally too. They live in North Yorkshire, and I am deeply jealous that she is going to the show in Harrogate as well, but unfortunately I am busy that weekend. Anyway, we went on the Thursday which was very crowded for most of the day but did thin out a bit about an hour from the end.

I thought the knitting selection was much better this year than it has been previously, there were a lot of stands, and a lot of variety. I was really quite restrained :-)

Our first stop was Get Knitted where I bought yet more sock yarn :-)

From left to right, this is: two skeins of Cherry Tree Hill, two skeins of Lucy Neatby Celestial Merino, and a skein of Fyberspates. I have been eyeing the Fyberspates and the Celestial Merino on the Get Knitted web site for some time now and they are even more beautiful in person.

I also got a skein of Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb from Get Knitted. The colour way is Irving Park, and I am going to make one of the Curly Whirly scarves from the free pattern Get Knitted are doing if you buy a skein of LL Lion and Lamb, or Shepherd Worsted.

It was really nice to be able to feel all the Lorna's Laces yarns, I have only played with the Shepherd Sock before and wasn't sure what the others would be like. They are all incredibly soft, and I can see will be dangerous to my credit card in future.

I also found the following little gems at Kaalund. They had the most beautiful range of colours, I think these are going to become a pair of scarves.

And last but not least, I got some of the 2ply from House of Hemp.

The room House of Hemp was in was incredibly hot and the lights weren't particularly good for seeing the colours of the yarns which was a bit of a shame but the temperature was fine in the main hall.

All in all a fantastic day was had, we met up with some family friends for lunch which was lovely, and I bumped into quite a few fellow bloggers, including Mary and Dawn, and Mary and Janine from the Surrey knitting group, and Rosie who I took a workshop with a couple of months ago. I'm off to stroke the yarn again ...

Excuse me while I psychoanalyse myself

2005-10-21T20:42:00.000+01:00

Well I haven't blogged for a couple of weeks, and after having a think about it this seems to be the reason: I had promised a picture of the finished Shapely Tee and still haven't managed to take one. So I have been thinking of loads of things that I wanted to blog about but for some reason have felt that I couldn't post them until I had a picture of the Shapely Tee, which is rather daft really. I have decided that I am not going to let that worry me now, so I'm afraid I shall go back to wittering, and hopefully a picture will appear soon, when the alignment of the planets is favourable (otherwise known as finding a time when I am wearing the Tee, my personal photographer (also known as husband) is available and it isn't raining). I think I have been trying too hard to get my posts in some kind of coherent order (if not entirely succeeding), please bear with me while I now disregard order entirely and ramble on. So from now on, when I promise a picture of a finished object it will appear, just not necessarily right away.

Anyway, now that the existential angst is out of the way, on with the knitting. I have started Mummy's Christmas present, (if you are Mummy please look away now) it is going to be a pair of alpaca socks to combat the cold feet. I have just passed the heel on the first sock, after having done the heel three times during a conference on Euclid the weekend before last. Pictures of sock in progress will follow soon (don't hold your breath).

Back to what seems like endless hemming of a piece of chiffon. It keeps getting chewed up when I try and sew it on the machine so I am doing this by hand, only one more seam to go, but I need it for the workshop I have booked at the Fantasia tomorrow. Why do I always leave these things to the last minute?

My first meme

2005-10-01T21:14:00.000+01:00

Well Tari has just tagged me, so I will now bore you all to death with more information than you could possibly ever want to know about me.

Ten years ago:

10 years ago I was 18 and just starting university. It was great, I met loads of lovely people I am still friends with, and found my course really interesting though difficult. I made the mistake of not taking my knitting with me the first term, being worried that my room would be too small for all my stuff and I wouldn't have time. I quickly corrected that after Christmas and my knitting became an integral part of my room and evenings in. If anyone is interested I went to university here.

Five years ago:

5 years ago I had just left university, we had just moved into our first house (where we still are, with the amount of stuff both of us hoard moving would be a nightmare!), and I had just started my first proper job with Enron (and the less said about that the better!).

One year ago:

We had recently got married, and I was still feeling suitably smug about the knitted wedding dress. I really am going to get round to making a matching cardigan for it, any century now.

Five yummy things:

Hard to pick just five! I think I would go for (in no apparent order, and certainly not together)

Chocolate blancmange - always reminds me of my maternal grandparents, as part of going to visit them was the ritual of always having bread and butter, and ham with lettuce and tomato for tea, followed by chocolate blancmange. Then we would all sit down in the lounge with our cups of sweet tea and our knitting (well not my Dad or my Grandad but never mind).
Chinese - I love Chinese food, we had it for our wedding reception.
Tea and a biscuit - ideally Twinings Rose Pouchong (or whatever it has been re-branded as) and something like a digestive biscuit, I'm actually not that bothered about chocolate biscuits.
Chocolate fudge (my Mum's recipe) - this doesn't really have the texture of fudge but is incredibly addictive.
Dried apricots - I love them, and have to buy them in small packets to stop me eating oodles all in one go.

Five songs I know by heart:

Due to the rather obsessive personality, rather than knowing lots of songs a bit I tend to find I get hold of a CD and play it again and again until I pretty much know all the words, so there are rather a lot of songs I know by heart. Also I'm afraid my taste in music could be politely termed as eclectic and I really have no clue about anything at all recent. So I shall go for songs which particularly mean something to me.

Rutter's Requiem - I love this, there is so much to it, I sang it in my school choir and again twice at university. In a similar vein I also love Ubi Caritas (can't remember the composer), Bruckner's Ave Maria (I think that is the right one, the one which starts with just the sopranos and altos), and Locus Iste (the tune from the beginning of Mr Bean).
Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen and American Pie by Don McClean - I have listed these together because they were on our kitchen tape when I was in my 3rd and 4th years of university. We had the lyrics blu-tacked to the kitchen cupboards and many a happy hour was spent singing along with the tape while cooking, and then arguing that we had heard the words wrong. Note this is the original American Pie not the Madonna travesty which I loathe with every fibre of my being - I had to walk out of BHS on Wednesday because they played it
Just about anything by the Eagles - I had a big Eagles phase at school and still like lots of their music. I don't think I have a favourite song, although I do remember thinking it a great achievement to be able to play the intro to Hotel California on the piano.
Lola by the Kinks - when we were younger me and my sister spent a long time making tapes to play in the car when we went on holiday (we both get car sick and so having a tape on whiles away the time). Lola was on just about all of them, with an assortment of other jolly sixties tunes.
Sister Josephine by Jake Thackray - another tune from childhood. My parents have a record with this on sung by a group who they were friends with, and I loved it, it is a hilarious song.

I actually found this one rather difficult since a lot of the music I like doesn't have words.

Five things I would do with a LOT of money:

Pay off the mortgage! Then buy somewhere big enough to actually hold my stash
Be able to not work and still not worry about the money
Go to Stitches in the US and attend lots of workshops
Set up a fund for university for if / when my sister has children
Support knitting designers (I could probably do this by buying even more patterns :-) )

Five places I would love to escape to:

I'm not sure I really feel the need to escape, so I'll write down places I love or would like to go:

Brittany - many happy summer holidays as a child spent in and around Locquirec.
New Zealand - I have never been, but it looks beautiful and has wool!
Germany - Again I have never been but would like to once my german has improved. My sister lived in Heidelberg for a year and loved it. Also think of all that sock yarn.
San Francisco - my sister and fiance have just had a holiday in the region and she reckoned I would like it.
The Scilly Isles - my parents went there for their honeymoon, I have never been and the flowers look lovely.

Five things I would never wear:

Anything pastel or white, I just look ill
Anything which involved my stomach hanging over my waistband, not an attractive look especially with my stomach!
Stilettos, I would probably just fall over and they look really uncomfortable
See-through underwear, I just don't see the point really (OK that is probably more than you wanted to know about me :-) )
A bikini - I have yet to find one I actually like and which likes me.

Five favourite TV shows:

Jeeves and Wooster
History of Britain with Simon Schama
Agatha Christie's Poirot - which reminds me I have one which Paul recorded when I was out last week still left for me to watch
Location, Location, Location
Grand Designs

Five things I enjoy doing:

Knitting! - wow, bet you didn't see that coming
Reading - although I don't seem to have time for as much of it as I would like
Playing music, I play the trombone, piano and recorders, all with more enthusiasm than talent
Dancing (Egyptian)
Visiting interesting historic things, I love a nice castle

Five favourite toys:

Paul is more of the gadget person in this house really but I shall see what I can do

Knitting needles and yarn! Again, what a surprise.
This computer, I spend far too much time playing on it.
My digital camera, so much fun but I am a long way from an expert.
My sewing machine, it isn't a very fancy one and I don't use it very often but it has quite a few fun stitches on it which I really must find a use for ...
Books and films.

Five people to do this meme:

I'm not sure I really know anyone who hasn't already done this. I shall tag Mary though because she has just got a blog and so might not have done it. Otherwise if you are reading this and interested then consider yourself tagged!

And now for a complete change of subject ...

Today was the Design for Knitting day at the V & A. A really interesting day, a good variety of speakers and a great opportunity to catch up with people and admire the things they had knitted.

I wore my Shapely Tee and my newest knitted socks! Pictures will hopefully be up soon, as soon as I take them.

Phone sock

2005-09-30T23:55:00.000+01:00

Thank you to all the people to said lovely things about the multi-coloured cotton jumper, in general I am very pleased with it, and it is nice and comfy to wear. I keep meaning to thank people about their comments in general, it is lovely to hear from you all and to get information and suggestions as well as to hear what you think of my latest bit of knitting. The one thing I would like Blogger to improve is the way the comments work, it would be nice if they were a bit more like LiveJournal, with threads and where it made it easier to reply to comments and continue a discussion. I do like the way that Blogger is better for pictures though, and it seems to be suitably idiot proof that I can manage to operate most things, at least on a basic level.

After the rainbow socks I had a bit of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn left over, and so decided to knit a sock for my mobile. I had been considering doing something similar for a while since the phone is starting to get a bit scratched being thrown in the bottom of my handbag with my keys. So here is the phone in its sock:
And next to its sock:
I am very proud of the beautiful decreases and grafting on the bottom!
And here is the geological boot shot with my hand for scale.
Fun knitting, and being so little it only took a few hours. My sister is quite taken with it and wants one for her phone too, I'll have to get her to select a colour when she is next over. It hardly took any yarn at all.

Definitely sock weather now

2005-09-29T20:57:00.000+01:00

I finished these a few weeks ago but it was too warm to wear them then, so I put them on the coffee table so that I could admire them. As is often the way of things on the coffee table they gradually became buried, but I discovered them yesterday, and as it is cold enough for socks I thought they could come out for their first wearing. And very comfortable they are too.

It is remarkably difficult to photograph one's own foot, a little like trying to touch your right elbow with your right hand, a lot of amusement and contortions but not much in the way of results.

The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock bought from Get Knitted, the colourway is Rainbow. This yarn is really nice to knit with, these socks were the first time I tried it, but I am currently working on some more in the colour Purple Club and I have a few more colours in the sock yarn box to keep me going for a while. I think a top knitted out of the sport weight version of the yarn would be nice too.

I've finished the sewing up on the Shapely Tee, it is in the wash as we speak so that hopefully it will be dry for the Design for Knitting day at the V & A. I'll be the one in the very bright cerise top, come and say hello!

Finally!

2005-09-28T18:21:00.000+01:00

We've finally had some time when we were both in, so I dragged the other half outside when we got back tonight and made him take a picture of me in the finished multi-coloured jumper.
Unfortunately it was rather dark so the picture isn't fabulous, but it at least gives an idea of the effect. It is pretty comfy, and the body fits really well, I think the upper sleeves are a little large but I wonder whether some of that was me stretching it oddly when I was drying it. Next time I give it a wash I shall try patting it into a more realistic shape to dry.

Technical details, it is knitted in DK cotton, none of it brand-named, which I got in a sale a few years ago.

In other knitting news, the Shapely Tee is nearly finished, just the sewing up to go now. I must be on a roll! Off to do some sewing up now while I watch a bit of Jeeves and Wooster on ITV3.

Shapely Tee

2005-09-18T19:28:00.000+01:00

I'm afraid still no photo of my finished multi-coloured cotton jumper. I have been painting the front door most of the weekend and didn't want to get it covered in paint. Hopefully we will have nice weather one of the evenings this week and I can prevail upon the other half to take a picture of me in it.

In the mean time I had rather a lot of DK weight cotton left so decided to embark on the Shapely Tee, a free pattern by Joan McGowan-Michael of White Lies Designs. Somehow the cerise pink yarn I decided to use didn't look quite so bright and pink when I was only using a few rows in the multi-coloured jumper. It is really quite bright and very pink when viewed in a large expanse of stocking stitch.

This is the front, and it is knitting up gratifyingly quickly. It is the first time I have tried short row bust shaping, seeing as with my personal geography it isn't really necessary. I thought I would have a go though as it seemed like a fun idea. I'm not sure whether I have put them too high up though and that they might distort the armhole. It is probably one of those wait-and-see things, hopefully once the sleeves are sewn in it will all look fine.

Anyway, off to prime the rain guard thing I have bought to screw onto the bottom of the door once I finish painting it. I thought painting the guard to match the door might be easier before I have attached it, though it seems to be rather fiddly even still. At least only one more coat of paint on the actual door left to go, hopefully I will be able to get that done tomorrow morning. Must go and check the weather forecast ...

Finished felted bag

2005-09-12T18:07:00.000+01:00

I finished this bag a couple of days ago, but have been waiting for nice enough weather to photograph it outside. It was knitted using 4 strands of 2ply lambswool held together and 8mm needles, then put through the washing machine and dryer with my towels twice. I graded the colours from totally purple for the flap through to totally black under the flap.
You can see the colour grading a little better on the back of the bag. I'm afraid my pictures don't show the colours particularly well.
It was fun to knit, and has come out a really useful sort of size. I think after 4 bags though I have got it out of my system for a bit!

New Knitty and an odd kind of day

2005-09-08T21:30:00.000+01:00

Odd that is in a good way, just rather bizarre. I had the 6 monthly dentist check-up this morning which all went very well. I am recognised as the one who knits and they always ask what I am working on now and how it is coming along which is rather flattering really. I think this all stems from when we first joined the practice and the other half had a series of fillings done over a period of a few weeks. Sometimes the anesthetic they used made him feel a bit grotty so I would drive him to the appointments and then sit in the waiting room and knit while waiting to drive him back home again. The surreal part of the visit was finding myself trying to explain Projective Geometry to my dentist while making an appointment for my next check-up, and then explaining to the other people in reception why I would be a terrible teacher (its the crowd control thing, I just don't have the personality for it). All this before 10:30 in the morning too.

On my way home I dropped into the post office to pick up the parcel they had tried to deliver while I was taking the other half to work (why is it that parcels always arrive on the day you are out?). It turned out to be my order from Simply Socks Yarn Company. I know you are all probably thinking, after the 64 litres of sock yarn why on earth can she need more sock yarn. What can I say? Its an addiction. They had some lovely things I haven't tried before, and I was quite restrained, I only bought 4 balls / skeins, and one of them was on sale. I got a stripy Regia, a handpaint Opal in shades of green, and two skeins of Fleece Artist merino. They all look lovely and I can't wait to cast on. It is hard to know where to start!

The new Knitty is up! I am very taken with Leaves in Relief, and might have a go at Falling Leaves too, although I might alter the pattern quite a lot on the socks. It is odd really with Knitty, but despite liking the magazine generally this is the first time I have actually found a pattern I am really keen on knitting. I think I have the same kind of thing with Knitty as I do with Colinette. I love the idea of Colinette and I think a wall full of their yarns looks lovely, but when it boils down to it I don't actually like any of the individual colourways enough to actually buy them. Kind of a good concept but I don't like the reality. I think I have had the same thing with Knitty, that I loved the idea, and their techniques articles are always very interesting, but somehow none of the patterns actually inspired me enough to knit it, at least not until now. Now the only problem is finding a suitable worsted weight yarn! I think the only worsted weight I have lying around the house is some skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, but being 80% cotton I think it might be a bit heavy for a pattern with so much texture. I have found a couple of sites which stock the Paton's Classic Merino which is recommended and which will post to the UK but I am quite picky about the feel of a yarn and I am slightly wary about ordering enough for a jumper without being able to feel it first.

Anyway, time to go to bed and dream about knitting. Speaking of which I did actually have a dream the other night about organising yarn into plastic boxes, sad life that I lead :-)

Patchwork Knitting Workshop

2005-09-04T14:04:00.000+01:00

On Friday I went to a workshop (with my mum) on Horst Schultz's Patchwork Knitting techniques with Rosie Sykes in Marlow. It was wonderful fun, and we covered lots of different ways of knitting small modules and then knitting more modules onto them.

Rosie was a great teacher, very patient and organised, and we covered all sorts of things, including handy edgings which are easy to pick up stitches from, which I must remember to use in other projects not just patchwork knitting.

Here is an example of the first sort of patchwork squares we were knitting. I have had a go at this sort of thing before, but it was really good to have a reminder, I feel inspired to try out some more experiments with this kind of thing

I really like the effect that baxcraft has achieved with these kind of squares, by knitting with black as the foreground garter stitch stripe, and a multicoloured yarn as the background stocking stitch stripe. I definitely see more playing around with these techniques in my future! Although hopefully with some slightly nicer coloured yarn (you will be pleased to know that the worst horrors of my yarn colour choices aren't being featured on the blog!)

Later on, one of the shapes we had a go at were leaves.

One of the ladies who had been to Horst's workshop last year had brought along a lovely jacket she had knitted using these shapes, very inspiring. I would definitely like to have a go at a scarf using this shape, done in autumn colours. I have a lovely collection of cones of Shetland 4ply which would be just right for this. I am currently knitting a variation on Alice Starmore's Henry VIII in these yarns though so I want to finish that first. After all I would be incredibly annoyed if I made a scarf with some of the yarn and then discovered I didn't have enough left to finish the jumper!

Last of all we had a go at some shells shapes, similar to those done by Maureen Mason-Jamieson. She has a free pattern for a bag using these shapes on her site, but I don't seem to be able to link to it directly. You can find it by clicking on freebies at the bottom of the main page and then clicking on Shell Purse Pattern. Rosie had brought a sample she had knitted in this pattern which was really effective, a lovely choice of colours, and the shapes tile together in a very pleasing manner.

All in all the day was wonderful, if you have a chance to go on a similar workshop definitely jump at it. Marlow was lovely too, we had a little walk around at lunchtime and saw some of the sights. Jill organised the day to perfection, with breaks for tea and coffee just when we needed them (have to fuel the brain cells after all!). I am hoping there will be another one next year, and in the mean time I shall be thinking about what to knit with the techniques I have just learned.

Mummy and Daddy left this morning, so the washing machine is on full blast recycling the sheets for when they are back again in two weeks on their way on holiday! I think I shall be good and knit a bit more of the to-be-felted bag while I wait for the washing to do, and for the weather to cool down a little. We went to Wisley yesterday and bought a couple of nice plants, I think hopefully in an hour or two it might be cool enough to venture into the garden to plant them.

64 Litres of Sock Yarn

2005-08-27T19:03:00.000+01:00

I'm back now from a lovely holiday. Shropshire was really interesting and we visited lots of castles and priories and whatnot. The we went on up to North Yorkshire to stay with my parents for my Mum's birthday. She had a lovely day and we had lots of nice outings.

I didn't get much knitting done while we were away, a bit of the latest sock but that was about it. I have done a bit more of the multi coloured cotton jumper since we have been back, and here is it so far:

Just the edgings to go now, the end is in sight! I have borrowed the DVD of Pride and Prejudice from my sister so I think that might be the evenings viewing while I finish this off. I have had a preliminary try on and it seems pretty good, although perhaps a little wide around the top of the sleeves. I think I will have to do the edgings and give it a nice little wash and push into shape before I pass judgement though.

Now to move not-so-smoothly into the subject of this post. Yesterday I had a trip to Staples in Horsham and got 4 64 litre plastic storage boxes. I have filled them all up already :-) They are just the right size to fit under our spare bed, so two have gone under there already filled with some of Paul's clothes and my dancing stuff. I have decided to use the other two to organise my yarn a bit. So one is full of sock yarn and the other has some of my odds and ends in. It is rather depressing to find that I have more than 64 litres of odds and ends!

If you have ever wondered what 64 litres of sock yarn looks like, here it is:

I think that should keep me going for a while :-)

Off to catch up on all the blogs I have missed.

The socks win

2005-08-04T19:03:00.000+01:00

I've finally decided that it will be a couple of pairs of socks which will accompany me on holiday. They are nice and small and portable and just mindless enough :-)

Unfortunately not much actual knitting has got done over the last couple of days, but the washing machine has been on overdrive! I think we are now all washed and partly packed, I must go and consult my list and see what I have forgotten.

Hope the weather holds for our week and a bit away!

Mermaid

2005-08-02T19:15:00.000+01:00

I forgot to mention in my last post, but after all the umming and ahhing I decided to buy the Hanne Falkenberg Mermaid kit in Colourway 4. I was rather worried about whether the colours would be ok but luckily they are wonderful, even nicer than they looked on the website. It is always a bit of a difficulty to gauge colour accurately from a website particularly with different monitor settings and whatnot. I know that my monitor usually shows things slightly darker than they really are, which means telling the difference between black, dark brown and dark blue on a website can often be a challenge! Anyway, here is a picture of the kit in its lovely smart bag!

I am going to be good and not start it until I have finished off some of the things I have on the needles at the moment. I find I am generally better to work on only a few things at once, enough for variety but not so many that I forget what I was thinking about for each one.

The multi-coloured cotton jumper is progressing but rather slowly now. I have joined the second sleeve in now and although the end is sort of in sight the rows now are obscenely long, I think it took me over an hour to knit the most recent row. At least each row is getting shorter and shorter, and I am just carrying on knitting til I think the neck is the right depth and then I shall have a think about the shoulders. Unfortunately it is not particularly photogenic right now in its scrunched-up-on-the-needles state so there isn't a picture for your delectation.

We are off on holiday on Friday for a week away which I'm really looking forward to. We are going to have a bit of an English Heritage fest for the weekend on our way up the country to visit my parents for the rest of the week. It is Mummy's birthday on Thursday 11th, I wont tell you what I have got her in case she gets round to reading this :-) Although actually quite a lot of her pressies are things she has requested.

As is often the case with holidays though I am having the customary what-knitting-to-take dilemma. The difficulty is that the multi-coloured jumper requires lots of balls of yarn taken with it since I haven't decided beyond the next stripe or two what colour or pattern I am using, also it is getting a bit big for dragging around. The to-be-felted bag is being made from oiled shetland and so requires a lot of hand washing, again more of a sit around knit rather than an on-the-go knit. I have a sock on the needles (what a surprise!) but I'm not sure how much time I will have for knitting, so will just one pair of socks be enough? Oh the choices, the choices!

I shall think on it all while doing another row on the multi-coloured jumper and contemplating what to feed my sister when she comes round for lunch tomorrow.

Hope the weather is good next week.

Long time no post

2005-07-25T14:36:00.000+01:00

Well, I haven't disappeared off the face of the planet but it has been a busy couple of weeks.

Since my last post, I have been to The Beadwork Fair at Lingfield Park, which was great fun. Oddly enough despite being a bead fair I managed to buy some knitting needles :-) I bought another set of 2.5mm rosewood dpns to replace the ones I have had a few years and which are all rather bent and one has snapped. I did buy a few beads too, I found a lovely selection of pretty coloured delica beads, which I am going to make into bracelets when I finally get round to it. I am not very fast at this beading lark, as can be witnessed by the fact that I am still only 2 inches into the bracelet I started just after the 2003 Beadwork Fair.

I also went to the International Arts and Crafts Exhibition at the V&A which was fantastic. A really interesting collection of exhibits, in a well thought out exhibition. I would encourage you all to go but unfortunately I see from their website that the Exhibition closed yesterday :-( The V&A generally is always worth an outing though, and I am definitely resolved to try and get there more often and have a closer look at all the amazing things they have.

Keeping on the theme of the V&A I also went back there for the Knitting and Crochet Guild AGM, when we had a talk on knitting at the V&A and conservation, all interesting stuff. The previous day a few of us also had a very interesting and illuminating tour of the textile conservation department also organised by the Knitting and Crochet Guild. A lovely chance to meet up with lots of knitters too, and wonderful to see all the things they were making or had brought along to show. I am definitely inspired by Mary Graham's knitting with wire to have another go myself. The shapes she had knitted were quite different from what you can achieve in a more floppy material like most yarns, they rather reminded me of surfaces of constant negative curvature which you get in non-Euclidean geometry (worth clicking the link for the pretty pictures even if you aren't a mathematician!).

As well as the outings my parents have been to stay twice in the last week! Both on their way to, and on their way back from a holiday in France, and it has been both my parents-in-law's birthdays. Just to add to the general hecticness, the TV broke on Saturday and the car needs a service, it doesn't rain but it pours!

In among all this domestic chaos I have managed to knit a bit more on the multicoloured cotton jumper, and here is the first sleeve, nearly finished.

Since photographing this I have now joined it to the body, unfortunately no photo since the camera batteries died and are currently recharging. Hopefully I'll take a piccie tomorrow.

So, I am off to catch up on all the blog reading I have missed, cast on for the second sleeve and possibly read a bit of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (I am hopelessly slow and only on chapter 4 so far).

New KnitCast

2005-07-04T21:15:00.000+01:00

The new KnitCast is here! This one is an interview with Kate Gilbert, the designer of the Clapotis (I think I must be the only knitter ever who hasn't knitted one and has no particular plans to! I think it is a lovely pattern but can't really see myself wearing it).

I've given up on the weather cheering up enough to take a progress photo of the multi-coloured cotton jumper outside so here is one of it taken on the settee:

Its coming along. I think I am only a couple of stripes away from the start of the neckline - it is going to be a V-neck. Once I reach the underarm I shall put the body on stitch holders and work both sleeves, and then work out how I am going to do the shoulders.

Apart from the knitting I have been very domesticated recently (quite shocking I assure you). Today I defrosted both freezers and yesterday we actually got round to fitting a new light fitting in the bathroom (the old one broke weeks, maybe even months ago), and I only electrocuted myself once! We decided that was enough DIY for the time being so we haven't put up the shelves in our bedroom yet. I am hoping to get round to that before my parents come to stay in a couple of weeks, since at the moment you can't actually even sit on the spare bed let alone sleep on it.

Anyway, back to the cotton jumper, I think I am going to do a purple stripe next ...

And happy Independence Day to any Americans out there.

Another felted bag

2005-07-01T19:10:00.000+01:00

I actually finished this bag a few days ago, but it languished waiting for some suitably old towels to accompany it in the washing machine, and then it languished again waiting for me to find it a nice button. After all the procrastination here it is finally:

Knitted felted bag

It is knitted on 8mm needles if I remember correctly, using 4 strands of 2ply lambswool from Uppingham Yarns. Then it went through the washing machine and the dryer twice with a nice selection of similar coloured towels which are old enough not to impart fluff on anything they are washed with. I am part way through the next bag which will be shaded black and purple, I haven't got very far with it yet though as I have been waylaid by the multicoloured cotton jumper which always seems much more exciting when I sit down for a spot of knitting.

The weather has been a bit off and on the last couple of days so the tennis has been a bit stilted. I still caught a bit of both the women's semi-finals yesterday which were good for watching while I knitted a couple of rounds on the cotton jumper. Cotton jumper is progressing, though rather slowly, I'm onto a stripe in a kind of tomato red, which actually looks a bit subtle compared to my other colour choices. Not to worry, I have a nice bright green to knit the next large stripe in. I'll hopefully post another pic of the progress tomorrow if the weather is good enough for an outside picture.

Thanks for the comment Tari! I love bright colours, always have done, and am always on the look out for lovely coloured yarn. I think it is the first thing that draws me to a yarn, whether the colour jumps out at me, and then I have to stroke it to see if it feels nice!

I have been a good girl and have been weaving in the ends as I go along, the horror of having thousands of ends to weave in after the knitting has been motivating me in this task. I've been trying out the method recommended in this Knitty article, and it looks pretty good so far if I do say so myself. It is a bit noticeable on the wrong side because when I cut the ends I left a bit of a tail since cotton tends to work its way through to the right side otherwise, but the right side looks very smooth. The only thing is that I haven't really conquered how to weave in ends in moss stitch (I think this is seed stitch in American).

In other news I ordered a new wedding ring today which is quite exciting. My fingers tend to swell up a lot in the hot and humid weather and I realised last week that the wedding ring I bought last year is really just too small. I think it depends on the shape of the ring because my engagement ring is exactly the same size and although tight in the hot weather I can still get it on and off, however the wedding ring had got to the point that I couldn't get it on and off at all if the temperature went above about 25 degrees (C that is, I have no idea what that is in F). So I have ordered a new ring and it should arrive in about three weeks, it is going to be hopefully practically identical to the first one, just three sizes bigger, so I shall have a summer ring and a winter ring :-)

Cotton jumper progress

2005-06-30T13:05:00.000+01:00

The multicoloured cotton jumper is progressing, though rather slowly now. I have just joined into the round and am knitting away on the jade green stripe (it is more green in real life than on this picture).

A little bit bigger

Its good fun, choosing what colour to put next and what stitch pattern livens up the knitting. It is growing quite slowly now though as the rows are pretty long. I've got quite a while of just knitting along before I need to worry about the underarm or the neck. I'm not quite sure yet due to the angle of the diagonal whether I will have to split for the neck or the underarm first, when it is a bit bigger I shall try it up against myself and see what I reckon.

I'm using my coil-less pins that I bought from Schoolhouse Press a couple of weeks ago as stitch markers and they are proving very useful and convenient, I would really recommend them. It is handy to be able to mark a particular stitch rather than the gap between stitches for the design I am working on, and they don't ping off the needles like other stitch markers do. It is one of the reasons I haven't bought any of the beautiful beaded stitch markers yet, because I am worried I will ping them off and lose them or bend and snap them like I have with the plastic ones.

The latest issues of Interweave Knits and Knitters arrived last week so I am reading through them at the moment. Lots of interesting articles, but nothing I have found yet that I would really like to knit. I've got plenty of things in the would-like-to-be-started pile though so it is possibly a good thing that I haven't found anything else to add to it!

Women's semi-finals at Wimbledon today so a bit of knitting and watching time this afternoon I think. I shall just have to hope that the matches aren't too stressful and so don't ruin my tension!

Cones from Coldspring

2005-06-26T19:00:00.000+01:00

These are the cones I ordered from Coldspring Mills that arrived last weekend. Aren't they pretty colours?

Cones from Coldspring

From left to right they are: Baby Cashmerino, Cotton Cashmere, and two cones of Cathay. There should be enough on each cone to knit a garment for me, although I'm not quite sure what yet. They are lovely and soft, and at the moment the box is sitting on one of our dining chairs so I can stroke them as I pass.

The weather has cooled off a bit today so it is a bit more like knitting weather. It has been really quite hot and humid the last week. We went into London for a birthday party on Thursday night and I tried to knit the latest sock on the train but hardly got any done because I was so sticky.

The multicoloured cotton jumper is progressing, I'll try and photograph it tomorrow. I have just joined the front to the back and am now trundling along in a nice bright teal colour. Kate recommended a Knitty article on weaving in ends which I have just had a go at, and it is really good, much less noticeable than my previous efforts. I am having a go at weaving in some of the ends as I go along with the cotton jumper so the horror isn't too great when I actually finish the knitting.

The last hat and a cotton jumper

2005-06-25T10:28:00.000+01:00

Our internet connection seems to be back up and running again, thank goodness! It has been driving me mad. NTL are going to replace our cable box in a couple of weeks as the one we have is rather ancient, hopefully this will solve some of the connection problems, and the freezing up that the telly does sometimes. It has taken me two tries to get this posted, the connection just seems to be variable at the moment.

Anyway, I have finished the last hat for Nanny, I think 6 should be sufficient to keep her going for a while :-)

Last stripy hat

The background is a DK weight cotton I had lurking in the spare room, and I managed to use up the last of both colours of the Schachenmayr Princess. I think I have got the hat knitting thing out of my system now.

I had been going to start my mitred t-shirt which I did the tension square for ages ago, but I've been distracted again. It was knitting group on Wednesday and Audrey was showing us the method she used for making some jumpers using handspun. The idea being that you start at the centre bottom with 3 stitches, then on every other row you increase on each end of your piece, and on either side of the centre stitch until the base of the triangle is the width required for the body. Then you carry on increasing on either side of the centre stitch, but decrease at the sides every other row until you are up to the neckline, and then shape the neckline and shoulders.

I don't spin, but I did think this would be a great way to use some lovely colours of DK cotton I have, without doing horizontal stripes. It will also cope well with the fact that I have lots of some colours and not much of others. I am hoping for a kind of random effect with the colours, and patterns. I'm not usually very good at doing random things so we shall see whether it comes out ok or not. It is really good fun so far. I am twiddling with Audrey's original pattern in that once I have made my first triangle big enough width-wise I shall knit another the same, and then join them so that I can knit the bulk of the body circularly. I think I am going to make a V-neck, and I would like to somehow knit the sleeves on too, but I am still working through the logistics of that one. I had a thought about it the other morning just after the alarm clock went off, but I was rather asleep at the time so what seemed like a brilliant idea then may turn out to be rubbish. I've got a way to go before I need to worry too much about the sleeves though so plenty of time for inspiration to strike.

Anyway, here is a picture of what I have knitted so far.

Cotton jumper in progress

Did I mention I like bright colours? :-)

Bad day computer wise

2005-06-20T18:03:00.000+01:00

Our internet connection seems to be being a bit dodgy at the moment which is rather annoying. I have taken a photo of the latest hat and some of the yarn which arrived on Saturday, and have spent since Saturday trying to upload them to the blog all to no avail. At least things have improved a bit. Over the weekend I wasn't even able to send emails, at least I can do that now. Just to add insult to injury something ate by blog template over the weekend too, I think it might have disappeared while I was trying to change something but couldn't upload due to problems with the connection (oddly I can view pages fine, so info is coming in, it just doesn't seem to be going out). Luckily I had saved the template on my computer so I have managed to get back half of it (well better than nothing), I think that was the limit of the size you can cut and paste. I have been trying to paste back in the other half but don't seem to be able to save it. Oh the annoyance.

Anyway, rant on the uselessness of computers over. I have pictures, really, and will be uploading them as soon as NTL get their acts together. The purple felted bag has just come out of the wash and I am going to look in by button box for a nice button for it. I've cast finished my Lorna's Laces Rainbow socks, and cast on for a pair in Purple Club, I haven't got very far yet though.

I have got a lovely "Heather Knits" button now, created with help from the long suffering other half. It should be down near the bottom of the right hand side, once I get the template up and running again. Feel free to save it to your own server and use it to link here.

Yet another hat

2005-06-18T18:06:00.000+01:00

Goodness it is hot here today! I think summer has definitely arrived. I shall have to find some suitably summery knitting to do.

I have finished yet another stripy hat. The background this time is some double knitting cotton I found in a bag in the spare room - you never know what you might find in there! It is so nice to be knitting with a yarn where you can actually see the stitches.

3rd Stripy Hat

I've also finished the latest felted knitted bag, this one is purple. It is in the washing machine as I type, although I think it will probably need to go through two washes to be shrunk sufficiently. I'll post some pics when it is done and I have selected a button for it.

I had three knitting related parcels this morning which was rather exciting. Traditional Scandinavian Knitting by Sheila McGregor arrived from Amazon, a parcel with some coil-less safety pins, some buttons and a bag with the Elizabeth Zimmerman quote arrived from Schoolhouse Press, and 4 cones of ex-Debbie Bliss yarns arrived from Coldspring Mill. Wow! What a day! I am going to go and stroke it all now.

Another stripy hat

2005-06-15T17:45:00.000+01:00

The hat obsession continues ... Here is another stripy hat with the colours the inverse of the last one. I was concerned that the last one was a bit big so I doctored the pattern this time around, and only cast on 102 stitches, then worked 5 stripes instead of six.

2nd Stripy Hat

There is still more yarn left so I am going to have a dig around for some cotton I have lurking in the spare room which I think will be in a colour to go with this.

I've just ordered some gorgeous sounding ex-Debbie Bliss yarns for an absolute song - hopefully they should arrive early next week so piccies will be posted, and much drooling will occur (at least from me).

I seem to be being inspired by loads of things lately, it is one of those odd things that it seems to go in waves. Some months I hardly see anything knitting related I want to buy and others I see loads. I rather like some of the patterns at Vermont Fiber Designs, and I'm still thinking about the Hanne Falkenberg Mermaid, and you can buy blocking wires at Heirloom Knitting. Wow, what a lot of choice, I shall have to think on it some more.

I knew there was a reason I fixed the doorbell

2005-06-14T13:17:00.000+01:00

I finally got round to replacing our doorbell at the weekend. It had been a bit iffy for ages and then on Saturday it stopped working altogether. And now I have my efforts amply repaid! I ordered some sock yarn from Get Knitted a couple of days ago, and it arrived this morning.

Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn

Aren't they beautiful? The colours are, from left to right: Tahoe, Get Knitted, Purple Club, and Irving Park. Also a fun pen and soap were in the parcel too, I love a nice surprise!

In a bizarre coincidence, the latest KnitCast which came out today is also with Get Knitted.

Now the big difficulty of which to cast on with first!

The hat obsession still hasn't worked itself out, although I have high hopes that it may end soon, more pictures of hats to come later.

Oh! the embarrassment

2005-06-12T21:20:00.000+01:00

I was checking my Amazon recommendations today (not really to be advised since I don't have space on the bookcase for the books I do have let alone the ones I haven't bought yet), and one of the books recommended was Traditional Scandinavian Knitting by Sheila McGregor. It looked interesting, but slightly familiar, so I dashed downstairs to see if it was already on the bookshelf. After much hunting about I decided it would probably be sensible to actually arrange the books in some kind of order, so I have now grouped together the knitting books, and the machine knitting books, and the knitting reference books and the other crafts books. The knitting books have also been arranged alphabetically since there are rather a lot of them (what a surprise). I discovered that while I did own two books by Sheila McGregor, neither of them was the Scandinavian one. I did however discover that I had not two, but three copies of the Batsford Complete Book of Traditional Knitting ... oops. There was only one other duplication though so I think all in all I have done ok :-) I must remember to take the extras to Knitting Group and see if anyone would like them.

Hat mania

2005-06-11T21:08:00.000+01:00

I've come to the conclusion that I go in phases with what I am knitting, and I am definitely having a hat phase at the moment :-)

I finished the stripy hat, another hat for Nanny using Schachenmayr Princess yarn (72% acrylic, 28% viscose) from Elann, and here is a picture.

Completed stripy hat

I'm slightly concerned that as it fits my big head it might be a bit big for her, we shall see. One of the difficulties of this pattern was that no tension was given just a needle size so I wasn't quite sure how big they intended it to turn out.

As I still had most of a ball in each colour left over I thought I would have a go at the aviator cap also from Headhuggers. I started twice since I thought that the 5mm needles seemed too big for this yarn, and then ran out of yarn when I was about 3/4 of the way through. At that point I decided that the pattern really didn't work in that yarn, since the yarn is so textured, the texture of the pattern was completely lost, and I was concerned that the shape of the hat was coming out a bit odd. To cut a long story short, I unraveled it all and am calling it A Learning Experience (TM). I have cast on for another stripy hat with the colours the other way around, which I am making with 12 fewer stitches around and 8 fewer rows in the stripy bit, and 2 fewer rows in the crown. I am currently on stripe number 4 and I still have loads of yarn left!

I am getting perilously close to giving in and ordering some more sock yarn from Get Knitted, they have some gorgeous colours, and I am really enjoying working with Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn.

PS. Hi Emma! Yes I am Val's daughter. I'm definitely hoping to be able to come along to your knitting group next time I am up in the frozen north visiting the parents!

Hat Progress

2005-06-08T14:16:00.000+01:00

Wow! Two posts in one day!

As promised here is a photo of the stripy hat in progress.

Stripy hat in progress

I started off knitting this on a set of 4 Pony metal double pointed needles, and discovered that though I love knitting socks on my bamboo and ebony double pointed needles I absolutely loathed knitting with this yarn on metal dpns. I have now switched to a Milward metal circular and though it isn't as nice as knitting with my Addi Turbos (which I don't have in the right size) it is much better. I am having a go at the magic loop technique as I decrease for the crown, but I might have to give in and switch back to the dpns soon.

Anyway, the sun is out, the sky is blue, and I am about to attack the weeds in the front garden ... I may be some time.

Yet more pictures

2005-06-08T10:34:00.000+01:00

I've been having a play around with the template of the blog and now have pictures to link to my finished projects! Its so much fun!

It got me to thinking about photographing some of my older knitting too so I thought I would start with my big knit from last year, my wedding dress:

Paul and Heather

In case you hadn't guessed I am the one on the right :-) The other one is the long suffering husband. We got married on May 15th at Leatherhead Register Office.

I designed the dress myself, it is knitted top down on circular needles and turned me into a total convert to that method of knitting, it really helps when attempting to get a good fit to be able to try on the knitting as you go. It is knitted using Jaeger Cadiz, 50% silk and 50% viscose, and the colour is Malachite. According to the ball band this is an aran weight yarn but after I knitted a few sample pieces I decided I liked the fabric best when knitted using 3.5mm needles. It is mostly stocking stitch, with 2x2 cables. I got so paranoid when buying yarn for this, since in typical Heather fashion I only discovered it after it had become discontinued! (although it did mean most of the yarn was on sale), that I bought so much yarn that I have enough left over for a matching cardigan, which I will get round to some time. The dress is really heavy but it doesn't seem to have stretched and is very comfy to wear. I wore it again this February with a black cardigan to go to another friend's wedding.

In other knitting I haven't done much on the purple felted bag, hopefully I'll get back to it soon. The latest hat for Nanny is coming along though, I have just started the shaping for the crown. Its a lovely day here today so I will get the camera out later and take a picture of it.

I heard back from Kangaroo and unfortunately they don't have all the colourways for the Mermaid, and they wont do yarn snippets of the colours they do have. They referred me to Hanne Falkenberg's website but that unfortunately doesn't solve the problem of my monitor possibly not displaying the colours properly. It seems quite a lot of money for a kit which I am not quite sure that the colours will be what I expect. This bugs me a little about Hanne's designs, that you can't buy the pattern separately and then select your own colours from a source where you can actually go and see them and make sure they are all colours you like.

OK, you can take your hands off your ears now, I've finished ranting :-) I think I shall go and knit some more hat now.

Terrible Temptations

2005-06-06T10:08:00.000+01:00

I've finished the second hat for Nanny's birthday, same pattern as before (the Braid-edged Cap by Judy Gibson), and also same yarn (Schachenmayr Princess, 72% acrylic, 28% viscose) but in a different colour.

2nd hat for Nanny

It actually used less yarn than I had thought so I have embarked on a stripy hat with the yarn I have left over. I have done three stripes so far and will hopefully take a picture of it in progress soon.

The purple felted bag is coming along, I am onto the strap now so the end is in sight. The black and red bag has had a couple of outings already and has proved to be a good size. Thanks for the comment Jocelyn, I am hoping to carry the idea of shading colours a bit further with the next bag which is purple and black, and entirely in my head at the moment!

The new edition of Knitting arrived a couple of days ago and I am part way through it. Seeing the ads from the various UK online knitting shops always inspires me to go and see what they have got in at the moment, never a good plan for the poor beleaguered credit-card. Anyway, to cut a long story short (too late!) I see that Get Knitted has got a whole load of lovely looking sock yarns in colours I don't have yet, even though I need new sock yarn like I need a hole in the head. Also to add insult to injury I have fallen in love with the new Hanne Falkenberg kit, Mermaid. The only dilemma is the colour, I am in an agony of indecision over colour 4, blue, turquoise, and green, or colour 5, black, dark green, and kingfisher. I am worried that my monitor doesn't always display colours very accurately and that colour 4 might be paler than I think, or that the colour is accurate and colour 5 is rather dingy. I might email them and see if they could send me a little snippet of the appropriate colours. Unfortunately I think I see a rather large credit card bill in my future ...

Finished! Felted knitted bag

2005-05-31T15:28:00.000+01:00

I've finally finished my felted knitted bag! I used 4 strands held together of 2ply lambswool from Uppingham Yarns and 8mm needles. The after finishing and sewing together I put it through the wash twice at 40 degrees on a cottons wash with my towels. This is what it looks like:

Felted knitted bag

And this is it with the fold over flap lifted up so you can see the colour variation better.

Felted knitted bag

I think when I sewed it up I made the flap over a little long and consequently the bag a little short, but you live and learn :-) I have started another one in purple now, and have plans to make a shaded purple and black one after that. Felted bags are such a great use for all those beautiful buttons you find but can't work out what to do with!

At knitting group on Wednesday we had an open session where people knit on whatever they like rather than a workshop on a particular technique, so I started another hat for Nanny, same pattern as before but in a mauve-y coloured yarn. I just checked my diary and discovered that though I was convinced Nanny's birthday was the middle of June, actually it is the middle of July so I have a bit longer for her hats.

In other news, the other half organised all his wiring and computer bits in the bedroom and you can now actually see the floor - shock horror! He now keeps looking at the pile of my wool in the computer room in the hope that I will organise it soon. I am getting there, some has moved, I am just a rather slow knitter! Not much blogging or knitting requiring brain got done last week as I have a nasty gnat bite on the foot and the antihistamines have a tendency to knock me out rather. I'm back in the land of the living now though, lots of things to catch up with.